Cuddling an 18 Year Old

Recently I've been waking up too early wanting to climb into bed with Ike and cuddle him. 

I haven't done it. Yet. 

In 5 weeks he leaves for college. Roland has been saying, for months now, that this will be a tough transition for me. My friend, Shireen, is welcoming me to Act 3. When I googled "Checklist for College" I found lots of articles about how parents can survive leaving their child at college. And I laughed. I have already taken 3 kids to college. It was fun! It was exciting! There was lots of shopping involved! 

But this is different from when Hannah, Gabe, and Noah left. 

1. They were a 1 hour flight away. Now they are a 24 hour flight away. And if the plane is broken I don't even know how many days that takes on a boat! 
2. I left them at college and rushed back home to focus my parenting laser-beam at the next child in line.  Ike is the last child in line.
3. Each time I dropped a kid off at college my little brain told me that they were still all mine and when they came home for Christmas it would all be the same. But that little voice was wrong. It is wonderful and astonishing when they come home but as they say, "you can never go home again. "

So I am milking each moment and fighting the urge to smother him with motherly affection. 

The old lady in the grocery store was right. 

This happened too fast. 

Condolences on Your Baby's Birthday

Ike-age 5

Someone needs to make a greeting card for the grieving parent of an 18 year old baby.

The 18th birthday of your last child is much like the 1st birthday of your first child:

• You are astonished that it happened so fast
• You wonder how you survived the first year (or 18 years)
• You realize that this is a huge moment in time, a reference point for the rest of your life
• There is cake
• And lots of wrapping paper
• You look at your husband and say "I can't believe we are at this stage of life!"

Except, at the 1st birthday party there are decorations, invitations, cards, wrapping paper and even birthday candles that say, "Baby's 1st Birthday!" It is mostly a party for the parents to celebrate that the child is healthy and happy and they haven't made any major parenting mistakes.

But lets say that you have 4 children and that last baby is finally 18, a day you thought would never come, there are no cards for that.

There needs to be a card for that. Something that says, "With Loving Thoughts on your Baby's 18th  Birthday". On the inside of the card it could say, "Although it may feel like the end of the world when this perfectly wonderful person you raised leaves you for what he thinks are much greener pastures, remember that he will always come back for money."

Or something like that.

Ike- 18 years old today. 

And So, We Had Christmas

This was probably the nicest Christmas we have had in years. So many things went well. 

Roland would catch my eye and give me that satisfied look that said, 

"Here we all are, together."

Our house has been party central. We kicked of the season hosting a party with Roland's 

work group, 

a fine group of folks who are kind and smart and fun to be with. 

Then we hosted a Smith Family Christmas Dinner right before Noah's recital. We packed

 so many dear friends and family into our home. 

What a wonderful evening! 

 Swan, Hannah's roommate who joined us for Christmas, inspects licorice for her gingerbread house. 

Noah and Ike joined me in the ward choir for the Christmas program. It is such a treat to

 sing with your boys in the choir. And then it was Christmas Eve. 

We went to The Broadmoor for family pictures. 

We are a rambunctious group of trouble makers and got yelled at for throwing rocks on

 the frozen lake. 

 My favorite purse, Joyana the amazing photographer, and Noah. 

Christmas Eve was wonderful with the Mike Smith family. 

We ate Grandma Jennie's Christmas Tamales and green chili and re-enacted the nativity 

complete 

with our very young cousins who had something of a fall out when young 

Joseph and the Angel had a meltdown over which doll baby Jesus got to be in the manger. 

Unfortunately, 

I didn't have my camera but on my niece's camera I got a photo of both Joseph and the

 Angel in open mouthed tears while Mary stood by in complete composure. 

It was quite memorable. 

 The traditional Christmas Eve PJ opening. 

After we settled down we read the story of Christ's birth and watch a video on LDS.org of the nativity. 

It was a tender moment that quickly turned goofy and crazy as each child 

tried to outdo the next. Some things never change.

Christmas morning was snowy and bright. We slowly opened presents 

and then spent most of the day enjoying the gifts before seeing 

Les Mis 

(2 thumbs up but Gabe said there was entirely too much singing and most everyone liked The Hobbit better). 

The house is that kind of joyful post-Christmas mess that doesn't seem to bother me 

until everyone leaves. 

Swan left Wednesday, Gabe left yesterday, and Hannah and Noah leave today. 

And then the house will be quieter and cleaner. I will accidentally call Ike 

"Gabe" and "Noah" 

for a week while Ike complains about how boring our house is without the rowdy noisy siblings.

Merry Christmas!

September Ike

When you are the baby you get all the attention. 

I've tried to act like it isn't the case but everyone knows it's true. 

Here is a little review of September:

 Ike took his Lancer Lunatic responsibilities seriously. Marching Band Sam encouraged him.

To even out his athletic endeavors Ike tried some ballet. 

He was a quick study and displayed considerable flexibility and grace.

 Dancing men. It just doesn't get better than this folks. 

 Brody joined us for a quick weekend trip to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, 

and 

Ash Hollow (where my great great great grandpa was born in a wagon).

Ike and Brody earned their Junior Ranger pins. It was really hard and 

they should get extra credit in their history class.

The next weekend we drove up to Victor to see the aspens change color. 

Ike was especially excited to spend another day in the car with his parents and 

slept most of the way. 

Roland said for my birthday he was going to take me on a hike in this little valley. It is 

one of my favorite spots in Colorado but it is private property. This seems like an 

impossible problem to me. I want to go but the sign says no. 

Ike, Will, Andrew and Max at the Liberty Golf Awards night. 

The end. 

Alaska!

Sweet Baby Liberty

This is Liberty, beautiful daughter of our niece Tara. 

Before we went to Alaska we loved on this precious baby. 

Kissy kissy.

ALASKA!

Who knew? 

I wasn't prepared for how much I would love Alaska. Let's go every year, ok?

 The Alaska railroad is a must do.
We splurged on the first class car and that was such a 

great decision. We practically had the whole car to ourselves. 

A waiter brought us free drinks and snacks when ever we wanted.

 We spent 13 hours on this relaxing, beautiful train. 

We played cards, read books, and napped but mostly we just stared out the windows of our domed car (the ceiling was made of glass) at the stunning countryside.
We had a fairly stressful time getting to Alaska. We tried to board the wrong plane, missed our real flight, and ended up stranded in Denver for 24 hours,

turning our entire trip upsidedown so the peaceful, quiet, gently rocking train was a perfect de-stressor.

We ate in the fancy dining cart where we had a delicious lunch and dinner. 

 I think those are olives. Sometimes you get silly on a train.

We traveled by train from Fairbanks to Anchorage we saw caribou, moose, eagles, bear, lots of birds, snow covered peaks, and glacial valleys. All along the way (and in fact on the entire trip)  Ike would point at something, a totum, a river, a mountain, and say in an excited whisper, "Look!" 

and we would look, hoping to see a grizzly bear, and then he would say, with great reverence and awe,
"Sarah Palin!"

At first it was funny. 

We took a boat tour of the Kenai Fjords. We saw humpback whales and a super pod of orcas (killer whales) a super pod is at least 9 whales. They were all in a big group sunning themselves. Roland calls it a National Geographic Moment. 

When we are 80 we will say, "remember that time we saw the orca super pod?" and we will get all nostalgic. 

This is the great northwestern glacier. We saw 3 large glaciers. 

We got nice and close to the glacier.
When the ice would fall it would rock the boat. 

There were otters floating around on ice blocks just like you see in cartoons. 

Oh, are you wondering what animals we saw on the Fjords tour?
Harlequin Duck
Mew Gull
Glaucous-Winged Gull
Artic Tern
Rhinoceros Auklet
Parakeet Auklet
Thick-Billed Murre
Peregrine Falcon
Eagle
Dall's Porposes
Steller Sea Lions
Sea Otters
Harbor Seals
Cormorant
Common Murre
Horned Puffin
Tufted Puffin
4 Humpback Whales and a baby
Super Pod of Orca Whales
and lots and lots of Jelly Fish

We also saw these fish that someone else caught:

So far the entire trip has been outstanding and we are super impressed that it never really
gets dark. Its strange to be driving around in daylight when everything is closed.
Everything.
Then it got even better when we went to the Alaska Native Heritage Center. 

They say only 15% of tourists are able to see Denali (Mt McKinley) because of the clouds,
but we saw it the entire way up to Denali National Park. Mt McKinley used to be called
Denali (the great one) by native people and there is a movement to take it back to it's orginal name.
Denali is 20,320 feet above sea level.
It is stunning. In this picture you can see it in the center of the picture above the clouds.
It kinda looks like a cloud.
You really wouldn't believe how excited we were to see Denali.

Hannah, our sweet sweet daughter, spent the summer working at Denali National Park. Her crew loved her.
We spent a very entertaining evening as they performed a talent show for us. It was exciting!

(brag moment)
It was very satisfying to see Hannah in her element.
She is such a natural born leader. We watched her motive her team to do a difficult job.
We are proud.
We traveled to their worksite and spent the morning hiking Savage River while Ike joined them building the Savage Alpine Trail. We saw a huge caribou.

We never did see a grizzly bear (that means we get to go back!) but on the way to the aiport Ike suddenly yelled, "Dad! go back! go back! I think I saw one!"
so Roland rushes into reverse and we back track about 2 minutes and then sit and stare at the area Ike is pointing at.
We can't see the grizzly.
We are completely silent, hardly breathing, as we strain our eyes.

Then Ike says, "Look! Right there! Its Sarah Palin!"

Roland was ticked.

You didn't ask for it but here is my advice for doing Alaska the right way:
Fly into Fairbanks. Take the train to Denali (splurge on first class), stay the night, go to all the presentations, see the dog sled team, tour Denali  - you don't need a car.
Take train to Anchorage.
Rent the F150 camper in Anchorage and you can sleep anyplace you like! Yay!
Check out Palmer.
Go to the Native Heritage Museum.
Do the Fjords Tour.
Explore all the other places that look cool to you.
Fly out of Anchorage.

Call me and tell me ALL ABOUT IT!

Better Late Than Never?

Is it true what they say, better late than never?

Let's see if we can remember the summer of 2012 before winter gets here!

First we drove to the cabin. 

Ike had a spankin' new driver's permit and drove us through southern Idaho.

We tried to get a picture that looked like he was eating the oncoming traffic. 

On the way we stopped to have lunch with Hannah at work. She is a fabulous waitress and it was the most delicious meal of the summer. 

If you are in Provo eat at The Black Sheep.

I like that this picture looks like Hannah has flames coming out of her head.

Then we met up with all the Austins at the cabin. 

Every single sibling and all their children were there...except for Noah! He was working at 

Philmont Scout Ranch: 

The last time our whole family was together was my Dad's funeral 3 years ago.

I think we had 29 people. 

It was amazing and fun and such a treat to have everyone there together. 

We celebrated the 4th of July for 3 days and only had the sheriff called on us one time!

Up next:

VIPs on the John C Stennis Air Craft Carrier

Coming soon:

Sweet Baby Liberty

Alaska!

Haunted House/Philmont

Hannah's Graduation

Lancer Lunatic

Ballerina Ike

Mount Rushmore

Ike's Sweet 16