Four Little Pumpkins

Time for the annual pumpkin patch post.  We have found a great farm with lots of free things for the kids to do, lots of beautiful pumpkins to pick and the yummiest fresh doughnuts and hot chocolate.  Our tradition just got better!

The Corn Box

The Toys

Hay bail slide (Levi and Cade)

The Pumpkin Patch

Since this boy turned 13 the day before this I thought it would be good to do a little compare and contrast…..

Extreme cuteness age 2 or 3

Five year olds are just hams.  At least mine are.

Levi spent the entire time running around like an antelope all over the pumpkin patch.  He rarely stopped long enough for me to get a picture.

 
Hayride back.  I think Libby looks like my cousin Emily at the same age in this picture-anyone else agree? 

Time to take em home!  She wanted a ride in the pink wheel barrow.

The next day we did our 2nd  favorite October tradition with Alli!

Stay tuned for Reagan’s birthday, leaf jumping and Halloween!

Fall Fieldtrips and Other Fall Fun

Liberty and Levi and I had our first free week the end of September.  That’s when we put “book” learning aside  and explore the outdoors or bake or whatever they want to do.  I let them choose what we do that week.  This time we went to the zoo, went fishing, read Harry Potter for2 hours straight one day, watched the red moon one night… you get the idea.

The Zoo:

Levi’s favorite animal is still the fox.

This guy actually roared!  I’ve never heard one roar in person.  It was pretty cool! 

One of my biggest pet peeves is when zoos or other places like it make you walk through the gift store to get in or out of the zoo.  Our zoo just made a new gift shop and I now have to walk my kids through the valley of the shadow of want just to get out of the zoo.  Liberty made a bee line for the big pink wall.  In my opinion, the only good thing about this new exit to the zoo is this hilarious picture.

We also visited the beautiful rose garden by the zoo and I got this awesome picture. 

Roses are one of those creations that prove to me there is a God.  They are so intricate and perfect. 

Fishing Trip:

Levi has been begging to do this for weeks.  He fished for about 1/2 an hour before his hook got stuck in a tree across the river and had to be broken off just to save the pole. 
Fishing Rule Number 1: Don’t be over zealous in your casting. Fishing Rule Number 2: Always bring extra hooks in case you break rule number 1.  

Stopped at the Library on the way home…

The Red Moon:

Yeah, that’s how pathetic my camera is.  Sigh. 

We also decorated for Halloween; put the bat cave back up.

Levi’s friends said we had “the coolest house ever!”

The New Patio

We had a new patio put in this summer!  It took forever and I am convinced all contractors are difficult to work with, but it is done and here are the results.

Before:

I didn’t get a good picture before they started hacking into it, but if you look to the right of the door up against the house you can kind of see how the patio was cracking and flipping up into the siding.  The whole patio was cracking and sinking towards the house.  We didn’t want water in the basement so we HAD to get a new basement. 

The boys thought the demolition was awesome….

Even the neighbors wanted to watch men using sledgehammers. 

Pouring day.  They showed up at 5:30 in the morning so the heat wouldn’t dry it too fast.  The neighbors weren’t happy.
Sorry for the bad pictures quality.

The lower section will have comfy furniture on it next year when we can afford it.  And a fire pit too!  

Right about the time this was finished, the flies got bad, so we are looking forward to next year when we can use it the whole summer!

September So Far

This month in the Hymas Household....

Reagan started cross country.  This is his first race.



He watched The Hunt For Red October a couple weeks ago and became fascinated with submarines.  After studying them online he built this amazing recreation of the Red October.

Cade  joined the math club, chess club and dodge ball tournament at school.  He also earned his Arrow of Light Award and has graduated from Cub Scouts.  Woohoo!  Two down, one to go!



Unfortunately I will not get to enjoy my three month hiatus before Levi turns 8 because I was just called as a Wolf Den Leader in Cub Scouts.  I’m trying to be happy about it.  Really, I am.
Cade gets to go on his first campout this weekend.  I don’t think the rest of us will survive his anticipation.  For any of you who know Cade and his hounding skills you will understand what I mean.

In school Liberty and Levi wrote their spelling words in pudding,



they recreated the Nile River to see how it floods to help crops to grow,



and Liberty is counting everything she can find.  She’s learning to skip count by 2’s and she counted all these bears.  I can’t remember how many there were, you’ll have to ask her.



Also this month, our little Kindergartner received her 5 year old shots.  The shots themselves were no problem, she didn’t even blink.  The blue, not pink or pretty in any way, hospital gown, however, was a real problem.



Levi and Liberty also went to their first Options Day, which is their one day a week school day.
 


As you can tell they were super excited.  Liberty is taking Cooking, Art, Music and Movement and PE.  Levi, who walked into school and was immediately  surrounded by tons of his friends, is taking Science, Spanish, Lego learning and PE.  And mom gets a 4 hour break!  This week I went shopping for clothes and I couldn’t shake the feeling I had to be somewhere or that there was some kind of deadline I was missing.  I totally felt like I was playing hooky.  So this is how the other half lives???

Rock celebrated his birthday yesterday and even though this boy is hard to buy for (he only ever asks for ties), I managed to find the perfect gift this year!  Thanks to everyone who pitched in to get him new headphones.  He was given a fancy pair of Bose by his company several years ago and when they broke this year he was very sad.  This reaction is about as much excitement as you can get out of Rock.

And lastly, this afternoon we had a miracle at our house.  All four of the kids played Four Square in the back yard happily and nicely with NO FIGHTING for over two hours.  It was so surprising and amazing I had to take a picture.  (After I picked my jaw up off the floor.)  Today I am grateful for tender mercies.

Education Department Changes

No, this is not going to be a big rant against the federal education department and the changes I would like to see in it, though I do have lots of those.  This post is about the big changes this year for our family in our own education department. 

Reagan was diagnosed with mild Asperger’s syndrome and ADHD last year and his doctors and I agreed it was time to send him to school full time where he could get the most practice in social situations as possible.  So, he is now going to a local charter school that is a much better fit for his needs than homeschooling or even the regular middle school.  He has been to school for a week now and loves it.  His first day at the school he bonded with another kid over, not sports teams, not music, but the dosage of ADHD medication they are both on.  Weird but true and believe it or not, we are thrilled.

We decided Cade needed some extra practice in the social department as well and needed a good challenge so he is now in the gifted program at the local middle school.  He also had a great first week and can’t wait to go back each day.  His favorite teacher so far is the one that had them throw spit balls at a map and then map the coordinates of their spit ball.  Pretty darn cool if you ask me.

I will admit that I was very nervous the first day of school.  More nervous than they were, though I didn’t let on.  I wanted to be able to homeschool all my kids, but have always been open to doing whatever is best for each kid.  Right now I think this is what these boys need and I was so relieved to know they made it through their first day in new schools with smiles on their faces. 

Levi and Liberty will be homeschooling with me this year.  I am excited to spend so much time focusing on just these two little ones who get the least of my attention most of the time.  They are such good buddies and excited to learn so I think we’ll have a fantastic year.  This week I started Harry Potter with Levi.  He has been dying to read it but I wouldn’t let him because I wanted to read it to him and with him.  He was really mad at me for a while, but when I explained that this was something special that mom wanted to do with just him he accepted it.  And it was so worth the wait.  His eyes lit up at the idea of chocolate frogs and magic wands and his giggles over the crazy wizard world have been priceless.  I would not give this opportunity away for all the free time in the world.  To me there is nothing more magical than snuggling together in my bed reading Harry Potter.

Liberty can’t wait to continue learning to read and write some more.  She has been begging me all summer and I’ve put her off long enough.  It’s time to start!

The two littles and I went on a picnic on Friday to the river.  In the past this activity would have ended in fighting between the kids and eventually yelling from me.  One time I marched them all back to the car  before they could even GET to the river because they were fighting.  But Friday was perfect.  We watched a hawk swoop down and catch a fish with it’s talons, Levi found a crayfish and they had a blast climbing all over the rocks. 

Here’s to a new adventure in education this year!  Wish us luck!

Grandpa John

Our Levi John is named after Rock’s Grandpa, John Roper and my grandpa, John Wesel.   He’s been lucky enough to spend time with and get to know Grandpa Roper over the last seven years, for which we are very grateful.  Grandpa passed away on the 25th of last month and so there will be no more four wheeler rides or pictures on the porch swing.  We will miss him, but he lived a good full life.  He was a strong, quiet man who loved the outdoors and was hiking right up until the end.  He even went on a big bike ride for his 90th birthday.  I’m so grateful I’ve been blessed to have him in my life the last 14 years.   My grandpa’s both passed away long before I was married and Grandpa Roper has treated me like one of his own since the very beginning.   When Rock and I were newly married, we were in the St. George temple standing around with many of Rock’s family members.  I was still new and feeling a bit out of place.  Grandpa came over to me and gave me a big hug and told me he was glad I was part of his family.  He’s had a special place in my heart ever since then, because even as a new member of the family I knew that Grandpa didn’t say much.  So what he did say was important.  We will all miss him and look forward to the day when we can go four wheeling with him again.  Because of course there will be four wheelers in the next life, right?

As a silver lining to Grandpa’s passing, much of Rock’s extended family was able to be in Colorado together for the funeral.  It was great to see everyone; bittersweet reunion.  Reagan did not get to come with us because he was on his 50 miler with the scouts.  But we decided that was what Grandpa would have wanted him to be doing anyway.  Here’s the low down on our trip.

We left on a Thursday and drove down through Utah.  Just as we crossed the border into Utah, we passed a huge billboard that said Welcome to Utah.  It was pretty hard to miss.  Right at that moment Cade piped up from the back seat, “Hey!  We’re in Utah aren’t we?!”  Thinking he had obviously seen the sign, we chuckled and said, “Uh, yeah, Cade.”  To which he responded, “Yep, I knew it because of the mountains!” 

On our way through Utah we stopped to see some good friends.  As we left their home, we stopped at a gas station to fill up and hit the bathrooms before we headed out of town.   Yes, it would have been smarter to use the bathrooms at our friends home, but we are not that smart, so the gas station it was.   I am still not really used to having to take a little girl into the bathrooms on these trips.  Rock usually takes the boys into the bathroom because he has to go in anyway. I have a bladder the size of Texas, so I don’t often go in.  This time  I was busy with something in the car, and so I forgot to take Liberty in.  Two minutes after we drove away from the gas station Liberty says, “I need to go potty!”  Oops.  Picture me slapping my head, “Stupid, stupid, stupid!”  So we pulled over to another gas station to have her go.  We get back in the car and drive away only to have her say ten minutes later, “I have to go poo!”  So it took us three gas station stops to get out of South Jordan.

We made it to Grand Junction and the next day we took a drive over the Colorado Monument.  It is always spectacular.  I wonder if you can ever get tired of looking at those amazing rocks, formations and colors.  

Silver lining; family time!

Three Bald Brothers.  They could start a band.

This is all the great grandkids practicing their song for the funeral.  I don’t think you can find a more tear inducing song than “Somewhere Out There”, but that’s what they sang.  It was beautiful.

 

Uncle Sam is a photographer and got some great pictures while everyone was together.

I think this might be my favorite picture of the weekend.  Sam is such a goof and Grandma is just beautiful!

Saturday was the funeral.  I hate funerals.  I hate goodbyes and do everything I can to avoid them because I cry like a baby.  I actually left for college once without saying goodbye to my baby sister because I did not want to cry.  So funerals are hard.   And this one was made harder by the fact that I had a very wiggly five year old on my lap.  I almost named this post Five Year Olds and Funerals.  They don’t mix well.  That being said, it was a beautiful funeral.  I loved hearing all the wonderful tributes to Grandpa.  And Monica was totally right.  He would have been embarrassed at all the fuss we were making over him. 

Here is the gravesite, beautiful and peaceful there under those trees. (more Sam pictures)

Grandma Dot was amazing that day.  Faithful and fearless. 
Seventy years of marriage is so long I can’t even comprehend it.  I hope she won’t be too lonely.  

Rock’s mom was also amazing.  I can’t imagine dealing with that kind of grief AND putting together a funeral.  I know that’s how it always works, but it was really brought home to me this time.  For some reason it always seems like funerals just happen without any work. 

To end on a funny note, here are a few things you would have heard had you been a fly on the wall of our van as we drove home.  Levi, when asked to hand up his electronic device:  “Mom, I need to die first!” And Liberty, (said menacingly) during a scuffle with her brother just as we were about to drive away, “I could throw this backpack at you!”  And on that happy note we left Grand Junction and headed home.  We sure will miss you Grandpa John. 

Till we meet again…

Fourteen Years

Most of the time it is the man who forgets his anniversary, but in our family it is me.  What woman forgets her wedding day?  In my defense, July 26th is just not a good day to get married.  So if you are considering marriage dates, don’t pick the end of July!  There will always be a family reunion, or Scout campout or family vacation at that time. And if you are really dumb and have a child two days before your anniversary you will often have a child’s birthday you are celebrating on or around the day.  June.  June weddings are much better.

The first time I forgot our anniversary we were having both a family reunion at our home AND we were celebrating Cade’s birthday on the 26th.  A woman can handle only so much on her plate in one day, people.  I totally spaced what day it really was until Rock mysteriously disappeared that evening.  I went to the garage to see if he had taken a car.  Staring at the empty spot it suddenly hit me.  He left to buy me flowers because TODAY WAS OUR ANNIVERSARY!!!  In he walked a few minutes later with a  bouquet of flowers for his forgetful wife.  I felt so horrible.  Mortified.  I swore it would never happen again.  

Fast forward a few years to the Roper family reunion at Bear Lake.  Please note that this was not the first time the Ropers had planned a family reunion on our anniversary.  There was one on our first anniversary that we decided not to go to because we wanted to spend it alone together.  But after several years of being married we were fine spending it at a reunion.  I was dealing with cranky kids in a vacation rental far away from home or any kind of calendar and it was not until halfway through the day when I walked into the kitchen to see a big beautiful bouquet of flowers sitting there that I realized with a gasp that they were for me (no card was even needed). I had forgotten my anniversary, not once, but twice now!!!  More mortification.  More promises that it would never happen again. 

Fast forward to this year.  The week before our anniversary I was in WA helping my parents.  I got home late on the 24th, Cade’s birthday, and then had to throw a birthday party the next day, the 25th.  That morning Rock’s Grandpa passed away. Our hearts were sad and our minds were wrapped up in how and when we would get to the funeral.  As if that weren’t enough we had to get Reagan ready for a 50 mile, week long campout with the scouts.  Pack check in was that night.  Oh and my sisters were staying with us that night as well. So the night we should have been celebrating our anniversary (because the actual day, the 26th, was on a Sunday) we were rounding up bug repellant and smashing a piñata.  The 26th came and almost went.  While sitting at dinner I happened to look at the calendar.  When I realized what day it was, my face turned bright red with embarrassment and then when I realized that Rock had ALSO forgotten what day it was I just started to laugh.  I couldn’t decide whether I was offended he had forgotten or glad that I was no longer the only one in the dog house!  Needless to say we went out the very next night to celebrate fourteen years (and one day) together.   I love my husband for many reasons, but on our anniversary I love him most for his numerical memory and his forgiving nature.