I Can't Wait Until I'm Eight...

Can you believe this boy is eight?! Eight years ago it was not snowing. Eight years ago I weighed 40 pounds more than I do right now. Eight years ago I was an "expecting mother." Eight years ago, I had no idea what was in store for me. Would I exchange my last eight years for anything? Not a chance.

Today my first-born son is 8 years old! He is the brightest, most tenacious, corniest, weirdest, most creative S I know!

We began the day with me bursting in the house from a 4 mile run in the snow singing "I like my birthdays every one! Each brings a greater joy to me!" and waking up my still-slumbering boys. Grandma and Grandpa Kim called to sing "Happy Birthday" on speaker phone -- complete with harmony at the end -- to my sons' delights. S was presented with the traditional plate of "8" shaped cookies on and hot chocolate in the "You Are Special Today" plate and cup. (I fed him waffles too.) This morning I made the cake (giant chocolate cupcake with white frosting and m&m sprinkles), wrapped 4 boxes of gifts from G & G Kim, and filled treat bags. We are heading to Jumpin' Jacks for S's first ever "friend party" and couldn't be more excited about it! This is a big birthday, folks! Tomorrow my little S is going to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I love this birthday!

We love S! We love...
...his love of music -- singing, piano, tapping rhythmically on any surface with heel-of-hand thumps and fingernail thrumming.
...his love of books. He's reading "The Hobbit" right now. When I see him curled up on the brown chair immersed in Tolkien, I can't help but think, with a rush of pride, "That boy is so my kid."
...his love of all things Korean. He feels the need to share his (sort of) cultural heritage with his friends, although, mercifully, he chose the Airheads as his class birthday treat instead of the roasted seaweed that he'll eat by the sheet at home.
...his love of order. From the time he was 1 and lining up all of the matchbox cars up till now, when he came in my room the other day and sternly told me that I had folded his pants wrong and put them in the wrong place in his drawer, his mind has had to be very well-ordered. I bet the inside of his head would look an impeccably clean library.
...his love of his brothers. Don't get me wrong -- my wild little monkeys fight a lot, but they care for each other, help each other, and play together sweetly too. H lately has been tackling S -- jumping on him and rolling around with him on the floor. S just laughs and says, "H is so cute, Mom!"
...his love of learning. If a subject interests S, he will research it, take notes, and put together a chart, graph, or paper for me to read. Recently, he made a list of Roman gods, the corresponding Greek gods, their roles, and relations to each other. He's moved on to learning all he can about horses and will next tackle South Korea.

We love our S so much! We are so thankful for 8 incredible years with this boy!


(I will post pictures of the party and baptism as they occur, as well as finish up our Moab vacation.)

G.R.O.T.

S and O have formed a club called G.R.O.T. H is not a member, because he does not yet see the value of Getting Rid Of Toys. S and H have completely cleaned out the toy room. The only things left to play with are the easel (which I told a disappointed S that we would not throw away), the trampoline (which I told the same son that it could not be an outside toy), and the Little Tykes basketball hoop (which is not S's to get rid of, since it was H's Christmas gift). There are no toy boxes in the playroom, no random brightly colored plastic things lying around -- nothing. Truly, it was all well and good while the nice weather held (who needs toys when one can play outside?), but now that it is snowing (yup -- snowing) again, the boys have resorted to playing with things that are not toys and that are not theirs to play with.

Why this sudden aversion to toys? I have not a clue. It may be that I am in cleaning/de-junking mode lately. It could be that I've made the boys clean up the playroom every Saturday and they don't like that. I guess I'll take it for now since the play room looks not-cluttered (which I like) but terribly stark (which I'm not so fond of). I wonder how long the club will last...

Spring Break in Moab, Part II

We fell in love with Arches National Park on our second day in Moab.

We visited Broken Arch






And Sand Dune Arch.




On Saturday Grandma Kim, the monkeys, and I hiked the Windows Trail.




G Kim relaxing in the shade








Then we drove to Wall Street...


...to watch G Kim and J do this:


That night we took a Jetboat up the Colorado River and then had a Dutch Oven dinner. A great vacation!

Spring Break in Moab, Part I

The day after the night that J lay huddled on the floor by the bathroom and hugging the toilet, we all piled in the FJ and headed off to Moab. When we arrived, we sought out some dinner, which 5/7 of us didn't eat, and then went for a walk to this really cool park:



They have all these percussion instruments there made out of random pieces of wood and pipe.


And the auxiliary percussion station:


The next morning, after a disgusting breakfast at the hotel we found our way to the Bowtie Arch/ Corona Arch trail head. Outfitted with trekking poles, Camelbaks, and G & G Kim, we were off!






About here is where I had a little hissy fit and tried to pick a fight with J, much to the amusement of my father, who looked on and laughed. I understand that hiking has its perils, and if we want to become a hiking family, we need to face those perils, but really?!? Trails on rounded sandstone that require makeshift ladders and guardrails so you don't fall off into the gully below? Steep, slopey rocks that you climb up and then will have to climb (or fall) down? Anyway, after I used a few choice words (like "stupid" and "idiotic") I climbed up the "ladder", gripped my boys' hands with no intention of letting go, and sucked it up. Turns out it wasn't so bad after all, but I breathed a sigh of relief once we were back at the car.


Corona Arch




Bowtie Arch

Spring Break

We've begun our Spring Break with vomit and diarrhea. I don't mind, actually. It's nice to have all my boys home. We are listening to "Peter and the Wolf" and "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra" while making domino tracks. Plus, since most of the kids are sick, I don't have to cook. I made a vat of chicken soup (a la Sungsook Kim) and rice, so I won't have to cook for a few days. Doesn't get much better than that! (Okay, so take away the vomit and diarrhea and there's a perfect Spring Break, but we'll take it as it is!)

A Running Update

In case you were wondering...

I went running last week and OUCH. Sore for a few days.

I had a podiatrist appointment on Monday, and he said that I won't be doing any damage by running on it as much as I want (within reason), even though it may feel like I am damaging it quite a bit. I can handle the pain. I took that as the go-ahead and ran 2 miles on Wednesday. Not a lot, but I'm planning on 3 tomorrow and 5 or 6 by the end of next week. I'm kind of on the accelerated plan since the Wasatch Back will be upon us before I know it.

J took me up to Striders (a running store) in Layton on Saturday. They have a really neat foot analysis thing where you step on this mat and it sends all the information -- pressure, contact, etc. to a computer. Then they can see what really happens when you walk/run and can recommend the best pair of shoes possible. I came home with a new pair of running shoes and a renewed excitement to run run run! Now, the homemade strawberry ice cream I just ate is trying to talk me out of the 6:30 run tomorrow morning, but it will not win. It will not win. Well, it might win. I'll let you know.

St. George, Part 1

For some reason, blogger won't let me upload pictures, so we'll have to do without for now.

A few weekends ago we headed down to St. George for a quick little vacation. We left Orem at 8 PM on Thursday, thinking that the boys would sleep all the way down and through the night. Well, they did sleep most of the way down (and through the worst snowstorm we've had this year -- freaky whiteout conditions), but once we arrived at the hotel at midnight, would not go to sleep for 2 hours. Note to J and E: DO NOT DO THAT AGAIN!!!

So, Friday dawns bright and early since my kids hardly ever sleep in, and there are thunderclouds following my little ones around. To the background noise of whining, complaining, and all-around grumpiness, we had breakfast, went to Target, and headed off to Zion National Park. J and I were awed by the beauty of the rock formations (lots of pictures that don't do it justice, even if I could upload them). S was hating vacation, O was offering commentary on how grumpy S was, and H was helping (think: copying) O and S in their individual strains of thought. After a yummy lunch, we headed up the Middle Emerald Pools trail. The moods lifted as we spied horses, plicky plear (prickly pear) cacti, deer droppings (mother of boys, remember?), yucca, and -- at last! -- the waterfalls! There was a heart-stopping moment when O walked under the chain to the edge of the waterfall (We have a picture of "the cliff where O scared the hell out of us"). On the way down we saw a herd of white-tailed deer, grazing about 10 feet from the trail. So neat...

After leaving Zions (and S's good mood) behind, we ate dinner and went back to the hotel to swim in the completely shaded pool in 50 degree weather. Vacation rocks! We all bathed, watched the last 2/3 of Kung Fu Panda, and went to sleep.

I wonder how the boys will remember that weekend in St. George. Beauty, fun, whining, movies, grumpiness, playing in the park, mommy jumping out the van to walk around the St. George temple in order to convince herself not to leave her kid on the side of the road and drive off, swimming, bloody head, yummy frozen yogurt, watching the 3-D version of "Monsters vs. Aliens" without 3-D glasses in Best Buy while waiting for J to find whatever he was looking for... I'll have to ask them. As for me, a few weekends later, I think it was a really fun trip!

St. George, Part 2

After wasting $21 at the dinosaur museum where our kids sprinted through without looking at anything, we headed up to a really neat park in or near Washington.

I like how we're all looking in different directions in this picture:


In the afternoon, H and I hung out by the pool...


...while J, S, and O went swimming. I've found that I somehow cannot restrain myself from taking pictures of my sexy husband shirtless. However, I have managed to post only this one, and by doing so, have saved my readers from being blinded by his extreme whiteness:


S, perfecting the cannonball:


After dinner, we drove to Pioneer Park and clambered around some big red rocks:




And while I was busy taking a picture of J doing this:


H tried to follow S across a space between two big rocks, didn't quite make it, fell in between, and cracked his head open. Even though I washed all the blood out of that shirt, he still won't wear it!


We carried him -- screaming -- to the car, cleaned him up, slapped some hemostatic gauze and a butterfly bandage on it, then took him (and his brothers) out for frozen yogurt. Great vacation, I must say!