Dear Vivvie #7

Dear Vivvie,

You are seven-months-old now! I can not even begin to tell you how fast those seven months have flown by. It seems like you should still only be three-months-old. At the end of each month, when it's time to write you another letter, I think to myself, "Already? Didn't I just write her a letter? There's no way it's been another month already!" But, it has been another month & I feel like it went by in a flash. Where's the pause button to life when you need it?


This has been a really fun month! You started scooting just in the past few weeks. It's amazing how fast you can go already. I'll put you on one side of the room while I'm working on something & when I turn around a few seconds later, you're all the way on the other side of the room! You are Speedy Gonzales.


Usually, when you scoot, it's to get to a toy that you want. You love to play with toys...especially your brothers' toys! They are not so sure if they like your new-found mobility or not though. Before you could move, they were able to push their toys out of your reach to keep them safe. Not so anymore...much to their dismay. I just tell them that a little baby drool won't make Anakin any less of a Jedi. They beg to differ.

You are still the happiest & most content baby I know! You put yourself to sleep, play by yourself without problem, & handle your brothers' crazy antics in stride. You constantly have a smile on your face & rarely cry. If I hear you crying, I know something is seriously wrong. If we had a "Best Kid Award" in this house, you'd win it 9 times out of 10.

Despite the fact that you are a happy baby, you don't laugh much. Every once in awhile, we'll get a little laugh out of you, but I'm still waiting for one of those big baby belly laughs. When you get really excited about something, you open your mouth really big like you're going to laugh, but nothing comes out. It's the funniest thing ever! I don't know, maybe your laugh box is broken (Spongebob fans will get that joke.)

Your brothers are still super crazy about you! One of them is always hugging or kissing you at all times. There are times when you act kind of annoyed by it, but you don't protest much. You just take it in stride, but I can see in your eyes that your saying, "Okay, enough already boys!"

You are getting to be a better eater everyday! You didn't like solid food much at first, but you're starting to get the hang of it. You really enjoy pears, peaches & sweet potatoes. You don't seem to be a big fan of bananas & applesauce. Which seems weird to me, because they are the best tasting to me. Yes, I have tasted your baby food. It's not half bad, to tell you the truth. And, it's got to taste better than that horrible formula!

You are our first thumb sucker...much to your Daddy's dismay. I think it is adorable, but your Dad keeps reminding me that it won't be very adorable when you are four-years-old and still doing it. He's probably right, but it's super cute right now!

You have also started giving "kisses." If someone brings their face up to you & puckers their lips, you will lean forward & plant a big, juicy baby kiss on them! It is so darling. Also, if someone is holding you close to their face, you will turn & basically attack their entire face in slobbery kisses. We love it!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that you have stated sitting up by yourself this month too! You can't sit straight up for very long, usually just a few seconds, but if you have your hands on the floor in front of you, you can sit there for hours. I love the picture above because it looks like you're waving at the camera.

You babble to yourself all the time, but we have yet to hear any actual words out of your mouth. I'm hoping for a "Mama" sometime. "Mama" was Connor's first word, but "Dada" was both Aiden & Cohen's first word, so I'm really hoping for a "Mama" first. Shhhh...don't tell Dad!

Vivvie Girl, you are so awesome! We love everything about you! You are the sweetest, cutest, happiest girl that any of us know & we're so happy to have you in our family! --Mom

This is the Place Heritage Park

Mike's company held their annual family party at This is the Place Heritage Park again this year. Kristin & Dan came with us last year because Dan works at the same company, but they weren't with us this year because they were on an Alaskan Cruise. I feel so bad for them, don't you? We missed them, but we had a great time anyway.

We started the day out riding the train from the parking lot into the park. Notice Connor's smile, he's going through that awkward I-don't-know-how-to-smile-for-the-camera phase, if you couldn't tell...


Once we got to Main Street in the park, we hopped off the train so that we see the Candy Cannon explode...


Pure chaos...

Cohen got a few pieces of slightly charred old-fashioned taffy...

So did Connor. But, Aiden came back with a huge handful...

After that, we headed over to the little train for a ride. Yes, I look quite large sitting in that little train...

Then we headed over to the stream to try our hand at panning for some gold...

Next to the river, we found Mary Fielding Smith's house. Since she is Mike's Great-Great-Great-Great Grandma & the kiddos' Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandma, we had to get a picture next to her statue...

We actually learned something really interesting about Mary Fielding Smith while we were there. When she first got to the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young offered her a prime piece of land right in the heart of the city for her faithfulness & devotion to the church after the death of her husband, Hyrum. But, Mary didn't want her son, Joseph F. Smith, to be raised right in the middle of the city. She wanted him to grow up on a farm & learn all the responsibilities that come with it, so she gave up the piece of land in downtown & built this house on 40 acres in East Millcreek. Her farm was one of the most successful farms in the Salt Lake Valley back then. FYI for those of you not familiar with Utah, East Millcreek is only a 10 minute drive outside of downtown. It is right by Parley's Canyon, has awesome views of the valley & is now considered one of the most desirable places to live. But, back then, it was considered the middle of no where...

After that, we ate a yummy barbecue lunch & then the kiddos went to the petting zoo to hang with the farm animals for a little bit...

And then, they tried on a pioneer coffin for size. I like the sign. If you can't read it, it says, "FOR SALE. Only Slightly Used."

The kids had a great time again this year! They always love going to This is the Place Heritage Park & getting a taste of what it was like to be a pioneer child. The weather was perfect & we had a great day! --Lindsay

Three Down, One to Go

This little guy is now officially potty trained! Can you hear the angels singing? He's actually been mostly potty trained for a couple of months, but was still having a few little accidents here and there. Because of that, I wasn't quite ready to declare "Mission Accomplished." Well, he hasn't had an accident for several weeks now (even at night) & I don't have to ask him every hour if he has to go to the bathroom anymore, so I'd say that makes him officially potty trained!

We just used pull-ups with this kid, because cleaning up pee & poop didn't sound all that appealing to me this go around (imagine that). I got the Cars ones that have the wheel that disappears when the diaper is peed in. When he had an accident in it, I would tell him how sad Lightning McQueen was because Cohen's pee pee had ruined McQueen's wheel & he couldn't drive anymore. Well, wouldn't you know it...it worked! He was bounded and determined not to disappoint good ol' Lightnin. He was pretty much potty trained after just a few days...with the occasional accident from time-to-time like I mentioned above.

Now that he hasn't had an accident for several weeks, I decided that it was time to finally switch him over to "big kid underwear." Doesn't he look super cute in them? I love baby bums in underwear. So stinkin' cute!

So, I've got three kids potty trained now, only one more to go! Yay!!! I'm a little excited, in case you couldn't tell. --Lindsay

LOTOJA x 10

This past weekend was LOTOJA Weekend. If you don't know what LOTOJA is, you haven't read my blog much. LOTOJA is a bike race that goes from Logan to Jackson Hole. It is 206 miles that goes through 3 states in 1 day. Yes, you read that right...crazy people riding their bikes 206 miles in one day. It's the longest one-day race in North America. Kind of the ironman of cycling. This was my Dad's 10th year doing it (hence the title of this post.) Every year, I am amazed that he can do it! My dad is almost 57-years-old (hopefully he doesn't care that I wrote that.) How many 57-year-olds do you know that could ride 206 miles in one day? How many 37-year-olds or 27-year-olds, for that matter, do you know that could ride 206 miles in one day? Crazy stuff...I tell you.

We always like to go along to watch my dad compete. The boys love cheering their Poppy on to the finish line. On Friday, we checked the boys out of school at about lunchtime & headed up to Logan. We got checked into the hotel & then went straight to the pool. The hotel we always stay at in Logan has a pretty fun little pool area. It has a regular pool, a hot tub & this cute little kiddie pool which Vivvie loved...


Connor spent most his time in the big pool. He is turning into quite the little fish...


Aiden had a blast paddling around the big pool too...

Cohen went back and forth from the big pool to the hot tub, but definitely preferred the hot tub...

Connor and Aiden even learned how to dive while we were there. Poppy just asked them to try it & both of them did it on their first try! He actually had a pretty easy way of teaching them. He told them to stand on the edge of the pool & try to touch the water. Then, they just naturally fell into the water in a perfect dive! This one of Connor's that I actually got a picture of ended up being more of a flip than a dive, but oh well...

Once again, Viv sported the pink, ruffled bikini...

Then, once we were all waterlogged, we got dressed & went to dinner at Cafe Sabor. It was delicious! After that, my mom & I dragged all the boys to the mall with us for a little shopping and then it was back to the hotel to go to bed.

My dad started the race at about 6:30 the next morning. We left the hotel at about 7:00 & headed to Preston, Idaho (the first feed zone) to meet up with Poppy. It was a tad on the chilly side (in the 50s), but that's not nearly as cool as it usually is. The boys still whined about being cold. What's new right?

Cohen was a little tired still. Can't you tell?

Poppy raced in, dropped off a few things, picked up a few more things & then was off again. I didn't even get a picture of him in Preston because he was so fast. He was feeling good & was ready to get on with the rest of the race.

The next feed zone was Montpelier, Idaho. On this leg of the race, the bikers make their way over Strawberry Pass (one of three mountain passes in the race) to get to Montpelier, but the support vehicles have to go way out around on a detour route because the road up Strawberry Pass is too narrow. Once we got into Montpelier, we had some time to kill before Poppy got in, so we ate a picnic lunch & played at the park that was by the feed zone. Do you remember horses like this? I swear every park in the world had them when I was growing up, but you never see them anymore. Cohen thought it was the greatest thing he had ever seen in his life...

The older boys found a tire swing. Another thing you don't see much anymore...

Eventually, Cohen gave up his beloved horse & came to join in on the tire swing fun...

After that, we headed back over to the Feed Zone to wait for Poppy. Here's what it looked like. Pretty crazy. Tons of supporters & spectators cheering the bikers on...

When Poppy got into the Feed Zone, he told us that the head wind had been really bad going through Strawberry & that he had gotten a really bad leg cramp going up the pass. He said that he had needed to go slower than usual since that point & wasn't able to keep up with any groups. (For those of you who don't know, bikers try to ride in groups so that they can draft off of each other. They each take a turn being at the front of the group & then fall back and let another person take over as leader...like a flock of birds.) Anyway, he ate a banana, said that his leg was beginning to feel better & that he thought it wouldn't be a problem for the remainder of the race. Boy was he wrong...

Here's Viv & I hanging out at the feed zone in Montpelier while Poppy ate a quick lunch...

The boys collected pine cones & then decided to spell out our family's names with them. In case you can't read pine cone language, it says "Mom, Vivienne, Aiden, Connor, Cohen, Dad"...

They also had fun taking silly pictures of themselves...

After that, Poppy took off on the next leg of the race which took him over two huge mountain passes. The support crews always have to take a detour around the first mountain pass, but then they join back up with the bikes before the biggest pass of the race, Salt River Pass. This is an extremely hard pass to climb. It goes up to about 7500 feet & the last two miles are a 7% grade. Many times, you will see professional bikers walking their bikes up this mountain, that's how crazy it is. We usually like to stop at this point & wait for Poppy to cheer him on as he makes his way up the mountain, but last year, he was too fast for us & we totally missed him. In fact, he was so fast, that he got to the next Feed Zone before we could get there. As we drove up Salt River Pass this year, we never saw Poppy & we were worried that he was ahead of us again, so we drove on to the next Feed Zone in Afton, Wyoming. Once we got to Afton, we waited & waited & waited. We tried calling Poppy's cell phone, but it just kept going to voicemail. Finally, we got ahold of him as he was coming down Salt River Pass toward Afton. Apparently, the headwind was still horrible & his leg was really beginning to bother him. In fact, he said that he could push down with that leg, but anytime he tried to pull his leg back up, it would cramp really bad. So, he basically had just gone through two horrible mountain passes with only one good leg. What a trooper!

While we waited for Poppy, the kids found yet another tire swing...

And they cooled down with some refreshing drinks...

Who knew an Orange Crush moustache could be so cute...

Here's Vivvie hanging out with her Nana...

Eventually, Poppy got into Afton. He ate a few things & got some new water bottles from us & then he was off again. At this point, we were finally able to stop along the side of the road & cheer for him. The boys always love to ring their cowbells as he rides by...

And give him high fives too...

By the time Poppy got to the next Feed Zone in Alpine, he was hurting pretty bad. The headwind was still strong, his leg was really bothering him at this point & he couldn't keep up with any groups to draft off of because of it. He told us that this was definitely his last LOTOJA (as a single rider, he & Mike may do a relay team next year) & that he would feel lucky if he just made it to the finish line.

After that point, the race goes through a canyon that connects Alpine to Jackson Hole. We were able to stop several times during this period & cheer for Poppy. We could tell by the look on his face that he was really hurting, but he kept pressing on...

We drove on to the finish line at Teton Village, a ski resort just a little beyond Jackson. My dad usually gets in sometime between 7:00 and 7:30, but we knew this year would be different. With his leg hurting him so bad, and basically becoming useless at this point, we knew it would be late when he got in. We sat there at the finish line & cheered for all the other bikers. That's when something crazy happened. A lady who was standing right by us at the finish line just collapsed right in front of us. None of us knew why she collapsed. It was pretty cool at that point, so heat wasn't a factor. It was so weird! A nurse rushed over to help her & said that the lady only had a weak pulse & her breathing was very shallow. Luckily, there were paramedics right there at the finish line, so they came over to help her. She was unconscious for several minutes, but eventually came to. They ended up taking her to the hospital to run some tests & try to figure out why she had collapsed. Kind of a scary situation to watch right in front of your eyes.

After that, we waited & waited & waited for Poppy. The announcer said that we were getting pretty close to 8:15 (the time that the race "officially" ends. People always come in after that point, but they stop announcing the names of the racers as they cross the finish line & things like that.) Well, wouldn't you know it...Poppy crossed the finish line at exactly 8:15, so he was the last person to get his name announced! I tried to get a picture of him, but my camera was on the wrong setting so this is all I got...

I don't think Poppy cared much about a picture at that point though. He was in a lot of pain & his body basically started to go into shock. He had ridden about 140 miles with only one leg!!! The only thing that had kept him going was his desire to say he did it 10 times & get the 10-year award. He was so exhausted that he looked like he could collapse at any moment. He probably should have been checked out by the paramedics, but he told them that he was fine & that he just wanted to get to the hotel. I have never seen my dad like that. He was really out of it & his body kept doing weird stuff. For example, he would be walking along and then his leg would randomly kick out to the side. I guess sometimes bodies do that kind of stuff when they're in shock. He seriously looked like death warmed over. It was kind of scary actually. When we got to the hotel, he threw up & then just crawled into bed & asked us to bring him a hamburger on our way back from dinner because it was the only thing that sounded good.

He wasn't the only one who had a hard time during this LOTOJA. We talked to multiple riders who said it was their hardest yet. In fact, one guy even had a heart attack on his way up Salt River Pass & had to be taken to the hospital. We decided that it must have been the head wind & the warmer-than-usual temperatures that did so many people in.

Once Poppy was tucked into bed, the rest of us went to dinner at a little Mexican restaurant in Jackson Hole that is pretty good & then bought Poppy a burger at Wendy's & headed back to the hotel. Cohen insisted that he be the one to give the hamburger to Poppy. He kept saying, "Cohen take the hamburger to Poppy so he can get all better! Cohen take the hamburger to Poppy so he can get all better!" It was pretty cute.

Apparently, the hamburger did the trick because Poppy was feeling great the next morning! He said that he felt better than he ever had after a LOTOJA. So weird...go figure!

Once everyone was up, fed & ready to go, we went to the LOTOJA awards ceremony. Before they handed out the awards, they did a few drawings for prizes. They decided to choose some kids out of the audience to come up & pick the names out of a bowl. Believe it or not, Connor was the first child they picked. Here he is at the podium announcing the name of the winner. You can barely see him because I was so far away & didn't think I had time to zoom in. It's kind of like Where's Waldo...

After that, they went to pick another child & they picked Cohen. I thought he might get scared since he's so shy, but he did great! He walked up there with the guy, stood on top of the podium, pulled a name out of the bowl & handed it to the announcer...

Ahhh, so cute! After that, they picked some other kids from a different part of the gym, so Aiden didn't get a turn. But, he didn't seem to care at all. He's pretty laid back about stuff like that.

Finally, they started handing out the awards. Here's Poppy with his 10-year award. Quite an accomplishment...

Way to go Poppy! After the awards ceremony, we headed out to Grand Teton National Park & went to Jenny Lake. The kids always love to go hang out here. Here's our traditional picture of the kids on a rock. I think I have a picture of my kids on this very rock for almost every year we have been to LOTOJA. I'm glad we finally have a little girl in this picture now...

She is so cute & fun...

The boys had a grand ol' time throwing rocks into the water...

We love going to Jenny Lake! I think it is one of the prettiest places on Earth. I love seeing the lake with the Tetons right behind it. So pretty...

While the boys threw rocks in the lake, Vivvie hung out & smiled at everyone...

Here's Connor trying to get as far out in the lake as he possibly could without stepping in the water. That water was so freezing cold...

The little boys didn't care that the water was freezing & just decided to jump right in...

I'm pretty sure Vivvie was thinking "My brothers are crazy..."

After everyone had thrown at least a thousand rocks (maybe more)into the lake and jumped into the frigid water, we decided to walk around the lake a little bit...

We were planning to go on a hike, but then we walked over a bridge...

And saw the canoes...

So Poppy, Mike, Connor & Aiden took a canoe out on the lake for about an hour instead...

Kids had to be at least 5 to go on the canoes, so Cohen & Viv stayed with Nana and me. We hung out at the Jenny Lake Store, eating M&Ms and drinking hot chocolate. So yummy!

Once the boys were done canoeing, we headed back into Jackson Hole to eat some lunch & walk around the shops for a little bit. Here are the boys by the Antler Arch...

As we were walking around town, we found a Sword in the Stone in front of one of the shops. So, of course, each of the boys had to try to pull it out...

Nope, no King Arthur's here. Oh well. After that, it was time to head home.

So, that was LOTOJA 2011, supposedly my Dad's last time doing it as a single rider. He & Mike kept talking about how they are going to do a relay next year, so we'll see what happens. I still can't believe my dad did 3/4th that race with a bad leg. Most people couldn't do it with two good legs on their best day. Way to go Poppy! We are so impressed with you! --Lindsay