Warm, Wonderful California

Ahhhh... California. What a glorious place! It was absolutely heavenly to leave thirty-something degree Utah and spend a few days in seventy-something California! Friday was an all day travel day, and I just have to wonder how parents did it for centuries before the portable DVD player. I shutter to imagine. On Saturday we spent the morning at the beach. The water was COLD, but that didn't stop Benjamin from getting in and splashing around. Those of us on the saner side just enjoyed building sand castles, chasing birds, and just soaking up the sunshine!

After the beach, Ty and Daddy took a much needed nap, and my crazy Benjamin went to the hotel pool and swam in its frigid waters for awhile before deciding to call it quits before he turned into a popsicle. After the naps we went to Downtown Disney and explored for awhile. My little boys LOVED the build-your-own car store there.

We had dinner at the ESPN Zone, and it was actually the best restaurant experience that our family has had in a LONG time. First of all, they had all kinds of sports games (including race car video games) upstairs, so that kept my little ones happy and occupied while waiting for the food to arrive. Second, we were seated in a booth facing a wall the size of a movie screen that had about 10 different sports games playing on it. At the end of our booth was a TV screen that you could use to put any game you wanted on. Well, there was a BYU basketball game that night, so of course Benjamin was in heaven. Third, they served food that everyone in our family would eat! Mac and Cheese for Benjamin and Ty, and a grilled cheese sandwich for Jacob. It was a relief to not have to shovel down my food while trying to keep kids happy long enough to do so! If only we had one in Salt Lake! Jacob apparently was a little confused about the difference between sports bar and um... a different kind of bar, because while I was gone to get the car, Brigham said that he climbed up on top of the booth and had his pants and diaper off in a flash (no pun intended!). That's our boy!

Sunday we spent at my sister Cambrie's house in Loma Linda. It was fun to see her and her cute family again. We spent some time in the afternoon feeding some ducks and geese, and in all my life I've never encountered such aggressive fowl! They completely surrounded us and honked commandingly in our faces. Most of the kids were scared, and with good cause! Even I was worried that someone was going to lose a finger or a nose. But not Ty-- even though those geese were bigger than he was, he was NOT afraid. He loved plowing through them at full speed-- watching them scatter in front of him. He was like this little bowling ball scattering pins in all directions. Finally, one goose had had enough, and as Ty went charging past, this goose grabbed the back of his shirt and tried to pull him back, but Ty barely even broke stride. He shook the goose off and just kept running. The goose attack didn't bother Ty, but it certainly bothered me! We left not long after that.

Monday was Ty's second birthday, and to celebrate we went to Disneyland! I know that he won't remember it, but it was sure fun to watch Ty's delight as we rode the "choo-choos", boats, and other rides. He had a great time! Benjamin had a great time, too! Being seven years old now, he was much braver than the last time we went when he was five. We tried all of the roller coasters, starting with the Matterhorn. A couple of times during the ride he yelled, "How much longer does this ride have?", but he insisted afterwards that he wasn't scared. He explained, "I just had to remind myself of my motto of the day: It's just a ride. It can't hurt you."

We met up with Cambrie and Lydia for awhile while at Disneyland, and the above moment really made me see the difference between boys and girls. I put Lydia up on the firetruck next to Ty and braced myself for a fight over the steering wheel, but Lydia was perfectly content to smile for the camera and be chauffeured around by her enthusiastic cousin. Watch out, Disneyland princesses-- I think Lydia has her eye on your job!

Benjamin decided that Thunder Mountain Railroad was his favorite ride, and we went on it three times! It is great to have a roller coaster buddy!

Mom and Dad Dastrup kept the two little boys at the Innovations exhibit (we found a room with a big screen playing Cars!) while Brigham and I did a couple of roller coasters with Benjamin, and when we came back, we found that Ty had crashed on the couch. It's hard work turning two and having so much fun!

I have to give a huge "thank you" to Mom and Dad Dastrup for coming with us and putting up with all of our idiosyncracies. Jacob did not like Disneyland as much as I'd hoped he would (any dark rides with flashing lights or rides with loud noises made him cry), and so without their help, our Disneyland trip may not have been much fun for anyone. So, THANK YOU! You guys are the best!

Crisis Averted

Many of you know that Ty has hyperphenylalaninemia (definitely a mouthful!), and therefore has to have his blood checked every couple of months to make sure that his phenylalanine level isn't too high. Only a couple of times has his level come back a little too high, and we just rechecked it, and it was back down to an acceptable range. Last Tuesday his latest blood level came back at 8.9-- which is very high. It's usually in the 2-3 range, and anything above a 6 should be treated with a strict diet which basically cuts out all kinds of protein. No dairy, meats, certain grains, etc. Needless to say, we were worried. What kid is going to be happy eating a rice cake when everyone else in his class is having a cupcake? But sticking to the diet is critical, since high levels of phenylalanine can lead to seizures and mental retardation. Anyhow, we were pretty alarmed and sent off another blood sample right away. Thankfully, today it came back at 2.3. We are so grateful to not have to call that trial our own right now! My heart definitely goes out to all those who have PKU or hyperphe that has to be treated! It's not the worst thing that could happen, but it would not be fun.

More Laughs

About a week ago, we were having dinner when Benjamin said (with longing), "When do I get to start having periods?" Brigham and I just stared at him. Then it dawned on me that he was talking about having different class periods at school. Whew!

Last Sunday we had some friends over for dinner, and they kindly brought us a beautiful braided loaf of homemade bread, still hot from the oven. We set it on the counter and started our meal, and after a few minutes I looked over and found Jacob in the process of devouring it. He had torn off and eaten about a third of it before I discovered him. The loaf was mangled, but I assured them that Jacob eating something that they had made was the highest food honor there is.

Today I gave Ty a bath, and he discovered a new game that he found extremely entertaining: peeing through the toy basketball hoop suction-cupped to the side of the tub. His aim was actually quite good-- he nailed it every time. Maybe I shouldn't discourge this new game-- I would appreciate having one child with decent aim around here. No wait-- I just had a flash of inspiration! What I really need to do is suction-cup that tub toy onto the inside of the toilet bowl! I'll bet my bathrooms would suddenly be much cleaner! Why didn't I think of that before?? I'm totally going to design my own toilet bowl hoop for potty-training boys and make my millions.

Happy New Year!

I should probably make a resolution to post something every week... but I know it would only take about three weeks to break that one, so why bother? I do want to do a better job of recording those wonderful moments of every day, however. So how about this: I hereby resolve to record at least 50% of the things my children do that make me laugh out loud or cry (in a good way). I realize that sticking the "50%" makes for one weak resolution (such as in "I'm going to watch what I eat 50% of the time" or "I'm going to read my scriptures 50% of the time), but I know myself well enough to know that if I don't think a goal is reachable, I don't try very hard to reach it. And I know that writing down every funny thing my kids do is beyond my scope of accomplishment because, frankly, my kids are dang funny.

Anyway, I want to start off on the right foot, so below is a picture of something that made me laugh out loud today: Jacob watching the birds at the pet store.. The Pet Co employees may wonder why there are smears all over the bird glass, but it really is no mystery.
One other thing that makes me laugh lately is Ty's talking skills. He is starting to put multiple words together into sentences, and nothing spurs him to greater linguistic heights than lecturing Jacob. Once he saw Jacob climbing on a chair and said, "Uh oh, Jacob! Uh uh! Get down!" He is also able to get his desires across better, such as when he wanted Benjamin to run around with him and said, "Mo wun fast Bemin, peas!" (Which interpreted means "More run fast Benjamin, please!") Even his tough Daddy, who is usually immune to misguided pleas, couldn't resist Ty when he woke up sick in the middle of the night recently and said, "Choo choo show, peas!" Yes, there was a midnight showing of Thomas.

How grateful I am for these funny kids! I look forward to seeing what they come up with in 2011!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas is magical. I love it! What a wonderful season it has been! On the 18th we hosted a Dastrup Family BYU sports marathon/Christmas party and enjoyed both sports and music.

I wanted to take the kids to see the lights on Temple Square for FHE one night, and although the experience was a little reminiscent of our Halloween trip to Gardner Village, I think the boys all enjoyed it.

On Christmas Eve the boys and I went to Dastrups for the traditional Holdaway party. Like always, the food was amazing and Santa showed up! Jacob had his turn first and tolerated sitting on Santa's lap for a second and then decided he was done. Mrs. Claus tried, but she had no more success, so Jacob took his gift and ran. Ty was up next, and he wanted NOTHING to do with either Santa or Mrs. Claus, so his was a quick turn as well. I could tell that even Benjamin was nervous about his upcoming turn because he kept looking at his watch and asking if it was time to go home. When the time came, however, he swallowed his fears and took it like a man.

Christmas morning, Benjamin was the first one up-- at 12:30 am. Brigham found him crying because he was too tired to make the Christmas movie work on the little TV we'd moved into his room to keep him occupied while waiting for his brothers to wake up. Brigham finally convinced him that it wasn't morning yet and got him to go back to bed. Then Jacob came and crawled into bed with us at 1:20 am (which he never does in the middle of the night anymore-- he must have been excited too). Benjamin re-awoke at 6:00 on the dot. The Christmas frenzy began about 7:00 when Ty woke up last.

What a fun, fun morning! Benjamin was geeked about all of the BYU stuff that he got, Ty was enchanted by the trains and his basketball hoop, and Jacob fell so deeply in love with his Cars book that he didn't even want to open any more presents (those of you who know of his passion for present-opening will recognize this for the amazing event it was). The kids played happily with their new treasures for a couple of hours, and then we went to visit both sets of grandparents where we picked up many more treasures. The beauty of the day was a little marred by Ty throwing up 5 times after I put him to bed that night, but all-in-all it was wonderful. I found Benjamin crying (between rounds of crib sheet changing) his heart out because "my favorite day of the whole year now is 365 days away!" I have to admit: I'm bummed about it too!

(Sorry-- Blogger won't let me upload any more pictures.)

Par-tey!

The annual Groneman Christmas Party was a balloon-stomping, ping-pong ball blowing, white elephant exchanging, face-stuffing, pinata bashing (YES-- that darling snowman is a pinata that my sister-in-law Katie made!), freeze dancing affair! Highlights of the evening included:

1. My mother getting the belly dancing kit I gave as a white elephant gift (complete with a "Best of Belly Dancing" music CD, instructional book, and castanets).

2. Ty attacking the the pinata with unrestrained joy (a complete contrast to Benjamin's horror about hitting a pinata at the same age. His cousin who is the same age was also scared to hit it. Should I be worried???).

3. Uncle Chad breaking the unbreakable pinata by sitting on it (wish I'd had the camera rolling!).

It was a great time! How fun to be back where we can participate in these holiday traditions again!

Goodbye

I spent most of the day with my dear Grandma Haslem today. It was heart-wrenching to see her like that-- with her body struggling so hard to stay alive. Mom called me a couple of hours ago to tell me that she had finally passed on. I can't get her off my mind, so I'm hoping that by writing about her I can get it out of my system and maybe get some sleep. On the one hand, I'm so glad she's finally free. My true grandma has been gone for awhile now, and the body she left behind was sadly inadequate.

Grandma was a huge shaping force in my life. When I look back on my childhood, 90% of my memories revolve around her-- Sunday dinner at her house, trips to her mountain property, the Fourth parade, the Haslem Christmas party, the sand dunes, Bear Lake, etc., etc. etc. She was always a solid rock of love in my life. I never had any reason to question it. I KNEW she loved me. I KNEW she would always be on my side. With my parents, they sometimes were and sometimes (as good parents are) weren't. But Grandma would have fought them to let me go to the moon if that would have been what I truly wanted. She was constant in her love for all of us. You could feel it bone deep. Her love often leaked out in the form of food. You couldn't ever visit her without her pulling out a full meal for you-- no matter how much you insisted that you had just eaten. And whenever you sat by her she would hold your hand and stroke it affectionately. She loved music, flowers, and birds. She was a teacher and never passed up an opportunity to educate us about some aspect of nature whenever we were together. She was so proud of all of us grandkids, and made sure that we knew it.

I lived with Grandma for a semester after I came home from my mission, and she cooked my meals and did my laundry like it was the greatest joy in her life to do so. I was dating Brigham at the time, and she scolded him and chased him out when he stayed too late. All of the seven years that we were gone for Brigham's medical training she wanted to know when we were coming home. She delighted in children and chased my kids around her house and tickled them just a couple of months ago. How grateful I am that we moved back in time for me to see her and have her recognize me and love me for awhile. I know my kids most likely won't remember, but I'm glad that they got to see a glimpse of the fun and loving woman that she was.

Brigham likes to tease me sometimes and attribute certain characteristics (such as stubbornness)to us "Haslem women", but I couldn't be more proud to fall into that category. Grandma was a strong, loving, supportive, and fun woman and the epitome of grandmotherly perfection. I hope to be a lot like her one day.

The world just isn't the same without you, Grandma. A huge part of my cheering section is now missing. I miss you so much already. Yours will be one of the first hugs that I want when it is my turn to go home. Thank you for loving me and for always being there. I love you!