Adventures in Ohio: Anthony Thomas

This was one of our smaller adventures, but it was the yummiest, by far! There is a candy factory, Anthony-Thomas, that is just a few minutes away from G & G's house. We've always driven past it, and have eaten Buckeyes from there, but never been to the factory. Eric discovered that we could take a tour of the chocolate factory. So, we headed there.

We perused the candy shop, eyeing the ginormous Buckeye, until our tour started. We walked on the catwalks, above the machines and melted chocolate. It was fun to see how some of the individual chocolates were made. Nobody found any humor in me singing, "oompa loompa doompa dee doo." After the end of the tour we each got a Buckeye and picked out some things from the candy store - there's nothing like 5 kids loose in a candy store!

Our Moving Story

Back in December, Eric got an email from a realtor listing houses. Eric usually gets these emails and sends them to the delete file, without even opening. However, with this foreclosed listing, he actually opened it. It sounded interesting, so just for the heck of it, we went and looked at the house.

When I drove through the neighborhood for the first time, I thought, "Wow, this looks like a mini-Muirfield (the awesome neighborhood where Eric's grandparents live)." The house was a little bigger than our current house, but it had been gutted, which would leave us with a lot of work to do. The lot is over an acre, and had a lake for a swimming pool, complete with ducks. We looked through the house and noted all that we would have to repair (appliances, lights, plumbing fixtures, carpet, toilets, paint, electrical, baseboards). We also noticed that there had been some water damage in the basement. We later realized that the grading on the property was such that any water drained into the basement. This led to more repairs (ripping up the driveway, moving palm trees, re-grading the property, adding drains, repairing wallboard).

We thought, prayed, went to the temple, and fasted to help us with the decision. We had just remodeled/rebuilt our current house less than 3 years ago. It had absolutely everything we wanted, all to our design. How could we leave it to renters (there was no way we could sell it with the current market situation)? We liked the convenience of our neighborhood. We had good friends within our ward. We were within walking distance of my parents' house. There was so much to consider. The school system was stinking big time. Spencer and Logan were getting bullied in school. There were not very many kids in the ward for Lindsey and Spencer. There was so much to consider. With all this, plus all the work which would have to be done, we still decided to place an offer on the house. Our offer was accepted within 24 hours.

We had many hoops to jump through for the bank and the loan. It eventually all got pulled together and we signed on the house in March. The repairs started. We worked on repairing the house for a month before we moved in. To meet the bank's approval, we had to have all 7 of the bathrooms working, in addition to the kitchen working with appliances. Eric was eager to move so we could get the other house rented, so we decided to move the beginning of April, in the middle of all the fix-ups. We brought things and stored them in the garage, all through the month of March. This meant that everything was coated in a fine layer of sawdust/paint. It was a lovely mess.

Moving day came, and it was crazy. I had tried to pack up all that I could during the prior months, but there was still a lot to do. My dad had made many trips to the house with his little truck loaded up. We managed to get about 70% of everything on Saturday. It was still a pretty hard day, but I didn't think much about it. I just thought about having beds made and church clothes located. Then on Monday, when I went back to the house to get all the rest of the stuff, it hit me, and I collapsed in a friend's arms. I really felt like there were so few people who helped us. As it had gotten closer to moving day, my mom took care of the kids, which was really helpful. A handful of people from the ward had come over and helped for a couple of hours, but I was very disappointed that the people who I've known for 14 years didn't show more support. I will say, though, that I learned from it. I learned that I should never assume somebody else is going to do it. I'm sure that a lot of people in the ward would have helped, but maybe they didn't because they thought other people would be helping. So, now I need to never assume that someone is going to help another person in need. When I hear of someone needing help, whether it be a meal or moving or childcare, I'm not going to assume that someone else will do it and I will step up and help out.

For the first couple of weeks of living at the new house, I felt like I was on vacation and that I'd be going back home. Every day I drove by our old house. However, I hated going into our old house, seeing all that I was leaving and thinking of the new house in the repair-state that it was in. I couldn't call our new house home or say that, "I'm going home." There were still workers at the house, and little did I know, they would still be there all the way into July. I had the basic things found, but there were some things I needed that were still piled in the garage in the myriad of stacked boxes. The school schedule was insane! I felt like I was in the car for half the day, and only had an hour each day to work on unpacking and organizing. Thankfully, I was able to take Kaylen to my parents' house in the morning and they put her on the afternoon bus for school. Otherwise I would have had to make another trip into M for school.

Our ward was very welcoming. It was also really exciting to see a friend from high school in the ward. There are so many couples in the ward close to our ages, with 4-6 kids. We're really excited to get to know everyone and become part of the ward family. We do, however, dearly miss certain people in our old ward. I really miss working with the ladies in Primary.

I hated leaving our old house. We interviewed lots of renters. Some seemed nice, others I thought, no way. The people who I really wanted to have it, didn't put an offer in. Another young girl did, and we accepted it, but my gut kept on aching. I'm not sure if we had made a bad choice, or if I was just reluctant to leave. So, we canceled on her. Another family came along, and I realized that nobody is going to be perfect for me, and that I needed to choose someone, so I chose them. I wanted to check-in with them often and see if things were going ok (read: see if they were trashing the house), but I didn't. I'm eager for the quarterly inspection, to see how things look on the inside of the house. I just wish I could do the inspection, but I can't. Hopefully things are good, since that house was my baby.

We've only moved 13 minutes away from our childhood, but we feel like we've moved across the country. If I would have known it would have felt like this, I would have tried harder to convince Eric to move to Utah. Actually, I'm not sure if I would have gone that far, but I would have felt the same. It's all kinda crazy. I'm writing this in July, and it's just starting to feel like I'm home. I guess it all takes time, just ask my unpacked office. : )

A Date with Disney on Ice

Eric and I try to have a date night with each kid individually every now and then. When I got emailed special pre-sale prices for Disney on Ice, I decided that Kaylen would love to do that, so I bought us tickets and kept the activity for the date a surprise for Kaylen.

We let Kaylen choose where to eat, and she chose Rainforest Cafe, her favorite restaurant. We ate there, without her (finally) being afraid of the gorillas and elephants. She enjoyed the "shows" of the animals and rain. We headed downtown and made a beeline for the show (we were late). We got to our awesome seats, about 5 rows up from the ice. Kaylen was so interested in the whole show. She had fun taking pictures with the camera that came with our ticket purchase. Kaylen's favorite part was the princesses. I liked the "Small World" number. I couldn't tell you Eric's favorite part, because he was hardly awake for any of it! I love spending time with each of the kids. It's fun to see their own unique personalities.

School Carnival

For the last 3 years (maybe 4), the kids' elementary school has done a carnival as a fundraiser/neighborhood activity. The PTO has been responsible for it, so with Eric being on the PTO for the last 8 years, he has always been involved. His job has been the inflatables and entertainment stage. Eric will go to the school at least 3 hours early to meet the inflatable company and give directions for set-up. Then, Eric will monitor all the inflatables and the volunteers he has gotten to run them. It's quite an involved night for him, so I take the kids around for a couple of hours, and then head home.

This year, Lindsey was old enough to help, so she helped with the giant slide for about an hour. The kids had fun just running around the school and eating any junk they could get. (There was actually nothing good for us to eat. It was all carnival food - pizza, nachos, cotton candy, snow cones, pop, popcorn, candy. The kids were in heaven.) I sat down with the younger ones at the entertainment stage where karaoke was going on. It was there that we saw how much Colton loves music. He sat there, just waving his arms to the beat of the music and bopping up and down. It was the cutest thing we saw. While there, we also got to hear some punk-kids curse away during their group turn at karaoke. Eric moved quite fast and kicked the kids off the stage to security where they were kicked off the school grounds.

The whole night was fairly fun. I liked the games and craft area where Kaylen and Logan got to play and create. I decided that I would miss the fun, cheeriness of the carnival, but definitely not miss the cursing neighborhood hoodlums.

at the end of the night, I decided to be super-brave and go on my first inflatable slide (but I had to have Eric hold my hand)

The Lake

Saturday morning we set out for a hike. We had planned to drive to the lake, and hike in an area surrounding the lake. It took us quite a while to get to the lake (our stop to the sandwich shop took way too long). Once we got there, we realized that we didn't have enough time for a hike because we had to get back for one of Spencer's football games. So, we had our picnic lunch next to the lake and let the kids play around. It was quite cold, so maybe it was best that we weren't there too long. The kids had a fun time watching the boats go down the boat ramp and into the water.

New Year's

We had a low-key New Year's Eve. We made homemade pizzas. We played games. We had some friends come over for fireworks when midnight hit. It was pretty simple, but it was fun.

Kaylen, at the end of the night

November wrap-up

As I have looked at the pictures for the past month, I realize I barely took any. November seemed to fly by. I guess it was a pretty boring month. Here are a few of the things that happened, but really there wasn't anything noteworthy.

The boys continued football and wrapped up a great season.

A cousin got baptized.

The boys (and Eric) set up the Christmas houses, which look great.

We had Thanksgiving lunch at our house. I was sick, so it wasn't that fun.

Eric did some Black Friday shopping.

Spencer lost about five teeth. He pulled most of them out by himself.

Neighborhood block watch meeting. Kinda scary.

New Moon Premiere

We were invited to the AZ New Moon Premiere. It was just as fun as last year's Twilight Premiere. I wasn't sure what I was going to do about C, but my parents were fantastic and took care of him (and Kaylen and Logan). We took Lindsey and Spencer to the premiere. It was at the Cine-Capri, which is a huge theater. We were given cards that we could redeem each one for a drink, popcorn, and candy. Before the movie started, we were able to see a mini-concert performed by Meese, and we also received one of their cds. The best part of the night was when I was walking back into the theater before the show started. I decided to bypass the "meet Stephenie line." As I was walking past Stephenie, she stopped talking to the person in front of her and started talking to me. Loved it!

Oh, the movie was great too.

Pumpkins

We waited until the day before Halloween to carve pumpkins. I was actually gone somewhere, so Eric got the kids carving. They spread out newspapers on the table in the backyard and got to work. Lindsey and Kaylen tired quickly. Spencer was quite the master carver. He ended up carving Logan's (a skull with teeth), Kaylen's (Blue from Blue's Clues), and his own pumpkin (a skull and crossbones). We had a "carving" set that he used to make some great designs with.

We also decided that we needed to have some fall fun (besides trick-or-treating at the local grocery store), so we went to a nearby farm. (Lindsey wasn't with us, she is just beginning to act like a teenager and having a busy social life.) We went on a hayride. The kids bounced in a huge bounce house. Kaylen decorated her pumpkin with sticky felt letters and designs.

A brush with swine flu

Ok, we really didn't have a brush with swine flu, but the doctor didn't want to take any chances. Lindsey and Spencer were both sick with flu-like symptoms, so I took them to the doctor. The office made the kids wear these masks, which I thought was funny. I couldn't resist taking their picture (and posting it)!

Once Spencer heard that he didn't have swine flu, he miraculously was better by lunch time.

Halloween

We celebrated Halloween by finishing carving the pumpkins, going to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat, and handing out pop, candy, and popcorn at our house.

Our ward's trunk-or-treat was held before dinner. The kids had fun going around the parking lot to each car (more than once) and getting candy. Kaylen was quite independent at times, and walked around all by herself loading up on the candy.

We decided that the kids didn't need more candy from the neighborhood, so we did our traditional fire in the driveway and handed out goodies at the house. The kids did walk across the street to the houses across from us and around the corner. They seemed to enjoy seeing everyone come to our house.

Eric at the trunk-or-treat

Colton the star

Independent Snow White Kaylen

Officer Logan

Spencer as a Star Wars character

"Beezy" Lindsey (and a friend)

Kaylen zonked out at our house, during the festivities

Fun with the Cousins

During the Priesthood Session of General Conference, I did my usual cinnamon roll making. It had been a while since I'd gotten together with my sisters and sister-in-law, so I invited them to come over. Making cinnamon rolls with 10 kids underfoot didn't sound challenging enough, so we also decided to make homemade pizza. Shelly found a cute craft, so we also decided to make that too. It was slightly crazy with all the activities, but I was amazed at how everything worked out. We made some Halloween jars by decoupaging tissue paper on jars. I headed up the pizza making. The kids got to put their own toppings on their pizzas and enjoyed being in charge of their own pizza. I had to feed Colton when we got around to the cinnamon rolls, so Shelly and Kelly took that job over.

Overall, we had a great time. The pizzas turned out yummy. One of the kids was even surprised that homemade pizza tasted so good. The jars turned out cute. Kaylen and Logan have asked me to make more jars with them. The cinnamon rolls turned out delicious and didn't last more than a couple of days.

Now if I could only come up with a Thanksgiving craft we could have more fun in November.

Labor Day Hike

I woke up this morning to Eric presenting the idea of going to Four Peaks and hiking. He thought we could pack a lunch and eat it before we started hiking and stop just outside the valley for dinner. I didn't like the idea of driving on a dirt road for one hour to get to the trailhead, but I was really wanting to get out of the house, so I agreed. We got a late start (it always seems to take us at least an extra 10 minutes to get ready to leave the house to go anywhere), but headed out.

The drive to the turn off was short, but then the dirt road began. We drove for about an hour on it, being jostled around. I was worried about Colton and being shaken too much, but he actually seemed to enjoy it and sleep right through it. Occasionally his head would tip forward when we were driving on an incline and Lindsey would help to prop his head up. We made it to the trailhead. There was such a change of scenery. We went from cactus to pine trees. There was also a drastic drop in temperature. The kids were actually cold. The weather was perfect. It started out sprinkling, but then the clouds would come and go.

There's a lake in the distance!

Lindsey, Logan, and Kaylen started to get tired during the hike. Lindsey also didn't wear the right shoes, so I took them and Colton back down the mountain. Eric, Spencer, and Purple decided to continue and hike to the top of the mountain. Colton did great throughout the hike. He loved being in the baby carrier. He enjoyed the movement and got fussy when we stopped to rest (this also happened with the dirt road on the way back - he was fine when we were moving, but got fussy when we stopped driving). I fed Colton once we made it down. The kids played, collecting rocks and wood. They made a little campfire. It took Eric a while to come back down the mountain, so we had to push Colton around in the stroller. We had an interesting experience with a man in the parking lot (read the following post about a stronger testimony).

We were able to watch the sunset - I loved it. We finally made it back home at 9:30. It was a fun adventure.