Happy 10th Birthday, Joseph!!!

“…to have a child is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” Elizabeth Stone

Home is where the heart is.

These first three are from my walk Friday. This is a memorial stone that tells a little about Fort Utah. This was toward the beginning of the walk.

Saw quite a few ducks and even an otter? The river is very pretty and seems to be a good place to go fishing. I saw a couple of people engaged in that activity and it smells like fish almost the entire 1.5 miles I walked.

This is the Provo River taken from the bridge at the end of my walk.

I was going to write much earlier than this today but when Blaine came out to the living room and asked how much I’d like to hold a baby, of course the answer was a lot. That was something like 7:15 or 7:20; somewhere in that neighborhood. I held him for maybe half an hour and we had a pretty good little conversation. Then he decided to be a little fussy so I held him with his head just under my chin and he had a nice longish nap of about two hours. Blaine left for school, Laura is sleeping. I had to use the bathroom so Elias got to be on the couch while I did that. I also had some cereal for breakfast. Then he decided to maybe think about waking up but I picked him up and held him more and that was good enough to stay asleep. Currently, I am sitting on the couch using the arm as a desk and Elias is snuggled up by me. It really just doesn’t get any better than this from my perspective.

A hole in the rock! A person could probably climb down this hole but I wasn't about to volunteer.

One of the five bridges we crossed. The first two had no water running under them but the next three did.

The past few days have been pretty busy. Friday morning Laura and I walked to a park about a mile away because there was a letterbox there. We were contemplating walking to another one that was 1.5 miles from that one but decided against it due to the heat and a little Elias who would have wanted to eat long before we got home.

A humming bird kept us company for a couple of minutes.

Mountains to the south.

That afternoon we went to pick up more letterboxes at some parks around Provo. From the park we’d considered walking to, I walked along the river to the park we’d walked to earlier. We weren’t able to find the box at the first park in the morning and I wanted to have another look. Unfortunately, I did not meet with success the second time around, either. Still, I got a nice walk out of the deal as Blaine and Laura picked me up.

The parking lot where we parked from the top.

The top from the parking lot where we parked.

Saturday we hiked up to Squaw Peak. It was a beautiful hike, if a bit longer than anticipated both in miles and time, a bit steeper than anticipated, and a bit warmer than anticipated. Had we left when we originally wanted, it would have been cooler. The whole hike ended up being 7.4 miles with a vertical increase of 2,763 or 2,844 depending on which you want to believe (both from MyFitnessPal). Actual walking time was five and a half hours although we took lots of breaks for baby diaper changing and feeding and soaking up the shade before plowing through more sun. We left about 9:30 and got home around 7:30. MyFitnessPal says I took 28,615 steps and burned 1.7K calories.

There were lots of cool trees.

And we saw one cool snake on our way down. He was just enjoying the sun and let us take his picture.

When we got home, I showered and began construction of a little outfit for Elias to wear Sunday for his blessing. I decided to work on it until 11:00 and then get to bed and get up at 5:00 to finish. That’s what I did and it was mostly done by 7:00. Laura did the buttonholes because I didn’t feel like learning how to do them on her machine. It turned out super cute and consists of a pair of shorts, a vest, a shirt, and a tie. The shorts and vest are made from leftover fabric from Laura’s wedding dress. Elias looks pretty darn cute in it but we didn’t get any pictures of him in it other than one I took when he was in his car seat on the way to church so you can’t really see it very well.

The flag at the top. Sometimes you can see it from below. Sometimes not.

Yesterday we had a fairly lazy Sunday afternoon. We did go over to the Marriott Center to search there and a building nearby for a couple more letterboxes. After the constant either up- or down-hill of Saturday, it was nice to just walk for a bit.

Taking a break waiting for Laura, Blaine, and Elias. I was looking for a good letterbox planting site and got ahead of them a bit. My shoes (and legs) were so dirty.

And so were my feet. This is what they looked like once I took my shoes and socks off.

Today is a new day with not much planned. I want to plant a box and then go to Staples to get some index cards and then come home and make a log book and show Laura how. Then I’d love to plant the last one here and maybe find a couple more. There is still tomorrow, too, but I don’t want to have too much planned. Everything kind of depends on what can be done between feedings for Elias.

Panoramic view from the top. I suppose I should have done this of the mountains as well.

Now Laura is having some pancakes for breakfast and Elias is thinking about waking up. Sometimes it takes him a while to do so but others it is a much quicker process. Either way, I’m going to wrap this up for now.

Have a fantastic day!

And, hey, Joseph, I hope you have the best birthday EVER! I love you, dude!

Relative, Of Course

Good morning! And Happy Birthday, Mom! No comments about being 29 since you have a grandchild who is 30.

I just love this little guy! He's so stinking cute!

We’ve had a couple of low-key days around here. Low-key being a relative thing, of course. Elias tends to like to be awake during the night and his parents really wish he’d figure out that night is for sleeping and day is for being awake. Eventually it will come. Hopefully. In the meantime, nights can be a lot of fun. Fun being a relative thing, of course.

Photo shoot with Ellie Armstrong on Tuesday.

I’ve figured out five letterboxes within Provo to find today. Two are on the BYU campus and three are at various parks. If this weren’t a city, I’d be out getting a couple of them right now because from here to one to another to here again is just over five and a half miles. I don’t think I’ll be able to talk Laura into that but maybe parking at one and walking to the other because that will be just a little over two miles along the Provo River which means trees which means shade. Then the others we can drive to.

The bridge where the above picture was taken. This is IN Provo and yes, I know there is on the left evidence of modern civilization. Still, very pretty place.

Real mountains. I love it.

Other than that, we need to work on a blessing outfit for Elias. If it wants to be done by Sunday morning, it needs to be worked on today. Shouldn’t take long—he’s just a little thing still. Little thing being a relative thing, of course.

And cool trees.

Last night I finished a midwifery assignment that seemed like it took forever. It didn’t really but it did take two days of intermittent work. Mostly it’s good to work on that stuff in the morning when everyone else is asleep and then periodically throughout the day when there isn’t much for me to do. I’m glad I brought it with me even if the books made my bag heavier than it would otherwise have been. Heavy is, of course, a relative thing. Today I’ll start the reading for the next assignment which is all about genetic screening.

And rows of trees.

Tomorrow morning we’ll have sourdough pancakes for breakfast. Today I had nut- and rum-less Chocolate Zucchini Rum Cake with a glass of milk for breakfast. Tasty.

And a cute boy in the car yesterday. This little guy is three weeks old today!

By the way, people who shop at Walmart are not nearly as friendly as people who shop at other stores. We went to Walmart yesterday (Blaine likes to avoid Walmart—smart young man) and people looked at Elias but when we’ve gone to other stores, people ask about him. Actually, I think one person did ask how old he was yesterday but at other stores, it has been several people rather than one. So, I’m thinking Walmart can’t be bothered to pay people enough to be friendly (because it was people working at the other stores, not just customers) but other places can. Friendly being a relative thing, of course.

Other than that, I can’t think of anything terribly exciting to report on. All of that being perfectly relative, of course.

Have a fantabulous day!

More Pictures Than I Thought

Good morning once again.

I took all these price pictures at WinCo on the 12th. A lady thought it was a bit odd, perhaps, but I explained that I'm visiting from Massachusetts and the prices were just amazing. What prices do you have where you are? Becky and Mom, I'm especially interested to hear what yours are.

Yesterday evening Blaine suggested that they go to bed earlier since Elias likes to sleep for up to about three hours prior to that in order that they might actually get enough sleep during the night even if it is broken up into three parts. I don’t know how it worked for them yet but I got about three and a half hours of sleep before I had to get up and use the bathroom and another four and a half or so after. Not bad. I might have gotten more sleep had I gone to sleep when I went to bed. My mom was online, though, so we had a bit of conversation and I wanted to listen to a particular Billy Idol song that I do not have on my computer yet because I didn’t have the CD before I left. I watched/listened to it on youtube and then, because they just keep playing stuff, I watched/listened to Billy Idol videos for probably an hour or so while conversing with my mom.

Sleeping angel. He is so cute. He definitely has longer awake periods now and I just think they are the best. His Grandma Sorenson and I are the absolute luckiest grandma's in the world with this guy.

Sunday evening we went to Blaine’s cousin’s for dinner. There were two of his cousins, the husband of one and the fiancée of the other, as well as us and his brother Daniel who rode up to Draper with us. The food was excellent, and I found it quite entertaining listening to the conversation because I don’t often have the to me somewhat unique experience of being the oldest person present. Some of us played a game called Puerto Rico that I think the boys might like if they could play it right.

And then there's this cutie pie. I had to borrow these pictures of her from Joanna.

In the morning yesterday we made sour dough bread and had some with ham and broccoli fettuccini for lunch. For dinner we had pizza with sour dough crust. The crust didn’t turn out quite as well as I’d hoped but it was okay.

She's just the best little thing ever. (I can say that about Maddie and Elias because they were born this year and Maddie is a girl and Elias is a boy.) Her Grandma Gagnon and I are the luckiest grandmas in the world with this one.

Yesterday evening we walked around delivering dishes to people who gave Laura and Blaine food during the week or so after Elias was born. That was kind of fun. It was fairly cool and I got to carry Elias most of the time who thought it was a perfect time for a nap.

I seem to be good at taking hour long breaks while doing this right now. Most likely because of this really cute baby who really is the main reason I am here. That’s not a complaint, mind you, I love holding his cuteness while his mama finishes her breakfast and I am going to miss it when I am back in Masschusetts.

I do believe I will be off, though, and will see what pictures I might be able to add when I get to posting. Have a splendiferous day!

Maddie is One Month Old Today!

Good morning!

Rock Canyon

Since all of these are from Rock Canyon, I don't think I'll comment on each one.

If you aren’t continually learning, you are regressing. I have learned that sour dough responds to heat rather than humidity. I started a sour dough starter for Laura and even though I fed it last night about 11:30, it was over done this morning at 8:00. Kind of crazy. I’ve got some bread in progress and I’m going to feed the starter again shortly so we can have sour dough pizza crust for dinner. In fact, I think I’ll go do that now.

So that is done. The bread is looking good. It should have between 20 and 50 minutes to go before further action is needed.

These two, however, I will. Today the water is channeled through a large pipe. These are two of the visible remnants of what was used in the past.

This morning I decided it was time to get what music I had stored in the nebulous cloud on my computer and phone because when I’m on my way back to MA next week, I’d like to be able to listen to more than the sound of the wind on the other side of the window. For some reason, I have more Billy Idol than anything else but it will be nice to have a little variety even if it isn’t as great as it could be.

Mornings have a habit of starting late here. I can certainly understand that with a little baby. It is going to make getting back into a routine at home possibly quite interesting. Staying up to midnight here is like staying up to 2:00 am in MA. I so infrequently do that that it’s safe to say I never do.

Speaking of babies, today is Maddie’s one-month birthday! I’m sure she’s been changing since I saw her last week and will more by the time I see her again next week. Time sure does fly. I can hardly wait to see her again.

Currently, Laura and Elias are asleep. This is good. Mama should sleep when baby sleeps as much as possible. I do hear Elias making noise, though, perhaps because there are three people in the bathroom talking about fixing the tile around the tub in Spanish. Blaine is at the gym. I am waiting for my computer to be charged while I sit here typing this. Just an interesting note: the people were supposed to be here at 9:30 to look at the tub. It is almost 11:00.

Such a cute little face!

Saturday we hiked about a mile up Rock Canyon. There are a couple of letterboxes there; we found one and it had a hitchhiker with it. Now I have two to take to Massachusetts and release. The other one appears to possibly be missing as per the last comment made. Because part of finding it includes hiking up a pretty steep gully with lots and lots of rocks, Laura and I only went about halfway and decided not to go further. If I had real hiking boots and a hiking pole, I think I’d like to do it so I’ll have to keep that in mind for next time. I would like to go back up Rock Canyon because it’s supposed to be even prettier the farther up you go.

We got to watch the sun set. By the time we got to the car, there were people with headlamps heading up the trail.

Well, since it’s almost an hour later and much has happened, I’m going to sign off for now. Have a fantastic day!

Baby, Travel, and Heat

For some reason, I thought yesterday was the 14^th.

This is my favorite picture of Maddie so far and was taken on the 9th.

It doesn’t really matter, the past couple of weeks have been pretty busy ones and in spite of the fact that summer is my least favorite season, this one hasn’t been long enough because it will be just about over when I get back to Massachusetts and I’ve got a ton of stuff I need to do before school starts.

Provo Canyon

Provo Canyon

Elias James was born July 28, 2016, at 5:03pm. He was 6 pounds, 13.5 ounces at birth and currently is over eight pounds. He apparently didn’t want to wait a couple more weeks for either his due date or his grandma to be there to help his mama out during labor. That’s okay, babies generally come when they are ready to when left to their own devices. He’s a cutie pie.

Elias sleeping on my lap on the 11th as I was doing some midwifery homework.

On the 9^th, I delivered Cedric to his friend Jacob’s house and Seth and Joseph to the West’s house. Amena wanted me to take her to Joanna’s but I didn’t feel like adding another hour of sitting in a car to my upcoming sit in a car for the drive to Boston or the five-plus hour sit in an airplane from Boston to Salt Lake so that didn’t happen.

Elias in the car on the way home from shopping on the 11th.

I’d never flown out of Boston before, let alone at night, so I got to see the city and surrounding area as the sunset faded. It is very pretty with its millions of colored jewel-like lights. Like Boston, however, there is no rhyme or reason to the placement of those lights; they are just everywhere. I thought it likely that flying in to Salt Lake, also something I’d not previously done, would look like strings of lights crisscrossing one another. I was right. Each is pretty although certainly distinct. Neither one is where I would choose to live because I find cities in general to be chaotic and entirely too full of people.

Provo River

There are some crazy trees in Provo Canyon.

Laura and Elias went with Blaine to pick me up so I got to sit by Elias all the way to their house in Provo. It was dark and he was asleep so I didn’t get to do much more than get a glimpse here and there but I still think it’s the best seat in the car. 

See what I mean?

Not to mention holes where there used to be trees. I couldn't get too up close because people have used this for a garbage bin. Sad, that.

On the 11^th, we went up Provo Canyon. There are some letterboxes at various locations along the road and we got three of them. There are more and we’ll probably get at least some of them during the week.

The trees are just something.

Animal enclosure. There happens to be a letterbox hidden somewhere there.

As you might expect, there is always more I could say but I don’t feel the need at the moment. I will mention the weather, though. I could not have possibly picked a better time to spend two weeks in Provo. Hubbardston and surrounding areas in Massachusetts have been experiencing high humidity, sometimes as high as 100% and often above 90%. The temperatures, which have been mostly in the 80s, would be almost lovely if not for the awful humidity and the high low’s at night (in the 70s). Provo has had high 80s to low 90s for highs and the 60s for lows with humidity most often in the teens. Seriously, I love it. I’d be dying in MA right now.

Laura, Elias, and Blaine at the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls.

Have a wonderful rest of the day!