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

Sabbatical Week 3

This week we drove from the Seattle, WA area down the Oregon coast to Crescent City, CA.  We woke up at 3:30 in the morning on Tuesday to get an early start and miss the traffic.  We hoped the kids would sleep in the car in the wee hours of the morning.  They were too excited to sleep at first, then too hungry, then too grumpy to sleep.  So it ended up being a VERY long drive, both in terms of time and crankiness!  The Oregon coast was beautiful, but driving it was much slower than we expected and you don't really see the ocean very much while you're on the highway.  However, the times you do see the ocean the views are spectacular.  Even still, if we were to do it again we'd probably save ourselves a few hours of driving and skip the coast.

We stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory along the way.  Liz and the kids are huge cheese fans, and we took the self-guided tour of the factory and tasted the free samples.  We bought Tillamook ice cream cones for everybody, and soon regretted it.  The workers messed up our order, Whitney almost lost the ice cream off her cone, when Liz tried to show Whitney how to hold a cone so as to not lose her ice cream, the ice cream fell off of Liz's cone, Brooklyn was screaming hysterically, Michael kept losing his balance and falling down with his cone, ice cream kept getting everywhere including all over Liz, ... Before I had even finished straightening out our order, Liz had had it and rounded up all the kids and took them straight to the car (where ice cream proceeded to get all over everything else).  When things had settled down a bit we had a good laugh about it and remembered that when you have your hands full with young kids, something as simple as getting an ice cream cone can be a major undertaking!

We finally made it to our beach house in Crescent City and had a blast!  The beach was a block away, and the kids just couldn't get enough of it.  They'd play there all morning, come back to the house for some lunch, and go back and play all afternoon or evening.  There is a lighthouse that is only accessible during low tide, so we visited the lighthouse and the nearby tide pools, finding all kinds of hermit crabs and sea snails.  The current lighthouse caretaker and his wife are volunteers for the summer and have a special vehicle that can get them to and from the lighthouse at high tide in an emergency.  The caretaker said of course he uses the vehicle responsibly, but joked it's amazing how many emergencies you can come up with when you have access to such a fun vehicle.

The redwood forest was only minutes away as well, so we spent half a day hiking among the huge trees, climbing the fallen ones, and even drove through a particularly large tree on our last day.  We had so much fun in Crescent City we ended up staying an extra day.  It's a quiet little area with so much to do and not crowded at all.  One of the mornings we had the whole beach virtually all to ourselves.  The only real downside was finding a mouse in the master bedroom as we were getting ready for bed!  I caught it with a cooking pot and a baking sheet, and let it go out by the road.  The house was clean and well maintained so we're still not sure how it got in there, perhaps through an open window is our guess.

We continued our drive down the coast to San Jose to spend some time with my parents.  Our drive took us across the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.  We spent more time listening to the Harry Potter books on CD.  Our oldest two children are finally old enough to get into the books, so we've been listening to the first few books and then watching the movies (fast forwarding through any parts that are too scary).  We've made it through the first two books and movies so far.

Tillamook Cheese Factory

"Five little monkeys sleeping in a bed.  One fell out and bumped her head." 

Splashing in the ocean in their clothes

Catching more waves (in swimsuits this time)

Plenty of sand to go around

Whitney the mermaid

Daddy and Mikey on our way to the lighthouse

Stout Grove in Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park

Driving through a tree

Approaching the Golden Gate Bridge