Grandma Montague

Joe's grandma died recently. It was a sad even for her family. She had been ill for a while though and suffering from so many of the problems of old age and so, in some ways it was a blessing. I'm sure that she is much happier now with her mind and body once again in tact. Joe's mom told me that the Grandma's bishop had spoken about her at church though and had said how he wished that the ward members all could have known her, not as she had been for the past couple of years, but how she had been as a younger woman, serving in many calling, helping her neighbors, being active in her community. It made me think a little about how many people I know who are "old" and how I sometimes shy away from getting to know them because getting old makes me uncomfortable. I thought about my own great grandma who lived until I was in high school. From the time I was born, she was an old woman. I have a vague memory of visiting her at her house in Logan when I was very young but shortly after that, she had move in with one of her daughters because she was too old to care for herself. I remember being sort of embarassed by her the time she and my grandma came to visit our family in Wisconsin and some of my friends were over for my birthday (in my defense, or maybe to my condemnation, I was embarassed by most adults at that time. I was one of those kids who, by elementary school, was embarassed to have parents, grandparents, etc. It was mortifying to me if my mom came to see me at school or something). Anyway, I feel badly thinking of it now. Even though she was alive, I never really got the chance to know her for who she had been before she was old and fragile. Once, when I was in high school, my great grandma came to stay at our house for a couple of days. I am grateful that I took some time while she was there (sitting in our living room, eating Fiddle Faddle and crocheting) to talk to her about her life. I also read to her because she enjoyed having people read her books or magazine articles. I didn't spend as much with her as I should have, but at least, I went away knowing a little more about her.

I feel similarly about Joe's grandma. When Joe and I first dated, he lived with his grandparents and I would go visit him at their house. Grandma would watch cooking shows and ask me what I thought of them or show me videos and pictures of Joe and his siblings as kids. She was a kind lady who always made me feel welcome in their home. It wasn't long after Joe and I were married though that Grandma's health and mental condition started going downhill. I know that my kids, if they remember her at all, will only remember her the way she was before she died, not as the woman she was for almost 80 years before that. I hope their dad will share stories with them of his grandma so they will know who she really was.

On the up side, having a funeral is a good occasion to see family. Joe's parents and all of his sibling were in town. The boys had such a good time playing with their uncles, Joe's uncles, and their cousin. I didn't take pictures like I should have (in part because my camera battery has been acting up and in part because I saw so many others with cameras that I figure there will be pictures of the events. This is a broad hint to any who took pictures and read this blog, send me pictures). I did take some pictures of Porter, Dallin, and McKayla at the park though.

Ashley's graduation

This happened a couple of weeks ago but I just got around to taking the pictures off my camera. We are so proud of Ashley for finishing up with her MBA, despite being really very sick from pregnancy. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I have of the event. It is the only one where we are all sort of looking at the camera and no one is cut out. I'm not sure if I should blame the photographer (Joe) or us for being unable to stand still for 15 seconds to get a picture taken. We are standing on a slope, that is why I look so short (I look so fat because I am. That has nothing to do with the hill)

Day out with Thomas

Last thursday, Porter, Dallin, and I spent a Day Out With Thomas (the train). We had a very good time. At the end of the day, Dallin didn't want to leave but I told him we needed to go before the traffic got too bad. A couple of minutes later, Dallin was whining again about leaving. Porter said, "we have had a very good day with Thomas but we need to leave now so we don't get stuck in traffic." Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Thomas the engine. My camera battery died early. I think I put one picture on my facebook page though that I took with my phone. here we are on the train. Porter was willing to ride in an open car this time (last year he insisted that we ride in one of the two closed front cars because they were Annie and Claribel, Thomas' faithful coaches. It was miserably hot inside the cars.)

with the conductor

these are the balloon animals they make for the kids. Dallin's is a bear. Porter's is a snake.

Porter and Dallin got to help the magician with one of his tricks. They both were pretty nervous up there.

We got to stand by pictures of our favorite engines

there was also miniature golf to play while we waited to ride the train

and no outing would be complete without temporary tattoos

Thomas

We used to be big Thomas the Train fans around here. Porter especially was a Thomas expert. I think he had 90% of the trains made. He knew all of their names, what their jobs were, stories about each of them, etc. He never went anywhere without taking at least a few of the trains with him. Dallin liked them too, but was never as big a fan as Porter. Porter probably hasn't played with any of the trains in about a year though. I finally packed up the trains several months ago. When I did, Porter was worried I was going to give them away. Even though he doesn't play with them anymore, he still loves them and doesn't want anyone else to have them. Now they all reside in boxes in his closet. Anyway, even though neither of the boys really plays with trains anymore, they both wanted to go to Day Out With Thomas this year. We are going to go on Thursday. In preparation, Dallin wanted to watch an episode of Thomas tonight. Porter acted annoyed about the whole thing, saying how dumb Thomas is and how much he didn't want to watch it. About 5 minutes in though, Porter had put aside his coloring project and was sitting on the couch, enjoying Thomas. He played the little guessing games that are in each episode and sang along with the song at the end. He even asked me to start it over so he could watch the beginning part he had missed.

Dallin has a new favorite book. It is called "I'm a Big Brother." I got it for Porter before Dallin was born to prepare him. Dallin found it in Porter's bookshelf and wants to read it every night. He wishes Porter could be a baby so that he could be a big brother (Porter would probably be happy to oblige. I think a part of him doesn't like being the older brother. He would kind of prefer to be the baby sometimes). Dallin loves to comment during the book about how babies poop in their diapers and eat mush. I told him that babies mostly just drink milk and he added, "and they eat mush" very matter-of-factly. He considers himself an expert on babies.

Speaking of being an expert, Dallin gave a talk in primary a little while ago and now believes that he should speak every week. Porter gave the prayer on Sunday and Dallin kept asking me when it would be his turn.

book reading

Tonight Porter had out a book with animal pictures in it so that he could try to copy the pictures. Dallin started looking at the book and Porter wanted it back. Dallin said no, he was reading it. Porter pointed out that Dallin couldn't read. Dallin disagreed. He opened the book and just said the name of each animal three times when he was looking at the page ("lion, lion, lion, eagle, eagle, eagle. . .)

Yesterday, Porter and Dallin fell asleep watching a movie for resting time (which we have in the afternoon's in lieu of naps). Porter sort of rolled off the couch and went back to sleep standing up, keeled over, with his face down in the cushions. He seemed to think he was in the bathroom because he pulled down his pants half way and started peeing. We tried waking him up, but he wouldn't wake up until Joe nudged him over with his foot. Porter tried denying that it had ever happened and refused to change his pants. After he finally changed and Dallin woke up, Joe took both of the boys on a bike ride while I made dinner. Porter fell off his bike and scraped his knee pretty badly. We had to use the big bandages after cleaning it. Not to be outdone, Dallin found a scrape on his toe and needed a bandaid.

driving

Joe often comes with us to gymnastics and then we head to watch him play indoor soccer afterward (unless the game is too late at night, the games can sometimes start as late as 10:30). We pick him up at work and then we have to get Brucie afterward. Last week, Porter and Dallin both wanted to ride in Brucie and were fighting about who would have to stay with me in Girl Car. Finally, Joe volunteered to go with me. Porter wasn't sure what to do about that, but Dallin was sure that it meant he would get to drive Brucie home. Porter tried to explain to him that he couldn't drive, but Dallin was undeterred. He even acted out how he would drive, turning his hands like he was steering a wheel, jamming down his feet like he was using petals, and making driving noises. Porter told him that they were little boys and couldn't drive, they couldn't even see over the steering wheel. Dallin asserted that he was big. The fight continued. It was funny to hear Porter yell that they were just little boys, while Dallin yelled back that they were big. Eventually, Joe agreed to drive them and everything was resolved.

Part III

I tried to write about the trip in the first blog post, but it wasn't meant to be. I am going to try to write in this one instead. Hopefully, it will work out better this time. Anyway, as it is apparent, we went to Wisconsin for about a week in April to visit Grammy, Grampy, Aunt April, Cousin Michayla, and Uncle Scott. Joe's brother Jacob came with us. We drove there.

We left on a Thursday and drove all Thursday and Friday. Thank goodness for the drop-down DVD player in the car or the trip would have been much worse. As it was, the boys did pretty well, except for occasional fights about toys and boredem related whining. Dallin had a hard time the second day and grumped a lot, mostly when we stopped to eat. Dallin also had to go to the bathroom a lot. It meant stopping almost hourly for potty breaks, sometimes just on the side of the road when there wasn't another town or gas station for miles. At least we didn't have any accidents in the car. On Thursday night, we stayed in Rapid City South Dakota at a hotel with a water park. It was really fun for the boys (even though a lot of water park activities are wasted on them because they can swim and are afraid of waterslides) and it was a good incentive to behave in the car so we could hurry and get there.

On Sunday, we went to church with Grammy and Grampy. It was kind of strange. I grew up in that ward/branch myself, but I really didn't recognize many people there anymore. Dallin and Porter did well in Primary. Porter was braver than I thought he would be and went to his class without any fuss. Dallin had to sit with Aunt April for a while to warm up to the new primary, but was eventually okay and even gave the prayer in his class. After church, we went back to Grammy and Grampy's to play in the yard and eat. The boys had a good time playing with Michayla and the grownups. (The first pictures of the kids playing in the yard are of Sunday). We also went to the park near Grammy and Grampy's. Two the three kids fell off of the merry-go-round but it was still a good time. The boys (including the grown up boys) played soccer while Michayla cheered on the sidelines.

On Monday, we went bowling (pictures are in Part I). Porter and Dallin have been wanting to go real bowling for a while now and were excited. The bowling itself went pretty well. Joe and Dallin won. Afterward though, Dallin got upset and threw a massive tantrum that lasted from the bowling alley parking lot, to Perkins, through most of lunch. He and I spent at least half of lunch time in the bathroom while he screamed and cried for reasons that I don't think he even understood. He is lucky he finally settled down because I nearly gave him to an old woman in the restroom who thought he was cute in his all his wailing glory. When we got home, he took a nice nap while Joe and Jacob took Porter back to the bowling alley.

On Tuesday, we went to the zoo. The pictures are below in Part II. Porter's favorite things were (1) all the meat-eaters, (2) the fighting raccoons, and (3) feeding the giraffes. Dallin's favorite things were the eagle and the train. That night, we went over the April and Scott's to see their new house and play at the nearby park.

On Wednesday, the kids "helped" with yardwork and then colored pictures on the sidewalk with chalk. We went to look at my old houses and then to A&W for lunch. After lunch, we went to visit a woman from the ward who is in the nursing home. I remember her from when we lived there. Her daughter and I were friends. Then we went home for naps until it was time for the Young Women's spagetti dinner.

Thursday was our last day. We drove to Minnesota to go the Mall of America. Porter was very excited to go to the Lego Land. He could have spent hours there looking at all the Legos. He got two sets and was anxious to get started on building them.

Dallin was less excited about Lego Land. He liked it but he had in his mind that he could buy a set of Legos with Robin (from Batman) in them and such things don't seem to exist

We were in Minnesota for Jacob to go through the temple in St. Paul. He and Joe and Grammy and Grampy went to the temple, while April and I stayed with the kids at the Mall to ride the rides. (We also went to the Disney Store to get Dallin some Buzz Lightyear items, since he was disappointed with the Legos). I got sick on one of the rides, but otherwise, it was a good time. April and I were pretty worn out and grumpy from wrangling the three kids by the end though. I may or may not have accidentally run over our jug of juice in the parking lot. It exploded loudly and we thought we had hit something. I'm glad April was there and we could laugh about it though.

On Friday, we began our drive back home, after saying our goodbyes to everyone.

We drove back to Rapid City and went to another hotel with a waterpark (hooray for Rapid City and swimming). We went to Mount Rushmore the next day. This is a picture of some mountain goats we saw while walking around.

Porter was fascinated by everything there. Dallin was mostly grumpy because his rain boots were hard to walk in and we wanted to be carried.

we tried to take a family picture but Dallin was too upset

We went on the little hike around the mountain. Porter found a cave.

Dallin decided to rest

That night, we drove to Casper Wyoming and stayed there that night. It was a pretty crappy hotel frankly, but it was mostly funny. My favorite part was the maid who brought us bedsheets and then had me help her make the bed. She jokingly critized my bed-making the whole time. She was happier with Jacob, who knew how to make a bed with military precision. We finally got home on Sunday evening. Dallin was sad again. It took us two days to get all the laundry caught up. Porter wishes we lived in Wisconsin (I think Joe wishes it sometimes too), but he would miss Grandma too much if we did. It was a good trip. It has made Joe slightly arrogant, thinking we can go on long road trips all the time now. The next place we will probably go though is to where ever Erin and Isaac are when their baby is born and blessed.