Being a Mother

Snow day! Benjamin was so happy to have a day off of school! He played and played in the snow. Here is his first snowman. He made a whole family of them!
Emily liked making snow angels. It looks cold to me, but she thought it was worth it!
Emily and Joshua under the tree. Joshua looks innocent, but he has been unwrapping at least one present a day. You'd think his mom would wise up and MOVE the presents. But, no harm done. He mostly just unwraps a jack in the box over and over. It's for him, anyway.


Some comments about my children.

Since I am, afterall, first and foremost, a mother, I am going to take a minute here and tell a little bit about my kids. Here is a funny quote from Emily.

Megan (in a big hurry): Emily, you can't go out in those shoes. You look like poor white trash.

Emily (indignant): I'm not white trash! ..... I'm PINK trash.

Does this translate well? It was really funny when she said it!

Also of note, Benjamin's art work can be seen online, now. The website is www.artsonia.com/Benjamin765
He got his 150 patch for reading that many books last month. His goal this month is to earn both 200 and 250. This is a big goal for him. Wish us luck!

Joshua is potty training. I have this glimmer of hope that there will come a day in my life that I won't have a child in diapers. It has been an expensive 6 years.

BAOTAP

BAOTAP stands for "Books Are Our Thing At Parkwood." BAOTAP is a robot that encourages the kids to read. Benjamin got his patch for reading 100 books this month. Here he is with his certificate. They have an assembly each month to award the kids their patches. This is Ben's 3rd. We sew the patches on to their school shirts. It is really cute, and it sure gets Ben reading!

Thanksgiving

We went to the Dawson's for Thanksgiving dinner this year. They have a variety of pets that we are going to model for you in the next pictures.

Benjamin with the corn snake (a constrictor)

Emily with Angelita (a tarantula)
Emily really loved these animals. She held them for the longest, and kept begging for more.

Joshua with a spider for a hat.

And finally, me with the snake, tarantula, and rabbit. The rabbit I enjoyed holding. He is very soft. The snake I could tolerate, although it was a stretch. The spider was way over the top. I am smiling in this picture, but I am also hyperventilating. Even Dave admitted that the spider made him feel a little nervous.

Photo Shoot

Benjamin, 6 years old
Emily, 4 years old

Joshua, 2 years old

I bribed the kids with McDonald's this week, and they agreed to sit in front of a bush so I could take their pictures.

Falling leaves

All those trees that we loved so much when we bought our house have started to drop their leaves. The yard is beautiful with lots of different colors. Raking has begun in earnest. Fortunately, everyone in our house likes the task in some form or another. Either actually picking up the leaves, or at least raking them into a pile and then jumping in it. Another popular activity is scooping leaves onto the trampoline, then jumping them off again. Good times.

Here are the kids working in the far corner of the yard.

Resting after their labors.

Chicago with Kids

The first weekend in November found us in Chicago. My sister-in-law, Kristin was there from the Virgin Islands for a conference, and Benjamin, Emily, and I drove up to meet her. David was on call; he stayed home with Joshua. We all had a good time. Chicago in the fall is a beautiful city. Here are some of the highlights.

Eating at the Rainforest Cafe

The Chicago Zoo (very fun, and free)

The Museum of Science and Industry, one of the few world's fair
buildings to survive the Chicago Fire.

Riding the giant ferris wheel at Navy Pier.

We had a fun trip. Thanks Kristin!

Halloween

Halloween was a big hit with the kids this year. Benjamin was Batman, Emily was Sleeping Beauty, and Josh was a cow (again). I wasn't sure if Joshua would understand the whole concept, but he caught on quickly, and still carries his pumpkin bucket around saying "trick or treat."

The kids went with friends for the first time. Dave followed along behind to supervise and watch Joshua. It was a fun day.

The bike ride

My running/biking friend, Jessica drove over from Indianapolis on Saturday. We had a great afternoon. We listened to the first session of General conference, then took off on a 40 mile bike ride. This is no big deal for Jessica, but took an act of courage on my part, since I haven't ridden a bike in months. But, we had a great ride, and the conversation was so interesting that I hardly noticed the distance.

The reward: dinner at Abuelo's.

Thanks for coming, Jessica!

Backpacking

David has wanted to take Benjamin backpacking for a couple of months, so this Friday, they packed up and went. They drove down after work, and hiked in in the dark (typical Hoopes family trip). Emily, Joshua, and I stayed home and watched Barbie Island Princess and ate cookies. About halfway through the movie, I got a phone call from David just to let me know that they were pretty much lost. Benjamin was a little upset after walking for over an hour and not arriving at camp. They finally set up their tent just off the trail, and had a good night.








Benjamin at their "campsite," finally!












Benjamin loves this picture of himself with this "pretty fungus."

Cousins

Matthew and Joshua had a love hate relationship. Sometimes they were best friends, sometimes they drove each other up the wall. I guess that's what happens when two 2-year olds hang out for a week. Here is a classic shot of Joshua ordering Matthew "off" of the trampoline. He ordered Sarah off, as well. He's quite the little king at our house.






They got back on, however, for this last shot before Sarah had to drive back home. Thanks for coming, guys! We miss you!

Sarah drives west

My 7 months pregnant sister, Sarah, drove from Arlington, VA with her 2-1/2 year old son, to visit us last week. We loved having them! Here are some of the highlights.




We drove out to the Audobon Society Apple Fest. The kids learned all about Johnny Appleseed, and Sarah and I sampled apple dumplings, apple pie, apple butter, etc. It was a lot of fun. Here is my nephew, Matthew riding a "horse."





Next, Benjamin modeling the hats we made. Then, Sarah and the kids checking out Thanksgiving dinner. Yum! Finally me and my kids with their cousin, Matthew. We had a great day!

Bye, bye, lovebirds

The lovebirds were very friendly creatures, and loved our heads. Joshua thought it was the coolest thing ever when they landed on him.

Try not to notice that Joshua is wearing nothing but the lovebirds and a diaper. I swear I'm a good mother, and usually dress my kids. We were getting ready for bed!
















Here they are on my head, where they spent a lot of time. I thought I was fairly tolerant of the birds. I didn't say anything when they chewed up a stack of bills I needed to pay. Ignored it when they turned the title page of Benjamin's Book of Mormon into their nest. But then they started in on Pride and Prejudice, and it was time for them to go. We gave them away to a good home a few days later. The crazy thing was that they really seemed to like Jane Austen best! Even after I covered the books with a dish cloth, Clyde would pull it off so Bonnie could get back to work on P & P. They had good taste, I'll give them that!

We miss the birds, but I think they will be better off where they are now.

Lovebirds

I don't have any pictures of my family this week, because we lost the cord to upload pictures from our camera. This bird will have to do.

I want to start this note out with a story about my friend Shalauna. She is the wife of Brady, and is the mother of twins Cate and Cal. For Cate and Cal's birthday one year, Brady came home with a rabbit in a cage. I remember thinking it was a cute rabbit, but was glad that MY husband would never surprise me like that. Well, Brady, Dave just gave you a run for your money!

Let me back up and tell about my weekend. Deseret Book did a Time Out For Women in Indianapolis on Saturday. Benjamin and I drove over on Friday night and stayed with the Pugsleys. Saturday, Benjamin played with his old friend Riley, while Becky and I went to the conference. It was a great day. I loved seeing old friends again! Just seeing familiar faces made me feel so good! I was on the verge of happy tears all day. The speakers were good, too. After the conference, Benjamin and I packed up and headed back to Ohio. We had a great drive listening to "Double Fudge," a somewhat newer Judy Blume book (at least I assume it is newer, because I haven't read it, and she references Harry Potter). We arrived home, and Joshua came running out yelling "Yea! Mommy! Yea! Mommy!" which pretty much fills my heart with joy and is the best reason to be a mother. I walked into the house feeling good, and saw a bird on my kitchen counter. This was somewhat surprising, especially when I found a cage and another bird. (There were roses, too, but that hardly makes up for anything.)

I wondered which neighbor had asked us to watch their birds already. But, no. My husband has spent the day on Craig's List and found a pair of lovebirds to bring home as our new pets. He said he wanted to SURPRISE me! Now let me state for anyone who doesn't know this about me. I am not much into pets. Animals are fine, but not really in my house. Where I sleep, and make food, and try to stay clean. I'm just not a pet person. I have 3 children. Doesn't that count? David knows this about me. I'm not sure what he was thinking. The thing is that he's not a sneaky man. That just isn't his nature. He must have honestly believed that I was just too lazy to get a pet of my own, and that I would be happy to see one, just waiting for me to take care of, on my kitchen counter. Unfortunately, he was wrong.

Now let me tell you about these birds. One of them, Bonnie, looks like the picture. She is very pretty. The other one is even prettier, with bright green and orange feathers. His name is Clyde. Now for the clincher. Clyde has a nervous disorder. Apparently he needs an avian psychiatrist. When he is stressed, which is all the time, he plucks out his beautiful green feathers on his back and chest. Have you ever seen a plucked chicken? That's what he looks like around his neck. He has a beautiful head and tail, with a mutant middle. It's really disgusting to look at. And yet, one has to feel sorry for the bird. I don't know how long lovebirds last. These 2 are 8 years old. If anyone knows, feel free to respond. What kind of sentence am I in for? Of course, the kids love them! They hop around the house and land on our heads and slit paper into nesting material, and poop on the floor/counter/whatever. Dave thinks I just have to get used to having animals around the house. I'm not sure that will ever happen.

So, we have pet birds. As my mom pointed out, at least he didn't bring home a goat!

"Ocean" and Mountains

After Benjamin's grand disappointment last week when he learned that in going to "Salt Lake" we were headed for Temple Square and not the states mini inland ocean we felt obliged to visit the city's namesake.

Benjamin, for some reason, was unusually impressed by the tiny thumbnail long brine shrimp and was often found searching for them.

The shrimps weren't hard to find and even Josh managed to point some out.

We spotted some antelope off in the distance, and Joshua took off to find them. We didn't think he would go TOO far, but...

















He proved himself fearless...He kept going and going and going...

Finally David headed him off and brought him back to safety.


















The day finished off with some amazing floating. The salt really makes a big difference! Can you float with your head out of the water?

Oh yeah, Benjamin is excited that he found some more brine shrimp!

Hair Celebration!!!

CLICK ON ALL PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Last week we celebrated two hair events. Mine grew overnight (thanks, Anna for letting me play with your extensions), and Emily's is finally one length again. Hurray!!! I think she looks great, and she seems happy, as well.




We've been pretty busy getting in our fill of the West before heading back to Ohio. Here are a few of the things we have done.

My parents bought a scooter for the kids. Emily loves to ride it!

We spent a fun afternoon playing with Adrienne Parsons and her kids at the Kangaroo Zoo in Pleasant Grove. Emily cried when it was time to leave her friend Ella.







We met my sister-in-law, Amy, and her kids at Chuck E Cheese's for a great afternoon. Here is Emily with her cousin Anna. They love playing together, and are so happy to be able to see each other often this month.











We went into Big Cottonwood Canyon and hiked to Doughnut Falls. I carried Joshua, but Benjamin and Emily did the whole hike themselves! When we arrived at the falls, there were a few large groups there. It was hard to get a picture with just us, so David photoshopped "the others" out. Here is the picture before...













...and after. I love photoshop!











Dave finally came back to Utah after 2 weeks working as a Radiation Oncologist (on his own for the first time!!!) in Indiana. He also took the written part of his board exam (the second of 3 parts) while he was out there. He doesn't take the orals until next year.




We were so glad to see him! We took a camping trip to Yellowstone with Dave's parents, John and Myrna, and his sister, Amy. She came up on her own with her 5 children! Wow. It was a great trip, and the kids all loved playing together. Here I am with Joshua at Old Faithful.










David, Amy, and I took the three oldest boys (Benjamin, Taylor, and Dallin) hiking up Avalanche Peak. It os over 10,000 feet, and was a steep 2 mile climb up. The boys did so well! It was a hard climb. As we neared the summit, a thunder storm popped up leaving us stranded on an exposed ridge. We all laid down flat on the ground, and waited out the lightning. It was really loud up there, and the boys were a bit nervous (as were the adults). When the lightning passed, we started down in the pouring rain and hail. We walked down holding this tarp over the boys to keep them "dry." We won't forget this hike!





We had better weather the next day. Here are all 8 kids at our picnic site. It was a really fun trip to yellowstone. The highlight for the kids was swimming in String Lake. I liked seeing the animals. We saw coyotes, bison, elk, a black bear and a grizzley bear, a bald eagle, and many others.










One last picture to commemorate all the junk food we ate on our camping trip. Here is Joshua eating his favorite food, Cheetos, with his grandfather. Who wouldn't love a 3 day trip with 8 bags of chips? Josh was in heaven!

A Grand Adventure

We just returned from our 2007 grand adventure, Arizona. We traveled from the low point to the high point in Arizona. It was a great time. We had 9 travellers, 4 of which completed the entire task. This task was to start at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, travel down to the Colorado River, and back up the Soth Rim, a hike of 24 miles, 6000 feet of descent, and 5000 feet of ascent, then ride a bike 79 miles to the Arizona Snow Bowl, and finally climb Arizona's highpoint (Humphrey's Peak at 12,633 feet).

Now I'll dive in and give you the gory details of our trip. We arrived at the North Rim on the 4th of July, and enjoyed the spectacular scenery from the top. Here's Charlie with our goal in the background, the South Rim. We have a long way to go!

Jeff and Stacey, same view.

That night we camped at the North Rim. We enjoyed a delicious spaghetti dinner (carb load?), then went to bed around 10:00 pm. After a short 2 hours of sleep, we got up at midnight to prepare for the first leg.

Here we are, starting at 1:00 am, to beat the heat! The views were a little bit dark, as we didn't have daylight until we were almost to the bottom of the canyon, 5 hours later.

We rested up at Phantom Ranch, took off our boots, and tried to dry out our feet a little bit (we had a small run in with a creek in the dark).

Then, it was across the bridge over the Colorado River, and up the Bright Angel trail. We finally started seeing other people about 4 miles from the top. We were pretty tired at this point; some of us delirious. We were grateful to see that our drivers (Dad, Joseph, and Stacey) had also made the 4 hour drive AROUND the canyon, and were ready to get us to the campground.

We all completed the "death march". Here is Dave and I at the top. We were glad that no one had to be lifeflighted out!

Here is David resting up and waiting for the rest of the group at the top!

Day 2 started a little bit later. The bikers had a few false starts...we changed 3 tubes before the event even began.

But, begin it did, and they headed out of the Grand Canyon and up to Humphrey's Peak.

Megan, Kristin, and Stacey served as water support and videographers for this leg. I think we had more fun than the cyclers. We waited at rest stops, eating cookies and taking pictures of ourselves. In between, we refilled camelbacks, videoed the riders, and yelled out supportive (hopefully) comments. They had a tough ride, but claimed it was fun. I don't know about that! Here's Joseph and Charlie.

Lunch at a rest stop.

Here's Joseph climbing a hill, and passed out at a rest stop.

Jeff pulling into the finish line!





John, Charlie, and David are still strong after 79 miles! Good job, guys!

The water crew is still strong, as well.

Megan, Kristin, and Stacey: the closest we came to riding this thing.

That night we stayed at the Ski Lift Lodge at the base of Humphrey's Peak. The scenery was amazing, and we were all excited to go up the the highpoint the next day.

Every night the question would come up, "Where's Joseph?"

Oh yeah, on the phone with Kathryn, again!

Eight participants summitted Humphrey's Peak. It was a great hike: 9 miles round trip felt like a breeze after the aforementioned death march. From the top, we should have been able to see the Grand Canyon, but smoke from a fire blocked out some of the distant scenery. It was still beautiful.

We would have enjoyed the summit block a little bit more if there hadn't been so many flies. They were really quite pesky. John is modelling the look we all wore at the top.

Kristin on the way down.

We scooted on down, and drove over to St George to meet Mom, Anna, and Pat at Pat's condo. We had a pizza dinner, and waffles for breakfast the next day.

David and Charlie has flights back home Sunday afternoon, so they made a quick getaway with one carload early that morning. Wildfires near the interstate caused them to take a long detour, but they still made their flights. Joseph also drove on to Boise that afternoon. Anna and Pat left for their delayed honeymoon to Norway Monday morning. And so our party had to separate.

There were many records set on this trip. Here are a few.
Longest bicycle ride at 85 miles for 2 riders (Charlie and Jeff). (David has done 112 miles, and John did 90 before this trip.)
Highest altitude at 12,633 feet (Kristin)
First state highpoint (Kristin)
Longest day hike at 24 miles (David, Megan, Charlie, John, Jeff, Kristin)
Most gatorade drunk in a 24 hour period (I think this may be true of all of us, we really guzzled the stuff!)
Most calories expended in a 3 day period (David, John, Charlie, Jeff)
Two trips driving around the Grand Canyon in 3 days (Dad, Joseph, Stacey)

Most bikes in the back of a trailor.

Here is a final shot of most of the group. Thanks for getting the best side of us, Kristin!

We had a great 5 days, and will miss being together! Thanks for a GRAND ADVENTURE!