The Phillies win it!!!

What is with Philadelphia lately? First a temple (see previous post) and now the freaking World Series?!?! What's next? No more ghetto???

Philly is getting better and better since we left! I guess it was just us.....luv ya Philly!

Grandma Neves and the big trek out West

The phone rang early last Wednesday morning. An early phone call, or a really late one for that matter, is never a good thing. Keith's grandma, Grandma Neves, had passed away just shortly before. His parents were calling to tell us the news.

After the phone call, Keith and I lay in bed waiting for the alarm to go off, thinking of how much we needed to be at the funeral to pay tribute to her life. What an amazing life. We didn't get to see her much since we moved to Philadelphia but were so glad we saw her one last time this summer. Bennett and Leah were able to meet their Great Grandma.



It's never easy to have a loved one die. No matter how sick and miserable they are, it still leaves an open wound full of memories that takes time to heal. In the case of Grandma Neves, she was pretty miserable. She had been sick for quite a while and Keith's mom had been caring for her nearly around the clock for months, it seemed. It was exhausting for everyone, I'm sure. Certainly no one complained about it. Well, except Grandma Neves. She was pretty sick of being sick. She was always a very independent lady. When we were there this summer, she complained that her kids kept coming around to check on her and they wouldn't leave her alone.

She passed away on her 89th birthday. I think that was the deadline she set for herself. She quit taking all her meds a couple of days before. The night before her birthday she took off her oxygen and said she didn't need it anymore. She wanted to go and she just got sick of waiting. She took death, just like she took life: on her own terms.

Grandma Neves grew up under circumstances that anyone else would have crumbled under. She lost her mother to cancer at age 7. Her stepmother beat her and regularly kicked her out of the house. As a young girl, she slept under a train bridge and would often go to school hungry and dirty after a night out in the bitter Wyoming cold. She had a horrible childhood. Yet, she was able to forgive. And made sure that no one was ever as sad as she was. She always put her family first. As well as friends, neighbors, and anyone she came in contact with. She was awarded "Citizen of the Century" in her community several years ago. What an amazing life she lived. We'll miss her.

We were so glad we were able to be there for the funeral. But talk about an epic adventure! WE DROVE! Yikes! We jumped in the car on Thursday after Keith got off work and drove through the night. We finally pulled into Wyoming on Friday night. Somehow, the kids were amazing. As amazing as a 3-year old and a 10-month old can be when they are strapped in car seats for over 30 hours straight. Actually, it was painful. But we just kept driving. At least on the way there the scenery gets better and better. The drive home through North Dakota and Missouri were pretty difficult.

Funerals are meant to be solemn affairs. Grandma Neves' funeral was....not. It turned out to be the party of the century for the citizen of the century in Burlington, WY. We probably should have booked a band for the viewing. It was a raucous reunion. Every single child and grandchild made it there--except for Keith's brother Mark in Alaska. I'd be embarrassed to show my face too if my Governor looked like Tina Fey. But whatever.... There were over 150 relatives there! What a great legacy. I was pretty sure they cancelled school in the town so that people could attend the funeral. But I did notice a few cars in the school lot as we drove past so I guess they didn't.

Regardless of the absence of a band, we did have a great time. Despite having this view for SIXTY HOURS in a short 5 days. South Dakota is relentless....


All of Keith's brothers (except Mark) got to hang around and be dorks...er, awesome dudes in matching trucker hats...together. Ahhh, good times...

Some cousin time for Bennett. He loves cousins!!


Some 4-wheelin'...



And fossil huntin'...




And a little bit of middle of nowhere trail running. This is called the String of Pearls. Its a cool knife-edge series of bumps that goes and goes. Keith decided to see how many "pearls" he could run.




We had a good time in Wyoming and were glad we were able to be there to celebrate Grandma Neves' life. We are so glad to know that she is in a better place and happy to not be sick anymore!

We are also glad that we won't be driving through South Dakota again for a while... :p

Weird

The other day I was spinning some tunes off my ipod while making dinner. Randomly, an Enya song came on. You know, all floaty and mystical and you can't understand what she's saying. After a minute, Bennett came into the room and said "Mom. this song makes me feel weird."

Such advanced musical taste. But seriously, the Wiggles make you feel better??

The Mormons in Philly

A temple in Philly! I was really surprised and so happy to hear this awesome news. (For my peeps that don't know what I'm talking about, go here or here.) Very exciting. I only wish this had been announced about 8 YEARS ago so that Keith and I could have been a part of the whole thing. Man, I gave my heart and soul to that city for 8 years and they build a temple as soon as we leave! Keith's comment when he heard the announcement: "Well, when we left, the holiness quotient went way up. Now it's good enough for a temple." Haha. Anyways, such good news. A temple will be an awesome addition to the city. Plus, my sources (third hand info) say that it's going to be right smack in downtown. Sweet. Downtown Philly could use something clean. :)

Here's a cute conference quote from Bennett. While Keith was getting ready to go to the church for the priesthood session on Saturday night, he was asking where daddy was going. I told him he was going to listen to the prophet speak. He responded, "Is daddy going to follow the prophet? Oh, so he won't go astray?" He spent the rest of the night singing: "Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, don't go astray...." (the words to a kids song at church)

I gotta say, as much as we love our new surroundings, I do miss our awesome church family in Philly. I felt kinda lonely at the women's broadcast since I'm still meeting the new people in our ward here. Here's a shout out to my Philly sisters!!!

Eleven part two

I had a great week, but it was just how I like it...Busy. I did not get a chance to tell the world how great my wife is and how much I love her. Not all of the past eleven years have been great but Andrea you have always been. Thanks for still being that B.A.R.B. I fell in love with so long ago...



Andrea thinks that we went out to eat at a fancy restaurant with a great view of the Cumberland River fall foliage to celebrate our anniversary. She's wrong. We went climbing the next morning. Andrea and I never went on a real date until we were engaged but we did climb together every spare moment long before that. This is exactly the view I had of her as I fell for her over a decade ago. She literally had to catch me on many occasions. Isn't she great?




Andrea you rock! P.S. I forgive you for "the slack incident!"

Big Kid

Ok, I know I'm about a couple weeks slow on this one, but I wanted to post a pic of Bennett's first day of preschool. I can't believe what a big kid he is!

I have him in a preschool at a gymnastics studio. They do school stuff for 2 hours and for the remaining hour they run around on the trampoline, balance beam, practice somersaults, etc. He LOVES it! It is so hilarious to watch too. So now 2 mornings a week, Bennett goes to school and I get to spend a little girl time with Leah. It's awesome for everyone. :)

Eleven

Eleven freakin years!!!!

Happy anniversary to us! I love your guts!

Could I be any luckier than this??

Little Leah

Leah hit the nine month mark on Friday. We adore this baby girl so much! I took her to the doctor for her checkup and she weighed in at 24 pounds. WOW! No wonder I'm getting so seriously buff and have massive biceps. :)

Anyways, we love love LOVE her chubby rolls. She is at such a fun age. We discovered a little jagged edge of her first tooth coming in yesterday! She doesn't officially crawl on her hands and knees but she does what Keith calls the 'wounded soldier'. It's a sort of body drag thing. But she certainly gets around. She pulls up on everything and loves to be involved in whatever is going on. Especially eating. If you are eating and not sharing, she yells. And I mean YELLS. Hey, she didn't get to be 24 pounds by being picky! Bennett is so sweet to her and they get along so well. We feel so blessed to have Leah around!!!

Anyways, here's a few shots of our little cutie!!

A couple more

Bennett is cracking me up today. I just had to share...

This morning Keith found Bennett sitting on the floor in the hall outside his room. When questioned about what he was doing, he said, "I woke up because the dark went away."

Then this afternoon while reading books, he pointed to a picture of a tandem bike and said, "Mom, it's a bike for two dudes!"

Also, I bought a squash from a guy at the farmers market with really bad teeth. A classic Billy Bob. Just another day at my house. :)

Kentucky-isms

I had a weird moment today. Actually, they happen quite often lately. It came at the end of a busy morning full of errands. Random stuff: cleaning the car, buying new jammies for Leah, a stop at the gas station. My final stop was at the grocery store. As I got out of the car, I heard two guys in the parking lot talking.

"Bout time them fellers fix up that truck for ya."
"Oh yeah, they done real good."

That's when I had a weird moment. I LIVE IN KENTUCKY. I forget sometimes. I live a pretty sheltered life on my 2 acres on the lake. My neighbors are fantastic and so friendly but it's not like I talk to them all day long. Sometimes, I forget that I live in the sticks. And when I remember, it makes me laugh.

Here's a few recent Kentucky-isms of note:
--"She cooks good but she sure can bitch." (From the clerk at our favorite country store. Said to Keith about the previous customer.)
--"Some of my best customers are in prison now." (To Andrea from the same guy.)
--"I'm about the keel over." (Said to Keith in response to a casual 'how are you doing?' Again, same guy.)
--"I wanna bowl of chili, but I ain't gonna get none." (Once again, same guy. I have no idea how this came up while buying a soda.)
--"You may as well go ahead and vote for Obama, talkin' like that!" (Overheard by Keith. Said by an old guy to another old guy while sitting in rockers of the front porch of our other general store.)

I'm telling you, you cannot make this stuff up!!!!

Here's also a few recent Bennett-isms:
--Keith and Bennett were driving down the road near our house. Every time Bennett saw a kid toy, he would say "Hey, there's my friend's house!" He said this probably a dozen times as they drove. At the end of the road, Bennett said to Keith, "Dad, I made a lot of friends today!"
--I was vacuuming the house while Bennett was playing in his room. He did not appreciate the noise. He asked me a couple times to turn off the vacuum. Then in exasperation, "Mom, seriously! Stop!"
--Bennett was watching movies while we did some work in Keith's office. One of the office ladies asked him what was his favorite movie. After sifting though them, he pulled one out and said, "This one is really awesome."

And finally some pics from a good old redneck carnival we went to a couple of weeks ago...

Happy Birthday.....

to ME!!!!! I've been feeling especially old today. I think in large part because Leah kept me up for a couple hours last night. Waking up to 31 felt like a bad hangover (I'm guessing).

Then I met Keith for lunch. He had a patient this morning that told him she was turning 93 later this month. Keith told her that I was turning 31 today. Her response: "Well shoot. At 31 she's got the world by the tail!"

Fair warning, world. I'm just sayin.

To name an estate

I'm sure it's not true but I have always imagined that any residence worth its salt south of the line drawn by Mr. Mason and Mr. Dixon would have a proper name. Of course most of my knowledge about the South came from a movie that my parents made me watch as a young kid. Something about the wind taking things away or something... I sat through it only because we didn't get much TV time. But I came away with the notion that a home in the South needs more than just 135 E. 3400 S. to denote it.



Since we were and still are much more into the rock rather than the house, we have settled on Diving Rock as the appropriate moniker. So now instead of saying, "I'll meet you at home," it's "I'll meet you at Diving Rock." I speed there every night after work to make the jump.




I must admit that I'm still kinda chicken to actually dive but you must admit that Diving Rock has a much better sound to it than Jumping Rock!

Y'all come down to Diving Rock ya hear!

Why would you move to Kentucky?

This was a question I tried to answer to many people who I knew would never understand.

4:00 PM Friday: after a slow drive home fom work which included a side trip to scout for bouldering, the kids are just waking up from their naps and Andrea is ready to get out of the house. We pack a picnic and walk down to our canoe and I paddle the crew for about an hour and a half to the Marina. There we picnic and buy a Klondike bar. We paddle back home throught the lush forest lake and of course swiming and cliff jumping ensue before baths and bedtime.

6:00 AM Saturday. I wake up intime to see the first pink light of sunrise peeking through our oak and hemlock forest to the East. I talk Andrea into joining me for earling morning yoga on the top of a cliff over looking the lake. We watch the lake mirror the sky as it slowly morphs from hazy pink to deep blue with white clouds. The mirrored surface of the lake is just to much. Andrea suggests a jump. As I'm falling and looking down into the perfect reflection of the sky I get a brief flash of vertigo and because the lake is so still I have no idea where the surface is so I hit with my mouth wide open. The water is cool but nowhere near cold.

7:30 AM We climb the trail (100' or so) back to the house and quickly get up the kids and jump into the car. Andrea drops me off in front of the local "general store" where the rocking chairs on the porch are always full of old men with work worn hands arguing about fishing bait and Obama. There I jump into a jeep with a guy I met last week, his brother and his brothers kid. I realize three hours later that only one of these guys is wearing shoes. (After three hours of hiking and running through the brush.) We go about 2 miles down the highway and turn off onto a tiny dirt road through dense forest that looks like it has not been driven on in years. The guys driving on the highway was completely unremarkable. As soon as we hit the dirt track though...he became a maniac. We caught air more than once, slid sideways around trees, and bottomed out the center of the jeep several times. We stopped at the top of a ravine and hiked down to an oasis for a soul thirsty for a little time on the sharp end of a rope. Less than 20 minutes from my couch to racked up and ready to pull on some pockets. The weekend is just begining..."why would I move to Kentucky?" I muse to myself as the steep hard sandstone begins to flow past my quickly pumped forearms.

Lost in the Wind

OK, OK....

So I promised that I would post about Iceland. It has been hard to get over the writers block that has slowly melted like the mouth of a tidewater glacier. The journey was so profoundly personal that it is almost hard to talk about the solitude as if by sharing I might contaminate the deep loneliness that I enjoyed for three weeks.

There is a story of a group of explorers that hired local porters to carry their gear for an ascent of Killimanjaro. After several days of swift marching to the foot of the mountain at a typical climbers pace the porters refused to go any further for several days. The interpreter struggled to convey the meaning of why the porters refused to carry on. It came out something like this. "They cannot go on now because they are waiting for their souls to catch up."

After eight years in Philadelphia, I too needed some time and space to reunite with my soul. For years I had really missed it as I toiled through the drudgery of finishing my training.

Iceland is amazing.

I frequently felt like "the bicycling mute" as many days I spoke less than a dozen words to anyone.

I spent the majority of the time in the remote west fjords region and crossing the central highlands. There is alot of pavement in Iceland and quite a few good roads. I tried my best to avoid them.

The waterfalls are incredible and frequent. The mountains are rugged, but not by Alaskan standards. The weather is horrific or absolutely fantastic. Never just bad or good. The wind is not ephemeral and gasseous like in most places... It is made of concrete...almost impossible to ride a bike through. Of course it is cold.

After two weeks of riding I felt my mettle and gear was up to the task of crossing through the central highlands. I was 100 miles or so way from the nearest pavement and much farther than that from the nearest human outpost when I found out that my bike was not exactly up to the task. It broke. I was riding along late one evening looking for a spot to stop for the night when my back wheel locked up. My hands were no where near the brakes. Anyone who has spent any time on a bike knows that's a bad sign, that sickening skid to a halt. The two days that I had planned to get back to the hospitable world turned into six. I managed to turn my 27 speed cruiser into a one-speed clunker. Not exactly ideal for touring in rough terrain with full camping gear on heinous dirt tracks. I was pretty hungry by the time I reached the "Highlands Hotel" I did not even mind paying $32 dollars for the two cheeseburgers that I had for lunch that glorious day. I have heard Amercans that travel through Europe complain that Euros stink and don't shower enough...well I can say that after more than a week of hard riding, walking, and pushing a fully loaded dead bike across the Sprengisandur that I'm pretty certain that every single European who came through the hotel that afternoon has a much worse opinion of how bad Americans smell...sorry....

Enjoy the pics. I enjoyed taking them. You really have to go there. I can't come close to describing how glorious and beautiful it is. Or how bad the wind can be...If you click on the photos they get bigger.

Some of the houses are very quaint.



All that snow and ice has to go somewhere after it melts.



As long as the sun was shining and the wind was not too stong, the black lava rocks make a nice solar power heated seat.



The continental crack. North America to the right with Europe to the left.



Crusing through the west fjords.



Don't look now Andrea, it's worse than the Jenner Grade.



This road can only be passed at low tide. I had to push for a while through the loose cobbles.



Don't get out the roto-tiller and pea seed just yet Ray. I can't see the horse.



Just a few more hours of climbing to the top of the fjord.



I climbed all day for this view!?! The fog rolled in JUST as I hit the summit.


The last shot of my bike before disaster struck.



Things were bad after this.



No bike repair shops behind any of these hills...trust me I looked.



After twenty-four hours in a tiny tent riding out a storm how good did you think I would look?



Houston this is tranquility base...over...



Does this shot need a caption? I dont think so.



Home sweet Kentucky home!

Back in Kentucky

We FINALLY got our internet hookied up today so I can reconnect with the world. How does anyone survive without the internet? More than once in the last 2 weeks, we've taken the computer and parked next to a hotel so we could pick up on a wireless connection. It's just too hard to be without!

So, blogland, I am back. And I live in Kentucky. How weird is that? Actually, it's pretty stinkin awesome. I'll need to change the name of our blog soon but naptime is only so long. :)

Where do I begin? The last couple of weeks have been so eventful. I'll just fill in a little and will have to catch up later. Also, Keith is planning to post a whole bunch about his trip to Iceland. Don't know when he'll find the time, but he'll get around to it sometime...

After Keith got to Utah (such a long and funny story about his travels...more on that later) we left the next morning to go visit his family and start our trek east. We stopped to see two of his brothers on our way to Wyoming where we stayed with his parents for two days. They took us camping. Good times....



Check out the whoppers Grandpa caught for Bennett--


Camping girl--


Hiking with Bennett. Oh yeah, I got a haircut in Utah. I donated my ponytail to charity.


And here's me being pretty awesome:
(Actually, I'm probably just playing twinkle, twinkle. ha ha)

Wildlife! Right in our campsite!


And here's what he had to say about it...


And one more..just because I like what Bennett's doing....


Then we started our long trek home. Three days driving. With a 3 year old and a baby, that takes a lot of stops. And a lot of wanting to poke your eyes out. But we made it. Everything in our house was just as we had left it. No one showed up while we were gone and unpacked and cleaned everything for us. That was a bummer.

The last week and a half have been busy. Tons of unpacking and cleaning (thanks again to the people that DIDN'T take care of this for us while we were gone). Moving is such a hassle. Seriously, try not to do it. But life is settling in now. Keith started his job on Monday and so far so good! We've also spent tons of time swimming in the lake and jumping off our diving rock. Plus, on our second day here, we bought a new boat. It HAD to be done. So we of course have had to christen the boat and do some exploring. Seriously yous guys (please notice my blend of Philly/Kentucky here), life in Kentucky ain't bad.