Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day we were lucky enough to get Jake's Cousin Spencer and his wife Candice to come up for a visit. We had a great time exploring Boston with them--even though the first couple days of weather were not so accommodating! They came in late the night of Carder's birthday, so Saturday we met up with them downtown for some lunch and Quincy Market followed by and afternoon exploring the North End (Boston's Little Italy), where we toured Paul Revere's home and had some delicious cannolis at Mikes Pastry. I didn't get any pictures that day because it was pouring down rain.

Sunday the weather was still pretty crummy, but Spencer and Candice braved it and checked out the city a little more before they met up with us for Church. After, they all went for a walking tour of Harvard's Campus and explored Mt. Auburn Cemetery a bit.

Carder just loves "his friend" Spencer

On Monday the weather finally got nice and we took full advantage of it by spending the day out in Concord exploring Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and Minute Man National Park.

This is the cemetery where the famous authors (such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott and Henry Thoreau) are all buried. They actually have an area called Authors' Hill where you can walk along the path and see all of these author's burial spots which are all pretty close to one another.

After the cemetery we headed out to Minute Man National Park in search for the Old North Bridge...

The Park ended up being quite a bit bigger than we expected, so the first turn in we took took us to a Revolutionary War visitors/memorial center rather than the bridge. The kids enjoyed this minor detour as they got to check out the revolutionary soldiers and play with some wooden muskets.

The whole setting of Concord is just breathtaking. It was nice to just stroll along both the cemetery and Minuteman National Park. On the way back to our car Carder and Jake spotted a sluffed snake skin off to the side of the path. Major hit of the day for the boys.

We got the correct directions to the Old North Bridge and headed there next. Lots of our friends had told us it was one of their favorite places to visit in the Boston area, and it did not disappoint.  It's located just behind the Old Manse, so we walked the grounds of the Manse first. The Old Manse is famous for housing both Emerson and Hawthorne at different times.

Carder exploring the boat house and dock (he loved how wobbly the dock was as you switched your weight). You got a great view of the Old North Bridge set over the Concord River from this vantage point.

The Old North Bridge is a historical site in the Battle of Concord, the first day of battle in America's fight for Independence.

There was even a redcoat there that day.

On the other side of the bridge is an erected monument. The kids were so cute. Carder was reading the inscription to Brenn, and then Brenn was picking out letters. When she would get one right Carder's face would light up and he'd turn around and tell us "Brenn just found a (whatever letter she had pointed out and said the name of)"  and then turn to her and say, "Good job Brenn!"

After Old North Bridge we headed out to Kimball Farms for some Ice Cream before sending the Kelly's off. We had such a fun time with them and are so glad they came out to stay with us!

Carder's 5th Birthday

The birthday blitz (what we have come to call the time of the year when all four of our birthdays fall in a 3-week period) could not have come at a worst time this year. We had another crazy move going on, so the thoughts that I had of throwing Carder a real birthday party with friends, etc. was just not going to happen as we needed to have our whole lives packed up within the next week or so. Even though there was no "party" we tried to make the day special by having some decorations and doing Carder's choice of activity and having a fun movie/treat night as a family. Carder is still in love with all things superhero, so this year his birthday theme was Superman, but we changed the "S" into a "5".

He started out his day by getting to go out for doughnuts with his dad, followed by a fun day at Preschool with all his school friends. They made him a special birthday crown and made sure he felt really special. When he got home we did gifts and cards and he received phone calls throughout the day from many of you. He quite enjoyed being able to read his own cards this year and felt so loved on his special day!

After we did gifts we headed to the Museum of Science. Carder got the choice to do whatever he wanted that afternoon, and what he picked was to spend an afternoon at Boston's MOS. He has told us on many occasions that the Museum of Science is his favorite place in Boston. We spent the afternoon pretending to be astronauts, building molecules, and exploring the human body amongst all the other exhibits. Carder was ecstatic to find that his favorite activity "blast the tumor" had returned, as well as several other hands on activities devoted to the same nanomaterials ridding the body of cancerous cells. By far we spent the most time in the exploring the human body section of the museum. He just loves that section. I guess we will see if he becomes an oncologist or radiologist one day since those are the exhibits he tended to gravitate towards.

The kids reading the x-rays of their animal patients

Checking out the spaceship

We spent quite some time at the museum and had a super fun day checking everything out and exploring all things science. Once we got home from the MOS we started on our superman themed homemade pizza. We had a fun little Superman themed snack table and watched a movie together as a family. It seemed to be a good day for our newly turned 5-year-old.

Five

I wrote the kids' birthday posts earlier in the summer because I knew they'd change so much by the time I got caught up, and I am so glad that I did because they have changed so much since their birthdays (especially Brenn)! So here is what Carder was up to as of his 5th birthday...

Carder turned 5 on May 24th. He had a physical about a month or so before his birthday and was ___ tall (__%) weighed ____ (___%) <info packed away, fill in when I find it!>

 At 5 he...

* Still loves building cities/lining up toys in his room. Sharing a room with Brenn this year caused a bit of a hinderance to his particularness in "setting up" his stuff, but he took well advantage of her nap times by having what he called "Big Boy Time" in his room where a little person couldn't demolish all his hard work.

* Is still our little Energizer Bunny (seriously why can't some of that energy transfer to his parents!). Is a totally different child if he has slept well. Although he would probably do well to still nap daily, he doesn't. He will only fall asleep if we are driving in the car. (We travel with a pillow in the car for this reason.)

* Is becoming quite the techy. He likes to commandeer Mom's phone and take pictures of his toys or things around the house and sometimes I will even find some "selfies." He has also been making movies, (I have found some gems on my photo reel of him making movies of his toys where he does voices, etc. for the different characters). It's always a surprise to see what the little guy has left for us on our phones. He also very much enjoys to play the games on starfall.com, PBS.org, disneyjr or nickjr as well as on his leapster/leappad.

Some of Carders Selfies that we've found on our phones

* Loves to draw and do stickers. I especially love the drawings where he sounds stuff out and labels things or writes stuff on them. It melts my heart!

* Is still a lover of music and dancing. He just can't help himself by having to dance when he hears a beat. He also has become a pretty good beat boxer creating his own beats. We also love when he comes home and teaches us the songs he has learned at preschool (Slippery Fish is a big hit with Brenn).

* Loves to jump on Mom and Dad's bed and the couch. I know, probably not the best habit, but when you are inhabiting an itty bitty living space and snowed in for a good part of the time you do what you gotta do...We need a backyard and a trampoline BAD! His dancing has also spilled over into this activity where he will play music and do his jumping to it (while simultaneously looking at himself in the mirror). One of his favorites was a song he would play over and over and over from Imagination Movers and lip sing along with it. (Odd child).

* Likes to help Mom and Dad around the house. His favorite things to do are clean the bathroom with Dad (What is so cool about spraying cleaner? But hey I'll take it.), vacuuming with the attachment for Mom (he feels especially good about himself when he gets the hard to reach places like under the couch etc, that aren't so easy for Mom), and cooking with Mom. Carder is quite the character in the kitchen, he likes to smell the different ingredients and when he tastes things he'll often say "Do I detect a hint of [insert ingredient here]," often times he is correct, but it just makes us chuckle.

* Wants to be a pastry chef (or "dessert chef" as he often calls it) when he grows up. His doctor asked him what he wanted to be at his check up and he told her a doctor and then quickly changed his mind to a chef "the kind that makes desserts." She told him that he could do both if he wanted to, because she was a doctor and she really liked to cook too. He processed that for a minute but still stuck to wanting to be a chef.

* Is reading like a pro. He is doing so great--even reading verses of scripture by himself. If he wants to, he can basically read whatever, but he gets lazy sometimes. He is great at reading books to Brenn or early reader chapter books (so long as they have pictures) all by himself. The Chapter books that are primarily words seem somewhat daunting to him still, though he will read a paragraph (sometimes a chapter) if we are sitting there reading along with him, but they aren't really something he goes off and reads by himself yet. We are trying to foster his reading abilities by constantly working on a Chapter book together. So far he has completed ___ chapter books. (James & The Giant Peach, Mr Poppers Penguins, Stuart Little, Charlotte's Webb,  Magic Tree House #1 Dinosaurs Before Dark, Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator) <fill in the ones I've forgotten because I know there are some missing> He is a big Rohl Dahl fan (those books seemed to be the ones that he has gotten most excited about, though this summer he has started reading the Captain Underpants series which he is THOROUGHLY enjoying and Jake is attempting the Great Brain books with him that he loved as a child). After he completes a chapter book he gets to watch the movie or have some kind of themed activity/treat, hopefully that will breed a life long reader! (I am hoping for anything other then the attitude I had in my youth of "Any book worth reading comes out on movie anyway so I might as well wait for that," ya, I really regret that mindset now!). Luckily, Jake loved to read as a child--hopefully Carder inherits that attitude.

* Has the best one-liners/random responses or thoughts. Carder loves to learn new words, and many times sneaks that new found vocabulary in at the most hilarious times. He makes us laugh at something he has said at least once a day. For example, he likes to use the word "curious" at the most interesting times, i.e., "I saw a couple of kids; they were a bit curious." Or when his little cousin Ellie told him about how she had come down with diarrhea, Carder responded with, "Oh my gosh Ellie, that is embarrassing," to which Ellie replied, "I know. It IS embarrassing." Those two crack us up with their conversations. He also enjoys phrases like, "Oh drats!" when he gets really angry. We're still wondering where that came from. 

* Is the BEST big brother. He is so good to Brenn. If we scold her for making trouble he often times reprimands us. He loves to entertain her and make her laugh and teach her new things.

We just love our little 5-year-old (though I am thinking we need to freeze time because he is growing up too too fast!)

Plimoth

Fortunately the sick bug left our house after that weekend. We then set out to fufill our Boston Bucket List. We had a few weeks left and wanted to try and get in as much as we could since we didn't know when we would make it back there again. We got the library passes to go to Plimoth Plantation which is basically a Pilgrim version of This is the Place Heritage Park. The kids loved it! We explored a Native American Village and all the types of lodging they would have had back then. Carder was particularly impressed with the animal skins adorning the interior seating areas. Then we experienced some of the arts and crafts of the day followed by a step back in time to a 17th century village. The setting was beautiful! And the kids loved getting to explore.

Jake and the kids took some time in the meditation circle...that lasted for about 2 seconds for a certain almost 2-year old. But the canoe carved out of a tree trunk did manage to capture her fancy for more than 2 seconds.

Carder wanted his picture taken by the black bear skin (middle right).

Brenn quite enjoyed her time at the weaving loom and the admission was worth its price alone in the joy that it brought Carder getting to watch the pottery being thrown and shaped. He could have watched that all day. He even told us that he wanted to do that for his job when he grows up. We literally had to coax him into leaving so that we could get the rest of the village in before it closed. We need to find a place that he can throw his own pottery. Everyplace that we have come across so far won't let them use the wheel until they are 8!

The kids loved climbing on the canons in the fortress and going in and out of all the little houses. They have people dressed up who are in complete character as if they were living in that village in the 17th century. They taught Carder along with some other children who were there some games that they would have played. He enjoyed the one where they would throw the ball on the roof call out some other childs name and that child would have to catch it.

Another big highlight was seeing all the real live animals. Brenn enjoyed pointing them all out and making their sounds. Carders favorite was the bull.

It was SUPER hot that day. We found relief from the heat in the visitors' center where the kids dressed in the period clothing, played kitchen and navigated a ship.

After we finished up with the Plantation, we drove across the way to where the Mayflower memorial etc. were. We had stopped by it before with my mom, but it was at night and Jake wasn't with us. In the day you could see the rock (which is all they have left of where the pilgrims had landed, I guess people have chipped away at it over the years so now this small boulder is housed down in a gated pit so that you can look at it).

Next, we stopped at a nearby beach.  Brenn finished her much needed nap (she was so beside herself at the end of our time at the Plimoth Plantation she was literally pulling her hair out), while Carder and Jake had a jolly good time playing in the surf. 

Carder was very proud of his rock collection. He called this orange one his sweet potato rock.

L.L.M.

Jake's graduation was a few days after we got back from California. Carder's bug had now gone to me, so the whole day before Jake's graduation I was on my death bed. Obviously I couldn't miss his graduation, so I peeled myself out of bed the next morning just praying I would be able to make it through it especially since I would have the two kids by myself.

People in Boston are not as understanding about children as say people in Utah. Before the ceremony had even started I think we had moved 3 or 4 times. We got to see Jake walk in and got through him getting his diploma by finding some seats out in the corridors where we wouldn't get the evil stink eye for the kids making a little extra racket. 

Afterwards we snapped a few pictures of the new Tax Law graduate around campus. The kids thought dads huge red parcel was rather nifty and we were all super proud of Jake for his accomplishment. (even thought we've let him know no more school until we are swimming in our money like Scrooge McDuck...he keeps teasing us that med school is next.)

California

With our stint in Boston being only 9 months or so we didn't plan on making any trips back to the west coast. But, when Brittany and Leon made a date to have their beautiful little family sealed, we were fortunate enough to have it fall on the week in between Jake's finals and graduation, so we packed up the kids and braved the flight across the country. The kids were super well behaved and besides  Brenn soaking through her first outfit before we even boarded the plane (notice the wardrobe change below) the lengthy trip ended up going pretty smoothly (thank goodness). I hadn't been to California nor seen my Dad or Kelsie (with the exception of Skype) since her graduation the previous year, so it was super exciting to be heading back there.

The following day we gathered as a family at the San Diego temple to witness the Johnson family being sealed for time and all eternity. Kelsie was kind enough to be on kidlet duty, while the rest of us attended the ceremony. It was so great to see the family who came into town for the event as well as some of our close friends who made the trip as well. After the sealing we went down to La Jolla shores for a delicious beach side dinner of Fins (a must for whenever we go to San Diego).

Both Mother's Day and my birthday luckily fell on the week we were out there. We got to spend my birthday at the Happiest Place on earth and I was one happy girl at my second home. (We had season passes all growing up and went all the time...but since I've graduated from High School I've only been one time when Carder was 18 months). I didn't think I could love Disneyland anymore than I already did, but seeing the joy that it brought to my kids, it just brought that magical place to a whole new level for me!

The new star tours ride was a big hit with the boys

So I mabye earned worst Mom of the year award this day...(oops!) My mom had taken Carder and Jaxon to Disneyland when I was put on bedrest at the end of my pregnancy with Brenn. Anyway they all went on the Matterhorn together and let's just say the experience was rather tramatic. Ever since then Carder has claimed to hate roller coasters. Well we coaxed Carder into going on Space Mountain with us. I sat by him and held on to him. It's not until you are holding on to a little person that you realize how much that ride throws you around! Poor child just sat there with his little body crouched into a ball while I tried my best to hold him tight with my arm (as you can see below in the picture that was taken on the ride). Needless to say it was not his favorite. After we torchered him with the thrill of Space Mountain we decided to tone it down a bit with a visit to It's a Small World (big hit with all of the children) followed by Toontown.

The kids were completely mesmerized with Its a Small World

Some of our best friends from Boston (The Webbs) who had moved to San Francisco a couple months prior, came down for the sealing. Stephanie and the boys stayed a few extra days after and met up with us at Disneyland for a bit. The kids had lots of fun getting to play with their friends Brighton and Nixon again.

Exhibit 2 of worst Mom of the Year award...Some how we were able to talk Jaxon and Carder into going on Splash Mountain. (Jaxon backed out of Space Mountain about 5 minutes before we got on the ride). The boys insisted on riding in the front on Splash Mountain. We didn't tell them about the big drop at the end because we didn't want to freak them out. Jaxon ducked down, Carder was going to do the same, but I had him keep sitting up thinking in the end he'd think it was really fun, that was not the case. He got soaked and was shivering for the rest of the ride. I felt so bad! He let us know that Splash Mountain was the worst ride but Space Mountain was the very worst. Even though Jake and I are convinced we may have tramatized the child a bit that day, he was a trooper and didn't let his spirits get dampered one bit and we were still able to have a great day at Disneyland. We let him know how proud we were of him for being brave and trying some new things. All in all it ended up being a super fun day. 

 Jake had to go out of town for some interviews, so the rest of us snuck in a beautiful beach day in Laguna before we headed back to Boston. That is the beach where Jake and I had our engagement pictures taken, so it is always fun to go back there. The weather was perfect, there was hardly anyone else there and the kids were in heaven. Brenn was feeling sick, so she literally just laid on my shoulder the whole time. (I was sad for her, but I'm not gonna lie it was really nice to not be chasing her around!) Carder and I got to go explore the tidepools and were super lucky to discover all sorts of creatures. The kids had a jolly ol' time getting buried in the sand and Carder was the happiest kid in the world running in and out of the surf.

Poor Brenn...she looks miserable! She was such a little cuddle bug though. I guess the one up side to having a little sicky.

A few days later we headed back to Boston (Jake's Graduation was that weekend, so we had to get back for it). This is where the trip got rocky. On our way to the airport Carder is sitting in the back seat and throws up EVERYWHERE (shout out to Brittany for taking care of him as it all went down in the back seat!). We were almost to the airport, so we tried calling the airlines and tell them our situation and see if they couldn't bump us back a day or two so we aren't traveling with a vomiting child. They were horrible to us basically saying there was nothing we could do unless we wanted to pay some outrageous fee for changing the tickets. Since that wasn't really an option, we cleaned Carder up as good as we could and changed his clothes and made sure we had an additional change in the baby bag just in case we had a repeat during the flight. We made sure he was only consuming clear liquids etc. so in the event of him throwing up again it wouldn't be quite as bad. Well it happened. I was able to catch most of it in the barf bag located in the seat back pocket, but we still had to have him change his shirt. We were super lucky that due to him only having consumed gatorade that it didn't smell (because this was a decently long flight--first leg was San Diego to Chicago). People are of course looking at us like we have some sort of plague. I not so quietly let the flight attendants know that we had tried contacting the airlines and they wouldn't let us change out flight. They were a little more sympathetic after that. 

We had a layover in Chicago before we got on the last leg of our flight to Boston. Carder was still not feeling well. I took him to the bathroom (and Chicago I've gotta give you props, they probably have the cleanest airport bathrooms I've ever seen) but he was never able to throw up. Well we told the ticket desk our situation and they said they'd get us seated as soon as they started boarding. We go up there and I hear the cough, the one that you just know a vomiting spell is coming. I pull out a puke bag (I had stuffed my diaper bag with them at this point) and drop all my bags and lunge over to Carder. He'd thrown up so much at this point that it was just clear liquid. It's right where everyone hands in their tickets to walk onto the plane. The business class people are just walking over me like I am some parasite as I am trying to clean it up with some napkins. Brenn tried running away during this spell, so Jake went chasing after her. Fortunately, a kind soul brought me a handful of napkins from the food court. As soon as the flight attendant saw what was happening, she hurried us onto the plane and told us she would take care of the bags. We got him on the plane and you can tell people are not happy about us, the lady in front of us audibly said something like "I told you [I would get stuck sitting next to these guys]" to someone whom I assume she was traveling with sitting a few rows back and then looks at us. Ridiculous I tell you. It's like we trained him to throw up all over the airport. If I had any control over it, it would have been aimed at that lady! It just so happened that the gentleman who had brought me the napkins was also sitting in front of us. At the end of the flight he asked how Carder was doing and offered his sympathies. He apparently had two-year old twins and could relate to our predicament. We were super lucky that he made it through the rest of the flight. 

We waited to be the last ones off the plane just in case. Good thing too because just as we got off onto the tarmac, there he went again. At least no one except airport staff were around at this point, and they were super nice about it (which we so badly needed at this point). Poor Carder! Our home teacher picked us up from the airport and Carder made it home and threw up one last time on our porch. It's just so ridiculous that the airlines couldn't help us out some how so that not only we, but the other passengers as well as their staff, didn't have to deal with that. Lame American Airlines! Well, that will be one flight that we will never forget.