Family Update

In May, my (retired) parents sold their Texas home and decided to come help us. They found a house to rent on our street, really, a few doors down! Boy, going from having no family in town to having parents on our street has been wonderful. Actually, it seems like we traded our good friends the Nemelkas, that lived next door for my parents. Mom and Dad literally moved in the same day the Nemelkas moved out. It cushioned the blow of losing Amanda and Jeff. So did the fact that the Culvers (new neighbors) seem sociable, fun and patient...

So we have these wonderful Mary Poppins grandparents that are here until the wind changes and we are putting them to good use. My dad is building a playhouse/shed in the backyard of his own design. We are adding on a breakfast nook in the kitchen and making the basement a more pleasant place. My mom is fun and crazy useful and can help out in a pinch.

The new recreation center opened in Provo. My life just keeps getting better and better. They have daycare! They also have awesome swimming outdoor/indoor, kids classes and yoga.

We made July our month of travel but not by car, we decided to use our feet (older girls hate it) and take the bus or front runner everywhere. So far we have loved it. I did forget that swim lessons were this month so I am driving a bit for my own sanity. We have taken the bus with the kids and walked most places with them. I enjoy living where we have the flexibility to walk. Our location is amazing, not a ton of space but who's complaining? I love the neighbors.

So we can swim, go to the library, visit friends, take the bus and really get out now. Life is opening up since the babies are getting older, and with my mother here, I'm less trapped than ever.

I still haven't made a swimming pool in the bed of our truck, and I still haven't made a ride thru bike wash out of PVC pipe. I feel like the summer is already gone! Maybe next year kids. And next year on the flower beds too.

Trying to recreate a favorite Norman Rockwell painting of a girl losing her first tooth.  Hazel was pretty gracious about Claire snatching her "first". 

Us on the Bus

Quinn and her dad

Nate and I walk a few blocks to the Hub and get on the train to Salt Lake for a date

Boot Camp

Maybe you would look at me and think I am just a normal gal. But over the last few years I have grown so much-- I'm not taking about when pregnant with triplets,  five feet around and tipping the scales at 250lbs. I mean my heart, on the inside, what I can endure, what I am capable of carrying.

I guess I wonder how tough I am now, compared to how tough I was before. I wonder if I could hack it at boot camp.

Could I handle a drill sergent yelling in my face. Well, the kids do it to me all the time and I love them like crazy. Constant yelling and babbling, crying and screaming. Hands outstretched to be carried, demands real or imagined that need to be met, the pressure that comes with saying yes (now I have to facilitate something, pull out paint, crayons, mix cakes and clean -up afterwards, all the while fighting off babies so the girls can have an activity) and weight on my heart that comes for saying no. Babies dropping things, ruining things, climbing on counters, water spills, food fights, food wasting, constantly tripping over little people, little people scrums where they all fall over and cry. My heart could be torn in a thousand pieces if I let it.

Exhaustion. I have been wearied to the very core of my soul. So I wonder, if boot camp might not be a little bit of a break.

Swimming

The pool is 8 blocks away. Only 8 blocks! I require myself to walk it. So, I load the babies, the sunscreen, the puddle jumpers, towels, a change of clothes and diapers, snacks and sippy cups.

I get the bikes out for the girls, sometimes my friend Hannah Lee comes with me or Lucy the neighbor girl or sometimes I go alone.

By the time I have everything loaded into the stroller, there is no room for anything for me. Not even a towel. So, I wear my swimming suit to to walk the 8 blocks to the pool and I wear it home, wet legs slapping together as I cross the road. I'm only mentioning this in case you have seen me, now you know that I am not trying to look like a wanton woman running around in my nothins'.

However, even if I did have room to bring a towel or change of clothes, I probably wouldn't. If I took the time to change, someone would be playing in the toilet of the family changing room, and someone else would be testing the pool/pee wet floor with their tongue.  Get into the pool and get home. That's my motto.

Triplets are the orange puddle jumpers. Sitting by Wilson is our buddy Hannah Lee. Hannah, sorry I didn't ask your permission to be photographed or posted. How do you feel about being posted on my blog pregnant in your swim suit? I didn't think so.