3rd Biennial McCombs Family Reunion

Biennial means an event lasting for two years or occurring every two years. As great as our reunion was, I'm sure everyone was glad it didn't last for two years. It lasted for three days and we loved every minute of it. Except for some of the 2400 minutes we spent driving there and back.

We left on a Monday morning and met up with Liz and Darren at Little America. We bought $0.50 ice cream cones and were on our way to Illinois.

We stopped in Rawlins for lunch and in Sidney, NE for dinner. All of this stopping added up. Our 11 hr. 18 min. drive turned into 16 hours. We didn't get to sleep until after midnight. But the continental breakfast at the hotel the next morning was amazingly delicious and made up for any pain and suffering.

We arrived at Felicia and Nick's house in Illinois on Tuesday evening. They had a delicious dinner ready for us. In true reunion fashion, once the eating started it didn't stop.

The driving families came before the official start of the reunion. Felicia took us to her free local zoo.

 Annie was obsessed with this weird posing. Notice Mr. Turtle exercising in the background.

This picture makes it look like Annie was scared of the python. But she wasn't. The worker in the reptile house was so friendly and informative that Annie was asking her a million questions.

For our reunion accommodations, we stayed at Felicia's house and a friend of Felicia's house. They let her rent it from them while they were away. It worked out wonderfully. Renting one's house to 20 strangers would require a certain amount of bravery on the part of Felicia's friend. I don't think we broke anything while we were there. Anyway, the house belonged to a family of four girls. So there were dresses and barbies and ponies galore. Annie was in cute little 3 year old heaven.

We reunioned over the 4th of July, so we had a picnic at the park. Annie and the kids played at the splash pad, and we stayed up late to watch the fireworks.

 The pose strikes again!

 The whole clan waiting for the fireworks to start.

The next day we went to a water park. The water was frigid, but we all had a grand time. I didn't take any pictures because I wanted to enjoy swimming instead of babysitting a camera.

The next day the cool people went to Chicago while the boring people with little kids stayed close by. But the boring people got to do something really fun. We went to the mother of all children's museums. It was fantastic. Children could be entertained for entire summers at that place. And their workers were cool, too. Usually they charge full price for a one year old, but the lady saw Scotty in his stroller and didn't make us pay for him. We did tell her he was one.

 Annie spent the majority of her time here at this little table playing with these cool blocks. She would have stayed there the whole time if we hadn't prodded her away.

 Wind tunnel!

Scotty's face will tell you what a fun time we had. I realize now, looking at these pictures, that I took hardly any pictures of our cousins and other family. I think that's because we were running out of space on our camera. We transferred pictures over to our laptop, so that shouldn't have been a concern, but I think it curbed my picture taking anyway. I'm depressed about that.

On Sunday we went to church together and ate dinner at Felicia's ward building. It was fast Sunday, so the eating frenzy had a short break, but we dug back in with gusto. Costco makes really tasty apple pie!

Of course we had a talent show at the end. Here are some post photo dump pictures to prove that Aaron and I didn't just go to Illinois to see ourselves.

Of course we took a group picture, but it's on Felicia's camera. I'll add it here when I get it. Felicia and Nick were amazing and patient with planning and hosting everything.We had a wonderful time at the family reunion. There's just nothing quite as awesome as being with your parents and siblings. Even though we don't see each other very often, there is definitely a bond there. And my family members are some of the best people I know.

And our marriage and little family survived 40 hours in the car together! Before we got married, Aaron and I drove from Idaho to Michigan with my parents and Andrew for a Sandberg family reunion. My parents were reminding Aaron of that and asking how he liked being such a cross-country driver since he's been married to me. Aaron said, "I knew what she was when I picked her up." Indeed.

 Did I mention that Scotty barfed in the car? Hence the nakedness.

 That pose!

Lots of Knots

Annie has not yet learned to tie her shoes, but she has a strange, scout-like compulsion to tie knots. Here are some of her latest creations. There have been many, many others of a much greater complexity (and inconvenience). So these are just the ones she's tied since we decided to take pictures before undoing them.

 

Cleaning up after Annie makes me think that Alexander the Great wasn't such a cheat for what he did with the Gordian Knot.

Scotty's 1st Birthday

Our little Scotty boy turned one year old and changed from this:

to this:

It's been a good year, little man. Except for when it was really hard.

We celebrated the morning of his birthday with brown sugar muffins. He is a bit of a finicky eater, but he always packs the muffins in hand over fist.

He didn't even come close to being able to blow out his candle, but he did devour his muffin wholeheartedly.

We gave him a few presents, which Annie helped him to open.

Later in the week, we went up to Grandma and Grandpa Dennis's house to have a little party there. I made a cake that morning before church. Aren't robots the cutest thing for little boys. And how appropriate that I was wearing my Google shirt. I always feel like I deserve a picture with the cake because it is usually ends up being a bit more work than I think it will be.

It was carrot cake of course, a Dennis family favorite. And we dubbed the cake the "Scott Bot."

Scotty did everything he was supposed to do with his cake. And he soaked up the attention like a sponge. Enjoy the winking cuteness at  about 0:22.

Scotty's grandparents gave him some great presents. The part he loved most was the creative wrapping job done by Grandpa (aka balloons). 

Eventually he actually opened the presents.

We love Scotty. He is a sweet, happy boy. But he also knows his own mind...especially when it comes to eating. Meal-time break downs are a frequent occurrence. He loves to be in charge of his utensils, but he hasn't quite figured out how to use those utensils to get food into his mouth. At his one year check up we found out that he is losing weight. So we've been trying to pack in the calories. That can be difficult with his meal time shenanigans, but he's been scarfing down the Greek yogurt. Hopefully that helps.

  Scotty has also been mastering the delicate art of throwing a fit. He can flail with the best of 'em. He takes good naps and sleeps well at night...usually. He often wakes up for no good reason that I can see. But we've come a long way in the sleep department. It seems like Scotty needs a lot of sleep. Many nights he is perfectly happy going to bed at 6 pm. That, my friends is a dream come true. 

He is still really snuggly, and he often crinkles up his little nose and eyes in an adorable fashion when he smiles. He will also just crawl around the house entertaining himself for long periods at a time. He started saying the word dog and he will even do a little woof if he's in the right mood. I think his life will get better and better as he learns how to communicate. We are so happy that he's in our family. 

Happy Birthday, Scottster!

Special thanks to Ben's birthday party for the awesome Mario hat.

The Wonder/Basement Years

This month marks the 3rd anniversary of our move to the basement of Aunt Kathleen's house. We moved in the weekend I graduated with my bachelor's and Aaron graduated with his master's. I can't believe we've been here that long. Time has flown by. When we moved in, Annie looked like this and Scotty wasn't even a thought.

We have loved living here. Heather and Jason and Emma and Ben are the greatest neighbors of all time. Our kids love playing together, and we've loved the convenience of a babysitting swap. We love having a yard, and H & J graciously let our kids play with all of their toys. Heather's always sharing yummy treats with us, and she's always good for a real chat. I could go on and on. The benefits of living under the Lewises are innumerable.
Aunt Kathleen is also a great landlord. She always asks what she can do to make us more comfortable. Around Christmas time, Heather concocted a plan for a basement remodel and Aunt Kathleen agreed to it. We turned our storage area behind the faux wall into a little bedroom for Annie. It was the best Christmas present ever! Here's what it looks like from the outside of the new room.

And from the inside of the new room.

Heather called the handyman and supervised everything. Then she painted Annie's room (including the ceiling!) and laid some carpet herself. And Aunt Kathleen paid for it all. We also got the "faucet of the future..."

And had the handyman move things around in the laundry room so we could access the storage area under the stairs. These were some major improvements, and we have been so happy about them. Obviously, we're excited for Aaron to graduate and for our family to be able to move on to a job, but we are so glad we've had these wonderful basement years!

My Brother & the United States Navy

About 3 weeks ago, we headed up to Salt Lake City's Military Entrance Processing Station to see Andrew be sworn in to the Navy. We arrived at 8:30 and then waited around for a while in true government fashion. While we were waiting we chatted with Andrew and my parents. Annie was entertained by Andrew's friend Mindy and cartoons on a big screen TV. And thanks to Annie's dollar store princesses, Andrew was able to get in touch with his sensitive side before facing the rigors of boot camp.

We followed the recruits back to a small room where they held the ceremony. We were the only family there. Other recruits had come from farther away, so their families couldn't come. One very young-looking recruit asked one of the workers to take pictures for his mom. She was a very energetic picture-taker, and she kept referring to him as "baby boy." He was a loyal son to suffer through that.

Here's Andrew during the actual swearing in.

It was short and sweet. Then we got the crazy lady to take pictures of our family. She did a good job.

We're proud of Andrew. Joining the Armed Forces is a truly brave thing to do. I'm so grateful for people who are willing to do so. Andrew is surviving boot camp so far and got put in charge of singing the cadence. He'll be great at that.

Well Done, Sister Suffragettes!

Early in our dating relationship, Aaron and I had a conversation in which Aaron tried to ascertain whether I was someone who wanted to have a family. He wasn't totally sure because before we'd started dating, he'd overheard me having animated conversations with various people about feminism. Those conversations came about because I'd been reading some 18th and 19th century feminist writers in one of my literature classes. I was excited about what I was reading, and wanted to share it with everybody.

The thing I remember reading in my college class and talking to everybody in my ward about was Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft in 1792. Here are some of her excellent thoughts:

" do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves."

"Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and romaing round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison."

Ever since those college classes, I have thought a lot about feminism and womanhood and motherhood. These things are so interesting to me...which isn't that surprising since I'm a female, a woman, and a mother. Recently there were several important commemorations of feminism and women's rights. February 15th was Susan B. Anthony's birthday. It is an official holiday, but only in Florida and Wisconsin. Utah women do not have as great a debt towards Ms. Anthony because they had the vote long before she came along. Did you know that Utah women could vote way back in 1870? The vote was taken away by Congress in 1887 when they were trying to get Utah to stop polygamy. Does that make any sense? Anyway, when Utah became a state in 1895, women's voting rights were written into the state constitution. 

Even though we're Utahns, I still wanted to celebrate. For Susan B. Anthony Day, Annie and I made awesome suffrage sashes. 

I considered teaching her about Sister Anthony, but didn't get much farther than checking out this book from the library. Annie's a bit dubious.

Sister Anthony was one cool lady. She said this:

"The women of this nation in 1876 have greater cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution than the men of 1776."

I'm reading 1776 by David McCullough right now, and I totally agree with this statement. Reading early feminists/suffragettes always makes me say Amen, Sister!! Fight for freedom! Woohoo!

The other recent commemoration was the Women's Suffrage Parade that happened on March 3, 1913. This year was the hundred year anniversary. Cool, right? Don't you wish you could have been there wearing this?

This lady's name was Hedwig Reicher and this was the parade's grand finale tableau. Hedwig (not the Harry Potter owl) is representing Columbia. According to wikipedia (I've done some rigorous research here) Columbia "is a historical and poetic name used for the United States of America and is also the name of its female personification." I did not know that. So this tableau totally rocks--she's embodying the female half of the nation. The 19th amendment prohibiting any United States citizen being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex came seven years after the parade in 1920.

So you can see that my feminist heroes are a bit dated. There are lots of things about modern feminism that I just can't get into, so I haven't really immersed myself in that world. But there is one Mormon feminist whose work I've been reading in the last year. Her name is Valerie Hudson Cassler. She is awesome. I read her co-written book called Women in Eternity, Women in Zion. It addressed the topics of Eve and polygamy and the New Testament scriptures about women not talking in church and answered a lot of questions that I think many Mormon women have. 

I also read an article by her called "'Some Things That Should Not Have Been Forgotten Were Lost': The Pro-Feminist, Pro-Democracy, Pro-Peace Case for State Privileging of Companionate Heterosexual Monogamous Marriage." That's a loaded title, but it was a fantastic article. She talked about different marriage and family set-ups throughout history and in different cultures. Then she talked about why the set-up of marriage with one man and one woman who treat each other with mutual respect is essential to male/female equality and peace in the world. She also made the point that every child comes from one male and one female. What a revolutionary idea? Just kidding. Her point was that every child has a "mixed heritage." Living in a home with both a man and a woman helps children to get a sense of that mixed heritage and learn how to treat the opposite sex with respect. She said "to make explicit the mixed heritage of female mother and male father is a humane act. To celebrate our mixed heritage is a human act. To hide or obscure that mixed heritage, or to accentuate only half of that heritage, are inhuman acts." I don't know if this will make any sense without reading the whole article, so you should read it yourself. It basically blew my mind. 

In conclusion, hooray for women's suffrage, hooray for good feminism, and hooray for the gospel of Jesus Christ that, more than anything else on earth, truly teaches the equality of men and women. 

Oh, and hooray for this scene from Mary Poppins.