Crazy Campers

In August, we had a Dennis Family Camping Adventure. Brother Alan planned it all out. We drove through a bunch of tiny Utah towns up to the Uintahs. Then we hiked 4 miles to Grandaddy Lake. I repeat, we (Aaron, me, Annie, and Scotty) hiked 4 miles to a mountain lake. That was a lot of work, people. But we did it, and I will even venture to say that it was fun. Not go-on-a-date-with-your-husband fun, but rather I-just-gave-childbirth fun.

Okay, okay, so it really wasn't bad. And everyone else on the trip (Alan, Russell, Angela, Ma & Pa Dennis) helped us out a lot with the kiddos. Still, I probably won't go on a backpacking camping trip again until our kids are old enough to hike the whole way by themselves. I also won't go on another backpacking trip where we are carrying yogurt and cans of black beans up the mountain in sacks in our hands because there isn't room for them in the pack!! We ate really good once we got there, but on the way up I was wishing we had just brought Cup O' Noodles for every meal.

The Lake was worth all that work, though. Isn't it gorgeous?

Annie became seriously sleep-deprived during the course of our camping. It was physically impossible for her to close her eyes and go to sleep in the tent for a nap during the day. And she wouldn't go to sleep in the tent until we were all going to sleep. So, overall, she had about 5 hours less sleep per day than usual. She did get one 20 minute nap while we were there. She and Aaron were in the raft and, in a drunken stupor, she stood up. Aaron wasn't sure what she was trying to do, but she finally maneuvered herself over to Aaron's lap and promptly fell asleep. She was one tired girl.

The other camping element that proved to be a trial was Annie's fascination with camel packs. She LOVED getting water out of them, and that's what she'd do to keep herself entertained. A lot of water in a little bladder equals MANY trips to the bathroom. Did I say bathroom? We sure didn't have one of those. I meant many trips to make water in the great outdoors. If you were wondering, it's a little bit tricky to keep a squatting 2 year old from getting herself and her clothes wet while she's relieving herself. But we got pretty good at it since she went potty 4 or 5 times an hour. That's not an exaggeration.

So now that I've done all my complaining, let me tell you all the awesome things about the trip. Scotty did great. I lost sleep because I worried about him being cold and the bears that were coming to eat us, but he slept like a rock. I already mentioned the lake, and our campsite was also very green and beautiful with lots of pine trees.

We camped next to a meadow where we saw deer and birds and chipmunks. The chipmunks were very friendly...if you're talking about the kinds of friends who chew through a tarp, a cloth grocery bag, and a ziploc bag (all of which are hanging from a tree) to steal your trail mix. At our campsite someone had left behind a chain mail bag with really strong velcro at the opening. We didn't understand the bag until the chipmunks ate our food. Then we commandeered the bag in order to S.O.S. (save our snacks.)

Another cool thing about the trip was that we got all of our water from a mountain spring. The water really looked like it was just coming forth from a rock--like Moses and the children of Israel. We filtered it with John and Julie's fancy filter. It tasted delicious, and there were no cases of dysentery.

Like I said, we ate really good on this trip. We had tin-foil dinners and chicken burritos and black beans (curse them!) and yogurt (curse it!) and bagels and granola bars galore and dried fruit and trail mix. Good thing we did all that hiking or I would have come home several pounds heavier. Our packs came home several pounds lighter instead.

My other favorite part about camping is that it is so quiet. I did have a moment by myself at the campsite where all I could hear was the sound of silence. It was beautiful.

Annie got really dirty, and I didn't care. That was liberating in a way. In lieu of her oodles of dresses that she changes in and out of all day, she decided her favored clothing object would be her leopard print pajamas. So that's what she wore most of the time. 

And I've got to mention Aaron's awesome brothers who went ahead of everyone and then came back to help us with our kids and our stuff. They did that on the way up and on the way down. They were real hiking heroes.

Family Reunion

We had a family reunion for the Sandberg side. It was great! We spent one day at Lagoon. Annie was really brave going on all the rides. We started her off easy on Bulgy the Whale, but she kept saying "faster! higher!" while on that ride. She went on all the rides she could go on and loved it--the Space Scrambler, Dino Drop, Chinese Dragon, even Bambora. I became a human seat belt a few times because I was nervous, but Annie basically showed no fear. What a woman! I didn't take any pictures because it was just too hard, but this is how the kiddos felt at the end of the day.

So I was really horrible at taking pictures, sadly, but here's one of Annie and cousin Klara.

I have a really wonderful family. And it was good to see them.

2 months, 3 months...

Scotty cruised by the 2 month and 3 month mark. This kid really feels like part of the family now. I've almost forgotten what life was like before he arrived. And I must say, he is one adorable baby. He smiles and coos and looks chubby all day long. He cries and barfs and poops, too, but he's generally pretty happy. We like having him around. The other day Annie was engaging in what looked to me like "rough" behavior with Scotty. I told her to stop, but was interrupted by Scotty laughing at Annie's treatment of him. Back off, Mom. Let them bond. 

Visting Our Own Backyard

And the catch-up posts continue....While William and Heather were in town we decided to take a trip to the rooftop of the Conference Center at Temple Square. I'd seen it once in the winter while I was a teenager, but no one else had ever been there. My parents were also in town after Scotty's blessing, so we went to Salt Lake on the same day they needed to be dropped off at the airport to go see my brother, Joe. Our little touristy adventure was lovely. We learned about how the conference center roof is made to mimic a mountainside. We also saw that there are sunroofs up there. They shine down into the general conference room itself. The maintenance people usually keep them covered because otherwise the speakers can't see the teleprompter. These and other interesting facts could be yours if you visit the Conference Center rooftop.

 The Mother Duck had crossed over the wall, but her ducklings couldn't make it. So these men herded them up and gently tossed them over. 

 I have a picture from my sister Liz's wedding (when I was 5) wearing her veil and holding onto the temple doorknob. I was trying to recreate the moment with Annie, but her hair wasn't cooperating. Plus, she was really, truly trying to turn the doorknob and get in. (See below)

 Blurry brothers with babies

She really does love to see the temple.

Our adventures also took us across the street to see the new and somewhat controversial City Creek Mall. I have no comments to make about the mall itself, but these water things were super cool. The picture doesn't do them justice.

A Baby Blessing

We blessed our little boy Scotty on Father's Day. Here are the wonderful men who participated (minus my wonderful brother Andrew).

Before the blessing, I told Scotty there was to be no crying and no pooping. He was very obedient. As I was sitting up on the stand doing my ward chorister duties and sitting behind the organ and grand piano, I thought I heard Scotty crying in the congregation. Turns out it was another baby who is a few weeks older than Scotty. I still go into mother hyper-drive every time I hear that baby cry at church. They sound a lot alike to me. But then again, I've also been known to go into mother hyper-drive when my in-laws' cat meows. Maybe I'm a bad mother...or maybe I'm too motherly. I'll go with that one. 

We don't have church until 1:00, so Aaron and I spent the morning making 58 chicken enchiladas. I was feeling pretty good about that and my hosting skills until I got outside after church and realized there were no paper plates or cups or forks. Cousin Heather pulled through for us on the plates, but we asked our parents to share cups with their spouse. So much for my good hosting skills. Here are the guests mingling.

This Cheez-It box is placed very appropriately. Jack, our in-guy at Kellogg's, brought them all the way from his factory back east.

Jack and Natalie's son, Jackson, played quite a bit with Annie. At one point, we heard Annie tell Jackson, "It's time to come home," and Jackson said, "Not yet." This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. 

In 14 years it will be a motorcycle.

Annie kept hearing people say "Happy Father's Day," and I heard her refer to Jackson several times as father. I guess she was a little confused.

It was a lovely day. Thanks to all of our great family who came. And thanks to Scotty for being the best male-under-30 part of the Aaron and Maren Dennis family.

Dennis Clan
(Thanks for the picture, Natalie)

McCombs grandparents

A Visit

We've had many events happen in our lives lately, so I'll post about each of them over the next few days (or weeks...or months). The first event was that Aaron's brother William, our sister-in-law Heather, and their daughter Lucy came for a visit. We went up to Aaron's parents' house to see them. Annie was great at playing with Lucy. They were so cute together, and they played together more than I thought they would. I tried to get a picture of these two crazy kiddos the last time they were together. It didn't work very well on either occasion. But here they are anyway.

The adorable weed/flower crowns were designed and crafted by Heather. Coolest mom ever! While the whole Dennis clan was together, we had a family recital. This was inspired one day when I told Aaron that I really learned piano pieces when I had to get them ready for a recital. So Aaron found a piece he really wanted to learn and asked the rest of the fam to get something together as well. The coolest performance, in my opinion, was the Cake song performed by Russell on the guitar and Alan on the trumpet. "Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps." Bravo, gentlemen.

Everyone did great. What a talented family! We had more fun with William and Heather, but I will write about that in the next post. To end, here's a pic of Annie and Aunt Shauna together. While we were visiting, Shauna hosted a delicious waffle breakfast at her beautiful new abode. I didn't take any pictures of that, but it was very fancy.

One month! No way!

 I can't believe this second kid of ours has already been around for one month. Time flies when you're having...complete and utter chaos. Actually, I feel like we're adjusting pretty well. Scotty is a good baby, and so far he has avoided a traumatic brain injury inflicted by a 30 pound two year old wearing high heels (aka "princess shoes"). If there is another definition of motherly success, I don't know what it is.

Isn't he handsome? Especially the drool.

Oh, we love them!

Scotty has been a smiler since day one. I was so excited to get this picture until I realized that it's blurry and there's a  giant booger in his nose. Oh well. He still looks cute.

Scotty has definitely gotten fatter since this picture was taken on his 4th day of life. 

We spent Mother's Day up in Idaho. We had a lovely, relaxing time, and the weather was great...sometimes that's unusual for Idaho in May.

Mother's Day photo.

Scotty in his fancy church duds.

 Of course Annie got some quality playing time in with her cousin Klara. And she loved the sprinkler/trampoline combination. She managed to have a fabulous time, even though her too small Dora swimsuit was giving her a wedgie.

Why wear one dress when you can wear two?
Pink Dora guitar=instant coolness

Now here's a short story to illustrate the craziness that often accompanies having a newborn in the house. Last night Scotty slept for four hours--from 11:30-3:30. That was awesome, and he's usually a gem of a sleeper at the beginning of the night. But when I laid him back down at 4:00, he started up his grunting routine. It goes a little like this--"Grunt," shuffle, "grunt," kick legs, "grunt"...and so on. He went into grunt mode about every 20 minutes. I tried to pick him up and burp him or get him to poo, but all to no avail. This went on until 7:30 in the morning. In all this time, he only actually cried 2 times. So he didn't need anything that we could give him. Sometimes babies just need to grunt. It's some weird primal instinct.

Anyway...this morning I was explaining to Aaron that in the wee hours of the morning, my brain does not function too well. For instance, why didn't I move Scotty into the living room so his baby grunts stopped disturbing us? The thought didn't even occur to me. I just kept being woken out of a semi-deep sleep at which point my thought process went something like this--"Baby!" comfort, pacifier, lay down. Aaron confessed to me this morning that he did think of moving the baby to the other room. Why didn't he mention this during one of the times I was awake at 4:20 and 4:40 and 5:00 and 5:20? Because he felt too tired to move Scotty himself and too guilty to tell me to move Scotty into the other room. So I agreed with Aaron that I will happily provide the physical capacity if he will provide the mental capacity. This could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.