Lone Peak 2014

If you've followed our blog for very long, you know how much we love to hike to our favorite spot on Lone Peak.  It's an idyllic setting near a river and only accessible via a strenuous backpacking trip in.  This was the seventh annual trip for Taylor, Parker and me.  Each of the other years we've had at least one other person come up with us.  Christi has been three or four times.  Christi's brother Matt and my brother Tyler have also been on occasion.  This was the first year it was just us three Green boys:).

We start at about 5500 feet elevation and hike in about 2.5 miles up to around 7700 feet elevation.  For several years we have talked about how fun it would be to make a multi-day trip of it.  We could camp at our normal spot, and use it as a base camp to go further up the mountain.  There's a lake at around 10,000 feet elevation that we've wanted to get to.  It's called Lake Hardy.  So this year we decided to do a three-night trip!  Day one we would hike in.  Day two we would visit the waterfall we always go to and spend some time relaxing.  Day three we would hike up to Lake Hardy.  Day four we would hike back out.

With such a long trip, our packs were substantially heavier than usual.  Parker's and Taylor's were about 42 and 47 pounds, and mine was 55 pounds.  Boy could we feel the extra weight!

Sophi wanted in on the pictures!

Parker is teasing me about the width of my stomach in this one. Thanks, bud!

We got up to camp and started collecting firewood.  Taylor found a piece that my brother, Tyler, had stashed the year before.  Tyler had climbed about 40 feet up into a tree to dislodge a huge piece of dead wood that could have eventually fallen on someone:

Most of our meals were freeze-dried backpacking food.  Just add boiling water and you can quickly have beef stroganoff, turkey tetrazzini, chicken and mashed potatoes, or a wide variety of other dishes.  We had s'mores every night.  For our hike to Lake Hardy, we even packed in a full loaf of bread and some peanut butter and honey for sandwiches.  Delicious!

On the morning of day two, we had one of my favorite moments of the trip.  Remember, whatever we had at camp, we had to pack in.  Every ounce counted.  We strained and sweated to make it up that mountain with the bare necessities of life!  So I found it rather hilarious when I glanced over at Parker and saw that he was APPLYING HIS HAIR GEL!  Seriously, we did not see one other person the entire time we were up there.  A few on the hike up and the hike down, but NOBODY for the duration of our stay.  He does look good in his pictures!  Go, pretty boy:)

On the morning of day two, the boys decided to do a little beautification of our campsite.  They did a really great job!  The leveled out our sleeping areas and even cleared another area.  We decided we could comfortably fit seven people up there.  The boys hope to someday bring their kids and they hope that Grandpa Green (ME!) can go with them:)  We'll see how the old back is holding up at that point.  Here is what the campsite looked like at the end of our trip.  They did a really nice job!

In the afternoon we visited horsetail falls.  As is our tradition, we each got in the water.  Usually I wait until the boys have gone, and not wanting to feel like a wimp, I then follow suit.  This time I was bold and was the first guy in!  Notice the progression on our faces as we advance from anticipation to reality as the cold water hits us.  Pretty fun!

On day three we attempted to get to Lake Hardy.  We had a map and the GPS on my phone.  We easily found the first trail and started along it.  This trail was supposed to intersect with another trail that would lead up to the lake.  We hiked over four miles trying to find the right trail, but unfortunately never did:(  We were able to see some parts of the Lone Peak wilderness that we had never been through.  We were also treated to some beautiful views we hadn't seen before.  We were disappointed and pretty tired, and for awhile, we got pretty discouraged as well.  Fortunately, a good dose of humor helped our spirits rise.  Every year at Lone Peak there is some sort of mishap or funny story.  From a lost sleeping bag, to keys locked in the car, we have a memory that we enjoy from each year up there.  This was the year of the cairn.  

Towards the beginning of our hike, we had come to a bare granite face.  The trail kind of disappeared here and we searched for where it picked up again on the other side of the granite.  Fortunately, there was a small cairn marking a path.  We began down that path with high hopes.  In order to help some future traveler, Taylor added to the cairn, making it more clear.  What a helpful young man!  As we followed the path, it started to head downhill instead of up and also away from where we needed to be going.  But it was such a clearly defined trail, we thought it had to be the one on the map.  It's very difficult on a paper map to clearly explain the three dimensional surface of a mountain.  We figured the trail might have to go down and through a ravine before it started to head back up .  We followed it for almost two miles until we finally became sure we were on the wrong path.  By this time, we were pretty bummed.  We sat down and had lunch by another river and decided to head back.  At this point, my phone battery died, so we no longer had GPS.  We knew how to get back to camp, but we were really struggling to find the path to Lake Hardy.

As we headed back (and UP) towards where we had come from, the boys pretty much decided that we were too tired to look for the Lake Hardy trail at this point.  Even if we found it, it was another 1.5 miles and 2000 feet elevation gain to get to the Lake, and we were already pretty worn out.  But I couldn't quite give it up yet.  After backtracking over a mile, I saw a place that might be a path.  I told the boys to give me 10 more minutes to see if I could figure out the right way to go.  With renewed energy, I started up a small ravine.  Bare granite surfaces made it hard to tell if there was a path, or just a small wash from runoff in heavy rains.  I hiked out of sight of the boys, continuing to circle around.  I was about to give up myself, when I found several cairns marking a trail!  I was so excited.  I called to the boys at the top of my lungs:  "Come up here!  I found some cairns!  This must be the trail!"  They dutifully made their way up to where I was.  "Look!"  I said.  "Look at these cairns and this clearly defined trail!"  Taylor gazed at it for a moment with an almost dazed look.  Then his face screwed up with a sort of tormented rage.  "I built this cairn!  It's the one  I built!!!"  Then, as he kicked one rock at a time off of the pile, he repeated, "I put THIS one on.  And THIS one on.  And THIS one on!  This is the cairn I built!!!"

We all stood there for a moment in silence.  Then the humor of the situation hit us and we all began to crack up.  It made for a terrifically light ending to a day that had been going downhill (no pun intended:) fast.  We tried to look at the bright side of things.  We were on our favorite mountain, camping with no responsibilities, spending time with one of our favorite groups of people.  We decided to try for Lake Hardy again next year and headed back to camp as we continued to chuckle about the cairn:)

Hard to tell from this angle, but these logs were about 10 feet above a river.
Mom would have been nervous watching her boys cross!

The cairn!

During some exploring, the boys had found a really great swimming hole on the river near our campsite.  It was icy cold, but still made for a refreshing end to a long day:

We finished up the day with some card games and a great dinner.

Thanks so much, Christi, for letting us have a wonderful trip together.  We created memories that will last a lifetime!

-Jer

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Can't believe our firstborn is 15 years old!  He is anxious to get his driver's permit.  He'll be in high school this year.  He continues to amaze his parents with the joy he brings to our family.  We love you, Taylor.  Happy Birthday!  (OK, so this would have been better if I'd posted it on July 4th, but it can get kind of crazy around here:)

Jer

Timing

We seem to have a knack for lousy timing.  Christi developed vertigo while I was still in Beijing on the way home from our trip to get Cali.  Thinking it might be a stroke, she rode in an ambulance to the emergency room. Graci got the flu, had a precipitous drop in blood pressure and had to be life flighted while I was in Colorado for a sales meeting.  Two weeks ago, Jesi broke her foot while Taylor, Parker and I were in the Lone Peak Wilderness with a minimum two-hour backpack trek out.  

Tonight is the last night of Christi's trip to New York.  She is on a plane home as I type.  The kids and I had just had a family council and planned the rest of the evening.  It would consist of trying to put the house back together before mom got home, me making a yummy dinner (egg mcmuffins!) and some relaxation with a Cosby show to end the evening. We closed with a prayer, went to our respective assignments and promptly heard a scream of pain from Xander.  It seems a chair jumped out and mugged him.  So here we are in the emergency room.  We haven't seen the doctor yet, but I'm guessing 3-5 stitches will be in order.

What is it with us and emergency room trips when only one parent is present?

Jer

Finally!

Guys generally lie about their height.  Measured with no shoes on, I'm 6' 1.25".  I can't tell you how many times some guy has told me he's 6' 2" while I'm looking down at least three inches to make eye contact.  I guess there's some leeway when you consider how much difference shoes can make.  I generally say I'm 6' 2" as well, which I am on a basketball court.  Regardless of how you measure, Taylor recently hit a milestone he has been pining after for a long time.  He is now taller than me:)  I must admit it's strange having to look up when I'm talking to him.  Way to go T!  I look forward to tracking your blocked shots next season!!!

-Dad

Oh, Elli...

Conner's piano teacher in China is also a world-class performer.  This evening he is performing at a piano festival in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  With such a rare opportunity to visit with someone from his home town, we decided Conner should attend the concert.  Taking Graci along as an interpreter, Christi flew out with Conner on Tuesday.  Christi's sister, Leslie, and sister-in-law, Megan, are also with them.  They figured if they were going anyway, they might as well go a few days early and stay in New York:)  So they are there, and I am here, parenting eight kids on my own.  They left Tuesday afternoon and will get back tomorrow night.  Fun trip!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Elli has definitely kept things interesting!  I was actually at scout camp with Parker on Monday and Tuesday, and didn't get back until 1:00 AM Wednesday morning.  Christi was already gone and her parents were staying overnight to watch the other kids until I returned home.  About 8:10 on Wednesday morning, Sophi woke me up.  I looked at the clock and suddenly realized that Elli's school bus would be arriving at 8:15.  Absolutely zero chance of getting her ready in time.  So I took the walk of shame down the driveway and told the driver that as a result of mom being out of town, the next five days would be absolute chaos and would she please forgive me for not having Elli ready.  She did.

I got Elli ready for school, which has a significantly different result from when Christi gets Elli ready for school.  The primary difference is in the hairdo.  I got here there an hour late for a three-hour summer school session, but it really is good for her to get the interaction with other people.  Thursday morning, you can bet I had her ready on time!

Elli loves to play the piano.  When we first moved in, we purchased a used electric keyboard and put it in her room.  It took her less than a week to completely destroy it.  She pulled it over, we set it back up. She knocked it sideways, we put it back.  She used it to create deep new designs in the drywall and we finally removed it.  It's completely hashed.  We then let her play the piano we had in the exercise room. (I know…exercise room?  We're still settling in, OK?)  I put a lock on the door, and we now had two rooms that would work to keep her in: her bedroom and the piano/exercise room.  Only problem?  The exercise room is right next to Taylor's and Parker's room and it started to drive them crazy having Elli pound away at the piano.  So we decided we would move the piano to the play room.  But there's no door on the play room, and letting Elli play on the piano there would be a recipe for disaster.  What to do?

Aha!  Let's put an actual piano in Elli's room.  A keyboard is no match for her destructive powers, but a solid piano would resist her wiles.  We found an old studio piano for only $300!  It actually played well, but it was pretty beat up and needed a couple of hours of work before it would be ready for Elli.  One of the key things it needed was a mechanism to lock it at night so Elli can't start playing when everyone's asleep.  I had the piano delivered on Thursday afternoon.  I didn't have time to do all of the work on it before she went to bed, so I put on a simple latch to keep it shut.  It was one of those spring-loaded eye and hook systems.  I put one on both side of the key cover and thought it would foil Elli's attempts to get it open.  Boy was I wrong!  I made the mistake of letting her play it for a few minutes, thus alerting her to the fact that there was a piano in her room.  She enjoyed it, and even posed for a picture:

When I locked it and tried to tuck her in for the night, she went absolutely bonkers.  She was SO mad that she couldn't get into the piano keys.  She cried and raged and cried and raged.  Finally she settled down and went to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I walked out of my room and into the kitchen.  Parker asked, "Did you hear Elli playing the piano this morning?"  Uh-oh!  I hurried down to her room and found this:

Like I said, it needed some work before Elli had unrestricted access to it.  In addition to pulling the keys out of place, she had also pulled off the little felt circles that go underneath each key and chewed on each, dusty, nasty one.  One of many reasons for the title of this post!

Parker jumped in and volunteered to fix it for me.  It really didn't take too long:

Once the keys were back in place, I put Elli in the exercise room with some toys so I could finish the work on the piano.  In conjunction with the piano in her room, we moved the other piano out of the exercise room.  Once again, Elli was raging mad to go into the room where she was used to a piano and not find one there. Poor girl.  I spent a couple of hours fixing it up the new one and putting on a better locking system.  when I went back to check on Elle, she had torn apart much of the SofTiles floor:

With the piano fixed, Elli was VERY excited to get back in her room and play.  She loves having it in there.  I let her go in her room and she made a beeline for the old ivories.  I left her in there for awhile, forgetting a very important rule:  Never leave Elli alone if she's dressed in clothes she can remove!  Sure enough, when I returned, she had removed all of her clothing including her diaper.  Let's just say I had a nice mess to clean up.  I carried her upstairs to the girls' bathroom for a bath.  Elli usually loves bathing, and this was no exception.  Early on in our tenure in this home, Elli took apart the drain plug in that bathtub.  At first she would unscrew one particular part of it and put it in her mouth during every bath.  (This would also drain the tub on her, but she never seemed to figure out the correlation.)  Finally, she lost the part, and the plug no longer worked correctly.  If you set it gently in the right place, it would do a reasonable job of keeping the water in, but with Elli in the tub, it would not stay there very long.

So I put her in the bath and started it.  While it was filling I unloaded a bunch of groceries I had just purchased.  I went back in to check, and the water was above her belly button.  She generally enjoys soaking in the tub for awhile, so I turned off the water and went down to clean up her room.  A few minutes later I hear Sophi start yelling for me.  "Dad?"  "DAD?"  DAAAAAAAAD!!!???!!!???!!!"  This is not an uncommon experience, as once she realizes she doesn't know exactly where a parent is, Sophi tends to freak out.  I called back, "I'm in Elli's room."  I heard her make her way down the stairs and through the hallway.  She walked in:  "Elli's taking a bath with no water!"

So I interrupted my delightful cleaning project in Elli's room and took on the delightful task of bathing her.  In the end everything got cleaned up, Elli was wearing a onesie that discourages disrobing and I got dinner on the table.  Is it bad that it was almost 8pm before I fed my kids?

Anyway, with Elli around, there is always something to do.  Boredom is not a problem for the parents of kids with special needs!

-Jer

A few bonus pics of Elli:

-At church, trying to drink like Soph?

-Chillin' in the pool:

Dressed up for her school play:

 

An alternative to bathing?

High Adventure

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go with Taylor on a high adventure trip with the Boy Scouts.  We attended the Teton High Adventure Base just outside of Jackson, Wyoming.  What a blast!    (It's no wonder they didn't have a problem getting adults to volunteer for this one.  We had 7 scouts and 6 adults!)  It was a three night trip from June 18-June 21.  The weather in Wyoming is rather unpredictable in June, and on the way up we thought we were really in for it.  We drove through a massive snow storm as we traveled there.  We were all a bit nervous as we thought of the upcoming whitewater rafting trip:)  As it turned out, the weather warmed up quickly and we had a ball.

The first day we participated in a COPE course.  It was a challenging and fun adventure.  The first step was to climb the "giant's ladder."  This was a a series of six 'rungs', each about 5 feet above the one below.  The rungs were not held steady to the ground, but instead hung by ropes from a support above. This made them swing wildly as you climbed.  Of course we were harnessed in and supported by belay from below, but is was still a major challenge.  Taylor got up pretty quickly.  I huffed and puffed my way through, but finally reached the top.  At the top we were 35 feet above the ground.  We then went through multiple obstacles at this high elevation.  The final reward was a trip down a zip line.  Lots of fun.  I'm proud to say that though I barely made it, I made it!  Here's a picture and video of Taylor:

That afternoon we did downhill mountain biking.  This was the highlight of the trip.  We rented REALLY awesome and REALLY, REALLY expensive mountain bikes.  We took the ski lift up and then rode down.  We had so much fun!  We spent most of the time on a run with a lot of jumps.  These were tabletop jumps with a long flat surface in between the up ramp and the down ramp.  After the first few runs, both of us started catching air on most of the jumps.  I haven't had so much fun on a bike since I was a teenager.  Taylor was pretty aggressive.  He took one big fall which resulted in several scrapes, but he got right back on and went to town.  He started getting a lot of air.  Great memories!
Here we are in our gear:

The next day we took a beautiful hike around Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park.  It was eight miles round trip and we kept up a pretty good pace.  In the end we were rewarded with a magnificent waterfall and a view over the lake at Inspiration Point:

That afternoon we went whitewater rafting.  Fun trip, but a bit too cold to fully enjoy it.  The weather was ok, but the water in the Snake River was brutal.  The last morning we went on a more enjoyable float down a different section of the Snake.  Again we went through Grand Teton and had beautiful views of the Teton Range.  What a rugged and picturesque section of the rockies.

We had a great trip.  I'm grateful that my son is still willing to let me come along!  We were all pretty exhausted on the way home:)

-Jer

Mummies

I was having one of those "uh-huh" conversations with Sophi.  You know the ones.  Your young child is prattling on about this, that and the other and you keep nodding your head and saying "uh-huh" while diligently trying to focus on whatever task you were attempting to complete when she came in and destroyed any chance of success.  I kept nodding and saying "uh-huh" until this came out of her mouth:  "…and I know what mummies are.  Mummies come back alive!" Suddenly my attention was focused.

"What did you say?"

"I know what mummies are.  Mummies come back alive!"

"Mummies come back alive?"

"Uh-huh."  (I suppose I had that one coming:)

"Who taught you about mummies?"

"Scooby Doo!"

Guess we need to get the girl a better tutor!!!

-Jer

Flaming Gorge

A couple of weeks ago I went on an overnight work trip to call on customers in Vernal, Utah.  Since the kids were out of school I took Taylor, Parker, Xander and Jesi with me.  We did the usual fun things the first day: dinner at a restaurant, swimming in the hotel pool, a movie on Netflix.  (The boys and I watched "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," a classic western with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart.  Jesi didn't want to watch a black and white show, so she watched something more Disneyish.)  The next day after I had made my calls, we decided to take a longer route home and visit Flaming Gorge dam.  Just as we were starting our tour, a flash of lightning in the distance required that the tour be postponed an hour. We watched a movie about the building of the dam while we waited.  It was a fun trip with the kids, and well worth the extra time.

Since they were dealing with spring runoff, the water was being let through at full capacity, over 8000 cubic feet per second.  Normally it comes through at 800 cubic feet per second.  The water flow was powerful and magnificent.  It almost felt like a bomb was going off as it hit the river below the dam.  Extraordinary experience.  We all enjoyed it!  (I'm not sure if Jesi is overwhelmed with the power of the water or just disgusted with her brothers, but it sure makes for a couple of funny pictures!)

-Jer

A few pictures

Xander borrowed Cali's dress the other day.  Quite the cutie!

His sultry look:

I took most of the kids to see Maleficent recently (we all loved it!).  At the theater we met a superhero:

Xander jumped in as soon as he saw the cardboard cutout.  Graci took quite a bit of convincing;)

Taylor, Parker, Xander and I built a fire pit in our backyard on Saturday.  We had a campfire and s'mores that night.  So much fun!!!

No Harm, No Foul?

Christi, Parker, Taylor and I are in my office planning out the next few days.  Jesi walks in, comes around my desk, and leans on the arm of my office chair.  (As I mentioned a few posts ago, my kids love to share my personal space with me.  Aren't I lucky?:)  She looks across me and directly at Christi.  We were all in a matter-of-fact kind of organizational mode, and my sweet wife maintained that demeanor as she addressed Jess:  "Go wash your glasses.  They're so dirty I can't stand to look at you."  Realizing how harsh that might have sounded, she quickly tacked on a very sincere addendum:  "I mean, it makes me so sad to think of you having to look through them that way!"

Jesi started to walk out of the office and in her hilariously serious 10-year-old way remarked, "Well.  That was a little offensive."

We all busted up laughing, and Jesi enjoyed having been the cause of our smiles.

-Jer

Learning about Jesus

Each Sunday we go to church as a family.  We learn about Jesus and His atonement.  We learn about His commandments and how following them can bring us peace.  We go to a total of three hours of meetings.  For about two thirds of the time we are broken up by age group, so kids are in classes that are designed to help keep them engaged.  Each time we bring home a new child, there is an adjustment period as they discover that Christ's gospel and attending church are a big part of our lives.  Poor Conner has had a tough time sitting through three hours of church during which he not only endures instruction in a language he can't understand, but also sits there patiently in complete darkness, not even able to see his surroundings.  We've actually been bringing him home early most Sundays because of how difficult it is for him.

In order to help him understand more about what we're doing and why we're doing it, we've enlisted the help of the local missionaries.  Yes, those boys in white shirts and name tags have a presence even here in Utah, the home of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  But the missionaries in our town don't speak Chinese, so we've been able to take Conner to Temple Square in Salt Lake City to meet with a sweet, Mandarin speaking missionary there.  For those of you who don't know, Temple Square is a popular tourist destination, with visitors from all over the world.  To help accommodate those visitors, missionaries are called from many countries to serve for 18 months at Temple Square.  Together, these missionaries (all female) speak just about any language you can think of.  

Last Sunday we took Conner to Salt Lake and met with Sister Jin, a missionary from China who would be teaching him about Jesus.  There are not many members of the Latter-day Saint church in mainland China, so most of the Mandarin-speaking sisters on temple square are from Taiwan or Singapore.  What a pleasant surprise for all of us when we found out that Sister Jin is from mainland China.  What an even greater shock when we found the she is from Conner's hometown of Wuhan and that they were able to speak the same local dialect and talk about some familiar places in that city.  We felt it was truly a tender mercy from our Father in Heaven as Conner was able to speak with someone to whom he could relate so well.

We stayed at Temple Square for about 90 minutes.  Conner learned many things about the Savior and about Father in Heaven and His plan for us.  He learned more about why we pray and how to pray and has been saying his own prayers regularly for the last week.  He is such a sweet boy.  As we've talked to him over the past couple of months, we have repeatedly told him that Jesus Christ let us know it was right for him to come to our family and be adopted.  Conner loves Jesus!  We look forward to more meetings with the missionaries and hope that Conner will decide to be baptized.

Located in one of the visitor's centers at Temple Square is a beautiful statue of Christ that we all took a picture in front of.  Unfortunately, the nice young kid we asked to snap the photo turned out to be a less-than-stellar photographer.  But it's better than nothing:)

-Jer

Mercenary

I'm sitting at my desk doing some paperwork.  It's a lazy summer morning for the rest of the family…with two exceptions.  Lexi and Sophi always seem to wake up early.  We always get an early morning visit from Soph, but she is often willing to go play with Lexi while the rest of us try to snooze a little longer.  I got up and snuck into my office.  I had to sneak because as soon as the little ones know I'm in here, they attack.  Sophi, Lexi and Conner love to enter my "personal space" zone.  They want to cuddle up to me or give me a hug or hold my hand.  Aren't I lucky to have such loving kids?  As they approach, they always seem to find a way to disrupt this pile of papers or that computer cord or…you get the idea.

Anyway, I was safely sequestered in a satisfying solitude when in marched Soph!  I'm not sure how she knew I was in here.  It must be some kind of sick sense or something.  (Oops!  Sixth sense:)  She opened the door with her chin and began a non-stop conversation.  Very disconcerting to one who is trying to focus on the task at hand.  (You can ask Christi how successful I am at multi-tasking!)  I enjoyed our banter for awhile, endured it for a bit, felt my face begin to twitch like I was hearing nails on a chalkboard for a stretch, and finally asked Sophi if she could leave my office and go play with Lexi again.  As usual, she completely ignored my request.  I asked again.  She continued talking to me. "Sophi, can you please go out of my office?"  She glanced over my desk and noticed my money clip, which had a $20 bill wrapped around the outside.  She got a reflective look on her face and said, "If you give me money I will go out!"  She is learning early.

Fortunately, she is still at an age where a simple, "I'll count to three and you need to be out of my office" works wonders ;)

-Jer

Cutest Thing EVER!

Sophi has been wanting a bike for years. It is so hard because she has to steer with her chin-- which is even more difficult than it sounds and only allows her to go very slow. It's also hard on her back and tummy and she falls easily. A few days ago, the sweetest lady (mother of one of Parker's friends) surprised Sophi with this gift. We could not believe how quickly she learned how to ride it! This video was taken only a few seconds after we assembled it. I don't think you can even imagine how excited and happy we are for her! Seriously such a happy day! :-)  She is on this pretty much non-stop.  It's so cute!!!

Superwoman!

Christi is my hero.  In so many ways.  I could go on and on about her patience with me, her intense love for her children, her ability to to provide meals for a small army on a daily basis, her organizational abilities in putting together paperwork for our adoptions, her innate desire to look for the good in everyone, her knack for making all of her kids feel important, her ability to help kids with homework in every subject under the sun, her artistic talents which are often on display as she helps with said homework (thank heavens the kids don't have to depend on dear old dad for their posters/book reports/art projects/etc.!), her pure love for Elli in spite of all of the challenges that go along with severe autism, her charge-in-and-take-care-of-the-mess attitude when it comes to a particularly difficult diaper disaster, her tenderness, her toughness, her fantastic kissing skills, her ability to play pretty much any song on the piano the first time she tries it, her efforts to provide an incredibly safe and loving environment in our home, her prowess at mini basketball shooting games and so many, many more areas in which she excels.

But today Christi is my hero because she managed to get our kids through the last week of school with me gone for six straight days.  I had to fly to New Jersey on Sunday and spend all week at our corporate office for training.  Somehow she got everybody ready and off to school each day.  She got Lexi ready for her bus by 7:15, herded four junior high kids out the door by 7:25 for their carpool, drove Jesi and Xander to elementary school by 7:45 and got Elli all ready for her bus by 8:15.  Every morning this week!  What did YOU do every morning this week?  I'm guessing it wasn't quite as draining:)  My efforts at work were certainly not even in the same ballpark as what she had to manage at home!  Once she got everyone off to school, she then had to keep Conner and Sophi occupied for the next seven hours. And after school there were practices, music recitals, youth activities, homework, and who knows what else in addition to the everyday demands such as dinner, dishes and bedtime.  I am, indeed, married to superwoman.  To top it all off, I am quite certain that when I arrive home this evening, the house will be spotlessly clean and full of an extra dozen kids or so.  Somehow she always manages to get the home looking amazing when I get back from a trip.  And today was the last day of school, so she let the kids invite friends over for a late night.  What a woman:)  I love you, sweetie!

-Jer

PS.  Today is the ten-year anniversary of Tiffany's death.  I miss my sweet little sis, but I'm confident in the knowledge that she is in a much better place.  I truly believe she can look down and see our little family and that what she sees makes her happy.  I think she occasionally throws some assistance our way as well.  Thanks, Tiff.  I look forward to catching up some time in the future.  Love you!

School Carnival

On a recent weekend we had the following:

-Two touch football games

-three basketball games

-a soccer game

-a school carnival

All before 1:00pm.

Christi and I used the divide and conquer method, her attending some events, me, other events.  I was really hoping the kids would forget about the school carnival, because I wanted to watch Taylor and Parker play basketball.  But of course, that would be too easy.  At the football games we ran into a friend of Jessica's who promptly asked if Jesi would be going to the carnival.  So I had the opportunity to take Jesi, Soph, Lexi, Conner and Xander to the festivities.

It actually turned out to be quite fun.  They're such sweet kids.  They went on bounce houses and inflatable slides.  We had a pulled pork lunch and snow cones for dessert.  All of the kids got face painting done.  The highlight was probably the pony rides.  All five kids enjoyed it.  I'm a lucky guy to have so many people who want to do fun things with me:)

-Jer

Sophi found two "diamond shaped rocks" that totally made her day.  She insisted I take a picture: