Bring it in

Once recovered from our day of thanksgiving, we got down to Christmas decorating business.

First things first, we pulled out the Nativity. It's always the first thing up because it's so incredibly lovely and has a perfect spot and the kids love unpacking it. 

Plus, you know, it seems fitting.

Caleb's Mom bought me the first set of the Willow Tree Nativity for my birthday on the month after Caleb and I were married. I had only seen it in her home before then, and I was in love with it.

Since then a million other people have also bought this exact same nativity, but can you blame them? It's gorgeous.
She and Caleb bought me new pieces each year on my birthdays, and so it has grown.

 Emmy decided that the mantle needed dusting (which it did) so she busily prepped the area first.
Like the Gingerbread House? They made that at Katie's house last week. It has no less than two layers of frosting and candy covering the entire surface.

I don't know how I'm ever going to stop having babies. I love watching them do things like this for the first time!

 Claire was especially fond of the sheep.

 The arranging took much time and planning.

The decorator in me was letting them have their fun, knowing full well that after they went to bed I would arrange it all precisely the way I wanted it. So it would be all even and balanced and perfect.
Perfect, right?

Long after Jonah had lost interest Emmy was still up there working on it.
Scooting, changing places, and making soft sheep sounds.

I checked on her off and on and was patiently amused by her.

Then she called me in to tell me she had finished. I moseyed in to see her creation.

"Look at the people and the animals, Mom. It's like they just can't get any closer to Him."

And just like that, I stood with tears on my cheeks and her in my arms and knew that I would not rearrange it. Not for all the OCD-ness in the world.

I'm thankful, and that's the truth.

Seriously, Thanksgiving is the best holiday! What's not to love? Food, family, chilly outside so you can snuggle up inside. The focus on the bounty that we have, and the realization that it is a gift to be thankful for. 

You'd think that since the celebration was at my house I'd have a load of photos... but I didn't take any.

Not one. 

*sigh*

Luckily Caleb snapped a few before our guests arrived.

 We had to move furniture out of our living room, but the table fit!

Caleb has been making pies for years, and he has mastered it. This year was his best yet, I must say. That apple pie almost knocked me out of my seat. You'd think that pie is pie, right? Not so! 

So that was it for photos. 

Then Katie blogged hers yesterday, so I stole them!

Begin Katie photos:

 Do you like Emmy's leaf chandelier? I lurve it.
I begged her to make me a snowflake one for Christmas, and she's busily at it right now.

 The place cards turned out pretty cute.
I see these cute things online and decide to make them, but I'm not the type to actually go and buy supplies. So I use whatever I can find around the house and they never quite turn out quite as cute as the photo.
Strange, eh?
It's ok, we deal.

 Do you remember sitting at the kids table? I do! So does Katie.

You can't do this at the adult table.
Well, I suppose you could, but nobody did. Isn't that strange, also?

Why make kids eat food they don't want? We splurged and offered Macaroni and Cheese for dinner. It's all about celebrating what you love, right? This is what they wanted!

So so thankful to Caleb's family for humoring us and for fitting so nicely into our home.

It's amazing how much love a little house can hold.

Oh Emmy

Last night (when the kids were supposed to be falling asleep) Claire was whining and wiggling and singing songs instead of sleeping.
All three of them share a room, so bedtime can be a bit of a party.

I scooped Claire up and was chatting with her, when Emmy leaned over the side of her top bunk, and the following conversation ensued:

(Public Service Announcement: The following story pertains almost entirely to nursing. Read at your own risk.)

Emmy: Mom, just milk her.

Jayne: What?

Emmy: Well, I mean feed her with some milk.

Jayne: You mean nurse her?

Emmy: Yeah. Give her some cow milk from your boo boos.

Jayne: I don't have cow milk, I have human milk.

Emmy: Why do you have human milk?

Jayne: Because I'm a human, not a cow.

Emmy: Oh. I like cow milk. Why is your milk warm?

Jayne: Because I am warm.

Emmy: I like cow milk because it's cold.

Jayne: Cow milk is warm when it comes out of the cow.

Emmy: Really? How does it get cold?

Jayne: They put it in a fridge.

Emmy: Oh. You should put yours in the fridge. Why did you put human milk in our pink eyes?

Jayne: Because it has lots of good stuff in it that kills bad germs and it has vitamins and things like that. It's like medicine for pink eye.

Emmy: Oh. Those workers guy are so smart.

Jayne: What worker guys?

Emmy: The worker guys in your boo boos that make the milk.

Jayne: Oh really?

Emmy: Yeah. I bet they each have a bag of vitamins and they each take a turn putting in a scoop so the milk is just perfect each time.

Jayne: Is that how that works?

Emmy: I'm pretty sure.


Naturally, I had to run out of the bedroom and write it down real fast. That seems to be happening a lot lately. The brain of a nearly-six-year-old is proving to be quite fascinating.

Get it done, Jayne!

Yes, I know I know! It's the day after thanksgiving and you're dying to see how it all went since the big dinner was at my house and how my rolls turned out delicious and how you can't wait to see how cute my table was, and you don't have anything else to do today but read my blog, Yes?!

Can I get a YES?

*crickets*

I have to post this last Zion post. This blog is for posterity, after all.

Then we will move on to those oh-so-important things.  

The last day we were there we were up way before the park opened again (thank you, toddlers) so we had a good breakfast and packed up the hotel room. We checked out, and headed out.

This little guy was working very hard near the visitor's center, storing up his supplies for winter and filling his hole with the loveliest of leaves. 

Once inside, the kids brought their completed Jr. Ranger books to the Park Ranger at the desk and she went over the books with them and asked them lots of good questions and they had a lovely chat. Then she awarded them with their pins, and they swore the Jr. Ranger oath to love the parks.

Then, because Caleb's parents are cute grandparents, they bought all four kids these ranger hats and they LOVED them. It was the cutest. I don't have a photo of all four wearing them! Sadness and tragedy!

By then the shuttle buses were running, so we all climbed on.

Whenever we mention going to Zion, this is the first thing my kids are excited about.
Emmy: "Yay! Zion National Park! And Jonah, we can ride the BUS!"

I can't blame them, the buses are actually really fun.

The windows are huge, and you get really nice views of the canyon as you cruise along.

They go to every single stop that a car can go to, but without kid car seat buckles! What's not to love?

We decided to ride the bus to the very top of the canyon in order to get the full bus-making-happiness.

Plus at the top of the canyon is the oh-so-gorgeous River Walk.

Claire was so happy to be in her spot again.

The colors were stunning.

Agreed?

Most of our time there was spent by the river, throwing rocks.

There's something magical about throwing rocks in a river, why is that? I lived next to a river when I was 6, and I clearly remember throwing rocks into it. My cousin Addison was visiting once, and we could not tear him away from it. I remember my Mom asking if he was still down there, and we'd always answer "yep"

What a trip. For real. It was hard to  get there, since there's always a million reasons not to go. We were worried about the weather, Jonah had a cough, yada yada yada. In the end, it all worked out great and we have no regrets.

Can't wait to go again.

And sometimes, when we're really lucky, we do this

In the afternoon, after our morning hike to Emerald Pools, Caleb's parents offered to watch the kids so that Caleb and I could go for another hike. 

We accepted their offer.

Caleb and I went to Zion on our honeymoon, so exploring the cliffs and canyons is always nostalgic and romantic for us.

 He took me up the Hidden Canyon Trail, which I had never been up before.
It winds up the hillside, then along a narrow ledge across the cliff, then up into Hidden Canyon from there, and a little ways up in the canyon is this arch! It was super cool.

 Naturally, Caleb needed to climb up on the arch,

So he did. 

His dismount here was very graceful, don't you think?

 Did I mention that the ledge part of the hike was very precipitous? Very.

Yes, it really was scary as it looks.

Eight years of exploring later, the park still hasn't lost it's magic for us. We feel a certain giddiness when we get anywhere within 30 miles of it.

Although I also feel a certain giddiness when I'm anywhere within 3,000 miles of this, too.

Since we've never been that far apart from each other, that would explain a lot about my personality, don't you think?

Sometimes we do this

We had a trip to southern california planned for a long time. Visiting my Aunt (Hi Bethanie!) and her great kids, going to Disneyland, playing at the beach, the works! But when the time came to go we had just decided that we were going to save our pennies for something very large and exciting, so we girded up our loins and canceled our trip. 

*sigh of sadness* It was going to cost us nearly $1,000 to go. 

Then we found a great deal on a hotel near Zion National Park, and the projected costs for the entire trip being only $200, we decided to go. Thank you, Groupon. You are my friend.

Aren't you proud of us for being so frugal? :/

We spent less, which is better than more, right?

We did the right thing, right? Girded up our loins and went on vacation anyway. 

(when will we learn?)

We really needed a vacation, ok?

I'll stop justifying now. 

We picked up a cousin on our way out of town and arrived in Springdale, UT around 5pm, just as the sun was setting on the red/gold cliffs. 

 We were beyond thrilled with the hotel. It was way nicer than we had realized, and our room happened to be right next to the kids area.

 We stayed at the Cliffrose Lodge and Gardens, and it was lovely. The botanical gardens were still stunning in late november, so I'm dying to go back in july and see them in full bloom.

I don't think we could justify the cost of staying there at full price, so that might never happen - so I threw in some flowering garden imagination.

 So many terraced lawns, and Emmy found a tree to climb. Kinda.

We drove over to the Park entrance to see if the visitor's center was still open, which it wasn't, so we just played outside at the hotel until dark. Caleb's parents arrived shortly after, which only added to the loveliness.

The next morning dawned crisp and clear, so we headed into the park right after breakfast.

 First stop was the visitor's center, where we got the kid's their Junior Ranger books.

This program is a home schooler's dream - which means it's awesome for anyone. We spent much of our first hike looking for bugs, animal tracks, scat, spider webs, different layers of rock, litter, and turkeys.
Seriously, next time you're in any National Park with kids, check out their junior ranger program. It makes the park come alive.

 I was feeling rather alive myself.

 The first hike we did was Emerald Pools, which is a great one to do with kids because there's a few spots where you can go further or turn onto a different loop, meaning you can choose the length of the hike.

This backpack is Claire's favorite place to be. She doesn't last long once she's in it. 

The signs at all the trailheads give you an estimated amount of time that the hike should take you to complete. I like to chuckle at the sign, and figure on our hike taking at least twice as long. There's so many things to see! And that's why we hike, right? 

 The colors were otherworldly. It's snowing here at home, so to spend a few days down south where's it's still Autumn was so nice.

Did you know that it's kind of awkward for me to have to blog photos of myself? It's true. And when we do stuff like this, Caleb usually has the camera. So who ends up in the photos? Yours truly. It can't be helped, he likes me.

 Jonah was loving having another little man along.

 Emmy was loving having things to climb.

 Claire was loving Papa.

 She was also very intent on helping Emmy achieve Junior Ranger status.

 Oh my goodness; the lighting, the colors, the temperature, the company - it was great. Just great.

 At the bottom of these rock steps a natural visitor was waiting for us.

Us: Hello, Mr. Buck! Please may we pass?
Him: No. I was here first and you're kinda freaking me out.
Us: You're kinda freaking us out too, even though you are really beautiful.
Him: How about I make this strange growling noise at you instead of moving off the trail.
Us: How about we find a nice overhanging rock to hide the kids under in case you decide to charge us.
Him: How about I eventually decide to head off into the trees.
Us: Thank you! Have a nice day! Great place you've got here!

We lived.

We also eventually made it back to the trailhead. Not exactly the trailhead we started from though... Not to worry! Caleb trotted back to the van and came and got us. Those kids were super trooper hikers - we did three miles of up and downs, and they only whined a little bit hardly struggled at all.

And that was just the first morning!