9/3 The City of Salt
We spent the whole day with Grandma Georgina and Grandpa Marvin. Grandma made Swedish Pancakes for us for breakfast and then we hung out in Salt Lake City the whole day. We took a tour of the new LDS Family History Library, which was very interesting. We walked around one of our favorite cities and visited some beloved parks and gardens. Then we had dinner at our esteemed restaurant Zupas, which is exciting since we don't have it up in Portland. (We rotate between Zupas, Rumbi, Barbacoa and Cafe Rio as favorite restaurants to visit that we don't have up north.)
My mom took some pictures as I was busy with Ollie:
good old SLC
Toby's our little tree monkey
9/4 Elsa morning and then Friends the rest of the day:
We picked up some Meadowlark yellow flowers for Elsa's resting spot and spend a little bit of time with her there. It was nice, since we weren't in town for her birthday.
all four of our kids together!
(it was SO sunny we could hardly take pictures!)
I just have to say a thing or two about visiting Elsa's grave. For one thing, the boys were SO excited. They couldn't wait to set the flowers on her grave. They both wanted to carry them up the hill from our car. Also, we found our little yellow bird in the bushes that we left there back in March. It was really weathered. We decided to bring it back to Oregon with us, and it now sits in our garden. Sweet. And finally, oh man...I did not anticipate the emotion that would come over me as I climbed up the hill to her grave for the first time since having Ollie.
Here is an excerpt from my journal that evening: As I was walking up from the car to her grave site, I felt a tremendous amount of peace and love and comfort flow over me. It was like I felt the spirits of Elsa and Ollie, and Heavenly Father and Jesus. And perhaps others...all there. I felt completely overwhelmed. The awesome joy came from visiting that place with a living baby in my arms, and the love from those from beyond, and my deep and profound love for Elsa... There was this feeling that we'd be back soon to get her. Not too much longer and we will hold her again [in her resurrected state]. When I was pregnant with Oliver, it was so hard to trust that this was the right thing for our family. That Elsa should die and we'd get Ollie instead. But now that he's here it feels so right and I wonder why and how I did not trust.
I remember when I found out that Elsa was a girl. I had SO MANY people tell me how jealous they were that I was getting a girl. Well, I had 4 months to be excited, buy girl stuff, prepare a girl nursery, draw pictures for my 3 year old son of our family with a baby girl with a curl on top of her head. When I found out Ollie was another boy, I thought that it was just another sweet boy. Not my rainbow baby. Not what I was expecting as compensation for the pain I had to endure. I didn't expect the pain to go away (I knew it would be easier when he got here, I just wasn't sure how). But the pain HAS very much gone. In the same kind of way that you feel relief after a really terrible scrape on your knee heals. You're so glad that you're through that and on the other side. You still remember the pain from the scrape, and because you do...you are all the more happy that you aren't feeling that pain anymore. OH, I can't even begin to explain how grateful I am for Oliver. I'm just trying to live in that moment. This year...the year I get Ollie all to myself.
We had to leave Elsa's grave more quickly than I liked to get to our next engagement, but that too was ok. The next time we're in Utah, we'll plan to spend more time.
We drove all the way across the valley to our friends the DARTONS! They have the coolest house. It is always the most fun to go visit them. We had lunch and talked. The kids played. Our two oldest kids went on a hike through their wooded property (until their daughter fell and scraped her knee :-( ). Then the Dartons set up their SUPER slip and slide!
hot sunny day in the dessert + 80 foot piece of professional landscaping plastic + water = FUN!
It looked like so much fun! I was wishing I wasn't 3 weeks postpartum and that I had my swim suit so that I could join the kid fun. But then much to my surprise Jack joined the fun:
And Brent joined the fun:
And Jo joined the fun:
And so I joined the fun! (I guess I'm more influenced by peer pressure than I thought :-/ ):
I started nice and slow at first, but worked my way up to a running start and a wild ride!
We are so happy and lucky and blessed to have friends that help us remember to take the chance to have crazy kid fun! (For 6 years we have fantasized about buying the lot next to these guys and building a house...)
Their oldest daughter, little miss K and her museum of nature finds
These guys had so much fun together...I just love the way Toby is smiling at little miss M.
And how little miss M and Toby played dress ups together:
Thanks again Dartons for sharing your amazing home with us!
Later that night:
A Barbecue/pool party with friends hosted by the amazing SADLERS!
Toby swimming with his favorite cousin Ella!
(We invited Brent's brother Jonny's family since they used to be in the same church/ward as the Sadlers.)
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| Cautious Joshua finally worked up the courage to jump off the diving board! Yay! |
In the interest of time (it has taken me 3 weeks to write this blog entry, so far), I am going to save the rest of our Utah trip for another blog post! Look for part 2, coming soon!
2 comments:
I am one of your many blog stockers....LOL We live in Utah County and I think I know where you guys were at on the water slide. Was it above Lindon? If so my husband did a lot of the rock work on the pavilion. We were up ther fixing the BBQ just about a month ago. Wow! It's amazing how small the world is.