Fall Break

I was originally hoping to go on a trip for fall break, especially considering that Christopher turned 35 during the break.  Christopher couldn't leave work, though, and didn't want to have a party or anything.  So . . . I took the kids to Salt Lake to visit some family.  Christopher's brother and his wife just bought an awesome old house that they are gutting to renovate, so it was cool to see the "before" and hear about all the plans for "after".

And while we were up there, we even took a quick zoo trip.  Along with a good portion of Utah, it appeared, though thankfully we got there as some people we already leaving.

And this is what happens when I aim a camera at Jasmine.

The kids really liked that trip.

Of course, I didn't get any pictures of the most fun part of that weekend.  We went up to the cabin Sunday evening and invited friends up Monday for lunch- and a few actually made it!  Most of the time, everyone has such crazy schedules that no one can come, but we actually had three moms come up.  Hooray!

Family Pictures

We had quite the time fitting a family picture session in before all the colorful leaves fell to the ground.  But thankfully, we pulled it off!

Of course, it wasn't without the usual frustrations.  Tyler went into silly mode pretty quickly, making the oddest faces for me.  And Jasmine decided about ten minutes after we got there that if we wanted her to do it, it must be something terrible she should run away from doing.

Which leads to shots like these.

Jasmine trying to run away, and Tyler . . . I have no idea what Tyler is doing.

Thankfully, we coaxed out a few good shots.

Kaitlyn lost both of her front teeth within the week before pictures!

Conference weekend

We always spend Conference weekend up at our cabin. So as soon as we got back from our trip to Zion, we headed up there for some hot dogs.

Except, Jasmine believes that hot dogs are for eating, and the buns are for squishing and leaving in the grass.  Clearly.

She does the same thing with hamburgers and deli meat sandwiches.  Pulls out the meat to eat, and then ditches the bread and veggies.

And Kaitlyn, the one that likes veggies, decided to roast a little pepper.

The next day, Grandma Skarda came up to watch Conference with us.  We had fun going on a walk between sessions, too.

I love fall in the mountains!

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit!

When we scheduled Tyler's baptism, one of our main considerations was making sure that my parents could come out and be here to see it.  They usually make their drive out in August, but my Dad was able to shift things around and come out a month later.  I'm always so excited when I get to spend time with them!  A fair amount of our time was spent prepping for the lunch after the baptism, but we still managed to have fun.

Of course, the rain had to continue ALL weekend.  My mom got tickets for the General Women's Meeting for our church, so we headed up to Salt Lake to go see it.  In an absolute downpour.  We jumped over small rivers in the streets, and my shoes were still wet at the end of the night!

The next night, we headed up American Fork Canyon, tossed the football around for 20 minutes, and then the rain chased us back home.  Oh well, Tibble Fork is always worth the trip.

We have fun indoors, too, after all.

After that, my parents continued onward to Moab, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef.  I pulled the kids out of school at the end of the week to meet them in Zion National Park, which worked out really well.  I was nervous about making the trek without Christopher, but it wasn't an issue at all.

We didn't meet up with Grandma and Grandpa the first day, so we just took the shuttle around . . .

hiked and wandered around . . .

and somehow, the most exciting part to Tyler was that he saw a squirrel.  He's easy to please.

When we got to the hotel with Grandma and Grandpa, I was all set to take the kids swimming in the hotel pool.  But Kaitlyn said she didn't want to- she just wanted to put on her jammies and climb into bed!  I assumed that meant they were really tired, but since they were bouncing around and talking until 10pm, it turns out that just meant she was nervous about an outdoor pool in the dark and thought a hotel bed sounded exciting.  They wore out eventually, though.

I promise I put Jasmine up in bed after I took this picture, but when I woke up in the morning she was on the floor.  Poor thing.

Notice my backpack carrier, here.  The good one was at our cabin, so I only had this old garage sale find.  Everyone else in Zion had fancy ones with sunshades and cushions and zippered pouches, but thankfully Jasmine didn't mind the Big Bird colored thing we have. :)

I think the only one that had a bad day was poor Tyler- a bee flew into his ear and freaked him out so much that my mom was worried he got stung, and then right after I took this last picture he fell and scraped his knee up pretty bad.  We had to hobble all the way back to the car with him holding his shorts up so they wouldn't touch the owie (after stopping at the bathroom, because of course, he had been needing that for a while too) and then he finally got his precious band aid.  

Kaitlyn was just thrilled she got to be a Junior Ranger.  And Jasmine . . . was ready for her nap, having not slept well the night before.  We were all sad to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa, though!

Tyler's Baptism

 Sometimes you have to make things up as you go as a parent.  I was going to say that as a parent of a child with special needs, but then I realized that we are all adapting everything in life to the needs of our kids.  Which change daily.  And which we figure out as we go.

Anyway, I talked at length about Tyler and his postponed baptism back on his birthday post in January.  So I won't repeat that here.  We did take him to almost every baptism since then, and usually when we got home I would go through more of the questions that our Bishop was going to ask when he interviewed Tyler to be baptized.  We debated on how long to wait- at one point we scheduled December 6th - but in the end we decided that he is as ready now as he will be as an eight year-old.  He knows a lot of the answers to the questions now.  How much he understands . . . is something still up for debate.  But I do know that one thing he gained was a true excitement to be baptized.  After seeing other kids get baptized month after month, he was SO excited.  And I am starting to see those answers we prepped him with pop up in other Gospel discussions, so I think some of it really has sunk in.

We don't know exactly how his interview went, since he met with the Bishop by himself, but I know that our Bishop has been emotional every time he has talked about it since.  He said that "in all my years as a Bishop, and all the interviews I have ever given, this was the first time that when I asked a question, I was sung a song in reply."  Tyler loves to sing and remembers things better when he sings, so when asked about Jesus being baptized, he replied by singing "Jeee-suss caaaaame to John the Baptist."  Our sweet Bishop was so touched that he called us the night before the baptism and asked if Tyler could sing that as a special musical number.  When I told him that it was set to be the opening song, Daddy figured out that Tyler could sing the first verse and let us all join him for the rest of the verses.  We spent some time practicing, and it was one of the most adorable things I have ever seen. (Yes, I'm biased.)

Of course, the Bishop also told us that he finished his interview by asking Tyler if he had any questions he would like to ask.  "Yes,"  Tyler answered firmly, taking Bishop Anderson by surprise.  "Do you know -  what is four plus one?"
Through his laughter, the Bishop replied "Is it five?" and Tyler congratulated him.
"Yes, you are right!  It is five!"

I seriously love this kid.

Daddy does, too.  When I asked Christopher if he wanted to use his white shirt and white pants, or wear a jumpsuit like Tyler, he told me he wanted a jumpsuit "because I think Tyler will want me to dress just like him."

The baptism service went really well, too.  Bro. Simko (one of our friends in the ward) gave his talk using a coloring book, and Tyler was absolutely riveted (which is rare for him).  The theme for the day seemed to be preparing for baptism.  Tyler's Grandma Skarda said that he was the most prepared anyone has ever been for baptism, I think mainly because he was born so pure and happy.  His Uncle Brian added that "no one gives you enough credit, Tyler.  I think you're just going to amaze everyone someday."  My mom and my Uncle Bob talked about their baptisms as well.  Their mother did not like the Mormon church, and merely tolerated my Grandpa taking them to church occasionally.  I guess one day he just decided it was time and took them both to be baptized, assembly line style with all the other kids, at the Tabernacle downtown.  Neither of them had a clue until they were about in the car, and hardly had any interest in it!  So to them, it came down to what you do with your life and your testimony afterward, not how prepared you were when you got baptized.

And when Tyler got baptized, he was grinning from ear to ear.  Daddy held him under for an extra second so his hand didn't fly up, but they got it done.  And when they were climbing out of the font, Tyler told him happily "I got wet!"

Ironically, one of the reasons we switched from December to September (apart from how excited he was for his turn to come) was because we figured it would make it easier to host our families for lunch afterward.  Christopher's family alone is 7 siblings, their spouses and 30 grandkids, not including his aunts, uncles, and Grandma that came.  Then you add my family, and you no longer fit in our house.  September meant we could be outside and have plenty of room.

Except the fact that it rained all weekend.  So we made a quick decision and reserved the gym at the church, which worked out well.  We had all of Tyler's favorite foods- pizza galore, mac and cheese that Grandma made, Cheetos, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate muffins.  He was a happy guy.

And we were all happy for him.  I could truly feel how much everyone in that room loved Tyler.  Even one of his old aides from school a year or so ago came.  We always laugh at how quickly Tyler converts everyone he meets to just adore him.  We feel truly blessed to have him in our family.