Family Reunions 2018- Part 2

After our adventure with the Evans family we met up with the Anderson side. It was really nice to kill two birds with one stone, especially since we drove so far.

After church with Aunt Janelle in St. Ignatius we had lunch and then started our journey up to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. About three years ago we put a deposit down on a rental house in the mountains by Coeur d'Alene. It is actually a recording studio/retreat house and it had 7 bedrooms/bathrooms so every family could have their own room. It was such a great find! The whole house was amazing. Tons of space outside for the kids to run around, a gourmet industrial kitchen, a video game room, pool table, hot tub...really anything we could want. We didn't end up doing a lot of excursions and leaving the house because the kids were happy and content hanging out there. It was so fun to have 25 cousins all together in one house. This was the first time that has ever happened and they are all asking when we are going to do it again.

Once everyone got there, Shad revealed the family reunion shirts that he had designed and then had Kristin make with her screen printing equipment. The back had an outline of the brothers doing "the pose" (aka pretending like they are peeing off something....such a boy thing to do) and a definition of "Anderson." The front had everyone's number on it based on when they entered the family.

We were all on the back porch and it was really fun to have each person come up and have their moment of excitement as they were spotlighted. It was really touching to see that even though we are a large family each one of us is important, loved, and are an integral part of the family. Shad even made a shirt for his mom who passed away 12 years ago.

Probably the most exciting part was when we got to the end and Shad pulled out a #41 onesie and handed it to me. Everyone was really surprised excited for Nicole and Shad's parents who already knew. However....I think the biggest surprise was when he pulled out a #42 onesie. He looked at Nicole (implying that maybe the onesie was meant for her) she laughed and then he handed it to me. Everyone started screaming and freaking out. Nicole started crying and hugging me. It was a pretty exciting night. I think it caught everyone off guard just like it did us when we found out. We had Kristin video everyone's reaction for us and this time we made sure we had plenty of battery on our phone so it didn't die in the middle of it.

Afterward, we good some great pictures out on the lawn. These are the first pictures we have ever had with everyone together, so that was exciting! We also had Shad take some better, more dressed up pictures of everyone together another night. It will be fun to get them printed and on the wall in our house.

The week was jammed packed. There was always something to do. First of all....lots of food. We spent $1,500 for a week's worth of food. Which was actually pretty good to feed 40 people. The kitchen and serving area that we had made it pretty easy, especially when it came to feeding 25 kids.

My van jammed packed with $1,500 worth of food

The serving area made it easier to feed all those kids

The kids loved the play area outside. They had playhouses stocked with toys, a slip n slide, a playground, and tons of sports equipment. Then there were the free video games (like pac man), and a projector screen to watch movies and play other video games. If we couldn't find one of our kids there was a good chance they were hiding out in there.

We also did a fun activity outside where the kids put rubber bands around watermelons until they exploded. It was great! The reward afterward was eating the watermelon.

While we were there we announced on social media that we were pregnant with twins. We had to keep it a secret from our family until we got to Idaho, but it was pretty difficult to hide with those that we saw often. I'm glad we kept it a secret though because the reaction was great. 

We did do a few activities away from the house. By far the most exciting one was the Hiawatha bike trail. This was an incredible experience and totally worth bringing our bikes out for and paying to ride down it. We left Benny and Ruby at home with a few adults who didn't want to ride and took the other kids. Gracie rode on a tag-a-long behind Shad and the boys rode their own bikes. It is a 15 mile downhill trail that is an old abandoned train route. They have taken out the train tracks and made it into a bike trail. There are huge tunnels (the longest one being 2 miles long), and tall bridges that go across deep valleys. The scenery was incredible and it wasn't a hard bike ride at all, even being 14 weeks pregnant with twins. We stopped halfway through and ate our sack lunches. Once we got to the bottom we rode the shuttle (old school bus) back up to our cars. It really was a major highlight of our trip.

"The pose" of course

Dirty bums after riding back up through the wet muddy tunnel

The other fun thing we did was visit two different lakes and played on the beach. The first day we did Lake Coeur d'Alene and rented sailboats. I think this was the highlight of the trip for Shad. After that day he was convinced that we needed to buy a little sailboat. They really were adorable and the kids had a lot of fun going out on the water and taking turns having rides. The sand at that lake wasn't very fun to play in as it was pretty rocky and the water was cold, but I think everyone still enjoyed it. After playing there we went into town for a bit and played at the park and did some main street shopping. Downtown Couer d'Alene is pretty cute.

We stopped at a pizza place that we had reservations at on the way back to our rental. I think everyone was starving from a day at the beach.

We also visited another lake called Lake Pend Oreille. There was a great beach in Sandpoint that we played at all day. It was much more swimmer-friendly and the sand was softer. We also rented some paddle board for a few hours. I enjoyed that a lot and was on one for a good portion of the time since I didn't bring my swimming suit, DUH! I forgot about what a workout those things are though. The kids had a great time that day and loved playing together.

That night the adults headed back up to Sandpoint and had dinner at a restaurant right on the lake called "Trinity at the beach." It was really refreshing to be with just the adults. I felt like I missed out not being able to go ziplining with some of the other adults because I was pregnant so a date night was much needed. I appreciated that Ryan and Lindsay's teenagers were willing to watch the kids for us so that we could go. After dinner, we walked along the dock and checked out all of the boats in the boat show. Some of those boats cost more than our house. It was unbelievable!

It really was such a great trip and my kids still talk about it often and ask when we are going to do it again. It was a miracle that no one really got sick the whole week we were there (although Ruby and few other cousins ended up with hand, foot, and mouth after we got home). I think we were really blessed. It was a perfect week!

I am so grateful for the amazing family that I married into. My sister in laws are like my sisters. We talk every day. It was so fun to be with them all week and I learn so much by watching them as mothers and wives. It was also really fun to see how the cousins interacted and got along together. They were so sad to leave and I think they can really say that their cousins are some of their best friends. They really enjoyed getting dirty and having unstructured playtime. They don't get to be with these cousins very much so that was important.

We did the drive home, 30 hours, straight through. The kids did great! They really are great travelers. We did the northern route this time to make sure that we hit North Dakota and could check that off our state list. I think the drive was a little long for my pregnant body though. It took my feet about a day for the swelling to come back down. I think there is a reason the doctors say to only do 3-4 hour stretches and then you have to get out and walk around. The night time driving was a bit longer than that.

Family reunions 2018- Part 1

This summer ended up being a big one for family vacations. It’s a good thing because next year it’s going to be a lot harder to travel. We had the Anderson reunion in Coeur D’Alene, ID planned for at least 3 years but we decided to also make some stops along the way.

We took the South Dakota route driving on our way to Idaho so that we could check it off more states and so that we could see Mount Rushmore. We drove all day and ended up at Mount Rushmore on July 3rd at 8:00pm. There was supposed to be a special 4th if July lighting presentation that night, but the weather shortened the program and we just caught a small portion of it. Basically, we were there long enough to change the kids into their PJ’s, take a picture, and buy a Christmas ornament in the gift shop.

It’s a good thing we got out of there quick because the storm we went through afterward was insane. So much lightning. I was driving and whenever there was a flash of light I had to readjust my eyes as it was like having a camera flash in front of me. The kids slept through the whole thing and did great driving in the car all night. They woke up when we got to Montana.

We spent 4th of July morning at Shad’s aunt Gloria’s house. She has horses and the kids each had a little ride. I also had my first ride ever on a horse. It was a pretty exciting morning, especially for Benny as this was the main thing he would talk about when anticipating our trip. His death grip around the horse’s saddle was pretty funny. He loved it, despite his scared looking face.

Since Annie loves horses Brandon and Megan decided to stop by and have some horse rides too. They showed up around lunchtime and everyone got another little ride.

Gloria was so great to let us come to her little ranch. They fed us fried chicken for lunch and the kids loved the fresh air and the Montana mountains.

Once we were done there we checked into our house at Flathead Lake with the Evans side of the family. We found a perfect little place on the West side of the lake in Elmo, MT. It was a 2 bedroom 1 bath house, but there was a nice little bunkhouse just feet away with another 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. It was right on the lake and had its own dock. It was perfect! Unfortunately, Cam and Lisa weren't able to make it up. We missed having all of the cousins there together but we knew we also had plans to be together in Utah in August.

The kids mainly just played on the dock all day. We were there for 3 days and although we looked into things that we could go do, in the end the kids just wanted to be there playing in the water, playing games, and hanging out. So that is what we did. I got a few runs in down the dirt road and Shad and Haken went on some bike rides with uncle B. It really was a perfect relaxing week.

One of the best parts was sitting out at our dock watching all of the fireworks go off around the lake. It was a great time to be at Flathead.

Uncle B did rent a boat for an afternoon but that kind of ended in a disaster which is a story for another day. In short, the kids got about a 15-minute boat ride in choppy water. It was really a bummer.

 We also had a little surprise for everyone. Grandma Lori knew that I was pregnant since we sent her some flowers with a little poem for mother's day, but she didn't know that it was twins yet. Brandon and Megan didn't know at all (although Megan totally figured it out pretty much the minute she saw me). So we gave grandma a wrapped up present with one of these peanut ornaments in it. Then we had her unwrap the other one to reveal that we were having twins. The reaction was so great from everyone! I love telling people that knew we were pregnant because they get to be shocked again. Unfortunately, Shad was filming her reaction on his phone and it died right before she opened the second present so we didn't get it on camera.

Also on the reveal night, Shad jumped in the lake to save Gracie who had fallen off the dock with his phone in his pocket (super dad right?). Although the phone was dead from filming grandma's reaction it still had problems. None of the buttons worked. So, Shad found a guy on Craig's list that said he could fix any iPhone for $43 and he was only an hour north. Shad was skeptical as it seemed like this guy barely spoke English and he met him at some corner in a little town instead of in a shop or something. But, he did give Shad a loaner iPhone to use for a day and when he got it back the next day everything worked perfectly. Crisis averted.

Our original plan was to head into Glacier National Park for a day and then up to Cardston, Canada to see some of the places that Shad's ancestors were from (and to check a place off of Haken's list.) But when I couldn't find Ruby's birth certificate the day before we left we had to adjust our plans. Instead, we hung out with my family for a little longer. Down in St. Ignatius where Shad's dad is from there is a National Bison range that you can drive through with your car. The kids loved it! We spent about 2 hours driving around the range. At first, we didn't see very many, but on the second trail, we saw a whole bunch. They loved sticking their heads out the sunroof to spot the Bison.

On the way out of the bison range, we saved a cute little red-eared slider from the road. That little guy did not want to be held and scratched me up pretty good before I could get him to safety. 

After the Bison range, we had to get some Huckleberry ice cream and shakes. We headed into St. Ignatius and met Shad's dad at a place that he grew up going to all of the time.

While we were there we called my Grandma Mildred and Grandpa Ray. I had sent them the same packages as my mom with the little peanut ornaments and an ultrasound picture. I told them they were late mother and father's day presents. They were really surprised.

I'll never forget the look on my grandma's face when I told her that if one of them is a girl we would like to name her Mildred. She burst into tears and said, "that's ok, as long as you call her silly Millie." I wasn't sure if she would like the idea or not because she always said she didn't like her name. 

When we were at the Bison range we noticed that our bike rack (that was packed with 5 heavy bikes for the Hiawatha trail) was starting to fail. The welds were breaking and needed to be fixed or the bikes would fall off. Brandon helped to secure the rack with some straps but we needed a more permanent fix. I think it was really a blessing that we didn't go up into Canada because the bike rack probably would have failed somewhere along the way.

We were also being watched over since we were in St. Ignatius where Shad just happens to have an uncle (Roy) who has a dairy farm and a welder. We went over there and said goodbye to my family as they headed back home. We stayed at Uncle Roy's house for a few hours while they finished the milking and welded the bike rack. The kids had homemade snow cones, played on the huge swing set, and checked out the baby deer that had been abandoned by its mom on the farm. Benny's shoe even had a great encounter with a real live cow pie so we had the whole dairy farm experience.

By the time we finished getting it fixed it was about 7:30. The kids were exhausted and hungry so we grabbed some burgers and ate them on the grass at the church in St. Ignatius and then went to his Aunt Janelle's house where we stayed the night and went to church the next day.

Redo

It's 4:00 in the morning and I can't sleep. I think it's because I have a million things running through my head. I'm writing this so I can organize my thoughts and remember the feelings that I am having. Let me go back to Tuesday.

It was the 3rd day of school. Really the 2nd day for Gracie because we took her out Monday for the eclipse. She came home from school and talked about how fun it was and she really liked her teacher etc etc. That night after she went to bed I looked in her take home folder. Inside was a little paper with a stoplight on it. These are used in her classroom to let the parent know how your child did that day. Gracie had 2 green lights colored in and one yellow with the words "listening and following directions". I wasn't too surprised by her getting a yellow light for this at school because I feel like it is something she has also been struggling with at home. However, looking at that paper made me stop and think "is she really ready for kindergarten? Is she really ready to start 12+ years of continuous education?"

I never had these thoughts with my boys starting school. They were R E A D Y to go in every aspect. Reading already, making friends, just in general mature enough to tackle the game of school.

Just a day earlier I had made the comment to Shad that I had never really played make believe with Gracie. He said "really? Her make believe stories are the best. She is hilarious." I had heard her play all the time but I didn't actively play with her. I'm sure it was mommy guilt but I just couldn't shake feeling like I had really missed out on something that I would never have an opportunity to redeem. I mean she was at school or on the bus for 8 hours a day. When were we ever going to be able to fit some make believe time in again? The start of kindergarten is a new era. Everything changes. She is now expected to be a big kid. She has less time for play. When she gets home she has an hour to run around and do what she wants and then it is dinner and bedtime only so we can start all over again the next morning.

Wednesday morning I pulled her out of bed. In a dead sleep. Again. She has to catch the bus at 7:45am so we are up by 6:45am to get her out on time. Every morning she would be clinging to her blankie as I carried her tiredly downstairs after getting her dressed in a dazed stuper (which was actually kind of nice because I could dress her in whatever I wanted. That never happens). I wondered if we would actually have to do this every. Single. Morning. For the next 100+ days of kindergarten. It seemed daunting to me. That morning I sent her out to the kindergarten bus and she got on. Alone. It made my heart hurt a little knowing that all of her neighborhood friends were a year behind her and there wasn't anything I could do about it.

I came back in the house and started wondering if there really was something I could do about it. Why couldn't I delay her kindergarten year? Why am I pushing her onto the bus every morning, packing her a lunch she struggles to eat because there isn't enough time, and dealing with her emotional tired blow ups everyday after school? I played around in my mind with the thought of her having one more year with me. I felt sick about it. I didn't know if I could handle it. The thought had never crossed me before. I had gotten so used to the idea of her starting kindergarten in 2017. She is 5 and although she has a June birthday, and is a small little peanut, her preschool teachers assured me that she was ready for kindergarten. So I sent her. That is what you do at 5 yrs old. She would be one of the youngest in her class making her the last to date and drive. With all of these thoughts I just kept feeling like I was making a terrible mistake. I wondered if it was too late to fix it.

I started sending out some emails; to her old preschool to see if there were spots left and to her kindergarten teacher to see what she thought. Of course her preschool was full which was a little sad because that is where all of her friends would be. She only has one friend who started kindergarten with her his year, all of the rest of her friends would be starting next year. For some reason she really gravitates to those that are younger than her (probably due to the fact that they are her size and they don't mind her bossing them around).  I talked to Shad about it and he supported me 100% and agreed that it would be worth exploring. I talked to my mom and got her take on it, and talked to some of my best friends. Everything made sense to pull her out when I talked it through with others. She just wasn't ready.

As I was talking to my mom I got the thought to look into gymnastics for Gracie. She has always wanted to do gymnastics but it has always been too expensive and time consuming to do in addition to preschool. But. If I did it in place of preschool... I looked online and found a class three days a week in the mornings. Perfect. Expensive, but doable. That was my alternative preschool. She just needed a time to play. She needed one more year to be a kid.

 I talked to her teacher Friday afternoon who said she could go either way. She could succeed in kindergarten but she could also benefit from being held back. I talked to her principal last night,who actually agreed that there are benefits to holding kids back that don't seem ready. She commended me in listening to my gut and going with it because this is a big decision that has to be made now. Once she finishes kindergarten she can not go back, at least not for this reason alone.

We had put off doing father's blessings for school for lots of reasons. Life just didn't slow down for a while. After church we decided Shad would give all of the kids blessings. I fasted all day to help me feel at peace with this decision. To make sure it really was the right one and to help the spirit confirm it to Gracie as well. Before Gracie had her blessing we pulled her aside and talked about what we wanted to do. Her reply was "oh good, then I can stay home with my blankie". Yes little girl, you can stay home with your blankie, and play dollys, and play dough, and read books, AND play make believe with mommy. She was not mad, or sad, she was relieved. She was not ready for kindergarten. When we told her about the possibility of gymnastics she squealed with joy. I had a sigh of relief.

So here I am Monday morning. This school year will be different than I had anticipated. I will have three at home again instead of the two I was planning on. Even though that makes my life harder, I am so grateful that is the way it will be. I feel like the Lord has given me a little gift, a chance to redo a year with a new perspective. How often do we get those chances? The spirit spoke to me last week and I am being rewarded for listening to it.

I have recently been relistening to the April 2017 LDS General Conference talks in preparation for the next conference in October. This quote from Elder Rasband's talk entitled "Let the Holy Spirit Guide" stuck out to me and made me realize how crucial it is that we listen to the promptings of the spirit when they do come:

"We must be confident in our first promptings. Sometimes we rationalize; we wonder if we are feeling a spiritual impression or if it's just our own thoughts. When we began to second-guess, even third-guess, our feelings- and we all have- we are dismissing the spirit; we are questioning divine counsel. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that if you will listen to the first promptings, you will get it right nine times out of ten."

I have more confidence than ever that the spirit will help me if I listen to the promptings that come and not dismiss them. I second guess myself in so many things but I am working on not second guessing the Holy Ghost.

I am looking at this year with all new eyes. I get to do the things with my daughter I feel like I had missed out on. I don't have to live in regret that I didn't play princesses with my daughter or read more books, or bake cookies together. I have a chance to really make it count and I am determined to make this our best year yet even if it means that my bathrooms are never clean or the laundry sits unfolded. My little peanut and I are going to enjoy her last year of freedom.

This was taken on Gracie's first-first day of Kindergarten