Lydia's Baptism

Brandt and Blythe's cousin, Lydia Katherine (named after me) Brinkerhoff, was baptized yesterday.  It was a wonderful service.  Lydia played the piano, "Keep the Commandments," and Tess spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost, sharing two very nice personal stories.  We did have to wrestle with the children quite a bit as they like to mix it up with each other when they are confined at close quarters, but we were certainly happy to be there.  We had a lovely lunch afterwards and were able to visit and let the kids run around together.  The Brinkerhoffs are moving to Indiana at the end of May and we are sad, sad, sad.  Brandt and Blythe love these cousins who are always so good to them and we will miss them enormously.

On the Barrus side of the family, our children are the youngest grandchildren, so the next Barrus family baptism will be Brandt.  In only two years!  How does time even pass that quickly?

Thoughts on Life and Death

I have been thinking about Dad lately.  I was vividly reminded of his passing when I took Kent to the emergency room last week.  It was the first time I had been back to the hospital, and I found myself nearly sobbing.  Not so reassuring to my ailing husband.  Kent was very understanding and I was more than grateful that Kent's condition was easily treatable.

Two days ago I went to the hospital again to sit with Lyla so Christopher and Tysen could celebrate Steve Cox's birthday.  Lyla has fluid in her lungs, again, and is fairly miserable.  She was not happy with me.  I snuggled her, sang, and talked to her reassuringly, but of the 45 minutes I was alone with her, she cried 43.  I cried too.  I am sad she feels terrible.  We are worried about her health and we are worried about her parents and family.  I wish there was more we could do.

My mom is having some health problems as well, and all these things combine to make me think about the tenuous hold we have on this life.  We are not going to be here forever, but our lives, whether long or cut short, are important and meaningful.  I have read several things recently that have touched me and given me comfort.  For book group this week I read The Chosen by Chaim Potok.  There is a wonderful passage in the book I loved.

Human beings do not live forever, Reuven.  We live less than the time it take to blink an eye, if we measure our lives against eternity.  So it may be asked what value is there to a human life.  There is so much pain in the world.  What does it mean to have to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye?  . . . I learned a long time ago, Reuven, that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing.  But the eye that blinks, that is something.  A span of life is nothing.  But the man who lives that span, he is something.  He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant.  

 And then, this morning, I was reading in the teachings of George Albert Smith, the eighth president of the Church.  Because I am in Primary, I never get to hear the lessons from Relief Society and Priesthood, so I try to read those on my own.  I was reading the chapter titled The Immortality of the Soul, and found the whole chapter very comforting and reassuring.  Encouraging too.  President Grant said,

When we realize that death is only one of the steps that the children of God shall take throughout eternity, and that it is according to his plan, it robs death of its sting and brings us face to face with the reality of eternal life.  Many families have been called upon to say good-bye temporarily to those they love.  When such passings occur, they disturb us, if we will let them, and thus bring great sorrow into our lives.  But if our spiritual eyes could be opened and we could see, we would be comforted, I am sure, with what our vision would behold.  The Lord has not left us without hope.  On the contrary he has given us every assurance of eternal happiness, if we will accept his advice and counsel while here in mortality.  This is not an idle dream.  These are facts.

I am grateful for my life experience.  I am sharing it with wonderful people I love and to whom I am bound for eternity.  I know our Heavenly Father loves us and rejoices when we chose to follow Him and mourns when we don't.  I am striving to give my life meaning and to realize that all the good I accomplish here, all I learn and experience, will be for my gain.  I want to more fully enjoy the fullness and richness of my life, embracing those around me both literally and figuratively so that our eternal associations will be even richer.

Singing

When Brandt is at school, Blythe gets to play with all his cool stuff that he is unwilling to share when he is home.  The other day the cool thing was Brandt's conductor stick.  She sat on the counter and waved the baton while I was made to sing.  I asked what she wanted me to sing and when she didn't come up with anything, I chose Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.  Blythe is  my little sunbeam.

Big Boxes

We have had big boxes lying around the house for two weeks now.  

They are too much fun to part with.

Brandt, Makenna, and Blythe, in the "house."

This box looks like a porcupine.

Those are nails Brandt has hammered into the top.  

Dangerous looking.

But almost more fun than a boy knows how to deal with.

A Mid-Night Conversation

During the night, Kent coughed which woke him up because he is still a bit sore from his surgery.
He heard a voice from the dark.
"Dad, are you there?"
It was Brandt.
"Yes," Kent replied, and got up to go into his room.
As Kent entered his bedroom, Brandt asked, "Dad, did you toot?"
"No, I coughed," Kent replied with a chuckle.
Even in the middle of the night, our boy is a boy.

Small Visitors

We have had some small visitors over the past couple of weeks.  It is always fun to have little cousins come over, and Brandt and Blythe are always kind and attentive.  Even sometimes a bit too attentive.

Donovan

And playing with McKenna

 

  

 

 

 While Blythe drove McKenna around the cul-de-sac, Brandt drew on the sidewalk.

He has been very good about sharing the green vehicle.

TV Turn Off Week

Last week, April 16-22, was TV Turn Off Week in the Provo School District.  The idea was to not watch TV, DVDs, or play computer games.  We were to be unplugged.  Although Brandt is the only one in school, we committed, as a family, not to watch TV.  We did really well.  The TV was not turned on, and although I did blog and check email, I did not play any games on the computer and neither did the children.  I felt it was only fair that Kent and I refrain if we were asking the children to do the same.

It was wonderful!  In our new house, the kitchen/dining/family room areas are all open, which I like, but I don't like that the TV is in the family room, and so I hear it when it is on, all the time.  It has been bliss to not have to listen to it over other activity.  Oddly enough, I don't know that the children really missed it all that much.  Brandt asked me on day two and day three how many more days we had, but day four and five I heard nothing.  When the weekend rolled around there was the question again about how many more days, but they were great.  The weather has been wonderful and so we have all been outside, and that has helped. I'm not sure we could have had TV Turn Off Week in January.

My only complaint was that I had to do laundry this week, and I usually get to watch something interesting, like a mystery, while I fold clothes.  No such luck this week.  As I knew I was not going to get to watch while I folded, rather than piling all the clean clothes on the couch, I made an enormous pile of clothes on our bedroom floor.

On Saturday I had a cunning plan.  I had Brandt and Blythe come into the bedroom and help with the laundry.  First off, we sorted.  We had a Brandt pile, a Blythe pile, a Mom pile, a Dad pile, and a towels pile.  Socks all went into a basket.  From there I had the children help me fold all the towels, because it is easy to fold towels.  I didn't worry if they weren't perfect, they just had to be good enough to stack.  Next we sorted out their underwear which are also easy to fold, just in half.  When they had done all the underwear, I had them take the stack to their bedrooms to be put in the drawers.  We played matching with all the socks and then I had them put their socks away.  Next came pants which, like underwear, are easy to fold--in half and in half again.  Blythe dropped all her pants before she got them in the drawer, but I helped with that.  I folded their shirts which are a bit trickier.

The children worked hard, and I only had to nag them a bit.  When all the folding was done, I complimented them on a job well done and I could tell that they were pleased to have been so useful.  I think this will be the new laundry routine.

As I left our bedroom to go downstairs, I passed Brandt's room and looked inside.  Although Brandt had put his just folded clothes away, he wasn't super neat.  Oh well.

The Way Things Are

Last week, on Tuesday, I got to do story time for the kindergarteners.  My friend Heidi is the assistant librarian, this month is "Love Your Library" month (or something), and all last week visiting story tellers came in.  I was so delighted to be asked and had a very hard time choosing which books to read to the children.  Story time for the kindergarten was right at the start of school, so I told Brandt I would just walk to school with him.

Brandt said, "Will Dad walk me to school?"  He wanted to make sure that Kent took him to school, as usual, because Kent always tells him a story along the way.

I said, "Well sure, Dad can walk to school with us."

Brandt replied, "No. You can walk to school with us."

An Army Guy

Lately, when asked what he wants to be when he grows up, Brandt will say, "An Army guy."  The other day, as I called him in from playing, I found him all decked out in his Army gear.  Ah, my little soldier.

A First!

Usually when I am writing about firsts, it has to do with the children.  Not this time though.  It is a first for Kent.  We knew when we bought our house that we were sorely in need of yard equipment.  Having spent the last nine years in a condo where the outside upkeep is done by someone else, and with a tiny back yard with no grass, we haven't had much in the way of yard tools.  Trimmers, a shovel, a rake, but certainly not a lawnmower.

When we first moved into the house in December, we didn't need a lawnmower, but for the past couple of weeks we have needed one.  Desperately.  Two Saturdays ago I borrowed our neighbor's mower when I felt that I couldn't stand the yard another minute and that I needed to suck up a bunch of prickly stuff left over in the grass from our shrub removal.  I was able to do part of the front yard, the north side, and a bit of the backyard before I had to turn the machine off to empty the bag.  Then I couldn't get it restarted (Kent had started it for me initially, but then he had to leave).  I wheeled it back next door and asked our neighbor, Tom, if he wouldn't help me get it going again.  He tried to start it--unsuccessfully.  He realized it was out of gas, but even after filling the tank, it wouldn't start.  He took several more minutes to change the spark plug, and then confidently stepped up to pull again.  In one mighty and final pull, the cord broke and he declared he was finished with that mower forever (he has had it for close to eight years) and was going to go buy a new one.

I didn't feel like I could borrow his brand new mower before he had even used it, so the grass has grown for a further two weeks.  On Tuesday, about 4:00, I called Kent and suggested that he perhaps stop and pick up a lawnmower on his way home from work, or I was going to go buy one.  He was, at that very moment, standing in the lawnmower department of Home Depot making a selection.  Funny thing.  As he was standing there mulling over the options, a man walked by and said, "I have that very mower.  I love it.  It is a great machine."  It was an unsolicited recommendation from a total stranger.  Not two minutes later, as he was still standing there thinking, another man walked by and said essentially the same thing.  "I have that model mower.  I love it.  I've had it for several years and it starts on the first pull every time."  Well, what could he do?  There was no denying that Kent had had not one but two witnesses of the wonderous goodness of the lawnmower, so he bought it.

Hoorah!

He brought home a beautiful, brand new, red Toro mower.  And here is where the "first" part comes in.  In all his life, this is his very first brand new, never been used by another person, lawnmower.  It was a momentous day.  He was so proud.

And having gotten it out of the car, put together, filled with gas and started, I promptly mowed the lawn.

I can add my testimony to those of the men in Home Depot, this is a fine mower that started on the first pull every time, and I am a weakling girl doing the pulling.  The grass was so long in the back, the mower bogged down and shut off several times.  It was like baling hay.  But it started up again each time, and the yard looks  much better.

Arches

Last week was spring break.  We almost never do anything vacation-y over spring break because until this year we haven't had a spring break from anything.  But this year we went to Moab for three days with Grandma Sue and Aunt Mikayla.

We had a really good time.  We drove down on Thursday morning.  The weather was bad throughout the drive.  In fact, about halfway there, this is what the weather was like.

That's right.  Snow, as we were on our way to hike.  Kent had been somewhat hesitant about going because, as he put it, "Who wants to hike in the rain?"  As I was looking out the window as we drove, I thought, "Who wants to hike in the snow?"  Fortunately, it never rained (or snowed) when we were actually out hiking.  By the time we arrived in Moab, the rain had let up, it wasn't freezing, and the sun even came out.  It was windy though.  I was fairly sure we were going to be blown over when we first got out.  In fact, we just kept laughing at how ferocious the wind actually was.

The children were pretty good hikers.  Apart from a short span when Brandt wanted to be piggy-backed, he hiked well.  Blythe complained a bit and stood in front of Kent and hung on his legs until he picked her up at least three times, but I felt that all in all, we saw quite a bit and enjoyed ourselves.  We saw eight arches up close, four more from a distance, and wandered around Balanced Rock.  We (the adults) would have liked to have ventured out on some of the more difficult or longer hikes, but we were happy with what we saw and with the children's willingness to participate.

In addition to hiking, we swam in the hotel pool.  I selected the hotel based on price, but I made sure we stayed somewhere that advertised a heated pool.  The Moab Valley Inn said they had an indoor/outdoor heated pool.  Personally, I think it was false advertising.  There was an indoor/outdoor pool, but it was not really very heated at all.  It was downright cold.  It didn't seem to bother the children at all, however, who happily swam all three days we were there.  They enjoyed the hot tub too.  I have no pictures of swimming because I was in the pool.

Two room pictures by Blythe.

Looks like a great place, huh?

Funny story about the hot tub.  The first day we were there, upon arrival at the pool, we found only one woman in the hot tub, a mom with two children.  Brandt and Blythe began cannonballing into the hot tub, but she was sitting in such a way that the water was not splashing her in the face, and she seemed very tolerant.  The next day the hot tub was much more crowded, but again, immediately upon arrival, Brandt cannonballed in, splashing five or six people.  I quickly apologized and told Brandt he couldn't do that with the hot tub full of people.  So Blythe did instead.  I told her she wasn't allowed either, but I had to remind both of them again while trying not to see the scowls our fellow soakers were casting in my direction.

Another funny story.  Whenever we go on a longish road trip, I pack road trip munchies, and this trip was no different.  I packed crunchies, cheese and crackers, apples and grapes, graham crackers, fruit snacks, granola bars, and gingerbread man cookies.  The kids were watching as I packed food and they must have asked me six or seven times if they could have a cookie.  For the first five or six times, I patiently told them that they were for our trip, but by the seventh time, in exasperation, I said, "You may not have anything until we are in the car!  Stop asking!"  

They got in the car, I finished packing everything, and we started off.  Before we were even out of neighborhood, before we had even been one minute in the car, before we were even out of the ward boundaries, from the backseat Blythe very sweetly said, "Mom, can we have a cookie?"  

I rolled my eyes and gave them each a cookie.  I did say, however, "Please do not ask for another cookie until we are at least on the freeway.  We are only just barely underway."

We drove through town and as we were merging into traffic on the freeway, again, not even half a mile down the road, Brandt piped up, "Can we have another cookie?"  Needless to say, none of the gingerbread men saw Moab.

For my future benefit, I am organizing pictures by the places we visited.

Balanced Rock

"A loop trail around the base of a fragile, picturesque rock formation." 

When we have an earthquake, Balanced Rock will become Crashing Down Rock.

 

Being blown away--literally. 

 

And me, balancing Balanced Rock on my head.

It was heavy!

Double Arch

"A relatively flat, sandy trail leads to the base of two giant arch spans which are joined at one end."

I like this picture because it shows the development of what will be an arch thousands of years in the future.

When we return here in 50,000 years, there will be another arch next to Double Arch

Someone stopped and asked me to take their picture, which I did in exchange for her taking ours.

Hiking en famille.

This is Kent helping Blythe get the sand out of her shoes.  

We preformed this service many times during the three days we were there.

Scampering about on the rocks.

The views from directly under the arch.

Looking out and looking up.

As Mom and Mikayla and I were talking about who might take our picture, a man speaking French came hiking up right by us.

I said, "Pardonez-moi.  Est-ce que vous pouvez prendre notre photo?"

(Translation: Excuse me.  Could you take our picture?)

He replied, "Yes, of course."

My French was perfect, but he replied in English.

He did take a good picture, even if he snubbed my French.

 

Brandt selected this spot.

He thought the tree behind and the log below together made the perfect backdrop for a picture.

The Windows (North and South) and Turret Arch

"A gentle climb up a gravel loop trail leads to three massive arches (North and South Windows and Turret Arch)."

The people standing by the arch (North Window) asked me to take their picture.

There is more ledge there than it seems.  

Initially, I was standing behind Kent.

He maneuvered around behind me so he would looked taller.

It worked.

South Window

Me and Mom hiking up under Turret Arch.

The wind was howling through this opening.

I thought we were going to be blown over backwards.

Turret Arch

The west view from Turret Arch.

The east view through Turret Arch to South Window.

North and South Window.

Landscape Arch with Tunnel and Pine Tree Arch

"A relatively flat, gravel-surfaced trail (usually heavily populated with hikers) leads to a spectacular ribbon of rock, whose span is more than a football field in length. Short side trips to Tunnel and Pine Tree Arches."

This is a sandy rise not far into the trail to Landscape Arch.

We tried to run up it.

It was much easier to run down.

 

This is Tunnel Arch.  

Well, one of them is Tunnel Arch.  

The other is unnamed.

My mom is in the above picture,

and I am in the below picture because she thought it was important for me to be in a picture too.

This is another little spot where Brandt wanted to have his picture taken.

The family framed by Pine Tree Arch.

So named because of that pine tree growing underneath it.

What happens if the pine tree dies?

Will they change the name to Dead Pine Tree Arch?

Christmas card picture?

More Brandt posing.

 

As we approached Landscape Arch, we stopped and read a placard about a rock fall here in 2001.

A large chuck on the right side of the arch fell away.

I explained to Blythe what had happened, and then she began asking questions.

"Did you hear it when it fell Mom?"

"Could we hear it at our house?"

"Why did the rocks fall?"

"Will rocks fall today?"

"Will we hear the rocks fall the next time?"

She was very interested in how the whole process worked.

Double O Arch as seen from Landscape Arch.

And another view below from a little further back.

Grandma Sue and Aunt Mikayla, waiting.

We wanted the children to pose under this interesting looking tree.

Blythe obliged.

Brandt did not.

 

Kent is "carrying" Brandt's coat.

Sand Dune Arch

Trail leads through deep sand to a secluded arch among sandstone fins.

The view of Broken Arch from the trail head to Sand Dune Arch.

We didn't hike to this one.

Blythe would not smile as she sat atop this rather large rock.

Brandt saw a chipmunk and wanted to catch it.

 

 

There were lots of children playing around Sand Dune Arch.

 

I took the above picture 

and Brandt took the below picture.

He never gives us a "one, two, three," so I never know when he is actually taking the picture.

 

You can't see her, but Mikayla climbed up the rocks and is standing up there, waving.

And intrepid tree growing out of the rock.

Delicate Arch Viewpoint

"In addition to the short accessible trail, another (moderately strenuous) hiking trail climbs one-half mile toward Delicate Arch and ends at the rim of a steep canyon that separates the viewpoint from the arch." 

We only walked the 100 yards or so on the short trail to get a view of Delicate Arch.  We felt the actual hike to Delicate Arch would be too much for the children, and really neither Kent (who had his gall bladder removed the following week) nor Mikayla felt up to it either.  By the time we got to the viewpoint trail, the children were unwilling to get out of the car, preferring to remain in their seats watching Finding Nemo and asking how soon we were going to swim.  I can't complain--they were troopers.