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!

July Trip: New England

ROAD TRIP!

In July we went to visit my brother Sean's family in Connecticut...via Niagara Falls. We set the destination in the GPS, hit "Go!" and off we went, on a very scenic route. (We later realized the GPS was set to avoid toll roads, so we were all over those back roads, lol.) We had planned to drive all the way up to the falls in one day and sightsee the next, but about 9 hours into our 12-hour drive Daniel started throwing up--a lot. After the fourth round in half as many minutes, and I only managed to catch the last with a plastic bag, we pulled over to change his clothes and wipe out his carseat. I implored Nathan to stop for the day even though we were short of our goal. We were in the middle of NOWHERE. GPS saved the day! It was so nice to hit "nearest hotel" and get directed to a town just east of us with a hotel, a Wendy's, and a Walmart. Thankfully Daniel didn't have any more episodes, but he did have a high fever that night (yay Walmart for a Tylenol run!).

The next day we headed out again, and just as we crossed the New York border, Daniel started fussing again. Fearful of vomit round two, we pulled over, and a nice man stopped to check on us. When we told him we thought the kids were just tired of being cooped up, he offered to show us the way to a local playground. The boys loved that.

After about 30-45 minutes we headed back on the road and arrived at Niagara Falls mid-morning. We didn't bring documentation to cross the border, but we did go on Maid of the Mist, which I think was way more fun than crossing over.

After we toured the Falls we drove to Lockport, NY to see the Erie Canal. We also did a tour of Lockport Caves, which was pretty cool.

We spent the night in Rochester, NY in preparation for our stop in Palmyra. In the morning as we were eating breakfast, the hotel's fire alarm went off. We evacuated the hotel and the boys watched in awe as two firetrucks pulled in, firemen hopped out in all their uniformed glory, tossed axes and other tools to each other and hoofed into the hotel. We don't know what the problem was, but one of the firemen gave each of the boys a Junior Fire Chief sticker afterwards.

In Palmyra we visited Hill Cumorah, the Martin Harris Farm, and Joseph Smith's homestead, including the Sacred Grove. It was the first day of the Hill Cumorah Pageant, so between that mess and our eagerness to get to Sean's we didn't spend a lot of time in Palmyra.

We finally arrived in Hamden, CT that night. While visiting Sean and Jenny we got to ride an authentic steam locomotive in Essex, CT. That train had been used in the latest Indiana Jones movie, "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", in the scene where Shia Labeouf rides his motorcycle onto the train platform and calls out to Harrison Ford on the train. Take note that Harrison Ford was sitting in car 503 as you look at the pictures...

We also visited Watch Hill, RI, one of Einstein's favorite haunts. The kids rode the country's oldest merry-go-round, made with surplus rocking horses! Then we headed to the overcast & chilly beach. David had never been in the ocean before that time. He had a blast.

They took us to Boston and we walked the freedom trail. We also visited the New England Aquarium. Oddly enough, as we were wrapping up our visit, the fire alarm went off there, too. We quickly grabbed our strollers (which we had checked at the front desk for easier maneuverability) and ducked out so we didn't have to wait an hour just to get our strollers back.

We finished the day in Boston's Little Italy with dinner at a cute little restaurant and pastries from Mike's Pastry!! Yum-O. Thanks for hosting us Sean and Jenny!

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

And Chaos Ensues...

Jan 15, 2008

Ah, December: the month of everlasting joy and chaos. Do I really need to relate much more? Well, yes, I guess I do. It was fun to watch David feel the excitement of Christmas. As I mentioned before, he was fascinated with the Christmas tree and its lights and ornaments. More than once I came into the living room and found him sitting on the floor beneath the tree and gazing up at it. I also wrapped a pre-lit garland around our stair banister and hung our stockings up the rail. David always made sure the tree and stairs were lit, and each time he ascended or descended the stairs he’d identify which stocking belonged to which member of our little family. He was also fascinated with the presents under the tree and regularly asked if he could open them. We attempted somewhat to introduce the concept of Santa; however, whenever he saw one he referred to him as “Snowman.” I guess that’s not crucial to grasp. On a note more true to the Season, we also had fun teaching him about Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, wise men and shepherds as he played with his Fisher-Price Nativity set.

One of our favorite tales of the season: Nathan took David Christmas shopping with him, then, realizing that David could tell me what they’d bought, trained David with the help of store employees to say that they’d gotten Mommy a “football” (the employees thought it was a hoot.) The plan worked, but David also kept pulling out the present for the next two weeks, asking to play with the football.

My parents came up for the weekend before Christmas for a brief visit. It was fun to share David’s excitement with them as we exchanged our gifts on this end. Then, very early on Christmas Eve, we boarded a plane, bound for Seattle. The boys did exceptionally well. On our layover in Las Vegas after a 5-hour leg on the plane, David kept asking when we would ride the plane again. (“All too soon” kept going through his parents’ minds). Thank goodness for our portable DVD player. We arrived in the early afternoon and then proceeded directly to Anacortes. David was very excited to tell his Grandma Nash all about the airplanes. By the time we did Nash family presents that night and Santa presents in the morning, David was an expectant pro at opening gifts, ready to strip giftwrap off anything stationary, whether it was for him or not. It took several days to convince him that there weren’t any more presents. Good thing we didn’t attempt the twelve days of Christmas…


We had a delightful time in Washington visiting family, and even getting a quick visit in with some friends in Lynnwood. On New Year’s Day we finally had all three grandkids (our boys plus our niece Sophia) simultaneously awake and happy enough to do a little mini-Nativity. Daniel played Baby Jesus, Sophia was Mary, and David was a modern-day Joseph; we couldn’t convince him to wear the costume. The scene only lasted a minute or two, but it was sweet nonetheless.
Then on Jan 2 we were back on the planes and back to the grindstone, albeit considerably jet-lagged. The boys adjusted fairly quickly to Pacific Time, but Eastern Time was a hard one to work back into. And of course, to make matters ever more delightful, we all got colds from the airplane.

That Sunday David went to Sunbeams for the first time at church. I can hardly believe I have a Sunbeam now! Nathan and I had to opportunity to watch him on his big day, since we were asked to substitute the 6-year-old class. Perhaps it was a good thing. David seemed to like turning around and seeing us there in the unfamiliar environment.

Then on Wednesday we enjoyed the very great pleasure of a visit from my mom and my brother Preston, freshly back from Iraq and on his way west to collect his family. We took advantage of an unseasonably warm afternoon to take the boys on a stroll through the neighborhood, and that evening got a grand tour of Preston’s pictures from his deployment. Fascinating stuff!

That evening we also discovered Daniel had an ear infection, confirmed the next day at the doctor. Oh joy. Then David started throwing up that night while Nathan was at a business dinner. Even better. I got him all cleaned up and back in bed just in time for him to have an encore act. Fortunately Nathan came home in the middle of the second clean-up and was able to help me get things taken care of. Since then we’ve been battling diarrhea, diaper rash, vomit, and ears, and doing way more laundry than normal. Things get tricky when both boys are crying and want to be held. I’ve managed to master packing one on each hip. Yesterday I took David in to the doctor to see if it was the flu and if there was anything I could do besides just ride out the storm. As I checked in, the receptionist asked, “Weren’t you just in here?” Yep. Round II. Prognosis was that it’s not the flu, but a nasty virus that tends to settle in the chest, so we have to keep our eyes on it. Meanwhile I feel anxious every time David coughs, worried that I’ll get a previous meal in the bargain. A friend of mine recently asked how it was mothering two, to which I must reply, not bad, and even fun, until they both need you at once or take turns being up half of the same night. That’s the hardest part so far. I once again have newfound appreciation for my mom’s sanity with eight.

So anyway, that brings us up to the now. It’s a little late, but up until this afternoon, our recent dramas have taken the time I’d normally spend reporting. I hope things level out soon. ☺ We love you all and wish you the best in the New Year!

Love,
The (Other) Other Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, and Daniel

Thanksgiving and the Outer Banks (Again)

Hello Everyone Near and Far,

November was a fairly eventful month for our boys and us. As for comings and goings, we enjoyed our second trip to the Outer Banks just before Thanksgiving. We went down to Cape Hatteras and viewed the lighthouse at night and again during the day, visited the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, where we learned about several of many shipwrecks off the coast of Hatteras Island, and rounded off our trip with a visit to the NC Aquarium. We noticed several other sights of interest while we were out there but could not visit due to time constraints. We’ll just have to take a third trip!

For Thanksgiving we enjoyed the company of my brother Sean, his wife Jenny, and their 7-month-old daughter Anne Elyse, down from Connecticut, as well as a childhood neighbor, Ann Corbly, who now lives in nearby Wilson, NC. We celebrated our freedoms with good company over good food. The day after Thanksgiving we took Sean and Jenny to Pullen Park in downtown Raleigh, and later that afternoon and evening we enjoyed the company of my parents and my brother Brenden’s family up from Aiken.

David has taken to playing—and defeating—games on the computer. He beat one in two tries that I’d been working on for almost an hour with no luck. He loves to look at digital pictures and videos we have on the computer, too. I’m telling you, he will be a computer whiz. He also likes to draw, more particularly tracing his hand, and he loves hugging and kissing Daniel. One day I was holding Daniel in my lap and David came up, gave him a squeeze, and said, “Dee wuvs him.” Two big firsts here: David said he loved someone, and he used a pronoun (his speech therapist will be ecstatic). Since then he has been prolific in telling Daniel that he’s loved. He tells us occasionally, too. ☺ I also overheard/saw him petting a fuzzy Grandma bear in one of his books one day and saying to himself, “Dee wuvs Ma (grandma). Dee wuvs Ma. Dee wuvs Ma.” My all-time favorite quote for this past month: Daniel was mildly protesting being set down for a few minutes and David went over to him and said, “Baby stop whine!”

Speaking of Daniel, he hit two milestones within a week of each other. He started laughing just before Thanksgiving, and he rolled over right after everyone left. He does lots of ab curls and I’m sure he’ll be sitting up on his own in no time. He’s a darling lad, and he continues to be Daddy’s boy.

Other than that we’re just doing our thing, day in, day out. We bought our Christmas tree this past Monday for family home evening, and David has been very interested in it. Come to think of it, we’ve never had a tree in our apartment since he’s been born. He’s only experienced them at visits to Grandma’s. He usually asks me to turn the lights on if they’re off, and he likes identifying the colors of the ornaments. He also likes picking up needles off the floor and occasionally from the branches. I might be keener on that if the tree was live… but, he’s my little human vacuum. At least he wants to help.

We love you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Love,
The Other Other Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, and Daniel

Two more disneyland pics

Here are a couple more pics from Disneyland that I couldn't upload the first time. Merry Christmas!

Disneyland

We'll kick this thing off with photos from our recent trip to Disneyland with Nathan's family. We had great fun with everyone, and although David seemed to generally enjoy himself, he wasn't too keen on most of the rides. He often cuddled up to me with his head on my shoulder, unsure what to make of all the dark places, mists, and things that jump at you and make noise. His favorite rides were things that go round and round and round, like the Zephyr, the Carousel, Dumbo, the Carousel, Winnie the Pooh, the Carousel...notice a trend here? He really liked the Carousel and went on it 6 times in a row one night. He would have gone more had we let him.

David also particularly loved giving attention to his new cousin Sophia. He gave her lots of hugs and kisses and made sure she had her binky and blanket at all times.