Play Ball?

This past week has been phenomenally warm; highs have been at or around 60 every day, and even though Thursday and Friday were a bit cloudy, it was still warm enough for me to go to work without a jacket yesterday.

This has reached such proportions that this afternoon the kids and I went outside and played some baseball. The gloves were cold and stiff from several months of laying inert (my legs felt the same way the first time I had to chase down a Ryan fly ball), but after about 20 minutes I had stripped off my long-sleeved shirt and was playing in short sleeves.

We played for a little over an hour, and a few things stand out that I would like to comment on. First, Isaac is truly ambidextrous, with a tendency to throw better with his right hand. He writes almost exclusively with his left, but when we play catch he now has to use a right-handed glove. I find it funny how his physical skills are evolving; it wasn't much more than a year ago that we bought a lefty mitt for him.

I was also reminded of how coordinated Ryan has become. He belted my first pitch,and by the time we were done, I had backed up and was pitching to him overhand. And he'll still pop it across the street pretty frequently.

It was also gratifying to see how well my children do play together. Allyson is very aware of and careful around Evan, who in turn follows her around like a little puppy. and all of the kids did a good job of taking turns with the scooter and the baseball bat.

I'm sure we're in for another dose of winter soon, but in the meantime, I'll enjoy this early spring.

Another Day, Another Hike

We've been enjoying a nice warm spell here, so we decided to venture out for another January hike. This time we headed east to the Sandia foothills, where we made a quick trip uphill.

This hike was fun because it was the first time that Evan has hiked a significant amount on his own. It wasn't that long ago that we had to carry him the entire time. But a few minutes into the hike he asked to be put down. He then held my hand while he walked, although this was short-lived. You see, his goal was to hold Allyson's hand, as seen here:

He also walked a stretch holding Summer's hand:

After about 10 minutes and a nice little ascent, we reached a saddle in the rise, with another descent ahead, the main body of the mountains to our right, and a small knob of a rise to our left. This is called U Mound, a reference, I believe to it being a bit of a party spot for university students back in the day. The hill rises a few hundred feet pretty quickly, and the crest commands a nice view of the valley.

A few years ago I did this hike with the three oldest kids, and we tried to scale U Mound, but the steep slope and scree made us call it quits. This time, however, with two adults along for the ride, we felt confident in making it all the way up here: About 1/3 of the way, the going gets rough and the ground gets unstable. It takes some scrambling and a careful bit of footing to get up, so, while the boys and I went ahead (by this time I was carrying Evan again), Summer helped Allyson along the slope:

Ryan, who may be 1/4 mountain goat, flew uphill, while I helped Isaac navigate the tricky spots. Both boys led me to the top of the peak, looking pretty pleased with themselves:

After taking in the view for a minute (it was clear enough to see Mt. Taylor to the west and the Magdalena range to the southwest), we got to the hard part--going downhill. I went first, trying my best to compensate for the jumbled bit of extra weight we call Evan. Isaac followed along, sliding at least half of the way on his bottom. Ryan seemed bored by the degree of difficulty, while Summer cautiously guided Allyson down, a task at least as much psychological and physical. We were all pretty proud of our group of hikers.

Monday's plan--hike the Mesa Top Trail at Boca Negra.

And It's Still January...

Just a quick note about a pretty wonderful day. The kids had the day off, so we had a lazy day, sleeping in and taking our time this morning. Then Summer and Allyson went grocery shopping while Evan napped, the boys played outside, and I got some work done. The real fun began after lunch.

After a quick trip to the library, we drove down Central to Tingley, where we parked and walked around the bosque park there. The park, renovated in 2006 for the city’s tricentennial, includes a number of picnic tables and a maze of paths running both parallel to and toward the river. We walked for 10 minutes or so, down to the river’s edge, where we could see a dozen or so geese on a sandbar in the middle of the river. I’m always amazed at how getting into the bosque, where rabbits, coyotes, and roadrunners live, makes you feel so distant from the city, even though you’re only a few minutes from downtown. If it wasn’t for the traffic noise from Central, we wouldn’t even have known we were in the city.

After this pleasant trip, we made our way up to our favorite ice cream place, I Scream Ice Cream. This small independent shop, run by the friendliest man I’ve ever met, is decorated in classic album covers and old-school toys. And the ice cream is spectacular.

But the best part, after we had eaten our fill and stopped by the bakery next door for some homemade bread, was the time and temperature sign at the shopping center where we were: at 3:45 pm on 16 January it read 62 degrees. Sure beats shoveling snow…

What Did You Say?

In another case of potentially-misunderstood titles, this entry could imply that somebody got their mouth washed with soap for creative language use. But no, this one's about the emerging language skills of a toddler. In a recent entry at my other blog, I spoke of finding joy in the simple things, and this is one of those instances.

Evan is in the midst of a great vocabulary explosion. In the past few weeks he's gone from saying "ball," "dadda," and "cracker" to adding "cereal," pig," "binky," "fish," and another dozen or so words. (Admittedly, these are all in their rough, a-stranger-might-not-understand-any-of-this-and-would-think-you're-crazy-for-calling-these-sounds-words stage, but we can communicate a lot more efficiently than we did in December.)

This has reached such a level that last night, when Summer and I were making the rounds, checking on the kids before we settled down for a long winter's night, Evan spoke to us. Well, he talked in his sleep. Some random babbling (which is what my students might call my lectures--thank you, I'll be here all week) as we tucked him under the blanket.

This is amusing because talking in one's sleep is surprisingly common in our home. I do it occasionally. All of the kids have been known to prattle on unconsciously (sometimes even when they're asleep...). Allyson is the most frequent sleep-talker, but she's also been talking longer than the rest of the crew.

Even among my parents' offspring this is not unheard of. Carolyn would routinely chat in her sleep, sometimes even giving answers in seminary. I'm not sure if either Mom or Dad will talk while sleeping, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.

Getting back to where we started, with the joy in simple things, as Summer and I listened in on Evan's soliloquy, we looked at each other and smiled the smile of bemused parents everywhere who see their child's mind at work, even when the child is at rest.

On Family Home Evening

Family Home Evening is something that we have gotten a lot better at over the past few years. We almost always have FHE, and we’ve moved from activity/outing-based to lesson-based evenings, which has been very good for our family.

As with pretty much everything we do well, this is a direct result of Summer’s sensitivity to the spirit. A few years ago, she rather freaked out about Allyson getting baptized, so we ramped up our FHE, with a special focus on what baptism is.

This year, as we prepare for Ryan’s baptism, we have made a few changes to how we plan and conduct FHE. For a while now we’ve used a wheel that indicates who has lesson, song, prayer, activity, and treat. But what’s better than a wheel? A spreadsheet.

Summer and I sat down and made a calendar for the year’s Mondays and each person’s assignment. Then, we assigned lesson topic categories. (This is part I’m really excited about...here is comes...) On the first Monday of the month the lesson will focus on that month’s Primary sharing time theme (it just so happens that our stake is using these monthly themes as sacrament meeting topics, so this FHE each month gives me a chance to think about my talk). On the second Monday we will talk about some facet of baptism, using the Primary sharing time themes from several years ago, which focused on baptism. The third Monday’s lesson comes from Preach My Gospel, and the fourth Monday’s lesson comes from the new Nursery manual, Behold Your Little Ones (the best Church teaching resource ever, I believe). If there are five Monday’s the last one is a fun outing.

As there are five of us who give lessons, this creates a nice rotation of topics, so everyone gets a taste of the different topics. The rest of the tasks also rotate each week (and we set it up so when Isaac has lesson, Summer and I have easy stuff—song or prayer) and can help him with his lesson).

We’ve only had one Monday so far this year, but the system seems to be working well. And we’ve got a swell spreadsheet with each month’s assignments, so that’s an extra bonus...

Is the Chair Too Big...

...or you you too small?

2009

Happy New Year! As we groggily wake to a new year (the kids tried to stay up to midnight again last night; Isaac fell asleep on the floor around 10:30, and by 11:15 Summer and I had given up and sent everyone--ourselves included--to bed for the night), here are some plans for the next 12 months.

We set individual and family goals for the year based on the six areas of self-reliance taught by the church--physical health, education, employment, resource management, emergency preparation, and spiritual strength. Our physical health goal as a family is to go on more regular walks/hikes, which we hope to begin later today in the foothills. At least once a week we would like to go somewhere around town for an hour-long walk.

Our first few trips will be separate vacations: in March I will go to Arizona for spring training with Dad and Nathan, and in May Summer's going to Women's Conference. The timing of both trips is good--I'll be ready for a break halfway through the semester, and Summer can get ready for the kids' summer break with her trip.

Also in May, we would like to take the better part of a week for a nearby camping trip--either southern NM or northern NM and southern Colorado. We're working on going south to Carlsbad and White Sands or north to Great Sand Dunes.

I'd like to catch 4-6 Isotopes games with the kids and Summer, and maybe one or two by myself. Earlier in the year, beginning as soon as late February, the Lobos have home baseball games, so we might catch a few of those as well.

The big thing this year will be Ryan's baptism, followed by a trip, likely to Mesa Verde, with my parents and siblings. Carolyn's supposed to be looking into cabins/lodges near Durango. Everything I've found is a bit off, but this may be a starting point for further research.

Over Christmas we're planning a trip to somewhere. Summer proposed Disneyland, but that may be too expensive, so we may go with my suggestion of Zion or the Grand Canyon. You can see what we're considering here.

We also hope to do lots of fun ABQ things--the BioPark, Explora, the Nature Center, Old Town, the foothills--and find new things to do and enjoy here.