Before and After

 These two pictures sum up most of our August and September! There was water damage on our chimney(which isn't in these pics) so we needed to rebuild it. It didn't match the rest of the house so we just had to paint! The orange hue was quite vibrant, but I really like the new color. Does it look grey or brown to you? Stephen really didn't want grey and I really didn't want brown. When we picked this color--Deer Run they call it--it didn't really seem like grey or brown to either of us. Now Stephen says it's grey and I say it's brown so we both got just what we didn't want. But we like it!

Spring Break 2012

April 1-7 we took a trip with Cutie, DaVinci, and Superstar down to Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. We kept it a secret where we were going since we had had complaints when trying to plan trips before. When it became clear to the kids where we were headed the boys all burst into song: "Zi-on's National Park (park park), Zion's National Paaark. Zi-on's National, Zi-on's National, Zi-on's National Park (park park)". You probably had to be there to appreciate that spontaneous song fully, but they kept singing it the whole time we were there. It was great. 

By far the highlight of our trip was the hike to Angel's Landing. It was, "the best hike I've ever been on!" according to DaVinci. It was truly amazing. More on that later ;)

All of us at almost the top of Angel's Landing.

On the way down from Angel's Landing we thought this shadow was pretty cool. Who knew there was a skull on the  side of the mountain?

 We should have gone to the Grand Canyon first because it was truly amazing and astounding and unreal. When we first got there it looked kind of misty and huge and unbelievable. My mind almost couldn't process that it was real. I kept thinking that this must just be a painting or something. I'm so glad we went there because we had never been. We hiked down a short distance on a couple of trails--about 1 1/2 miles on the Bright Angel trail, and about half a mile on the South Kaibab trail. The Grand Canyon was amazing but the hiking we did was almost a disappointment after the hike to Angel's Landing at Zion.

Stephen and Superstar at Ooh Aah Point on the South Kaibab trail at the Grand Canyon.

Inside the watchtower at the Grand Canyon.  We almost didn't stop there because we were anxious to get on our way home, but it was really  amazing so we were glad we decided to make one more stop.

Stephen & I at the Grand Canyon

These pictures should be at the beginning, but I couldn't get them to switch order. Anyway, we spent the first day in Salt Lake at my mom's house for General Conference. Uncle Bill Dunn had come from San Diego to visit. The whole family got together for dinner. I love my family! It was so fun to have everyone together! None of the kids had ever met Uncle Bill and we very rarely get to see him so Juice and Sonny Pie drove down to meet him. They had to be at school at USU so they didn't get to come on the trip with us :(

All of the Dunn grandkids--at least for a while!

All of the Dunn clan-plus two of Alisa's friends from Nigeria. They came all that way to go to General Conference!

Moments

I was sitting in sacrament meeting this morning in our usual second-row-on-the-right-side seat in the chapel. There was a wonderful Samoan family sitting on the front row. About halfway through the meeting their children were getting a little restless(well, maybe more than a little), so the father lined up three darling little Samoan boys on the floor at the base of the podium with their arms all folded. I watched him as he patiently encouraged them to stay in one place and sit reverently for the rest of the meeting.

This whole parenting thing seems to be a theme among people I know right now. Just a little bit ago my sister-in-law posted on facebook, "Why does raising children have to be so incredibly hard?"

I'm not usually one to think about how hard something is when I'm in the middle of it, but raising children really is hard when I stop to think about it. I've found some strength in a couple of articles recently. You can read them here and here. As I contemplate the issues of parenting that I have dealt with over the last 21 years and will continue to deal with indefinitely, I think my friend Rosie expressed how these things seem to work. "This too shall pass". Rosie said her eighteen-year-old son reminds her of this all the time(even as he is being one of the challenges for her.)

Tonight as we were washing dishes Juice asked me if when she was younger we had to re-wash the dishes as much as we do now. I don't think we did because we didn't have so many kids to try to help and watch over at the same time like we do now. Each stage of life and parenting has definitely had its challenges and as each one passes something new comes up, but with the challenges come those wonderful time-stopping moments to treasure.

Like, playing mother-may-I during family night and having everyone ask, "Mother, may I have a hug?", just so they could win of course, but then everyone wanted a hug. I like that game!

Like when a five- or six-year-old Superstar said to me, "Mom, you're a spring chicken! That means you're young and beautiful, or at least you SEEM like you're young and beautiful!"

Like a wonderful letter from Sonny Pie for Christmas. I think he thought it was not a great gift, but he had procrastinated and had to settle for that, but to me it is precious.

Like Superstar giving me a meaningful thumbs-up after I played a piano solo in sacrament meeting.

Like Juice realizing that we are here to help her and she doesn't have to do EVERYTHING for herself.

Like Cutie telling me tonight that he wants to go to Europe on his mission, like England or Spain, "or I want to go to Hannukah too!"

All of these things come for a brief moment and then they are gone and time starts back up to normal and we plug along through the hard times. I hold on to those moments. They make it all worth it!