Amber Waves of Grain

So I am so behind in the blogging department! I have like 10+ posts I need to make, so bear with me as I play catch up. I am just going to start with our move, and then if I am ever able to catch up I will go back and recap the summer.

August 25th marked the day of our 6th wedding anniversary, but was also the day we packed up our moving truck for yet another move (this time clear across the country).  It was fitting to spend our anniversary this way seeing that  moving seems to be what we do (I am pretty sure this was the 8th or 9th move ).

This move was INSANE. I knew it was going to be crazy with the time frame, but I thought I was in somewhat of a good place a few days before we were supposed to head out. Boy was I wrong! I dunno what it was maybe the fact that not everything was going with us (we left about half our stuff in a storage unit in Utah), maybe it was having to sort between the stuff trying to decide what we really needed to take with us but for some reason this was the most stressful move to date.  Thanks to the reinforcements, Jake's Family, my Aunt Krissi helped me with the kids and our Elders Quorum we were able to make it happen. (Though Jake and I literally packed/cleaned until 5am the next morning to be able to finish...craziness I tell you, not to mention the fact I am way too old to be pulling all-nighters!)

Georgann had taken the kids earlier that evening so that Jake and I could do the mad dash of finishing all the packing, so at 5 am we put the lock on that truck, (we did one of those that they deliver to you since we hadn't found a place to live and didn't want to deal with keeping all our stuff in a moving truck for who knows how long once we got to Boston) and pulled out of our driveway in Bountiful and went to Jake's parents for a few hours to get some sleep before we started our 4-day drive to Massachusetts.

Day 1 - SLC, UT to Nebraska

Left: Our moving truck at just before pulling out at 5 am. Right:The open road, we had a fun time observing all the things outside our windows, this was the cloud Carder said looked like Mickey Mouse.

I was anticipating a bumpy ride with the kids. (Brenn is just at the age that she hates being in her seat for too long). But they did surprisingly well. This day was the shortest driving day, and breaking it up with a lengthy stop at a McDonald's playplace made for a smooth roadtripping day.

Day 2 - Nebraska to South Bend, Indiana
This drive really opened our eyes to how much of the United States we hadn't experienced. I am pretty sure the cornfields outnumbered any homes/people we came across substantially. I thought Utah was semi-rural prior to this, but that is definitely not the case after experiencing hours of driving and seeing very little signs of civilization, only more and more cornfields. (we now understand the line in America the Beautiful where it says "Amber waves of Grain," in the midwest that is what America is.

We stopped for lunch in Nebraska and saw this huge grass area surrounded by cornfields across the street (because that is what there is in Nebraska).  At lunch we saw the cutest Amish/Minnonite Family, they were not much older than Jake and me with a bunch of kids, all dressed old -chool, it was awesome. (p.s. I didn't know they were allowed to eat at Arby's). After eating lunch we took a wiggle break and did some races in the field (we tried to run the energy out of the kids) and let the kids explore the corn rows a bit.

Bottom Right: Carder cheating at the races by giving Jakes leg a little extra dead weight.

This day was by far our longest driving day. And we experienced the bumps of roadtripping with kids. Brenn had been a little under the weather. Anyway that evening as we were about to cross the border from Iowa into Illinois she gagged and threw up everywhere in the car. (seriously I don't know where her little tummy was hiding all of that fluid?!?) We had to stop at a gas station, strip her down bathe her in the sink there and then strip her car seat and scrub as much as we could with the window washing paper towels at the pump. Glorious I tell you. Right up there with the poo-cuzzi Carder created when he was around that age on one of our road trips from California.

Day 3 - South Bend, Indiana to Palmyra, NY (with a brief pit stop in Kirtland, Ohio)

Part of the reason that our day of driving was so long the prior day is that once Jake saw that we would be passing through South Bend he just had to make it one of the places we lodged so that he could go check out Noter Dame's football stadium and campus. (Yes I am married to a crazy sports addict.)

Carder at Breakfast. He is sipping his orange juice so weird because as he tells me "he has to get it to the right taste buds" I guess those right taste buds must have been on the sides of his tounge. Silly boy.

After breakfast we went and checked out the Fighting Irish Football Stadium and got a peak at the famous touchdown Jesus. Carder made me laugh so hard as we pulled into the stadium's parking lot. He said, "We are stopping here cuz dad wants to see this really bad. Dad is a crazy fan of stadiums." And yes his dad is such a crazy sports fan that even though Brenn had just fallen asleep he put  that napping baby over his shoulder to tramp around the campus.

Top Left: Carder "Tebow"ing; Middle Left: Carder with the squirrel he found climbing a nearby tree; Lower Left: Jake and konked out Brenn in front of Touchdown Jesus

When we were mapping out our road trip I knew we would be passing by a lot of church history stuff. Since the drive was so long already we didn't really want to tag on any extra hours, so our one minor detour from the most direct route was going to be a day in Palmyra. I had looked up Navoo and it was like a 6-hour detour, which meant that would have to wait for another time. However, for some reason I totally spaced on Kirtland. I was on the phone with my my Mom when we were in Ohio and she asked me about this and I so I looked it up and found out it was off of an exit literally right on our route. Since we hadn't really been planning on it, it was evening when we stopped, so all of the venues/tours were closed down for the night, but we were still able to walk around the beautiful grounds and see the temple.

The kids loved playing on the temple grounds...Kirtland was beautiful. It far surpassed what I had pictured it to be like in my mind. (It kind of reminded me of the grounds of that Garden Park building in Salt Lake)

Brenn let us know she was willing to help with the driving at one of our pit stops.

Day 4 - Palmyra, NY to Boston, MA

We got to Palmyra in the middle of the night.  So after sleeping in a bit the next mornining we were ready to start our day of exploring the town. 

We started off our day by Jake doing a session at the Palmyra Temple while I stayed with the kids and checked out the beautiful Temple grounds.

Next on the agenda was checking out the Smith farm and the Sacred Grove...

President Hinckley came up here to acquire this land. The temple is actually built on land that was owned by the Smith family. From the farm the temple spire is beautifully framed by trees off in the distance (this picture does not do it justice).

Top Right: That is the tree that the Smith family planted in Memory of Joseph's brother, Alvin, right after he died.

These are the original (yes that is right, I said ORIGINAL) bricks to the fireplace in the frame house.  It blew my mind that these were the actual blocks that Joseph had touched and once hidden the golden plates beneath.

After touring the homes/buildings on the grounds we headed off to the Sacred Grove. So beautiful, so serene.

The Farm and grounds were so beautiful, I was almost ready to pack my bags and buy a plot of land right there in Palmyra. Carder loved running around the wide open space (not so much a fan of the long tour, but hey he got something out of it hopefully). 

We would have liked to have done more, but after the whole tour aspect of the Smith Farm the kids were DONE. Brenn fell asleep in our car and wanting to take advantage of that time for the last little bit of our drive, Jake and I drove up to the Hill Cumorah and took turns taking Carder out to the monument.

It was such an awesome experience to have gotten to see some of these sites. After Palmyra it was only 6 more hours and we got to Brittany and Leon's house just outside of Boston. 

Thanks to some advice from my Aunt Jill of making sure all of our stops were at a park or play place (those kiddos better realize how much there Mama loves them by putting aside all that I believe in and eating at McDonald's a couple of times so that they could get their wiggles out) so the kids felt that they had done something other then sit in the car all day, we made it through our 4-day journey spanning 1/5 of the United States (Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts). What a wonderful start to this next adventure for our little family.

PEDS

So as if preparing for a move across the country wasn't stressful enough, my kids had to pile it on that month with some fun pediatric medicine scares (sarcasm intended).

Pediatric ER

One day Brenn was not acting like herself. She is usually jabbering away and running around the house keeping up with her brother. But this particular day she just lay totally still on either mine or Jake's shoulder not really making any banter.  We knew she wasn't feeling well, but she gave us quite the scare later that evening. She threw up so I put her in the tub to clean her up. She was feeling pretty warm, so I kept her in just a diaper after the tub. She was laying on the bed like a zombie, her eyes not really focusing on anything. Then came the labored breathing and then her body started lightly shaking where I was mentally preparing myself for her to start ceasing.  We called her Pediatrician and told him what was going on and he told us we needed to take her in to Primary Children's ER immediately. It was so scary! It was bedtime, and we knew a visit to the ER could be quite lengthy, so Jake's sister Allie and her husband Ryan were awesome and let us drop Carder off at their house on our way to the hospital. Ryan helped Jake give Brenn a blessing and then we hurried along the Primary Childrens.  Brenn was still pretty out of it. She felt really warm and she was not responsive when you'd talk to her or smile at her etc. Primary Childrens got us in super quick. After we got to our room like 10 Doctors/Nurses piled in the room to examine Brenn and evaluate what was going on.  She had a fever of 103 and her heart rate was pretty high.  She also had a little cough. They decided to give her a steroid and then watch her for a while to see if anything else needed to be done.  The steroid (the one they give for croupe) worked like a miracle within minutes she was back to her normal self wanting to read books and run around the hospital room (not so easy since she was hooked up to all those monitoring wires). They watched her for a few more hours and her fever dissipated as her heart rate returned to normal and then the let us go home. One of the scariest experiences ever! I always thought Carder would be our first class ticket to the ER with all his shenanigans, but instead Brenn was our first (and hopefully last) visit to an Emergency Room on a child's behalf.

Brenn in the ER room

We got home in the middle of the night (far too late for dealing with soaking those super sticky monitor patches to get them off). Now that she was back to herself I could appreciate how cute she looked with them, and I had to snap a picture.

Pediatric Dentistry

Bah, just thinking about our dentistry issues makes my blood boil all over again! We had found a pediatric dentist that we really liked, and at Carder's last appointment they told us he needed to come back for a filling in one of his back molars. For some reason our insurance decided to switch around the providers they covered, so we took Carder to one of their preferred providers to try and get this all taken care of before we headed across the country. 

To make a long story short after several hours (many of which were spent waiting in the lobby for our appointment) we had the consultation from H-E-double hockey sticks. Basically the dentist tells me he needs like $5000 worth of work, it would not be getting done today (which is what we were promised on the phone when we made the appointment since we had to leave for Boston in a week) and then threatening me with possible extraction of a tooth that won't grow in till he's like 8 or 10 etc. (No Bueno!!!) After being talked down to like I was an idiot I left almost in tears. 

We ended up taking him back to our original dentist and he didn't need half of the stuff that other place told us that he did. They totally worked with our time table since it was literally crunch time to get this all taken care of before we headed out. Well, Jake took him and he got through the shots to numb the area etc and then they sprayed some water and he totally freaks out because it felt bad to him or something. So they told us to take him home and come back in a couple of days, and they'd take care of it. They even gave us a prescription for Valium (ya it totally worked opposite on Carder, instead of a calming effect he was bouncing off the walls!). Well, I took him to the next  appointment and he sat in the chair but once the dentist came in he started freaking out. The dentist stepped out for a while so I could attempt to calm him down. We read some books, and I tried to reason with him. When that didn't work, I tried to bribe him, but to no avail. Dentist visit #3 was again a no go due to a hysterical little man.

Now they were telling us he had to be sedated. So they figured out a day they could fit us it because now we were just days away from pulling out to head off for Boston. He got through the procedure but the sedative made him super angry. Like he was throwing punches at Jake etc.  I cross my fingers that drugs never enter my little boy's body again so we never have to experience that human hulk again.  The meds wore off after a little bit and he was back to normal. After far too many dental visits and a small fortune later the dental work was done and we were ready to head off to MA. Needless to say we have ratcheted up the morning/nightly brushing routine adding floss sticks as well as mouthwash to hopefully never have to go through that EVER again!

Pantyhose and Pearls

Someone has got the right idea...Brenn got into my jewelry while we were getting ready for my cousin's wedding reception yesterday. She brought it to me and I put it on her and she was the happiest little girl in the world getting to wear her fancy necklace all night long.

This last month has been rather stressful/eventful.  As summer started coming to an end we were feeling like we needed to start figuring out what was going to be next for our family.  Jake has been working as a federal judicial law clerk and his term would be up in the fall. Well, there were a ton of options going around. He had the option to extend his clerkship, some job offers, and then there was the LL.M.

It all started about a few months ago when he let me know that the judge had encouraged him to think about pursuing tax law. Jake researched it (because thats what Jake does, he researches everything) and finds out that the deadlines for all but two of the schools that he would consider going to were open for just one or two more weeks to be admitted for this upcoming school year.  He applied to 5 schools just to keep that door open, but it didn't really seem like it was something to be considered too seriously. Anyway he was admitted to all 5 schools including Florida, which is the number 2 program in the nation (just a little brag blurb for that awesome accomplishment).

By this time some deadlines were starting to come where he had to let some of the options know whether or not he would be accepting their offers or not. We felt super confused as to what we should do.  It seemed like every time we would discard the idea of the LL.M. something would happen (like a law school professor emailing him out of the blue about it, the judge coming back from a conference that made him advise it again, or a scholarship being awarded, etc.) that would make the option be reconsidered. I was at my breaking point with the stress of not knowing what in the heck was going on and with the ideas of our family's future changing almost daily.

We had been praying about it and still felt unsure.  So we took a weekend and went to the temple and fasted.  I had the strongest feeling while we were in the temple that I needed to be supportive and do whatever Jake felt our family needed to do.  There were some things said in a prayer there that I felt like my Heavenly Father was talking directly to me and was so aware of me and the stuggles/stresses I had been experiencing. It was such a blessing to know with a surety how aware He was of me and my situation and of His love He has for me and my family.

The next day we fasted about it.  I talked to Jake later that afternoon as he was making a pros and cons list of the different options we were considering.  I told him he needed to just make a decision and take it to the Lord. He went into the other room for awhile and came out and told me that he had gone in thinking he was going to take one of the job options (because I mean come on we had gone through our undergrad and then 3 years of law school, did more schooling really make sense?!?  We have two kids, paying money to do work rather then getting paid to work didn't really make sense).  But when he brought that option to the table he said he just felt empty inside. So he did what he says he feared most and prayed about the LL.M.  Well, he came out and let me know that we were going to be moving to Boston.

This decision was made the last Sunday of July. Classes begin the first week of September, which means we would be leaving the end of August. So I had a little more then 3 1/2 weeks to prepare for a move across the country...BAH!!! There have been a lot of thought, prayers and tears (mostly on my part) that have gone into this decision.  Though monetarily/logically it doesn't completely make sense, for some reason this what we feel that we are supposed to do and we just need to have the faith that everything is going to work out.

The LL.M. is a Masters in Law.  Jake will be pursuing his Masters in Tax Law at Boston University starting this fall.  It is only a 9-month program, so that time frame along with the fact that my sister Brittany and her family are out there (her husband is at Harvard Law) have really helped me wrap my head around the whole situation and look at it as an exciting adventure rather than focusing on the stressfulness that comes with the packing up our house and moving across the country in a few weeks, and the dread of more schooling.

The day after we decided to go out to Boston we put our second car up for sale and it sold within 12 hours of being posted--for our asking price. We were also able to get our house rented in just a couple days since our contract wouldn't be up by the time we left, so we have been looking at those things as confirmations that this must really be what we are supposed to do.

So here we go into crazy packing mode to get ready for our move.  We will leave the 25th of this month (which also happens to be our 6th anniversary) it is rather fitting seeing that this will be our 9th move since we have been married. So I guess I will need to make sure I have all my pantyhose and pearls packed (because you know that's what all the Moms on the East Coast wear to take their kids to school), because its Boston or Bust!

Now just hope that I can get this place packed up...I am either having to pack boxes one handed since a little arm monkey is attached to me occupying my other hand or I get some really good helpers (Carder packs his own boxes always filled with the most interesting assortment of things...he is so proud of them though I have to wait until he's not looking to repack them, and then there is Brenn who's favorite thing as of late is to climb anything and everything she can (moving boxes are not helping that issue) and to load and unload containers which has caused for many of my packing efforts to be repacked numerous times). Did I mention since we are there for so brief that we just taking our car and pulling a trailer behind it and then putting everything else in storage...SCARED! 

The Fourth of July

The morning of the 4th started off bright and early with a neighborhood breakfast. After that we headed on down to Jake's parents' house for a brunch and a much-anticipated Fourth of July water fight. (I guess it was quite the tradition for Jake when he was growing up and they decided to resurrect it this year).

Carder and Jake hiding out on the porch...Carder was not particularly fond of getting attacked with water, especially when it was by an adult.

Georgann in her waterfight garb...I guess she hates feeling cold, so this is her remedy. The kids got a hoot out of Grandmas gettup.

Carder escaped from the chaos that was ensuing out front to the backyard where we were hiding the babies.  They set him up a sprinkler under the trampoline and made his day getting to do a couple of his favorite things in the world, jump on the tramp and play in water. (He especially enjoyed when his dad joined him).

 The kids had a blast swimming in the little pool Grandma had set up for them.

I guess another part of the neighborhood water fight tradition is having rootbeer and doughnuts at its conclusion.  Carder thought it was awesome when Grandpa added the dry ice into the homemade rootbeer. He liked playing in the smoke it made and called it his rootbeer facial. 

Carson tried to get into that sugary syrup and get a little taste much to his Mama's dismay. It was hilarious to see his little hands reaching and his little tongue out trying to lick the barrel.

Jake and Carder enjoying their rootbeer and dougnuts

Then we headed off to Stadium of Fire (the Osmonds were kind enough to invite us to come along with them). At the start Carder loved listening to the music and practicing some of his moves (my favorite is his fist pump that Kelsie taught him)...Here is a little video of him (Its not the greatest video, but it gives you the idea of his silly moves that give us so much amusement)

The kids really enjoyed hanging with their cousins.  The headline performers were the Beach Boys which totally brought me back to my childhood (we'd listen to them constantly as we'd swim in our pool all growing up and I think at one point I owned the whole box set of their CDs).  Brenn was super pleasant, but about mid-concert Carder started having a little meltdown telling us he was tired followed by demanding that I stop singing and then there was the fireworks...granted we were sitting up high, pretty close to where they were exploding (so literally they were the loudest fireworks I have ever experienced) but he was bawling through them the whole time. So we learned if it is going to be that jam packed of a day, and we are going to have him out late, he definitely needs a nap from here on out.  Other then that little road bump it was a great 4th of July.

Manti

The last weekend of June/first weekend of July we had a Brown Family Reunion in Manti.  My Mom's parents both grew up in Manti and My Nana's family actually settled the little town years and years ago.  The last time we had gone there was 5 years ago when Jake and I were still at BYU and hadn't even been married a full year...

Boy have things changed! Since that family photo there have been 3 new grandchildren added to the clan, three (soon to be four) great grandchildren and 3 spouses have married in. 

We had two cabins across the street from each other and all the families arrived sporadically late Thursday night. The kids were asleep for all the late-night arrivals, so when they woke up in the morning they were super excited to see all the friends, especially there new found loves--the Stallings boys--who Carder calls "The Teenagers." (those are the same little boys in the second row up from the bottom of the previous family photo...I hadn't seen them for awhile and I am pretty sure they'd each grown at least a foot and put on a hundred pounds each...craziness I tell you!)

Carder loved putting on a show for the Teenagers and the fact that they were a captive audience for all of his superhero moves and poses just made it that much better for him.

Friday we went over to Palisades lake and had a fun afternoon of picnicking, paddle boating and just hanging out with everyone by the lake.

Brenn loved all the space she had to explore and try out her new walking skills...that child was seriously everywhere this trip!

Jake didn't get there until later that evening. Since I was taking care of the two by myself and there was water involved, I made Carder wear his life jacket the whole time we were at the lake.  Safety aside, he looked so dang cute in that life vest!

My kids loved playing with the teenagers...

Brenn tried her hand at longboarding...

...and Carder showed them all his poses (silly boy). My cousin Austin actually took all these pictures, and Carder was loving all the attention not to mention the response he was getting from his much adored "teenagers".

The kids just loved the paddle boats. I tried to be the "Cool Mom" and took the little boys out and Ellie out (I even cannon balled in the lake to do motor boat with Ellie, but of course no pictures were taken for proof!)  Carder was a little timid at first, but soon warmed up to the paddle boats and had a blast with all the cousins that afternoon.

Carder particularly liked to blow the whistle.

Why are little boys able to find a stick to play with no matter where you go?!?

Ellie was TO DIE FOR in her life jacket...I just want to eat that little munchkin up!!!

The family picnicking.
Palisade Lake was a blast! (When we were driving back to the cabins, Carder said to me "Mom this was the best day!")

Jake got there late Friday evening and was kind enough to stay with the kids the next day while I got up at 6:30 am (I swore I would never do that voluntarily again after my seminary days) to make an early morning session with my family at the Manti temple.

Saturday afternoon we got to walk around the city of Manti a bit (It was really fun to get to hear some of my Papa's stories of his childhood/youth) and then we all met up at a park to have a picnic and play some games prior to heading over to the Mormon Miracle Pageant.

Lower Left: The Brown Clan (minus Me and Jill who were taking the pictures and My Dad, Kelsie, Jared and Tiffany & Leo who couldn't make the reunion because they all had to work). Right: My cute prego sister Brittany...we can't wait for baby Jet to come (or as Carder calls him "Baby Jet Pack")

My Uncle Warren is a military man and for some reason he had a gigantic parachute in the back of his car. Well that made for an awesome afternoon of games for the kiddos and the rest of the family. (That building in back of everyone is the High School my Nana and Papa went to)

So next we headed over to get our seats for the Mormon Miracle Pageant. Carder and Jaxon entertained each other as well as baby William while we waited for the program to begin...

I was really excited for Carder to see some of the battles etc. from the Book of Mormon come to life, but after a long fun-filled day he was exhausted. Right before they got to the first Nephite/Lamanite scene he had climbed into the double stroller and pulled a blanket over his head because he wanted to go to sleep. I got him to peak out of his little cocoon a couple times but he was totally zonked out within 5 mins. We had gotten Brenn to sleep in the stroller right before the program started, so we were thinking this could be a nice relaxing evening now that the two kidlets were asleep, but of course she woke up seconds later and we were chasing her around for the majority of the pageant. (How can little people be so exhausting!?!) 

Sunday we went to church with the Fam and then we headed back home.  Before we left the city of Manti we stopped at the cemetery to see my great-grandparents headstones as well as some other ancestors.

We tried to keep Brenn awake so she would just take a nice nap on the car ride home to Bountiful...we did great keeping her awake through church but in the 3 mins it took to drive from the church to the cemetery she was done.  I tried to wake her up for a picture in front of the temple before we headed back, but it was a totally hopeless cause. Oh well she's still a little cutie pie even when she is sleeping. 

We had a blast seeing all the family and are so grateful for the effort Nana & Papa put into making sure that we all get together as a family and create great relationships.