Travelin' in Utah July 13-17

We drove down to Idaho on Saturday July 13th. It was a good drive with stops at some nice rest areas. We joined Robin and her kids for dinner that evening. She made us yummy tator tot casserole.  We had a good time hanging put with Robin, Zach, Elizabeth and Quinn.  They have infectious laughs and find lots of things to laugh about.  Dinner was a lot of fun.

We had a yummy breakfast at Robin's in the morning and loaded the car for the drive to Kaysville.  On the way down we had a need for a potty stop.  Our only option at the time was a gas station with a label in the window welcoming us to the middle of nowhere.  It was posted pretty clearly inside that restroom were for paying guests only, so I treated the kids to ice creams that we ate sitting in the dusty parking lot.

We made it to Grammy's without any problems but not quite in time to join her for church.  Instead, we settled in and fell asleep on her sofas while the kids broke out the toys she had brought out for them.

Sunday evening I had some of my favorite high school people over for a mini reunion. Our official 20 year reunion is next month but none of us really wanted to go.  So we emailed each other and set up a reunion with some of the people we did want to see.  I made some gluten free chocolate brownies with extra chocolate chips and fresh raspberries. They were delicious.  We had me, Erin Ford Findlay, Lori Hollist Auger, and Ann Baker Romero.  It was great to just sit and talk.  I could see why these were the friends I chose to spend my time with all through high school.  I definitely think we should do more of these mini reunions!

We stayed at Grammy's until Thursday evening.  We went swimming in the swim spa pretty much every day.  We also visited a few museums.  I took the kids to the Natural History Museum at the University of Utah on Tuesday the 16th.  It was a really nice museum.  We started by climbing all the way to the fifth floor. There, you can go out on the roof and learn about weather and water conservation.  There is also a room about Native American history and current relationship with American society.  We worked our way down through geological information and archeology and then to the dinosaur exhibit.  There were a lot of kid-friendly activities and the displays were all really well done.  It was a great museum.

On Wednesday we took a hike into the mountains behind the parents' house.  We had decided it was time to spread the ashes of the dog the parents had that died just after my mission. Yes, that was 14 years ago.  Her ashes have been in a box on the fireplace since then.  On Sunday when we were waiting for the parents to return from church, Becca picked up the wooden box of dog ashes and, shaking it, asked why Grammy kept a box of rice with the kid toys on the fireplace.  We decided it was time to move the dog on.  The plan had always been to scatter the ashes on the Vita Course, or nature trail. But the boys who frequently went up there never managed to remember to take the boxed dog. So, Wednesday morning the 5 Killpacks and Grandad put on their socks and shoes and headed up the mountain.  We walked to the creek and found a shady spot by the bridge.  That was where we put Cricket's remains. Then, Kip and the kids played in the creek, building up a little dam to increase the depth of the water they were playing in.  Anna and I got mosquito bites on our legs that bugged us the rest of the trip.  And eventually we headed back down the mountainside.

On Thursday Grammy and Grandad treated us with a trip to the Treehouse children's museum in Ogden.  It's another great museum option.  There were enough things to do that we weren't able to get it all done in the two hours of free parking we had available.  The highlight was when the staff hosted play staring the kids.  It was a version of Blanca Flore.  William got to be the prince.  He did an excellent job projecting his lines just like Elizabeth Moreno taught him for the school talent show.  Anna got to be one of the 7 bandits and also did well.  Becca really wanted to be a Bandit but enjoyed the play anyway.

After the museum, Grandad took us to the union station Grill.  We had a yummy lunch and then got to look at the trains on display outside.  They had a train car that had carried the olympic torch for the winter olympics in Salt Lake in 2002.

Anna's Birthday, pt 2

Anna officially turned 6 on August 7, 2011. Here she is on her birthday throne before tearing into her presents.

And here she is with her birthday gifts. She has spent hours playing with the shrinky dinks and the magnetic dolls. It was a great year for presents!

Anna's 6th Birthday! pt 1

The first part of Anna's 6th birthday celebration happened a day early. We took her on August 6th to Out of This World Pizza in Hillsboro with her 2 best friends, Lily and Tristan. We ate pizza and had cake and the kids had a ton of fun running around on the play equipment.

Here's the whole crew after devouring some cake. Tristan's in the front, then Anna, and Lily behind her. Elizabeth is in the back behind William. She's Lily's big sister and William's good friend. Becca's got cakey face, of course.

Lily, Anna, and Kip were having lots of fun!

Pioneer Day, July24, 2011

Our stake did a Pioneer Day celebration at a local farm. There was lots of good, pioneer-style food. Oh, and shaved ice. I'm not sure pioneers had that. But we enjoyed it.

The kids did a pioneer parade. William joined, even though he'd chosen not to wear pioneer clothes. He was Anna's moral support. The marched around the barn at least 10 times.

Thank goodness for lots of water!

Becca was a super cute pioneer with her daddy!

Lakeview Farms Pumpkin Patch

Since there was no school on Friday and it's that lovely time of year when pumpkins are big and leaves are turning colors, we decided to go with our friends the Istooks to the Pumpkin Patch. We drove out to North Plains and wend to Lakeview Farms because we love their little train around the field and boat across the lake. Becca wouldn't go near the lake, so she and I rode the train to the patch and back.

I got this picture of her while waiting for the boat to deliver the rest of our crew.

When the boat arrived we went into the field and picked out the best pumpkins ever. We really liked the warty ones this year. I can't wait to carve them...

After getting our pumpkins picked out, we climbed with them onto the train and rode back. The kids had a blast. It wasn't too cold and it wasn't raining. It was a perfect day for the pumpkin patch!

Magic Kingdom, 2011

 

I spent the night before our Magic Kingdom visit planning what things I wanted to do with the kids. When we arrived, we headed straight for Fantasyland and started the fun. Kip took William and cousin Preston to do their first rides and I took the girls on Small World. They both enjoyed it, in spite of Becca's nervousness in the line.

 

After Tea Cups and the Carousel (a major hit), we watched Mickey's Philharmagic. Yet again, it was too scary for Becca. Why do they have to make everything scary? If they kept these shows simple and didn't throw in all the drama and bad-guys my kids would like them a lot more.

 

We finished Fantasyland with a final round of Tea Cups. I did the super-spinny cup with William, Anna, and Preston (whom we adopted for the day), while Kip did the slower, gentler cup with Becca. We met the cousins and did a kid trade-off for Space Mountain and I realized that I actually do kind of like rollercoasters.

 

After lunch in Tomorrowland and a ride on the magic carpets, we headed to the Buzz Lightyear ride with the rest of the family. While Kip and I rode Splash Mountain on our fastpasses later that day, Uncle Tyler talked William into riding Thunder Mountain Railroad for a dollar. He almost enjoyed it--he said it got scary in the middle when it was dark.

 

The girls loved all the princessy things to see and were especially cute at this little sitting spot outside the castle.


We ended up leaving at 8:30, just before the night's parade. The kids were tired and I was satisfied that I had done all the things I really wanted to do.

Hollywood Studios, April 30th, 2011

 

On the 1st day of our 4-day pass, we all went to Hollywood Studios. We headed to the reputed best ride there first, Toy Story Mania. The wait was about 40 minutes and Becca for some reason was not at all happy about being in line. She must have had some bad memories from our visits to theme parks in previous years because she just didn't want to do the ride.

 

Abby and Anna weren't at all worried about it.

 

And even Max held up OK. But Becca hated the line and hated the ride. The rest of us thought it was pretty fun. We enjoyed shooting up the targets and spinning to the next area. Becca wanted nothing to do with any other rides after that. So we dragged her into the Little Mermaid show. She hated that too. Too dark and too much time spent on the Sea Witch. She wasn't very impressed with the whole theme park idea. All our kids voted to just head back to the hotel at that point and we finally gave in and did it.

Florida, April 29th, 2011

The Killpack family reunion for 2011 was a trip to Disney World in Orlando. We decided to try out the option of taking a red-eye and getting there with time to settle in before our first day of hitting the park. We put the kids to bed at 8pm then went in and woke them up at 11 to head to the airport for our 1am flight. The goal was for them to stay drowsy on the way and to fall back asleep in flight. It didn't happen. All three kids were too wired on the first flight to sleep much. And Kip and I couldn't get comfortable. The second flight, the kids may have slept a little. I was too tired to stay awake, so I'm not sure. In any case, by the time we reached Orlando, got in a line for a bus to the hotel, waited for our room to be ready and finally got inside, we were all exhausted.

 

We all took about 2 hours of a nap piled on top of the covers because it was just too much work to even pull them down.

 

When we woke up Chad, Angie, Abby, and Max had arrived from Ft Lauderdale and Grandma and Tasha had gotten there from Utah. We all got on another Disney bus and headed to Downtown Disney, ready for the fun to begin.

 

The kids begged me to let them ride the carousel. At $2 a piece, I didn't want to do it, but I folded. So they got one ride. But no more!

 

Pneumonia

When I hear the word pneumonia I always think of someone who is absolutely miserably sick. They would lie in bed too miserable to get up with no desire to move. They would cough and sound like they were near death. That's how I imagined pneumonia and I was fearful of any of my children ever coming down with such a terrible condition.

On Sunday, the 27th of March, Anna came down with a cough and a fever. She was pretty sick and I was frustrated because she had already spent a ton of time in January being miserable. I thought it was time for her to be healthy again. Plus, I had my foot surgery scheduled for Tuesday and I couldn't ask one of my friends to babysit her and expose her kids to it. We managed to work it out with a ward-member with older kids who very kindly took her in spite of the cough and snot and fever. Anna missed school from Monday through Thursday. Friday her fever was gone although the cough was still bad, so we sent her to school. The weekend was fine. I had my foot up and we all watched conference and took things easy. On Monday after school she was pretty down again. But she begged to go to dance class and seemed just fine while there. I sent her to school again today but she came home pasty white and lethargic again. Her fever was back. I've heard that if the fever goes and comes back that can be a sign of secondary infection, so I called her doctor's office and spoke with the advice nurse. They said to bring her on it.

I hadn't planned on going anywhere today. I just got permission to walk on my foot yesterday and it was a little sore after walking the house doing chores that have been covered by Kip for a week. I was still in jammies. I ran upstairs (I mean, hobbled slowly) got decent clothes on, found shoes for the girls, and loaded us into the car. I hadn't had lunch yet, but grabbed a granola bar for the drive.

We got to the appointment with plenty of time for a potty run with both girls. We hardly had to wait after checking in to go back to the exam room with the nurse. As usual she asked all sorts of questions about Anna's symptoms. I could list when she had started coughing (the 27th) and that she hadn't ever really stopped and when she had the fever and it went away and when it came back. But I really couldn't describe her cough. I hear it every night and off and on every day, but I couldn't really think how to describe it. Was it productive? Dry? I don't know--it's just a cough!!!

So the doctor came in. I gave him a similar update and prepared myself to hear him say that she was fine, just got hit with a new bug after the old one. But he didn't say that. He listened and listened to her breathing in and out. Then he said it sounded like pneumonia. What? I thought. Pneumonia is awful. Was my baby on her death-bed? Apparently one of her lungs is infected according to what the doctor could hear. He faxed a prescription to the pharmacy, described how to use it and said she should be feeling much better within 48-72 hours.

We headed from the doctor's office to Costco to get the prescription. While we were there, of course I thought I'd pick up just a few things. But at Costco, the few things you need are spread over like half a mile of walking. And I had surgery a week ago on what my podiatrist described as the largest neuroma he's ever seen (after 30+ years of surgeries). My foot felt awful by the time we got the prescription in our hand. We had just gotten in line to check out with just enough time to get to the car and rush to William's school to get him when Becca announced she had to pee right then. Why do we want our kids potty trained? It just means they have to go at all the worst possible times! We parked our cart and hobbled to the potty and back.

We made it to the school just as William came out the side gate (thank goodness he's finally learned to walk out there if I'm not waiting at the entrance!). We dropped off the foods that needed chilling at home and got to piano lessons on time.

By the time we got home, my foot felt like it was going to explode. Of course, it didn't help that I had hefted Anna out of the Costco cart at the end of the trip and landed her on the top of the surgeried foot. Yeah, the pain level was pretty high, but the meds are starting to help and I'm going to stay home all day tomorrow.

Anna meanwhile has seemingly made a full recovery. As soon as her ibuprophen kicked in during the doctor appointment she became cheerful and silly. During the piano lesson I forced her to down her first dose of antibiotic. All evening she's been acting just fine. So what was I so scared about pneumonia for? Maybe she's just got a really mild case. I guess I'm lucky. Or maybe it's never as scary as I though it would be.

St Patrick's Day 2011

 

 

I decided to celebrate St Patrick's Day this year with some green food items. After William got home from school, the kids got to eat green frosted cupcakes (store bought - I mean, I'm only willing to do so much!) for snack. Then, for dinner we had Green French Toast. I thought it was pretty cute. I was afraid the kids wouldn't go for it, but they actually had fun with it.

Anna in Princess Dance Class

Anna's last Princess Dance class was on the 15th. She really enjoyed the class and did great following the teacher's instructions. I was very proud of her. Becca enjoyed coloring out in the hall during her class and trying to get me to stop filming during the last day...

Snow Day

We had a lovely time on Thursday. It had snowed just enough to cover most of the yard and school was closed. It was cold, but not freezing, and beautifully sunny. Not like regular Portland weather at all.


I took the girls out to play in the snow. They thought it was excellent to come right up to me and throw snowballs in my face while I tried to take their pictures. We trampled all the snow in the back yard, then headed to the front.


Anna used a Winnie-the-Pooh shovel to clear the slush off the driveway. Becca got out the sand toys and we filled them with snow and made snow-shapes and a snow-castle.


When Becca's hands got too cold we headed inside.

Halloween

 

I worked hard this Halloween on creating Avatar the Last Airbender costumes for the kids. They got their first showing on Friday, the 29th of October, at the local shopping center's trick-or-treating. We met the Istooks and went from shop to shop collecting candy. We were lucky to have clear dry weather.

 

That night was the Fall Festival at the school. The kids enjoyed it but didn't last long.

Saturday night the ward did a Trunk-or-Treat. We decked the kids out again and headed out to collect candy in the drizzling rain.


William was Avatar Ang.


Anna was the tough earthbender Toph.


Becca was an adorable lemur Momo.