100 Candles, 8 Special Visits

We were excited to go to Utah to celebrate the 100th birthday of our very special Great Grandma June. She is Tanner and Dallin's Great, Great Grandma!! We haven't really been to Utah in 5 years because none of our immediate family lives there (we drove through one day during our move to MN, but that doesn't really count). We were able to spend 5 days there, and make 8 special visits: Cammie, Janae, BYU, Robertson Cousins, Zavoral Clan, Davidson Bunch, Temple Square and the Wild Wentworths. We did a ton of stuff, so this is a long post!

We had a 7 am flight to Utah on Weds, June 22. In order to make our first day more doable (we live 2 hours from the airport), we drove up to Minneapolis on Tues night and stayed in a cheap hotel.

We had some little backpacks for the boys with lots of things to keep them entertained, so they did really well on the plane! First flight for them since last summer!

To help keep costs down, we rented a car from Turo, a website where local people rent out their own cars while you're in the area. We had a very small, beat up car, but it was great saving $300 on rental car costs. This is one of the pictures we took for liability, I don't have a picture of the entire car.

As soon as we got our car and got changed, we went straight to Cafe Rio to get our lunch food. YUM! Then we met my dear friend, Cammie, at Liberty Park in SLC. Cammie and I studied elementary music education together at BYU, and were partners in our internship to Thailand way back in 2005. It was so wonderful to be with her again and talk about being music teachers and mommies.

Cammie's oldest and my oldest were a little shy to play with each other at first, but then they became little buddies playing in the splash pad!

That afternoon, we made it down to Eagle Mountain to Janae's house!! I was so excited to be with her, because I haven't seen her in over 3 years!

Her children are so beautiful. We all had fun visiting late into the night. We got to stay at their house the whole time we were in Utah. So good to be back with her again, I love her to pieces and can't survive without her! Our husbands had a lot of fun playing drums in their basement. Thank you, Janae, for letting us take over your house!

On Thursday morning, we headed to BYU. Jeremy and I knew the campus has undergone some changes, but we were not prepared for how different things looked. It was a very weird feeling to see the dorms where we met (Deseret Towers) completely gone, replaced by new, huger, more ominous dorms in its place. Two main roads that we walked down everyday were also gone! We felt so lost trying to find our way around campus. We didn't get the nostalgic feeling we were hoping for.

But after the shock of the changes, we got to go on a private tour of the campus on golf carts! Jeremy set it up several weeks ahead, and it was neat to see all the things that were familiar to us, and to learn a few new things about the campus. The boys learned a lot about all the buildings we used to go into everyday. And we showed Dallin this famous chief statue because the man who sculpted it was named Dallin (last name).

Tanner was really excited to see the huge business school building with his name on it.

That morning, before the tour, Tanner expressed some frustration. "Ugh, when are we going to the football game! I think it started already!!" We were confused, and asked him, what football game? He replied, "You said we were going to BYU!!" We forgot to realize that Tanner and Dallin only know BYU as a sports team, haha. He was pretty bummed to find out there was no game that day. We told the tour guide this, and he decided to take us down to the field. That was soooo nice of him! We got to walk right up to the field. A worker on the field hollered to us and tossed us an old ball that she found! It was a kid's ball. So that was a blessing that totally made Tanner's day. Whew!

Tanner with his ball!

After the really fun tour, we ate lunch at the Wilk! Come to find out, they now serve Dole Pineapple Soft Serve Ice Cream Floats!! For the longest time, these things were only sold in Disney Land and in Hawaii. So we hope all the current BYU students understand how lucky they are!!! 

After lunch, we enjoyed the updated museum called the Bean Life Science Museum at BYU. It is a lot like a natural history museum, totally free!

The famous Liger!

I was really impressed with the new exhibits.

Then we rushed over to the BYU Sports Museum/Hall of Fame, trying to hurry before Dallin fell asleep for his afternoon nap.

We stayed long enough to get a sucker and picture.

On the way back to Janae's house, we showed the boys our old apartments and the new Provo City Center Temple, that used to be a tabernacle where we met in for many concerts and church meetings. We were telling Tanner how certain buildings had changed, and where we used to walk, and where we first held hands and kissed. Finally Tanner yelled, "You guys, I can't remember all of this stuff! Stop telling me everything you used to do, I'm forgetting it all!!" Lol, what a sweet kid, trying to actually remember everything we were telling him. We explained that all he had to do was say "Cool, Mom and Dad" so we could feel good inside, and that he didn't need to remember anything we said, haha.

We got some rest at Janae's place. Then headed out to a BBQ at my cousin Justin's house! I  got to see my cousins that I haven't seen for over 3.5 years! All of our toddler children played really well together! They had fun pretending to be chickens in Justin's chicken coop. I got to be the farmer that fed them, hee hee.

Tanner remembered cousin Branden from our Colorado visit last year. 

We all visited until it was dark. It was really nice to catch up on everyone's lives and play with all our littles!

On Friday morning, we met up with the Zavoral Clan. On the way, the boys played catch in the car with their new football. 

It was awesome to see Matt for the first time since he's been home from his mission.

Grandma Z had all the kids come to this Family Fun Zone. It was a lot of crazy bounce houses and jungle gyms. My favorite area was the blast zone where we got to shoot people with foam balls. I think Tanner and Dallin liked the bounce houses the best. 

We looked funny carrying babies on us throughout the wild games! I carried my baby niece Lucy in my Mei Tei carrier, and I was in heaven! It was nice holding babies and giving them away when they were sad. These mamas were troopers with taking care of their newborns amid everything else that was going on!

Can you find Jeremy, Matt, Gramz and Tanner?

Jon and Hazel had a perfect way to hold their ammunition.

Dallin was the only little willing to be a target.

Part of the family day was swimming. I'm surprised little Dallin didn't fall asleep in the water, he was exhausted from missing his nap.

Jon and Tanner on a water slide.

Can you spot 9 of our family members in this picture?

After the family fun, we had lunch together at Country Buffet.

Then we all got ready for a big family photo shoot. Of course, Dallin zonked out on our way to the photo shoot. In fact, I was really nervous about the shoot in general, but I managed to go in without expecting anything, and virtually all I said during the shoot was "cheese!" For being a girl with many opinions and anxieties, particularly with photo shoots, I consider this a huge accomplishment. Dallin wasn't his normal happy self during the shoot, but we managed to get a few grins out of him, which was so lucky! The photos turned out great!

In our funny face photo, we later realized that all the original Zavoral siblings made essentially the same face!

We came back to the Zavoral pad, where we put the kids to bed and played family jeopardy.

The next day was Grandma June's big celebration! We played and visited at Uncle Jim's house for the morning and afternoon. Lots of great people and great activities!

Jeremy and I did really well in the horseshoe competition, and made it through 3 out of 4 rounds!

We took some time to visit with Grandma June. Tanner and Dallin made her cards before our trip, and so they were excited to give them to her. She loved them both, and giggled at all the right places in the letters. (Dallin was asleep when we gave the cards to Grandma. Sorry, DJ. I didn't want to leave you out, but I knew if we waited until you woke up, there would be too much going on).

Tanner told me word for word what to write to Grandma.

The napping room. 

We had several new babies around Grandma during the day! Weird to think these two people are 100 years apart!

That evening, there was a special patio dinner for Grandma. Then we came into the church and enjoyed a live band, dancing and cake! 

I was so glad that the boys had no reservations about dancing at the party.

I was super excited about dancing, and Jeremy was a good sport to dance with me over and over again.

One of my nieces kept coming to ask me to dance. We had some great bonding moments on the dance floor!

That night, we played pool and visited with our siblings before going back to Janae's house.

On Sunday morning we went to church and witnessed the baby blessing of our niece Zoey. Jeremy got to participate as one of the priesthood holders, so that was pretty awesome.

After church, we had a nice long brunch with family at Uncle Jim's house again. Tanner really enjoyed playing with our cousin Aaron and a couple of distant cousins. He was very upset when it was time to leave.

We drove to Temple Square to show the boys a few sites there. Dallin got a perfect nap during the drive and didn't wake up until we were walking up the ramp to the Christus. The statue of Christ is surrounded by a mural of the stars and planets. Dallin seemed mesmerized opening his eyes to the stars and planets, which are one of his favorite things! The boys also liked hearing the recording of the Savior saying that he is the Light and Life of the world and the One who has created all things.

We walked around the temple grounds and spent a little bit of time in the visitor's center. Then we had to say goodbye to Uncle Matt and Grmapz and Gramz. Before heading back to the car, we got some nice photos in front of the Salt Lake City Temple. Tanner recognized it from several pictures we have, and the following week in Sunday School, he yelled proudly, "I've been to that place!!!" The temple is where we, as Mormons, go to learn about our Savior, Jesus Christ, to make special promises with our Heavenly Father, and to feel the Holy Spirit. It is also where special ordinances such as marriage takes place.

After that, we met up with the Wentworths!! They moved from Minnesota to Utah about a year ago, and it was so fun to be with them again. Tanner was really excited to play with his best bud again.

After a yummy dinner with the Wentworths, we got on a plane back to Minnesota. We got home around 2 am. The next morning, I taught some music classes at an autism camp, which was so fun! After the camp, I was really tired, and in the process of loading up my car, I lost my purse. I looked everywhere for it! I said a prayer and got a strong impression that I put it in the trunk, and while my trunk was open and I stepped back into the building, my purse got stolen. I knew this was God speaking to me. I was trying not to panic, while at the same time realizing that I really needed my purse because it had my car keys and everything- and we were leaving for DC in just two days, so not much time to replace everything. But I also felt like even though it got stolen, the purse was still nearby. So I listened to my Heavenly Father, and stayed as calm as I could. I really had faith that I would still find my purse. And sure enough, about 30 minutes later, someone backed her car out of the parking lot and found my purse and everything in it stashed under her car! 

Someone did steal it, and must have gotten spooked, so they threw it away trying not to get caught. Even though everything was still in my purse, we made a police report, and come to find out it was the 3rd case that week of similar type theft on that street. I felt so blessed to get my purse back! I'm so glad that something happened to make the thief leave my purse and run, God is good! And of course, I've been much more careful with what I do with my purse.

Our Utah trip whizzed by, and before we could do much laundry and take Tanner out for his birthday dinner, it was time for our DC trip! Writing this blog post has been a good chance to actually reflect on the trip. I am so glad we were able to spend time with family and friends, and to be with grandma June to celebrate her amazing life!

Yep, Folks, he's FIVE

Tanner turned five years old on June 28, 2016. Hard to believe for some, but I have been calling him five for a couple of months already, shame on me! So it seemed to me like it took forever for him to finally be five in real life. 

His birthday landed in-between two huge trips for our family, so we did most of our celebrations before the trips on June 18. On this day, we were very fortunate to join a group with our town Chamber to visit a dairy farm! The whole thing was free for us, and we all had a blast!! The day began with a school bus ride out to the farm. We were surprised at how much the boys loved the bus ride, but then we quickly remembered of our first times on a school bus as a kid. They are pretty awesome! Tanner kept hollering "We're up so high!" and Dallin would yell "We're going super fast!!!" Tanner liked how there were no seat belts and how the windows open by sliding down, and on and on about all the little details of how a school bus is different from other buses he's been on. The ride was about 20 minutes both ways, and a definite highlight of the day!

"Mommy, this is my first time ever being on a REAL school bus!!!" 

At the farm, we enjoyed a pancake breakfast, bounce house, games, tractors, petting zoo, hayrides and more!

Dallin loved petting every animal, talked to them, tried to feed them and nuzzle them. We would have spent much longer in the petting zoo if it weren't for Tanner stressing out about the possibility that Dallin might get bit or scratched. Despite our reassurances to Tanner, he kept his distance from the animals, watching worriedly from a distance. We had to pry Dallin away from the baby chicks. He LOVED them! Still cracking up about how different our two kids are when it comes to animals.

Here's a big play area of corn to dig in!

Can you see the boys "driving" the huge combine?

After a fun filled morning, we came home and rested. Later, we had a simple dinner with just the four of us.

Tan Man chose to open presents before cake. This didn't surprise me, as we have figured out that gift giving/receiving is one of Tanner's love languages. (The book called Love Languages for children has been very helpful for me!) Knowing this, I did several things for Tanner this birthday that I don't normally do- like wrapping the presents. Hey, don't judge. Presents have never been that important to me, and I personally hate the suspense involved when the gifts are wrapped!

He chose an ice cream cake from DQ, and it was so yummy! We'll have to do this again, it's a perfect way to do a summer birthday cake. And I was shocked that it was Jeremy's first time ever eating an ice cream cake. Glad we got that taken care of!

I cannot get enough of Tanner's smile! 

Tanner licked his candles, and Dallin thought this meant you can eat the candles. We didn't realize until too late that Dallin had chewed and swallowed a big chuck of this candle!

On Tanner's actual birthday, we worked on his birthday service project. He chose to make more gift bags for the homeless, which is something we started at Christmas. If your family is looking for a simple way to help others in your community, this is a good one to try because all ages can do it. 

Here's how it works: Tanner and I went to the dollar store to get items to fill four small bags (old purses and lunch bags). A lot of what Tanner wanted to buy involved having a house to use the items, so I think he learned a little more about what it actually means to be homeless. Items that we settled on included tissues, pen, paper, granola bars, crackers, water bottles, fruit snacks, Spider man wash cloth, and hand sanitizer. Later, as a family, we filled the bags with the items. Then, we stashed the bags in our car. When we see people asking for money on the streets, we get really excited because we have something for them! We hand the person one of the gift bags. Tanner was really happy to give away the first bag from his birthday project! So far, every experience giving these away has been extremely positive because the recipients have been so grateful. I hope this helps the boys learn the joy of helping others.

Also, on his real birthday, we babysat one of Tanner's good friends and enjoyed free school lunch!

That evening, we took Tanner to Apple-bee's for his official birthday dinner.

Dallin wanted to make sure everyone knew he was three and Tanner was five.

Oh, what an amazing little human being we have as our oldest son! Tanner is inquisitive, silly and smart. Tanner loves sports, especially running. He says he can run as fast as a cheetah! He also really likes baseball, and keeps up with his soccer, football and basketball skills, too. He is fast on his training wheel bike and might start learning how to ride as a real two wheeler soon. T can sound out words to write messages and signs to us. He likes making up songs and rhymes all the time. He improvises on the piano and guitar and will chant made-up rhymes while playing alone or going potty. 

Our Tan Man loves giving and receiving gifts and talking with us one on one. As Tanner would put it, he is very "talkful." He makes us laugh with all the thoughtful questions and inquisitive statements and ideas that he has! He has an unusually great memory, pays close attention to detail, loves planning ahead, and is really good at describing things. 

Tanner loves making and creating things, drawing, painting, and building- always busy on a project, working hard to make it "perfect." There is no need to hesitate with this label, Tanner is a perfectionist, it is a constant struggle for him to accept his work to be finished under-par.

I love how his independence is growing. Recently, he gets himself ready for the day, helps his little brother get ready, gets both him and Dallin a bowl of cereal for breakfast, and turns on a show for the two of them to watch. (He's been able to get dressed and turn on the TV for a year or two, but the breakfast skill is recent.) He also figured out how to unbuckle his own seat belt and Dallin's seat-belt, so I have one less step to do with getting out of the car. (It's the little things!) He is also getting good at reading calendars, and loves checking off each day and making future plans.

He is doing better and better with having playmates over (sometimes allowing the friend to have a say in what happens as they play) and he is increasing his social circle. He continues to get mad at Dallin and punches him a lot (for which our current consequence is making him swallow vinegar), but Tanner is getting better at helping DJ and playing more cooperatively with him. The two of them are best buds, and on good days can play for hours without any arguments. 

At Tanner's 5 year old check up, he finally bounced up to the 50th percentile for height (he's always hovered around 25th and 30th percentile). He is a pretty healthy boy, too. I don't recall any major illnesses this year, only the common cold a couple of times, and didn't get them as bad as others did. Two things I've noticed changing with Tanner's features are more dimples and lighter eye color- there's green and hazel in them these days, along with the beautiful brown. And I'm so happy he still has curly hair! 

We are continuing to find ways to help T with his many anxieties. As a result, we have made the decision to enroll him in a second year of preschool this fall instead of starting kindergarten. We think it will help him be more prepared emotionally for grade school, and in the long run just be better for him overall.

Although there are days where I pull my hair out trying to understand and help this kid, I am so happy to have Tanner David in my life. I hope he knows how much we love him!! Happy Birthday, my Little One.