Driving Home From Utah

Instead of driving all the way home from Utah Sunday night and getting home at 4am, we decided to stay the night in Jacob Lake. They have these cute cabins that are pretty inexpensive. The cabins are super old and the three of us shared a Queen bed, but it was perfect. We needed nothing more. We'll definitely be back.

We slept well, had breakfast, explored a little (enjoyed a light dusting of snow) and then hit the road. I decided instead of trying to make it home in a certain number of hours, we were going to stop whenever and wherever we wanted and explore. 

Our first destination was the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I have never been there and probably wouldn't drive all that way just for that, so I decided we needed to take advantage of being so close. We drove past a lot of burnt forest (left), which was sad. But then we got closer and I couldn't get over how blue the sky was (right). Beautiful.

Once we made it, we thought we were looking at the Grand Canyon (bottom) but it was some other canyon. We eventually made it to the Grand Canyon (top). We happened to go during the government shutdown and didn't have to pay. They said to pay at the parking lot but I never saw anywhere to pay and I decided not to take my tired kids and go searching the area to find the place I was supposed to pay. 

I was surprised at how many spots seemed pretty dangerous for kids. I'm glad my kids are older, especially since I was the only adult there. But it was really beautiful to see fall colors mixed with pine trees and the beautiful canyon in the background.

It was a pretty long drive back. Once we got off the windy rode down, but before we completely finished our descent from the top of the Kaibab Plataea, we stopped at an Indian trading post. The view was beautiful, but we didn't buy anything. 

We stopped at the Cliff Dwellers, which is basically the bottom of the Kaibab Plateau. I don't believe it's authentic, but it was still fun to see the humongous rocks that are just hanging out randomly around the area. Hazel was actually asleep during this stop, so I let her sleep in the car while I walked around with Clara.

Next, we stopped at, and walked across, Navajo Bridge. It was awesome. However, bridges always make me a little nervous. Just the thought of being suspended in the air gives me a bit of anxiety. But it was cool and the scenery was pretty great. Another good stop.

We stopped at three of the Indian trading posts on the side of the road. Clara was looking for the perfect treasure. Our last trading post was in Cameron and Clara found her arrowhead necklace. I am trying to let her get things she likes even though I want her to get something else. :) Hazel got this darling little turquoise ring. It is so cute and tiny!

Our last exploratory stop was on the reservation on those giant grey hills that are on the side of the road. I have always wanted to stop, but never have. It was so bizarre and seeing them close up only made it more mysterious. I just couldn't figure out an explanation of where these things came from or why they are there.

We did stop in Flagstaff for gas and dinner as our final stop. We took 10+ hours to make a 5 hour drive. Oddly, however, it seemed like a quick trip and I never felt like it was taking forever to get home. We enjoyed some cool sites and weren't worried about sticking to a schedule or getting home in a certain amount of time. I hope we do it again. 

October Break 2013

For October Break, I felt like I needed to go to Utah. Jason couldn't really take off work so I went alone with the girls. Bye, bye, desert. I think it's beautiful. But so are other things.

My mom and Lilly went as well as Angela and Margo. So I told Angela I was going to Utah the 19th and 20th instead of the 9th and 10th. She quickly booked her plane ticket... for the 19th and 20th and then later realized in talking to my mom, while I was present, that it was not the same weekend the rest of us were planning on going. $200 mistake that I'm still feeling guilty for. Clara had school Wednesday, so we left after school. We stopped in Jacob Lake for dinner. I had never gone that way, but because the road to Page is still closed and the detour isn't opened at night, it seemed like a good option. Plus, a friend recommended it. While waiting for dinner, we ran into Mrs. Jackson, Clara's preschool teacher and visited with her for a bit. The food was delicious, even if I did have to eat mine while driving and dodging deer on the Kaibab Plateau. After dinner, I let the kids watch a movie on the portable DVD player a lady I work with let me borrow. The kids thought it was awesome. Oh technology, you're so wonderful. Can you imaging how thrilled my kids would be to have a DVD player in the car permanently? Maybe never. :)

I had gotten little sleep the night before trying to get work done, so I called Jason and he talked to me for the last hour plus of my drive to help me stay awake. That first morning was a bit somber, as we learned Steven was having some serious struggles. However, I felt like we were all supposed to be there with Rachel. Once we got past a few things, Rachel's kids took my kids outside to play, Angela and I took all the kids to a pizza buffet for lunch and then we hung out with Rachel's goats. I can't say it enough: Clara needs a goat.

Party on Rachel's bed.

My girls shared a bed (kind of... Hazel mostly slept in mine) and Clara read her bedtime stories. I love it.

On Friday we went to Park City. It was beautiful and made me want to be in Utah every year for Fall. We rode the slide, the coaster and the zipline. I was kind of terrified to do the zipline, but I quickly learned that it wasn't so much a free-fall feeling, but a nice, smooth coasting feeling and I was glad I braved it. My girls loved the slide and coaster (Hazel wasn't tall enough for the coaster) and I loved hearing their joyful squeals.

When we got to the cars to leave, it was discovered that Rachel's keys were locked in her car. I can't say she locked them in because her car randomly automatically locks, which is strange and lame. We sent most the kids home with my mom in my car and Clara, Lucas, Rachel and I got a hot chocolate and waited for the tow truck. From the time I called until they arrived and unlocked our car, it was about 35 minutes. AAA is awesome.

That night we took a ride in Don's new toy, an RZR or something of the sort. Angela bundled up for our ride.

I thought I was going to die and realized even more than I am not a thrill seeker. I don't love the rush of energy and with every donut Don spun, I thought the thing would roll and we'd all be in the hospital. My kids are going to have to adopt some thrill-seeker guardian if they are into that sort of thing when they are older, because I won't be much help.

We also spent some time with Daniel that night. Not sure why our legs in the picture on the left look like midget legs... but the more I look at it, the funnier it looks.

On Saturday, the older kids went to the dunes with Don so we went to the park and out to lunch.

Then we headed up America Fork Canyon (I think... I hope it wasn't Provo Canyon...) and ended at Tibble Fork Reservoir. The scenery was breathtaking, yet again.

Sometimes I end up taking more pictures of Hazel and I realized it's because Clara is bigger now and runs off with cousins more often. Hazel still needs me to supervise most of the time so she is my prime subject. Here she is baking cookies with Rachel, posing for me and trying to get the goat to chase her. She constantly said, "Here goaty-goat" every time we saw the goats (yes, we went back to visit them on Saturday).

That night, Rachel, Angela, my mom and I went out to eat. It was a reminder that life is full of sorrows, but also joys. The food was some of the best we'd ever tasted and it was fun to enjoy it with people I love so much.

Sunday morning I went to Jen's for a quick visit. Because of my short visit in Utah, I didn't feel like I had much family time as it was. I decided next time I need to stay in Utah for at least a week.

I went back to Rachel's and went to Sacrament Meeting with her. I tried to sneakily take a picture of these two cute kids in the chapel and my flash was on. Whoops. I think both of them look a lot like their dads, yet they still look so much alike. Must be their spirits that create the resemblance. :)

We stopped by the Mt. Timpanogas temple for a few pictures because it looked so beautiful. I'm sure these bare little AZ legs were pretty chilly and I'm sure I bribed these kids to let me take a picture.

We went back to Rachel's, changed, packed up, said our goodbyes and left. We only went half-way, but our journey home needs a post of its own. It was that fun. I'm so glad we went to Utah and am already looking forward to our next trip back.

Hazel

I can not get enough of my little Hazel. She keeps us on our toes, keeps us laughing and keeps making me love her more and more. She has the funniest facial expressions and is quite the little character. She loves to help, mostly wants me more than Jason, until she gets in trouble, then she wants Jason, or vice versa. She loves to dress herself and has no sense of matching/style/anything, although she thinks if something is the same color, it matches, regardless of the shade. I let her wear whatever she wants around the house. Sometimes I make her change to go out in public... and sometimes I don't. Top left picture: she does this when she's excited. It never gets old. 

She adores Clara and wants to follow her all over. However, she's also very independent. As Jason described it, she has a very strong presence. It's true. She is small and tiny, but oh, so mighty. She's also rather loud. Clara never really yelled/screamed/squealed. With Hazel, that's her first reaction if something doesn't go her way. We're working on it, but it's new grounds for me so I'm learning as I go. Just pay attention to all her little expressions in these pictures. She's so silly.

She eats really good and is the biggest green smoothie fan in our house. I think she likes them more than I do. She also loves treats and finds every opportunity to sneak a treat (usually while I'm on a work phone call). While Clara was at a birthday party, we went to dinner with Hazel. It was fun and I could tell she enjoyed just being by herself and getting all our attention. Also, pictures of her after she got into my dark red lip gloss while I was on a work call. That's when she's most mischievous. She knows I can't do anything about it.

She really is such a joy and I have to bite my bottom lip to keep from squeezing her too much and too tightly. She still has her soft, round, warm, smooth chubby cheeks that I can't resist kissing and slightly pudgy toddler hands that I love to hold. Sometimes I love my kids so much it hurts. 

September 2013

Here's what life was like for the Penrods in September of 2013:

On Labor Day, Clara and I went for our first mother/daughter pedicure. It was fun and I wouldn't mind making it a regular date. But, we haven't gone since, so maybe when she's a little older. In true Clara fashion, she wanted to bring all the stuff home to share it with Hazel. And when we got home, she gave Hazel a pedicure. Clara is always thinking of others and sharing. She's a good older sister... and reminds me of Emily.

We got a new table for the patio so we ate a few meals outside. It was a little warm, but still fun to eat outside. I love eating outside. 

:::clara is so messy when she eats ice cream :::my dad found some red glasses to be like clara :::i babysat some friend's kids and hazel stole the little boy's boots and wore them all over :::utah peaches :::i videoed my dad for fhe telling a brief history of him :::made oreo treats - like rice krispy treats. good, but too rich and next time, i mixed oreos with rice krispies and it was amazing. :::nap time in the nude :::i spy a little explorer :::i make lists for everything, so hazel started making lists and writing on my calendar :::two suckers from the bank for a girl that dressed herself :::piano practice in the nude (see the trend?) :::i love little random things like this that i find around my house, evidence of little creative minds. :::

I have been wanting to put the girls in the same room, but wanted to wait until we actually had beds for them. Clara has been sleeping on my old bed, which belonged to Rachel or Emily before that, since she was two. The bed was old and was just a bed. No headboard/footboard. So I decided it was time to break down and buy them real beds. I found the mattresses on sale a while before at Costco, found mismatched box springs for cheap at Spencer's and got their beds at Restoration Hardware. I looked and looked for beds that a.) I liked, b.) weren't super expensive and c.) were sturdy. When the beds showed up, they were nothing like I had in mind (I should probably not buy furniture online). The color, texture and size were way off. But, once I got over that, I decided I love them. The girls loved watching the delivery guys assemble them. I didn't have all their bedding the day the beds came, but they were so excited to sleep in their new beds so I let them sleep on blankets. Hazel rolled off a few times, more so the first few weeks, but survived her falls. Sometimes she'd come in our room, sometimes Clara would get up and help her. And more often than that, they would end up in the same bed. That has gotten a little less, but it makes me smile every time I walk in and see them sleeping together.  

:::empty room, getting ready for the beds :::we found this tiny little desert sonoran toad at our rental. i got it for clara to have as a pet, but eventually she let it go because i don't think we knew how to take care of it. :::i bought a ton of tomatoes to juice and freeze :::beads at goodwill :::out with the old, in with the new :::catching food for the pet toad :::another race :::we spent a LOT of time at our rental in september. we had to kick our our tenant and then get the place clean. it was so disgusting, it made me sick to my stomach. on this day, we at pizza on the sidewalk in the front :::neat cloud :::pretty sky :::more bug hunting :::i love morning snuggles in my bed :::we got the exterior of our rental painted - lots of money but it looks great :::clara's friend from school over for a playdate :::i got these desks from my dad. clara took over and didn't waste any time making a mess around them. she loves office supplies just like her mother. :::ugh, we had a leak in our shower. i thought for sure we were going to have to rip out our entire shower, but no, just needed the pipe replaced and a little drywall repair.

Dinner at Smashburger. We go out to eat way too much, but man it's fun. I love how Clara and Hazel rarely smile together. One is smiling, the other is being silly. Then the opposite. 

:::reading in the nude (i wasn't joking about the trend) :::cute little shoes :::hazel pulled up a chair to watch cartoons :::my itty bitty strawberry from zupa's. i almost complained :::donuts for breakfast, why not? :::hazel colored this and said, 'look, an apple' so i added the stem. :::that pose :::adoring maren, my friend melissa's baby :::hazel loves her too :::playdate with olivia :::we went to dinner for beka's birthday and the husbands were watching a game on their phones at the table. seriously. :::then we went and got frozen yogurt. i love this girl and what a great friend she is to me. she overlooked my bratty self in the beginning and is always cognizant of when i might need a phone call. :::drawing party at angela's :::watch out, world :::another sleepover in clara's bed :::hazel just couldn't resist the urge to try out clara's glasses

:::miss pigtails - ack, that face and those cheeks :::climbing out of her bed :::i bought a mattress pad for clara from costco and by the time i realized i should have bought two, they stopped carrying them. but i found the exact same one, new, on e-bay. i was pretty excited about that. :::i finally got two of everything: box spring cover, mattress pad, sheets and bed spreads. everything is white and i'm supposed to be adding some color into the mix, but that hasn't happened yet. :::when i get my oil changed, i like to run across the road for some quick shopping. when i went to cross the road, i saw this giant dust/wind storm headed straight toward me. luckily, i got back to my car before it came. :::oh, clara. :::hazel in the corner. she takes putting her nose in the corner very literal. :::mini peach pies. they were pretty tasty, but a lot of work. :::park :::chalk :::family portraits by clara :::clara LOVES our friends little car. this night, she was running alongside some friends and got run over by it. :/ she hit her head on the asphalt pretty hard, but was mostly okay. i think it really scared the boys, who obviously didn't do it on purpose. :::clara had two parties in one day and wrapped the gifts herself. :) :::i was SUPER busy with work deadlines, so while she was at the first, i found a starbucks and sat and worked ::: party #2 was a tea party and the girls got make up, dress up and fake hair. i didn't even recognize her with her hair like that :::i think some of my favorite ways to discipline is by making my girls touch noses on the piano bench when they can't get along. i'm a big fan of kids learning how to solve problems on their own and this makes the process funnier for everyone. it takes the love bench to a whole new level.

:::tiny little red apples from the fruit market :::celebrated my dad's birthday :::dinner outside again :::teaching fhe in the nude :::and all about clara in 1st grade

Here's the picture Clara colored for my dad for his birthday. It's her and him at the temple. That girl is so awesome. 

Sometimes I get crazy ideas. One of my crazy September ideas was that we really need to buy some land for a cabin. I found some we could maybe afford in Young and we took a day trip before church (one benefit of 1:30 church) to go check it out. It was nothing really that we were expecting/hoping for (not super accessible, too much scrub brush) but we still had fun hanging out. top left: a tree at the site; top right: driving from Young to Roosevelt, we stopped for the view; bottom left: it was so bizarre to see pine trees and cactus all together; bottom right: we woke the kids up early to be able to make it back for church and hazel definitely needed a nap to make up for it. I hope someday we will have a cabin. Jason and I would rather have a cabin than a bigger/nicer house. Oh the memories we could make! :)