Utah Trip: Partying in Park City

After finishing up our time in SLC with a fun bridal shower for cousin Maggie (why didn't I take any pictures?), we spent a few nights up in Park City at the Wride family condo. Highlights were taking a "hike" on the trail behind the condo and playing at the park downtown. Laura is my hero because during the hike she raced Spencer and Emma, keeping them actively engaged along the journey.



When Grandpa joined us from VA, we took on the serious PC venues: Alpine Slide and, a newer addition, the Alpine Roller Coaster. Spencer and Emma did both and LOVED it. They had a good time recounting how fast they went. Again, no photos. I think they are all on Adam's iPhone, so we'll have to track them down later. Also, no trip to Park City would be complete without eating at Baja Cantina. The Peter/Leslie, Kate/Brock and Beard families joined us for the Park City fun. John took a little nap in the shade during the afternoon events, but during dinner that boy wanted nothing to do with high chairs, food, or restaurants. Adam took him outdoors to console the poor fellow, who then threw rocks to his heart's content and was, thereafter, content.

Friberg Favorites

While touring the conference center, we saw where the classic Arnold Friberg Book of Mormon paintings are being shown. Spencer and Emma each wanted a photo with their favorite of the group.

August - Trip to Utah, SLC Section

In August, we took a family trip to Utah. It actually began as a boys' trip when Spencer and Adam took off to Seattle for Tyler Lively's wedding (and to see the Boeing airplane factory). They left on Adam's 30th birthday, and we met up with them in Utah a few days later, after a very long, delayed flight during which John slept very little. Fortunately, Emma was a model traveler, so we made it intact. While we had a few things working against us on the Utah trip (not sure we had one symptom-free day since I began and ended the trip with cold symptoms/laryngitis and the rest of the fam took turns with the stomach flu), you'd never know it from the amount of fun we packed in. It was a vacation to be remembered. Hence, this blog post.

Adam doesn't like to drive superfluously, so we segmented the trip by geography. We started in Salt Lake, staying several nights at Jeff and Karen's home. This made it so that we could easily meander over to spend days/afternoons with Great Grandma Wride at will. Adam really wanted our kiddos to have some time making memories in Grandma Wride's backyard because to him this is what summer is all about. He was a regular visitor every summer, coming from various countries overseas.

The kids took to the playhouse immediately. They formed clubs and spent lovely hours serving food to Gma and me out of their "restaurant." Adam was working much of the time indoors (someone's gotta make the money so we can play), but when he did take a break, he was served up "apple pie" and "lemonade" on the very same dishes that have been playhouse staples since his dad's time...plus a few new additions in the form of a Beauty and the Beast tea set, which Emma was pretty happy about.

Here's Johnny responding to the request to "say, cheese!"

Emma making her recipes.

Spencer, fresh out of the sprinkler.

Let's see...what should I order?


The kids and I used some of our Salt Lake time to see the sights downtown. Here we are at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

We also took a tour of the Beehive House. One of my favorite stories about this home is that Brigham Young's children had one window that they referred to as the "storybook window." The children would watch through this interior window as the fine-dressed ladies and gentlemen arrived for evening parties, thinking it looked like something out of a fairy tale. Here are Spence and Em posing by the beehive handrails in the later addition to the home.

Here we are outside the Beehive House: Spencer, Emma, Marie, and John.

Here are Spencer and Emma holding up the cards they collected with pictures of the temple. The picture is crooked because John was trying to squirm out of my arms and run around the beautiful grounds of the temple while I was snapping the photo. That little man wants his independence and will run any chance he gets.


One of the evenings we were in the SLC area, we went up Mill Creek Canyon to roast hot dogs with the Wride clan. Here are Gma Wride and Aunt Lori.

John, Adam and sneaky Uncle Randy. John loved being up the canyon, though he took a few rough falls because he would set off running on uneven ground with a rock in each hand. So unwilling was he to give up those rocks that he wouldn't brace himself and came away with a few goose eggs. Later that night when John was the first in the fam to exhibit signs of the stomach flu, Adam and I were wondering if John had a concussion from all his tumbles. Fortunately, 24 hours later he was no worse for the wear. (Big thanks to paramedic brother Dan for calming my fears and talking me through symptoms.)

Uncle Jeff, roasting some s'mores. My kids LOVE their Uncle Jeff.

Emma latched on to Adam's cousin Maggie during this trip. Maggie was about to get married, and the idea of someone wearing a beautiful dress easily merits Emma's attention. Maggie was very sweet to let Emma follow her around, asking all sorts of questions.

Spencer talked Berkley into conquering the mountain with him. There was a steep incline near where we were having dinner, and Spence thoroughly enjoyed traversing that slope with Berkley in tow.


We took a brief hiatus from our SLC stint to travel down to Spanish Fork to celebrate baby Bridget's 1st birthday. That is one cute birthday girl! Johnny has a bit of a cousin crush.

Emma loves playing with cousins and all their cool toys.

Spencer had a great time too. He is looking big to me these days. Not so much a "little" boy anymore.

And Johnny - oh, Johnny. Just sweetness. Look at those cheeks!


Back in SLC, Spencer and Emma came with me on a tour of the conference center while John was napping and Adam working one afternoon. We had a fantastic tour guide, and this proved to be one of the highlights of downtown for me. The kids really enjoyed it as well. Here we are on top of the building.


On our way back to the car, I saw one of my college roommates from Sophomore year - April. She had just moved from Seattle area and was with her two sweet boys.


More Utah highlights to come!

September - how to pass a month while waiting for preschool to begin

As mentioned previously, Emma was REALLY excited to start her pre-k year, but since school didn't start until October, we needed to find some fun activities to fill the days. She was really jealous that every day Spencer got to go to school, and she had to stay home. So...

We went to the zoo with lots of cousins, Aunt Jenny, Uncle Nathan, Aunt Katy, and Uncle Aaron. (Side note: this made Spencer jealous. He was wondering why we got to have all this fun while he was at school. It's a no-win situation, I'm afraid.)

While at the zoo, we ran into Stephen Haskin and his cute family. Stephen was a Resident Assistant at Deseret Towers while I was Hall Advisor there. Spencer was a baby last time I saw Stephen, so it was really fun to catch up on the goings on of the last 5 years. (Wow, that has flown by!)


We spent lots and lots of time with Trina, sometimes at our house, sometimes at her house. Aunt Julie was out visiting for a week to scan pictures, so we camped out during most days at Grammy's to help in the sorting process. Trina is also coming over weekly to babysit the kiddos while I teach violin. My kids look forward to "Trina day" all week, and now the neighborhood girls do too. They like the imaginative stories that she creates for playtime. I've been really impressed with how Trina has stepped up and managed John in his post-nap state too. He wakes up wanting Mommy many afternoons, but that doesn't work so well while I'm teaching. Trina has figured out how to involve him in playtime, and it has made violin teaching SO much easier. I love this girl.


Emma and I taught John how to paint.


We went to the Heritage Farm Museum with a boatload of friends. If you make reservations and have at least $30 in entrance fees, they will open the museum half an hour early for a group and then provide cookies, water, and a story time. It was a fantastic day.


We had dentist appointments. Spencer has been a champion example when it comes to getting his teeth cleaned.


Emma has been several times as an observer, but this time she got to sit in the chair and have her teeth counted and cleaned. She was fearless.


We also spent a lot of time going to the nearby park with these cute neighborhood friends, K and R. I was watching one of the girls the first few weeks of school until her kindergarten schedule got figured out. We had a great many morning play dates as a result.


Even after K started her all-day school schedule, we still kept up daily play dates with R and her nanny, Nahid, who has become my good friend.


I felt like every day in the month of September was full of fun. Still, in the few moments of down time, Emma would complain of boredom. Maybe it was just exhaustion. She ended many days like this, dressed in her next day's clothes so she wouldn't miss escorting Spencer to his morning bus time (which is way too early at 7:20am).


September was a good month, but we were all really, really happy when it was finally time for school to begin. Can you tell?

Our kids go to school

...and it's time the world had some proof of it! Hard to believe my last post was back in May. We had a really great summer, and at some point it will be chronicled here. That's a resolution. We'll see how the follow-through goes. For now, here are my two back-to-school kids.


Here's our 1st Grader!
The night before school, Spencer couldn't sleep because he was SO excited. I'm sure there were some first day butterflies mixed in there, but he was amazingly confident heading into his first year of all-day school. Another item of note - the day before Spence started 1st grade, he lost his 1st tooth. It had been wiggling for a while, and while Adam was at a home teaching appointment, he wanted me to take a look at it (couldn't wait for Dad to get home). I gave it a tug, and out it came. Spencer was thrilled!


Here's our Pre-K Girl!
Emma is attending a preschool that is held at one of the local high schools, where the HS students act as student teachers. She was SO happy when she got into this preschool after being on the wait list. It's the same school Spencer went to for pre-k, and while I would have to give occasional incentives to Spence to get him to GO to preschool, I would have to bribe Emma at age 2 to LEAVE after dropping off big brother. We did a co-op preschool last year for Emma, which she loved, but she was ready for her own classroom. Emma's school started about 4 weeks after Spencer's, and that was a LONG wait for our little Lovie. We filled it with fun, but she was ecstatic when the first day of school finally arrived. That morning, Adam asked Emma if she was excited or nervous? "A LOT excited and a little bit nervous" came her reply. You'd never know there was a hint of nervousness; when I dropped her off, she followed her student teacher to her cubby, hung up her back-pack, bade me farewell and was off for free play without looking back. It's a good thing I had Johnny with me, or I might have been the one feeling abandoned.

Speaking of Johnny, here's a photo of that little piece of cuteness to round out the post.
This is John at what I'm embarrassed to admit is his first story time experience at the library. I've been somewhat remiss in that department with baby #3. Time to step it up, especially since this little man doesn't look much like a baby anymore. *Sigh.

Scarlet Pimpernel

My awesome sister Celeste wrote about the show that became a family event for the Cummings clan at large. You can read her recap here. Good times, great memories...also good to have a little down time in the wake of all that fun.

My baby turns 1

Still in denial about this one, but tomorrow (Cinco de Mayo), my baby John turns into a one-year-old boy. He is the most delightful little guy. Seriously. This baby is nothing if not good-natured. He's a smart fellow, too. Lately, there have been several demonstrations that show me he understands everything that is being said. He follows verbal instruction to chase after a brother or sister (favorite activity), and yesterday he took great offense when he offered a goldfish to a friend of mine, and she replied in a very sweet, upbeat tone that she didn't like goldfish even as she accepted the offering. He was totally distraught, so he must have understood the words.

John is a great stander. He excels at getting to a standing position without the aid of any furniture to pull up on. It still thrills me to watch. He likes to say "uh-oh", is a SUPERB morning snuggler, loves his mom, loves his dad, loves his big brother, loves his big sister, enjoys a good chase, thrills at a round of wrestling, crawls around with a container of spices in each hand that he swipes from the pantry while I make dinner, enjoys going on walks or runs in the stroller, only complains if he is tired or hungry, grunts emphatically (instead of screaming) when he wants more or needs help because he has stranded himself on an upper floor by climbing up the stairs, and really likes unloading the dishwasher one utensil at a time. Oh, and he likes to eat dirt (or so we assume since he is often found getting into the potted plants).

To celebrate this little man, we started tonight. The missionaries came over for dinner, helped us sing to John-John, and cheered with us when he blew out his tank candle all by himself. We were feeling a little caked-out after our string of birthdays, so we got a little creative with dessert. Keeping in mind John's affinity for eating dirt, we had mud (chocolate pudding) and dirt (crushed oreos) with gummy worms as our treat.

John thought this worked quite nicely as a birthday treat, as evidenced by the photos...




After dinner and a bubble bath in the kitchen sink, he was back to making a mess of the real dirt.



With this third baby, those messes that used to be so stressful now strike me as being funny. Might have something to do with the grin this little lad can muster. We love you, Johnny!


And...the sink bath photo, requested and provided by Adam...just so John knows who to blame later in life when he reads this post. :0)