The passing of Aunt LeeAnn

On May 11, my Aunt LeeAnn passed away.  She had fought a tough battle against a terminal cancer called multiple myeloma.  It is a bone marrow cancer that was super aggressive and after 18 months, multiple different forms of chemotherapy, and a stem cell transplant, she passed away on May 11th.

The few weeks before her death and the week after were really sad and exhausting, and I'm not even her immediate family.  She seemed to get really sick, really quickly and her death was sudden.  Lots of tears have been shed over the last couple of weeks.

Her funeral however, was a very touching and beautiful service.  Two of her children (Matt and Jodi) and my Aunt Karen spoke and Melanie played a piano piece.  Matt, her youngest son, gave the most eloquent and emotional tribute to his mom.  His words were inspired and I was so moved and touched by the beautiful things he said about his mom, and the testimony he bore at the end of his talk.  I've been thinking about his words quite a bit since the funeral, and I hope that if my sons' were ever tasked with speaking at my funeral, they would give half as kind of a tribute.

Ross and I talk a lot about aging, we are at the point where it really is "weddings and funerals" that bring people together.  It's sad to think about, so I try not to think about it too much, but I am so grateful for my faith and belief that I will see family members again, and will get to participate in the most beautiful heavenly reunions one day.

#BoompaGoesToDisneyland :: Mickey's Halloween Party

So, for our third day, we didn't have a plan for the 12 of us.  We decided to let our kids sleep in a little, which they did.  But, we missed breakfast at the hotel, which stressed Elliott out.  Nothing a giant cookie from one of the Disney Bakeries couldn't fix however.

When Elliott and I had a minute, just the two of us in the morning at California Adventure, we talked about important Petersen things - like walking.  I told Elliott that he may be a Howden in name, but he is also a Petersen.  And being a Petersen means lots of things, but at Disneyland, it means we walk fast.  He knew exactly what I was talking about.  I told him that Uncle Willie calls it the "art of the dodge and weave".  There maybe isn't anything more annoying at Disney than people who don't know where they are going and stop right in your path.  Elliott was blessed with longs legs for a reason.  And, he is learning how to use them!

Anyway, CA Adventure was a mad house!  Absolutely stifling with people.  We got some fast passes, hung out in bugs land for a bit and then high tailed it over to Disneyland.  We were a little grouchy, a lot hungry and super stressed out.  The goal was to get a picture of all 12 of us in front of the giant Mickey pumpkin that morning, while our matching t-shirts were still clean.  Getting everyone at the same spot was a big tricky.  But, we did it, and then splintered again.

Grandma Judy set up shop on a bench for the parade - which at the time was 2 hours away.  Willie and I enjoyed a conversation with Mr. Lincoln.  My mom has the best job at Disney...she sits on a bench, people bring her food, and she hands out money.  I aspire to her job one day.  At one point, all the big boys (including Wyatt) headed back to California Adventure to ride Tower of Terror a couple of times.  My mom, Haley and I along with Molly, Jack and Quinn hung back to eat popcorn and watch the parade.

Note:  My children drank almost more Diet Coke than me on this vacation.

Finally, it was time to take a small break and do some souvenir shopping and get ready for the day's main activity:  Mickey's Halloween Party.

Long story short: Worth the extra $80 per person.  We will do it again.  We may never go to Disneyland ever again EXCEPT in the month of October because being in the park with 30,000 people instead of 100,000 is so worth the "price of exclusivity" (Ross' words).   The ambiance was awesome, the rides open with no lines and the fireworks were very cool indeed.

We did not manage to see the parade - tired kids and an early morning drive home were waiting for us, but the stressful morning we' had getting everyone together melted away as we wound down the day.

Another Halloween Bites the Dust!

It's come and gone, again.  All it's excitement, pent up energy, emotional explosion is over.  Now we're just left with a lot of candy that they really won't ever eat (I'll throw it away in a week), and the countdown to Christmas.

Friday was the annual Halloween parade at school.  I must officially be old because there were so many costumes, particularly girl costumes, that I just had no idea who the kiddos were channeling.  Boys are easy, they are either something gory, a super hero, or a ninja.  For the most part anyway.  Girls are tricky and just confusing.  If a little girl isn't a Disney princess or some kind of witch, I was pretty much lost.

Oh well.

From the moment we started talking about Halloween costumes, Elliott knew what he wanted to be.  Elliott was a nerd.  Yes, he didn't have to try that hard, but he put his whole costume together all on his own.   All I had to do was buy him some "expanders" (suspenders) and help him with his hair.  He pulled it off quite well.




At first, Wyatt wanted to be a butler.  Yes, a butler.  Not knowing what a butler actually is, we talked about being a waiter.  Deciding that he didn't want to carry a tray around as part of his costume, we were stumped.  I decided that he should be "where's waldo".  It took some convincing, but the fact that I would buy him a costume (and I wasn't buying Elliott one), sold him on the idea.  He was the cutest Waldo there every was and was the hit of trick-or-treating on Saturday night.




And then, there was Quinn.  He announced early on that he was going to be a tiger.  Only problem was, he refused to wear a costume.  We already had two monkey suits and a penguin costume at home, waiting to be worn.  His old yoda costume still fit him (barley), but he wasn't having any of that.  So, it became imperative that we figure out how to let him be a tiger without actually wearing a costume.  Thanks to amazon, we made it work.  One ugly tiger t-shirt and some tiger gloves later and the kid was set.  Add some blue whiskers on his face and he was ready....to sit home with me because Halloween is spooky.




My boys were terribly anxious to get out and hit the neighborhood, but as usual, they were done sooner than not and had as much fun sitting at home and passing out candy as they did knocking doors to get it.

Until next year, Halloween.  Until next year.

Grandma Camp: Lagoon

For several years now, my mom has been trying, with no success, to convince us all to go to Lagoon with her.  We haven't done, using young kids, the hot summer, and general disdain for the place as our reasons for not going.  This year though, the kids are finally really big enough to go on nearly all the rides, walk instead of be carried or strollered around, and so we all relented.

July 13 was the day for Lagoon.  Grandpa Karl opted out, he's allowed to do that sort of thing, but Ross and James came with us and it was a lot of fun.  It was also extra great that Ross came because, you see, he enjoys riding rides.  I do not enjoy riding rides, instead opting for food and people observation, and perfecting my pack mule skills.  I am an excellent pack mule.

As soon as we arrived we headed to kiddie land.  Now, I haven't been to lagoon since I was 15 years old.  As Elliott did that math last night, he realized that I haven't been 15 for a very long time.  Lagoon was nothing like I remembered it to be.  It was clean and fun.  They have a really fantastic kids ride section, all new, and the kids had a great time.

We arrived around 2:30 in the afternoon and after about an hour of kids rides, Ross, James, Elliott and Wyatt headed out to ride the roller coasters while the rest of us stayed in kiddie land to drive cars and fly helicopters and ride in boats.  After a little while Ross called to say that they were bringing Wyatt back to us.  Ross coaxed him onto two wild rides and he'd had enough.  When his dad left, and Wyatt was with the women folk, he told us that the old white roller coaster was, "TERRIFYING!"  The kid rode Space Mountain at Disneyland when he was 4, but he's gotten much smarter now.

We rode the train.  We rode Tidal Wave as a whole family.  Quinn wasn't a fan.  In fact, it took Quinn about an hour before he was brave enough to ride anything, but once he figured out he was safe, he even let some of the kids who ran the rides help him in and out of rides.  That was a big move for mister stranger danger.

We ate dinner in Pioneer Village at the end of the night and then it was time for the wet rides.  No one really got wet on the old log flume, but they got drenched on Rattle Snake Rapids.  Completely soaking wet.  The big boys wanted to go again (Haley, Molly, Quinn, my Mom and I opted out of the super wet stuff) but their dad was too wet and said no.  I did bring dry shorts for them to put on for the ride home, good thing too, because when we finally left, they were still pretty wet.



I was really impressed with Lagoon.  It's small enough that you don't die running from one end of the park to the other, and we lucked out and happened to be there on a day that it just wasn't crowded.  I imagine that there are days when the lines are Disney lines, but yesterday, we just walked on to everything.

The kids were all super good.  Jack is a daredevil and wants to ride everything and he took good care of his twinner, Quinner, who is afraid of air.  They held hands and jabbered and giggled and crashed bumper cars into each other.  I hope that they are always best good friends.

I'm glad we went.  I'm glad that I have such a fantastic mom, who is the best grandma out there, doing wonderful and fun things with her grand kids to give them experiences!

And, they had dole whip.  We ate dinner at an Arby's inside the park, but they had dole whip.  And, it was delicious.

July, so far...

July.  It's here.  The boys finished school on July 1 and 2, respectively and we are ready for summer.  So far, we've managed to get a lot of activities in.

We've bought Quinn a new bed.  He gets out of his a crib a lot and he is almost three.  So, we bought him a new bed.  Now, we just need to set it up.





We've been swimming a lot at great grandpas house and started swimming lessons this week at the Kearns Rec Center Pool.  Elliott is in "whale" and nearly finished with the whole swimming lesson program.  Wyatt is a "crab" for the third time.  He's hopefully finally going to pass it off because I've told him that he must take swimming lessons UNTIL he can pass crab, and then we can talk about it. Quinn isn't old enough to start "fwimming lessons" yet, but as soon as the boys are back in school, I'm going to sign him up for a mom and "baby" swimming class.





On the last day of school, because it was the last day of school and the boys had great report cards, I took them to lunch.  We went to the training table because I wanted a Hawaiian burger and some delicious fries.  The boys were brats before the food came, but luckily settled down when the food arrived.  That was, until, I had to take Quinn in the bathroom to change his diaper.  I came back three minutes later to a complete and total fist fight on the bench.  Wyatt was swinging at Elliott and Elliott way laying on the bench choking Wyatt.  It was awesome.  People were staring.  I was flaming mad, just like Anger in "Inside Out".  I drug the boys outside and yelled them into a wall.  I yelled some more on the way home.  Then, they both spent about an hour (Wyatt a little more because he wouldn't stop screaming) in "sit in the middle of the floor and don't touch anything" timeout.

By the time I cooled down, I'd had it.  It had been a rough week and a rough day.  I texted Ross that I was done with the boys and that when he got home from work, I was leaving and maybe I would come back.




After much internal debate about how lame I thought it might be, when Ross did get home I took myself on a date.  I washed my face and reapplied my make-up.  I combed my hair.  I put on a nice clean outfit and I left.  I took myself to a movie, one that wasn't crowded.  I sat in a corner by myself eating my popcorn and laughing so hard I cried.  Then, I walked to Target from my car and got a few things, getting my exercise for the night as well.

It wasn't lame to go to a movie by myself.  I would definitely consider doing it again.  I had a great time.  I'm a great date.






Our first full day of summer last week on July 3 kept us pretty busy.  We got up in the morning and headed to Haley's.  We played for a while, until it was time to meet dad at his new office and go to lunch.  Then, we headed to Great Grandpa's to swim the afternoon away.  The boys swam for hours.  I floated for hours.  Fun was had by all.  And, the best part?  Everyone fell asleep on our way home.  With three kiddos of such different ages, this doesn't happen much anymore.  It was a small miracle, especially considering the day before I was ready to divorce them all.







On July 4th, we broke with all tradition and created one of our own.  All of us, minus James and Willie, went to a movie.  We saw, "Inside Out."  It was delightful and entertaining and fun.  Elliott and Quinn devoured a family size popcorn.

After the movie we came home and spent the afternoon just hanging out.  Oh, and we lost Quinn.  Long story short, he thought he was playing hide and seek with the boys outside, and decided to, without anyone knowing, hide in the car!  On a 100 degree day!!  We found him, but he'd been in the car about 20 minutes and was covered head to toe in sweat, like he'd just gotten out of the bathtub.  Once he drank about 30 ounces of water and stopped crying, he told us that he was hiding from the boys and couldn't open the door to get out of the car, and we couldn't hear him screaming.  It was terrifying.  It won't happen again.





That afternoon, we headed out to my grandpas to swim and eat dinner with him.  The kids swam with cousins and we had a great bbq with my grandpa.  That evening, with a slight drizzle of rain, we set of fireworks and for the first 4th of July in many years, Wyatt did not throw up.

Winner winner chicken dinner.



And finally, I love my brother and miss him lots.  He celebrated too, just in a different country.

The Redwoods, Day Four: Avenue of the Giants

On our last full day of vacation, it was time to leave the magical and mystical world of giant trees and head back to the reality of drought stricken California via a seven hour drive.  And, of course, the reality of heading home.  We decided however, to head home with one more scenic drive, a pretty touristy drive called the "Avenue of the Giants".  It is a 31 mile scenic route that travels through some very small towns (think, population: 31), and some very big trees, along highway 101.  Not only was it an absolutely beautiful drive, but it saved us from some of the more treacherous and curvy stretches of the highway that made us (okay, me) a little sick on the way north.



The Avenue of the Giants was pretty crowded, much different than the farther north forests we'd been in days before.  After a lot of research, I'd decided that our best bet was to just make one stop, inside the Roosevelt forest in Founders Grove.  Here, we'd find some walking trails and we'd also be able to see the Dyersville Giant, the tree that had been the tallest documented tree in the redwood forest (well over 300 feet tall) until it fell down decades ago.





This stop did not disappoint as it had the Founders Tree, which was 325 feet tall and just amazing to look at and had a dozen or so giants that had fallen.  Their root structures were absolutely amazing and so large.  We learned on our first day that redwoods have very shallow and wide root structures and that if the ground around them is trampled too frequently that it will destroy the roots and the trees will die.  So, when a tree actually does crash, all it's roots become exposed and just hang out.  It's really a pretty cool thing to see and I was pretty excited that we were able to stop and see them.







Once we finished walking and seeing and stretching, it was time to get some lunch and get back to San Jose with as few stops as possible.

We did our best.

The boys were definitely running out of steam, but we'd had a great vacation and were ready to head home.

We managed to avoid all the traffic that we hit on our way to Eureka and with a stop at an outlet mall got back to our hotel with only moderately numb butts.  After finding some dinner, getting the boys showered and bathed, it was time for bed.  Our sleeping arrangements were a little odd for the night; Wyatt was alone on the fold out sofa; I was with Elliott and Ross was with Quinn, but it worked out well and I think that Ross and I, sleeping on tiny beds with tiny bodies probably slept a little better than we had the rest of the trip. Minus Elliott kicking me in the face and Quinn falling out of bed head first anyway.

As with all trips, they end in a pretty anti climactic manner.  We got up in the morning.  Found some breakfast, packed our bags returned the rental car and made it to the airport.  Our flight was on time.  Quinn had a complete and total melt down that was so extreme we thought they were going to kick us off the plane because he didn't want to wear his seat belt.  Then, he fell asleep for the entire flight.

The flight was uneventful.  Which is always a good thing.

It was so strange, in the last few minutes before we arrived home, to realize that the day before, we'd been among literal giants, and now we were at an intersection with a Walmart and a Costco.  But, I guess that's the beauty of a vacation.  It lets you experience those amazing and cool things with your family that you wouldn't otherwise be able to experience.

This trip ended up being part of my birthday present.  It was the best birthday present.  I'm so grateful to Ross for planning and cooperating and being so willing to go along with my schemes.  The trip was really an absolute dream.  I couldn't have asked for anything better.



Except for maybe a glimpse of a real bigfoot.  But, that maybe would have been a bit too much.

The Redwoods, Day One: The City by the Bay

When we first started thinking about a family vacation, the Redwoods was my first, and lets face it, only destination idea.  Ross wanted to do something closer and easier than driving all the way to Northern California, but I was pretty persistent, and pouty, and made a pretty good argument, that went something like this:

The redwoods are always going to be very far away and there is never going to be an easy or fast way to get there.  We might as well do it now when they are a captive audience and not angsty teens.

Good argument, right?

After mulling it over a bit longer, it was decided.  We would travel clear in the heck almost to Oregon to see the biggest trees in the world.  And oh my!  Was it ever worth the drive.

First, we had to get there.  We rented a beach house on Samoa Island, just outside of Eureka, California.  It was perfect and beachy and post modern and cozy and everything I wanted it to be.  There were raccoons and opossums (just a dead one in the road, but it counts) and fishing cranes, pelicans flying in formation and so many mosquito's.  We had our own private beach.  The boys could be loud.  Everyone had their own bedroom and we fixed our own breakfast each morning.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

We had to get there first.

Getting there is always half the battle.





After hours of delays in Utah (crew, plane, mechanical problems) we finally were in the air and landed in San Jose, California.  The next morning we were up bright and early, the boys being on Utah time, and got ourselves ready for a long day filled with adventure.  Things did get off to a bit of a rough start, for me anyway.  In an attempt to save space, an spare ourselves lugging around too many suitcases, I had the brilliant idea to consolidate, and just throw all my stuff into the spare corners of every other bag we took.  Bad idea!  Not only could I not find anything, I forgot quite a few things, like deodorant, and hair brushes, and my blood sugar test strips.  We were going to spend a good part of the day in San Francisco along the pier,before starting our five hour drive up the coast to Eureka so we thought, "Hey, lets just stop at a Walgreen's and Annie can get her stuff".  Well, we did stop at a Walgreen's and lets just say Annie got her cultural and ethnic experience of the trip.  Let's also say it wasn't the safest area or drug store because 1) everything was locked up behind glass, including the deodorant and 2) the kid in line in front of me at the pharmacy was only there to buy needles.  It was an experience!

The boys loved what they saw of San Francisco  There is so much to do in the city, we kept it really simple.  A drive down Lombard Street, a harbor cruise through the bay and under the Golden Gate Bridge, some sourdough bread, sea lions, and a delicious lunch at a Diners Drive-In's and Dives recommended Deli (New York Style mind you)right in the heart of the city.





Elliott was fascinated with the bridges and Alcatraz.  It's so fun that he is old enough to listen to stories about history, the narrator on the harbor cruise, and ask questions.  We had some great talks walking around.  Wyatt just loved getting out of the car, being outside and riding on a big boat.  He, for the most part is an easy going kid.  Quinn, from the moment he saw the bay, wanted to see sea lions, and was not satisfied until we found them.  And when we did, at the end of Pier 39, he laughed and giggled and pointed.  It was a spectacle that I don't think his little brain was prepared for.









As soon as we got plenty to eat, it was time to hit the road.  As we planned and prepared for our trip, Google insisted that the drive to Eureka would take us at least 5 hours.  I insisted that Google was wrong and that there was no way, driving on interstate, traveling just over 200 miles, we would be on the road for such a long time.  Well, google was right.  We encountered a lot of traffic traveling outside of San Francisco, until we hit a town called Willits and once the traffic broke, we pretty much hit the mountains and it was some of the windiest roads ever.  If you ever plan on taking the same trip, you really drive about 55 the whole way up.  It's pretty crazy to drive so slow in a world that usually travels so fast.  But, the drive was beautiful.



Once we got out of San Francisco, we entered Sonora county and wine country. The hillsides were covered with vineyards and the skies were full of hawks.  I've never seen so many hawks, flying so low, in all my life.  I really think we saw hundreds of hawks.  Then, as we got more into the mountains, the hawks gave way to turkey vultures and dirty hippie hitch hikers.  I also didn't realize that hitch hiking was a thing anymore, but apparently, in Northern California if you are either in your mid twenties, or late fifties, haven't bathed for a while and have an equally dirty dog, it is perfectly acceptable for you to stick out your thumb and look for a ride.  Only once in all of our driving did we see any hitchers get picked up, but we sure did see a lot trying for a ride.







We arrived in Eureka around 8:45, found a 24 hour grocery store for a bathroom and some supplies and headed out to our beach house.  Quinn and Wyatt fell asleep on the 10 minute drive from store to house which actually made unpacking and setting up shop quick and quiet.  Elliott was a great help with suit cases and groceries and when it was time for him, and Ross and me to hit the sack, all three of us were out like lights.  The only things left up in the night were the critters, primarily the raccoons.  One of which, Ross made the acquaintance with when he went back outside in his skivvies to grab the stroller, which we'd left outside and forgotten was full of sourdough bread in the bottom basket.