Adam and basketball

Adam has enjoyed playing his first season of basketball this winter. He was a member of the "Snakes" basketball team for 1st and 2nd graders. It's been a great experience for him - he's really developed a lot of new skills playing on this team. He had a great time even though the team didn't do so well through most of the season - they lost their first 5 games - usually pretty badly. But during the last game of the season (yesterday), the whole team stepped up and pulled out a victory (38-30). Adam was the star of the game (in my opinion) - he scored 14 points, grabbed about 10 rebounds and had a couple of steals. He really was hustling around the court - and chasing after rebounds. At one point he even dove around another kid to save a rebound from going out of bounds - he ended up with skinned knees from that one, but was proud of his battle wounds.

The reason he scored so many points I think was not so much skill as brains - he figured out the system. You see, in first grade basketball, it is illegal to steal the ball while your opponent is dribbling - you can only steal passes. You also can't block shots. So every time Adam would get the ball, he would dribble kind of nonchalantly up to the basket, pick up the ball, focus and shoot it. It would go in most times. He figured out he could just keep dribbling forward and the opponent couldn't really stop him. Here are some pictures (and even a video) of Adam playing ball. These were taken two weeks ago...


Here's Adam on defense. He was real good at defense - he would stick with his guy no matter where he went - even if he ran past half court while the ball was under the basket. We'll have to work on keeping an eye both on his man and on the ball, but pretty good for starters!




Here he is defending again. Notice the seven footer on the left of the picture. This was the real reason Adam's team lost their first 5 games. Every one of the teams had a 2nd grader who had hit an early growth spurt. This particular team had 7 foot twins that got almost every rebound.


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Okay, so this video doesn't show Adam at his best, but it's still kind of fun. He's taking the ball down the court, dribbles it off the opponents foot. His coach kicks it back to him. He loses it again, but then grabs it and hands it to a teammate. Then he skips (literally) around and gets in perfect rebounding position - grabs the rebound and promptly throws up an airball - then runs back for defense.

Anna dancing!

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Anna and her class (and one other class)

Can you find Anna? Here she is with some of her classmates performing. 

Anna performing

Here she is right in the middle of one of her songs. What a fun day. 

Anna's preschool program

Anna just completed her first half of preschool this past friday. They had a fun program presentation for all the parents that day. Anna goes to preschool at the children's museum in town. It is an arts-based program so they do these incredible art projects. (That is one of the main reasons we chose this preschool for Anna). They have a kiln there in the building so they have made a few ceramic items, including a self portrait in clay. In addition to the art projects, they have dance once a week. This half of the year was ballet and starting in January it will be tap. Anyways, for their program they sang some cute little songs, but they also did some dances for us. They have been watching small segments of the nutcracker ballet in class once a week and they did a simple dance from the nutcracker suite. They danced to the Russian dance. It was a lot of fun. She has really enjoyed preschool, which has been quite a relief to us, since she initially was very resistive. She didn't love ballet though. She is looking forward to the change to tap. She was very nervous about performing in front of so many people. She was even in tears the night before, not wanting to go the next day. We talked her through it and put her teacher on alert to keep a special eye out for her, and she did it! We were so proud of her. We are hoping this preschool experience will make for a smoother transition to kindergarten next year.

Oh, I do have to mention as a little aside that the room mothers went a little crazy with the food for this little event. They had these two long tables filled with food. There were all sorts of ethnic foods made by some of the moms. We had food from the Phillipines (Lumpia), India (Samosa), Finland, fajitas wherever you want to say they are from, and a few others that I can't even remember. That doesn't include the regular cookies, punch, fruit kabobs, veggie tray. It was out of control!! But it was very yummy! They also had crafts for the kids to make and take home. It was crazy! What did I do to contribute you ask? I brought the veggie tray. That's about it. I also brought more kids than anyone else to enjoy the fun!!

We are so proud of Anna. We love her uniqueness. We love her desire to create beautiful things. We hope you enjoy some of the pictures of her at her program. We wish you could have seen her in person, but this will have to do.

Rotten Timing

We have a story of rotten timing. When we bought our new house, we bought some new appliances to go with it. Thinking we would really like it, we decided to buy one of those ceramic glass cooktop (flattop) ranges. We've liked it pretty well - it's easy to clean. Well, yesterday after we finished cooking dinner we noticed a small crack in the glass cooktop. A few minutes later the small crack had spread all the way across the top in several directions making all the burners virtually unusable.

On any normal week this would have not been a big deal. The glass top has a warranty so we can get that replaced and we could normally handle a few days without a stove. But, we're hosting Thanksgiving dinner for 16 people tomorrow! It couldn't have happened at a worse time! We can still do the turkey - we just haven't quite figured out how to do mashed potatoes and gravy in the microwave. Maybe we can rig up something in the fireplace? We'll figure something out!

Lizzy was a pretty grouchy leopard (oops, I mean "I'm a CAT!") when we headed out for trick or treating, so we didn't get much of a good picture. After the first door, she perked up a lot though and had a ball.

At each door, we stayed back on the sidewalk and let the kids approach the door themselves. At one particular door, the friendly neighbor said, "Hello, kids! You can take whatever candy you would like from the bucket." Lizzy immediately grabbed the bucket from the poor man and dumped the entire contents into her basket (and some onto the ground). I guess the man got some of his candy back from Lizzy, but, according to Adam, similar things happened at several houses. When she got home her basket was overflowing while the other kids were only about half full!

This is our little fairy princess Anna. She got to wear her costume to preschool and was very excited to find that her best friend there was also a fairy princess. 

This is the self-proclaimed Captain Big Mac. Instead of the normal "trick or treat" Adam's door approach was to raise his sword and grunt "Arrrr...Captain Big Mac wants some candy". He usually got his way. Incidentally, Adam's pet name for Lizzy is currently Little Mac. 

Adam

Well Adam has probably had the most excitement in his life the past couple of weeks, so I thought I would let you know what he is doing. He is finally adjusting to his new school and new teacher. He is enjoying things much more now. He is playing with friends from his class at recess now instead of the old stand-bys from church, which I think is a good sign. He has a new love at school. It is tetherball. They didn't have tetherball at his school last year, so this is something new and exciting. He really has enjoyed that, even though, at his own admission, he is not very good at it.

Adam has also started playing basketball through a league here in town. He is loving that, and I have been surprised how enjoyable it is to watch him play. He gets a little excited about things and tends to jump and bounce around the court instead of running. He scored his first basket in the last game they played, but his strength is definitely dribbling (and I don't mean on his chin). His team is altogether pretty terrible, but they don't seem to mind. They are just happy to be out there playing ball.

In a different area of his life, Adam is undergoing some changes. He lost two teeth a couple of weeks ago. It is his bottom two teeth. They came out just two days apart from each other. He pulled them both out himself, mostly because he would not let Greg or I near him. What was he doing while he pulled them out; he was jumping up and down. He is a bit excitable I guess. He has been pestering me to know if the tooth fairy is real (I think he mostly wanted to know if he was REALLY going to get any money). I think he kind of knew already, so I told him, but we still gave him some money (although not the $10 that he claims his friend got for each tooth!). He also has strict instructions not to let the girls on to this little secret.

Adam probably has the most exciting life of anyone in our family. He continues to love the piano and excels at just about anything he does, with the exception of tetherball I guess. He is still working on finishing the Book of Mormon by the end of this year and constantly amazes us at his retention and comprehension. He has been the inspiration for his primary teacher and other adults in the ward to keep going. "If Adam can do it, so can I." He is an amazing kid.

Back in Business

Well, hello there blogsphere! As many of you know our computer has been down for quite a while. After two motherboards and some house calls from the computer doctor, we ended up buying a new computer anyway! Computers are pretty cheap these days, so if you suspect you have a motherboard problem just buy a new computer!! We ended up spending as much trying to fix our computer as we bought our new one for! ARGH!! The good side of all this is you lucky folks out there get to hear what is going on in our lives again, and I get to be more involved in some of yours. I definitely like computers for that reason. We are officially back in business, so there will probably be a string of posts the next little while. Are you ready??

Another day at the office

I think I've found a new calling in life. I want to be an excavator operator! A couple of weeks ago my management at work invited my work team to the John Deere proving grounds to test drive some construction equipment. Working in an office job on computers all the time, it's easy to lose sight of what the company is all about. So every now and then they like to take us out to play with some equipment so that we can feel "connected" to the product. This is the first time I've taken advantage of one of these opportunities. Following are a few pictures of my experience.

Of all the equipment I drove, this excavator was by far my favorite. This is one of the smaller excavators that Deere makes (they wouldn't trust us with anything bigger!) but it was still very powerful. I think it's a good stress reliever, so I'm asking for one for Christmas. When the going gets tough, I'll just say, "Honey, I'm going in the back yard to dig for a while."
All the motion is controlled by two joysticks. The joystick on the left swings the cab and arm left and right and moves the main arm up and down. The joystick on the right operates the bucket and the lower part of the arm. To dig, you basically just move the two joysticks around in circles and the thing will dig in one spot and dump in another.

This is I think what is called an "articulated front end loader" (okay, so maybe I better stick to computers until I learn the proper names for these things). This was the favorite of many out there that day, but for me it didn't measure up to the excavator.
Driving the front end loader was also very easy. You basically have a steering wheel, an accelerator, and a brake (like most vehicles). To operate the bucket, there was just one joystick (forward to raise it up, backward to lower it, left to scoop, right to dump). Since you're constantly going forward and backward, there's a small switch on the joystick - switch it one way and you go forward, switch it the other way and you go backward.
This bulldozer was kind of fun. Going over this little mountain was a bit of a kick. Bulldozers typically move forward (or backward) at a constant speed. You can tell in the picture if I go just a little bit further forward, my front is going to be heavier than my back and the whole thing is going to fall forward. Well, my first time over the hill that's exactly what happened and I almost crashed through the windshield. The trick, I learned, is to push the decelerator pedal when you get to the top, then you kind of ease over the hill gradually. I'll stick to the excavator.

Here I am on a little backhoe. This was the first machine I tried out. It was fun enough, but didn't pack near the punch of the excavator. It could dig holes well enough though.
Here's the biggest vehicle that we got to drive that day. By dump truck standards, it's medium sized but I still think it's the biggest vehicle I've ever driven. You'll notice it is articulated like the front end loader (meaning it bends in the middle). That's how it steers. When you turn the wheel, hydraulic cylinders bend the front end around the corner and the backend follows. It feels quite a bit different than steering a normal small vehicle (I almost hit a fence at one point).

The guy that was riding with me said it would go up to 35 miles per hour, but I got it up to 40 and I think it would go faster if you pushed it. At one point, he said to gun it (that's when I got it to 40). We were cruising down a dirt road and at the end there was a gated fence. He said "Don't let up, don't let up, don't let up". About 30 feet short of the fence he says, "Okay take your foot off the accelerator." I did (as soon as he said the word "Okay" - I was getting a little nervous)! The truck just stopped. It didn't throw you forward like slamming on brakes, but the thing went from 40-0 in about 20 feet - no brakes required! He said it's something built into the transmission that stops the vehicle any time you take your foot off the accelerator (no cruise control in this beast!). I don't suppose friction brakes would last long trying to stop 40 tons of momentum.

All-in-all, it was a very fun day. I was very impressed by all the equipment. The most impressive thing was how simple it was to drive everything. They just gave a two minute orientation to the first driver of each machine, then they expected you to pass on the information to the next driver. It was that easy. They've made driving those complex machines easier than driving a car. Most everything was run by joysticks, and the cabs were all very comfortable. Honestly, I think I would be more comfortable moving tons of dirt around all day than I typically am in my desk chair.

So, if you ever have a chance to dig a basement or a swimming pool for someone, I highly recommend it (only if it's with a Deere of course)!

Anna update

Anna got her cast off this week and her arm seems to be healing nicely. She was rather concerned about the saw chopping away at her cast, but that turned out to not be frightening for her at all. It helped that she had a good doctor that she felt comfortable enough with that she even talked to him.

She has been very protective of her arm since the cast came off though. She was worried enough about it that the kind doctor gave her a removable splint to wear to help her feel secure. The problem is, she won't remove the splint for anything. Getting her to take it off to bathe has been quite an ordeal - it really frightens her to have her arm exposed. Today, after much coaxing, I was able to give her a bath and convince her to leave the splint off for one hour after the bath. She just sat on the chair and held her arm for the whole hour; afraid to play or run or really even move. She did finally relax some and got up and moved around a little without the splint. Tonight, she agreed to take off the splint while she sleeps. So, little by little, I think she'll become more comfortable using her arm.

Blog Silence

Hopefully you've noticed that we've been rather silent bloggers lately. Our computer is ill and doesn't seem to be recovering, so we haven't been online a whole lot lately. We're not exactly sure what's wrong, it has been just freezing up every now and then, but the freeze-ups were becoming more frequent and happening more quickly. Now we can rarely, if ever, get through a full bootup before the freeze happens. A little internet research suggests that it's a hardware problem. So, we're kind of out of a home computer for the time being.

Beautiful Anna with her bright pink cast. One down, three to go. 

Family Home Evening at our house

Monday night comes around but once a week (just in case you didn't know that), and it is a time that our kids genuinely look forward to. They love having Family Home Evening (even if Greg and I don't always love it). Some go better than others. We just had a whopper doosey this past Monday. It started off fine enough. Adam was in charge and he led us through the song, prayer, and a very nice lesson. Then it was time for the activity and treat.

The kids were getting restless, as Adam had taken a little more time on his lesson than perhaps was necessary. The kids and I headed in to the kitchen to get started on making some cookies. The girls were standing on a chair (the same chair) near the sink so they could wash their hands. They couldn't reach however, so I scooted the chair a little closer, as I often do.

Well, that was the end of Family Home Evening. Anna, fell off the chair and landed hard on her right arm on the floor. Anna was not only in tears, but screaming. I looked at her arm, and right away I thought there might be something wrong. We put an ice pack on it, and held her for a while. Greg and I took turns holding Anna, and rushing the other kids into bed. After a little while, Anna stopped crying. Greg had her do some movements with her wrist and fingers and sort of poked around on her arm. It was still swollen, but it seemed like she had good movement and wasn't in excruiating pain. We elected to wait until the morning and see how things looked.

She slept fine that night. In the morning, she seemed very careful of that hand and there were certain things that seemed to hurt it. To me it also looked crooked, but she wasn't complaining about a lot of pain. After Greg went to work, I decided it would be best to bring her in. They did x-rays and a little exam and sure enough it was broken. Apparently this is a VERY common injury in children. Also, FYI young children's bones don't usually break clear through. They usually just buckle, or bend. So really they are just broken on one side. In Anna's case it was her radius bone in her right arm. Unfortunately they wouldn't cast her arm there, at our pediatrician's office. They had to set us up with an orthopedic later in the afternoon. That was a short little visit, and then they put Anna in a very bright pink cast. She will only have to wear it for 2-3 weeks.

All in all she has been amazing. She was awesome for the exams and x-rays, and even getting on her cast (and man did we have a creepy guy doing that job). Moral of the story: actually there are two. One: breaking your arm cuts family home evening short. Two: Anna is an awesome kid. Okay, okay there are three. Don't move a chair when your child is standing on it.

Update on the Finch Family

It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd just give a quick update on what's been going on around the Finch home. We've unfortunately had a lot of sickness in the house over the past two weeks. Adam woke up two weeks ago with a fever and had to miss almost a full week of school before it went away. As soon as Adam got rid of it, Anna and Lizzy both picked it up. They were running fevers off and on until mid-week of this past week. That's when Ben managed to get it. He, being so little, seemed to have it worst of all. He developed a pretty bad cough and congestion. For a while it was pretty hard for him to breathe and that would get him frustrated and so he would try to cry, but crying hurt too much so he would mostly just whimper. It was a sad time while he was sick. Now the kids are mostly over it (still some minor coughs) but Tammy woke up this morning with the fever, sore throat, etc so on we go. I'm the only one so far that's been able to avoid the illness - I'm sure my turn is coming. Hopefully, we're all activating our immune systems so that we'll have an illness free winter!

During all those days of sickness, we did enjoy a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Ebbert. They were here from Thursday to Wednesday of this past week. With all the sickness we weren't able to get out much, but did enjoy time visiting. We also very much appreciate all the work they did around our house. Tammy kept Grandpa busy with lots of house projects that I've been neglecting since we've moved here. He even helped hang some pictures - something we've been meaning to do for weeks. Thank you Grandpa!

Given all the natural disasters of the past few weeks, we decided we needed to take a more serious look at our own preparedness, so we had declared today to be our preparedness day. We spent the day teaching the kids about different kinds of disasters that could get us here and what to do for each. We also refilled all of our water storage containers (which have been empty since we moved) and started to think about getting 72-hour kits together. We still have a long way to go in the preparedness category, but having a little something done feels pretty good. The kids were all very interested in what we were doing and each worked hard to help out. It was a fun day together (except that mom wasn't feeling real well!).

One last note - this is some news I learned yesterday that was pretty exciting for me. Several years ago during my last couple of years at BYU, I worked for a non-profit organization called the Waterford Institute. The goal of the Waterford Institute is to create educational software to help young children learn basic skills such as reading, writing, and math. We were basically making computer games that helped kids to learn these skills. The project I worked on the whole time I was there was the first grade reading program - I did the programming work for maybe 1/5 or so of the product. We had just finished the product when I left Waterford to move out here.

I've always kind of wished that my kids could benefit from the Waterford programs, but never really expected that. They're designed for school classrooms and are only sold to schools, so we couldn't exactly buy them for home. Given the large amount of educational software on the market these days, I never thought that it would actually end up in my kids schools.

Well, we just found out yesterday that Pleasant View Elementary has recently purchased the Waterford Early Reading Program. Beginning in a week or so, Adam will be using the first grade reading program (the one that I worked on) for 20 minutes or so each day. I was so excited when I learned that! It's really neat for me to know that he'll be using something that I had spent so much time on long before he was even born. While I don't expect him to gain a whole lot from it (his reading skills are well above anything we taught in that program), I still hope he will enjoy some of the games. I expect the program will still be around when Anna arrives at first grade and I do expect that it will be a benefit to her - I think she'll be at a more normal first grade level and I think they are the kinds of activities she will absolutely love.

Ben's First Birthday

Well, one very long year has passed since our sweet little Ben was born. His birthday was yesterday, September 18. We are thankful for his good health and cheery smile. It is an exciting time when a baby turns one. Ben has been such a great blessing to our home. He is very laid back and cheerful. He knows how to make us all smile. He is crawling around like crazy now, but still resistive to standing alone. He is really in no hurry to walk. He has five teeth and another that is trying to come through. He still will not eat baby food, and now is even becoming more picky about what people food he eats. If he doesn't like something, or he is done, he just throws it on the floor. Banana is not very fun to clean up off the floor, or any place else for that matter. He is still a mama's boy. He has even started screaming and pulling on anyone who is on HIS mom's lap. Lizzy gets the brunt of that I'm afraid, and it is not uncommon for him to make her cry. I am still nursing him, but we have left him with a babysitter a few times, and it has gone fine. When he is happy he is just a joy to be around. It seems like even though this has been an incredibly hard year for our family, it has gone by so quickly. I can hardly believe my baby is 1! I didn't cry like I did when Adam turned one. This time I think I am relieved that he is 1 and that our other children are growing up too. My grandma and grandpa were here to share in the fun of Ben's birthday. If my dad were here, we would have ages spanning four generations. How cool is that. We love our Benner boy. We hope he had a great Birthday.

Here is cute little Ben on his first birthday. He is even cute with food all over his face! 

Happy Birthday Tammy!

Today is Tammy's 30th Birthday. Yes, she's officially not a youngster anymore. She and I have been married for almost eight years now (can you believe it?) so I think I'm just about qualified to talk about how wonderful she is. (She's thinking - well, after eight years, it's about time!)

Let me just start by talking about how good she is to me. As we've mentioned, this has been a very busy summer for me - especially at work. I've never really had to work a lot of overtime in my career, but the last month or so has seen a lot of it. I know that it's taken a toll on our family and on Tammy, but she never complains about it. On those really long nights, she would always greet me with a smile when I finally made it home.

Tammy is an outstanding mother (a quick look at our kids is proof of that)! Having four little ones six and under is no small chore, but she excels at it. On top of her "normal" duties as a mother (is being a mother ever really "normal" - I don't think so, but hopefully you know what I mean), she is going the extra mile by teaching Adam piano lessons, teaching Anna reading lessons, and spending many hours teaching in lots of other ways to all the kids. I recognize how obedient and thoughtful and intelligent and talented our little ones are and I attribute most of that to Tammy's outstanding skills as a mother.

I know it is a husband's duty to be spiritual leader in a home, but in this home, mom leads the way in that category (and in most other categories). Tammy has a deep and true testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it shows in every aspect of her life. She is regularly showing me the example when it comes to living the gospel and when she's not leading, she's gently prodding me in the right directions. I look back on many spiritual decisions that we have made in our life together and see how they have blessed our lives and I recognize that the ideas for those decisions nearly always originate with Tammy.

One of her virtues and one of the first things I noticed about her when we were dating was her absolute honesty in everything. I have never, ever know Tammy to tell a lie of any sort. At first that was a little hard to take ("So, how do I look today?"), but I have grown to appreciate that characteristic so much. I've never had the slightest reason to ever distrust her in any way and that is such a comfort to me in our marriage.

Tammy is a hard worker when there is work to be done (and there always is at home) but also loves to have fun. She's not afraid to join the kids on the swings or slides at the park or scream at the top of her lungs going down a waterslide (I was a little embarrassed to be seen with her after that one).

Tammy is a caregiver not only to our family but to many others in our community. She is so kind and thoughtful, particularly to those who may otherwise be easily overlooked. She has blessed many people in many small but very signficant ways.

To those of you who are her family - THANK YOU. Thank you for raising your daughter/granddaughter/sister/niece/other to be the wonderful person that she is. She blesses my life every day and I love her with all of my heart.

Okay, now for the greedy part. I want to set a new record on this blog and I want it to be a record that will stand for as long as this blog is around. I want this entry to get a record number of comments (lets shoot for at least 30). I want everyone that reads this entry to post a comment (or two) and let us know what you think of Tammy (if you don't have nice things to say, at least wait until it's not her birthday to make your remarks!). If you don't know how to post a comment, all you have to do is click on the word "comments" below (beside where it says "posted by greg"). Then scroll to the bottom, type what you think. Where it says "Choose and identity" click "Other" and type in your name. Then click "Publish Your Comment". That's all there is to it! If you're a random visitor and don't happen to know Tammy, take my word for it and post something nice about her anyway. Oh, and get all your friends and neighbors to comment as well!

So, with that, I hope you have a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY Tammy!

Missouri

Over labor day weekend, our family was invited to accompany our friends, the Staffords, on a camping excursion to Northern Missouri. They are preparing to move west and had never yet visited some of our church's historical sites in that area. Our lives have been so busy this summer (especially the last few weeks) that we decided that a short vacation was exactly what we needed despite the soaring costs of gasoline. So we paid our three dollars per gallon, loaded up the van (kudos to Tammy - she did all the packing and preparing - I was still working too many hours every night last week) and headed to Missouri.

We arrived late Friday evening just after sunset. There was just enough light to get the tent set up and everyone settled in. We awoke Saturday to distant thunder. We had just enough time to get the kids breakfast before the thunderstorm struck. There was enough lightening and thunder to scare the kids so that they all abandoned the tent and hid out in the van. Fortunatly, the rain didn't last long and the rest of the weekend was rather pleasant weather-wise.

After our soggy breakfast, we headed out to Liberty to visit the historic Liberty Jail. Tammy and I took turns tending screaming Ben, so didn't really get to enjoy that a whole lot. Adam seemed rather impressed by the whole experience though, he talked quite a bit about the things he learned and saw there. From Liberty, we all decided we needed to drive a while so the kids could sleep so we headed north to Adam-ondi-ahman. It was a perfect day to visit there - I could not imagine a more peaceful and beautiful place than Adam-ondi-ahman was that day. In previous visits, that's not been my favorite stop, but this time was much different - I really felt that I was standing in a sacred place. It made me want to learn more about what has and will yet occur in that beautiful valley. After Adam-ondi-ahman, we made brief visits to the site of the Haun's Mill massacre and to the Far West temple site before returning to camp.

On Sunday, we got up and got cleaned up for church - that's no small task with four little ones on a camping trip. We chose a ward in Liberty that didn't start until 11 a.m. so we had plenty of time to get there. We had the unusual experience of running into another family from our home (Bettendorf) ward who happened to be visiting the same ward we attended. After church and lunch, Tammy and I decided (well, at least I did) that we were tired of touring, so we decided to just enjoy a Sunday afternoon drive while our friends toured the sites in Independence. We headed back in the general direction of our campground and ended up at Watkin's Mill State Park. The park itself is beautifully wooded with rolling hills, hiking trails and a small lake. In the back of the park are several old buildings, including the mill for which the park was named, a one-room schoolhouse and an old church. We spent some time wandering around those sites and taking pictures of the kids - it was really an enjoyable time on a pleasant Sunday afternoon.

Monday we spent a little time at the lake where we were camping, taking the kids to the beach to swim a while before heading home.

It was a nice weekend altogether. Camping seems to get more challenging every time we go - we must be getting old or something. But overall it was very good to get away for the weekend, especially after such a crazy time we've had the past several weeks.

The kids on the steps of the old schoolhouse at Watkin's Mill State Park. 

Princess Anna curtsies to all her subjects. 

It seems we can't get through one vacation without at least one picture like this! 

This picture of the girls was taken at Watkin's Mill State Park in Northwest Missouri. In the background is an old one room schoolhouse. The setting was beautiful! Tammy said it reminded her of Williamsburg, Virginia. 

Behind Adam is an old church we ran across in our travels. 

Smiley Ben! 

Fit for Life

So, I've been reading this nutrition book lately. It has some different ideas in it. Some might classify it as an "alternative health" book. It is called "Fit for Life". Apparently it was a huge seller in the 1980s. I just thought I would throw out some ideas that it talks about and see what everyone thinks. I would be particularly interested in any medical backup or disproving of these ideas. I have really liked some of the ideas, and I feel like all in all it is very similar to the Word of Wisdom, which is the best measure for a way of eating. Also, it just makes me believe that I can be healthier, which is encouraging. I can do it!! type attitude. (Is that PMA Todd?)

One of the main premises of the book is that there are not four food groups. There are only two. High water content food, which are fruits and veggies, and concentrated foods which are everything else, grains, dairy, protein, etc. They believe that because our bodies are 70% water that we need to eat a diet that is 70% high water content food. In other words eat lots of fruits and veggies. Hey that sounds like a good idea.

Of course it is not quite this simple. They also say there is a specific way to combine food so that it will digest better and free up more energy in your body for you to use, instead of your digestive system to use. This will also free your body from the buildup of toxins from eating food improperly. For example you are only supposed to eat one concentrated food at a time, only to be combined with vegetables. So that means only bread, or only meat, or only cheese. You couldn't have the full sandwich. Since they are different types of concentrated food it is very difficult on your body. The proteins require an acid type digestive juice to be digested and the starch require an alkaline type juice to be digested (or is it the other way around), so when you eat these things together it neutralizes the stomach juices, and then your body just keeps pumping out more and more juices and nothing is getting fully digested, and the food usually ends up leaving the stomach putrified or fermented because it has had to sit in the stomach so long. But wait ... there's more!

Apparently we have all been eating fruit the wrong way. They say fruit is the very most beneficial food to eat for your body. But, it must be consumed properly. You should only eat fruit on an empty stomach. If you don't, it ferments in your stomach while it's waiting to digest with the other food, becoming very acidic and toxic. If you eat it on an empty stomach, it gets through the stomach in about a half hour - shorter than any other food! Then it brings all it's life giving water through the intestines (isn't this entertaining?).

Well, there's much more to this program, but I'm afraid I've bored you already. I just want to know what you people think. I think there's a lot of good in this program, but it would definitely take some getting used to and you'd have to give up some of your favorite foods. Some folks think the Diamonds (the authors of this book) are quacks, but those who've tried the program (as testified to on Amazon.com!) have felt their health significantly improve and have lost weight as well. One other little tidbit if you want to look into it some more; this way of living is part of a movement called Natural Hygiene. So, let me know what you think, or if you know of something that has worked for you!

Handcarts and Dancers

I'm sure you everyone is probably tired of hearing us talk about Nauvoo. It seems we've spent more than our share of time there this summer, but we have one last summer Nauvoo event to tell you about. One of my responsibilities at church is to oversee the youth programs and our youth council has been working for months to organize a big “Youth Nauvoo Day”. It was yesterday and turned out to be a great success - we had nearly 40 youth and leaders participating.

In the morning we split into two groups - one went to the temple, the other to the Carthage Jail. I ended up with the temple group and had a great experience. It was the first visit to the temple for a couple of the youth and all had a good time. From all reports, the Carthage group had a great experience as well.

In the afternoon, we headed out on the Nauvoo handcart trek. The trek followed a three mile course through the hills north of Nauvoo. They had told us going in to expect to spend 3 hours to do the full course. I had thought, “three hours? It’s only 3 miles – how could it possibly take three hours?” I never expected it to be as challenging as it turned out to be. About a third of the way through (only a mile in) we started questioning whether we wanted to do the whole trip or if we should take the shortcut back. We had spent almost an hour going up and muddy hills, crossing creek beds, and climbing steep ravine walls. It definitely wasn’t easy going.

We eventually finished the full three miles and made it back to the outfitting shed, but we were all exhausted. I had a chance to speak to the group after it was all over. I told them that we had just finished a three mile trek. I said, “now go and do that 4 more times today and every day from now on for the next several months. In all, you will do our little three mile walk 400 more times and then you will almost be to the Salt Lake Valley. Don’t forget to add several hundred pounds of cargo to your handcarts (ours were empty) and most of your carts won’t have steel axles or sturdy frames (like ours did). Tack on freezing temperatures, 2 feet of snow, blizzards, malnutrition, lack of modern clothing or shoes, and death of nearly a quarter of your company.” These were the conditions that some of the handcart companies traveled under in their journey west. After the experience yesterday – the suffering they experienced is something that I cannot even begin to imagine. I think all of us gained a much greater appreciation for the sacrifices of those early saints through this experience.

After we recovered from the handcart trek, we gathered for dinner and games. In the evening, we headed up to the temple and had a short fireside on the hill across from the temple. Then we went to see the BYU International Folk Dance and Music Ensemble. The performance was incredible and very entertaining. Some of our young men were quite stricken by some of the female performers. They hung around after the show to talk to the prettiest one and ended up each winning a hug from her. Talking to them later that turned out to be the highlight of the whole day for them. It was rather amusing.

Following the folk dance show, we went to one other show and finally headed home. Everyone was exhausted, but all had a great time. Working with the youth has been by far the most rewarding and enjoyable part of my calling.

The Bettendorf Ward handcart company. 

"Onward, pressing onward" 

Crossing the creek - again! 

A couple 'a crazy weeks

Well, I haven't blogged in a while. Greg informed me that it was my turn, so here I am. It has been a crazy couple of weeks for us. If you can't tell from my lack of blogging, I am struggling to keep my head above water right now. It seems to take about all of my energy just to take care of the kids each day, then when you add on extra things, whoa.

Some of these extra things have included, among others, Greg's mom's visit to our home, Greg working very late every night this week and then being gone all day yesterday, and Adam starting school.

We had a great visit with Greg's mom last weekend. The kids were in heaven as their grandma played with them almost every moment that they were awake. She even squished herself into the back of our van between Lizzy's carseat and Adam and rode to Nauvoo and back, entertaining the kids all the way (or was it they who were entertaining her?). Adam didn't even fall asleep on the way home, despite the late hour, because he was enjoying talking his grandma's ear off way too much. The kids were very sad to see her go, and so were Greg and I. We hope to see her again sooner than later.

Greg is at the end of a big project and has been putting in tons of extra hours to clean up the mess of others and try to get things in order before some collaborating has to be done this coming week. I don't think he came home before 9:30 any night this week, except Friday (and that was only because I had something previously planned at our house and needed help with the kids). Then he was gone before 7 am Saturday and didn't get home until midnight for this huge youth Nauvoo day for our ward. Needless to say we are both exhausted. He assures me that his hours will not be so late this week. I know my brother has been spending tons of time at the hospital. My heart goes out to him and his wonderful wife. It is really hard not seeing your spouse much, and then when you do see them your both so tired you can hardly speak without slurring your words (which is what I am doing right now, if typing could talk). I am glad we don't have weeks like this very often. Usually Greg keeps great hours and I will look forward to those hours (and no others) this week.

The other thing that has sort of flipped things around this week, is that Adam has started back to school. I think it was harder to see him off this year than last. The summer went so much better than I thought it would, having him home all day. We really enjoyed having him around and have missed him already. He was also way nervous about starting at a new school. I felt like such a terrible mom having to put him through this. But things have gone really well. He seems to feel comfortable with the school and the routine of it all. He loves schedules and routines. It has been hard for me to get back into dropping him off and picking him up routine everyday, though. It seems I am always having to wake the baby so we can go to the school. It is also discouraging that his teacher is on maternity leave until the middle/end of September, so he has a sub until then. Then of course there is the whole ordeal of making sure the school is meeting his needs which seemed like such a challenge for me last year. I am not looking forward to that. There are more programs and teachers available to Adam at this school, because it is much bigger than our last one, but it is a matter of getting him in those programs. Already the "work" he has brought home is sooo easy for him. Sometimes, we think, now why is it we are sending him to school, he reads so much more and is so much more involved in things he is interested in at home. I guess if I had to pick a challenge for a kid though, this would be a good one to pick. He loves learning (so far) and is interested in such a variety of things. Just having to be on "school time" again changes the flow of things around here.

Anyway, enough. If you have even finished reading this posting you must have a little more time on your hands than I do! I probably wouldn't have even written this much but once you get me going it's hard to stop me. Cleanse and purge and all that.

Grandma's Belly Ache

Yesterday morning, Anna decided that Grandma deserved a belated birthday cake, so she set out constructing one. Pretty soon Adam and Lizzy had joined in the fun and constructed an 8 foot tall "cake". Poor Grandma had to eat it all! She had quite the bellyache by the end. (Click the picture to get a better look at it!)

Benjamin! 

Elizabeth! 

Grandma Cherrie (Greg's mom) has come to visit this weekend. We decided to go out on a riverboat cruise this afternoon. The kids had earned free kids passes for finishing their summer reading programs, so we all headed out to enjoy some time on the river. Here's the crew crossing the gang plank to get on board. 

Benner is ready for the trip!