Wicked - Times Square

Joe took me to see Wicked on Broadway in New York! He surprised me for my birthday and also, he said, to celebrate our tenth anniversary. I know, I don’t deserve it, or Joe, but I love him, and I did love seeing Wicked – it’s, well, fabulous!

Some may describe New York as a melting pot; and, if that's the case, Joe says the melting pot of New York reaches its boiling point at Times Square. I read an estimated 1.7 million people pass through Times Square daily. Last weekend, we became part of that statistic.

First Day of School

Brock's New Look

Brock wears glasses now, even though he wishes he didn’t. Brock told Joe: “Jack Sparrow doesn’t wear glasses.” The kids told him he looks like Harry Potter. I think he almost likes Harry Potter again.

Joe and I took the kids for a vision check, a year ago, before school started. I thought Brock young at age 2 for a vision test, but the eye doctor said no, he’s not too young, and she tested him. It turns out Jared and Rachel got Joe’s excellent vision; Brock got mine, but worse. He’s farsighted (like me) with astigmatism (like me) and lazy eye (like me). And now, a year later, because his eyes didn’t improve enough on their own, Brock got a new look – wearing glasses. The eye doctor hopes if he wears his glasses and strengthens his eyes now, he won’t need to wear an eye patch later.

At first, Brock loved his new look. Then, after one hour, he wanted to give his glasses away. I put them back on every time he took them off, and forty tries later, he realized he couldn’t get rid of them that way, so he tried taking them off and throwing them across the room. Finally he resorted to hiding them: I found them, in the past couple weeks, under the couch cushion, under Rachel’s bed and in Jared’s closet. Today I had his scratched lenses replaced (after two weeks of abuse).

I’m glad Brock’s vision will improve, even if he has to wear glasses to do it. I just hope Brock doesn’t ever need to wear an eye patch, even if he does look more like a pirate, he’d probably tell me, “Harry Potter doesn’t wear an eye patch, he wears glasses.”

My First Birthday (29 years ago, today)

Kiki the Cat

I’m allergic to cats. Joe’s allergic to cats. Three neighbor girls brought a cute little orange and black-striped, not-quite-a-kitten-anymore, cat to my house to see if we wanted it. I took it, and we kept it, until we got rid of it when we found out Jared is also allergic to cats.

I knew, genetically speaking, that might happen. I thought a little sneezing, coughing, and runny eyes a small price to pay to create lots of good cat memories like mine – dressing my cat Tiger in doll clothes and pushing him in a stroller, cutting his whiskers off, watching my dad dropkick my cat Susannah out the back door and over the deck like a football (after she dug her claws into his flesh in three solid straight red lines from his wrist halfway to his elbow) – okay, maybe not memories exactly like mine, but still, memories.

Jared, however, went beyond the usual allergy and straight to the extreme – I can’t breath because my airways are closing off – allergy. We took Jared to the doctor for a breathing treatment (which helped) and experienced a rough night of Jared crying to us to please give Kiki the cat to a new home if it would help him breathe.

We tried to give the cat away the next day, unsuccessfully, but finally found a place for her a few days later. I admit it’s not quite the cat memory I hoped for, but at least it’s a memory I’m sure my kids won’t forget.

Happy 10th Anniversary!

Joe and I celebrated our tenth anniversary this year and Joe turned 34 on Monday. Happy Birthday! I put together a slide show highlighting some favorite memories to celebrate both occasions! (If you click on View All Images it will take you to a site where you can click on gallery view which makes the pictures bigger and the slideshow faster - at least it should.)

Saurey Family Reunion

We went up to Rexburg for the Saurey Family Reunion last weekend. We loved seeing our family and enjoyed canoeing down the Snake River; tummy-tickling, I’m-up-higher-than-it-looked-from-below bridge jumping (according to Joe’s mom, 50 years old is about the right age to stop jumping, so I’ve got 20 good years left to enjoy it); roasting hot dogs on a sand bar and torpedoing into the water (you’ll see what I mean in the video below); and all of this in just the first day.

We also got to have a big sleepover with almost the whole family at Arlene’s house (our family slept on the trampoline) before boating, tubing and water skiing at Gem Lake. And then, of course, we ate a lot of delicious food. I can’t describe a Saurey reunion without describing some of the food: Dutch oven chicken (lemon and teriyaki) and potatoes at Pat and Brent’s, a deluxe breakfast of pancakes, sausages and eggs at Arlene’s, and yummy hoagies from Joe’s mom and Holly. We had a great time eating, playing hard and seeing everyone!

Sandbar Torpedos

Canoeing down the Snake River

Jewkes Family Reunion

We enjoyed seeing our family at the Jewkes Family Reunion held at Heber Valley Camp: We climbed up, swung on, and went through ropes at a challenge course; paddled boats; watched the kid’s jump rope; celebrated two upcoming marriages with a girl’s night/surprise shower; listened to touching and funny family stories; and had a great FHE. We loved it!

For our first ropes challenge, Jared tree-climbed 30 feet

wrapped his arm around the tree trunk and hooked two carabiners to a wire (with one hand!)

wobbled 20 feet across a tight rope connected to another tree

He looks a little worried

and then rappelled down to solid ground

I went next. When I finished, Jared asked me if I got scared. I said, "Yes." “Me, too,” he replied. I’m proud of my brave boy.