Saturday Mood

Why, I wondered, did I wake in such a lovely mood on Saturday? After a little musing on the subject, it burst upon me that the stellar mood was most definitely related to a yellow, round object in the sky, one I hadn't seen for a very long time. A sunny Saturday! I worked and the kids and Freeman went to a Saturday morning brunch at Uncle Paul and Aunt Vicki’s house. Paul’s kids were there, Mom and Dad and Bryce and Teresa, and Tyler got to drive a mini-jeep! Does it get any better than that??



In the afternoon we packed up the kids and headed to the waterfront in Portland. We took the Max into the city. The Rose Festival is in full bloom, and the waterfront was lined with big Navy boats that Tyler would have loved to see! Unfortunately, we got there too late to tour them, but we wandered into a carnival and decided to let the kids enjoy one ride. Anslie buried her little head in my lap the entire ride, but Tyler was eating it up. Next, we meandered down to the Starlight parade, and on our way passed a Fire Station, with a fireman who invited us in! He let Tyler get up into the firetruck and gave them each a fireman sticker. Exciting stuff. We only stayed for the first 15 minutes of the parade, but the kids loved it. We were grateful for our double Bob stroller as we whisked them back to the max, munching on fruit snacks, trying to distract them from the fun we’d just left.

Happy Day

They look pretty happy about some little secret, don't they? We are too! December 31, 2010.

May 15 - 22, 20102

We've still been sick this week. We push through in the morning, then crash in the afternoon. Hopefully we'll round a corner soon.

We had a fun day on Tuesday. We went to Ladybug theater, a stage play for preschool children. The play was Mother Goose nursery rhymes, and the actors let the children take part and be involved in the play. The kids loved it. Afterward we stopped by a café nearby and got a small treat, and shopped a second hand store and bought Anslie a little summer shirt, she has none.


On Sunday we enjoyed having dinner at Crismon and Vivienne Lewis’ home to celebrate the return of their son, Crismon Jr. from a mission in Australia. We also enjoyed hearing him speak in his ward that morning. He has a bright countenance and a wonderful goodness about him. Dinner was prepared by Vivienne (daughter), and was delicious! Fun to hear about the diversity of Australia. We wish Crismon all the best as he heads back to BYU this summer. After dinner, Mom Linton sent me to bed and watched all the kids, while I napped for an hour. Bless her.

I am so in love with my little people. Anslie is such sunshine, full of smiles, beautiful spontaneous laughter, so easily entreated, so quick to enthusiasm and excitement. Tyler is so anxious to soak up knowledge, to create, to be truly helpful. I find it so ironic that the adversary makes having children look so dowdy and dull, so limiting and restrictive, when really, as an adult, I can’t think of any other way to feel pure excitement, thrill, joy, and fun as you feel when you love a child and experience life again through them.

May 2010, part 1.

May has brought refreshing and welcomed sunshine. And lots of viral illness. Oh, it has felt sooooo good to open my windows and feel the light hit my face through them! We’ve made several trips to the park. We’ve also been sick on and off for two weeks. Fevers, upset tummies, upper respiratory congestion and crankiness abound. Me included. I think we’re finally at the tail end of it.

Last Saturday when Freeman returned from school we hopped in the car and headed for Mount Hood. I’d borrowed snow gear and sleds and there was still plenty of snow! The outing was a pretty classic family event with small children: lots of preparation, a long drive to get there, then once we were there they only lasted 4 trips down the *hill* (or 15 deg decline haha) before they were finished. We made a snowman and snow angels. But worth it. It was tons of fun. Anslie was hilarious. That girly girl was terrified to ride on the sled on even ground, but she slowly warmed up to it. Freeman is the sweetest dad, the sweetest. He is so good at playing with them, delighting them, and being tender with them.



The highlight of last week was a trip to the Rhododendron gardens with Teresa and kids. The flowers were in bloom and beautiful, and the garden is charming with waterfalls, ponds, twisty trails and ducks. Teresa and I had some good talking about our move to Texas and other various topics, between chasing children.



Friday night we took the kids on a walk around Gresham station. We stopped and watched the Max light rail and took our time coming home. IT was sunny, 75 degrees, BEAUTIFUL. Oh, summertime, how I have longed for you! Happy day!

April 2010, Utah.

The third week in April the kids and I flew to Utah for 6 days. My little sister is finally home from her mission in Australia, hurray! Dad was kind enough to donate some of his Southwest miles to get us to Utah. The kids were TROOPERS on the plane, stayed in their seats and happily drew pictures and read books, they are such good kids. It was so wonderful to see my seeeester! Hooray! Thanks, Meef, for being our chauffeur while we were there. We headed down to Dad’s once we arrived. On the way, we stopped to see our new cousin, Zachary Hatch. What an adorable little man! It was so fun to see Tanya and hold the first nephew I’ve got on my side of the family. I’ll embarrassedly admit that holding him made me cry. Babies are so special, especially ones that have your DNA and a familiar spirit. Joy! Fun to spend an hour with Tanya and Zach, and Steven returned home from work just before we left.



Denise, the kids and I enjoyed lazy mornings, working out together, going out to see the horses and animals…..and snow! On days 3 and 4 of our visit the snow started and we even had an inch that stuck! Steven and Tanya were sweet to come out Friday night, make us dinner, and hang out that evening together with ADORABLE Zach-attack baby love. He is the cutest! The kids LOVED going out to the barn and helping Grandpa feed the animals. That is, until Tyler got attacked by a chicken. We’re not sure why, but a chicken freaked out and started flapping its wings and screaming and Tyler. The poor little man was terrified, backed up against a wire coop. He was rescued, but the barn just didn’t have the same appeal after that.



We enjoyed our last night at Mom’s house. She made a tent with blankets under her kitchen table and the kids laughed and read, and I’m not all sure what, but they were definitely having a good time under there! I had a hard time pulling them away and finally got them in bed at 10 pm! Whew!

Here we are, again. April 2010.

Well, the blogging lasted all of two posts last year. I'm writing weekly journals, so no reason to not post some things weekly too.

Here's the lowdown on our April trip to Hawaii!



Alooooha! Freeman and I just spent 7 lovely days in Kauai. It was an adventure packed week! We stayed at the lovely Kauai Marriott resort, right on Kalapaki bay. The ambiance and pool can’t be beat, and it was soooo nice to have our favorite restaurant in the whole world (Duke’s), a beautiful beach, and our room, all on the same grounds! We could have never left the property and been perfectly content.


But leave we did. Sunday we enjoyed going to the Lihu’e ward church services, then spent the rest of the day driving to see the beautiful sights of Kauai and relaxing in our room.

On Monday morning we joined the local chapter of the Sierra club for a hike to 2 waterfalls. We enjoyed their friendly company and good advice about what not to miss in Kauai. We enjoyed getting to know a surfer from California, a Christian, who told us his conversion story and gave us some great Kauai tips.

The following day we rented a two man Kayak and paddled two rivers, Kahiliwai and Wailua. The first is more secluded, we didn’t see a soul the entire paddle! And halfway up we encountered dead boar in the middle of the river! Yikes. Needless to say, we were a little skiddish about getting out and hiking, considering the evidence of wild boars in the very near vicinity. The Wailua was a much larger river, we paddled it after the crowd had come and gone in the morning, and it, too, was tranquil. At the end of the paddle we hiked a mile into secret falls, where Freeman was one of two tourists out of 30 there to dare to jump into that cold water. Brrr! I got in long enough for a picture. We paddled back, priding ourselves on our speed as we went, agreeing to ourselves that being young is wonderful.

All that pride came crashing down the next day when we hiked the Na Pali coast. If you’ve never seen a photo of the Na Pali coast, stop reading NOW and google it. Arguably one of the most beautiful natural scenes on the Earth. There is an 11 mile hike along the coast that ends at a semi-secluded beach. We opted to not go the entire 11 miles, but rather only 4 to a huge waterfall along the way. We were glad we did the shorter trip as the trail was muddy and technically very difficult. In certain stretches it was like hiking over a pile of rocks, smothered in peanut butter. In Tevas. We were filthy by the end! And sore. We looked like 80-year-olds hobbling back to our car. I’ve never had so much pain in my calves in my life, and both of our knees were giving out on us! Wow. Immediate repentence for the pride of the prior day. Interestingly, we chatted with a couple at the parking lot who had gone the whole way, camped, and hiked back out. They had been disappointed to find a colony of hippy-ish folks inhabiting the “secluded” beach at the end. They saw a couple dozen of them, and were told they lived on the wild goats and flora and fauna of the area. The lack of showers and facilities on the beach was evident! We were glad we hadn’t gone the whole way.



At that point our adventurous spirits began to wane. The resort looked like paradise upon our return (though TRULY, Na Pali coast is a magical paradise! A hippie-inhabited paradise!) The following couple days we slept in, read on the beach, went exploring in some of the nearby towns. We did make the drive out to Polihale, a 17 mile stretch of beach on the south side of the Na Pali coast that requires some dirt road navigation. Unfortunately, it was cold when we visited this beach, but it was spectacular. 17 miles of white sand, turquoise waters, a sunset, and we only saw 2 other couples on the ENTIRE stretch. Unbelievable. We walked bare footed in the sand and gathered shells. The calves didn’t like that either, but well worth the effort.

Duke’s (the restaurant on Marriott’s grounds) deserves it own paragraph. Imagine the softest, flakiest, most moist and delicate white fish you’ve ever had, rolled in butter and macadamia nuts, sautéed, and served with a lemon beurre blanc and a perfect salad bar. HEAVEN. I do love good fish. And hula pie for dessert. Ahhhh.

Feb Mar April 09

Dear Friends and Family,

The most notable event of our 2009 February was having cousins Emma and Carly over for a few days while their Mom and Dad, Freeman’s brother Bryce and wife Teresa visited Freeman’s parents in exotic India! The lack of photos to document the event attests to the busy times that ensued J. An excerpt from my journal with some great Emma quotes: “I was telling a story about a talking raisin. Yes, I know, that’s where my first error was, but Emma is used to intellectual stimulation, and I was all out of stories. Anyhow, I finished what I thought was a pretty cute and clever little story…….the ending found the raisin in Emma’s raisin bran one morning. She wrinkled her nose and said decidedly, “I care about sleeping. And the rain. I don’t care about talking raisins.” Guess I can’t really blame her…..We started Aladdin just now. Emma curled up on a chair, snuggled into her blanket, and looked at me with a demure smile. “Michelle I love you. My tummy is cold. Could you get me some warm chocolate chips?” Can’t have my girl having a cold tummy!! Chocolate cures anything, smart girl.”

On February 21st our ward joined the rest of the stake in putting on an evening of roadshow performances, and Activities Committee was in charge of making it happen. It was a “24 hour Roadshow”, meaning no rehersals, learning music, or building sets before 7 pm the night before the performance. Our show was based on the movie “The Music Man.” Lots of hours were spent writing an original script and writing music and words (with lots of helpers), finding costumes, planning sets. It was a lot of work, I was grateful the Bishopric called someone else to co-chair the activity with me, yea Sharon! I was amazed by several people who put in countless hours to help, even though they had no calling related to the production. Bless them! February 21st all the wards presented their production at the stake center. It was a lot of fun, it’s great to see a production take a life of its own as people put their talents into it. Good times. We won the award for most comical.

In March I took a last minute trip to Utah for a few days with some free air miles. My good friend Laura Buchanan and husband hosted me while I was there and it was so fun to see her beautiful new little 5 month old angel, Natalie. I enjoyed a trip to the temple with my Dad and visiting my brother Stephen and his wife, Tanya. Anslie came with me and jumped into my Dad’s arms the first time she saw him. After being with him for several hours she started calling him "dada."

In early April my mom came to visit her grandchildren….oh and Freeman and I, too! She is so good at making children feel loved and adored. Tyler was wrapped around her little finger from the first minute. She came in from the airport and Tyler immediately gave her a tour of his toy collection…that lasted an hour! She listened with the upmost attention, and he would have continued his lecture had we not stopped him for dinner.

Happy Birthday, B&T!

Hurray for Conference! We had cinnamon rolls, out of the oven just as the choir started to sing. Little Tyler was excited to see the “gramphet” – what he calls the prophet, a combination of Grandpa and Prophet. Later, we taught him that the prophet’s name is “President Monson.” He thanked Heavenly Father in his prayer at dinner for the “Gramphet, President Monster.” Bryce, Teresa, Emma and Carly joined us for the Saturday second session and dinner afterwards. B&T both had birthdays that week, so we had a mini party for them. We loved enjoyed Conference with family!

The next Sunday was Easter. We woke and had strawberry crepes. At sacrament meeting I sang “Come Follow Me” with Allysa Phair. Uncle Crismon gave a beautiful talk about our separation from God, and how the atonement repairs that separation. After church we had the Uncle Crismon and Aunt Vivienne with Julia and Emily, Vivienne and Brett and their two children, and Bryce and Teresa and family for dinner. What outstanding people we are related to. What a blessing to fill our home with such people on Easter.

On April 15^th we attended a Tax Day Tea Party, rallies organized for people who wanted to show their disdain for the spending the government has been passing. Freeman printed signs for us, including signs for Ty and Anslie that said “Get your hands out of my Piggy bank.” And “I didn’t read the bill either.” There were 1000ish people at Pioneer Square, with several speakers. Bryce and Teresa met us there. Tyler and Emma sat on their father’s shoulders, held hands and cheered with the crowds, exhiliarated and passionate about….whatever those people are passionate about J It felt good to get up and be active politically, even in a small way.

In April, we made the trip to the Woodburn Tulip farm with Teresa and kids. 40 acres of tulips, it was spectacular! Tyler was enamored by the old farming equipment and tractors that were on display for the kids to play on …. and he thought the flowers were OK, too J It was a hot day, Teresa and I laughed that we were dressed like true Oregonians, expecting rain even though the forecast said otherwise. We spent several hours there, admiring flowers, climbing on tractors, riding on the old make shift trolley, fashioned from old metal barrels. I kept the strollers and baby while the others rode, and I had to laugh as they jostled by….. let’s just say it didn’t look like a smooth ride :)

At the end of April we enjoyed having Freeman’s friend, Frank Lindthorst, and family stay for five days. Frank and wife Cara were so great to let Tyler tag alone all over the house, and even play their Wii! They have two boys, a 3-year-old and 1-year-old, and Tyler had decided by the end of the week that this was his new adoptive family. The house was terribly quiet when they left, and Tyler asked the next morning where all his friends had gone.

Freeman continues to run at full speed, juggling full-time work and full-time school. He finishes his semester in the middle of June and then has a few months off for summer time! Hurray! He’ll have one more year of school before he finishes his MBA. He spoke in church 2 weeks ago about missionary work, giving a beautiful tribute to Mom and Dad Linton.