The unexpected Winter Break II and St. Patrick's Day

This week the parents of school children in Albemarle County got to vote on how to work out getting in the required amount of school hours after having 10 days of cancelations from weather. We had the option to increase the time in school each day, attend Saturdays or apply to the state for a waiver to let us out of two of the ten days. The vote was to apply for the state waiver, but I'm pretty sure that will all be good for nothing because at the moment we are in another snow storm with an expected 6-12 inches of snowfall. The cold temps will likely keep us out for another two, maybe three days. Good thing we bought ski passes at Wintergreen this year as we have certainly made the most of them!

We planned a dinner with friends tonight after the violin recital for Jonah and Liam. All native Westerners, they braved the falling snow to get to our house. We enjoyed some great salmon, "Bang-Bang" shrimp made by Caleb and Liam, and warm chocolate chip bars as well as some other yummy sides. It just felt great to share a meal again with friends as we've been on an unintentional hiatus from company for far too long.

In the recital earlier in the day, Jonah played May Song by Suzuki and Liam played Millionaire's Hoedown by H. Clebanoff. Liam's song was very lively and even got a few muted hollers from the crowd. Their teacher is a very tightly wound woman during the recitals (contrary to her more easy going nature in lessons), and Jonah and Gavin and another little girl got an earful from her for shuffling their paper programs, so when a friend of ours gave that little hoot during Liam's performance, I totally expected a reprimand from her at the end of Liam's piece, but she held her tongue. Whew.....

This morning Jonah was thrilled to discover the green toilet water and milk from the tricky Leprechauns! The boys are now into a heavy morning game of Settlers of Catan and I'm pretty sure Jared is going to take on the job of breakfast unless Caleb beats him to it. It's still snowing and we have about 6-8 inches and with a little of that green luck we'll have clear road to ski this afternoon. Our awesome neighbor has already come by to plow our driveway which we did with shovels in the last storm when he was flying (he's a pilot). That was an exhausting experience I hope to not have to repeat this year!

First Birthday of the Year

On Saturday, Caleb turned a whopping 14 years old which simply means that in two short years this kid is going to be driving. That day might feel like it did when he turned 12 and we suddenly had an in-house babysitter that we didn't have to prearrange with or do the pick-up/drive-home routine! A new sense of freedom from all the driving around I (we) do. But until then, we'll stick with being 14 being that I'll honestly be a nervous wreck when he finally does get behind the steering wheel.

This was the year that a party felt strange and maybe too childish, so we stopped pressing him on having one and I came up with the idea of inviting some friends ski with him on his birthday. I was so relieved to see that he was excited with my plan and I understand his reservations about having a party. Caleb has great friends, but not a tight-knit group of buddies he's been friends with for years. In fact, he tends to wander between groups and so the thought of inviting people from different groups just made him feel awkward.

So Saturday morning Jared picked up a few friends from his soccer team. I brought the other boys and we met them at Wintergreen for what will likely be our last ski day now that the temps are in the 60's. The brothers promised to not be "pestery", and they did a great job keeping that promise. But, Caleb's friends were all very interested in the little dudes and engaged them in all sorts of conversation and even a little teasing with Liam about girlfriends. It was a great day and I could tell that Caleb was so happy with how things turned out.

Here are a few things I'd like to remember about you Caleb:

1. You wake yourself up every morning at 6:15 (mom and dad are still in bed) and practice your piano before the rest of us get up for scriptures at 7:00.

2. You are a very happy person. You like your brothers you like me and Dad and I keep waiting for the horror stories of teenage adolescence to start up, but they really haven't. I keep waiting for you to want to spend more time with your friends and less time with us, but you haven't done this either. I'm so grateful that we are your home base in so many respects.

3. You laugh easily with those around you and love to come up with sarcastic phrases or comments that then circulate among the brothers for a month or two before a new phrase comes along. And your sarcasm isn't the mean, cutting kind, it's making fun of funny things.

4. You still love Napoleon Dynamite and quote the movie almost daily.

5. You are an amazing musician. Your first love is the drums and you were over the moon to get 4 new Zildjian cymbals for your birthday. Your second love is the piano and now that we have the Steinway, I hear you taking your playing up to a whole new level. And finally you enjoy the cello and you are currently the 2nd chair cellist in the Evan's Orchestra. Frankly, it's amazing that you keep all these balls in the air.

6. You shave about once a week. I know it's embarrassing to talk about, but it's a fact and like Gavin said in his birthday card: "Woweee, when you turn 14, you sure grow a lot of peach fuzz....."! And Caleb, you always take it in stride, never letting their comments get under your skin!

7. You really like to play, like shoot hoops, throw the football, kick the  soccer ball around, jump on the tramp kind of play. Physically and emotionally you need something active when you get home from school and after you've had your giant bowl of cereal, usually Rice Krispies with no sugar sprinkled on top, you are out the door.

8. Speaking of Rice Krispies, they are one of your all-time favorite foods in addition to white sticky rice with anything Asian on top, ebelskivers that you make most Saturdays during the off-season of soccer or when we don't have 9:00am church, popcorn, waffles with syrup and whipped cream, kale, cooked cabbage, and most veggies except salad...I cannot get you to eat a salad for anything! You also like most fruits except strawberries which you say make your stomach feel weird. You have lost your taste for hamburger and most beef and prefer either chicken, fish, or soy products like tofu or texturized vegetable protein. You drink milk to quench your thirst despite my disapproval. Water, water, water :). Oh, and gum. I'm not sure you can go a day without it, sort of like your mother!

9. You love to read and just finished up and engaging series titled: Beyonders by Brandon Mull that kept you off your iPad for several days!

10.You are pushing yourself in soccer with this travel team and hoping to earn a spot on the Western High School team.

11. You have a group of friends you eat lunch with. You have a group of friends you hang out with in your two band classes: jazz and symphonic. You have a group of friends from orchestra. You have a group of friends from church. You have soccer buddies. But most of these friends do not intersect with each other except a few people who cross between lunch/church or orchestra/church/band, but all of them think you are great!

12. You are one of my favorite people to be with and I know Dad feels the same way. We are pretty lucky to be the parents of such a kid! Happy 14th Birthday!

You love Maruchen Ramen noodles which I refuse to buy because of the crazy amounts of junk in them. But at the book fair for Jonah and Gavin we found this recipe book and couldn't resist. Then I found the organic noodles with just a few ingredients and bought you a case. You were thrilled!!

Do you see that crazy scar on your elbow? Yes, it will likely be there when you are 65 years old only it will be all wrinkled and loose. DO NOT PICK YOUR SCABS CHILD!

Checking out the new Zildjian cymbals:

JRR Tolkien

In the 4th grade at our school, the kids pick a famous person and put together a "living museum" about their life. Gavin picked JRR Tolkien from a handful of great options he had come up with. He spent several weeks on this project learning about Mr. Tolkien and putting together a time line of his life (in the background of the first photo). He was most surprised to learn that Mr. Tolkien had two books that were in the top 10 grossing books of all time: The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings as well as learning that he formed a literary group at Oxford with another well know author:  C.S. Lewis called the Inklings. In addition to the time line he had create a speech to recite when parents would come and push his "start" button. He was fabulous as he spoke with an English accent, sucked on his real tabacco-free pipe, and paused to contemplate what to say next as that too was part of his "script".

I present the young JRR Tolkien:

The unexpected winter break and Valentine's Day

Two week ago I never would have imagined we;d be out of school again for the biggest storm we've had since 2010.  It dumped 18" of snow.....the kind that makes good snowmen, snowballs, and a great luge track.  So after a 18 day break over Christmas, a 5-day break over MLK, and now another 5-day break over President's Day, that's nearly a month off from school since late December. We will be forced to make up 5 of those days at the end of the school year, but nothing else can be made up at this point. Thank goodness, as I already feel getting out mid-June is painful.

So with the snow we spent a great deal of time watching the Olympics and racing down our own snow covered luge or skiing on some real snow at our local resort. I think Jared has been the most enthusiastic about the Olympics by watching at least a portion of nearly every event and he even gave a High Council talk today tying directly into the Olympic Motto: Citius-Altius-Fotrius: Faster-Higher-Stronger and the Olympic Creed: The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.

One of the upsides of growing up, is that you get to dress yourself!

Because of the snowfall and unexpected ski day that landed on Valentine's Day, we had our traditional candle-light dinner on Sunday. I was feeling crummy with a low grade fever and Caleb was well into his high fever with a wicked sore throat sickness that Gavin had the week before. Sooooo, Jared bought groceries the night before after picking up Liam from his scuba-diving class and pulled together a great pork tenderloin meal for all of us. After we sat up and gave the food rave reviews he admitted that he was a little nervous to be put in charge of  this particular meal because the expectations from previous meals were high. He came through beautifully and wow do I love him for that!

I had put new coupons in their books and left them with a solid chocolate heart on their dinner plate before they came in. They were all excited (except Caleb who was asleep on the couch) and Jonah talked about how he's so happy that he's not a kid when Jared grew up because apparently Valentine's Day was only about lovers......no candle light dinner, no coupon books, or solid chocolate hearts! This boy loves a good celebration, and who can blame him?

The man can cook

I'm not going to lie, I LOVE that my boys enjoy cooking and learning with me in the kitchen. They are becoming more and more capable to take on new and different recipes all on their own as was written about earlier. But, I love that they are also interested in little tutorials on technics that make cooking some things absolutely necessary. To know that yeast dough should feel like a babies bottom after it's been kneaded the right amount of time. Knowing that creaming the butter and sugar for a long time is key to a great cookie and combining the wet ingredients before adding them to the dry ones makes for a perfect quick bread. Knowing you should always curve your fingers down and towards your palm when cutting something. Knowing that testing hot oil with water is NOT safe...... and the list could go on.

Several Sunday's ago Liam had the choice to make a boxed cake for FHE or one from scratch off the back of the Hershey's Coco box and he chose to try his hand at a homemade cake. Caleb pitched in and made the frosting with no recipe, just his sense.  It was a layered cake and they were so pleased with themselves and they deserved to be as the cake was absolutely moist and delicious.

As for myself, I've been experimenting with homemade tortillas for some time, which one would think would be as easy as anything, but it's not, or at least it wasn't for me. Getting the right dough was key and the first several attempts were received with little fanfare as they were truly pretty pathetic. Getting the right temperature on the griddle was also key.....note: the hotter the better. And finally being able to roll them out to paper thinness was a skill to be learned. So on an different Sunday I taught Gavin and Caleb what I have now learned about tortilla-making and at some point, I suspect I can put them in charge of making them start to finish.

I figure I want healthy kids and boys who will have one more tool in their dating portfolio, so I'll teach them how to cook! And with kids who can cook, I'm also guaranteed a night or two off in the future.

MLK Ski Trip

For several reasons, including the unusually high prices of airline tickets and feeling the need to have our own traditions, we opted to stay in Virginia for Christmas and go out west for some extended family and ski time over the MLK holiday. The boys had to miss one full day and two half days of  school and Jared was able to switch some of the days he was teaching at Darden to make it happen, but it was well worth the effort. The trip out was uneventful with the exception of finding out that on Frontier, an airline we've never flown with before, you have to pay for all snacks and drinks with the exception of water. Lame, but they did get us to Utah on time and on the return flight when there was the second Polar Vortex on the East Coast, they were one of the only airlines who didn't cancel their flights. Although, we were prevented from landing for a bit so Reagan Airport could clear the runway but unfortunately we didn't have the fuel to circle, so were forced to refuel in Norfolk, VA, setting us back a couple of hours. The pilot was comical and very casual as he announced our situation letting us know he had good news and bad news. The good news was we could land... at some point, the bad new was that we were running too low on fuel to hang around in DC airspace. At midnight we finally pulled up to our mailbox and made the walk up the "luge" and crashed into bed. Jared took another one for team and was up well before the rest of us to teach his 8:00am class. We were all still sleeping because it was the first of what would become 2.5 snow days off from school for the kids.

It was a quick trip, but we were able to ski 4 of the 6 days hitting Brighton for the first time and falling in love with the resort so much so that two days later we returned with James, Christine, Spencer, Katie, Ben, and Jeff. In between the two Brighton days, we skied Alta with Grandpa Hill and on President's Day they (I opted out) skied Snowbasin with Grandpa Hill. That first Brighton day we put all the boys in ski school for the morning and Jared and I got to ski alone together, something we've never done before. We had such a fun time together and even enjoyed some serious kissing on the lifts which totally embarrassed the boys when we told them. In the afternoon we all skied together with Caleb and Liam leading the way and not getting too far in front of me because they love going in and out of the trees and finding any sort of jump to hit.

When we were not on the slopes we were enjoying game nights with Grandma and Grandpa Harris, seeing cousins and enjoying Aunt Jen's great whipped-up soups, and seeing even more cousins at Cafe Rio where we took up a third of the entire restaurant and left the remaining space to what seemed to us every last resident of Lehi, Utah. Urban sprawl has taken over the entire swath of land from from Ogden to Provo and West to the Oquirrh Mountains. I'll admit I'm not fond of such sprawl and the polluted air that comes along with putting that many people between two mountain ranges. It makes me sad, but the joy the boys find in seeing their grandparents and cousins is worth all the red and itching eyes. After Cafe Rio we bid farewell to the Lehi and Idaho Falls cousins and headed to spend a few days with Grandma and Grandpa Hill. We spent time with Granny Knight playing her Steinway and visiting with her 92 year old self. We also got to celebrate Hailey's birthday with a girls lunch and short shopping spree for earrings since she and mom just had their ears pierced.

Playing a few rounds of Rack-O:

 Grandma is always the best playmate for all her grandchildren. She always has time to give and is always so very interested in whatever they are doing.

Picking and choosing from an assortment of soups from Aunt Jen's. Fun to see cousin Taylor.

So fun to see this girl who has a special place in our heart as the first of our nieces and nephews who ever spent an extended period of time with us.  She is now married with the cutest little baby boy.

Second day at Brighton with cousins and Uncle James:

Cafe Rio with cousin Spence, who lived with us in summer of 2012.

Girls table:

Caleb's officially taller than17 year old cousin Kate:

In Ogden, Gavin was a good sport to play princesses and castles with cousin Ruby.

Celebrating Hailey's birthday with Granny Knight and cousins. Gavin's going for the lowest note he can hit ;)

Ruby  wasn't so sure about Liam the first two days, but he eventually won her over.

T.R.O.U.B.L.E looks like this:

Granny won't be with us for too long, but I'm so glad all the boys will have memories of her, her house, her Steinway, her toy drawer and especially her dumbwaiter which they have all taken a ride in.

I think Liam said it best when we left Cafe Rio: "There is nothing better than being with cousins" and I'll second that!

Catch-up

I'm having a hard time believing that the "longest" month of the year is well passed and I've recorded nothing. There is the trip to Utah to ski and see family, there is the cello concert for Gavin and Caleb, there are tortilla-making lessons to be shared, there is a pinewood derby to be noted, there are flying lessons to be accounted for, there is the JRR Tolkien project to remember, but the timer has gone off and I'm out of seconds! But, in one single week, seven short days, my favorite holiday arrives and it too will need to be recorded, so I best get going.....tomorrow..... because really, the timer has gone off.