July in Review

July went by fast and furious! There were lots of swimming lessons and learning to dive off the high dive. Wow!

And then there was the trip to Washington. 16 Beykirchs in 1 house for a whole week! It was crazy/fun!

We wanted to take our bikes (more on that later), so we drove the 11 hours, stopping in Missoula on the way there to spend the night. What a cool town! If you ever go, you must see the downtown carousel (unless you don’t have kids with you and then I guess you can skip it) and eat a pizza and salad at Biga Pizza downtown. It’s the best pizza we’ve ever, ever had!

Here is the salad. It was amazing. All those flowers are edible!

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

So yummy!

The carousel animals are all hand carved and painted in the attached woodworking shop at the carousel. It really was amazing to see the work that goes into those! The kids loved it!

The next day it was back in the car. This was our last stop before arrival. A cute park at a fire station…strange. Calla loved Clifford, and they both had obviously been in the car way too long at this point! They did a great job and we now know that we have graduated into that next phase of parenthood where you can actually consider going in the car for extended periods of time with your children and live to tell about it!

Once we all arrived and were accounted for, we needed a family photo to prove we were all in the same state at the same time. So, here we are at our best, or whatever we can best manage…you know how extended family photo shoots go!

The rest of the week was filled with fun and festivities.

We were there for the 4th of July, so we got to join in the neighborhood kids bike parade and festivities. Very fun! Our kids and cousins are in that photo somewhere!

The biggest activity (aside from the baptism, which was really the reason for the trip, and for which I have no pictures—oops) was the Hiawatha Bike Trail. If you are ever out that way, you really ought to do it! It was 16 miles with numerous tunnels, some of which required head lamps. We were all 16 of us on or behind bikes and it was an adventure! The first tunnel is the longest and darkest. It’s 2ish miles and freezing cold. Really weird to ride your bike through, but fun! The rest of the ride was filled with tunnels, tressels and views. It’s all a very gentle downhill slope, which made it doable for all.

You take a shuttle bus back up the mountain to your car when you are done. Well, almost to your car. You have to go back through the first dark 2 mile tunnel again. By that point we had split into families, so our little foursome took the tunnel pretty fast. Calla was COVERED in mud splatters that were 4 different colors!

We had other small adventures.

This was our first time at a sushi restaurant. It had a conveyer belt that circulated the restaurant with food. Fun!

Chris’ brother’s house is surrounded by golf courses. I lost track at 3. When they bought their house, it came with a golf cart! I can’t believe I don’t have a picture of it. We drove it everywhere. There are cart paths through the neighborhoods. People really drive their golf carts everywhere. It’s hilarious! We went to a concert in the park on the 4th and there was grass seating and then cart seating behind that. :)

Finally on our way home and tuckered out!

Don’t worry, the Cheetos got us through!!!!

June In Review

In June, our main event was Calla’s birthday. We are food people, so we started it off with breakfast…

Yummy crepes!

Then came lunch and a dessert tray at Elements, don’t worry she shared!

Then there was a quick car nap. This birthday business is hard work!

And finally dessert after dinner. We were having cake later in the week, so she wanted “birthday cookies.” FYI the candles don’t really stand up too well in a cookie!

A few days later came the party…

With grandmas and cousins…

Presents and…

Popsicles.

Friends and

Babies.

Uncles and…

Kisses!

Water, water everywhere!!!

Waterfights…

The throwers

The targets

Mayhem!

And much playing with the toys after!

Calla has grown so much. It’s hard to believe she’s 4 years old! She loves to hear the story about the day she was born. Her favorite part is how she kicked the waterballoon in my belly and popped it when she was ready to come out. She is such a sweet girl who loves any kind of art or craft and loves to play outside with her friends!

Piano Recital/iphone Lament

I had an iphone once. It took great photos and videos. It just didn’t really have reliable service. Verizon didn’t seem to have any motivation to fix that problem, so after 6 weeks of dropping nearly all my calls, we went back to Sprint (and now I'm counting the minutes till they get an iphone). No iphone. Why, why, why am I telling you this? Because, I miss my beloved techno gadget. AND because if I had my iphone, I would have been the one videoing the recital and you wouldn’t have to turn sideways to watch it! Whatever format Chris’ new phone saves videos in is un-editable by all my standby softwares and I’m not smart enough to know if there’s some other way to rotate a video. So, without further ado, here is Hadden’s first ever piano recital, all video credits should be directed to his father!

Remembering

10 years ago, we were not married. We were both still in college. Neither of these cute kids were born:

I had never even been to New York City! I was in my basement apartment getting ready for class when my now husband called to say, “I think you’d better come up here.” I didn’t have TV at the time, but his apartment did. We watched the second tower fall right there in his living room.

We talked a lot with our kids over the past two days about why there was a flag in our yard today, and what happened 10 years ago. They’ve heard about 9/11 before and we even had a book from the library once that talked about the twin towers. 10 years is a long time, though. There are plenty of kids around who weren’t born, or simply weren’t even old enough to understand what was going on. It seems weird to me that my kids won’t be able to remember 9/11, because it has changed so much more than just airport security measures. The way our country reverences the flag, our support of our military, our politics, our feelings of safety, security and national invincibility.

There’s nothing like a catastrophe to unite a nation and a generation and I think that’s what 9/11 did for my generation. It forced us to grow up and realize that the world can be a scary place. It made us think about hard things, and sometimes do even harder things. Young men and women willingly stood up to defend our country, some giving their lives so that, hopefully, none of us ever have to experience another attack like 9/11, especially not our children. It reminded us that freedom is not free.

I’ve heard a few people comment in person and on the news that they didn’t want to hear about the tragedy of 9/11 anymore. Some sought for closure, others said it was just too gruesome to dwell on it. Well, I’m here to say, I want to remember! I don’t ever want to forget that we live in a country that values freedom, a country that fights to keep us free. I want to remember that on that day, and in the following weeks there were men and women—normal, everyday people—who acted heroically without being asked. I want to remember that 3000 people died unnecessarily and that their families and friends still miss them. I want to remember that after the attacks, there were flags everywhere; that we were all Americans together. I want to remember so I can teach my children to love instead of hate and to be proud that they are American.

Today we watched this and listened to this (the last portion of the 2nd hour has an amazing Requiem commissioned by the Trinity Wall Street Church just diagonal from ground zero. Chris and I visited there in 2006 when we went to New York and were very touched by the memorials to the firefighters and public servants who used the church as a kindof headquarters). Our kids asked lost of questions and we answered them as honestly as we could. They will never be able to remember the feelings and events of that day, but I want them to know that I remember, and I reverence the sacrifice of those who gave their lives in service and those whose lives were taken in terrorism.