Traveling...with 4 kids!

It's always fun to travel, it's one of my favorite things to do actually, just not with an 18 month old. We left Las Vegas on Wednesday night to come to Puerto Rico, La Isla del Encanto. We came home to visit James' family and to celebrate Halloween Puerto Rican style...don't know what that is...yet. We also came for James' oldest nieces Quinceanera. That is her 15 year old birthday party which is a very big deal in the Hispanic culture. We've watched Angelimar grow up and I can't believe she is already so old!!

Our flight left at 10:40 pm so everyone was a little cranky...mommy included! We flew from Las Vegas to New York, which we've never done before and the kids were really excited that they got to be in New York. I think that will be our next family trip. For some reason the kids love the city. I think it's fun that they knew all the things they wanted to see from the airplane....Statue of Liberty, the Yankees?, and many other things. Madelyn was a little dissapointed when it was dark while flying in. But we did get to see a beautiful sunrise while eating Burger King in the airport...breakfast for champions!

We finally arrived in Puerto Rico and Abuela picked us up in our rental van. Thank goodness she had picked it up early because that has to be the worst part of traveling here....the ineptitude of the service industry. 2 hours is the minimum length of time we've ever waited for the process to be completed. It's usually a nightmare!!!

We went straight to Abuela's house where she had cooked an amazing lunch for us of Abichuelas y arroz, and Polle encebollado. (Rice and beans with onion chicken) Delicious! Nobody makes rice and beans like Abuela. The kids ate it up! We got to spend time with Titi Zaida who is James' aunt that lives in Washington D.C.. She is also visiting for the festivities.

We are all having a bit of an adjustment from the trip. We came back to the hotel for a little cat nap and slept 4 hours. We went to bed last night around midnight and Malak woke up at 5 this morning ready to go. I tried pulling him into bed with me....big mistake because he didn't want to go back to his own crib after that. I realized when we were taking a nap together yesterday that that was the only nap I've ever taken with him! He's been such a good sleeper his whole life that he moved to his crib when he was 2 months old and I've never had to sleep with him to get him to bed. I still sometimes have to lay with Kai, but Malak is a great sleeper. I thoroughly enjoyed cuddling up to him during our nap and last night as well, but I think I will be in for long nights ahead until we go home. He's figured out what sleeping with Mommy feels like!!

Madelyn and Kai are still sleeping soundly and it's almost 8:00 here. It's 3 hours difference from Las Vegas. Jamie stayed with Abuela at her house last night. We only have 1 hotel room so we are alternating who gets to stay with Abuela. I think it will be fun for them....get them immersed in the culture....no air conditioning, no carpet, misquitos, open windows, etc. etc.

Jamie's Lunch

We decided to take Jamie a HUGE pizza for lunch today...being the great parents we are of course. Actually what happened was that James slept in this morning and barely got him to seminary in time. He didn't get to eat a decent breakfast and he never eats lunch at school. But he had a soccer game after school today so he would be starving by the time he was supposed to play soccer. James felt horribly guilty so we surprised him and some of his friends with pizza for lunch. He had about 4 friends meet him and we ate in the Principals Conference room. I am so grateful that she likes our child. She kept gushing about him and said she just loved him! We are so glad that he is having a good high school experience and that he has good friends to grow with! We are so glad to be his parents! And he won his soccer game against Cheyenne who is a difficult team-so I guess the pizza worked!

Visiting Granny (Warning-long post ahead!)

Jenny, my cousin, and I had been talking about getting together with our Grandma Doman who is my Dad's mom. I haven't been to visit Montpelier, Idaho since I was probably in my teens....a very long time ago! I have been feeling very strongly about getting out there to spend some time with my favorite and only living grandma! So Jenny and I decided we would plan a trip out to see her. Jenny and Kassie were already going to go up and clean her house for her so I decided to tag along and surprise her!! We invited JaNae and Katie to come along as well! Katie wasn't able to make it because her kids were sick and we missed her greatly, but JaNae made it and we had so much fun on our road trip!

Donna has always been very close to me. I am her oldest granddaughter and have so many fond memories of spending time with her. Whenever we would go visit, I just wanted to do whatever Granny did and be as close to her as possible. We would eat non-stop and watch soap operas or whatever else we could find on TV. Our favorite thing was Doritos and Tab soda...anybody remember that? I always looked forward to the time spent with her because I always felt special. She is an amazing lady and I am so grateful to have her in my life and for the example she has always been to me.

The girls came to pick me up at the SLC Airport on Friday night and then we made our way into Idaho which was about 3 1/2 hours. It was so fun to reminisce with my sister and cousins and laugh!! I haven't spent a lot of time with my cousins since I've been married but I really enjoyed getting to know them better. I am always grateful for Jenny because she never gives up on my friendship. She always calls and texts me just to make sure I'm alive and I appreciate it sooo much.

When we got to Granny's house, JaNae and I stayed in the car so we could bang on the door after Jenny and Kassie went in...shock factor ya know! The look on Granny's face was priceless! She really couldn't figure out what was going on and wondered if we had all driven up together or just what was happening! But she giggled alot and was excited! We stayed up late that night and talked for a long time about memories and people.

The next morning we got up and had a yummy breakfast that we all pitched in to cook and then got started cleaning! We all took a separate room and cleaned and dejunked to try to make it easier for Granny. We had so much fun going through things and finding old pictures and trinkets that we used to play with as children. JaNae and I found a lot of pictures from Bolivia and had fun talking about that. I think it was fun to spend time with Jenny and Kassie and realize how close they are. Sometimes I wish JaNae and I were closer in age because I feel like we got cheated a little bit. 11 years is a long time in between and we are always in such different stages of life-I wish we lived closer to each other so we could be best friends. I'm excited for her to get married and have immediate kids because she's catching up to me! :)

Rufus and Granny took JaNae and I on a ride around town and we got to see all the old things that I remember...the poor little town hasn't hardly changed. It still feels peaceful and safe though. We drive on "the bump" and saw Dad's old high school and where he was born, etc. It was almost therapeutic for me to revisit some of these places and think about my dad...I just can't imagine growing up in that small little town and dealing with the issues he has had to in his life. I thought about his life and was grateful for his background and his foundation. His mother has always supported him and loved him whether she understood what he was dealing with or not...how could anyone understand in that tiny little town what he was experiencing as a young boy? There was no help for him. He must have felt very isolated and alone in his issues, and revisiting his childhood has helped me have even more compassion for him.

The Bump that Granny used to take us on every day when we used to visit!

This is the shed where Grandpa Wright died. He had a heart attack while taking care of his horses. I was 13 when he died and we were in Bolivia so we couldn't come home for the funeral. It was very special to go to his grave and see where he was put to rest. I think that was the first time I visited it. We made the only prints in the snow and it was very peaceful to remember him. A little cold, but very worth it!




This is Jenny, Katie and Kassie's old house that they grew up in! They were my favorite playmates when I was visiting! So many memories in that house!

The main road in Montpelier... so pretty with the snow lining the trees.


It snowed the whole time we were there! I saw enough snow to last me 3 winters!! I remembered why I live in Las Vegas....no shoveling snow, no scraping off cars every morning while freezing your butt off, no car accidents due to sliding in the snow....and so many other reasons! I enjoyed being in the snow--it's so peaceful but I HATE being cold! Of course I was totally unprepared with my Las Vegas clothing--but I have a great sister that lent me her big sweatshirt the whole weekend and I never took it off!!

On Saturday night Jenny took care of Granny's feet. She gives an awesome pedicure! It was so funny to hear her keep telling Granny to RELAX! I remember the same thing when we used to rub her feet she would curl her toes up and giggle the whole time!

On Sunday morning Granny treated us to breakfast for our hard work. She took us to the Ranch Hand and it was great food!! My eyes are always bigger than my belly but breakfast is my favorite meal and I had to taste everything....



It was hard to say goodbye to Granny-but I promised I would be back and I plan on keeping that promise and go back next year. I love her too much to not revisit as many times as I can before she dies. She turns 80 next September..wow. I look forward to spending more time with her and learning more about her so that I can keep her memory alive in my children.

Pumpkin Decorating

Are you sick of me blogging about everything yet? I told you this is my favorite time of year...so deal with it!! We decided to paint pumpkins this year because we will be going to Puerto Rico for Halloween and I wanted to enjoy the pumpkins as long as we could without them getting all moldy...yuck! It was quite the adventure with Malak. Of course he had to be involved and do things just like the big kids do. James was very brave to have him on his lap and enjoy being painted as well as the pumpkin.

James cousin Zaida was visiting Las Vegas with her boyfriend over the weekend, so they helped us paint the pumkins. They came here from Washington DC for a couple of days. James took the kids down to the strip and hung out with them a couple of nights over the weekend while I was in Idaho. They all had a great time and it was nice to have help with the pumpkins!

Pumpkin Hunting

So last monday James had the day off work for Columbus Day so we decided to take the boys to the Pumpkin Patch. It was kinda sad because I really like to do things with the whole family but realize if we don't do it when we have the chance--nobody will be involved. I realized that the little boys could pick out the pumpkins but everybody could help decorate them and it would be a family activity!! Just funny how life continually changes as a mom as your kids keep growing...you gotta roll with the punches!

So when we pulled up we should have realized it probably wasn't the best day to go because we were the only people there. When we got out of the car the wind was blowing sooo bad that they couldn't even have any of the blow up slides going or anything. It was a little sparse on activites, but we made the most of it and just fed the greedy goats! Malak was hilarious when we put him down. He would run in circles screaming and running from pumpkin to pumpkin trying to pick them all up! He just kept saying ewwww and ohhhh. I wish the dang kid would talk!!! He has such amazing communication skills..but I can pretty much understand anything!! So we picked out our pumpkins, fed the goats and went home! Short and sweet and to the point!

These pictures crack me up because their true personalities are shining through!! Kai is pretty mellow and up for anything most of the time...But watch out for Malak!! You never know exactly what you're getting with this kid but you better bet it won't be easy!!

Decorating for Halloween

This is by far my favorite time of year! I love everything about it! Fall in Vegas is a little challenging but I have actually started to feel the change in weather...slowly. I hadn't really been feeling up to the whole decorating thing but really want to create those memories with my children...so I compromised and only put half of my stuff out. (And realized that it's time to buy new stuff because the stuff I have is sooo old!) We had such a great time with Malak decorating. He is such a busy kid and we couldn't keep him concentrated in one area--he was everywhere!! I thought it was funny because this is the kid that gets freaked out when he sees Elmo on TV, but isn't scared at all of the Halloween spooky things! He just points and says, "EWWWW" and "OHHHHH". It is so cute to watch him pick everything up and help hand it to me without freaking out! Forget trying to take him to Wal-Mart or anwhere that has lots of stuff-he hyperventilates by ewwing so much! I love his personality! You can tell Kai was over decorating...he just wanted to ride his bike. As a matter of fact every time that garage door goes up the next question is, "Mom, can I ride my bike?" It's just automatic. I feel so bad because I hate going outside to let him ride his bike because I can't control Malak. And it's so hard in our neighborhood because we are on a very busy street and I stress out about it. Remember the good old days when you left your house in the morning and didn't come back until it was dark and you just played all day long with no supervision??? We definetly live in a different world. Orem and Provo are a lot different from Las Vegas....

National Honor Society

Jamie was inducted into the National Honor Society a couple of weeks ago and I was able to go and watch the ceremony. There were about 4 kids from our ward that were involved as well. It is great to see these amazing young men and women participating in these programs that will help them with leadership skills and organization. It is a program that they have to donate their time to helping the community and things like that. He was selected because of his GPA and his involvement with other activities. He again is such an AMAZING kid--I know you are all sick of my gushing about my son but there is never anything bad to write about! He truly is such a great kid and I am consistently reminded of that on a daily basis! I can only hope that the next 3 turn out as good as the 1st! :)