A Day at the Zoo

I am embarrassed to admit that despite all the fun adventures we have had as a family since Merrick was born, we had never taken Merrick to the zoo. Yesterday was memorial day and our last day before Jeremy started summer school (and increased his work hours to 35 hrs/week), so we decided it was the perfect day for a family trip to the zoo.

The weather was really nice and Merrick was so good. He walked almost all of the time, but he stayed right by us and was so excited to see each of the animals. The only negative of the day was that it was fairly busy. We had to park in the overflow parking and take a shuttle over. The shuttle was an old school bus and if you ask Merrick he will tell you that riding the bus was his favorite part of the day.

It may have taken us two and a half years to get Merrick to the zoo, but we all had such a blast, I am sure we will be back soon. I got a little carried away taking pictures, but here are my favorites.

Family Helpers

Several weeks ago I overheard a conversation between my sister-in-law, Rachel, and someone at church. Rachel was talking about all the things they had been working on over the weekend and the women said something to the effect of, well it is so nice you have family around to help. I remember Rachel's response because it really struck me. She said "Particularly this family, they are extremely helpful."

I don't know how it happened or how my parent's instilled this idea in all of us, but the bottom line is, if someone needs help, whether big or small, whether convenient or not, you help in any way you can. Most of the time I am very grateful that this is how we "roll", but there are also times when I wonder what I have gotten myself into.

This weekend our "family" project was painting Ben and Becca's entry way and dining room. With three different colors and extremely vaulted ceilings, it was quite the endeavor. At the end of the weekend all I can say is there is nothing quite like spending A LOT of time together to bring out the good, the bad, and the ugly (and let me tell you with all of us in our painting clothes all weekend, there was a lot of ugly). For our purposes tonight, I would like to focus on the positive, so here is a list of things that I love about my family that I was reminded of this weekend,

1) As previously mentioned, if you need help, whether it is with eating a delicious cake or remodeling your whole house, we are there

2) You can count on laughing...a lot

3) You can count on being laughed at...a lot

4) You will be rewarded for your efforts (thanks Ben and Becca for all the yummy food)

5) You can always be yourself...even if that means wearing two layers of clothes and dancing by yourself to the music in the middle of a restaurant (Colvin)

6) You can count on someone to take a picture, put it on the internet, and save it as a weapon for a later date.

The boys

This week marked the first week of consistently good weather around these parts. There is nothing like being out in the warm sunshine to bring out the "boy side" of my boys. We spent the week doing fun things like playing at the park, going to skate parks, and hanging out at a local campground.

I can tell that this is just the start of a fantastic summer.

I Think I Can

Last week I posted all about how stressed we have been. I have been thinking a lot about this stress and how much of it is "self inflicted". Jeremy did not have to go to law school and thereby subject himself to law school finals. I did not have to choose to work for a company headed into the very stressful time of a product launch. So why did we do this? The answer came to me this week like a ton of bricks, but it started long ago, right after we had Merrick.

There is so much pressure that comes with having a baby. In an instant there is a tiny human which you are entirely responsible for. You are responsible for his health and well being, but perhaps even more critical, you are responsible for teaching and molding him into a responsible, productive citizen. I would be lying if I said I hadn't spent LOTS of time wondering if we were doing it right. I want Merrick to be smart, kind, honest, hard working, and successful and it is up to us to teach him to be all these things...talk about stress.

This week I had a small moment with Merrick that led me to believe we may be getting it right. We were at a bounce house and he was climbing a really tall "climbing wall" to slide down a slide on the other side. I was not helping him, but just standing by, watching, to make sure he did not need my help. Right before he started to climb, he stopped and looked at me and said "I know I can do it mom." It was such a simple sentence, but it spoke volumes to me and answered a question that I have had about why we put ourselves in these situations that are hard and cause stress. We do it because we were taught by our parents that we could.

I often tease Jeremy that he is alarmingly self assured, but what a great personally trait to have. He WILL be successful because he believes that he will be. At the end of the day, I am not sure there is much better gift a parent can give their child than a belief in themselves. I want to thank my parents and Jeremy's for instilling this in us and I hope it is a gift that we can continue to give Merrick.

Serenity Now

It seems that the theme for this week has been stress. We are smack dab in the middle of finals for Jeremy (he had two finals last week and has two this week). When he is not actually taking a test, he spends the day locked away in his study room. Then, after a full day of studying, he goes to study group at night. On top of this he has been trying to find summer work, which is a huge stress in and of itself.

My life has not been a walk in the park this past week either (although we did take several walks in the park, so that's funny). Anyway, work has been stressful this week as we are really trying to get our product to market and we are getting really close. I also have been picking up some slack with Merrick since Jeremy is never around.

Merrick has not been immune to all the stress. I know he feels it and he asks for Jeremy a lot, which breaks all of our hearts.

We do feel like the end is near though. Jeremy's finals will be over on Thursday, he maybe, possibly has secured a job for the summer, and soon our product will be released.

But while the end of this current stress is in sight, last night we all felt like we needed a break, a least for a few minutes. For some reason our families go to activity for relieving stress is "fort night". I think Merrick likes it because he gets to spend time with Jeremy as they build it and he always gets to watch a show and eat dessert inside it once it is built. I think Jeremy likes it because it brings back memories of the simpler times of his childhood. I like it because it is something that makes my boys happy!

While even "fort night" was still a little stressful, for reasons I won't get into, it still represented a break, a chance to climb inside and block out the rest of the world, and for that I am grateful.

Big News

This was a big week in the lives of our family! Garret got his mission call, Ben and Becca found out what they are having, and Merrick decided he is a grown-up. Here is a round-up of all the big news:

Big piece of news #1-Garret got his mission call. He has worked really hard for the last year to save money and has planned to pay for his whole mission himself. This past week his call finally came and we all (Jeremy, Merrick, and I in Oregon and Jensen in New York) got on the phone for the big announcement. His is going to be going to Tacoma, Washington, Spanish speaking. We are so excited to have him so close, it will just be hard to resist the urge to visit all the time. He is going to be a great missionary and the people of Washington are lucky to have him.

Big piece of news #2-Ben and Becca found out what they are having. It turns out that most of the family was wrong and they are having a BOY. Just for the record, Jeremy, Merrick, and I all thought it was a boy, but we were outnumbered 15 to 9. They had a big reveal party with blue and pink cupcakes. They told us there was something in one of the cupcakes that would tell us if it was a boy or a girl and that whoever found it got to make the announcement. We all tore in and soon Lauren was screaming. She had found a blue butterfly in her cupcake.

Big piece of news #3-Merrick has decided he is a grown-up. Okay, this really isn't anything new and is not really the same caliber of news, but I really just can't help but talk about it. One day this week Merrick decided he wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. Not only did he want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but he wanted to make it himself. I don't think it is a big secret, but I don't really like messes so the idea of Merrick making his own PB&J kind of freaked me out. It turns out he actually did a great job. I don't know how it happened because just a few months ago he couldn't eat a PB&J without making a huge mess (you all saw the pictures), but now, like I said, he is a grown-up and can make his own sandwich. I am not sure what happened to my baby, but I am so proud of the big boy he is becoming.

It has been a crazy week with lot of big new and announcements! We are so proud of Garret and so happy for Ben and Becca.

Easter 2012

Now that I finally got around to posting about our Arizona trip, I can catch us up by posting about Easter. I don't know if it is because we had just gotten back from Arizona, but Easter kind of snuck up on us this year. Luckily the Easter bunny had planned ahead by picking up things here and there before the big day, otherwise we would have been in big trouble.

Months ago Merrick found an Elmo Easter basket in his closet (probably left behind by Kai) and fell in love with it, so on Saturday night we left it out for the Easter bunny and as per Clifford family tradition, the Easter bunny filled it and hid it (this year in the office).

In the morning Merrick had a great time searching for the basket and finding eggs along the way.

The big hit was the Elmo playdough shape maker. I don't think a day has gone by since without Merrick busting out Elmo.

After the "hunt" we had breakfast. I guess Merrick got his holidays a little confused because he insisted on reindeer pancakes.

Of course we know that Easter is not really about a bunny or even candy, but about our Savior, his sacrifice for us, and ultimately his Resurrection. My sister, Becca, had the brilliant idea of incorporating this into an Easter egg hunt. All the cousins hunted for eggs in the backyard. Inside they found puzzle pieces that they were then able to assemble and see pictures of Christ. It was a great way to help the little ones focus on Christ even while participating in tradition Easter activities.

Well, that was our Easter in a nutshell. I hope everyone had as great of a day as we did.