Utah

We spent a lovely week in Utah this month which included a family reunion for the Stephen and Shirley Ricks clan. I also got to see three of my dearest friends from Cleveland for two wonderful days. I'm not sure how I got so lucky with my inlaws but Marc's family is just fantastic. I love these people and wish we could see them more often. Here are some random pictures from our time in Utah and, of course, there will be one or two more posts with pictures from our adventures.

You have to love the family reunion t-shirts made designed by Lora. They are super Ricks-y. 

We had a private chocolate and balsamic vinegar tasting at my friend's house. It was amazing. I came away with a much greater appreciation for dark chocolates and had my mind blown by the balsamic vinegars. Now we want to do the incredibly ridiculous and nichey thing of touring the great balsamic vinegar houses of Italy. Goals.

At the family gathering in the park, Elijah and David John ran off with my phone and took a million pictures. I have included the ones that turned out in this post. Many were blurry or had fingers covering the lens but I really like some of the shots they got.

Did you notice my t-rex earrings and necklace?

We went to a cool park with this awesome climbing structure. Unfortunately, it was super hot so we didn't stay very long.

We also went to a cool aquarium. Kaleb was our expert guide.

This is a binturong aka bearcat. It is my new favorite animal. It smells like popcorn!

The expression on this leopard's face says, "Please just go away."

Swimming with the cousins was another big favorite during our trip.

GR8

David John turned 8 today. It's hard to believe that our mediumest child will be getting baptized next month. Normally, we would have a big birthday party with friends for an 8th birthday but David John requested a family day in Bismarck instead. I was happy to oblige him. I guess he remembered that last time he had a big birthday party with friends he felt overwhelmed. Smart boy. So, we went to Bismarck yesterday to do whatever David John wanted to do.

Are You Game?

My boys spent many hours recently creating board games to play. They are all creative and all very male. Let me take you through some of the finer points of these games. I promise they won't disappoint.

Sabbatical

I got home today after being gone for a whole week taking classes for my master's degree. I'm not sure if that was a sabbatical from my regular life or if coming home is a sabbatical from my academic life. Both are pretty intense right now.
When I pulled into the garage I was met with enthusiastic hugs from the boys. Tobias exclaimed, "Mommy! I missed you, Mommy." Benjamin shouted, "Mommy! You were gone so long I forgot about you!" Trigger the Mommy guilt. I got all choked up and tried not to cry as I hugged them and kissed their heads. David John handled my return with his usual pragmatism, "Um, hi," and a shoulder shrug. I think he might not have noticed that I was gone. That's okay. As an almost eight-year-old he has more important things on his mind than the location of his mother. Elijah was eager to see me and tell me about maybe getting to play a game with Dad tonight if he continues to get along with his brothers. "Dad and I are friends now!" he yelled as he ran off to play. I'm not sure what changed while I was gone but it made my heart happy that he was so happy. Gabriel gave me a shy smile and a, "Hi Mom. How was your trip?" I love these boys. So much. I truly missed them during my seven grueling days of graduate classes.
I'm grateful to be home but I've got a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks before the summer term is over. This work includes a lot of research and writing about leadership and education. I'm thinking that maybe this is a research sabbatical in which I can just use my family to test leadership and organizational theories and then write about it. Maybe it would get published and I could be hired as an adjunct professor and I could get a real sabbatical. One where I get paid.

Mommy's Hurt Back

Remember how I mentioned that we stayed in a hotel in South Dakota? Well, we did. This hotel has a fun little pool area where I took the boys swimming. Part of this fun little pool area has a big rope net that goes over the top of the pool with big lily pads that are chained to the pool floor beneath it. The idea is that you can hop from lily pad to lily pad while holding on to the ropes overhead so you don't fall. Of course, this devolved into games where people were trying to knock each other off of the lily pads. During one such game, I was standing on a lily pad when it was kicked hard out from under me causing my feet to go sideways and my back to torque. I was in pretty serious pain the rest of the trip and for days afterward at home. I even went to see a chiropractor which I had never done before. It hurt to do anything- I felt "old". Anyway, the boys clearly knew I was injured because I winced a lot and needed help from Marc to get up from the floor whenever I sat down to tie someone's shoes or repack a suitcase. However, I thought I was pretty stoic about the whole thing considering how uncomfortable I was. Apparently, Tobias had a very different view.

All of the boys had gotten fuzzy snake slap bracelets as souvenirs during the trip. Tobias was playing with his in the van on the way home. He named it "Mommy". This was very confusing. I would hear "Mommy?" and I would respond only to be told, "No! Not you! The snake!" Tobias then proceeded to enact a storyline in which the snake, Mommy, had a hurt back. The dialogue went something like this:
Mommy: (in a high-pitched tone) "My name is Mommy and my back hurts! Ow! Ow! Someone help me!"
Alligator hand puppet: (in a low gruff tone) "I will not help you."
Mommy: "What?!? You will not help me?!? Now I'm angry! I'm going to kill you!"
Tobias snaps the Mommy-the-snake slap-bracelet back into a straight line.
Mommy: "Now my back doesn't hurt! Hi-ya!"
Mommy thoroughly beats the alligator hand puppet with sweet karate moves.

Yes, it was all very flattering and not at all upsetting to me. At this point, Marc is shaking with silent laughter and mouthing the words "I'm sorry" to me over and over. My back is screaming in pain and I want to cry from discomfort, hilarity and some hurt feelings that my children perceived me as being so whiny. I took a deep breath and asked Tobias if he could name his snake something else because it was very confusing for me. He said no. I then asked if the snake could have a nick name that we could call her.

Tobias: "Sure. Hmm, Mommy's nick name is... car."

Perfect.