Life Lessons from Val #1 (and #2)

My mom is a wise woman.

When she reads this, she will say that that is not true.

Those of you who know her well will agree with me, though. She's not one to often give advice, despite raising nine children. She doesn't think she has all the answers. But she is kind, loving, and non-judgmental (sometimes to a fault) and people love her: from the dry cleaning lady to the checkers at her grocery store, she is a friend to everyone she meets. Obviously she has some wisdom that should be collected.

The lesson I'm going to share with you today is to memorize and use this phrase:

"You might be right."

She taught me this during the last year while I was dealing with an (some?) obnoxious child (children?) who wanted to find fault with each other constantly. This led to me wanting to find fault with them constantly. Mom suggested we use that phrase whenever someone said something we just KNEW was wrong so that we didn't have to correct them (and become even more obnoxious.)

We said it over and over to each other that day as a joke. It was kind of brilliant on a couple of levels. On the surface, it's brilliant because while we are saying "You might be right," we're thinking "But you're not..." so it satisfies the natural man's desire to stick it to our opponents.

But the deeper lesson I learned? Whenever I say "Hmm. You might be right," I'm actually allowing myself to back away from my position. And sometimes (just sometimes) I find that my opponent may actually (a little bit) be right.

Of course, now if you hear me say "You might be right," you'll know what I could be thinking, but I guarantee it goes down easier than saying "You're flat out wrong and let me tell you why."

And Life Lesson from Val #2?

Dance whenever possible. And wherever possible:

Sledding 11.26.10

Sledding is fun.  Sledding with my family is super fun.  Sledding with my family and Baz, Steven's awesome Alaskan sled dog, is super duper fun.

And Then We Gave Thanks 11.25.10

Thanksgiving was a lovely day.  We cooked and cooked and cooked and ate and ate and ate.  We laughed, and talked, and played some games.  I think we played games.  We always do, so I assume we did.  I was in a cooking and food coma, so I don't really remember.

Chelsea attacked my mom.

And Chad read books.

All in all, it was a very very successful Thanksgiving.

One of These Things is Not Like the Other

Have I mentioned how much I love my brothers?

Have I mentioned how much my children love my brothers?

Have I mentioned Benno is a nut?

Arianne's Wedding. 9.17.10 (again)

This is my sweet niece, Arianne.  This is NOT her groom, of course. David made sure he was in as many pictures as possible.

I love family weddings.  I love having an excuse to hang out with so many people we love in one place. (Also, I love the food.)

(See what I mean about the relationship between Soph and Ben? Seriously sweet.)

At the reception.  David thought it was fun to chat up the musicians while they were playing.  I think he made them very very nervous.

And Five Guys to end our night...yummy.

Family Party and Celebrating Sophie 9.16.10

My sister, Bri, and her cute family came up so her husband Mike could run Top of Utah again.  (Was I sad I wasn't running it, too?  Actually, no.  I wasn't sad at all...  My decision to wait for Ogden in May was a very good one.)  We were lucky enough to have them stay here, so we threw a party.

Of course, we need no excuse to throw a party, but we had a great one:  Sophie's birthday was the next day.

Pizza (thanks to Bri and Mike) and brownies and ice cream and a bunch of happy people = successful party.

And look at my darling almost-11-year-old.  She's not REALLY that old, is she?

Labor Day 9.6.10

I love picnics in Heber.  The food is amazing and the company is great.

Yes, Alysha is wearing a mask.  They found a box of old masks leftover from David's dad's office and made good use of them.  More cousin fun...I love cousins.

After the picnic, we had a barbecue at our house with Llew, Sally, Jeff and Hillary, complete with bonfire and s'mores.  And the hardest part for me?  Not only did our picnic at David's mom's have TWO DESSERTS AND ICE CREAM, but at the barbecue, what did we end up with?  TWO DESSERTS AND ICE CREAM.  Seriously unfair.  I was strong, though.  I have $20 on the line (a contest with my cousin, Peggy) and I'm determined not to give up.

Donut Falls 9.4.10

I love the Donut Falls hike.  It's a perfect kid hike:  pretty short, mostly flat, and a big pay off at the end.  We hadn't hiked it for too long, so we were excited to go with Eric and Christina.  The cousins have such a good time together.  I'm so grateful they have each other.

Notice Josh helping Abby up to the top of the falls?  So cute.

Christina hid to surprise Ben and Ez.  They loved it. 

They loved it so much they decided to hide to surprise Nina.

My kids are so lucky to have an aunt like Nina.  She's super fun and super funny.

Thanksgiving Point with the Nanas 8.17.10

My mom and my grandma (Nana Beth to all the kiddos) flew up for my mom's cousin's funeral (this made three for me in two months.  But who's counting?)  We had never had the opportunity to have Nana Beth stay at our home, but we were lucky lucky lucky this visit.  I picked them up late at night and brought them home, where I made them stay up WAY too late, but enjoyed them thoroughly.

The next morning we visited Kurt and Ash so Nana Beth could see their darling house, and then we headed down to $2 Tuesday at Thanksgiving Point.  Everything is insanely crowded on $2 Tuesdays there except for the big gardens, so that's where we headed.

Kurt and Ashleigh's amazing garden.  I've been enjoying their produce all summer.

Nana and Nana Beth treated us all to lunch before we hit the gardens.

While we were sitting still to recover from the heat, we found my niece Alysha! $2 Tuesday really draws a crowd.

Rolling.

Ezra and Ben were map-happy.

The guests of honor, escaping the heat.

After wandering the (hot) gardens, we decided to let the kids play in the Noah's Ark splash pool.  About three thousand other people thought that was a great idea, so we had to make do with the boat launch stream.

 After Thanksgiving Point, we drove Nana Beth to my great-aunt Laurel's house in Sandy and we returned to my house to have dinner with everybody (including Blake!) to celebrate Christina's birthday.  All in all, it was a great (if hot) day.