April 2025

It's been a lovely week. Jared is in his sourdough era, Jack continues to feel less anxious and is sleeping better, Alice has gotten quite proficient on her scooter, and I'm down to our final 10 boxes of my unpacking journey.

Yesterday morning Jack made a "bunkbed tent" and wanted to have our family go "camping" in there before bed. So we all piled into Jack's top bunk, draped with blankets and filled with Christmas lights. We sang some camp songs and read some books and it was a lovely time. It's good to have moments like this after busy, attitude-filled weekends. Jack desperately wanted me to sleep on his bottom bunk for this campout. I didn't want to because it's a less comfortable than my own bed, but I reminded myself that I only get to enjoy one childhood with my children, and it was totally worth it because Jack had his best night sleep in months and months. 

Jack has been spending a lot of time with his classmate/neighbor friend Theo. They run back and forth to each other's houses most days. Jack picks Theo up on his way to school so they can finish their short walk together. Theo has gone on one or two outings with us, and on Saturday Jack went with Theo's family to run their Saturday errands. Sometimes I get annoyed when Jack unexpectedly comes home from school with Theo because I'd been hoping for a family outing to a park or something, but honestly our afternoons go much smoother when Jack has a friend here, and I remind myself frequently that this was my dream for Jack when we made the decision to move to Utah. I pinch myself that he is living out the "walking to school and back, biking around the neighborhood, running back and forth to a good friend's house or the park" life that I wasn't sure would ever realistically be possible. Happy for him and our family.

Hmmm what else...I got stuck in my temple dress in the changing room this week for a solid 15 minutes. It was bad enough that the blood flow to my arms had been cut off and I was about ready to yell for someone to bust down my door and cut me out with a pair of scissors😂 Luckily I was able to get it off just before it was time for me to cause a scene. In other dress-related news, Jared bought me the summery linen dress of my dreams that has become my new personality. Alice continues to say the sweetest, funniest things. (We just got back from the park, where she said to a little boy playing near her, "Hi kid!") With Jack less anxious in the evenings and us changing up the bedtime routine, Jared and I are finally getting to spend some time together on weeknights. It's a wonderful thing, and crazy that we went a full half year without that time together. And now for some pictures from our week:

^^Now that the weather is warming up I'm enjoying longer hikes in the evenings. I like to find a spot that's "my" spot when we move to a new place. Somewhere quiet in nature, a bit off the path, on my daily walk. I think I found it by this scrub oak tree on a hill overlooking the valley. 

Me: "Alice it's time to go home now. We need to eat lunch."

Alice: "Slide one more time? Tiny bit?"

^^Another  nature exploration! The thing I miss most about Washington is probably the endless beautiful rivers and lakes surrounded by gorgeous, towering trees. Jared and I each took two hours to ourselves on Saturday morning, trading off with the kids. This is something we try to do at least once each weekend. Usually I like to have them leave the house while I stay home to unpack and organize. This week they stayed home while I drove up American Fork Canyon to journal. I started out by Tibble Fork reservoir, thinking this would be the closest we'd get to our Washington lakes. It is beautiful up in the mountains, but Tibble Fork doesn't have the same charm or the same tree cover as our Washington lakes. Soon I started driving back down the canyon to try and find a quieter spot by the river closer to our home. Luckily I found several nice little spots that will be just a quick 15 minutes from our house. 

^^I found some old cardboard tube "binoculars" Jack made in preschool, and Alice was obsessed. She wanted to make some herself. So we made some and went for a family exploration in the hills to look for birds and forage some sage for a table arrangement. It was the casual family outing of my dreams.