Post Vacation Crash

We got home late last night from our awesome Aanderud family reunion in Park City!
Paul and I were in charge of the T-shirt design and the theme for the week. We decided since the Aanderuds are a family of therapists and social workers that "The Show"would be a fun theme. Paul was the MC for the first opening night and dressed like a talk show host with a table and a mug and did a power point presentation highlighting each sibling and asking many of them to come up and be guests on the show. The presentation was full of all kinds of hilarious spoof clips. My favorite part of the presentation was when Patty (mother-in-law) was asked to come up and talk about her new book "Why I'm right and you're wrong" The show was really funny as well as tender as Paul provided moments for family members to share what family means to them and how special it is for us all to be able to get together. "It is what it is" is our tagline since it has become a common, and probably overused saying in our family.
As an introduction to our family talent show, Paul showed this clip:

We stayed at the Silver King Lodge in Park City. We rented 4 rooms so the kids had a blast cruising from room to room and to the pool and back all week. I feel pretty negligent because my photos are few and far between. You can call me lazy. I've been sticking to the bare minimum lately. So, I'll just fill in some highlights. Zach, my bro in law who just got a job as a professor at BYU (WAY TO GO ZACH!!!!) took us on a nature hike

where we learned that Joren is a huge fan of earthworms. He was so fascinated and had no problem touching and prodding and playing with it. He couldn't get enough. This is cousin Dave being super cool with Joren. I'm not sure Mom would have done such a good job with the earthworm exploration as Dave did. Thanks dude.

The kids LOVED the bubble wands and squirt guns Grandma brought for the hike.

At the talent show that night I had to hold Eirik in my lap with white knuckles because he wanted to be on stage with everyone the whole night. He had 4 parts to his talent and I'm sorry I didn't video anything! He said the pledge of allegiance (I know, old trick) the first article of faith, sang "Skidamarink-a-dink-a-dink" and pointed to everyone at the end of the song where it says, "I love you". Then he did a dying scene as a cowboy with a very funny voice. He was really excited about this part.

Joren's talent was equally cool. He repeated every letter of the alphabet with perfect diction, except W. He can't say it so he skips right to X. He is so smart and so cute.

In the morning the men went golfing (in the rain) and the kids did crafts. I cooked all morning for this awesome dinner we had that night with all the in-laws of each family. My parents came and it was so cool to have them there. We made Kristen's awesome salad. See my previous post for the recipe, and it was a hit.

(I know, my photography rocks in this post. :) I didn't even take my better camera which is a blessing since I would have had it in my carry-on that had a whole cup of sippy milk spill in it as it went through security. The milk ruined my phone.. so if I haven't called you back lately, that's why! And, my camera would have been ruined too.. so as for the pictures.. "it is what it is."









The night of the dinner we also took some family photos. I'll get the professional ones at some point, but for now. These are pretty fun to have.

That afternoon the ladies threw a baby shower for Kristen and me. It was so nice of them and they really went all-out to spoil us. The games were really fun especially because we had some younger nieces with us that loved it. It was fun to spoil Kristen too since it is her first baby. I'm so excited for them!

The whole reunion was awesome, but my absolute favorite part was all the cousins for my kids play with. They were so entertained and had a great time. It was AWESOME! I got such a break from sword fighting and playing pretend, and they still had a great time. What cute cousins we have too!

Joren and Zinnia at the Bean Museum later that week.

Jake, Elsie, Joren

Jake and Eirik ie: Supermen
Eirik said his favorite part was doing steamroller with Megan and dancing with all the kids at the talent show.

On our last day the adults all got to go to the American Fork Temple right after a great dinner at Chilis. In the middle of dinner I was chatting with Kristen who casually mentioned her recommend and I had this sudden panic attack. I realized I had left mine in my diaper bag, which I had proudly announced that I wouldn't need for a night out without the kids, which happened to be 35 minutes away. I jumped right in the car and zoomed home to get it. Luckily my parents are so great and, not only watched the kids, but met me halfway so that I could make it back to the session without 1 second to spare. I literally walked in as they were filling out, and I was the last one in the session. I thought about how terrible I would have felt to have missed that wonderful opportunity. I would have been the only adult in the family of 11 that was missing. I was really grateful to be there. It was a really special session and I had so much adrenaline going in that I had no trouble being very attentive through the whole thing. Maybe forgetting my recommend was a blessing in disguise.


We also got to have some great time with the Laws. My mom is such a delight. She had Eirik join her out in her gorgeous yard to play games, sit in the hammock, swing and climb a tree. In the tree she played tea party and sharks and whales and dinosaurs. I ended up climbing the tree with the so that I wouldn't be eaten by the giant whale that was apparently chasing me around the base of the tree.


We also had the pleasure of celebrating Miss Makayla's birthday with her (my 4 year old niece) while we were there. We had a special waffle birthday cake breakfast for her and then we all got to go see the horses that my sister Katie has been grooming and learning to ride. Eirik and Makayla got to ride on of the horses. Makayla, with gorgeous red hair down to her waist intensely declared, "It's like a dream! For my birthday!" They pretended they were a prince and princess warrior going off to save the kingdom, and then they were a just married prince and princess riding off to live happily ever after.







Thanks Katie for the great time!

And finally a trip to Utah is not complete without a drive in the mountains. Both Paul and I were craving that glorious mountain beauty only Utah has. We did the Alpine Loop and it was so green and the steams and lakes were all so high it was just gorgeous. We saw loaded chokecherry bushes everywhere. It's a big tradition of my mom's to make chokecherry jelly and it's always fun to spot the trees on our drives. The kids didn't really love the drive, but we sure did! Here my mom and sister are whistling with blades of long wet grass. And it was another exciting worm adventure for Joren! He found three, and he had no problem getting very muddy, thus Katie is holding him as far away from herself as possible. he he









My brother Dave bought me lunch and I had a great time visiting with him and my brother Michael. We all miss Daniel who is on his mission in New York. We are so proud of him. We love getting his letters every week. He's a stud. It was so sad to say goodbye again to all our loved ones. It's always too short and too sweet and so sad to come home. We love you guys!

And here are a few Eirik quips to get you laughing if you made it all the way through this incredibly long post!

On the way to Utah Eirik insisted that he had to wear this outfit to the airport. His shirt and pants did not match and each were on backwards. This hideous spiderman boots, given to him by his cousin Abe, have replaced his ultra worn, oh so dear, cowboy boots that no longer zip up, as his footwear of choice. No other footwear will appear on his feet without a great ruckus and tantrum. So he wore his boots, but each on the wrong foot, on purpose. And he had to wear his home depot apron which is now repurposed to be Luke's orange and white flight suit from Star Wars when Luke is in training and in the spaceship. But no Luke suit is complete without the new red helmet! I had to insist that he was not allowed to wear a helmet on the plane. I was afraid he would be mistaken for a hyper hypo and it was already way too embarrassing. He got a lot of attention at the airport and each time had to explain that he was not wearing a Home Depot apron, but that he was Luke Skywalker in training!





And as a side note, Eirik often takes pictures on my camera and I found about 8 video clips of his spider man boots when I downloaded my pictures this time. He really loves those hideous things!



Eirik has still not learned what the word whisper means and his outbursts of words like "Dar Thader", "Kill", "Leah", "Blood", "Poop" and "Now" came at all too frequent intervals.
I'm not saying I'm embarrassed, I'm just saying he's very entertaining.

We were all glad to be home after a long day of traveling.

I made Paul promise that he wouldn't make me go anywhere today. so we are having a cool chillin' day at home.
We miss you family!

I KNOW you're not going to like this,

Eirik:
"Mom, I KNOW you're not going to like this, but I HAVE to do it!. I have to show you how brave I am. I have to show you how brave I am with a knife. I WON'T cut myself!"

How frustrating!

Yesterday I overheard my kids having this conversation in the bathtub. It went like this.

Joren: "Die"
Eirik: "What kind of dinosaur?"
Joren: "Die"
Eirik: "What kind of dinosaur?"
Joren: "Die"
Eirik: "What kind of dinosaur?"
Joren: "Die"
Eirik: "What kind of dinosaur?"
Joren: "Die"
Eirik: "What kind of dinosaur?"
Joren: "Die"
Eirik: "WHAT KIND OF DINOSAUR??????"
Joren: "DIIIIIIE WA WA WA WA AHHHHHHH!"

The poor kids could not figure out a better way to ask each other the question.
I went and got all their dinosaurs in a big tub and put them in the bath with them which immediately solved the problem.

These pictures are from when my parents came to visit for graduation. We took them to Lake Erie Metro Park. Yes, Joren is in the water with his shoes on. Of course he is. :)

Eirik: "I need raisin bran and pepperoni. Dad, do you like pepperoni in your cereal? I love it!"

Eirik: "Mom, my naked name is Rock; Rock-a doodle." (nickname)

Kristen’s Rockin’ Mexican Salad

I finally got that recipe I promised typed up. Believe me, this is worth the effort, even if you have to drive for an hour to Costco to get the Queso Blanco.

Kristen’s Rockin’ Mexican Salad

Dressing:

1/3 c. snipped fresh cilantro

¼ c. snipped fresh marjoram- or sprinkle dry

¼ c. lime juice

2 T white wine vinegar

1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, drained and finely chopped

1 ½ tsp salt

Salad:

12 cups packaged chopped hearts of romaine or 2 head romaine lettuce coarsely shredded

4 cups shredded cooked chicken

1 small red onion - finely chopped

1 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 avocado- chopped

2 plum tomatoes seeded and chopped

1 cup cooked corn

2 T snipped fresh chives

2 limes, cut into wedges

1 cube fried Queso Blanko cheese –(buy from Costco)

For dressing, whisk ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Arrange lettuce on a very large platter. In a large bowl combine chicken, onion, and 1/4 cup dressing. Toss to coat. Arrange chicken mixture, black beans, avocado, tomatoes, and corn in rows atop lettuce on platter. Sprinkle with chives; drizzle the remaining dressing. Serve with lime wedges. Makes 8 servings.

To make ahead: Prepare salad as directed, except toss avocado gently with 1 T lime juice to prevent browning; do not drizzle with dressing. Cover and chill salad and dressing for up to 4 hours.

Dinosaur Festival!

I thought you might like a snip-it of my son's whack imagination. We bought him some little dinosaur stickers at a store we visited in Ann Arbor last week and he and Joren had fun putting them on a piece of paper today. Eirik then hung the paper on the fridge with a magnent and immediately resolved that we all must come watch the paper as it had suddenly turned into a magical movie he had written about dinosaurs invading a space ship driven by aliens.
Here is his word for word, 100 mile per hour enertainment.

"You have to come sit down in this chair so you can watch the movie. I'm going to write down the dinosaur festival. We have to get a stage. Here is our stage. Now, Say,"Dear Dinosaur Festival, Here comes the movie. Here, you have to turn it on with this remote control. But first we have to sing a little song before the movie. "Dear Heavenly Father, here comes the movie for the dinosaur festival." "In the shady meadows" OK, Now, we are ready.

Joren you have to get on the stage to watch the movie about dinosaurs in space. You have to watch this first part. In this part the people who are going to drive the space ship kill all the dinosaurs. It's sort of an adult movie. It's not really for kids. This is going to give Joren nightmares.
Now, just remember that it's not real. It's just in your mind. The people pretending to be the aliens and the dinosaurs are in costumes.

Jesus is in space and he resurected the aliens so they never die again. Jesus gives them power to kill all the dinosaurs and dragons. The first part is so awesome. But the second part is so scary.
Do you love it? This is your dinosaur festival about dragons and dinosaurs. Remember it's not real so try not to be scared.
This part is about the hooks on the front of the brontosaurus feet. They can kill the good dinosaurs but not the bad ones, and they can kill the spikes off of the stegasaurus so other enemies of stegasaurus can kill the stegasaurus.
Now the alien costume guys talk like this. (Loud, obnoxious high pitched squeel. )
This is how the alien costume guys kill the dinosaurs. With whips! They whack the dinosaurs on their legs and they die and it's so awesome!
The movie ends like this. When the dinosaurs say "Arhh" (Loud, pained growling) when they all die. That's the end. Then the movie is over.
I hope you liked your dinosaur festival!"

Graduation came with a storm, and ended with a storm!

We arrived home from the cruise on a Sunday and by Tuesday night we had to be ready to leave again for our 14 hr. drive to Missouri for graduation. It was a quick turnaround, especially considering that I was beginning to feel knocked out and nauseous everyday about then with morning sickness. Not to mention the fact that I felt sad to not spend every possible minute with my sweet parents who drove all the way across the country to watch our kids while we pampered ourselves at sea, and who had stayed in town to see Paul graduate. As we left for Kirksville I felt a knot of nausea in my stomach accompanied by a knot of excitement and anxiety. The drive went pretty well. We got to stop in Nauvoo for a few minutes. Eirik loved the horse statue with Joseph and Hyrum Smith riding.

The anxiety was soon explained as we drove out of Nauvoo into dark looming storm clouds. Right about then, our friends in Kirksville called to tell us that there was a tornado warning and that we had better check our route. It turned out that the tornado was heading straight down the street we were planning to take into town. We changed our route and then we drove into the craziest storm I've ever been in. I usually really get excited by storms, but I had such a foreboding feeling about this one that I started to get really freaked out. I made Paul turn around and while I insisted that we find shelter he insisted that we were fine. We were kind of yelling at each other when Eirik offered to say a prayer. He said, "Heavenly Father, please help the tornado to go away from us, and please help my parents to make a good plan." And then he went right to sleep. The radio then said that we could expect the storm to pass through Canton, the town we were headed to, right about the time we were planning to drive through before we turned around. So, once again we changed our route and kept going. After torrential rain that I thought would sweep us off the street, it dissipated and we entered an eerie green glowing light. Everything was so still.. too still. And the clouds looked like giant hands coming out of heaven. We got out for one quick picture. (This is absolutely unaltered in any way but still doesn't quite capture the eeriness of the moment.)

The stillness didn't last long, for as we drove on the rain descended and we entered a deep darkness that turned into a lightning storm like I have never seen before. For about 30 minutes we drove through fields where we had lightning flashing 360 degrees around us about every 2 seconds. Paul found this awesome classical music that was loud drums and trumpets and high intensity power music to fit the mood. I'm telling you, I thought we were going up in flames at any second. I was just holding my breath. Finally the lightning gave way and we drove in silence through the flooded streets to our destination. It wasn't until the next day that we discovered the extent of the devastation. Right through main street of Kirksville (where we would have been driving at the time of the storm) many homes were totally destroyed and 3 people were killed. It was quite the experience and I'm glad we were safe!

Sorry to write so much about the storm when the really important this is that Paul graduated from Medical School!

I love Ashley. This great pic is from her awesome camera. I also took pictures with many of my other great friends, but it was on my Dad's camera... so the wait continues to get those pictures. (hint hint.. dad....xxoo)
We got to stay the whole time with our good friends the Clarksons. They have an awesome farm 15 minutes from town. Our boys got to see the baby cows drink from bottles and we fed the chickens and ate fresh eggs. They are great people and I hope we grow up to be like them. They were great to host us the whole time! Thanks Clarksons!
Here we are at a fun graduation dinner at Napoli's.






On the long drive home we experienced the tantrum of our lives. It was absolutely remarkable. It deserves it's own blog post. I'm working on a video to post. I hope you get to see it soon!

Congratulations Paul! You are awesome and we are so proud of you!!

After 4 years of anticipation.. Duhn duhn duhn... !!

We met up with the Pace's and the Field's in Puerto Rico for the ultimate indulgent vacation package.. a week long cruise in the warm Caribbean!

It's overwhelming to try to tell about each fun packed day so I've decided to start with my

Top ten awesome moments: (and try to fill in some details later with more scrumptious photos .)


10. Justin got totally hypnotized at the hypnotist show and had us rolling on the floor laughing. He was awesome! He conducted a tremendous symphony! Very impressive!

9. My Rock star husband was the first up for Karaoke and nailed it with "Sweet Caroline"! He was a natural and, oh so charming!

8. On the wonderful island of St. Thomas at Saphire beach I swam out way way way out by myself almost to where the boats were passing and found a huge sea turtle. He was not afraid of me and we swam together for a while until he started to surface and I got to grab onto his shell and experience turtledom. It was AWESOME!

(This picture is actually Aruba, but whatever)

7. There was a little lul in the excitement. The men had gone off to do some male whatever and we were chilling in Katherine's room when someone had the idea to come up with notes to annonymously slip to other passengers. We mischeviously wrote up little messages from the management about how people had eaten too much shrimp and were being asked to please refrain or about how their nighttime activities were interupting other guests. (I'm sure Katherine will share all the details as she scrupulously took photos of all of our notes.) It was a moment of sheer giddiness. It's fun to feel 14 again. I just wish I could have seen the recipient's faces.

6. We got to roll in Paul's 29th year with an outrageously fancy steak dinner with lobster tail and all the works. (and how many of you crazies ate 2 whole steaks!! yes, more than 2 of you!)

5. In Dominica we took an hour long bus ride up through the amazing rain forest to a river where we tubed down to this beautiful lagoon where we swam and decided to climb up these roots to a small ledge and all jump off. I loved the idea and was the first one up, however in my haste I didn't realize that all my "cool" companions had removed their life vests for the photo so I look like the lame duck who is afraid to drown. (photo coming). Thanks guys.. you know how to show your love.

4. This magician comedian guy (Michael James) was shockingly irreverent and insanely funny. At the end of his show the announcer, who was this terrific MC was congratulating him and introducing more events when Michael stuck his head out under the curtain to look up her skirt unbeknown to her. Her surprise showed that it was not expected and not appreciated. After a bit of recovery she calmly said, "that was in interesting way for him to resign." It was shocking and terrible and oh so funny at the same time.

3. 30 Rock quotes became a constant thread of laughter throughout the whole trip. "You ate that whole steak!" "A dog took it, It came out of no where!"

2. For a whole week I didn't have to experience even a moment of this:

1. And the number one best thing about the cruise was that I didn't feel even a bit of morning sickness until the day we disembarked!! Yes, people that is an announcement. We planned carefully to have a baby the day before 2010 for tax reasons. (Dec 30 to be exact) ie. yes we planned to get pregnant, no, we aren't very good at math and could have probably picked a better due date with better planning.. but we are thrilled besides the puking and more than anything glad that sickness did not ruin the trip! Yeah for baby!

Sun and Ice Cream

Sometimes I'm amazed at how messy kids can get in just moments. Joren looks like he is bathing in food and that "kiss mark" on his forehead is from where he RAN off of a cement step an hour earlier. And he always has drool down to his belly button by the end of the day. (we can't wait for those darn teeth to come in!)

We are loving the warm weather. It feels like life has started again. There are people on the streets, neighbors talking, kids playing, people walking their dogs, running, windows down. It's like we've all been invisible to each other and all of the sudden we live in a world of people again. I just feel like I'm melting, like I've been in this hyper vigilant stressed, worried state of mind and the sun is just calming me down. Thank you sun!

School's out for....EVER!!!!

Yes, it's true, Paul had his LAST day of medical school last week!!
I don't have a picture of his last day so I have posted one of my favorite pictures of him.
There aren't that many people in the world that can do what he has just done. And to do it with grace, balance, and incredible good looks. Now that's saying something. Way to go baby. I knew you could do it!

It's been 4 years!!?? Incredible.. well, they haven't really gone by that fast, but the time has come and we are so glad! 20 days until graduation.. and counting!

And, to celebrate, Paul and I decided 4 years ago that we would take ourselves on a cruise at the end of this. In one week we will be sailing the Caribbean waters without a care in the world. It's been this distant thing on the horizon for so long that I'm almost freaked out that it's here because I don't really know what to do with myself once it's over. Ahhh!!! I'm so excited I can't really focus on anything else. You know, going over everything I'll pack everynight before going to sleep.. trying to think of funny things to say so I won't bore my husband, I mean, when was the last time we spent a whole week together?? And, dreaming about all the excursions excessively. I'm sort of in anticipation agony. I've also had major passport drama so please pray with me that I won't need it!

I hope you can imagine my trauma when I came out of my recent, much anticipated haircut appointment anguished because my hair is WAY too short. I love, love, love my stylist. She is one of only two stylists in my life who have ever made my hair cute, and every time I go to her house I come home with tear stains and sore cheeks from laughing so hard. And in her defence, I am terrible about telling her what I want my hair to look like. So, how would she know that I would hate it. But I do, and I am so sad because I wanted to love my hair on my cruise. My friends have been so nice. ."Melody, I'm sure it will grow out fast.. It really doesn't look bad. It's cute .. really. " (nice, fake smile, good friend smile.) I love you all for loving me even when I feel like a boy. :) So, when you see my cruise pictures and my hair is demoralizing.. please don't say, "what happened to your hair?" That might make me cry.

So, Paul's last rotations were in Cleveland. We got to go with him for a few days and stay with Kit and Basil. As always, we had a wonderful time. One of the highlights of the trip was trying this salad that was AMAZING. Yes, it did take 7 trips to the grocery store to get everything on the lists that day... but may I say, it was worth the effort. I can't wait to have this again. And I promise I will post the recipe as soon as I can.

It's the fried white mexican cheese and the dressing that really makes this special. It's the kind of salad that gets better with every bite so you just can't stop eating.. Mmmm my mouth is watering.

After Paul finished his last day, he jumped on a plane to Las Vegas to meet up with his dad (turning 60) and his brother (turning 40) and his other brother for a weekend of fun and golfing.
I'm so glad he got to go and he has had a wonderful time, but we are going to be so glad to have him back!! 2 weeks is a long time without our main man. Here is Eirik waiting at the window for him even though it's still 5 days before his return.
We miss you Paul.