The Queen of Road Trips

I think I can officially dub myself Queen of Road Trips. Poor Sam. The guy didn't know what he was getting himself into when he married me. Family reunion in southern Alberta, Canada? Perfect!  We'll go home via North Dakota and hit four national parks in the loop!  Why is it that that makes no sense to anyone but me?

A/H-home, B-Glacier, C-Cardston, Alberta, D-Theodore Roosevelt, E-Badlands, F-Rushmore, G-Wind Cave

CLICK HERE to see a map of all the National Parks. Those we've visited are in red (17 of 56).

Glacier National Park

Sam and I don't agree on everything, but one thing we do agree on is that of all the national parks we've visited so far, Glacier is, hands-down, our very favorite. Where else can my entire family fit inside a tree? Or find a giant tree nose? Or stand on five feet of hanging roots?  Or have a black bear wander right through our campsite just before we arrive? (They tell us that only after we set up our tent...) These glacial-carved valleys and rugged peaks are absolutely idyllic.  It if weren't for the way-too-friendly bears, we'd move here.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

In 1883 Theodore Roosevelt arrived in North Dakota to hunt buffalo. He fell in love with the area and soon began a ranch and built himself a "mansion." Three separate rooms! (The living room, kitchen, and bedroom.) Plus a loft for his ranch hands! Man, if he could see my place now, he'd think I was a billionaire. We have indoor plumbing. HA. You can see his "mansion" in the middle picture below. Teddy's experiences in this area led to his conservationist policies as president. He's also the only person who has a national park named after him.

Badlands National Park

The Sioux called it "mako shika" or "no good land." A frontier soldier called it "hell with fires put out." Today we call it Badlands. Because the land is bad. Bad for crossing in wagons, bad for building on, bad for ranching, and bad for farming. Theodore Roosevelt (our resident expert on all things Dakota) said the badlands were "so fantastically broken in form and so bizarre in color as to seem hardly properly to belong to this earth."

But seriously, he's right. I've been to Canyonlands. Arches. Bryce. Zions. Grand Canyon. Painted Desert. And I ain't never seen nothing like this.

Wind Cave National Park

You have to be an amateur genius to figure out why this cave system is called Wind Cave. I'm gonna ruin the secret for you, so stop reading here if you don't want the spoiler ... It's windy. Phew. Tough one, I know. Wind Cave is unique because of the abundance of the rare cave formation called boxwork (it's the stuff that looks like honeycomb). Apparently 95% of boxwork found in caves is inside Wind Cave. The cave is also unique because about 50 feet beneath it is a giant reservoir of water that is-by astronomical proportions-the purest water on earth. So pure that they don't dare send divers in because their most sanitary stuff would contaminate it.

My favorite story about Wind Cave, though, is about the 17 year-old boy who first entered and mapped out the cave. Alvin McDonald spent several hours every single day exploring the cave with a homemade lantern fashioned out of a bucket and a candle. (Creepy.) After a couple years he began giving cave tours, and during their half hour lunch breaks, Alvin would wander off searching new holes. Several times he forgot about his group, and once he actually went home for dinner, only remembering his group when his father asked how the tour had gone. He went down there and found them singing hymns, trying to keep from going crazy. I'm surprised they didn't kill him.

Top left: The single natural cave entrance.

Top right: Us with Aunt Catie & Uncle Steve, and their granddaughters Dakota and Kiera.

We just happened to run into them at the Visitor's Center. They were visiting from Idaho. So weird!

One Last B&A

The very first thing I hated when we moved in was the basement stairs.  The olive paint on one side and chocolate on the other made the stairs incredibly dark, and the thread-bare forest green carpet only made it worse.  The handrail was nicked, chipped, and peeling.  Frankly, it was gross. And the kids were scared to go down there.

Well, we painted the rail white and the walls the same creamy yellow as the rest of the house just before we moved in. And two weeks ago the new carpet was finally installed.  It matches the carpet in the bedrooms.  I didn't color correct either of these pictures, and they were taken with all the same lighting.  Isn't that insane?!

Birthday Cake

This is what Enoch had for his birthday cake:

And this is what I had for my birthday cake:

Remarkably similar, eh? The only difference is that mine were a day old. This is what you get when your birthday is the day after your son's. Day-old ball/car/dinosaur/pirate cake is my lot in life.

The most interesting thing about Enoch's turning three is that by the time Seara turned three, I had two more kids. If I had kept up that speed, I'd have five kids right now. I was on a roll in the beginning! I got married at 22, had Seara at 23, Elijah at 24, and Enoch at 25. (Okay, okay, I turned 26 one hour and 58 minutes after he was born.  But still, legally I was 25.)  Compared to those first few years, 26, 27, and 28 seem boring.  Here's hoping 29 finally spices things up! In the mean time, I'm enjoying this darling 3 year-old.

Food, Glorious Food

I realize that you do not read my blog for cooking advice or meal suggestions.  (Actually, I'm not really sure why you do read my blog.  But whatever.  Who am I to judge? To each his own!) 

Anyway, I made my favorite really-hot-day, also known as Janaeisacheapskatewithairconditioning-day, meal tonight.  And since I stole this idea from Heidi, who owns JDawgs, I figured I'd pass it forward. Her owning JDawgs has nothing to do with anything in this post.  Just pointing it out.

Cold Pasta Tuna Salad
Pasta of any variety
Mayo
Tuna
Peas (frozen)
Salt

Cook as much pasta as you think you'll eat. (I do this at lunch time and then cool it in the fridge until 1.5 minutes before dinner.) Add as much mayo as you want.  Put in a can or two of tuna. Dump in frozen peas until it looks right. Add salt to taste. Voila! It's quick and cold. And obviously has no real recipe.  Today I sprinkled it with fresh parmesan.

As for the drink, well, I'm a milkshake girl, but Sam doesn't particularly love em. (Something about being 'lactose intolerant,' but I don't buy it.)  (Okay, okay, I'm kidding.  I can't believe I have to say I'm kidding, but apparently people can't read my mind as they read my blog. Not sure what is wrong with them, but I'm looking into it.) This smoothie is about as close to the deliciousness of a milkshake as a smoothie can get.

Very Berry Smoothie
1 c apple juice
1 1/2 c lemonade
1 1/2 c frozen mixed berries
1 c raspberry sherbet

Figuratively Speechless

When Sam and I first saw the advertisements for the New Testament Project, we knew it was perfect. Sam enjoys acting and has wanted to participate in something ever since we got married. He has no formal training and limited experience (all play-acting: some children's theater as a kid, cast three times as a young teen, and lead four times in high school, although it must be noted that he comes from a very small town and that was all over 11 years ago). But, being an extra doesn't require any experience at all, so he was good. And though I couldn't be in it because I don't look the part (unless they include a Viking attack in Jerusalem), I have always wanted to see Sam with long hair and a beard (oohlala!) Thus it was that Sam began growing out his hair and beard in October 2010.

Over 10,000 people applied to be extras for the New Testament project, and by December these were pared down to only a few thousand. Sam's olive skin and dark hair must have tipped the scale, because he was accepted as an extra. The approved extras were then invited to audition for speaking parts in January. Sam only ever planned on being an extra, and we laughed about him trying out because he pretty much stood an ice cube's chance in you-know-where. But hey, why not shoot for the moon? Sam signed up for an audition date almost as a joke.

In February we got an email saying that Sam had made the first cut, and we laughed out loud. That's so hilarious! Back pats and hearty laughs were given all around. Rather than do call-backs, they were having the director review film of the first try-outs, and he would decide who made the cut, so Sam didn't have anything else to do. We continued on with life, because the fun was surely going to stop there.

In April we got an email saying Sam made the second cut, and requesting he audition with the director. Okay, this was kind of getting serious. In a funny sort of way. Of the original 2,702 auditioning actors, only 62 were left. And basically everyone but Sam was a professional actor with an agent. When he finally auditioned with the director, Sam wasn't sure how he felt about it. Like any perfectionist, he felt like he could have done better. But it's not like he was going to get a part, so oh well! By this point we were thinking that Sam's man beard was doing all the talking, and we were expecting a glorified extra part. Like shop-keeper #6 or fish-seller #13.

We didn't hear back for a month, and when we did, it was a 7:33 pm email, requesting new beard-shots for a 7:00 am meeting the next morning. We sent in midnight pictures taken in our bedroom (the ones in this post). Two weeks later we got an email requesting info for ecclesiastical clearance. (Are you a convicted felon? Have you been disfellowshipped or excommunicated? List every calling you have had dating back to the flood.)

And then silence. We heard nothing for over six weeks. Our glorified extra hopes evaporated. But we were okay with that, because we only ever expected the back of Sam's head to be in the movie, anyway. Being an extra would still be really fun.

Then, on July 6th, we received this email:

RE: Official BOOKING for Samuel Ricks

Please REPLY with your ACCEPTANCE (or rejection) as soon as possible.

Dear Samuel,

Thank you for your patience with our casting process. You have been approved by our ecclesiastical authorities to participate in this production! We would like to offer you the role of “John, son of Zebedee (Apostle)” in our New Testament project for the LDS Church.

According to the current schedule, we will need you to work 27 days on this production. [Lots of information on dates, meals]

Thank you, again! We look forward to working with you on this production. Please feel free to call or e-mail with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Alisa Anglesey

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Media Services Department Casting

LDS Motion Picture Studio, Provo, Utah US

WHOA.

We don't know if he has any speaking parts, but he'll definitely be there for most of the major events. The Mount of Transfiguration, Gethsemane, the resurrection. He will film during August, September, and October.

I am speechless. (Figuratively, of course. Obviously not literally, as this post has 760 words.) This is nuts.

Painter Extrodinaire

So one of the first things we did in the house was paint.  Frankly, I wasn't up for it.  But Sam seems to think painting is fun (gee, I wonder why...) and he really wanted to. Plus, we moved a whooping 13 minutes away from my parents, so we had time to paint before we moved.  Off we went!  I'm really glad we did it, because the paint in this place was a little bit skitzo.  Let's just say: 800 sq/ft on the main floor, 9 paint colors.  Nine. Nueve. Nove. Neuf. Nio. Neun. Ni. Negen.Yhdeksän. Kyuu. Ahob. Pinyin jiǔ.

Capisce?

Here's just one example. One shot. Four colors.  (Well, five if you include the white ceiling. But I didn't count that in my nine colors.)

BEFORE

So, without further adieu (aren't you impressed by how many languages I've managed to bust out this post?), here are the after painting pictures. All two of them. Okay, okay, it's not that exciting.  We're incredibly boring and much prefer one solid, neutral paint color.  We just matched the creamy yellow of that middle wall above, and painted on top of everything else.

AFTER

Sam particularly disliked how this dark brown sucked up all the light in the whole room. I was worried about how it would look with my dark couches.

BEFORE

 

 AFTER

By the way, that left wall we left the same color. In real life (as opposed to fake life), it looks more like the color in the before picture than it does in the after.  I tell people we left it because we wanted an accent wall, but it's not really true. I was just too lazy to paint it too. You can only ask so much of a stay-at-home mom with three potty-trained children who can do practically everything by themselves.

3 reasons I should be dead

 Me in Idaho the night before #1

1) The time I drove 99 mph straight from Ricks College to BYU, so that I could be on time for church. Ironic on so many levels. (For the record, I never hit 100.  Not once.  I was very careful.  Because driving 100 mph would make me both evil and rebellious.  But as long as I was only in double digits, I was good. Phew.)

2) The time I did my mascara driving down 13th East on my way to high school.  Oh wait.  That was every. single. day.

3) The time I painted my toe nails. While driving. 75 mph. On the freeway. Around point of the mountain.  Now that one was just plain stupid.  (Although my toes looked fabulous.) 




*Just FYI, my wild (read: idiot) driving days are over now. Waaaaay over. I'll go 70 mph on the freeway, but I'm not crazy.

Moderately to Severely Lame

I overheard this conversation the other day and it seems to be a good lead into life right now.

Elijah: [pretending to be a baby reaching to Enoch] Mama!
Enoch: [in a "you're so silly" sort of voice] I'm not your mommy, or daddy, or grandpa, or grandma, or Liam!

Ha ha. He says it as if 'a Liam' is something everyone has. My poor, poor children.  I'm not sure what we're gonna do without him. If not for Liam, my kids wouldn't have painted eggs this year. (Or ever.)  I mean well, I really do. But I just never seem to get around to pumpkin carving or egg dying or firework ... doing. But this year I swear we're gonna use those sparklers I bought two years ago.  Just cuz Liam is off to BYU and then his mission, and without him, my awesomeness as a mother goes down at least 60%. No. Actually, my awesomeness stays the same (moderately to severely lame). It's just my children's quality of life that will suffer.

Exhibit A. What I did for Easter. Come down Sunday morning, find a Liahona (compass) and a map of directions.  Follow them to your hidden baskets.  (I had a friend in Maryland who only gave her kids Sunday stuff on Easter so they had an amazing collection of Jesus/scripture-related toys, books, movies, games, etc. to play with on the Sabbath. Thought I'd try it this year.)

Exhibit B. What Liam did for Easter. Die eggs with kids.  Make snorkel dudes.

Just guess which thing the kids forgot about the second it was over, and which they talked about for weeks, begging to repeat.

Yup.  We're missing Liam like crazy 'round these parts.

Excruciating and Fruitless

News flash to the blogging world: We moved.

Hence, for the first time since I began my blog back in January 2007, I only posted ONCE in a whole month. Once. My next lowest is four. Be grateful, though, because I had nothing witty to say, and had I posted it would have been excruciatingly boring. Notice how I emphasized the word excruciating by putting it in italics. Yes, the word alone wasn't good enough. It had to be italicized.

Well since I'm here, and since I'm posting about nothing in general, I'll tell you one reason I'm really grateful for this move. After two years of living with my parents, and searching fruitlessly through my boxes for things I wanted, I finally got to unpack. Want to know why my searches were fruitless? Because I thought I was funny when I labeled my boxes things like:

And my personal favorite:

Oh, real funny Janae.  Apparently the joke was on me.

Heartbreak

A random picture of Nico crying...although I think it fits this post well.

A couple days ago, as we drove home from kindergarten, Seara asked Sam and I, "What is a stepdad?"

I looked at Sam and sighed.  This was going to be a hard one to explain.

"Well, sometimes mommies and daddies decide not to be married any more, that's called getting divorced.  And when a mommy and daddy get divorced, and the mommy gets married again to a different man, that man is called a stepdad, because he's not the kids' real dad. But daddy and I, we're never going to get divorced. Ever.  We are going to stay married forever and ever and ever."  Elijah grinned at that last part.

Seara thought for a second and replied, "I think Princess Baby and Buzz Lightyear are going to get divorced (they are currently married), and Princess Baby is going to marry Woody.  Then Woody will be a stepdad."

[Sigh.] That would be super funny if it weren't so terribly sad.