Summer 2011

Oh my! So much to catch up on.  We've had a very busy summer and have put a lot of miles on our van!


We said goodbye to Knightdale on June 16.  When we loaded everyone into the van we said a prayer to start our journey.  David offered it, and said, "Thank Thee for all the fun we had at this house," which sent Nathan and I into tears.  It was good house with good memories.  We miss it, but look forward to the new opportunities out here.  Thus began our long trek West.  At least we weren't pulling a handcart.


We were traveling a few days ahead of my parents, who were driving our truck out, so we stopped for a couple days at their Utah house, which happens to be next door to my sister, to recoup and let them catch up.  It was a nice break after 4 days of driving to be able to stretch, do playgrounds, cousins, and laundry.  It was also fortunate timing since while we were there we realized Isaac had an ear infection.  I was glad to be able to visit my sister's pediatrician and get him started on antibiotics.  (I have officially dubbed him "My Utah Doctor" since we seem to often get ear infections on Utah trips.)  


We pulled into Los Banos, CA on June 23, right on schedule.  Our first impressions of the town are that it's not much to look at, but the people are very friendly and welcoming.  Our landlord wasn't quite ready for us, however, so we did a quick drive-by to see the house and then immediately headed for Lowe's and Home Depot to purchase laundry machines and a refrigerator.  My folks arrived with the truck the next day, and we spent the next four days unpacking, unpacking, and unpacking.  We got pretty much everything unpacked except decorative stuff, since I didn't have any shelves to put things on (miss my Knightdale built-in cabinetry!  *sniff, sniff*)  Then on June 29 we loaded up the van again and I headed back to Utah with my folks and the boys.


First on the Utah agenda was my Grandma June's 95th birthday party/reunion on July 2.  Sometimes I really think she's immortal, ya know?  All I can say is she is a good testament to healthy diet and regular exercise.  


On July 5 my parents and I took the boys up to ride TRAX from Sandy to Temple Square.  Daniel, you see, loves all things that go, and has been asking me when we are going to ride an airplane (since Christmas), a train (since March), and a boat (not sure when that cropped up).  We figured the light rail was as convenient and economical option as we would find to check "Ride a Train" off his bucket list.  D1 and D2 both loved it.  This was also Nathan's and my 10-year wedding anniversary.  My how time flies!  Too bad we couldn't spend it together.


On July 8-9 my immediate family convened at Heber Valley Girls Camp for our family reunion.  This was my boys' first camping experience.  From the perspective of a parent-traveling-single with three little ones, I was very grateful it was cabin camping.  The highlight for David was the brownie hike and a giant swing activity, where they harness you to a swing and pull you on a line halfway up a tree, then let you go.  David volunteered to go first, having no clue what he was signing up for, and went as high as possible.  He had a good show of bravado for his cousins when he got off and encouraged them all to try it, but he secretly told me later that he thought it was scary at first.  Daniel had a turn too and although he didn't go all the way to the top, he wasn't far from it.  It Freaked. Him. Out.  All he could say for at least 30 minutes in the aftermath was "That was scary!  That was scary!"  I took a turn all the way up too, and while it was fun, I agree with Daniel that it was scary!  I can hardly believe my boys did it.  The highlight for Daniel? Playing in the gravel in front of our cabin.  Boys...  Isaac enjoyed lots of attention from his aunts, uncles, and cousins.  My brother-in-law Mark dubbed him "Kumquat" because of his fuzzy hair.  Love it!


On July 12 my parents took Daniel back up to Salt Lake City for the day (David opted not to go).  They went to Hogle Zoo, where there was a Zoorassic Park special display.  Apparently some of the animatronic dinosaurs spit water at spectators.  Daniel wasn't expecting it and had another Freak Out experience when one squirted him.  Dad said he gave them very wide berth after that.  But he had lots of fun otherwise and was a good little companion to my parents.  They also took him to the Bingham Copper Mine to see the great big trucks.   He came home just glowing!


July 14 we said farewell to my family and headed back up to Salt Lake to get Nathan from the airport and meet up with the Nashes.  On the way up, David finally lost his first tooth!  July 15 we gathered at the Bountiful Temple for Nathan's youngest sister's wedding.  It was lovely, and I think Bethany gave Kate Middleton a run for her money as far as gorgeous brides go.  We also had a great treat to introduce both Isaac and David to their namesakes, Grandpa Nash and his brother D.A.


We drove back to California the next day.  The boys and I were only around for a week before taking off again, this time for Washington, and this time we got to FLY.  Check that off Daniel's bucket list!  Up there we got lots of play time with Mom Nash, and even squeezed in a visit with my brother Sean and a bonus visit with an old friend of mine from BYU.  Nathan drove up a week later to join us for the Merrill Family Reunion at Port Townsend, WA.  We rode a ferry to get there.  Check the boat off Daniel's bucket list!  Sweet! (David's asking for a hot air balloon next...)  This trip to Washington reinforced our desire to get back up to the Seattle area.  We're hoping to make that happen within 3 years, maybe as soon as 1 or 2. Anyway...


We got home from Washington on August 7.  I had just a couple days to pull together a much-wished for birthday party for Daniel.  Normally I wouldn't have attempted it, but since David had a party last year and got invited to lots of classmates' parties over the school year, Daniel really wanted to have one.  So.  I arranged a transportation-themed party (no-brainer, right?) at a nearby playground and invited his entire Sunbeam class--all 3 of them--for lack of knowing anyone else to invite.  It didn't go nearly as well as I'd hoped, but it went well enough considering I planned everything over the internet from far away.  Daniel was thrilled (albeit bummed his K'dale friends Tanner and Ben weren't there), and I think it really helped him get used to his classmates so he'd be willing to actually go to Sunbeams in our new ward.  


OH YES--and I finally got Daniel potty trained!!  Wahoo!  The Monday after we got home from Washington I took him to choose his big-boy underpants and then took away pull-ups cold turkey (okay, he still wears them at night).  The funny thing is, we only had three "accidents," and one on his birthday, which I understand from all the party excitement, and it was done.  Makes me wonder why I waited so long.  I guess I figured it would be a long, exhausting, stressful process.  Anyway, glad that's taken care of.


The next week school started.  David has been excited for this all summer, but as I walked him into his new school, he whispered to me that he was scared.  Poor lad looked so miserable as I left him in his classroom.  He seems to have adjusted well, however, and every day talks about new kids he's met.


Just this past week Daniel started preschool.  He too seemed anxious in spite of all his anticipatory excitement, but he was beaming when I came to pick him up.  Of course he was; they had toy airplanes there!  This preschool is a parent co-op, so I get to go assist the teacher twice a month.  I've also volunteered to be the preschool's treasurer.  Sounds like mostly I'll be courier between the school, the accountant, and the bank, but I'm glad for an opportunity to get involved and meet people.


Speaking of involvement (I'm almost through, I promise), we have been extended callings in our new ward!  It's a tiny ward so lots of people have multiple callings.  I have been called as the Relief Society Secretary, and also as a RS Instructor.  Nathan has been called as the Ward Pianist (he is the ONLY person in the ward who plays the piano!).  He's been extended a second calling as well but hasn't been sustained yet, so I'll have to keep that under my hat for a little while longer.


So that's our crazy summer.  See pics and videos at http://tinyurl.com/43xp3p7.


We love you all!


The (Other) Other Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, Daniel, Isaac

Summer in Review

We are still binky-less!  Hurrah!  There were a couple times on our trip where I thought "this would be so much easier if I could just plug him up," but he never asked and I never wavered.  Whew!

Speaking of our trip, here is our summer in photo summary:

My Dad came up for 4th of July weekend (Mom was in Utah), and the boys had a "ball" playing baseball with him.

We also did sparklers and driveway fireworks, which the boys LOVED:

We went to the beach that Monday.  The boys loved playing in the waves and digging in the sand:

Then we drove by Dinosaur mini-golf and decided to have a round.  Daniel liked to smack his ball where-ever from the starting point, then pick it up and place it right next to the hole for an easy putt in.  He did NOT want to do this last hole, because he realized he would not get his ball back!

We went to Utah for a Nash family reunion.  My mom picked us up from the airport and we enjoyed spending the weekend with her and my sister DeeAnn's family down in Nephi.  We then joined up with the Other Nashes in Provo Sunday night.  Here's Nathan with his sisters:

We visited Thanksgiving Point in Lehi and enjoyed a mini zoo, pony rides, dinosaur museum, and a 3-D IMAX film about some oceanic dinosaur whose name I cannot remember, then went and had ice cream before heading back to our hotel.

We took family pictures with all of Nathan's family (sans Jeff, who unfortunately had an urgent work matter he needed to attend to last minute).  This is one Nathan took from the "sideline".  We'll post others when we get them.

A highlight of the Nash reunion for the boys was when we made and launched rockets.  They carried those things around for DAYS.

We learned to play a fun game called Bang!, and I confess it often led me to conflicting emotions.  You're supposed to take other players out, and I never wanted to pick on anyone.

The boys got to see all 5 of their living great grandparents on this trip.  I always think this is so remarkable, because I never knew any of my great grandparents.

Here's Four Generations of Nashes.  I wonder which of my boys will be the one to carry on the look-alike trend.  Unfortunately, we got a picture with Grandpa Nash but not Grandma (sorry!).  I was not in charge of this--don't blame me!

We stayed overnight with my Grandma Rabiger before flying up to Seattle for the next leg of our trip:

Many thanks to my Aunt Deanne for having us over for a Pioneer Day cookout and Aunt Joyce for taking us to the Salt Lake airport!  My brother Sean picked us up from the Seattle airport (the Other Nashes were still driving en route) and we enjoyed an evening with his family.  Then Nathan's Grandma and Grandpa Merrill picked us up from Sean's and took us up to Anacortes.

While we were up there, Nathan went hiking with his dad.

And discovered that his 16-year-old hiking boots are not as sturdy as he supposed they still were...

We got home late Tuesday night and David started his first day of Kindergarten on Thursday.  Here are the obligatory pictures of starting school:

I asked David to take off his sunglasses for the next one...

Okay, now take them all the way off, put your arms down, and give me a nice smile...

What a ham!  Let's try again...

Still a little dorky, but considering what it took to get THAT, I'm satisfied.  When I showed Nathan, he laughed and said it reminded him of this Calvin and Hobbes strip:

Anyway, then we took David to his first day, and the teacher invited Daniel to join them on the mat while I filled out some paperwork:

His first day was just a day of assessments with only a small part of the class.  They read a story and toured the school while "looking for a raccoon" (part of the story, I guess).  David came up to one of the signs for the tour and read it out loud, taking his teacher quite by surprise.  I guess only a couple kids in the class can read yet.  Wait until she discovers his mad math and puzzle skills...

Oh yes, in case you didn't get our announcement yet... we're expecting #3 on February 4th!

Taylor Reunion 2009

My sister-in-law Suzy was the official photographer of our family reunion last week. Good thing, because my camera was rarely handy. Here's a slide show she made at Scrapblog.com



As an explanation for what you're looking at in the slideshow: Friday night we had bounce houses set up in my sister DeeAnn's back yard. Big hit. Especially when someone "accidentally" shut the blower off and one of the bounce houses started to collapse on everyone in it. Uncle Nate played nice and rough with the little kids in one of the bouncies and ended up with a black eye to prove it!

Saturday was rainy so we went to see UP in 3-D (David's first movie theater experience!), and between storms the guys played football and Ultimate Frisbee.



Sunday afternoon we played a Father's Day game. Each wife wrote 5 clues about her husband, and we mixed them all up in a "fish pond" (paperclips and a magnetic pole). We had the Dad's sit in a row (I sat in for Nathan since he didn't attend), and when we read each clue we had the kids line up behind who they thought it described. It was a lot of fun.

Monday morning we did a service project for my parents, who just bought the house next door to my sister the week before, weeding their very overgrown beds and digging out their basement window wells. The clay and gravel was right up to the sill down there, so when it rained, all the water ran under the windows into their basement.

Now, you'll see some rather funny photos. Like DeeAnn holding her 12-year-old son, Taylor, down and forcing his mouth open. See, Taylor thought it would be funny to throw a worm at his cousin Madison, who in the process of flailing to get it out of her hair, had it land in her mouth. The boys were rolling in laughter at her ensuing screaming (I admit, we all were chuckling when we found out what happened). But to discourage further pranks, DeeAnn pegged Taylor and put a worm in his mouth. That started a whole round of the boys thinking it was cool to lick slugs and put worms in their mouths, and a couple of them even swallowed some. Yuck.

The Reunion officially ended Monday afternoon and the Nevada families went home. Monday night Preston's family went up to Nate's farm and rode their ponies. Tuesday we were all left to do our own things. I went to Farmington and visited Nathan's Aunt Jeannie. The boys enjoyed seeing their horses and goats, and catching a fish in her pond with a mini-marshmallow as bait!



Wednesday morning those remaining celebrated two birthdays and a baptism. Then the boys and I flew home Wednesday evening.

Long Overdue and Over-duly Long

I realize I have been remiss in keeping everyone updated on our doings. Truth be told, life has just been happening fast and I haven’t had much chance to pause and document it.

So I last left off in May, I guess. That seems so very long ago! When I got home from my grandfather’s funeral in Utah, we followed up on an offer to adopt a dog from a family moving to Australia, and they couldn’t take the dog with them. We agreed to take her, but after some nipping episodes and a long conversation with my mother-in-law about my reservations and concerns, we (I) decided we weren’t ready for that and graciously backed out before the arranged hand-over. That was probably the main thing beyond normal life that happened in May.

If you don't see pictures, click the X in the upper right-hand corner of this box

May 29-June 6: My mother-in-law, Marianne, came to visit. David had lots of fun playing with her (and vise versa). While she was here we shopped for a playset to put in our back yard. It got installed the day after Marianne left. It’s nice to have something out there for him to play on when I turn him out to burn off some energy. The biggest drawback is the mosquitos. He must have some sweet blood, because he always comes in with mosquito bites. We’re still trying to figure out a good way to deter them besides drenching him in deet.

June 14-June 21: My sister-in-law Jenny and her 13-month-old daughter Anne Elyse came down from Connecticut to visit. We enjoyed taking the kids swimming, going for walks, and visiting various parks, as well as the Marbles Kids Museum. My parents came up to visit the weekend she was leaving so they could visit her, as well. Jenny’s primary reason for coming down was to help with a big project that has consumed much of my time this year, especially during and since her visit. Inspired by the scanner I received for my birthday last year, I had an idea at the beginning of the year to digitize all of my family photos—over 40 years’ worth—that were sitting loose in boxes in my parents’ attic as a Christmas present for my parents. Per my request, Mom and Dad brought up 12 boxes of loose photos when they came up to see Jenny. I had already acquired four boxes from previous visits and had slowly been working my way through them up until this point. Even though I was hoping to surprise my parents, they kind of had an idea of what I was doing, so Jenny and I decided it would be easier if we just told them outright what the plan was (which is why I am just now mentioning this extra activity). After I saw how many boxes there were, I really hunkered down to scanning so that I had a prayer’s chance of getting it all done by Christmas. I got the contents of the two “Pictures to Sort” boxes appropriately distributed, and finished scanning the contents of two boxes.  With the box of my own pictures already scanned plus sending Sean's box home with Jenny, that made six boxes down, four to go by Christmas (five if I'm lucky), and three or four to wait for another year.

My scanning work station

My pile of boxes and albums for this project

July 4-5: Nathan and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe we’re here already. Time has flown so fast. We also got the air ducts cleaned in the house. It ended up costing waaay more than we initially thought, but considering that the ducts had never been cleaned since the house was built 18 years ago, I thought it was well worth it.

My anniversary bouquet

July 7-14: Utah. I flew out with the boys to Salt Lake City for a Nash family reunion. I met Marianne and Bethany at the airport, and since we weren’t checking into the reunion until the evening of the 8th, we stayed at a hotel that night and in the morning took the boys to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. David loved it! He’s been much more interested in dino things since that excursion. While we were eating lunch at the café there, I looked up and saw friends from South Carolina, of all places! It was fun to visit with them briefly and introduce them to my boys.

If you don't see pictures, click the X in the upper right-hand corner of this box

The Nash Reunion was fun. We gathered at BYU’s Spring Haven Lodge in Hobble Creek Canyon. Such an amazing lodge! It was a perfect setup for little kids with an indoor treehouse, playland, and sport court, plus pool tables and air hockey. David practically lived in the “Tree Room” where all that stuff was set up, earning the Reunion Award “King of the Playground”. He would play in there with his cousin Sophia, and they ran around holding hands. It was so cute. Daniel had his own bit of fun. The hallways had floors sloped like footbridges, and Daniel loved crawling up and over the “bridges” back and forth, over and over. He looked so proud of himself each time he crossed, and would pause and clap for a moment before crossing again.

If you don't see pictures, click the X in the upper right-hand corner of this box

A Nash Reunion Tradition is for each family to write a limerick about their doings since the previous reunion (2 years apart). Here is my limerick:

In the North of the South, we put things in our mouth:
Binkies and fingers and boogers and toys—oh, just for the record, that’s ONLY the boys.
Nathan and Natalie prefer finer things, like Bojangles’, brocc’li, and mac-n-cheese.

We come and we go and we watch our boys grow.
They dance, count, and sing, and they climb everything.
We love our new house so our smiles no rains douse,
But we miss proxim’ty to our “tight” Nash fam’ly!

The reunion adjourned on the 11th and I took advantage of being out West to visit my family. We had an unofficial family reunion among my siblings. DeeAnn and Nate live in the area, I was out for the Nash reunion, my sister Lisle (NV) was in town while her son went to BYU Soccer Camp, my brother Sean (CT) was passing through for a quick hello on his way to WA for Jenny’s brother’s wedding, and my sister Minda (also NV) decided to come since so many of us were gathered anyway. We were only missing my two brothers that live in SC. That Monday we all gathered at a pool in Spanish Fork to go swimming together. It was a lot of fun to be with everyone. David especially enjoyed going down the big slide. We also went to Nate’s farm and David got to pet the goats, chase bunnies and chickens into their coops, water the ducks, and ride one of the horses. He found that very memorable.

If you don't see pictures, click the X in the upper right-hand corner of this box

July 15-28: Washington. Since I was that far out West anyway, I continued my trip up to Washington to enjoy some more family time.

Mount Rainier from the airplane.  Just for some perspective on how huge it is, those "foothills" at the base are full-size mountains, probably as big or bigger than the Rockies.

Daniel was exceptionally fussy on the drive from the airport to Anacortes, and a family friend/physician confirmed our suspicions of yet another ear infection. Ugh! David played hard at his grandma’s house and thoroughly enjoyed going to the parks and playing in her playroom. At one of the parks I stepped in a divot in the ground and turned my ankle pretty hard. Still recovering from that. Almost a week into my stay, and shortly after Sarah arrived with her two girls, David started running a fever and throwing up. Poor little guy would just lie on the couch and watch the same three movies over and over and over. He was so inanimate, but he wanted me to sit by him. I took advantage of that time to satisfy my curiosity about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. I got through all three books before we left, just in time to wait impatiently with the rest of the country for the fourth and final book to be released Aug 2. (I just finished reading that one last night. Great series.)

If you don't see pictures, click the X in the upper right-hand corner of this box

Nathan flew out to WA on July 22 to go deep-sea fishing with his Dad off of Vancouver Island, BC. When they got home we ate some of the chilled-but-never-frozen salmon they’d caught the day before. YUM. I don’t think you can get fish much fresher! Then we packed up and headed back home.

Nathan showcasing a ginormous leaf

Aug 4-8: Marianne visited with us again while Bethany was at EFY in New Hampshire (and then flew up to NH to tour the area with her). While she was here, Daniel underwent the long-awaited myringotomy (tubes in his ears).  Everything went smoothly there. I had to have him at the hospital at 5:45 AM, so between that and the general anesthesia he was pretty sleepy that day, but was happy and bouncy the next day. We decided to do his birthday party a little early so we could celebrate with Marianne. I also finished scanning another box of pictures.

If you don't see pictures, click the X in the upper right-hand corner of this box

Aug 9-12: I went down to Aiken to visit the SC branch of family. My brother Preston, who was stationed at the Navy Weapons Station in Charleston, is moving to California for his next tour of duty: grad school at Stanford University. He and his family stopped in Aiken for the weekend on their way out, so I went down to say goodbye. It’s a five-hour drive, and as we were approaching Aiken, David said, “Mom, [Grand]Ma’s house is really far away.” That is the first time he’s expressed a sense of time or distance, and I found it a humorously appropriate time to start.

We had another birthday party Monday night to celebrate six cousin birthdays: Brenden’s oldest two daughters (15 and 13), Preston’s youngest two daughters (5 and 3), and my boys (4 and 1).  Sorry, I forgot my camera for this trip.  We had one cake with a cluster of candles for each cousin, and lit each cluster and sang Happy Birthday individually. It was fun, and, remarkably, didn’t take eons. David had a ball playing with all the toys I played with as a child, and had lots of good cousin time. It was hard to pry him away when it was time to go.

We came home from Aiken with an addition to our family: Preston’s cat, Alea. They couldn’t find pet-friendly housing at Stanford, so Alea is hanging out with us for 10 months while they’re in CA. David is very excited to have a kitty and keeps close tabs on her whereabouts and activities. Daniel likes to transfer her kibble into her water bowl and make big splashes.

Daniel is very close to walking. I keep thinking it will happen any day. He’s also bringing in tooth #7, so I’m mopping up lots of drool and a very goopy nose.

In addition to still being a ward missionary, I have been put in charge of the Crafty Sisters Enrichment group at church, plus I’m kind of in charge of playgroup and am trying to start a baby-sitting co-op. Nathan is still up to the same-old same-old: Work, Mission Leader, Work, Mission Leader, with the occasional video game thrown in. So there’s our very thorough update. I’ve really enjoyed being able to visit all our family this summer!


Love to all,
The (Other) Other Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, & Daniel

This and That

Today at church David overheard Nathan telling someone that I was going to be out of town for the next three weeks (so blogging will be minimal, by the way).  Then as we were leaving several minutes later and I beckoned him to come with me, he said, "Where are we going Mommy?"  I replied, "To the car..." and he stopped and said, "No, we're going to Utah!"

*****

Last night David requested I sing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" with him at bedtime.  He doesn't quite know all the words and so prefers to listen rather than sing along, but last night as I was singing, he had a huge, sweet smile, and his eyes twinkled at me in the dim light filtering through his curtains, and I thought to myself, he truly is beaming.  I sure love my little Sunbeam!