Kite Flying Weather

I really try to live life to the fullest, especially when it comes to my kids. I don't want to wish I'd taken the time to make more memories while they are young. I think I'm hypersensitive to this because I work and I want to make up for it on the days I don't work. It also means I am sometimes a bit irresponsible when it comes to housework, work and other less important things. On the 8th of April, we had windy weather. Since it seems windy weather is even more rare than rainy weather here, I decided flying a kite was an absolute priority. So that's exactly what we did. I did, however, learn that not all wind is created equal and it turned out to be not the greatest kite flying weather. It was really, really gusty. We got the kite up quite a bit, but we also had a few kite attacks, as the wind gusts really whipped the kite around and into the ground. And into us. Once, a huge gust made the kite torpedo into Hazel. Another time, Clara was taking pictures of me and the kite slammed into her, knocking my phone out of her hands and leaving her in the middle of the kite. Plus, there were several times that the wind whipped the kite away and the reel went wild and slammed into my thumbs. One thumb was bruised for days. Despite the injuries, we had some fun.

As we walked to the car, Clara stopped to get a drink. Have you ever tried to get a drink in super windy weather? We laughed and laughed and laughed. 

I don't remember what all I put off that day to make time to fly a kite. But I do remember how much fun I had making memories with my girls. 

Lost Dutchman State Park

Clara didn't have school on April 5th, so we decided to take a hike in Lost Dutchman State Park. It was a little warm and I had to carry Hazel for about half of the 2.5 mile hike (the steepest half), but it was still fun. The desert is beautiful and I love nature. It never gets old and never ceases to amaze me.

Part of the reason we went to this specific location was to see the desert flowers. We tried to find the colors of the rainbow. Success.

Before the hike (Hazel folds her arms when she doesn't want me to hold her hand).

We hiked Trail No. 56. 

Ta-dah!

 

And the end. They were a little tired and grumpy and getting them to stand by the sign was asking a lot, so I didn't bother to try and get them to look. 

It was a fun hike and I am bummed that spring was such a busy time of the year, limiting the amount of hiking we got in before summer started to set in. I guess that's just one more reason to look forward to fall.

Speed Blogging: March 2013

Things happen constantly that I think, I don't want to forget this. I don't always have time to write it down and chances are, by the end of the day, I won't remember everything I wanted to. Instead, I take pictures. So many of my pictures tell a story. Fortunately, all I need to trigger the memory is a quick look at the picture. I'm so grateful for digital photography. It has made documenting my life so much easier, especially when I'm busy and it's a month or two before I'm able to record certain things. With that said, let's wrap up March. March was good to us. I ordered bunch of dresses online for Easter for the girls since I couldn't decide. I made them try them all on. Hazel was not feeling well and was not thrilled that I was taking pictures. But she did love getting to wear so many dresses and didn't mind constantly changing. She loves dresses.

And here's what we settled on.

We went out to the desert to hike. We just pulled off the side of the road, Ellsworth/Usery Pass and walked up into the mountains. It was fun, but a little warm for the girls. I love exploring nature.

March brings March madness into our home in full force. Notice the picture on the left, the TV, the iPad, the phone and the touch pad that's not lit up in the picture. Excessive? He doesn't think so.

1. Cute Clara.

2. Pasta with spinach and sausage.

3. I know I shouldn't be taking pictures during the prayer, but I love it when toddlers lay on their bellies and fold their miniature arms.

4. Leprechaun.

5. My client gave me an office. For about 30 seconds. I could care less where I sit, except that it's about 75* in the office versus about 60* in my cube. For that reason, I prefer the office.

6. Hazel chewed up five pieces of gum while I was getting ready.

7. Clara has become obsessed with giving the FHE lessons. It's hilarious. She takes it really seriously and tries to use really big words and dramatizes her voice.

8. I pulled out my vanity mirror and Hazel loved seeing her face magnified.

9. Hazel taking pictures of herself.

10. Nieman Marcus cafe roll thing. Really good.

11. Playing games with Clara. She beat me 3/3. 

12. Clara's salad that she made with a butter knife: lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers and avocado.

13. And she's making her own cheese crisps.

14. Hazel's trying really hard to smile.

15. My dad oversees the little church service his ward puts on for the retirement home near their house. One week Clara gave a little talk. I love her confidence.

16. Hazel takes going into the corner very seriously.

Just playing outside in a leotard and some undies.

Margo turned one!

Family bonding time, Clara counting her money she earned selling rocks and pinecones (see below), Hazel helping Jason in the yard and my delicious pizza. I tried Peter Reinheart's dough recipe. Very good.

1. The orange trees blossomed. And smelled really good.
2. Hazel loves to be just like Clara and play the piano.
3. Playing together outside.
4. Dandelions never get old.
5. Party favors.
6. Clara got a tiger mask and dressed in all yellow so she could truly morph into a tiger.
7. Dancing in the sun. I might have let her wear that tutu to go out to eat.
8. Hazel loving Margo.
9. Cousin fun.
10. Gramps.
11. Hazel high-centered on the toy box. Ha ha.
12. I was really busy trying to get 3/15 tax returns done and filed and Clara decided she was busy too. She said, "I'm an accountant too. This is someone's money. They have a pumpkin bank."
13. Growing wheat grass for Easter. I messed up and had to restart it five days before Easter and it grew perfectly anyway. Yay!
14. Swinging.
15. This park by us has goats. It's kind of awesome. Clara loves to get as close to the goats as possible.
16. Hazel loves the goats too, but observes from afar.

March also brought beautiful skies. All these pictures are from the same night while we were out on a family walk.

Preparing for the big sale. Clara decided she wanted to earn some money to buy a book. She set up shop and sold rocks, pinecones and other random things. We called our family and so many people came. It was funny to see her try to rip people off. She also got a special ice cream delivery from Uncle Clint. A few weeks ago he was pushing her on the swing and somehow she smashed her nose and got a bloody nose. Uncle Clint determined the price of a bloody nose to be ice cream, so he was just making things fair. :)

So long March...

Easter Festivities

You might remember that Hazel was terribly sick during the week leading up to Easter. It was a bummer because we had so many things going on, which I briefly touched on here.

The Friday before Easter, Clara and I went over to Kevin and Chrystie's to dye eggs. In the car on the way over, Clara learned some new things. She may or may not be horrified to give birth (see top left photo for evidence). But, aren't we all? I loved her hair up in the messy bun and kept taking pictures. She started to get a bit irritated with it (see bottom right photo for evidence). I love her.

Clara had a lot of fun dying eggs dyeing eggs with cousins Mason, Jordyn and Tanner. Poor Mason busted his lip open a few hours early, stitches and all. Needless to say, he wasn't up for picture taking. Meanwhile, Ethan enjoyed eating the eggs, shell and all. 

The Saturday before Easter, Clara and I went to the Easter pageant with my parents and Lilly.

A friend hooked us up, again, with the best parking and it made the experience so much better. Just like last year. Clara was mesmerized by the pageant and while I admittedly don't appreciate seeing it every single year, I love the questions Clara asks because of it and the ensuing opportunity I have to explain and bear testimony of our Savior. One needs only to watch the Easter pageant to feel peace and hope.

On Sunday, the Easter bunny came. That's always fun, but I enjoy it not being the crux of our Sunday. It's a very fun, but very small, part of our celebration. I love dressing up my little darlings for holidays and taking pictures. I was proud of myself for buying their dresses and shoes early so I wasn't stressing about it the night before. I usually wait to find the best deal on a dress, which often never happens, so I end up paying just as much for something I don't like much and it gets pretty stressful. I guess I'm finally starting to learn a thing or two about simplifying life. Anyway, I knew I'd have to bribe the girls for pictures. Clara is usually pretty good. Hazel isn't bad, she just won't look at the camera.

They are being really silly in lots of them, but I did get some pretty great pictures of their cute faces. At one point, Clara was trying to get Hazel to smile by saying, "Cheese!" and poking her fingers into her cheeks. So Hazel did that too.

Before we got in the car to go to church, I tried to take a few more with my phone. Hazel just chilled in the corner while Clara posed and smiled without any prompting.

And here are my two favorites. I especially love the one on the left. Like maybe I'll blow it up giant love it.

My family rotates Sunday dinner and usually if a holiday meal doesn't fall on my Mom's week, we'll arrange things so it does. Easter Sunday fell on my week to host and I decided it'd be fun to have Easter dinner here, give my mom a break for a change and have an Easter egg hunt in our magical backyard (that is drowning in weeds so it doesn't feel so magical right now). I knew it'd be a bit difficult to coordinate the food since we don't get out of church until 4:30pm and Jason doesn't get home until even later. But with some help on the food, Lilly coming over to help and Jason's family coming a bit early and letting me boss them around, we were able to get everything done pretty much right on time. I wanted to eat outside, but our porch is messy and loud and it's kind of a pain to carry all the tables and chairs to the party side of our backyard that isn't loud. So I decided we'd just have it in the front yard. Our yard is big enough, there is grass and we are at the end of a cul-de-sac in a very quiet neighborhood. No one has to drive past our house to get to their house so it is extremely rare for a car to drive past our house, especially on a Sunday evening.

So here we are, Easter dinner 2013 in the Penrod's front yard.

I planted wheat grass for the center pieces and put chocolate eggs in them. I was pretty proud of myself for that one. :)

We had some of Jason's brothers come with their families and Connie was in town for the day so she got to come too, making our guest count 34. It was a pretty great day.

The egg hunt in the back was fun. It would have been better if the backyard was cleaner, but oh well. I love this picture of Clara. She looks like a ghost, sailing across the ground.

Cabin Trip #2

Sunday, March 10th, the day we left from Cabin #1, Clara got sick. I was hoping it was a 24-hour flu, but it was 4 days. FOUR days of stomach flu just like Hazel had (except Hazel's was an extra day) a few weeks later. Clara only threw up once, in her hair, and while I was trying to rinse it out, I had to lay down to keep from throwing up. I thought I was pregnant (might have been?) and didn't think I was sick. It was not a great way to begin Spring Break and I was horrified that we'd infected at least some of the 11 other kids at the cabin with us. Plus, we were going to have to miss out on the next cabin trip. Fortunately, none of those 11 children got sick for their Spring Break and Beka pushed back our trip a day. In the end, everything worked out well. This time, we went to Danny's parent's cabin. We rode up with Beka and her kids. Maren and her girls met us up there and she was kind enough to let Lilly ride with her. Rob and Heather and their girls met us up there as well.

Our views.

Day 1: we arrived, went on a walk and stayed up late playing games.

Hazel eats her Pringles 3-4 at a time.

Day 2: drove all over looking for the goat farm (that we found), drove past an old historic schoolhouse, visited the goat farm, had a picnic at the park, played at the park, hung out, dinner and up again late playing games.

The goat farm had llamas.

And no one was there so the owner showed me where they make the cheese and told me all about how the government regulates their pasteurization process. Fascinating. Unfortunately, they only had a small sample of the cheese. They stop milking the mom's several weeks before their babies are due (in April) so they were out of cheese. But, I decided we'd go back to get some cheese and feed the babies (we actually went yesterday... so I guess that's how life goes when you take over a month to blog about something).

It was funny to see my kids' reactions to the goats. Clara absolutely loved them. Hazel liked them, until they made any movements towards her, and then she squealed and backed away. Clara needs some pet goats. I might have made that a goal of mine: find a way to allow Clara to have a few goats. Also, do Clara's hair so she doesn't look homeless.

 

The two year olds suckered Heather into reading to them on multiple occasions.

I know I already have pictures of these kids eating their ice cream on the deck. But I was taking these pictures and Clara was being a nut (see picture on left and in middle). So I said something to her like, "Clara, stop paying attention to your ice cream and smile" to which she laughed and smiled but Braden and Landon simultaneously looked over at her. It was really funny.

Hazel was entertained by this slinky for so long and I was entertained taking pictures of it for just as long.

Day 3: packed up, cleaned and headed home to Jason, who was on day 3 of being sick in bed.

Despite Clara declaring the first day of the trip a "disastrophy" because she "thought we were going to have a nice, fun trip and the boys were just fighting and yelling and it hurt my ears", we had a lot of fun. I had the best friends in high school and I'm so grateful we've kept in touch and are still able to spend time together after all these years with our families. I also quite enjoy the spouses my friends have selected, it's just double the fun.

The End.