Greater Than a Strong Tree

• Alder
  Alder, part of the birch family, is a softer hardwood from the Pacific Northwest. Consistent color, stability, and uniform acceptance of stains and finishes are some of the characteristics that have made Western Alder a preferred wood for furniture. Its elasticity makes it ideal for carving intricate details. Ranking second only to oak as the most commonly used wood, alder offers the look of many fine hardwoods at a value price. source

Who knew that by marrying into Brian's family, I would end up with a last name hiding a brilliant analogy?  If you know me or talk to me much (or read my blog consistently), you know that analogies are generally my communication of choice.  So I lapped it up when my mother-in-law, Jean, introduced an analogy tied to my name.

Be Strong was the theme of our Alder Family Reunion.  Be Strong like an alder tree.   Jean put together a touching, beautiful family home evening and shared it with us while we were all nestled together in a little cabin up in Eden, Utah.  She even wrote a song, people, and mailed it out to her whole family weeks in advance so we could all learn it to be able to sing it that night.  A song about being strong, about sticking together, about loving each member of the family for who they are and what they do, and about letting the Alder name be a strength in each of our lives.  It was peppy and easy to learn (even Miles knew all the words by the end) and listening to those six little grandkids sing it was maybe the highlight of the reunion for me.  Oh how I hope they stay strong...

At the end of the lesson she pulled out a thoughtful gift: five pieces of alder wood, one for each of her children, cut and stained by her hands, each one adorned by a metal plaque engraved with a message: Be Strong.

Throughout the week, she found time to pull aside each grandchild on his own and talk about his life.  About what it means to stay strong and how he, personally, could do so.  I love it when my children get reinforcements from the outside.  When they see that mom and dad aren't the only ones encouraging and expecting them to make good choices.

She also planned a ton of fun things throughout the week.  A hike - complete with a checklist of things to find,




A puppet show - complete with color-you-own puppets,

White shirts for all the kids - complete with sharpie markers, rubber bands, and bottles of rubbing alcohol to turn them tie-dyed,

And lots and lots of relaxing time on the shores of Pineview Lake - complete with an entire bin filled with new beach toys.

The duck looks fun, right?  It took forever to blow up...30min? 45? (with three of us working simultaneously) and wasn't even a big hit with the kids.  At least Brian liked it.  And take a look at how high my brother-in-law, Chris, has his little Emmy!  He did it over and over and over again (enough times for me to see it a couple of times, realize it would be a cool picture, get my camera out from it's backpack, take a practice shot, fiddle with the settings, and snap). I'd call that a weeks worth of work-outs.  Then again, that's probably why I'd never be able to do it in the first place.

You wouldn't have believed the amount of cotton floating around in the air.  The top left picture shows it a little bit.  It was actually kind of pretty...not as gross and annoying as pollen, I have to say. I also love the bottom left picture... Brian's little brother, Dave, just as he's getting a face full of the football Brian threw for him to catch.

So many people I love... thanks for a great week, Alders!

Answers

We went to the movies.

I think we found Miles's true family.

Just Us

"I grow-een up?" you ask.  I look down and lose myself, again, in your beautiful face.  The early morning sunlight filters through the trees and lands gently across your creamy skin.  Highlights the twelve freckles dancing over your nose.  Catches in the mass of untamed red curls that sits atop your head.  Saturates the blues in your eyes to that unnatural depth.  Those eyes, locked into mine, sit beneath your soft eyebrows which almost imperceptibly begin to knot together.  Your head begins to cock to one side and I remember.  You asked me a question.

"Yep.  You sure are." I answer.  I throw one last wave around the corner as the big yellow school bus mercilessly accelerates and carries away my other children.  Boy do I miss them while they're gone.  I subconsciously squeeze your hand as we cross the street to our home.  "An... after I grow-een up, den I can ride onna busss?"

"Yes," I reply.  "But don't forget being little is fun, too."

We enter the house and clean up breakfast together.  I try not to cringe at the clatter of spoons and bowls being thrown into the sink.  Then I listen to you play with your trains while I make a grocery list.  Only when I'm all ready to go do I ask if you'd like to go to the little cart store today.  Your imaginary world of tracks and trains dissolves in an instant and you jump to your feet with an excited clap of your hands.  "We go-een to da liddle cart store!?"  After my nod of affirmation, you sprint to the shoe basket and have your cameo crocks on impressively fast.

We get stopped twice in the parking lot, before we even make it into the store.  It's because I chose to go to Kroger on a Tuesday morning; the same morning senior citizens get a discount.  I did it on purpose.  I've found that we have much more fun (as long as we're not in a hurry) when we shop with them.  I've already decided that I will be a talkative, friendly old woman.

"Oh, I bet you just hate to cut that hair," the first lady comments.  She's leaning up against the passenger side of her car, using the open door as support as her daughter loads her groceries into the trunk.  We talk for only a minute.  And she ends the conversation with, "Well, maybe the Good Lord will bless you with a curly, red-headed girl so you can watch those curls just grow and grow."  Ten paces later we pass a younger lady, maybe 65, who loudly exclaims, "Oh my!  And I thought I had a curly red-head!"  Her hand instinctively reaches out to tousle your hair as she tells me about her own, grown, curly red-headed daughter.  It's small, but it bonds my heart to hers for a minute.

You're always patient with these stops.  They're just part of your life.

I smile when you see the little carts.  Week after week, your excitement seems to grow.  "Dere it is!" you sing.  You try to suppress a smile as you start pushing it along behind me.  But I see it.  We carefully load the produce in the front of your cart and I remind you that we need to be careful not to drop our other groceries on top of the peaches, bananas and tomatoes.  We walk down each aisle and I point to the items we need.

1 of those, Miles...  5 of these...  Can you grab 2 for me?  You obey each instruction with pride and participate in one of the following conversations at least once every aisle:

Conversation A:
Oh!  We need some-ah dis?
Nope.  We don't need any of that.
Oh.  We already have some-ah dis?
No.  We just don't need any.
Oh.

Conversation B:
Oh!  We need some-ah dis?
Nope.  We don't need any of that.
Oh. We already have some-ah dis?
Yep.  We have some at our home.
Oh!  I can have some when we get home?!
Sure.
Yay.

We always do the self-checkout.  Regardless of how many registers are open, or how many items we have.  You love it too much.  I pull each item out of your cart and you scan it and put it in the bag.  You're good at finding the bar codes.

Costco is next.  We eat samples and brace ourselves before we enter the fridge to get our lettuce and milk.  We practice shooting our sample cups into the trash cans and pause to sit on the furniture.  We tell the cashier to put two hot dog meals onto our receipt, and we sit on the picnic tables to eat them.

You happily help me carry our groceries inside the house.  This time you grab the strawberries and cheese in the same trip.  You make sure to point out how strong you are as we pass each other.  I make sure to agree.  When I come in with my load, you're standing in front of the kitchen island, still holding the strawberries and cheese, unable to get them up without a little help.  I take the strawberries, and you lift the cheese up to the counter with two hands. 

Nap time is next, and soon the big kids will be home.  Soon after that, you'll be getting on the bus yourself, and these days will become just a memory.

But that day is not today.  Today, you're my little one.  My buddy.  My constant companion and greatest source of laughter.  I know you're anxious to grow up.  In your terms, riding a bus is almost unbeatable in terms of awesome things to do.  But in my terms, having you with me all day - every day...

... that is what's unbeatable.

Scrambled Thoughts IV: Beach Style

1.  Summer is not long enough on a year round schedule

Can you believe the kids are going back to school today?  I tried to tell the school that I'm not done playing with the kids yet... that there are still vacations, and rain puddles, and craft supplies, and pelican snowballs (that need to be eaten for lunch)...  But the school insisted, and reminded me that I'll have to save it for when they release them for fall break.

2.  Summer is a bit too long on a year round schedule

I smell it.  The routines, schedules, planners.  The blog posts to write.  Mopping the floor with my ipod stuck in my ears, pretending I'm a famous dancer while singing at the top of my lungs (ahhhh.... so much nicer than having to lock the children downstairs for 20 minutes so the floors can dry without them slipping and cracking open their heads). 

3.  Miles can pull off windblown

It's true that I have a pretty heavy hand when it comes to deleting pictures.  But Miles broke me this time.  Every single picture I took in this little session weaseled it's way into my heart and wouldn't let me delete it without crying rivers of tears.  So they stayed and got put into this collage.  How could you delete that little red halo?

4.  Carson is the Bird Whisperer, while McKenzie is the Birds Are Scary So Run Away From Them-er

 Carson's pretty much a bird-pro since they learned all about them in his kindergarten class last year.  He sat patiently (well... as patiently as Carson gets) on our beach blankets, making seagull noises until he had a flock of them surrounding him.  (The little pretzel pieces I kept secretly throwing out might have helped a bit.)  He fell in love with those birds!  And though his calls might not have attracted them initially, they really did answer him each time he called out to them.  No bond is greater than a boy and his gull.

5. If you ever get a chance to ride a bike on the beach, you should.  It's romantic.

Even if your children are zooming around you and you're mostly worried about them running over the sun-bathers.

We took a few hours out of one day and rode our bikes around the island, which was absolutely gorgeous.  Except, it took a bit of practice for me to feel comfortable on a funny-feeling bike with Miles sitting in a plastic kid seat behind my own.  He was freaked out for the first little bit, "Don't fall, Mommy!"  "Did-oo ah-most fall?"  "Whoa.  Dat a big bump."  I was freaked out for the first little bit, too, as I tried to get used to Miles throwing his weight around behind me.  Don't fall, Linds... precious cargo in back.  "Nope!  I didn't almost fall, Miles!"  Whoa, that was a huge bump.  "Isn't this fun, Miles!  Here comes a bump!"  We got the hang of it after about 30 minutes and I started relaxing my tense muscles one by one until I felt comfortable and Miles started laughing.



6.  Daddy-Daughter pictures are always beautiful

  
 7.  Wildlife has never been my favorite

I can't help it... one of my biggest fears is getting eaten by a shark.  Getting eaten by alligators is also something to avoid.  Getting tickled by starfish?  I can handle that.

But I'd rather there just be nothing alive in the water I'm swimming in. As far as birds go, I'm okay with them as long as they keep their poop away from me.  I've been pooped on before by birds.  Twice.  I don't like it.  But I LOVE how the birds make this picture...

8.  My love for my children grows when they ask me to take a picture of them in an awesome spot.

Miles won my love this day. 

9.  My name looks cool in the sand

What?  It's not a vain thing... it's just that I have a cool-looking name.  And sand is cool.  So when you put the two together...  Don't be jealous; I bet your name looks cool in the sand, too.

10.  Beaches are fun

Hopefully next year, Brian's program will pay us again for spending a weekend on the beach.  I could handle that over and over and over and over...

Summer Togetherness

Love.  Love, love, love.  These kids love each other to the ends of the earth and back.  There are times when their sweetness towards each other cracks my heart open and happiness spills out through my eyes.  Ahhhhh, that's right.  That love really does exist.  I forgot a bit about that love, so it was nice to come across this picture in my editing tonight to remind me of it.  Tonight, the end of our 4th week of summer vacation.  Tonight, when it's been much too hot to go outside to play for more than a few minutes, but much too cramped to stay inside.  Tonight when the clutter of the days has started to swallow the furniture, and the fighting between them all escalated into something more commonly found in screaming banshees than in human children.  They've been loving each other and happy to be together for most of the break, but we've recently discovered that there really can be too much of a good thing.

But tomorrow... tomorrow I will be more patient with it and give them the individual (and separate) attention that they all need.  I forgot about that today.  And yesterday.  And the day before.  But tomorrow we will love each other.  Ahhhhh, that sounds good.

That's not what this post is about, however.

This post is about how awesome it is when your husband's job pays you to spend a weekend on the beach.  All I had to do was give up my husband for a couple of hours on Saturday morning so he could give a presentation to all the other ophthalmologists vacationing on the island.  Sounds like a pretty uneven trade weighted in my favor... but do you hear me complaining?

And, have you ever seen a storm roll in behind the beach?  Beautiful...  and a little bit scary.

 

Maybe we were a little crazy to stay out near the water while the rain started to fall... but I hadn't seen any lightning, and we didn't die, so I'm glad we did.

Plus, we got to play in some nice warm puddles once the rain passed.

Someday, I will live on the beach.  Yes I will.  I'm sure if I lived on the beach my children would never fight and my house would stay clean always because we'd never be in it.

In fact, I think the next time my energy gets zapped by Summer Togetherness, the kids and I should pile in the car and take the journey to the beach for the day. On second thought, we'd probably have to invent a transporter... because there's nothing like a bit of Summer Togetherness All Packed In A Car For Three Hours Each Way to bring out those screaming banshees again...

Start Spreadin' the News... I'm Leavin' Today...

Do you know what I've fallen in love with?  Flying on an airplane by myself.  No little hands to keep track of, no hungry tummies to keep full, no 30 second attention spans to keep entertained, not even a conversation to keep going.  Just alone.  All alone.  Me, a good book, and my ipod shuffle.  I even gave off Don't Talk To Me vibes; you probably would have been intimidated by them.  But, I tell you, I got through chapter after chapter after chapter of my book without being interrupted.  It was blissful. 

My excitement reverted to 5-year-old status when I realized that my family's plane had landed minutes before and two gates away from my own, and that they would all be waiting just outside my gate.  I had to control the urge to bolt from the airplane through the tunnel.  I may or may not have been bouncing in the isle as I waited for everyone ahead of me to deboard, and all the excitement came rushing right out of my mouth once I saw their happy faces waiting for me.  Sometimes I talk too much... and I think this may have been one of those times.  But how could I help it when I had this beautiful face greet me?

My sister Michelle is the best.  Who else would stare straight into the camera lens when I say, "Ignore me for a second while I check the light here."  Usually people get all awkward and pretend it's natural for them to stand up a little straighter, tuck their chin in, sport an awkward half-smile and look away with slightly wider eyes.  Love her.

The rest of my family is also the best.  You don't have to stare into the camera lens to be the best.  It just helps sometimes.

I won't mention names, but someone who might also be the patriarch of the family thought it would be a great idea to save a few bucks by cramming the six of us into one hotel room for that first night. (Of course, that someone knew he had a guaranteed bed because, aforementioned, he might also have been the patriarch of the family.)  That night, after the lights were out and I was snuggled up in my blankets on the floor, we laughed and laughed and laughed.  When the laughs died down after a particularly hearty sequence my brother sighed from his own cozy(ish) floor spot (or un-cozy... depends on how optimistic you're trying to be) and said through his audible grin,

"Ohhhhhhh.  I like us."

I like us, too.

The next morning I awoke to sore abs from laughing (and sore everything-else from losing the sleep battle with concrete covered in carpet.  Seriously... wasn't I 20 yesterday?).

See the funny dog in shoes up there?  My first 'hip shot' (taking a shot without raising the camera to your eye).  Handy when you're traveling in crowded streets and don't particularly want people (or dogs) to know you're taking pictures of them. Apparently people get really good at it, but for me it's more of a fun surprise each time to see what I got.  This one took a few tries to even get the dog in the frame... pretty sure I lost my inconspicuousness by checking the shot four different times.  I'm just lucky I didn't run into a pole or something while I was completely not paying attention to what was in front of me.

We walked past the temple and I was shocked to see how in-the-middle of the city it is.  Taxis driving by out front, people with suitcases strolling past, a man selling hot dogs on the corner...  a bit different than the Salt Lake Temple.

This picture on the left was my second hip shot.  I love the angle... only too bad the angel Moroni didn't quite make the cut.

We also went to the Twin Tower Memorial site.  Impressive and heart wrenching.

But most of our time was spend down on Times Square.  Standing in line for Broadway plays, seeing Broadway plays, anticipating Broadway plays, and talking about how great the Broadway plays were. 

Newsicle (off-Broadway), Newsies, and Peter and the Star Catcher made our play list and the latter two left us both speechless and unable to stop chattering about them.  Phenomenal.  

Thanks for such an awesome vacation, Dad!

And, bonus! The day after I got home, I jumped in the car with my husband and kids to head to the beach... there's nothing like missing your kids a bit to make you love them more.