Things I Miss #12-14: Young Skin, Laying Out, and Our Playhouse

This list of things I miss is a bit all over the place.  So, it's okay that today's topic is a little strange.  I miss my young skin.  Not my teenage skin, necessarily, cause I don't miss acne at all.  My young child skin.  I sit in primary every week and look at all the kids and their skin is just so beautiful.  No wrinkles.  No red patches.  No scars.  No sags.  No dark spots.  No under-eye shadows.  It's just so pretty.  I guess my skin isn't that bad now, but when I look at my kids' skin, I just think it is so amazing and I miss my own young skin.  I am especially jealous of little Annie because she has an absolutely endearing smattering of freckles that appear on her nose when she tans up in the spring.  It epitomizes childhood to me.   

This skin- that is the skin I miss

On a related note, I also miss laying out.  When we were little, my sisters and I used to take our towels and spread them on top of our play house roof and enjoy the warm sun.  I miss how that feels, but perhaps if I had done a little less of that, I would miss my young skin a little less.  

That play house was good for a lot more than laying out.  It pretty much was my childhood.  My sisters and I spent soooo many hours out there playing house and school and pioneers and who knows what else.  We had some great second-hand furniture from Grandma Daines, some purple wildflower (weeds) bouquets, and a whole lot of imagination.  We basically lived out there all summer long.  It was an awesome way to spend a summer.

I was a lucky duck.

It's Official: Egg Rolling

This is a very important post.  For anyone out there who has ever read about my family's egg rolling adventures and thought we were crazy or blasphemous or some other things (which, probably is no one since only my family reads this...), here it is.  Official proof that we did not make this tradition up:

I have a little collection of vintage children's books on Molly's bookcase and was perusing one titled "Things to Make and Do" a few weeks ago.  I bought it cause it had a pretty cover, but it actually has some fun activities in it.  I nearly squealed with excitement when I found the entry "Easter Egg Roll" in the Holiday games section.  So ha!  It's official.  Not that anyone in my family would care a teensy bit if it was not official, but still - it was a fun find. 

This year's egg rolling did feature a couple things not in the official description, however.  Like a Gator ride to the hill (or in the case of the three oldest boys, a 1.5 mile uphill run). 

 

Don't worry, we didn't really let Ben drive.  But I bet you can guess what sound he is making in this picture.

My kids have all developed excellent technique through the years.

Choose an egg.  Ben re-dipped his all about seven times so they came out looking pretty much the same.

 

 Aim.

Fire.  Ben's still a little side-armed. 

 

Again, choose an egg.  And also, smile for the camera.

Aim.  And keep smiling!

 

Fire!  And Smile!  Of course!

Cole's technique was a bit different.  

Throw all  your eggs down the hill.

 

Race down the hill to retrieve them before Josh does.

Molly is still in the amateur division, but I think she has definite promise.

She's got choosing an egg down.

 

 And Smiling.  

We just need to work on the firing part.  I mean rolling.  Whatever.

 

 And good news!  When you're done rolling eggs, there's still the Gator to play with!

I think Grandpa's trying to steal Ben from me.  

Easter

 I love it when Easter is a little later in the year like it was this year.  It makes it so much easier to enjoy Easter activities in the nice weather.  Here are a few pics we snapped after church on Easter Sunday.  

We were a little matchy-matchy this year.  I guess I probably have maybe one or two more years until that plan gets derailed, so we'll go with it a bit longer.

 

 The boys

 

 

The Girls

 

 

Molly Eating a Flower

(If you look close, you can see drool down her chin.  I love it). 

 

  

Our Easter pictures look pretty much the same year after year.  Those forsythia bushes bloom at just the right time for a nice Easter backdrop.  I kinda like the same picture year after year.  It reminds me of the Easter pictures of my dad's family year after year, often taken in Uncle Owen's yard cause it had better flowers.  Here's a shot of my dad and his family when he was probably about two.  I love the dresses my aunts are wearing.  My Grandma Donna is a great seamstress.  Usually, my Grandpa isn't in the picture with them, so this is one of my favorites.  Easter must have been a little early this year - not much seems to be in bloom.

And just for fun, here is proof that we did, in fact, try to kill the children while taking these pictures.  It was a pretty unreasonable request.

Things I Miss #11: Grandmother Johnson

I had two very different grandmas growing up.  Grandma Donna lived right through the block.  She was vibrant and fun and always up for an adventure.  In contrast, Grandma Johnson seemed a little boring.  She wasn't really the life of the party and was never a real warm snuggly grandma.

But.  I'm so grateful she lived long enough for me to know her as an adult because I learned so much from her and really came to appreciate her.  She married young and raised ten kids.  After crawling into bed trying to keep up with my four, that alone awes me.  When child number ten was about two, she and my grandfather left the comfort of their lifelong community and moved their family to a new home.  They started school and graduated college together a few years later.  They taught for awhile and then went back to receive there Master's degrees.  I just really don't know how.

When I was in college and dreaming big dreams, she was my biggest supporter.  I could always count on her for a timely card with encouraging and heartfelt words.  When I visited with her, she never felt to ask about my schooling and my research and was genuinely interested, having worked in a similar field.  She was bright, she was organized, she was devoted, she was caring.  I came to love her dearly and cherish her example.  I'm especially grateful for the massive efforts she made in documenting her life and her family's life.  They are such a treasure.

She was a great grandma and I'm so glad she is mine.  

Goblin Valley Spring Break

We didn't have big plans for Spring Break this year (sidenote:  a couple of years ago we stayed in a beach house on the Florida Gulf Coast for Spring Break - now my kids have rather high Spring Break expectations), but decided to sneak in a quick trip to Goblin Valley.  

We started the trip off with a stop by Living Planet Aquarium and a hotel stay in Price.  FYI, the swimming pool at the Price Holiday Inn has the warmest hotel pool water I have ever been in.  I loved it.  So did Molly, who surprised herself repeatedly by clapping with excitement and then wondering where the splashes were coming from.  

 

It was a perfect little trip.  The weather was delightful.  The kids were (mostly) cooperative.  And Goblin Valley is beautiful and haunting and interesting and a fantastic place to let kids just run loose (okay, maybe not totally loose - there are some rather tall rocks).  They had such a good time.

Ben managed to find the only mud puddle in the desert.  Of course.  That kid!

Cole spent the day describing a movie plot he came up with as we wandered through the rocks.  It does seem to inspire such things.  It looks other-worldly, so of course it was the perfect setting for his fantastical ideas.  

At one point, Cole and Annie and I scampered through a little crack in the rocks to a tall rock valley.  It was pretty incredible and Cole was actually so touched by its beauty that he teared up.  A minute or so later, I came around a corner and Annie was sitting on a rock looking up and I heard her say to herself, "I will remember this day forever."  That was a fairly rewarding moment as a parent. 

I heard each kid separately declare, "this is the best day ever!"  On the way home, our kids informed us that they would like to go to Goblin Valley for every Spring Break, so I suppose it was a success.  They loved it.  We all did.

'Til We Meet Again

We said good-bye to Floyd's grandpa last week.  He was a healthy guy most of his life, but his health deteriorated rapidly the last year or two.  

He was a great guy.  He had a constant twinkle in his eye (maybe Molly gets it from him).  He was cheerful.  He was generous.  He was kind.  He was spiritual.  He was a hard-worker.  He was good. 

We were so lucky to have him lead our family.  A few years ago, he and Floyd built his house together in Cove.  Floyd really cherished that time and learned a lot working with his Grandpa.  I am grateful I had the chance to know him and that my kids did too.  He will always have a special place in our hearts.

 

 

I am not good at good-byes.  I was a sniffly mess and not much support for Floyd.  And I scared Ben.  He did not like me crying.  He did not like any part of the funeral or viewing until we got to the cemetery.  He was pretty fascinated by the big hole and how they would cover it and where the tractors were and why he couldn't stay to help.

 

"In light of what we know about our eternal destiny, is it any wonder that whenever we face the bitter endings of life, they seem unacceptable to us? There seems to be something inside of us that resists endings.

Why is this? Because we are made of the stuff of eternity. We are eternal beings, children of the Almighty God, whose name is Endless and who promises eternal blessings without number. Endings are not our destiny.

The more we learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the more we realize that endings here in mortality are not endings at all. They are merely interruptions—temporary pauses that one day will seem small compared to the eternal joy awaiting the faithful.

How grateful I am to my Heavenly Father that in His plan there are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings."

-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf