Homeward Bound and a Case of Mistaken Identity

New Year's Eve came as the day we were all going to fly home. Jim, Ellie, and Me from Cali and Aeryn returning from Texas. The three of us were to land three hours before Aeryn so I could be there to meet her plane. I was a little bit anxious just because I like to be in complete control of life (which almost never even pretends to happen) and we'd had so many delays on our trip out. I kept my calm and I'm pretty sure no one really noticed my internal nerves since we woke up just after 3 am and had stayed up until at least midnight. The lines were longer than we expected and I started to worry, which is when it happened.

We stepped up to the kiosk to print boarding passes and wouldn't you know, my ticket was reserved using my OLD LAST NAME. 

Now, I am not the one who bought my ticket so it was a little bit surprising to realize that my own husband didn't remember that we share names now. We were lucky enough to get someone on the phone who switched the name so that my drivers license would match and I could actually get on board but I can't pretend it didn't put fear into my heart for a little while. 

The flight was uneventful, except for being able to witness the most incredible sunrise I've ever seen. There are no words to describe the vantage point... seeing the gradual glow creeping over the curved horizon and the band of illumination steadily getting wider. At one point there was a bright red stripe hovering over the horizon that made me nearly deplete my phone battery taking pictures. 

Even then, they don't begin to do it justice.

Then it was our family Christmas (no pics), dinner, and unpacking. We had promised the girls to stay up until the new year, which was fun but insane on our part. Long story short, we all made it even though it meant that we were all up for 21 hours. Surprisingly there were no meltdowns either.

We were a little wiped out the following day. 

On the 2nd we checked the mail and found a Christmas package from my own parents addressed to a strange set of people we don't know...

Which means that within two days I found that both my husband and my parents forgot my last name. It's not like it's still our first year married. At least I remember who I am, and at least Aeryn has received enough packages at this address that the office girl recognized the last name and didn't return the package as is their policy when the name doesn't match the lessee. So Happy New Year! Perhaps my resolution this year will be to monogram half my house so no one forgets who I am. 

A Very Non-Traditional Christmas Part 3

After a couple days on our own, we met up with Jim's parents and Ellie-girl in sunny San Diego. Yes, this made for a little bit of driving. When we picked up the jeep in Death Valley and the rental guy asked where we were staying the night I think he was a little caught off guard by our answer. He clearly doesn't know us very well.

No one really had a plan what to do. In fact we didn't even know we were going to San Diego until the day before. The in-laws were home from a trip with a week to spare and decided to meet us in Cali so they could spend time with Ellie - and maybe us too a little bit.

Jim and Ellie are always extra-schmoozy for the first day or two being together again. No one can blame them, I mean it would kill me to be away from either of them too. They are some of my favorites you know.

Aren't good, loving dads just the sexiest thing? Grrrr.

There were several seals sunning themselves on the sand at La Jolla Children's Cove. We saw quite the show as they swam through the water and shimmied themselves across the sand.

Every time the waves came in the seals would stretch their tails straight up in the air, all in unison.

This bird was fascinating to watch. He (or she... does anyone know?) was retrieving poor, helpless bugs from the sand with one swift movement and it was amazing to see how long his (or her) neck could stretch.

Jim took Ellie down close to the waves and they got splashed pretty good a few times. All I could think of was the increased danger due to stronger waves in the winter and I spent a little while with an anxious pit in my stomach really hoping that neither of them would wash out to sea. They didn't, btw.

He's such a good dad I can hardly stand it, even if he's a ton more adventurous than I am. I'll chalk that up to being a guy.

There was color, and greenery, and near-warmth, which was a dangerous combination for enduring the eternal grayness of Oregon.

I'm just kidding, a little. I really love Oregon, but I was reminded that I like the sunshine too.

Ellie got to run around a park for a while and we had some really good food. Then we headed to the LA area to spend some leisure time with extended family for a couple days and go visit some Oregon friends who recently relocated there. As weird as it sounds, the second half of the week was more stressful for me than the first, even though there wasn't really anything to worry about because we spent most of the time relaxing. It seems I just prefer being busy. 

A Very Non-Traditional Christmas Part 2

My Christmas present was to cross something off my bucket list. Yes, I know that I said we weren't doing gifts this year and we didn't - at least not tangible gifts that will end up cluttering our apartment. My, ok OUR gift this year was to cross something awesome off our National Park list and my life's bucket list.  Death Valley.

Whaaaaaat? You may be asking. 

Yes, I have dreamt of going to Death Valley for no other reason than to see the racetrack. The idea of mysterious moving rocks is just too interesting to the physical scientist nerd in me. 

We rented a jeep and headed out on the 2 hour 4WD trek to the playa. Jim looked pretty studly driving a jeep, in case you wondered.

See? You don't have to take my word for it... they really do move.

It would be much more awesome if we could see them move in real time, but at present no known person has ever seen it. The trails are visible for years though since the playa receives so little precipitation.

On the drive out I was filled with the type of anticipation that makes you wonder if you're building something up too much and will really be disappointed.

The answer to that was no.

Look! A rock!

The sun was really high in the sky and quite intense. While it made pictures really a bit of a challenge, it did cause clear reflections on the playa which caused the trails to show up really well. When I tried to shoot in shadow the trails barely appeared, so intense crazy pictures it is.

From a distance it doesn't really look like much other than a bunch of random rocks resting on the playa. It's pretty surprising though to think that all those little rocks are there because a little rain and wind get together to start a party.

Look, a Joshua Tree! We had to take a picture to make up for the other park.

We stopped at Badwater Basin on our way out of the valley and it was quite a sizable salt flat.

Filthy, but sizable. The thing that I found to be most interesting here is that the areas of highest foot traffic appeared stark white, while the areas void of traffic were the most dirty. The thing other people find most interesting is that this is lowest point in North America with an elevation of approximately 282 feet below sea level.

In case you need a visual of exactly what that means, there's a sign! Jim will attest to the fact that I nerdily discussed the fact that sea level isn't constant so what on Earth the elevation deal really means is up in the air. Then he pointed out that I'd have to call into question every elevation measurement ever recorded and my head hurt just thinking about it. So, I conceded. We'll go with 282 below and call it good.

A Very Non-Traditional Christmas

This year we had no children for the Holiday. Since it was to be just the two of us, we chose to get the heck out of dodge for a little bit and forgo the gifts for each other, and do only minimal things for the kids. I confess it felt a little strange for the Holiday season to come and have no shopping to do. Wouldn't you know the year I'm not looking for things is the year I have a plethora of ideas for everyone. At least I've got a good list for upcoming occasions...

Christmas Day felt like a fairly normal day. Cleaning the house, packing, Jim watching football, and then driving to the airport - which I suppose is not all that normal after all. We didn't want to impose on anyone for the Holiday so we rented a car to drive to the airport since it cost less to do that than to park the car there for the week. Then the storms and busy travel day took over and our flight was late leaving. Fortunately we got in the air only an hour late, then made it to San Francisco to find out that we had not actually missed our connecting flight (it was held since there were so many passengers arriving late). After sitting at the gate for over 30 minutes while they loaded luggage onto the plane, we landed in Los Angeles to find out that we (and everyone else from our initial flight) had no luggage.

Yay.

Christmas dinner consisted of our new traditional/non-traditional Holiday food:

I know, you're jealous.

We also weren't smart enough to pack anything in our carry-ons so we had to figure out something else to do for the two days until we had our luggage back.

Enter after-Christmas sales at the outlet mall the next morning:

Normally, I don't love after-Holiday shopping and I'd like to say this was an exception but it really wasn't. At least there were some killer sales and my shirts cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 each. (This non-traditional-female-anti-shopping attitude may change once we have jobs)

Finally clothed and ready to go, we headed to our first real stop! Joshua Tree National Park

So, we went through Joshua Tree and didn't take a single picture of one. Yes, I see the irony in that.

We did see these ocatillos however, which were huge and Jim couldn't believe them. I think he's still trying to wrap his mind around the size.

One cool thing was the cholla cactus garden. Jim also remembers these from his youth and a time his brother was attacked by a runaway cholla. I've heard the story and I guess you had to be there... The light was really harsh. I've got to say it made me super-duper glad that I've never been stranded in the desert.

The only hike we took was to the forty-nine palms oasis. It was a pleasant walk and not too long but it was pretty neat to run into a little stream and pocket of life in the middle of an otherwise rather dreadful landscape.

We don't have trees like this in Oregon...

It was a charming little walk, but my favorite part was the company. The hubs is completely my favorite person in the whole world. Even though we almost missed flights and had the luggage debacle I felt no stress at all at the start of this trip. That is saying a lot, because I tend to stress a lot about silly things. We were ridiculous and together. It couldn't have started out any better.

Self Image

I love projects that show how kids see themselves. Aeryn brought this home from school and gave it to me as a gift. I love it and don't ever want to forget what she wrote. Some of it was a complete surprise. Dentist? That's a new one. I suppose it gets tacked on to the end of the BYU cheerleader/4th grade teacher/veterinarian dream.

I am the one who is happiest when I have new friends.
I am the one who thinks about friendship.
I am the one who loves to play.
I am the one who is lucky because I'm awesome!
I am the one who will someday be a dentist.

Who am I? 

I am a girl who is kind and happy and amazing. I have blond hair and blue eyes and freckles. And I'm 4 foot 7 inches and 70 pounds. Do you know who I am?

My Favorite Things

My favorite things include lots of items. First I like lions. They are my best fans. Next, I like writing. Finally, it is fun to do drawing. Also, I love my teddy bear. I love my things.

My Family

My family is odd and kind. My family loves traveling. They also like waterfalls. We have 4 people in my family. We spend a lot of time together. Also we love wolves. My family loves me.

The best part about this? She knows she's loved and that we like to spend time together. Oh, and the family portrait where she and Ellie are both holding their favorite stuffed animals is pretty awesome too.

The Thankful Tree

At Thanksgiving, the kids and I decided very last minute to create a thankful tree. It wasn't anything fancy. Using paper grocery bags, I created a few tree limbs and  gave them free reign to color and cut out leaf shapes to go on it. I confess I was really surprised to see how small many of the leaves were and ended up cutting out some basic ones myself, just to be sure they would be large enough to write on. Part of me wanted to make a glamorous, beautiful thankful tree we could use year after year, but this one ended up being perfect because the kids felt ownership over it and were so excited to write down something they were thankful for each night at dinner. Especially Ellie. She thought this was the greatest thing ever and would add to it over and over again.

I didn't take any pictures of it once we added our thankful things, but I've kept the pile of leaves hanging around until I finally took a picture of them today. I want to remember what my kids and their sweet little hearts are thankful for. We only did this for the week of Thanksgiving when we were all together. I'd say we came up with a pretty good list for one crazy week.

The Davis Family Thankfuls 2012:

wolfs

dinner with my family

dogs

cats

love

apples

a healthy body

happiness

USA

the Priesthood in our home

food

others

volleyball

sports

teddy bears

flowers

me

United States of America

family

hearts

being able to run

hot water heaters

moms and dads

Any guesses who said what?

And, just because this picture is awesome, we can't wait to see Ellie in about a week, and I felt the need to begin a sentence with a conjunction, here is a cute little moment that I couldn't bear to let pass.

Ellie finished her after-dinner jobs really fast and then got to draw while Aeryn did her vacuuming. It's nice to know that one of our kids understands the value of expedience.

December Insanity

I remember being a kid and hearing all the adults around me talking about how busy the month of December was. It was something that I could not fathom with my busy schedule of playing, eating, going to school, more playing, staring longingly at each box under the tree wishing it were for me (since my dad didn't put names on anything to keep the mystery alive), and then some more playing. Each year it seems life gets a little bit crazier at Christmastime. 

The funny thing about feeling crazy this year is that we are keeping Christmas really simple. The girls are both with other parents for the holiday so we're keeping gifts at a minimum for them (since they will have already received about a billion) and forgoing them altogether for each other. Last year I made 17 batches of fresh pasta as neighbor gifts and this year I confess I haven't done anything. I expected that this would make life feel easygoing and carefree, but it hasn't. 

The past couple weeks have been a blur. We'll just focus on the past 24 hours. 

Last night was the Christmas party at church. I ended up *unofficially* on the activities committee for the event and have been pretty busy putting together a newspaper, helping to organize the food, set up, serve, clean up, take the kids' Santa pictures, and try to maintain the general sanity of other committee members. It's over. It was successful. I can breathe now. 

This morning Aeryn and I attended a cookie contest and exchange that was pretty much the most fun thing I've ever seen, as far as cookies exchanges go. There was a crown for the "cookie queen" as determined by taste testing and anonymous voting. Add lots of chocolate, really kind people, and spontaneous outbursts of singing "we are the champions" and it was a complete blast. 

Meanwhile, Jim was running 14 miles in the cold and mud with a few of our other runner friends. In his words, "this was the hardest race I've ever done" because it was extremely muddy, steep in places, and just downright hard. He's pretty sore and tired now, but I'm happy he did it. As for why there was a big stuffed gorilla at the finish line, I'm still not sure. 

This was followed by 4 loads of laundry, grocery shopping, and now finally life calming down a little bit. I'm ready for a breather.