Sweet Halloween

We had 3 nights of trick-or-treating this year, the ward trunk-or-treat, Intel which was on Friday and then the neighborhood on Saturday.   Brooklyn only got to trick-or-treat around Intel, but the other kids and especially Michael had a great time going all three times.  On Saturday night when we would get to someone's door he would say, "Okay everyone, here we go!!!"  Then when he got candy in his bucket he would say, "Oh WOW!  This is so awe-some.  This is so cool," in his broken monotone voice said with as much enthusiasm as his little body could get out.  He would shake and jiggle and become very animated every single door we went too.   Now that makes trick-or-treating fun with kids!  Our costumes we kept very simple this year and used whatever we had around the house or in storage.  I just didn't feel the desire this year to put out the cash for any new costumes, and I think we did pretty well.  It made Halloween feel old-fashioned and authentic, almost a Charlie Brown kind of feel.  However, we have been blasted with candy around here with 5 kids and 3 nights of trick-or-treating, but it has been fun.

Hermione Granger, Storm Shadow, Super Why, and Ravenclaw Student #3 showed up at our house this week!

Getting ready for trick-or-treating at Intel joined by the fairy princess

Daddy needs a bigger cubicle!

The Great Outdoors

We love fall in Colorado!  In September I took Sarah and Whitney on a ward daddy daughter campout.  I'd rather do just about anything than go camping, but Sarah and Whitney wanted to go so badly.  I finally decided that I love my girls more than I hate camping, so we went up to Red Feather Lakes.  We brought up a lot of fun food to eat and tried to make the tent as comfortable as possible.  We were fortunate to have beautiful weather, and went on a fun hike the next day with some of the other dads and their daughters.

Our campsite at Red Feather Lakes

Hiking through the aspens as they're starting to change colors

In October we took advantage of a few days off school for Fall break and spent them in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Again we were blessed with fantastic weather and gorgeous scenery.   We stayed at a home in Estes Park that had a nice creek running behind it in the backyard.  Almost exactly two years ago, that tiny creek became a raging river that destroyed homes and washed out roads.  Fortunately the house we stayed in didn't sustain any damage in the flood, but we could see the signs that the area is still recovering, such as newly built roads and areas where plants and grass had been reseeded.  The kids loved playing in the creek behind the house, which fortunately was only a few inches deep when we were there.

Scenic Vista

One of our kids favorite things about these trips is playing in the water, such as here at the Alluvial Fan

Their other favorite thing is climbing on the rocks

Hardy adventurers

Sprague Lake.  It was a flat trail so we could take the jogging stroller with Michael. 
The reflection of the mountains and sky on the lake was breathtaking.

Spencer is thrilled that he learned to ride a bike a few weeks ago.  The poor guy had to choose between a pink hand-me-down bike from his sisters, or a boy bike that was too big we recently got at a garage sale.  Unaware of Spencer's plight, a friend of ours had a bike their boy had outgrown and offered it to us.  It was just the right size for Spencer.  We took the pedals off for him to practice, and after a few days when he got the hang of coasting on it, we put the pedals back on and he mastered pedaling.  He still hasn't mastered staying out of the middle of the road and away from incoming traffic.  Sigh.  But he's proud to be able to ride his bike to school with his sisters now rather than ride his scooter.

Michael is still making incredible strides.  He went in for an annual eye exam a week ago.  The last three times he did this he ended up needing eye surgery to pull his eyes straight again.  This time his eyes were perfect, no surgery needed!

He's talking more and is becoming easier to understand.  He still really struggles with J's and Q's, but other sounds we thought he'd never be able to make (such as B's) he does great now.  He read the scripture in Primary at church for the first time today and people could understand him pretty well.  He even has a small speaking part in the Primary program in sacrament meeting coming up in a few weeks, which would have been impossible only a few short months ago.

He cruises around furniture a lot, and even can take a step or two now without holding on to anything before he falls.  Also, he's becoming a much better eater.  For a long time all he'd drink is milk, and maybe he'd eat some bread and cheese.  That was basically his diet for a long long time.  It's slowly gotten better, but not by much.  This year his preschool is requiring (they call it "strongly encouraging") all families to pay for school lunch for the kids so they can work with them on trying new foods.  It's really expensive so we didn't want to do it at first, but decided we'd try it for a month.  The teachers require the kids to take at least one bite of everything on their plate.  It's amazing to see the magic they've worked on Michael.  He's eating all kinds of foods now that he wouldn't have touched before, or would have immediately spit out.

Another amazing miracle is that he's grown 2 inches in the last six months.  At his last meeting with his doctors, they told us he's deficient in growth hormone and would need daily hormone shots.  We were told we didn't need to start immediately, so we opted to hold off for now.  Seeing him grow that much, which is on par with his other siblings, is really great, and we're hoping we can continue to postpone having to give him daily shots for as long as possible!

Whitney's Baptism

Whitney was baptized on Saturday!  We've enjoyed having lots of family in town, including my parents and sister Becky, Liz's parents and sisters, as well as spouses and children.  Most of them have been staying in our home, but even with all the craziness it's been wonderful and everybody has been such a huge help.

A few months ago Whitney had asked if she could wear her swim mask when she was baptized.  She HATES putting her face in the water, and it's been a huge ordeal for her during swim lessons and swim team.  We told her she couldn't.  Then she asked about wearing swim goggles.  She couldn't wear those either.  We all wondered whether she'd have the courage to put her face in the water when she was baptized.

Fortunately, during our sabbatical we stayed with my brother's family in Rocklin, CA, and they have a swimming pool in their backyard.  Whitney spent a lot of time swimming in the swimming pool and practicing putting her face in the water without any masks or goggles.  We didn't ask her to, the determination came from within.  By the end of our stay she proudly showed us how she could put her head in the water without anything on her face!

During the baptism service, Whitney's Aunt Julie spoke about the purpose of baptism.  She did a terrific job and targeted her remarks directly to Whitney.  I had the privilege of baptizing Whitney, she was very brave and she did a terrific job.  She gave me a great big hug afterwards and was just beaming.

Grandma Wheeler gave a talk about the Holy Ghost.  Similar to Sarah's baptism, she shared the book "The Holy Ghost is Like a Blanket" and gave Whitney a soft warm blanket.  She told a few additional stories as well of how the Holy Ghost has been a blessing in her life.  After the talk, Whitney was surrounded by family and friends who hold the Priesthood as we confirmed her a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and received the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Lastly, Whitney was given a warm welcome into the ward by Brother Huff, who was presiding at the baptism in behalf of Bishop Cleverly as our bishop was traveling with his family that weekend.

The baptism service was short and sweet.  We're so grateful to the family and friends who came to help us share Whitney's special day.  We're particularly grateful to Liz's mom who took care of Brooklyn during the service.  She can be such a handful during church meetings, and Whitney's baptism was no exception.  After the baptism we held a simple reception in our home, limiting it to family members and a few close friends.

Whitney in her white baptism dress a few weeks before her baptism

We decorated a table for Whitney at her baptism

Whitney and her proud parents

Lots of love from Whitney's family!  Unfortunately we didn't get all the family members in the picture who was there, but we sure appreciate the effort everyone made who was able to attend the baptism.

Sabbatical Week 8

This last week was my 8th and final week of sabbatical.  Boy is it going to be tough to go back to working for a living. :-)

Our 3 oldest children started school this week.  We now have a 4th grader, a 3rd grader, and a 1st grader at Zach elementary.  Our whole family went on a bike ride to Zach on the first day of school to see the kids in their new classrooms that first day.  There is a big red sidewalk that starts a block away from our house and leads right to the school, which is about a mile away.  This path was created specifically to help kids easily and safely find their way to and from school.  On the first day of school we encountered a large throng of kids and parents walking or riding bikes, scooters, skateboards, etc. down the red path to school.

We had so much fun riding our bikes to school as a family we did it a few more times during the week, either to school or coming home from school.  Occasionally after dropping the kids off at school, Liz and I would take Mikey and Brooklyn in the bike trailer and go on our own bike ride together through some of the local neighborhoods before heading back home.

Some first day of school pictures:

Early Wednesday morning I took Michael down to Children's Hospital in Denver to have tubes put in his ears and have his adenoids removed.  We packed an overnight bag since we were told Michael would need to spend the night in the hospital for observation.  However, the surgeries and recovery went much more smoothly than expected and Michael bounced back remarkably fast.  We made it back home in time for lunch, no overnight stay needed!

Our little brave wearing his gigantic "one size fits all" pajamas before surgery.

Overall we feel like the sabbatical was a tremendous success.  We were concerned for a long time leading up to the sabbatical whether Michael's health would permit us to take a vacation during our sabbatical.  Or with how difficult young children can be to travel with, what kind of vacation could we take and how well would our family handle it?  Overall, we had a wonderful time on our big trip.  All things considered, Michael has miraculously been in very good health.  The children traveled remarkably well on some really long drives through the western United States.  (Bringing plenty of pairs of ear protection in the car helped a great deal whenever the younger kids got too cranky.)  We spent a lot of time having fun together as a family, which fortunately brought us closer rather than driving us apart!  And having a few weeks at the end to recover and try to make a dent in the never ending workload at home was greatly appreciated.

Sabbatical Week 7

This week has been spent at home recuperating from our trip, enjoying the last week of summer vacation, getting ready for school to start, and working on putting out some of the fires we tried to ignore during our 6 week trip.

The kids enjoyed playing with friends, swimming, riding bikes, and other activities during their last week of school.  By the end of the week the messes and housework were piling up faster than we could stay on top of.  To help motivate the kids to clean up, we wrote down their names on a sheet of paper as well as a list of chores that needed to be done that day.  We set the timer for 10 minutes, and if they worked hard at doing chores for those 10 minutes, they got a check mark in a box next to their name.  If they whined, complained, or dawdled, they didn't get a check mark.  Each check mark earned them 10 minutes of play time with mom and/or dad, which expired at the end of the day.  We did this for an hour or two on Friday, and it worked so well we did it again on Saturday.  For activities they chose playing board games and going to the swimming pool as their time with mom and dad.  I have to admit, sabbaticals make it much easier to find time to both work side by side with my kids as well as to have fun with them after completing a job well done.

At the end of the last school year the kids earned coupons for 3 free kids meals at 2 different restaurants.  So as part of our end of summer fun, Liz took Whitney and Spencer to one restaurant and I took Sarah, Michael, and Brooklyn to the other restaurant.  We pretended that Sarah was my date, and Brooklyn was Michael's date.  We had a great time and remarkably Michael and Brooklyn were pretty well behaved for their first date.  Even though 3 of the meals were free, after paying for the other meals plus tip Liz and I laughed about how expensive "free" restaurant meals can be!

Michael and Brooklyn getting their sillies out

On Thursday night the Piano Guys performed at the Red Rocks amphitheater near Denver.  We love the Piano Guys and have been looking forward to this concert all year!  We went with some good friends of ours we've known for many years, and were thrilled to learn that the sold out concert was going to be recorded and shown all over the world.  We were prepped beforehand to make sure we cheered extra loud and laughed at all their jokes. :-)  The concert was fantastic, and Red Rocks is such a beautiful venue.

At the Piano Guys concert in Red Rocks

A few updates about Michael.  This week he's going in for surgery at Children's Hospital to put tubes in his ears and remove his adenoids to try to help improve his hearing.  Although Michael hasn't been prone to ear infections, the radiation from his cancer treatments caused scar tissue to form on the Eustachian tubes inside his ears.  We've timed the surgery to be during my sabbatical to minimize the need for babysitters, and before his preschool starts to give him a chance to heal before he starts school.  The surgeries should be pretty low risk, but they do require an overnight stay at the hospital.

In addition, during our sabbatical trip Michael developed hives all over his body.  We gave him lots of Benadryl to help with the symptoms, but we couldn't pinpoint the cause.  So this last week we took him to his allergist to see if he could pinpoint the problem.  We were worried it might be dairy, since about 90% of Michael's diet is drinking milk from a sippy.  Fortunately, Michael doesn't have a dairy allergy, but the allergist couldn't determine any other allergies that could be the culprit either.  Strange.  After conferring with Dr. Google, the only thing that makes sense is a hormone problem.  We know he's going to have all kinds of interesting hormone problems caused by radiation damage to his pituitary gland.  We'll talk to his endocrinologist about it at our next appointment to see if that might be the culprit.

On a positive note, one thing we've been impressed with Michael lately is how hard he's trying to talk.  Not just with his hands with sign language, but to vocalize words with his mouth.  He's getting easier to understand, at least for us as his parents, but it's still a challenge.  One of Liz's sisters recently commented that his talking is like trying to play Mad Gab.  In Mad Gab you say a phrase such as "Canoe Key Pace He Grit".  The other players try to guess the real phrase, which is "Can you keep a secret?"  Every day we play the Michael edition of Mad Gab.  The other day at breakfast he kept saying over and over something that sounded like, "Ah Cheese Cars".  I looked around the room for clues as to what he could possibly be talking about, and realized he wanted me to pour him some "Oatmeal Squares" cereal.  Even funnier, when Liz and I told that story to a friend later that day within earshot of Michael, he crawled up to me and signed "Cheese Cars".

One cool dude

Sabbatical Week 6

This week we spent a day down in Provo visiting friends and BYU campus.  We started by visiting a good friend of mine from college who is married with 10 children.  Little "squish", as the kids affectionately call their cute baby brother, is only a few weeks old and the latest addition to the family.  Our little Brooklyn couldn't get enough of him.  She isn't exactly the most affectionate of our children, she doesn't care much for dolls, and she usually runs away if you try to hug or kiss her.  But boy, she sure wanted to hold little squish, and wouldn't give him up for a long time!  She held him so gently and loved patting him on the head.  We were stunned to see this display of her nurturing instinct she's been hiding.

Brooklyn and little "squish"

We visited Liz's brother Kevin in his "new" old house down in Provo.  The house is over 100 years old and is very charming.  We also took the kids to BYU campus, which is where Liz went to grad school and where I went to both undergrad and grad school.  The campus is so beautiful and much quieter during the summer months.  We ate ice cream at the creamery, bought a few more BYU shirts at the bookstore, went ballroom dancing in the ballroom, and admired one of the largest and most beautiful libraries we have ever seen.  Sarah asked if she could quit going to Zach (her elementary school) and go to BYU this year instead!

BYU with the iconic Y on the mountain

Ice cream at the creamery

Teaching Sarah a ballroom dance step in the Wilkinson Center Ballroom

Ballroom dancers!

We finished the day visiting my twin brother and his family.  Well, he's my twin who happens to have a different mom.  And a different dad.  We met at church and became good friends during high school, and it's been fun to see how parallel our lives have continued to be over the years, even though we live hundreds of miles apart.  He has five children, same as us.  They are the same gender and birth order (two girls, then two boys, then a girl).  Our third child is named Spencer, as is their third child.  We both have a child that shares a birthday with their dad.  The list goes on. Years ago we discovered that my great uncle (Fred Babbel) and his great uncle (Ezra Taft Benson) were good friends and worked together in Europe after World War II providing relief and comfort to those who had lost so much in the war, regardless of which side they had fought on.  Both were men of great faith, and Fred Babbel wrote down many of their stories and miraculous experiences in his book "On Wings of Faith".


Later in the week we visited the Bountiful Temple, where Liz and I were married over 11 years ago.  Amazingly, we're even more in love now than we were back then.  We did sealings for some of Liz's deceased ancestors, and visited her dad afterwards in the baptistery where he volunteers each week as the baptistery coordinator.  It was great seeing him in his element as he kindly greeted and visited with each patron, young and old, helping them feel welcome.

We took the kids swimming at Farmington Pool with their cousins.  The pool is fantastic for families, with shallow, gradual entry for little kids, and water slides and diving boards for bigger kids.  We were so impressed with Whitney's courage to take her very first jump off the low dive, and Sarah's fearlessness as both the low dive and high dive are no match for her.

Whitney tackling the low dive

Sarah conquering the high dive

All good trips must come to an end, so we packed up our minivan one last time and made the drive back to Colorado.  After 6 weeks on the road (7 for Liz and the kids since they drove to Utah a week before my sabbatical started) it was bittersweet to be back in our own home again.  We were sad that our trip was over, but happy to be able to sleep in our own beds once again.  We found everything safe and sound when we arrived.  Our neighbors periodically checked on our house while we were gone.  It was a good thing, too, as they discovered a ripe smell coming from our kitchen sink.  They took care of it long before it could fester too long in the sweltering heat and become an unpleasant surprise for us when we got home!

Sabbatical Week 5

We spent this week in Utah visiting Liz's family.  We started off at Cherry Hill, which is one of our favorite water parks and is geared towards children.  They have a pirate ship, lazy river, water slide, and a few other fun water features.  One of the pools is shallow enough that Michael loved crawling around in it.

We spent the next day at Lagoon, which is one of our favorite amusement parks.  Liz's mom joined us (she hadn't been to Lagoon in many years), and the extra set of hands was greatly appreciated.  Liz and her mom spent most of their time in kiddie land with the younger kids while I took the older kids on a few of the bigger rides.  Liz and I got a chance to ride Cannibal together, which is a brand new roller coaster unlike anything we've ever been on before.  The ride is incredibly intense and a whole lot of fun.

The best part about Lagoon was watching the sheer delight on Brooklyn's face.  She thoroughly enjoyed pretty much every ride she went on, especially Puff the magic dragon roller coaster.  Michael, on the other hand, was really scared at first and needed a lot of coaxing to get him onto any rides.  He eventually warmed up to some of the rides, though.  We unexpectedly saw a few of our Colorado friends at Lagoon that day as well, which was also really fun.

The day after Lagoon we went boating at Pineview Reservoir.  Most of us got in some rides in the inflatable tube pulled behind the boat or tried getting up on the knee board or skis.  There were a few funny mishaps such as Liz getting thrown off the tube into the water when we hit a particularly big wake, and her sister leaning a little too far over the boat to retrieve a ski and falling in.  The kids played on the beach as they waited for their turns to ride on the boat, and unlike the adults, managed to get wet only when they wanted to.

We took a breather the next day, Friday, after playing hard for several days in a row.  On Saturday we took family pictures in the morning and had a birthday party that night for Whitney and me.  We share the same birthday, which is great since she gets to help me blow out all my candles before the cake catches on fire.

Spencer and Brooklyn on the airplanes at Lagoon

We finally convinced Mikey to ride the kiddie boats at Lagoon

Whitney, Sarah, and two of their cousins being pulled on a tube behind the boat.

Even Brookey tried riding in the tube. 

Sarah getting up on the knee board

Brooklyn loved the sand so much she took a bunch of it home with her in her clothes.

Spencer building an erupting volcano in the sand with his cousins

We loved this shot of Whitney and Michael while waiting for our family pictures

Happy birthday Whitney and daddy!

Dance party!

Michael likes to give us smiles with the help of his two pointer fingers

Brooklyn dumped a bunch of glitter on the floor during one of the stops on our trip, so Whitney drew a picture of it to break the news to us

Sabbatical Week 4

We spent this week in California.  We spent a few days in San Jose where my parents still live in the house where I grew up.  I attended church with my parents and enjoyed seeing some familiar friendly faces I haven't seen in years, as well as meeting some new folks who have moved into the area.  We went with my parents to Monterey Bay Aquarium, which we last went to while Liz and I were dating.  We particularly enjoyed seeing the many varieties of jellyfish, the sharks, and the tidal waves.

We then traveled to my parent's cabin in the mountains for a few days.  The area is very quiet and peaceful, and there are loads of activities both inside and outside the cabin.  We enjoyed playing air hockey and other games, working on art projects, having dance parties to music from the digital piano, going for walks through the forest, visiting the lake and catching frogs, going from a train ride at a nearby apple ranch, and topped off our stay with a boat ride on Pinecrest Lake.  Each child took turns driving the boat, and towards the end the three oldest children jumped off the boat and swam in the lake.

We finished our California adventure in the Sacramento area visiting my two oldest brothers and their families.  One of them has a swimming pool in their backyard, and the children couldn't get enough of it.  They stayed in their swimming suits all day Saturday and basically left the pool only at mealtimes.  Whitney and I celebrate our birthdays next week, so we had a BBQ and birthday cake and pie to celebrate.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Enjoying a tidal wave without getting wet

Cover's Apple Ranch near the train and playground

Train ride at the Apple Ranch

Mikey and grandpa looking stylin' on Pinecrest Lake

Everyone had a chance to drive the boat.  Here's grandma taking it for a spin

Sarah's turn to show us her stuff

Whitney was a natural

Spencer loved to take the boat in circles

Mikey got to steer by himself for about 3 whole seconds so we could take his picture

Even Brookey got her own turn