Keepin' It Real Wednesday

The other day I was taking the kids to school in the morning.  When they hopped out, some stuff fell out too and had to be picked up and put back in by one of the kids.  Have you ever had that happen?  Like we aren't conspicuous enough, with six kids dashing out, while I wave my arms in a circle saying "Go go go!" like a chubby drill sergeant in a dress and barefeet.*  Today when I dropped my kids off, the teacher in carpool, remarked, "Wow.  It's like a clown car.  They just keep coming."

So, I decided to clean my van out, to try to deflect a little of the embarrassment (at least the mivi-van related embarrassment.)  This was the pile of stuff that was in the van but didn't belong there, after the trash was thrown away. Amazing, I know.  I would like to highlight a few of these items. Besides the library book in the front, which has cost me at least $20 in twenty-five cents a day late fees (so worth it for the random facts Oliver can now spout when he is supposed to be doing "more important things" like homework or finding a pair of socks for school), there are a number of note-worthy items.

Note the title, and then note the teeth marks on the bottom right corner.  Lemon Sugar does not approve.

See these comforters?  They were left at my Dad's house in JUNE during a cousin sleepover.  They were just retrieved last week.  What have Gabe and Oliver been using for blankets in the meantime? I dunno, dirty towels or something.  Who knows. 

And one of my favorites.  An RC car that has been broken for YEARS.  The perfect toy to bring in the van. 

Not noted:

Dozens of markers and broken pencils

Every scrap of paper used at church

Church shoes

Amazon packages that were supposed to be returned

A neck pillow that was brought for relief on a strenuous 2 hr drive across the border to Virginia 

Safi and Sifa come home!

June 8, 2016.  After over three years of waiting, we finally went to the airport to greet our daughters Sifa and Safi.  

A day of the greatest joy imaginable but also fear and anxiety. I look at these pictures and I see it all and I grieve for Safi and Sifa.  It is a very hard thing for a five and six year old to leave the only life they know and join a already-made family who doesn't even speak their language.  Can you imagine asking your child to do that? It is heartbreaking, and you can see it on their faces in these pictures. 

 I debated in my mind for a long time about whether to invite other people to the airport.  I knew it would be overwhelming for the girls no matter what, so I decided to go for it.  I wanted them to be able to look back on these pictures and see a tiny portion of the people who prayed for them and celebrated with us.

I  felt like I was going to pass-out or throw-up at this point.I had to keep reminding myself to breathe.  I felt so happy they were home but so sad for them and so scared about helping them through it. Add in three years of off-the-chart stress and the lingering sadness of my mom's death six weeks before this, and my body was a mess.

Oh, Sifa.  I can barely recognize you here.  I am so glad we know each other better now. You tried to put those gold shoes on last week and could not for the life of you squeeze into them.

Coming home to find our home had been secretly decorated buoyed me up more than I could ever describe.  I knew it had been done by some women who had prayed long and hard for us.

It was a day none of us will ever forget.  We talk about it often with Simone and Safi.  They laugh at how much Sifa (Simone) hated me then. I am glad we are were we are and I know time will only bond us closer.

My Mom's Eulogy

Given on April 30,2016

I have been assigned  the super easy and simple task of  capturing my mother’s 60 years in a way to that does complete justice to the memories of her eight very unique children and 30 grandchildren.  I hope you are all comfortable, because this is going to take hours.  Just kidding - for the sake of the 27 grandkids that are sitting in the audience, I will have to do my best to keep it relatively short.

Since my mom loved the stage, I have divided her life into three acts.

Act. I

Daughter, Sister, Wife

I have a family here on earth

They are so good to me

I want to share my life with them through all eternity

Linda Sue Parkins was born on September 15, 1955, the same year that Disneyland opened, and not far from it, in Long Beach California.  Her parents, Raymond and Joanne Parkins, celebrated this birth of their fourth daughter.  Her sisters Kathy, Diana and Pat came in the three years before and her sister Rhonda joined 5 yrs later.  With five girls in the house, it was full of laughter, pranks and games. Walking the foggy streets to school, they made up names for their imaginary pixie friends, who came up from the manholes and walked with them.  Among the sisters, my mom was the baby of the big girls, known as the dreamer and the artist.  To her little sister, she was a shining star - the popular girl who was always surrounded by friends.

There are two stories that I remember most from my mother’s childhood.  The first happened when she was 13 yrs old.  She was walking home from school one day with her next door neighbor Christie Nuttall.  My mom asked Christie if she wanted to come over.  Christie told my mom that she couldn’t because she needed to help babysit her siblings while her mom and dad went to the temple.  My mom asked her what a temple was, and Christie told her.  She said that because of temples, families could be together forever, even after death.  When my mom’s interest was evident, Christie asked my mom if she wanted to learn more and missionaries were soon knocking at her mom’s door.  I am sure that when those missionaries later baptized this bright-eyed 13 yr old and ordained her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, they had no idea the eternal impact it would have on not only her, but countless others.

The second story I remember most from my mom’s childhood happened 2 or 3 yrs later.  My mom loved to dance.  So much so that she went to not only her stake dances, but hopped around to other stake dances as well.  One summer night she looked across the cultural hall and saw a kind looking, blonde-haired, tanned surfer boy.  When a girls' choice song was announced she made a beeline straight for him and before the evening was over, they had a date planned.  Now, I have always heard the story from my mom, so I have heard about how she felt, but looking it from my Dad’s perspective, you can imagine how lucky he felt.  If you have seen pictures of my mom as a teenager, she wasn’t far off from the pixies she and her sisters talked about, with her big green eyes, beaming smile, and exuberant personality. She was just downright adorable. When they went out on that first date, my mom and the surfer boy both had a surprise for each other.  She confessed that she was not quite 16 yet, and he told her that he was leaving on a mission in a little more than a month.  They made the most of that time, seeing each other as often as possible, and when she went to school in the fall, all her friends heard about Bob Jeppson.  

In the two years he was gone, she finished high school.  Her creativity shined and she had a favorite art teacher who encouraged her talent.  She was a part of a singing group, The Sound of Youth, who traveled and performed throughout southern California.  She worked at Knott’s Berry Farm, where dressed in an old miner’s costume and once met John Wayne.

And when Bob Jeppson came home, her dream came true.  They were married on January 11, 1974 in the Los Angeles Temple for time and all eternity.  The idea that had drawn her to the church was now a reality for her.  She would have her own eternal family.

Act II

Mother and Leader

No other success can compensate for failure in the home.

Linda’s dream was further fulfilled on August 20, 1975 when she became a mother at age 19.  She and my Dad named their daughter Christie Sue, after the dear friend who had first taught my mom about eternal families.  My dad continued working and going to college in the  Long Beach area and Robert Charles Jr was born to them there in 1977.  When my dad got his first job teaching school in a little town called Blythe, California they moved their little family there, four whole hours away from their families, the beach, and all enjoyable summer temperatures.  When my mom was expecting their third child in 1978, she decided she going to use a midwife.  The midwife had to go out of town unexpectedly very close to my mom’s due date so my parents followed her.  My brother Levi was born in an apartment in Mesa AZ and weighed in a grocery store on a produce scale.  He was given the middle name Owen after the last name of the midwife.  If you haven’t caught on yet, my mom was brave, strong and adventurous, even though I am sure she never would have described herself that way.  All those traits served her well on their next adventure to Idaho, where they lived on a farm while my dad taught high school.  I was born in there in 1981.  After a few years in Idaho, my parents decided that maybe Blythe wasn’t so bad afterall, and they moved back.  It was there that the second half of the Jeppson clan was born. Ashley Rae came in 1983.  Aaron Parkins in 1985.  In 1987, my mom served as an auctioneer for a March of Dimes auction, while she was in labor, and then went to the hospitall and had Lindsey Kay.  In 1989, she was delighted when she got with the red-head she had always wanted with Bryce Alan. He was the red caboose at the end of the Jeppson train.. 8 kids in 14 years. All of us learned to say Christie Bobby Levi Katie Ashley Aaron Lindsey Bryce...and sometimes it seemed like my mom went through each of those names before calling the right one.  

My mom got a lot of comments about how many kids she had, but she was proud to be different.  She was proud that she stayed at home as much as possible and that the work she did there was her pride and joy.  She sewed most of our clothes when I was young and they were AWESOME. I am pretty sure we have pictures of Bishop Jeppson wearing handmade hammer pants.  We can all remember hours spent in discount fabric stores during trips out of town. Not the best memories and I can only imagine how much whining my mom endured for those trips, from the both kids and my dad.  My mom went beyond sewing to artistry, modifying evening gown patterns to create modest prom dresses and sewing my sister Christie her perfect renaissance wedding dress.  The creativity that her high school teacher recognized was put to practical use in caring for her kids in every way she knew how.  

Our family vacations usually centered around visiting family members and camping.  I can still remember the massive amounts of preparation my mom put into hauling a family of ten to the mountains in Southeast Utah.  Bins of food, clothes, games, and even our own porta potty that she would set up with a tarp around it in the woods.  I told you she was a brave woman.  She didn’t think twice about nursing a baby to sleep in the tent and then hopping out to cook a full dutch oven meal.

With 8 kids in the house, my mom was always coming up with new discipline techniques that evolved right along with her parenting level.  We had job charts and time outs and groundings and FHE charts and scripture challenges and nothing was ever adhered to perfectly, but most of the time what needed to happen did happen. Family prayer, on our knees, in a circle, was always a regular event.  More than once it was interrupted by giggling, and more than once that giggling came from my mom, who could never stop laughing once she really started.

  My mom used to say that all she wanted for Mother’s Day was a clean house and happy kids.  Maybe, just maybe,  by the time it was just Lindsey and Bryce in the house she got her wish.  

The gospel of Jesus Christ was never a separate little compartment of her life.  It was in every detail and every hour.  She taught all of us that if you had a talent, you used that talent to bless others and bring them closer to God.  She served as Young Women’s President with a baby on her hip, and brought her nursing babies to girls camp.  My mom showed up early to teach seminary to moody and obnoxious teenagers for years - I would know - I was one of them, and she often had to physically drag me out of bed.  She served as Relief Society President even when her plate was full and trusted that she had divine help to help her through.   The church building was our second home. When I was 12, they combined the 2 wards in Blythe into 1 and called my Dad as bishop.It was a big change for this small town.  Someone in the ward started leaving treats on people’s doorsteps, with a poem about joining together and flying in a V, following the the lead goose. The poem then asked you to make a treat and pass it along to someone else in the new ward.  I never told my mom this, but one day I was snooping around in her drawers and I found the original copy and discovered that my mom had once again used her creativity to try to bless the lives of others.

Our family table hosted every new family that moved in, along with many people who broke down onthe freeway, or even just truckers who were driving through.  My mom welcomed everyone, and sometimes......... that welcome included a planned water ambush.  What mom tells their kids to stand on the roof of the house  with squirt guns, to throw water balloons at their dinner guests?  Our mom, that’s who.  

I didn’t realize it at the time, but my mom had a lot of gall.  She unabashedly demanded you maintain a high level of humor and hilarity while hanging with her.  Which is why the missionaries once showed up to dinner at our house wearing black trash bags with holes cut out for their head and arms - because the time before my mom had “accidentally” started a food fight with them.

My mom also served as a second mom to many a teenager.  She wanted every child to have every opportunity for growth.  Once a year, from the time Christie was in high school on,  she hauled a van full of kids to BYU at the end of August for Education Week..  Most years she rented an apartment for week, and everyone who came along knew that you got to campus for the first class and didn’t leave until after the last.  By the end of the week, everyone was giddy with physical exhaustion and spiritual rejuvenation.  My mom always came home bursting full of quotes and ideas. Her soul loved to learn and grow.  

One of the best lessons my mom taught us, that she never really even talked about, was how to treat your spouse.  None of us ever doubted her love and dedication for my father.  She supported him through all the stress and busyness of life and always spoke of him with a profound respect.  Their marriage was always solid and the security it gave us can’t be underestimated.  

My mom would probably roll her eyes if she were here and I called her a saint of a mother, but she just that. Nelson Mandela said, ““I’m no saint—that is, unless you think a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying.”

That was my mom.  She often saw her imperfections staring her in her face. But she kept trying, and she did it in a beautiful partnership with my Dad and with her Heavenly Father.

Act III

Granny and Daughter of God

I am a child of God.

His promises are sure;

Celestial glory shall be mine

If I can but endure

In the summer of 2002, my mom became a grandma.  This was a really big deal.  I remember my sister-in-law Audra saying that when my mom  saw her first grandson Nolan, she just could not stop talking about how cute he was.  Could not.  I hope you can all picture her in your head saying, “He’s so cute.”  She loved her children, but she LOOOOOVED her grandchildren and she unabashedly bragged about them.  Oh, you have three grand-kids? I have 6...then 10, and on and on.   Every single time she went out of town, she bought a postcard for each grandkid and wrote a cute little note in her cute artistic handwriting, all about what she did and how she was thinking of them.  Each child had their own label that she created for them and printed out.   When I had Gabe, she came to help out, and when she went home she promptly created him a label, and sent him a postcard from her trip to Charlotte, telling him to be a good boy for his mommy.

Some of the best memories that my sisters and I have are of having our mom care for us after having babies.  She was so thoughtful - feeding you before you even realized you were hungry. Helping you learn how to breastfeed.Taking care of the older sibling.  Reassuring you that you were doing a wonderful job and that you could do it. Cleaning your garage, making meals, sewing blessing outfits.  The beautiful thing about it was that you knew that she wanted to do it just as much as you needed her to do it.  

Just like she did with her own kids, my mom always tried to point her grand-kids towards their Savior.  She made reverent toys for sacrament meeting, and stuffed nativity sets for every family.  She sent postcards from temples and talked about getting married there.  I think one of her most precious days as a granny was being able to go to the temple to see her adopted grand-kids be sealed into our eternal family.  

My mom’s two main goals for when all her kids were all grown was to be an incredible granny and to serve a mission or two or three with my dad.  She accomplished the first, but the Lord had different plans for her with the second.  Before she even had an empty house, she started to notice some problems with her speech.  Sometimes she would know exactly what she wanted to say but wouldn’t be able to find the words to say it. It was baffling, and frustrating, and depressing.  She told me that during this time, as she knew that something was going on, but didn’t know what, she went to Stake Conference.  The stake president had some open time in the program and starting calling some people on the spot to come up and say a few words.   She panicked as she realized it was all the stake auxiliary presidents.  She was the Stake Primary President at the time.  My mom, who was an incredible public speaker, was petrified that he would call on her and she would not be able to get the words out.  But she also knew that God knew how she felt, and she immediately prayed a silent prayer that she would not be called upon and knew that prayer would be answered, and it was.  This was so representative of mom: she knew God knew her by name and knew her needs.

In 2007, my mom was diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia.  Her future suddenly looked very different.  We all knew at that point that she would lose her ability to speak, but it was hard to really take in the enormity of her diagnosis.  She had to slowly mourn the loss of her dreams, and we all had to slowly mourn the loss of our mother and granny.  

My mom had her moments of sadness and frustration, but she tried oh so hard to stay positive. She even started a blog called Joy in the Journey, as a reflection on her valiant effort to look for the beauty in what was left of her life.

My parents moved here to Charlotte to be close to family and every week she came to my house and we sat at my computer typing out her email to her red-headed missionary. It was hard for her, and humbling, but she just had to be a missionary mom to her baby boy.  

She sewed for as long as she could.  She flew across the country for babies and baptisms as long as she could.  She served in the temple as long as she could. She planted flowers and painted. She decorated her house with her typical artistry and every year asked each of us for a new family picture for her family wall so that she could keep bragging about her grand-kids, even if it was done through a beaming smile and pointing.

She still continued to use her talents to bless others.  She and my Dad served in the nursery at church, and her smile was bestowed on a huge group of little toddlers.  I am sure many of you can still picture her with a big bag full of sippy cups, or in the kitchen getting the snacks ready.  That is what Linda Jeppson did.  She served in every way she knew how and even without speaking continued to bless the lives of others.  For nine years, she did just that.

Sometimes you hear someone describing their priorities in such a way as:  God First, Then your spouse and then your kids.  When I was writing this I wondered to myself if I could describe my mom’s priorities in that way, and I can’t.  All three were so intertwined to her. They were all a part of her eternal family.  There is a scripture that I learned in seminary from my mom in Moses 1:39, that says, “For behold, this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of Man.”  It is the Lord speaking, saying that all of this - the earth, this plan, the atonement, the scriptures, the prophets - all of it is for one purpose - the immortality and eternal life of man.  I think it is safe to say “For behold, this is Linda’s work and her glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of her husband, her sisters, her children, and her grandchildren.” She loved all of you so much. All of this - all her efforts, had one purpose.   There is nothing she wanted more than to bring you all back to your Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother.

I have no idea if my mom made a choice before she came to earth to bear the burden of PPA, but I do think that if she thought that it would help us draw close to God in a way that nothing else could, she would chose to carry it in a heartbeat.  So I hope we all will allow this sorrow and this trial to do that.  Use this to draw closer to God. She has already taught us compassion and patience through PPA.  I hope we all take our broken hearts to the only one who can truly heal them - our Savior.  

I know that my mom is with Him, and her greatest desire is to greet us all again, with a perfect body and a perfect mind, able to talk and talk and talk and talk some more.  

Remember who you are.

Return with Honor.

I say these things In the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ Amen.

No more uniforms!

Colin finished elementary school!  His school is K-8, so he will still be at the same school next year, but middle school is set up a lot differently.  He is excited to move around to different classes and interact with new classmates. 

His “Moving On” ceremony was wonderful.  He was awarded a President’s Award for Academic Excellence, along with one for Chinese excellence (only three his grade was awarded this one), and a couple of other awards.  This boy, he makes me proud every day. 

Colin’s teacher this year, Li Laoshi, was a gem.  She told me that her one problem with Colin was that he could not stay sitting in his chair – he was always standing up .  She always joked with him, asking if there was a tiger in his chair…but for practical reasons she always just assigned him a desk where he wouldn’t block anyone’s view when he stood up.  This made me love her – she just wants her students to be successful and she appreciates their strengths.  I got to be in her class a few times and they responded so well to her.

Colin with two of his good friends.  I had to leave the guy on the left in the picture because he was just too awesome to crop.

Can you tell I love him?  Can all of you believe this is the same little guy we all oohed and ahhed over in Provo? 

Colin with his good friend Charlie, who is in the French program and goes to the same church and scout group.  Charlie’s mom is obviously way more awesome than me, with all those leis. 

Gabe happened to have lunch during Colin’s program, so I grabbed a piece of cake and took it to him.  Speaking of good friends, the little guy peeking out behind Gabe has been such a kind friend to him this year.  He has just made Gabe’s social life.

Answering

We began our adoption of two sisters from the DR Congo last February after a ten year long desire to adopt. This adoption process has been intensely invasive.  It started with our home-study over a year ago, where we sat with an almost stranger for hours and discussed our values, parenting beliefs, life experiences, religion, and home life.  We sat with this social worker in our home, let her look at every nook and cranny, and let her ask our children questions.   It continued with background checks and multiple sets of fingerprints sent to the state and the FBI.  Add in physicals for everyone in our family and a complete disclosure of all our finances to every party involved,  and endless paperwork filled out for the Department of State, the Congo courts, and our adoption agency.  We have never exposed ourselves so completely and been scrutinized so closely. 

AND THAT IS OKAY.  It is for the sake of the the children who deserve to be placed in home where they have a chance at love and safety.

We are in the very final stages of our adoption.  We got through court in the DR Congo last summer and are the legal parents of our girls.  We have passed the immigration steps that we need to, and are currently 4 months into the 3-6months it is supposed to take for the US Embassy in Kinshasa to investigate our adoption to ensure it was completed ethically.  Once that step in complete (which could happen any day), they will set a date to issue our daughters’ visas to come home.

Sadly, these visas will be worthless. In the DR Congo, even when you have your children and their visas in hand, the last step to leaving the country is obtaining an exit letter from the entity of their government that handles immigration – this entity is called the DGM.  Last September, the DGM decided to stop issuing these exit letters to adopted children.  They made this decision amid rumors of adoption fraud and “rehoming”.  Their stated plan was to shut down for up to a year to restructure and investigate. 

Chad and I, and every adoptive parent I know, are firmly committed to ethical adoptions and we want the DGM, and every party involved in adoption, to do all that they possibly can to ensure that each child placed in a home truly needs a home and will be treated well.  We are in this for the children. 

This shut-down is complicated and I am giving you all these details so that you know I am not trying to oversimplify the issue or turn a blind eye to the issues in adoption. We want the DGM to dig deep into whatever suspicions they have.  

Our problem with this mess is the complete freeze of exit letters that has taken place and the lack of a plan.  It has been over six months. What exactly is the DGM doing to investigate?  How will this change the adoption process?  Exactly how many families and children are being affected?  How will they work through the enormous backlog when they finally do issue exit letters again? Do exit letters have to stop completely while all of this happens? Can they let families who were through court before the shutdown take their children home? The U.S. Department of State cannot answer some of the most basic questions put forth to them. Just a couple of weeks ago in a conference call with adoptive parents , they told us that the freeze would be in place until at least September, and gave us little hope that it would actually be lifted then.  So we are left with a hundred questions and no answers, and very little hope. If the US Department of State isn’t asking these questions and getting answers for us, who will?

In the meantime, literally hundreds of children are waiting for their families. The Congo courts are still (more slowly) issuing adoption adoption decrees and the US Embassy is still (more slowly) issuing visas for these children to go home.  Every day that passes with this suspension in place adds to the number of children waiting and adds to the wait once the suspension is over.

Our situation, as depressing as it is, it not as sad as other families I know –  a mother who went to the country to pick up their daughter after being promised they would receive an exit letter, stayed with her for five months, had to return to her children and husband at home and is still waiting to bring her home… a father missing the birth of a child while trying to get his adopted children home….. and so many families who have spent every dime of their savings on their adoption and who are now scraping together money to pay monthly foster care fees that have no end in sight.

If these children are waiting and waiting to begin their lives with families, it needs to be for a real reason.

We want a voice.  We want our children to have a voice. That voice should be coming from our government and it is not. 

We have answered every question asked of us and we deserve the same respect. 

This isn’t an issue of diplomacy, this is an issue of apathy. We need the U.S. Department of State to care. These children matter.

These are our daughters.  We received these pictures the day we were matched with them over a year ago.  Although I have looked at these faces countless times since then, my heart still beats fast every time, because I know they are worth it.  These two girls matter.  Every day of their life matters.

Today, please take the time to sign this petition and fill out letters at the end of it.  Please share this blog post on Facebook, through email, on Twitter, and on Instagram.  Use the hashtag #DRCStuck.

You are my sunshine

Before Carina was born, I had a feeling that there was a reason she was joining our family when she was.  That her soul and body had come together at this particular time and in her particular fourth-child spot, for a purpose.

As my transition from three to four kids was my hardest, her disposition made that feeling grow and grow.  She just fit.

And as this past year has been one of my more difficult ones, having her home with me all day every day has been a blessing.  Her chipmunk voice, her spunky attitude, going all day long, often insistently pulling me out from under the cloud I am under.  It is a phrase that is used often, but she is a ray of sunshine in my life.  I am so thankful for it.

Today on her third birthday, I knew exactly what she would love to do.  After a breakfast of sugary cereal we went to my parent’s house, where they gave her their gift to her – “Frozen.”  Then Granny came with us to Old Navy, where she got to pick out whatever dress she wanted.   We brought six or seven options into the dressing room and when she tried the second one on, no other dresses would do. I encouraged her to try the others on, but as she did she kept saying, “I like that one,” pointing to #2.  Library was next, where we ran into some friends going to story time, so we joined then.  After that we dropped Granny at home and had lunch.  She wanted to watch Frozen with her new dress on.  I told her she couldn’t eat lunch in the new dress, so she wouldn’t let me start the movie until she quickly gobbled half her bean burrito down, declared she was done and got the dress on. When the boys and Dad came home we went to Nothing But Noodles and then SAS Cupcakes, where she got to choose her own (pink) cupcake.  She only ate the frosting (no surprise there). 

Halloween 2013

 

The night before Halloween we carved pumpkins.  Colin did his COMPLETELY by himself.  Pretty impressive, right?  The other three….let’s just say my hand was cramped by the end of the evening.

Halloween evening.  I had to include a couple of different group pictures because Ollie’s poses crack me up.

No, Chad is not saying “Call me” and no, his swimsuit is not partially open in front.  Awkwaaaaard.

OH MY GOODNESS do I have the cutest kids on the planet?!  Seriously, these pictures make me so happy.  A word on Carina’s costume – I bought it at Walmart for a couple of bucks four or five years ago after Halloween, long before I had a baby girl.  I didn’t have any great ideas for her when I happened to pull it out and let her try it on.  After that, there was no going back.  She was just so adorable in this costume – my dad could not get over it.  Every time he saw it he would start laughing.  We got the hat on Amazon – the tiara part lit up and flashed.  Just what every little princess cowgirl needs.  Most of Ollie’s sheriff costume was one I made for Colin 7 (!) years ago.  We just bought the hat.  Gabe’s Quidditch uniform was one Colin wore a couple of years ago.  And Colin’s was just an old uniform that we added zombie blood and makeup to.   He was pretty thrilled by it, but his cousin Leslie was not.

We went trick or treating that night with my sister Lindsey, her husband Seth, and their girls Leslie, Mayan and Lily.  We all had a great time and it wasn’t cold at all.  Carina was pretty darn excited and was almost always the first kid to each door.  We brought a stroller and she was too happy to use it most of the time. The boys were exhausted because earlier that day they had a fun-run at their school were all three of them ran the maximum number of laps –36, which equaled about 2 1/2 miles!! We didn’t stay out long, but they still got a fair amount of candy.  When we came home, Ollie and Gabe wanted to go out longer, so they went out with Chad.  We finished it of with a little clip of Treehouse of Horrors, and Carina took foreeeever to fall asleep that night. 

Halloween 2007 here and here. Halloween 2008 here and here. Halloween 2009.  Halloween 2010. Halloween 2011.  Halloween 2012.

Great Wolf Lodge

On Wednesday, just before I was going to put Carina down for a nap, my Dad called.  “Hey, do you know anyone who wants a free night at The Great Wolf Lodge?” he asked.  He and my mom had been there the previous night, planning to stay for two nights, and they had decided to come home early.  He explained that they had two bracelets to get into the water park and said we could have their room.  I had just finished going to play group with Carina and was preparing to feed the two sets of ward missionaries that night and Ollie had soccer, and it was a school night, so I just laughed and told him that I really didn’t think we could manage it.  As soon as I hung up I started wondering…hmmm, how much does it cost to get more bracelets? Answer: $40.  No way.

I called Chad and told him I wanted to run it by him just to let him know (we have wanted to try this place our for a long time) and he immediately went to work seeing what we could do. Of course, he is not as Jeppsonish as me and just called the resort and explained the situation.  They said there would be no problem transferring the room over to us, and giving everyone in our family bracelets.  WOW.  THANK YOU GREAT WOLF LODGE.

We ordered the missionaries pizza (again), Chad called his boss to get the next day off, and as soon as Chad got home from work we broke the surprise to the kids.  We had been planning to surprise the kids by taking them out of school on Columbus Day, which is Gabe’s birthday, and taking them to Discovery Place.  So instead we made this Gabe’s birthday celebration, and they could not have been more excited.

I have to say, this little getaway was just the type of little getaway that is really good for me.  Not enough time beforehand to obsess and stress about everything that needs to be done.  Close enough and simple enough that I managed to pack everything in about 15 minutes.  It was a 40 minute drive in traffic and just the right amount of spontaneity to make us all feel a little giddy.

The lodge was just wonderful for the family.  It is well done to begin with, and then they had done it up for Halloween really nicely.  Everyone there is very friendly – to the point that is has a Disney feel to it.  We got there at almost 7 that night and immediately changed into our swimsuits to play at the waterpark for the hour that was left before it closed for the night.  In the morning we strolled to Dunkin’ Donuts (inside the lodge), then lazed around, went to Carolina Mills and lunch, and then spent the rest of the day in the waterpark.  It was one of those magical family days when almost everyone is happy almost all the time.

 

We really loved this place and one night there was really perfect for our family.  Thanks Mom and Dad!