Claire's Birthday Getaway week-end Extravaganza

Claire's birthday came up on us quickly. My little girl is 4 years old already! We decided that time was of the essence for her to see her cousins again, while they are only in Flagstaff for a limited time. So, we took a trip up north to see them. They are staying with a lady in their ward, and we didn't want to impose so we booked a $50 hotel, packed our stuff and drove up to Flagstaff on Friday evening once Aaron got home from work.

Lucky for us the hotel actually had a pretty nice pool, so the men took the kids for a swim.

Claire practiced her "bobs" from swim lessons

After our swim: rub-a-dub-dub, 4 Adams kids in the tub...

After a pretty lousy night's sleep, we decided to take a trip out to see the Meteor crater. Anyone remember Starman? The end of the movie was filmed here...

Cute cousins - one with a possibly re fractured arm, hence the urgency of our trip. They needed to make a trip back to Utah for x-rays.

Crater Claire


Uncle Grant with all the cousins


Watchin' the explosion reenactment on the screen... over... and over...


After the crater, we headed back to Grant and Rebekah's place to eat some good food and relax. Noel was being such a nut, baby Kiah couldn't help breaking up in smiles and giggles. Too cute!



We went for a short hike and let the kids play outside at Lake Mary. The kids played there for quite a while. It was so nice to have a break from the Phoenix heat and be able to be outside without breaking into a sweat!

After dinner, Aunt Rebekah made an awesome pink cake for Claire and I want the recipe for the frosting! Then, we said our good-byes and headed back to Phoenix for some rest. We hope that Adria's wrist will be o.k. and that we'll be able to see them again soon!

Sunday, was the actual big day for Claire. At church there was a talk about the martyrdom of Joseph Smith, just as I was afraid of. But Claire didn't seem to take notice, 4 is still too young, I guess. When I was pregnant with her, I heard from my aunt and another friend, that as a member of the church its hard to have that birthday. I tried so hard to get her born on the 26th, but she came out at 12:12 a.m. June 27th...


On a lighter note... Noel is always making us laugh! He thought he'd add to the birthday festivities by mooning us...


Also, at church, Claire received a gift certificate for a special candy gift from the bishop. Unfortunately, Bishop had run out of candy. He was so apologetic, and later made a special trip to our house to bring Claire a special treat! Claire absolutely loved that the Bishop made a visit just for her!


I wasn't planning on making another cake, but it was her birthday - so we improvised and turned up with this... not bad I thought.


We sang and she blew out the candles a second time. She had quite the birthday week-end! Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Relief

Yesterday, I ventured out into the lone and dreary world again for the first time since the abdomen ordeal. Getting better is taking a little bit longer than I expected and Aaron has had to go back to work. I took Noel over to a friend's house as she offered to watch him for a couple of hours so I could get some rest. Bless her heart. He cried as soon as I left and cried until I came back and picked him up a half hour later. So I kind of got the opposite of rest, but it's o.k. He loves me, of this I am sure, but was he crying for his mother? No, he was crying for Claire.

I'm sure he felt like we both deserted him. I just wanted to pick him up and hold him and give him lots of hugs and kisses. Comfort him the way a mother is supposed to and how I ache to, but I physically can't. Not yet.

Today we are trying again. Different friend. Claire is invited too. She even came and picked them up since technically, I'm not supposed to drive yet. I've just been feeling so helpless. Girls Camp is this week and everyone who I could ask for help has either gone to girls camp or is busy with their own lives and trials. Her coming to help has been an answer to a prayer.

Now - I'm feeling lonely. But a good kind of lonely...

The kids will be able to play with other kids their age and get some space from their medicated mother.

I'm off to bed and so far no word... just silence...

Tempe Beach Park

I knew that for a couple of weeks I would be out of commission, so I packed up the kids and we took a trip to Tempe Town Lake and to the Splash Pad. It's been in the triple digits for a few weeks now and after nap time, we've been so bored with staying inside. It turned out to be a really good time for all of us. I was a little worried about taking three toddlers out to somewhere we'd never been before all by myself. But they did great, they just wanted to get wet and cool off
too.

Family Happenings

The other day Claire decided to take pictures of all of us while we got ready for the day. I thought I'd add a little bit of an update on everyone.

Daddy was first. Aaron got an internship at the City Manager's Office in Peoria. He started last week and is loving it. He was the only intern to get selected to start in the summer and he is getting PAID! This is a huge blessing for us! Right now he is super busy being Super DAD while I recover from surgery.


Me - pre-surgery. I'm just taking it easy now - in bed mostly for the next few days. Recovery isn't going as easy as I thought it would. Thankfully, we have a very comfy bed, netflix and a laptop... Looking for another place to live isn't as depressing since the break in a couple weeks ago, but still daunting.


Claire. She is turning 4 this coming week-end! Our little princess just finished her first session of swimming lessons and is back in ballet. She had a blast visiting with her cousins last week-end that came to visit. She is a little rascal when it comes to the family home computer and loves to turn it on all by herself and play her favorite video game: Barbie and the 12 dancing princesses.



Noel, as you can see is always into something. Lately, he's been really into ink pens.... I'm having such a hard time not being able to pick up my little guy. Aaron is so nice to hold him up to me so I can give him kisses. Noel misses rough play and playing helicopter with Mommy. I miss it too.


Here is a picture of Claire and her cousins that came to visit us last week-end. Not a very good one, I'm afraid. But we loved having them here. Kiah turned one and we ate massive cupcakes and her sister, Adria, and my kids helped her open presents. If I can get better, we will go up to Flagstaff to visit them this week-end for Claire's 4th birthday. I'm really hoping that happens!

Swimming, swimming, in the swimming hole

The day is hot,
the day is cold,
in the swimming hole

Back Stroke,

Side Stroke,

Fancy diving too

Don't you wish you never had
anything else to do?!

Sarah 3 Aaron zip

My tummy is full of holes now. Eight new ones to be exact. Where I used to have a lump, now I have a bit of a dent. I guess I wasn't exactly expecting a tummy tuck, but this is ridiculous. Yesterday I had surgery on my abdomen to repair a herniated incision from last year's surgery, which was to remove a dermoid ovarian cyst. Almost exactly a year ago, I was just like I am now - propped up in bed in the only comfortable position I can find, somewhat relaxed, somewhat in pain. Aaron took the kids to the park before it gets too hot - It's 7 am. He brought me breakfast in bed before he left and helped me to the potty. Happy Father's Day to him. I really love that man.
It's funny, but I was just talking about this with my sister-in-law last week-end about how right before we got married, Aaron was so scared that he would be the one with all the health problems. (Technically, Aaron has had just as many surgeries as I, but none since we've been married). He found out that he was at risk for HD and he and his mother were both worried about how that would affect our marriage. We are lucky that he was spared and pray everyday for his father who was not. But I knew, when I said yes to him, that it was for better or for worse, sickness and in health... forever.

Shoe Dilemma

A while ago, possibly as far back as Christmas I stopped by Nordstrom Last Chance and found Noel some church shoes. Kenneth Cole Reaction, Black leather, size 7, super cute and only $12.99. I have a tough time finding shoes for him, since he's got wide feet. Target shoes in my opinion are overpriced for what they are - I'd pay $12.99 for a pair of generic shoes that hurt his feet and he'd kick them off all the time. Noel had three pairs of shoes, a pair of Airwalk sneakers I got at Baby Bloomer consignment for $5.00, the church shoes, and a pair of red crocs I found at the croc outlet for $4.00.

All in one week - he grew out of the sneakers, lost one croc somewhere, and started complaining that the Kenneth Cole's were too tight. Too tight? They are size 7 (my kids have tiny feet)! A closer look and I noticed that one shoe was slightly smaller than the other and an even closer look under the tongue of the smaller shoe, I could see the size 5M - with the 5 colored over. My poor boy has been wearing mismatched shoes all this time!

Now I am a big fan of Last Chance. I love being able to find "new" merchandise at an low price. I've bought nice nordstrom dress shirts for Aaron for $9.99. I've gotten dresses for $5.00 and t-shirts and cami's for a buck.

A few things I've learned about Last Chance:

1. Do not take kids with you

2. Be prepared for long lines and a lot of people

3. I better be in love with items I'm buying because they post all over the store - Absolutely No Returns

But how can that be fair? - they put the wrong sizes together. Somewhere in the store, there had to be another pair with mismatched sizes, right? If I could find that pair - I could sneak swap shoe for shoe. I was fully prepared do so. I even polished up the size 5 to look like new again and put the pair in my purse. Then I got in the car and headed to Last Chance, sweaty palms, and heart racing.

When I walked into the store, the shoes aisles were packed. I elbowed about three women to get to the children's shoes. I quickly found some Stride Rite - size 6 1/2 wide Brown leather shoes, pic below, that would work for church for $12.99 - the current model, (link above), sells for $49. I also found a pair of blue crocs in his size for $9.99. That's not as good as the $4.00 i got at the outlet - but those are the only sandals that really fit his wide feet and this color is more boyish.


Then I found these new balance tennies for Claire for $12.99:


They sell here for $42.99.

O.K. so now to find the swap shoe... I searched and searched and could not find. It's probably a good thing. I was having visions of alarms, and handcuffs, and being questioned by store officials and police officers...

Finally, I found a friendly looking sales lady who was restocking more shoes and told her my predicament with the mismatched shoes. I didn't have a receipt... She looked at me and sighed and deep sigh and I waited for her response...

"Do you have the shoes?"

"Yes", and I showed them to her

She took them and examined them and paused...I must have looked somewhat pathetic.

"We'll do a one time exchange for you".

I thanked her profusely - then found one more pair of shoes... for me... Shoe dilemma solved, maybe over solved.

update: Claire took her $4.oo crocs off at the splash pad the other day and they are gone. We searched the whole park and asked numerous people if they had seen them. Good thing I only spent $4 on them. Then I found Noel's missing croc sandal in a pile of toys that we had searched through many times before just the other day...

Just me and the kids and some burglars

Claire took this picture of Noel and me the other day, after we had gotten back from taking Aaron to the airport. He went to Las Vegas for the week for a conference about local government. We've had an interesting time that is for sure - absolutely no time to be bored!

Tuesday, after Aaron left, the little boy that I watch ended up sick and throwing up. I promptly called his mother and she came and picked him up. The kids and I went shopping at Trader Joe's. They had a blast running all over the store, grabbing and filling their mini carts with bananas and cheerios - or rather, "Trader Oh's". Noel has learned to have a tantrum anytime I sit him in grownup size shopping carts so he can be free to run around grocery stores. Anyway, we made it out of the store with about 20 more bananas than I had anticipated buying because I was running after Noel during checkout - to make sure he didn't run out the door and into traffic in their always busy parking lot. My heart was pounding as I got the kids back into the van - I don't know if I love or hate those mini carts.

Wednesday, we dropped some things due off at the library and went to Target to try to find a birthday present for Claire's friend. We also picked up some groceries. Then we got home in time to get in our swimsuits and head to a play date at the pool. We had a lot of fun. Claire and Noel absolutely love the water and always have a hard time going home. Claire has a suit with built in floaties and she just loves - it gives her so much more freedom than the arm floaties do. Noel has his arm floaties and he loves them and being in the water, but has to stay within arms reach of me. Anyway, we headed home and after lunch and naps we waited until Birthday party time. We past the time by painting pictures and watching Blue's Clues through the Wii from netflix.

Wednesday evening, we headed to the birthday party. It was really cute - princess party under the stars. Dinner was served and the kids made princess crowns, hit a pink pony pinata, got to dance and take pictures with a live singing princess. It was about the time the cupcake devouring began that I noticed Claire licking the frosting off hers and all of the sudden making a funny face. She looked to me as if to say "help". We walked over to each other and she threw up. I took her to a discreet corner and she threw up again. We got her cleaned up in the bathroom and left for home.

I decided to let Claire sleep with me and its a good thing. Over the course of the next 6 hours, she would through up about a dozen times. Noel woke up at midnight and proceeded to throw up four times between 12 and 4am. So all night running back and forth between them, trying to get them to throw up into an empty cookie dough container. Lights on... lights off... lights on... lights off... Finally at 4 am, the kids were able to calm their bodies down and get some sleep. I crashed.

Thursday, after sleeping in, the kids and I are feeling icky. No throwing up, but no eating either. We spent the day watching movies and playing with toys and coloring. I do about 4 loads of laundry - towels, sheets, blankets, and P.J.s, and clean beds and carpets.

About 5 pm Thursday, I ventured outside to check the mail and I noticed that the trunk on Aaron's car is open. Upon further inspection I notice that his passenger door lock has been pried apart and his car stereo is gone. I call Aaron, I call the police, police come, get finger prints, leave me with a report and I get the kids in bed.

Aaron will be back in a couple of hours. I'm so thankful for him. It's been a difficult couple of days and I can't wait to have him back. I'm especially thankful that no one was seriously hurt by the burglars that were in our driveway yesterday or yesterday evening. Now there is no way of knowing, but I can imagine that if the burglars wanted to come inside to have a look around, they would have been deterred by the whole lights on...lights off... thing.

Ballet "Recital"

Claire has been taking Ballet classes this spring. She is really doing well and it lets her get out some built up energy - she has a ton! She goes to a community center not too far from our home. I signed her up to take them through the summer. Parents are able to observe the last class of each session. I got some video - we are still working on getting it uploaded. We got some pretty cute footage of the songs they sing, the jumping, twirling, leaping, and position practicing. Her teacher, is really great. She teaches the ballet positions through actions to songs. They jump over imaginary puddles, dance with scarves, gather imaginary stars out of the sky and put them in baskets. We loved watching. We especially love the woman who let Noel play with her Ipod touch with the child's game app on it. Kept him amused when the girls in tutus no longer could.