October: Underwood Farms

Also in October...

For Family Home Evening one night we went to Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark. I don't think I've ever been before (it's possible I went as a kid but I don't remember) and it was so much fun! Will LOVED it. There were chickens walking around everywhere, horses and ponies, goats that climbed onto ramps that went over our heads, adorable 3-week-old baby goats, turkeys, cows, tractors--basically Will's heaven. We also went into the corn maze (Will took off once inside, luckily we didn't lose him), Will and Taylor went down a slide built out of a combine tractor, and of course, we went to the pumpkin patch. 

Emma didn't get it. This was pretty much her face the entire time:

We went again two days later with Will's Joy School group. They got to do the petting zoo and they got to feed the animals carrots. They especially liked getting to feed the goats up high by putting their carrots in a cup attached to a belt and cranking it up to the top.

October: Park City and Gardner Village

The problem with having a lot of stuff to put on the blog is that I get overwhelmed and procrastinate and then have even more stuff to put on the blog. It's a vicious cycle.

So, back to October.

At the beginning of October we went up to Salt Lake City for a few days since my parents come back there every October and April for our church's General Conference. My parents knew they were going to be pretty busy with meetings and such for the first few days so Taylor and I decided to use that opportunity to take a little trip to Park City. We left the kids with my wonderful sister, Michelle, and spent two days in Park City getting massages, eating delicious and quiet meals, going to movies, hiking/biking/running and sleeping in however long we wanted to. It was a really nice break (the first one since Emma was born) and the fall leaves in the mountain were gorgeous. 

When we got back to Michelle's house we almost immediately left again to go to the BYU football game with Michelle and Caton, Brooke and Nick, and my parents. We got to sit really close to field and my parents got to sit in the President (of BYU)'s box. We were sad we didn't get to sit by Mom and Dad but it was pretty cool.

We spent the rest of the weekend taking turns going to General Conference in the Conference Center, watching it on TV, eating, sleeping, and playing with cousins. 

On Monday after Conference my parents had the day off! So they made it a day for the grandkids. We took the "train" (the trax, aka SLC public transportation) to Gardner Village, a fun place that goes all out with Halloween decorations including a harvest/Halloween themed corn maze and obstacle course, a petting zoo, witches walking around, an old fashioned candy shop and a bunch of other little shops and restaurants. Will loved seeing chickens, playing on the slide, climbing on the spiderweb rope, and most of all loved jumping on the big inflated blob they had there. He also loved the train and wearing a hat just like his cousins Noah, Jack, and Isaac. Basically anytime we're around the Hansons Will thinks he's one of them. I could leave and he wouldn't even notice.

Emma just sat in the stroller or hung out with Grandpa. We had a fun time with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt "Ashowl" (Will's version of Michelle) and our cousins.

11 1/2 months?!

1. Emma is an expert crawler now. The way she started crawling (with one foot and one knee) has stuck so she always has one knee and one foot dirtier than the other. 

2. A week or two ago Emma finally found the stairs. She can go all the way up all by herself (with Mom close behind just in case) and if it were up to her she would do it all day long. So we put the baby gate up most of the day.

3. She knows how to wave and will do it when you ask her to.

4. Emma is so happy. She's almost always smiling and if she isn't she's looking at you with her big blue eyes wondering what's going on.

5. She has two teeth on the bottom and two teeth coming in on the top. They haven't poked through yet, but I can see them and feel them. Just like her brother Will, the two teeth next to her front teeth are coming in before her front teeth.

6. Emma eats pretty much everything. If she likes it, she inhales it by the fistful. If she doesn't, she chews on it for a bit, makes a face, opens her mouth and squeals until it falls out or I take it out.

7. She is so curious. When Will was this age, he was all about walking and crawling for the sake of moving around and wiggling. Emma is different. She only moves so that she can check things out, open up cupboards, steal Will's toys, get to the stairs, sneak through a door, or inspect or eat something off the floor (usually crumbs or Cheerios... one time a dead fly... gross). She is not very destructive or troublesome, just very purposeful in everything that she does.

8. She gives high fives if you put your hand up.

9. She still sucks her thumb and loves to snuggle against my shoulder, especially when she's tired or sad.

10. She is the sweetest, easiest little girl a mother could ask for. She is such a blessing and we love her so much. I can't believe she is going to be one in a couple weeks!

Will: 10 Things

1. I don't know where this kid picks up half the things he says. The other day after his nap he and Taylor had this conversation:

Will: "I watch Cars with Harrison!" 

Taylor: "Did you dream about that?" 

Will: "Yeah that's my whole life."

2. He just started saying his own prayers. And all of our family prayers. And all of the blessings on meals. He loves saying prayers. And they all include some mix of the following: "Daddy go to work, we eat dinner, be happy, take a nap, (a few other things about what we did that day and some other muttered jibberish) Jesus Christ, AAAMMEENN!" (and he yells the amen) Sometimes he gets stuck but he won't let us help. When we do try to help and suggest something to say he walks over to us and says, "SHH! Stop it Mommy!"

3. We've also been working on having family scripture study with Will every night before he goes to bed. It's definitely one of those efforts where being consistent is the primary goal. He has his own Book of Mormon that he flips through as he repeats after us. If he gets distracted his go to phrase is "and he came to pass". Sometimes he just looks at the pictures in the front and talks about them. Other times he flips quickly through the book, puts it back on the shelf and rides around on his wheeled dinosaur. It's a work in progress but it feels good to be setting up the tradition.

4. Will loves riding his balance bike. As it started to get easier for him he also got more distracted. Apparently I told him to focus so many times that now when he wants to go faster he says, "Focus! Focus!" He even told Taylor while riding in the truck, "Daddy! Go Fast! Focus!"

6. He has two kinds of singing. When he sings in church he basically just sings, "AAAaaahhhoooaaahhh!" as loud as he can, sometimes repeating a word here and there. When he sings songs that he knows he sings them staccato and monotone. For instance, "Happy Birthday" is sung "Hap. Py. Birth. Day. To. Will. Hap. Py. Birth. Day. To Will." His other favorite song to sing is "This Is How We Roll" by Luke Bryan (a cowboy needs his country music). He sings it like this: "This. Is. We. Have. Ro. OooOOOOoolll."

7. Will knows where all the car washes are. When we drive past any of them he says, "Hi, car wash! Hi, car wash!"

8. He actually knows where a lot of things are. He surprised me a couple days ago. I told him we were going to the park but I didn't tell him that it was a new park that we hadn't been to before. As we were driving he said sadly, "Mommy, I wanna go a park." I told him we were going to the park. Then he said, "Why we go this way?"

9. Yesterday Will was trying to get something out of a drawer in the kitchen and said, "Mom, I want pickles." Confused, I started picking up different things in the drawer asking if that's what he wanted. Finally I picked up a box and he said, "Yeah that! Mommy need pickles too!" It was a box of toothpicks.

10. Last Saturday we all went running as a family. Taylor and I are training for a half marathon in a couple weeks so it was our long run. Since Taylor's shin splints have been bothering him, he decided to go a shorter distance and push the kids so I could run my long distance. At his half way point, he turned around with the kids and I went on to run a loop home. As they left me behind, Will was concerned that Daddy was leaving me! Then when they got back to the car and Taylor started driving away he was really upset that we were leaving mommy behind and started throwing a fit. I'm glad he's got my back in case I ever do get forgotten.

Reuse and Recycle

At one point this last summer, all of Will's favorite toys were well... garbage. Literally. We had an empty milk jug hanging from a cabinet that we used to play a game called "Hit the Milk" (can you guess how to play?), he built towers out of Gatorade bottles, or used them as drums, or baseball bats to play "Hit the Milk" and by far his favorite was a carwash I made out of the cardboard boxes our milk from Costco came in. It was pretty elaborate for a cardboard creation but unfortunately it wasn't sturdy enough to last more than a week. So now every time we get milk at Costco he asks if we can make a carwash.

Here it is.

Pretty much sums up Will's favorite things in life: cowboy boots, "Hit the Milk", Daddy, cars, and car washes.

Making the appropriate (and required) car washing sound effects.

Love these boys and watching them play.

More about June

After we got back from Outer Banks, we spent the rest of the month hosting visitors! Hailey and Marty came to visit with the twins, but only for a day so we went to the beach and went out to dinner... with 4 adults and 4 kids age two and under. (chaos... but we're glad they came!)

Then a few days later my parents came to stay with us! I felt bad having to put them on an air mattress in our living room but they were good sports. We also got to see some more of Michelle and her family, and Peter and his family because they came down for Brooke and Nick's wedding open house here in Agoura that weekend. (They didn't stay with us though... our place isn't that big.) We all went swimming at the Turleys' house, Mom got to go to Trader Joe's (hallelujah!), the open house was beautiful and delicious (Diddy Riese cookies and Thrifty ice cream), and we got to take all the kids to the Santa Barbara Zoo with Grandma! She even paid for them to feed the giraffes. Grandmas are the best.

My mom also needed to buy a new suitcase while she was here and this is the one Will picked out:

We got to see a lot of the Keysor side of the family (my mom's) because Grandma and Grandpa were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary. They had a nice party at their house and they finished the night cutting the cake (designed after their wedding cake) and we all ate Aunt Kari's cookies (of course). Some of my aunts and uncles also shared speeches and stories (some that Grandma denied... I still don't know what the truth is) and my aunt Stacy and uncle Dave also put together a slideshow of pictures of my grandparents, my mom and her siblings, the grandchildren, and all the great grandchildren. After 60 years they have a great posterity (in size and quality) and it was really special to see pictures from their life. 

I was glad we got to spend a little extra time with my parents that week. After 10 days we took them to the airport to go back to Africa.

It reminded me of the last time Taylor took them to LAX one year before. It was really hard for me to have them leave Agoura and move to Africa. I felt sorry for myself a lot because we had finally moved close to them and then they had to leave. And I was having a baby. And a million other selfish reasons to want them to stay. There were a lot of low points during the year that I cried about it, especially after Emma was born (hormones and sleep deprivation just added to the problem) but in retrospect it's a lot easier to see the blessings that I received in that year. Taylor and I moved into a bigger place before Emma was born. We had (and still have) a ward full of people who genuinely wanted to help. I learned how to ask for help (which is really hard sometimes!) and was always able to find it. Men from church helped us pack the truck, women from church helped me pack and unpack boxes, clean the house, and made us dinner when Emma was born. I missed my parents but looking back I was never left to fend for myself. I always had help available. And on top of it all we're able to Skype with my parents and visit them in Utah every October and April! I know that the Lord needs my parents where they are more than I thought I needed them here. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows what is best for all of his children--me, my parents, and the people they serve. It's amazing what one year can teach you and the perspective it can give. 

Outer Banks

Now that we've finally moved into Fall (California has been a little slow getting the memo) I've been trying to get caught up on Summer. I've edited and sorted pictures, uploaded the hundreds of pictures taking up space on my phone, figured out the dates when everything happened, realized how quickly it went and now that it's October (yikes) I can't procrastinate any longer. Time to write it all down.

So sorry for the new post overload. (It's coming.)

It's actually my brother Matt's fault. I was about to give up on writing about everything (I mean, I have the pictures at least, right?) but then last week he sent out this awesome video he put together from our family's trip to Outer Banks. So I realized it doesn't really matter if it was a few months ago, it's better late than never.

Since our family is all over the place right now (Florida, Utah, California, North Carolina/just moved to Boston, and South Africa) and since we normally go to Utah or California our family switched it up this year and went to the East Coast--Outer Banks, NC. I had never been to North Carolina but my brother Matt and sister Brooke raved about Outer Banks. So for the first week of June we rented a HUGE house (right on the beach), divided up meal responsibilities amongst the kids, and we all figured out a way to get there. Getting there was probably the most miserable travel experience I've ever had (actually, the second most miserable experience--the way back beats it). We flew cross country, then drove 4 hours, mostly in the dark, in one day. Then the way back the kids had a meltdown on the plane and the flight attendants (trying to help) just wouldn't leave us alone! It's been 4 months and I still am in awe of people that frequently take long flights like that with children. (Matt and Belize, you're amazing.)

Thankfully, once we got to the beach house things were a whole lot better. The kids' sleep schedules didn't adapt to the time change until the last night (of course), but for the most part things were good. Will played with his cousins, there were only a few fights over toys, we played on the beach, ate lots of good food, read books, and the adults worked on a big puzzle for like 3 days. We also had our first annual Hamilton Family Olympics and obstacle course complete with history trivia by Linda, spinning around a beach umbrella and then attempts to do a crab walk while dizzy, and ladder ball (which despite the fact that I played it a lot that week, I'm still not very good at it). I got to go on a walk one morning with my mom. Another morning Michelle lead the girls (including very pregnant Belize) in a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout during which most of us laughed at some point at how badly we were doing it. The grandkids swam, and swam, and swam, and went to the beach, and played in the sand, and swam, and napped and watched movies. And swam.

Our completed puzzle. (Sorry the Peanut Guy is cut off Michelle. I know you worked really hard finding that piece.)

Some bonding time with Grandpa.

Some more bonding time with Grandpa.

We saw a lot of cool things from our balcony. One day it rained really hard so we watched the lightning over the ocean. Another day we watched as the house next door performed a wedding on the beach--redneck beach wedding with the men wearing board shorts and Crocs and cowboy hats.

We also visited a lot of historical sites in the area.

The Wright Brothers Memorial at Kitty Hawk

Bodie Lighthouse, Cape Hatteras

Roanoke Island (The Lost Colony)

And I finally brought out my camera for the sand dunes. The sand wasn't as soft because of the rain the day before, but the kids (and the big kids...) had a lot of fun.

And I think I figured out where Will got his goofy grin.

...Grandpa.

It was a really fun vacation. The best part is seeing all these cousins getting old enough to play together. I can't believe how big our family is growing. I'm already excited for our next summer reunion!