August - September ... a collage

I have been lazy about updating this blog. Of course I want to keep it updated, because for the last few years it is the closest thing I have to a journal. 

Life is good.

At the end of August we drove to Salt Lake City for a Maeser reunion. We love Utah. We love the canyons and we love our people... and we love the that we get to spend time together as a couple because family, usually Grandma, is so willing to look after little N in our absence.  While there we also drove up to Boise for the weekend. I reconnected with the Smarts. I have not really spent time with them since 2007. There oldest son was in kindergarten that year... he just started high school. It is so shocking to get old. I don't think about 5 years... 7 years... 10 years... until I see a teenager that I knew as a baby.  I don't think anyone realizes that it will happen to them, but it happens to us all.

At the end of this collage you will find a few photos taken last weekend in Houston. Little N and I flew there for the weekend to say goodbye to my parents. They are leaving October 6th to serve a full time mission for our church in Santiago, Chile. They will be gone for 18 months. I am proud of them for making the sacrifice. I can tell it is a scary thing for my mom. She is frantically trying to learn Spanish, and she mentions her Spanish speaking weakness several times a day. It is something beyond her control and she really likes to be in control... Missions are great for getting people out of their comfort zones. I think my dad is just excited. He does not seem to stressed about the details. He was just happy to have us there for a visit. He is magical with Little N. He rocked Little N to sleep every night without a bottle. Thanks to my dad we have finally eliminated his night time bottle.  

Little N and his daddy up Millcreek Canyon

Twilight Concert series. We saw Head & the Heart. I love music, and I used to love going to the free concerts at the Gallivan Center when I was single. The lead singer must have told us 5 times that music brings people together... He is right, but I also thought that he was either stoned or suffering from dementia. 

Little N and I sharing a lemonade at the Farmer's Market in downtown Boise. I LOVED it! and I LOVED Boise. I will be trying to convince Nate that we should live there for the next 2 years. He's sold on it as much as he is the other cities we are interested in. His favorite is still SLC, which would be fine. Like I said, I love SLC for many many reasons... but... I do hate the pollution... and I have mixed feeling on the LDS/and non LDS culture there. It annoys me how religion plays such a big role in the politics. It annoys me that my religion is always on trial in the local media. It annoys me how much the church is hated by those outside of it... but I do love SLC... I just think I like Boise a little more. 

When I used to hang out with these two kids they were Little N's age. I remember them as babies. I can't believe they are so old... and they are such good kids. 

all the Smarts and us...  Nate even made it in the photo on accident.

Little N's cousins. He LOVED LOVED LOVED playing with them on Labor Day.  Everywhere he went his entourage of cousins followed. I wish I could have them around to play with him all of the time. 

Little N with his closest boy cousin at the feet of their great, great, great grandfather... 

If you are a Maeser you get to have you family reunions at the Karl G. Maeser Memorial building on the BYU campus. 

This is Beatrice and Wolfgang... Wolfgang is a distant Maeser relative. He visited from Germany, which prompted the Maeser reunion. Every day someone in the family was responsible for entertaining them. Nate and I took them on a short hike up to Ensign Peak and to lunch. That night Lori made tin foil dinners that we ate around a fire up Millcreek Canyon... with S'mores for dessert. 

Fire in Millcreek Canyon for Wolfgang and Beatrice. Nate and I stayed until we could show little N a real star. It was his first. He is usually asleep before dark, especially in the summer. He has a humidifier that projects fake stars on the ceiling... He loves those fake stars. Other than 'cars', 'stars; is his favorite word to say.  

Since last summer when little N was 8 months old I have taken a goodbye picture with Nate, his parents, his boy and his dog. I am going to keep taking this photo every visit. 

Do you remember the play group I joined... HOAA - House Officers Association Alliance... The play group is for the families of medical students and residents... anyways little N and I went apple picking a few weeks ago at Ditmar's Orchard. We also went on a tractor ride and ate homemade donuts. Unfortunately because of last winter they have a poor crop this year, also they were hit with a really bad hail storm the night before. Most of the apples were small, rotten or damaged. It was still fun for Little N to run around looking for apples to pick. I kept saying, ewww... no, not that one. 

I like this picture because you can see the sky. It was a perfectly crisp fall day. I wish wish wish we got 6 months of fall weather. 

I spent 3 full days gathering and preparing Little N's old items for a consignment sale. He kept sitting in this chair... He loved it. He spent a lot of time in that chair as a baby. Everyday when I showered he sat in that chair... when I made dinner... he sat in that chair... when Nate and I tried to eat dinner, we tried to get him to sat in that chair. 

September 11th Memorial at Omaha's Memorial Park. Each flag has attached to it the name and something about a person who died on that tragic day 13 years ago. 

Omaha had a "Touch a Truck" fund raiser. There were trucks, tractors and emergency vehicles available for kids to crawl on and sit in. Little N was terrified. It was so loud. Rows of huge vehicles with kids sitting in the drivers seats. The noise from all those horns at once scared little N, and he wanted nothing to do with the trucks... even though "car" is his favorite word. He says it over and over and over. He did like the bubbles and the bouncy house... so it wasn't a total fail.  

While in Boise I was complaining to Sunny about Little N's disdain for people food. I said, "I wish they had packets that I could put people food in to trick him into eating it. She said, "they probably do"... and immediately found some on Amazon. This was the first attempt, Butternut Squash soup. 

Little N putting dirt on my mom. She kept saying, "No, you cannot bury me". He had fun with them. We walked on their subdivisions nature trail to a bridge over the bayou. Our goal was to feed the turtles, but there were only 3 turtles. We fed them. It was 100% humidity. Even though Little N had lots of fun, he got heat rash and a really bad diaper rash. Im convinced to never live in Houston. I think my brother said, 'don't say never'....Guess what Jake,  NEVER!!! I love you all, but you can keep that humidity all to your selves. 

My sister Mandy's inlaws have a really nice pool. Little N stripped down before I knew what he was doing. We didn't have a swimming diaper so he went naked. He had a blast, but this is the only modest picture of the boy.  I think I look weird, but I wanted to have a photo of Little N swimming... and like I said, this is the best I can do.