Our Forever Family

It's fair to say that the best days of my life have all involved my family and the Temple. Now I have another day to add to the list. Today, our eternal family grew by one more as Spencer was sealed to us and became an official part of our forever family.

We came to Oakland to have him sealed to us because my parents are serving a mission here. They couldn't come to us, so we went to them. James and I were also married in the Oakland Temple so it seemed fitting that we would complete our family here as well. But while we were blessed to have several close friends and family members here with us, we did miss many of our wonderful Utah friends who have become like family to us.

We've been trying to prepare the boys for this day by talking to them about what would happen and what a special day it would be. I'm not sure how much of it sunk in but Spencer kept singing "I Love to See the Temple" all day. It was very cute.

When they brought him up to the sealing room, he was a little apprehensive. He looked around the room and didn't see me, so he started to hide behind the nice sister who brought him up. Then he peeked back out and looked around and finally saw me. He ran across the room, launched himself into my lap and buried his head into my shoulder. I couldn't see it, but apparently he flashed one of his famous Spencer smiles on the way to me.

After the Temple, we all headed to my brother Eric's house for Spencer's Blessing and lunch. James blessed Spencer that he would make correct choices in his life and grow up to be an honorable man and priesthood holder. It was a wonderful blessing.

And Eric really out did himself with the food and festivities afterward. I'm lucky to have a brother in the party planning business and he was gracious enough to let us use his backyard and his brother in law as top griller. He even got the squirt guns out so the boys could get wet and cool off on this hot summer day.

Today has also brought up wonderful memories of another wonderful day six years ago when our Bubs was sealed to us. I will never forget when he came into the sealing room, he looked around at all the people and just beamed one of his famous AJ smiles. He was feeling a bit bent out of shape because of all the fuss over Spencer today. I tried to tell him that we made just as big a fuss over him back in the day, but he was just too young to remember.

And now we have two wonderful boys who are all ours -- forever.
I know this post is missing some of my usual writing style. I think it's because I am so tired but I really wanted to get these pictures and historical record down today, while it is still fresh. I promise to be back to my sometimes-snarky self soon.

A Family, At Last

I'm interrupting my posts about our recent travels to bring you the lastest breaking news from our house. It's official, legal and all the rest: Spencer is ours and we are his with all the rights, duties and responsibilities that entails. Judge Denise P. Lindberg made it all official this morning and we close one chapter of our lives and open another one.

Building our family has been a long and drawn out process. If you had asked me in 1995 what my family would like in 2009, never in my wildest dreams would I have pictured it this way. But God works in mysterious ways and he built our family under his plan, not ours. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Bringing Spencer into our family has been the hardest thing I have ever done. The poor child didn't deserve what had happened to him in the first three and a half years of his life. And the emotional wounds were deep. There were plenty of days where I didn't feel like I was up to the task of being who he needed me to be to help him heal and live up to his potential.

But at some point, we moved out of crisis mode and realized a new normal in our home. We got Spencer off the sippy cup, out of diapers and into speech therapy. We spent a small fortune on therapy bills for all of us and begain to sharpen our parenting skills. We addressed Spencer's anxiety issues and adjusted medication. We rid the house of peanuts and tree nuts and got an epipen, asthma inhaler and a new reality.

We have two energetic boys who are real brothers now. They play together, they fight together, they tease and taunt and do all the things that real brothers do.

I feel a huge sense of relief too. For most of the past seven years, we've lived in the "waiting-to- adopt" world. In a lot of ways, it's a life on hold -- never knowing when the call might come and your whole life will change in an instant. No more squirreling money away into the "baby fund" or holding on to baby stuff just in case we need it. It is very freeing knowing what our family will look like and be from here on out. I can make a plan without wondering in the back of my head how we might have to change it if we get a call from the agency. There will be no more calls from the agency. We are done. And that just feels right.

God works in mysterious ways. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Southern Utah Tour Day 2: Grand Staircase and Bryce Canyon

The second day of our journey took us on one of the most scenic byways in America: Utah's Highway 12. I can see why they say that it is. The terrain is so varied and so amazing. We took off out of Torrey and down towards Boulder. And by down, I mean south because you have to go up and over Boulder Mountain to get there. The views from the top are amazing. You can see all the way to the La Sal Mountains which are on the far eastern side of Utah. And of course, up there at over 9,000 feet you are in Pine trees and Aspens, but you are overlooking the red rocks and swells Capitol Reef.

One the other side of the Mountain, we stopped in Boulder to go to the Anasazi State Park where we saw the ruins of an ancient civilization. Very cool. Could not imagine living in something that small. But very cool. A few pics:

Then the road continues down through the tip of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. There are a lot of hard feelings over how President Clinton created this monument - even going to Arizona to announce it's creation instead of coming here. I worked in the Governor's Office at the time and it really was one of the nastiest political *screwings* I ever witnessed. But I will have to say, the part of it I saw was spectacular. (Although I understand the rest isn't as amazing. And how could it be? The thing is HUGE!) So here's our collage of the Scenic Drive:
Then on to Bryce Canyon. My grandfather brought us here when I was a teenager, but that was a long time ago and I only remember driving up and looking at it, not spending much time there. At Bryce, you are mostly at the top of the canyon, looking down and out on all the hoodoos (fancy rock formations). Not a good place if you are afraid of heights. We didn't do any hiking down into the canyon, but we did do some at the top: even hiked to a Bristle Cone Pine tree. And we tried not to let the rude German tourists ruin our whole day. (They were just sure we were going to let our kids fall over the edge. If they had been in a car with them for two days straight they might have let them too. ;0)) That night we stayed at the world famous Ruby's Inn just outside the park.

The kind of strange thing about the trip to this point was the lack of other families. We saw a few kids in Capitol Reef by the campground but none at the hotel and none at the restaurant. And in Bryce Canyon, I would say 90% off the people we saw were older European Tourists. I felt like we stuck out like a sore thumb. But really, I can't complain about the boys. They did really well on the whole trip. Tomorrow I will share more of our trip including St. George and Zion National Park.

First Stop on our Southern Utah Tour: Capitol Reef

Earlier this month, we took the opportunity to go explore Utah. James had a conference to go to in St. George and I convinced him to bring us along since AJ was out of school that week anyway. Then we decided to throw in some national parks while were were at it. So I am going to spend the next few days showing you the wonders of the western half of Utah's red rock country. (We're hoping to do the eastern half in the fall.)

I've been to most of places of any consequence in Utah either when I was working for the state, or just for fun. But the first day of our journey took us to a part of the state I'd never been to before: Wayne County and Capitol Reef National Park. We drove through the tiny towns of Sigurd, Loa, Bicknell, Teasdale and arrived in the booming town of Torrey. (Not much booming there, but compared to the other's it's a real big town complete with an Internet Cafe.)

Just past Torrey you enter Capitol Reef National Park. While you might think all the Red Rocks look the same, the ones in Capitol Reef have more variation in color. And you can't really tell from these pictures, but the middle of the canyon is lush an green. Here's my picasa collage of our day there (click on it to see it bigger):

In Capitol Reef, you are mostly at the bottom of the canyon, although there is an area where you do over look the Goosenecks that is really cool too. The other really cool thing about Capitol Reef compared to other National Park's I've been to so that there is an ever so tiny pioneer town right in the middle of it called Fruita. It gets it's name from the orchards that are there. It really did amaze me how much grew right there in the desert. If you ever make it there, be sure to get some truely yummy pie at the Gifford Farm house too.

The boys loved climbing rocks and checking out all the petroglyphs too. I loved finding all the wild flowers in bloom at all of our stops along the way. We kept the boys entertained by pointing out rock formations and trying to explain how they came to be. (Wish I'd taken more geology classes in college.)

If you ever get the chance to do it, go to Capitol Reef. It is a little remote and out of the way, but well worth the trip for sure. Come back tomorrow and I will share the second day of the journey.

Spring in Utah

I've been very absent lately. I've been busy with the boys and with my business lately. And we've been out of town twice in the last two months too. But more on that another time.

Last week, Spring was in full swing in my yard. Here are a few of the treasures:

Creeping Phlox

Tulips

Flowering Cherry Tree

And my very favorite: Lilacs

If or when we ever move away from here, I will definitely miss these flowers. I know you can grow these things other places but I love that they all bloom right around Mother's Day.