Hello Kansas!

Hello Kansas!

when we woke this morning, sam took the kids for a quick swim while i fed mimzy. and then we were off. we were so close to kansas city, and sam's former mission companion, packard. we met his family and the kids played with their kids for a while. laura, his wife, and i talked and got to know each other. they are lovely people. it was a nice break, and after they fed us dinner, we continued the long drive towards albuquerque...but not before another pit stop/potty break at this really cool mural. 

it was time to finally get going. we had the corner of texas to drive through before arriving at the edge of new mexico. i don't even know the town we stayed the night at. i just know it was a long, barren wasteland before we reached any sort of town. so the first place we saw lights and a motel, we stopped. it was sometime around midnight. we were beat, but still had to get the kids to bed without disturbing them too much. not my favorite part, 

but we made it to sleep, finally. ***

Road Trip Day 2: Saturday

when we woke up this morning, the air was thick with moisture. we had stayed the night at a hotel that sat along the mississippi river. very, very humid. we all showered up, ate our packed yogurt and bagels for breakfast, and headed out. we really had such a beautiful drive today. for most of the way, we drove along the river, and then finally across. we just had to stop and take a "quick" family picture near all the mississippi lilly pads. we turned on an old country road, hopped out, and made sure none of the kids fell in. whew, and they didn't. after our little photo shoot, we continued on towards nauvoo, il. nauvoo was actually our target town yesterday, but since we fell behind, meh. it was such a cool little town though. we drove down main street oohing and aahing over the quaint country shops. and then suddenly, the bright beautiful temple just seemed to pop out of nowhere. we stopped and walked along the temple grounds reading some of the history behind it. we also drove down the hill to old town nauvoo. we visited the grave sites of joseph smith, hyrum, emma, his parents, and other family members. it was actually quite sobering. i have to admit, rather ashamedly, that i had never really given much time to researching church history before. i have read the biography of joseph smith jr. told by his mother. but, other than that, nothing. but being here and reading their stories, they seemed to come alive and i realized these were real people with real hardships, trials, triumphs, joy, sorrow, etc.

we went out of our way to visit carthage jail next, where joseph smith and his brother, hyrum had been shot and killed. again, a very great and humbling experience. i am so glad we took the time to stop and do a mini church history tour. with all of the walking and sweating in the hot humid air, we built up an appetite and just had to stop at a place called porky's. good bbg, and they even had frogs legs on the menu. i wasn't feeling that adventurous though.

we had taken up so much of our day around nauvoo, that when we arrived in independence, missouri it was dark. we drove up to the lds visitor center at 9pm....just as it was closing. we did get to see the massive church of christ "temple" across the street though. we didn't walk in, but we did hear that it is like a huge chapel with an auditorium. on the outside, it looks like a hershey's kiss wrapped in it's foil cover.

while we were driving out of independence, sam had a huge hankering for some bbq that he had seen on the travel channel. we typed in the address, and raced there as fast as we could, only to find that it had just closed up. luckily, before sam could get too put out, we spotted a similar joint with a similar menu just across the street. hallelujah!  he ordered his burnt ends bbq, it was pretty darn good. and all was right with the world. the kids were done sitting, and we were done driving for the night. it was a pretty awesome day.

Road Trip Day 1: Friday

We had planned to leave earlier than we did. But as luck would have it, the washer broke the day before, we ended up with company and a baseball game, and well, I procrastinated packing for this trip. So, of course, sam and I were running around like crazy, trying to tidy up, pack, and run errands before leaving for the month of august. It was quite the stress-filled event. However, once we were finally on our way (around 7pm), things seemed to go much more smoothly. The kids colored in their workbooks, and danced to the road trip mix, and baby mims slept almost the entire way. We drove for about 4 hours and then stopped for the night in iowa. We stopped around 11, which I think, was the perfect time. goodnight!

Postponement...

scratch that. we are heading out on a month-long road trip...and after rinsing the juicer off the past couple of days, well, there's just no way i want to try to clean that thing on the road. so, unfortunately the juice fast will just have to wait until we get back. however, when we can, i will be drinking fresh squeezed juice. my mom has a juicer, and nathan has a juicer, so, two out of four places isn't bad. ;)

July Tidbits

*so after two weeks of neglecting my garden in tornado weather, furiously weeding the past three days....i think my produce just might make it.  what was sam talking about being BORED while i was gone??

*Headed up to Green Bay for the weekend...escaping the sauna-like heat of Madison.

*Well another first and fourth has come and gone and It's nice being a citizen of the United States and Canada. I love being able to say that we did not cross the border, the border crossed us! Proud to be Native American/Canadian.

*fresh baked bread, zoo, and isaiah's baseball game tonight...it's a good summer day.

*catching/watching fireflies at the end of a summer's day...one of my favorite things about wisconsin.

*out all day. nice to be back home. picked some beets, kale, peas, dill, and zucchini from the garden.  oh wait...gotta go, forgot we had a photo shoot in ten minutes. okay, well, it WILL be nice to be back home, and relax.

*quotes of the day: isaiah: "mom, do you think swimming lessons are 

going to be hard?" makayah: "mom, i think i'm gonna drown."

*Quotes of the day: Isaiah- "you know what bugs me?... Your face!" Makayah- "you know what bugs me?... Your pie hole!"

*saved a girls life today, actually two. I caught her as they fell from a 12 foot wall. I am one tough mudder

*Much love to the people who wished me Happy 33rd Birthday even though Facebook did not advertise it. I had a conversation with another law student today, I mentioned to him that it was my birthday and he congratulated me

and said, "Well you made it longer than Jesus." I replied, "Yeah, but I think he accomplished more in his life." He replied, "Yeah, but he had more to work with." LOL. True. AND he came back!

*i love birthday weeks...or in your case birthday months.  it's been fun. love you, sam.

*Independence. Check. KC BBQ. Check. Damn that's good BBQ. Kansas here we come.

*Passing through the north corner of the Texas panhandle and we smell cow crap from a feedlot. Monika is grossed out, I am reminded of home. ***

Juice Fast

over the weekend, sam's parents, and two brothers came to visit for the weekend...and to run the tough mudder race. i'll post more on that later. today's post is about juice fasting. while his family was here we watched a documentary called "sick, fat, and nearly dead." it was quite the testimonial of juicing, getting the nutrients your body needs, and rebooting the body's system. i recommend watching it, even if you don't want to juice, ESPECIALLY if you don't want to. ;) anyway, sam and i had our last real food last night, for his birthday. today we are juicing. i've yet to catch up on all the blogs i need to post, but i really wanted to be accurate in my account of this juice fast. we'll be trying the juice fast for 10 days. no food other than the veggie/fruit juice we make. we've juiced in the past, and i've loved how it made me feel, and it really did give me an extra boost. however, after having samiyah, and the kids being in school and sports, sam busy with law school and jobs...well, our juicer has been gathering dust. day 1: unfortunately i didn't follow the suggested recipe this morning. sam and i couldn't sleep last night and i'm sure i dozed off around 1:45ish in the morning. so when it came time to try to beat the clock and make the juice before sam headed out the door...i really didn't care what i put into the juicer (which was a cucumber, lemon, kale, apples and carrots). the portions were off, and i failed at beating the clock. :( so, i'm hoping sam comes home for lunch so he can start then. the kids and i chugged our juice (they aren't juice fasting, but a shot of REAL fruit and veggie juice doesn't hurt). it was quite the challenge to get down. i've made great juice in the past. and actually sam's juice comes out the tastiest. but this morning, blech! i'm still sleepy from not getting enough rest. but i think the shot of juice did do some good though. i've had enough energy to deep clean the living room and kitchen. my stomach feels so empty. it's only 11am and i better make myself busy before i start thinking of food.

Crowfoots in Town and Tough Mudder

Crowfoots are in Town!

sam's parents and brothers flew into town today. the family in green bay heard about them coming and decided to throw a big "summers reunion" party. i met so many more cousins and relatives of sam. even merriam conte and her family made it up for the event. after games, catching up, laughing, and cake, we took the contes over to the lambeau stadium where the green bay packers play. we always get here after touring time. but, it was still great to walk around and take pictures with the cousins. we had to go back early to get ready for the tough mudder the next day. strater, sam, nathan, ammon, and myself were all running the obstacle course. i admit, i was pretty nervous. i had no idea what to expect. i just knew it sounded really hard. my heart was pounding as i got ready the next morning. it was pounding as we drove up to the town north of madison. i always get so nervous before races.

we registered and picked up our race numbers. then we met up with our other team members from sam's law school. there was james leonard and his friend, and some others i didn't know very well. we all went to the bathrooms before going to the starting line. in the chaos of lines and crowds, we lost nathan. we looked all over for him and yelled out his name. but, he was nowhere to be found. it was time for us to start and we had to go without him. the very beginning wasn't too bad. we ran down a muddy hill and then had to run back up through sprays of water and over haystacks. the hills were actually really steep and made my legs burn. we swam through small tubes half emerged in mucky water. we had to cross monkey bars, which almost all of us fell off of into more mucky water. we laughed and cheered each other on.

we came to wooden planks with ropes that we had to climb up and down and up and down. the weather started to warm up once the sun came out, and we were dying to be sprayed with water again. the next obstacle, after a murderous hill climb, was the barbed wire shimmy. the ground was so muddy and rocky, and right above was the barbed wire. i saw people at the other end who had just finished the obstacle. they had cuts all over their legs and blood was running down. granted, they did have itty bitty shorts on, and i was grateful i decided to wear my longish yoga pants. the barbed wire was slow going, especially since i didn't want to get caught by the barbed wire, and the rocks were constantly snagging at my pants. but we all made it through without too many scrapes. there were two walls throughout the obstacle course and it was tough! i had to have a lot of help from my teammates to get me to the top, and once at the top, i had to trust that sam would catch me once i fell to the other side. we walked mostly, since strater had just come out of knee surgery not too long ago. i'm glad we did walk. the obstacle courses took so much energy, we had to rest along the way for the upcoming ones. the course was beautiful, though hilly, and once we emerged from the trees, we saw this huge, towering plank. i'm deathly afraid of heights, and though i was hot and i really wanted a dip in the blue pool of water, i skipped this obstacle of jumping from the 20 foot plank. i met my teammates on the other side and we continued on towards cliff climbing, carrying a log through the grossest smelliest swamp water ever. oh, and we also ran through smoky fiery mazes. we also had to run up a half pipe. while we were in line for that, we saw a guy try to run up the side, fall, and dislocate his shoulder. that totally freaked me out and i almost chickened out of doing it. but, i did and sam caught me at the top. whew. at the very end, we lined up in front of tanks of water. we had to jump in, swim underneath the barrier, and pop out of the other side. easy, right? the water was FREEZING! so when we dunked ourselves under, we gasped for breath on the other side, our bodies numbing up. the very last obstacle was the electro-shock. i also skipped out on this (which happened to be a good thing as i was 3 weeks pregnant and didn't know it). sam ran through with ammon and his dad. halfway through, the electric shock dropped strater, and sam and ammon had to go back through and get him. we were so dirty and tired at the finish line. we found nathan at the finish line. he had gotten lost and ran before us, trying to catch up thinking we were ahead. before we went home, makayah had to be checked out by the EMT's for heat stroke. she was fine. when we got home we all took showers and ate glass nickel pizza. best shower and dinner i've ever had. while sam's  family was here we watched a documentary called "sick, fat, and nearly dead." it was quite the testimonial of juicing. we watched movies and played video games, it is so fun hanging out together. we've sure missed being around our family, but we are so thankful they came out to visit us.  when they had to leave, mimzy , makayah, isaiah all looked out the window waving goodbye. it was such a fun and exhausting weekend. love you all!***

Splash Parks, Blackberries, and Costco

Splash Park with the Vigils

janice has classes on saturdays and needed help watching her kids. we had volunteered to have her kids over. our kids get along so well with max, doug, and cordelia. they are sweet and so fun. we took them to the splash park, had a pizza picnic, and came home and hung out at our place. we're so grateful to have the vigils as our good friends.

The Weekly Grind

this week when we drove to the garden, we discovered there were blackberry bushes lining the borders. we grabbed our little buckets and picked as many as we could. there were mosquitos everywhere, and the thorns were vicious. we picked a good little handful and that was enough. isaiah stole the phone yesterday. isaiah and makayah love taking the phone, taking pictures, and videos of the mischief they get in. sam and i were still sleeping when they took these early morning photos. ahh, costco. we can't go a month without going to costco. we always look forward to our trips there and the free appetizers. we found a cutie in the milk section, we couldn't resist. makayah and mimzy are such good friends. makayah is such a little mama!

***

Over the Weekend

Over the Weekend

when we aren't sleeping in and letting the kids watch early morning cartoons, we are on our way to baseball games, or swimming lessons, or checking on our garden. on Saturday morning, we all dressed up for the pool. sam and i watched the older kids while in the family area of the pool with baby mimz. it was hard to get pictures because we were surrounded by water. they had to do dives and isaiah was a bit apprehensive, but overcame his fears and eventually jumped in. makayah was a little more fearless. overall, they really love swimming and are doing a wonderful job. having the pool so close by and available is such a relief in this hot and humid weather.

i am determined to keep our garden alive this year. we've done a pretty good job. the kids love coming to the community gardens, most especially because of the playground nearby. sometimes, the sanchez kids, tiago and giselle, will also be there. their plot is right next to ours, which is really nice. it is so very fun picking all our produce. i feel so productive and useful. and mimzy has been an excellent helper. 

on thursday nights, its baseball game night. we went out and got some dollar burgers, set up our chairs and watched isaiah play. he's so adorable in his uniform and extremely entertaining out on the field. and makayah, good grief, she keeps us laughing. what a little hipster.  i love all this summer time with the family. 

***

zoo animals, baseball games, and fireflies

what can i say, it was another perfect summer day, even the weather decided to be agreeable. this month of summer that we have in madison, i want to be very productive. i have so many activities that i want to do with my kids, and basically, i just want to be more involved....especially now that samiyah is better at tagging along and engaging herself. so for this morning's activity...bread making. the kids helped me gather up all the utensils and ingredients, washed their hands, put on their aprons, and we got to work. they begged me to let them crack the eggs this time (usually it's my job to do the eggs...obviously), so i gave in. they both tapped gently until their eggs cracked a bit. then they gently dug in their fingers, as i cringed away. makayah's eggs exploded into the small bowl, part of the slime landing on isaiah's face, whose egg exploded shortly after he dug in his fingers. everyone froze, and we bursted out laughing! the only thing i don't like about making bread is how long it takes. so, in order to pass the time, we went out and played with the neighbors in the backyard. some raspberries were ripening so the kids were scavenging for any bit they could find. :) after raspberries and lunch, we made our way to the zoo. it was samiyah's first visit and she was mesmerized by the giraffes. she even waved at them. it was really sweet. my little monkeys... baby mims and her giraffe... there was a snake exhibit, complete with skin, skulls, and other stuff i didn't really check out, but the kids did. the kids were excited to be there again, and were even more excited to play at the zoo playground. on our way there, a lady passing by burst into song, pointing at each one of us as she sang, "one little, two little, three little indians..." my eyes popped open, my mouth hung open in shock, and then i turned my head down and laughed/scoffed...shaking my head. what the??? seriously? did this lady just sing and point at me and my children? the kids had a puzzled look on their face, and looked back at me wondering what that was all about. i shook my head as i was still laughing, so they ignored it and ran for the playground. i was so taken by surprise, i honestly had no idea what to say or do. looking back at it now, i probably should've said something, after all, it isn't right to just let ignorant people be ignorant, when you can educate them in some way. anyway, the zoo was still great, and we rushed home after grocery shopping to meet up with daddy. then we rushed off to the park for isaiah's baseball game. i truly love watching him. he is such a goofball and will dance on each base while he waits for his fellow batter to hit the ball. he's really good at baseball, and his umpa would be proud of him. it isn't summer until baseball season starts. ;) as we pulled into our apartment, we spotted fireflies twinkling on the front lawn. the kids ran after them, jumping at them. it was so fun. fireflies make summer evenings so magical. if it wasn't past their bedtimes, it would've been great to linger outside, sipping raspberry lemonade, watching the fireflies dance around us. next time....

Summer Days

if there is one thing i absolutely love about being in wisconsin, it's being in madison during the summer. there are so many things to do, and it's usually great weather to do all these things. we've been back from our trip for a couple of days and slowly, getting back on schedule (mostly sleep schedules). and since isaiah and makayah are both out of school, it's the perfect chance for me to plan all sorts of fun things for us to do. this morning, we began our day at the YMCA. last year while i was preggo with samiyah, the kids and i lived at the Y. today, was our first time at the Y since isaiah got out of school. i dropped them off at child watch and then hurried off to my power pump class. since my trip, i hadn't done any weight training at all. i think i went running once. the teacher is awesomely insane. i want her body. she teaches a zumba class before this one (and i never wake up in time for it), and then she does the power pump, and i keep expecting her to just drop from exhaustion...'cause my body was about to do just that, and i don't even pile on the weights like she does. anyway, immediately after my class, we drove to the splash park. my legs were still shaking from class, and i wasn't sure how much more driving i could do. wow, i guess that 2 week vacay sure did a number. it was our first time to the splash park this summer as well. the kids bolted for the water spouts, and baby and i sat down with the other mothers from our ward and chit chatted about this and that. it was lovely. even samiyah got her toes wet. ;) at lunch time we grabbed a pizza and headed downtown to eat with daddy (sam) at the capitol. i'm so glad sam is working in madison this year. this is the first time we've had him living with us during the summer since the summer of 2008. today reminded me of when we lived in switzerland and isaiah and i would meet up with daddy downtown for lunch. it made me so happy we could do that again. after lunch, the kids and i headed over to the garden. it is finally weeded...for the most part. and now all i have to do is sow some more seeds for a september harvest seeing as we won't be here for august. the kids played on the playground by the garden and the baby slept. it was such a fun-filled and perfect summer day. i love days like this.

Fourth of July Weekend with Grandma Rita

Fourth of July Weekend with Grandma Rita

we love staying with grandma rita while visiting green bay. she has become our surrogate grandmother while we are here, and she is lovely! yesterday, we all went to the oneida pow wow. the dancers were beautiful and the kids want to start dancing soon. i hope i can find someone to teach them. 

on sunday, we drove north to door county. we've heard so many great things from our friends about the place. we packed up the car and had ourselves a little road trip. 

we stopped off at the maritime museum first. then we drove through golden fields with blue skies overhead. it was pretty dreamy. we turned off the main road and ended up at an ice cream shoppe. the kids ran around and played while we sipped our rootbeer and slurped our ice cream. 

we continued exploring and ended up at a dock. we took our shoes off and waded in the water, took silly pictures and enjoyed the beautiful weather. we saw a sign for a lighthouse and went looking for it. we found it, and sam and the kids went on a little hike to it while i nursed the baby and grandma rita took a nap. we took so many pictures! it was such a perfect weekend.***

Oneida 5K

Oneida 5K

we drove up to green bay this holiday weekend. our friend, sid and johnny, were putting on a 5k event. we hadn't run in a long time and it seemed the perfect time to start again. we met up with our friends, jeremiah & teresa, sid, johnny, and bill & his boys. isaiah and  Hudson had a push-up contest. isaiah said he won. we walked and ran, and walked again. it's good to be up in green bay and see all of our friends.

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