the bloomin' desert: days 1-2

okay, so I guess it's about time to start telling about our little trip last week before it gets too far behind. Jim's parents decided it was high time for a Jackson family vacation, and they thought a-cruising we should go. wahoo! but we didn't need to be to the ship in LA until Monday afternoon, so we thought we might as well make the most of the weekend and take the kids to Zion on our way. Besides, we reasoned that anything we could do to break up the drive to cali had to be a good thing. we're all about surivival here.

I will say that the kids did such a good job in the car - it gives me hope for future car trips. once again, we took the emergency barf kit along and didn't have to use it once! if that's not success...I don't know what is. AND we didn't watch movies the whole way, either. another success. actually, this experience confirmed what we had heard, but hadn't known to be true yet, which is that kids grow up! holy cannoli! call me a bad mother if you want, but wow. that's such a relief.

so we rolled into Zion Saturday afternoon. Romney started shouting, "we're in Goblin Valley! we're in Goblin Valley!" it took a little convincing to get Romney to believe that we were in Zion, and not in Goblin Valley as he'd thought. we'd told the kids we were going to Zion National Park, but they looked pretty confused when we said, "we're here!" and finally one of them asked, "but where are the swings?" a little explanation later, we hopped on one of those nifty shuttle buses (serious highlight for Romney, well, that and the REALLY BIG ROCKS) and headed into the park.

We, not being quite as ambitious as some of you out there, opted for the mellow Emerald Pools hike (over, say, Angel's Landing! yeah, maybe in 10 years. Maybe.) The kids hiked the whole way! I was equally proud of them for walking themselves and happy for not to having to carry them. actually, they really ran (and sometimes danced) the whole way. Turns out that playing tag along the trail is really motivating. Hide and seek works well too. I also recommend bringing along a creative and energetic husband!

the desert was absolutely and incredibly gorgeous - everything was in bloom. Laine is turning into quite the photographer, and wanted to stop every other minute to photograph every flower she saw, and the blooming cactus in particular. yep, that's my girl! Romney was way more interested in the sand, the rocks, the water, and especially all three in combination.

the next morning, we drove through the very long tunnel (Laine snapped pictures the whole time, which added up to lots of black photos - one more reason to love digital cameras) and found some sweet slickrock to scramble around on for a while. the kids were in heaven, and would have been happy to stay and play all day if we could.
this whole outing brought back so many fun memories of doing these same kinds of things in the same kinds of places with my own family - I cannot describe how happy it makes me to be continuing this tradition with my kids, AND that they love it so much. long live trips to the desert!

stay tuned for the next installment of the trip.

*my apologies for a completely inconsistent pattern of capitalizing the beginnings of my sentences. apparently I'm losing the english major edge because I just don't care enough to fix it.

Ole! Ole! Ole!

Here is how it went down:
4:45 - My cell phone rings. It's Marie. "Jim, do you know what today is?" "Monday." "cinco de mayo! We're having a fiesta tonight, it is going to be awesome." "Can we have Churros?" "we'll see, gotta go so I can make it happen! Ole!"

5:30 following a trip to costco there are tacos, quesadillas, and other tasty treats cooking

5:35 Laine looses control and is writhing on the floor because she knows there can be no true fiesta without a pinata and there is no way we are going to go buy one because then she will never go to bed.

5:38 Marie and Jim remember that Laine made a pinata at her preschool a few months ago and it is one of the few art projects we have not thrown away. Saved!

5:42 Jim stuffs the round molting chicken pinata full of left over candy. Attaches string and acquires large stick to pound molting chicken.

5:54 Red, White, and Green (tomatoes, quesadilla, kiwi) meal is served to the kids and family home evening lesson on strengthening the family.

5:55 Romney leaves the table in search of princess slippers to wear with his super-romney cape.

6:03 Laine has been tricked into eating her quesadilla by having a contest to see who can eat faster, me or her. It is a tie.

6:09 pinata slaughter commences.

6:25 sugar high begins.

6:58 sugar crash occurs, children go to bed.


7:15 Laine comes out of her bedroom and goes sits on the toilet for 25 minutes saying she is going potty but really just trying to stay up later.

7:45 kids finally sleep so mom and dad can have seriously good tacos in peace for our fiesta!

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!!

your bed has wheels on it!

this is what I heard this morning, before my eyes were quite open, when Laine first came into our bedroom.

L: hey! your bed has wheels on it!
J: yes.
L: what for?
J: well, sometimes, we like to take it to the top of really big hills and roll down!
L: that sounds fun! maybe we could all do that sometime!

he didn't miss a beat. love him.
I guess he comes by it honestly. When he was a kid, his dad convinced him take a rock to show and tell, saying it was a "rockpecker egg."

spring itch

It all started innocently enough. Just a little review of the latest REI mailer. But that was all it took. Once Marie looked through the small catalog of outdoor equipment spring fever had taken full hold and a camping trip was in the works. Marie and I talked about it for a few minutes and agreed it was a wonderful idea. A couple of hours later we realized it wasn't actually warm yet, that we had other commitments and that going camping with a 2 and 4 year old was a lot of work. These other things however were not enough to deter us. We had started to get the camping itch and we were going to scratch that itch for better or worse.

Luckily it was for the better and Saturday morning we were on the road for Goblin Valley. Campsite reservation in hand we set out with a dvd player occupying the kids so we could listen to conference (until we completely lost all radio contact of course.) So, true confession, sometimes I forget how much fun our kids are and how great it can be to spend the weekend together. It is so easy to get distracted at home. I get distracted by work, phone calls, the mail, the internet, blogs, callings, whatever. There are plenty of things that are less important than my kids but nevertheless distract me from being a dad. Among my friends I have been known for years as a dead beat dad. But it is time the rest of you know. I gag (and sometimes throw up) when I have to change diapers. I only feed them peanut butter and jelly or cheerios. I don't always help with the dishes and I can be very impatient with the over active imaginations that are too busy running from a dragon to put on clothes so we can go to church.

Once we are camping however all those seem to go away. When you're camping everything can be made better with a fire and some marshmallows. Life is good and full of moments like Romney waking up out of a dead sleep in the morning and yelling - "Laine, lets so see whats outside of the tent!" Moments like Laine loosing complete control and just laughing and laughing and then saying, "hey, we are laughing in the tent, can you believe we are laughing so much in the tent? Isn't laughing in the tent so funny? Can I have another marshmallow?" (in the past it has also been full of moments like throwing up all over the tent, actually we had a pretty good consistent record last year but so far this year we are 1 for 1 with no puke! I'm pretty sure it was thanks to marie's zip lock labeled emergency puke kit.)

Saturday was spent playing hide and seek, freeze tag, and how high can Laine jump off of a goblin to daddy? (she suddenly lost all fear of jumping and was doing crazy things!) The evening finished off with a wrestling match to the death in the tent - cage match style. We almost killed the kids but in the end they survived.

The next morning was filled with oatmeal, exploring, and hot chocolate. We then decided to go on a little hike up Little Wild Horse canyon. We didn't expect to get far but thought as long as the kids were having fun it wouldn't really matter. In the end we made it just far enough for them to see some real narrows and had a great time trying to find the smallest place we could. It was amazing how long it took us since we didn't go very far but how can you complain when your time is spent in the very diligent searching for the most beautiful rocks and trying to chase lizards out of bushes?

In the end it was a great weekend for us as a family. A lot of new goals set and re commitments to remember what is most important in our lives.