Um, I forgot to publish this a long time ago, so it goes back to September!!
So we left the beautiful sights and sounds and smells of living in the country in Oregon and returned to live in our home in Salt Lake City (Sugarhouse), Utah. It was a super hard move for us, but has also been super nice to have a husband and Dad around more. Carlos had been commuting to Utah for 3 years while he helped build Rockwell Watches. Now I really miss my sister but at least he's not missing his kids' sports and events and tucking them in at night. This picture is of Rivers holding the big cow bottle that she fed a calf named Copper with every day. Rivers would just walk out into the pasture with the bottle and Copper would come running across the field to her. Too bad this pic shows a sheep instead of Copper.
In my journal I wrote "I love the sounds of this place! I am cleaning our little house on Fern Road as we prepare to move back to Salt Lake City. I love that I can hear the crickets in the fields, the neighing of our neighboring horse and 2 owls hooting at each other. Three or four times this week as I've brushed my teeth at night, I've heard the owls. I am so going to miss this place with its beyond beautiful views and enchanting sounds of the country. I am going to miss watching the twins ride their balance bikes around our indoor track and Rivers running 250 times around it. I'm going to miss looking out the kitchen window at CD jumping on the trampoline as he gazes out at the sunset, and walking with him through the huge garden as he checks for anything "ripe" and picks strawberries til his belly is full. I'm going to miss relays around the house and hanging out on the huge deck and smelling that clean, fresh, pine scented air. I'm really, really going to miss being able to jump in the car and drive to my Mom's pool for the kids, or to go running at the ridge trail with Whitney, or to a Twinpeaks softball game...etc. etc. or Sunday dinners with Oma, Jason, Diana, Madison, Brody, Warwick, Sienna, Decker, Tyler, Amber, Riggins, Whitney, Cody, Cassidy and Warren. My Peeps :( "
The whole Bushnell crew (R.I.P. Cubby)
Another tough part of this whole deal was the fact that I was excited to live by Tanner, Alissa, and Swede again, but they found out the same week we decided to move that Tanner got into the PhD program at Oregon State. We literally switched places within 4 days of each other. So, we got to hang a few times and help them pack a little before they headed to Oregon.
Because school starts 2 weeks earlier in Salt Lake than Philomath and because we spent a week in the San Juans on our way to Utah, the kids started school a whole 3 weeks late. Lucky them. First day of school pic.
Rivers is such a beauty. Here are before and after first day of school pics. She had a rough first week.....didn't want to go back, but eventually found a great friend and got settled in. We just had her parent teacher conference yesterday and her teachers raved about her.....calling her a "standout student", "leader", "she should be a mathematician".
And our big boy Carlos Dwight had his first day of Kindergarten. Carlos and I both bawled so much when we sent Rivers to kindergarten, but everything was so crazy with the move and starting so late and CD's attitude was like 'no big deal', so we only shed a tiny tear this time. He was so confident about going to school that it seemed natural and not like a big deal (as you can see on his face). When he came home I asked him what his favorite part of school was and he said "It was all AWESOME" and when I asked who he played with or who his new friends were he said "all the boys in the whole class and one girl". At his parent teacher conference Miss B kept telling us how much ALL the kids in the class love him and how they all try to say he is THEIR best friend. She also asked us if he is liking it because he doesn't talk much in class. CD can get rambunctious, but he often is a man of few words :)
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| Before Tanner and Alissa left, Krista hosted a "Peace Out Bushnells" party. |
And Dre just made himself comfortable at the party with a big old donut.
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| The boys could not get enough of Swede. They were right up in her face all night making the funniest (weirdest) baby noises to try to get her to laugh. |
Whenever Tanner steps in the door, CD turns into a little bit of a maniac and goes crazy wrestling him. This night it seriously lasted for over an hour and CD ended up ripping his clothes off like he was Hulk because he was all sweaty. So Tanner threw him around in his underwear (or spandex like CD likes to call them).
He really is the best helper I have. Without asking, right when I pull up after grocery shopping, he runs out, again in his "spandex", and carries the groceries in.
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| It rained a ton those first few weeks we moved to Utah (which the kids loved), but there was a break in the rain this day and we all rode to Sugarhouse park for the Friday night Farmer's Market. The Market wasn't much compared to Corvallis', but it was fun to meet up with some friends we hadn't seen in a long time. |
Reagan and her twin.
We went to the University of Utah vs. Oregon State football game and sat in the middle of the red sea. Carlos was on the sidelines and not with us, so I had to be discreet about who I was cheering for being around all the beligerant Utes. Beavs pulled off the win in overtime!!
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| Sunday! CD always strips down to spandex immediately - he can't stand hot church clothes. |
What good brothers, giving big sister a massage.
During football season, CD always had a football in his hands or nearby....even when sleeping. I often caught him with his BYU helmet on running around outside juking the air and throwing touchdown passes to himself.
Cute pic...but it makes their height difference look even more dramatic.
Coasting back home after taking CD to kindergarten. It's nice being 2 blocks from the school again.
We celebrated Carlos' birthday at my favorite little pedicure place. He's not shy about admitting he loves a good pedicure. He had the giggles big time here because they were using a cheese grater like thing on his callouses.
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| Oh how I love these snuggle bunnies!!!! And they love each other. This was after watching Rivers run a cross-country meet in the snow, hail, and thunder (The race actually had to be started over after runners had gone about 1/2 mile due to thunder). We were all trying to snuggle and get warm after that. |
They are soooooooo lucky to have Rivers for a big sister!
Conference morning cinnamon rolls.
Reagan got herself dressed to go for a night walk. She wouldn't take off the sunglasses so she kept running into things.
Reagan decided she wanted to try CD's old bike with pedals. She hopped on and biked down the street first try. Balance bikes are amazing for teaching kids to ride. Dre is getting good too, but his legs need to grow just a tad to be able to reach the pedals better.
The time Dreyton fell asleep on Carlos' large booty.
So fun having a running partner. I ran her to cross-country practice at the park and ran around while she practiced, then we ran home together all in the pouring down cold rain. Luckily Rivs likes running in the rain too.
One day after we dropped Rivers at basketball practice, we snuck up Big Cottonwood canyon and hiked the "stairs gulch" hike before going back to pick her up. It was such a beautiful fall hike!!
During the UEA break, we finally took the kids to Disneyland! We stayed at an amazing place right on Huntington Beach (Thank you Rockwell!).
We walked through Downtown Disney to get to Disneyland and they have a lego store that almost prevented us from getting to Disneyland. CD could have stood there and built all day.
We ended up just taking all the kids on almost every ride....even Space Mountain (or Ghost Galaxy as it is called during Halloween time). They measured Dreyton at least three different times because he was so close to the height cut off, but in the end, no one was crying and Dre even said he liked it. I remember being kind of scared when I went on it for the first time when I was 12.
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| Dre's favorite part of Disneyland....the Goofy water fountain. |
Mr. Mickey in his house (Dre is missing from the pic because he is getting punished for running ahead of us in the crowd and almost getting lost).
Splash mountain and Carlos carting two tired kids out of Disney.
Every Disney day ended like this. This night was especially tiring because we trick-or-treated until Midnight there and carried out bags full of loot.
We also took a beach day and hung out at Huntington beach and watched the AVP volleyball tour.
It was awesome watching both Casey Jennings (who we knew from BYU) and Kerri Walsh Jennings.
Kerri Walsh is such a cute Mom! Our kids were playing in the water together and since I remembered Casey from BYU days, I started talking to them. They are such a nice, cool, humble couple.
The princesses.
Since we were there on the twins' birthday, we let them go to build-a-bear in downtown Disney. Somehow CD and Rivers walked out with one too. They put Rea and Dre up on a stage and had the whole store, which was packed, sing happy birthday to them. It was cute.
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| On the way to Tom Sawyer's island, which is now called something else. I still call it Tom Sawyer island though because I love that story and I think it's said not very many kids even know who Tom or Huck are anymore. I read both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn to CD last year and he loved them. |
Crazy timing....Alissa just happened to be at Disneyland/California Adventures during our last day!
