winter break fun.

We had a great trip up to see the kids. We chilled in the hotel room, went bowling, played arcade games, ate yummy pizza, and laughed a ton. Even Sam (our dog) joined the fun. It went by way too fast. Until next time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bittersweet.

           We just returned from seeing the kids. We had the bonus of Matt's mom and dad along too. Add uncles into the mix, and that's a lot of fun. Utah trips are always good. We see people we love and immerse ourselves in what the Munro kids are doing day to day. That is a very good thing. But Utah trips can feel heavy sometimes, too. It's a reminder that we are absent from their everyday lives. It reminds us that we don't know their teachers, or their friends, or their coaches. It's a reminder that the kids go by a different last name, and while we can understand why they do, there's still a very real sting that is felt by Matt as well as by his family. It is definitely a hard pill to swallow. That is when the distance feels like 5,000 miles instead of 500.

           We are really grateful for the good they have in their life: a great mom and step dad that are raising them well, opportunities that their financial situation can offer them, and a slice of small town life. Those things are amazing. Those are the things that we are thankful for.

       Most of the time, there is no "warming up" period, and we can jump right into where the last conversation left off. Sometimes, however, we see how the time between visits affects some kids more than others. That's something that can't be fixed in a weekend. That takes time.

    

             The weekend always goes too fast. The drive home is always quiet and the air is always thick. There's always resolutions made that we won't let that much time pass before our next visit, but as we return home, life takes over. Business travel plans are made and school obligations become a priority. Before long, another month has passed. Its definitely not how we thought it was going to be when we left that court room years ago. I don't think anyone considered that these kids would soon be little adults with active social lives, friends, sports teams, and school obligations of their own. We stopped having them come down to Vegas because we never wanted them to feel like we were pulling them away from friends and activities to spend time with us. We never wanted there to be any resentment. But there are still bedrooms for one little girl and three little boys just waiting to be filled for a few days.

   Matt and I talk about the goodness that fills our life daily: our relationship, the two boys, his job, our home. Those things are so good. But there is always a void that only his children can fill, and weekend trips seem to bring that void to the forefront. So until the next trip, Matt will still get excited for every text message he gets from Madi. We will still remember them in our family prayers every day. And we will continue to be grateful for the life they have and look for more ways to share in their everyday moments.

utah weekend.

We spent the weekend in Utah. We witnessed Madi win her first belt buckle for barrel racing. Had unbirthday fried ice cream at Los Hermanos. Played the "find the weirdest person at Walmart"game. Had game night and snacks at our hotel. Saw a zebra at a gas station petting zoo on the way home. It was a fun, fast trip. Too fast. We didn't even take pictures fast. Luckily, one of the uncles took this great video of Madison and Rocketta doing their thing.

 

We are grateful for time with family, no matter how quickly it goes by.

 

 

 

holidays and new starts.

  The holidays were fantastic. We got to see the kids in Mapleton a week or so before Christmas. Madi was competing in a rodeo that weekend and we saw her do her thang. She is pretty amazing. Watching her compete in barrel racing has become something we all look forward to. Hanging out with all six kids is always fun and it is so cool to watch the six of them interact together. It's a blessing and relief to see that they pick up right where they left off last, pretty much mid conversation.

Madi's cheering section

 

Our favorite 6 kids in the world

 

 

 

Craziness

 

 

Instagram hacker

 

 

   We spent some time in St. George visiting Matt's brothers and parents. It was a quick but sweet trip and always a riot when a bunch of Munros get together. There is definitely something special about this family and I adore the time that I spend with them. The weeks of winter break were ridiculously relaxing and flew by just a bit too fast. I wasn't quite ready to be back to the routine of life, but I did look forward to the new year. I am a sucker for new beginnings and find joy and promise in making new resolutions and writing down exciting goals. I try to get everyone on the band wagon and this year the boys jumped on. They wrote down three new goals and have been sticking to their pursuit of accomplishing them.

 

 

Local site seeing

 

I am officially in nursing school now. It consists of a full load of lectures and labs and clinicals. Its scary and exciting and I adore it. I am so happy to have made it to this point and I am starting to understand what it means to have it take over your life. Mornings start at 5am studying for an hour before I start the day and my conversations have become more and more about something I have learned, much to the dismay of my family. I have to remember that not everyone wants to talk about staph infections at dinner time. If I am not reading I am thinking about reading and I am practicing for my dosage and calculation test every spare moment.

Just some light reading

 

I am working towards finding balance in school and work and family and home. I pray for grace and diligence more than ever these days. That is a very good thing.

october.

How crazy is it that we are in full swing of the holidays? 2012 is racing by.

 

So October was a fantastic month. To start, we were given tickets to see Further. Further is basically the Grateful Dead minus Pig Pen and Jerry Garcia, obviously. It is Matt's favorite and we were thrilled to be able to go to a concert. It was nice to have Matt home long enough to steal a night to our selves and go on a really fun date.

 

Further played great and the people watching was by far the best part for me. These fans are definitely stuck in the 60's. It was a ton of fun.

 

October 10th was my mom's 75th birthday. There was a time not too long ago that we weren't sure how much longer we would have her. Over the past year, her health has improved dramatically and she is active and healthy again. She is beautiful and a wonderful reminder of how our Heavenly Father answers prayers. Happy 75th, Mom!

 

Halloween was a blast. Jeb was Slenderman and Griffin was a zombie killing grandma. They are nuts. Both costumes were put together easily and cheaply but they both looked great. We had to improvise for Jeb's face mask because a white morph suit was no where to be found - every store was sold out. Who knew? But...we made it work and it worked well.

 

 

Griff asked to decorate the yard this year. Apparently, my cute pumpkins and scarecrows are "lame." He insisted on something scarier. He found this zombie and got creative with the things we already had and was pretty pleased with his work. So were the neighbor children.

 

 

The boys made quite a hall this year. We decided to go the socialist route and combine all candy into one bowl to be shared by the entire family. Let's just say that some people in this house have found that they prefer capitalism to socialism.

 

 

 

We went up to Utah to see the Munro kids and played all day at a place called Provo Beach. We went to lunch,  rope climbed, played video games, rented tandem bikes, ate ice cream, saw a movie and had an awesome day. Such a cool place.

 

 

 

They are turning into real teenagers so fast!

 

 

 

The uncles and Tracy came down from Salt Lake and spent the day with us. It was perfect to have everyone together for a day.

 

 

 

 

 

No trip would be complete without the obligatory pictures from the back of the Suburban. :)

 

                   

And fun in the hotel room...the myth, the man, the legend....The Griffin. Speaking of Griffin, this is his most recent post in his gratitude journal.

 

Really?? Where did this kid come from?

 

Jeb has decided that he wants to be a chef someday. This is great and hilarious at the same time. If you know Jeb, you know that he is the pickiest eater of the bunch. He has been cooking almost every night for the last few weeks, yet he never really eats what he makes. Matt says he is like those actors that never watch their own movies. Basically, he will be the Johnny Depp of cooking. To his credit though, he is a great little cook and he has tried all of his food. In fact, he has tried more different kinds of food in the last couple of months than in his lifetime. This could go well.

 

 

And the most exciting news for me personally is that I was accepted into the nursing program at CSN. I start full time in January and I am excited and nervous at the same time. Such a great feeling to achieved my goal of acceptance, now on to the goal of completion.

 

And that, my friends, was October. Hey look, it's the middle of November.