Littlest Sweatshop

Time for my boys to earn their keep around here.  Here they are mending sleeping bags just before a fun Memorial Day weekend campout.

And speaking of sewing, just to give an idea of the quality of sewing that happens around here, have a peek at Jake's and Isaac's Mother's Day gifts last year.

Cross-stitched to perfection!











And, speaking of Mother's Day, here I am, a real bona fide madre!  Kind of surprising to have six little people calling me mother when I stop to think of it, but oh so wonderful in every way.

...Or, if you prefer us in our natural state:

And speaking of natural state, a neighbor friend thought it would be nice to give my daughter some eyeshadow she didn't use.  Well, it gets used around here.  Now every time I turn around somebody is on the cusp of a "black eye."  My sense of humor failed me one Sunday morning when we were all rushing to get to church on time.  We piled into the car and as we zoomed off I happened to look in my mirror to see Megs primly sitting in the back looking lovely in her pretty dress and sweetly braided hair and black eye.  It's a good thing I've long since abandoned worrying about what people think of our family!

And speaking of Clara, she was suffering from a small stubbed toe not long ago.  I asked her to please put something on it so that blood wouldn't get on the carpet.

No blood got on the carpet.

What any of this has to do with my littlest sweatshop, I don't know.  I rarely know what my point is, so I will treat you all to a poem:

There was an old man of Blackheath,

Who sat on his set of false teeth;

     Said he, with a start,

     "O Lord, bless my heart!

I've bitten myself underneath!"

Dynamic Duo

Being rascals.

Reading before church (just prior to my vetoing his choice of footwear).

Alien encounters.

 Jimmy receiving healing kisses after an injury.

 Time-outs for co-nautiness.

Breakfasting together.

Napping together.

And brushing.

 (Alright, this is Isaac helping little Zippy.  But I thought it was funny.)

 And speaking of brushing.  James asked if I could help him brush his teeth.  "My son, you need help with more than just the brushing..."

 

How did I get so lucky to spend my days with these two little nuts?  And what will we do when James decides to ditch us girls for kindergarten.  I shudder at the thought!

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas from the Allens!

Hope you all had a happy cozy Christmas.  We have had a wonderful year here amongst the mountains and rivers and flowering things.  We have reached several landmarks and have seen the fruition of a few dreams, and look forward to 2012--or the rest of it, anyway!  Thank you to those who remembered us this Christmas.  We absolutely love getting updates from our cherished friends and family!

With love,

the Allen Family

Kidnapped

One fine Thursday in August (this is shamefully late!) a babysitter arrived at our house, and Michael informed me we were going on a date.  Little did I know that that date would be to the airport, and thence to Las Vegas...

The lovely Bellagio where we were captivated by the water dances...

The lovely statues near the Bellagio (the originals are even lovelier!)...

Michael surprised me with dinner that evening at Andre's in the Monte Carlo.  One of the most delicious meals I've ever had start to finish, and why does their cucumber lime water taste so much better than when I do it?  You know it's going to be good when they offer mint and sorbet pallet cleansers between courses.  (I sort of wanted to have a few more pallet cleansers for dessert.)

After dinner we meandered over to the MGM to watch David Copperfield turn paper into monarch butterflies, and make people disappear from the stage and reappear at the back of the theater.  I actually got to go onstage to "help" with one of the tricks--making a vintage car appear on stage from nothingness--and I even got my very own smile from the maestro himself.  It was my favorite part of the trip!

The next morning we awoke early, saw the sights of the Bellagio, including gelato for breakfast, picked up our car rental and headed out of town.  At first I thought Michael's car choice was a little whimsical and wanton, but he, as with everything he does, had a good reason...

Where were we going?  Who knows, I was just along for the ride!

The three-hour long ride, that is.  We ended up at the Grand Canyon.  Apollo, Aether and the breeze nymphs were in good form and it was the most beautiful day they could conjure!  The convertible was a genius idea because the drive was spectacular and to have no roof made it all the more so.  Very much recommended.  We hiked around and acquainted ourselves with the views, watched a native American dance and music presentation and ate fry bread made right before our eyes.

 Ammmmm.  Ammmmm.  Ammmmm.  (This is me getting six kids worth of chaos out of my system.)

It was magical.  We hatched myriad plans for family hiking trips in the future.  If I had four lives I'd do them all!  This was definitely my favorite part of the trip.

The next morning we woke up early again and strapped on our water-hiking duds to make the trek that we both had long been interested in, needing only the chance:

The Narrows of Southern Utah!  We covered as much ground (or water) as we could in the time we had, wanting to see as much of this stunning place as possible.  Michael chatted with a forest ranger when we got back about some of the landmarks we had seen.  When she learned we had just done a day trip she said she had rarely heard of people going that fast.  Michael didn't tell her about the 30 minute lunch we took, or our exploration of a few side canyons.  Getting older, yes; getting chubbier, yes; getting slower, no.  This had to have been my favorite part of the trip!

The next morning we went to a local ward and spent a lazy day touring some of the natural wonders of Southern Utah: stone tunnels at Kolob Canyon and the wildflowers at Cedar Breaks.

That night we lodged in St. George and watched a cheesy and entertaining Hallmark show.  The next morning we attended the St. George temple (another first for us), and explored some of the rooms in that sacred historical place.  I loved it.  Probably my favorite part of the trip.

Then we enjoyed a perusal of the Green Valley Spa, trying not to giggle at the promises of rejuvenation and health if you walk the labyrinth (which we of course had to do!), got long delicious massages, and purchased some peppermint lip chap.  That was my anniversary present.  I got some for Clara too. 

Then we drove back to Las Vegas in time to dine at the famous M buffet for lunch, headed to the airport where we hopped on a plane back home.  Here we were met by six little chickies excited to see their parents, and they found two parents grateful to have been away and happy to be back.

What a delightful way to celebrate 13 years of marriage.  What a thoughtful husband to plan it for me.  This marriage of our's has taken us to unexpected places, presented lots of opportunities and challenges, and six little sweetpeas.  And I have to say, so far it has been a wonderful trip!

Miss Manners

Clara was asked during activity day to write down manners most pertinent to life in the outside world.

"Easy!" she said.

From the journal of Joseph Millett, who tells of his name being read out as a missionary in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in 1852, of making his way as a nineteen-year-old, alone and mainly on foot, across the continent to Nova Scotia, learning the gospel and making converts essentially on his own, choosing one of them as a wife and making his way with a group of Saints back to Utah and then on to a colonizing mission in Spring Valley, Nevada. Near the end of the journal, he records a crucial, self-defining experience from the first days in Spring Valley when his daughter had died and many suffered great sickness and hunger:

"One of my children came in, said that Brother Newton Hall’s folks were out of bread. Had none that day. I put . .. our flour in a sack to send up to Brother Hall’s. Just then Brother Hall came in. Says I,“Brother Hall, how are you out for flour.” “Brother Millett, we have none.” “Well, Brother Hall, there is some in that sack. I have divided and was going to send it to you. Your children told mine that you were out.” Brother Hall began to cry. Said he had tried others. Could not get any. Went to the cedars and prayed to the Lord and the Lord told him to go to Joseph Millett “Well, Brother Hall, you needn’t bring this back if the Lord sent you for it. You don’t owe me for it.” You can’t tell how good it made me feel to know that the Lord knew that there was such a person as Joseph Millett."

This sense of being special, of God knowing us by name, favoring us with his voice and special direction and responsibility, is crucial to the Mormon identity and central to our best literature from the beginning. But in my view, the quality of this passage is more than doubled by the way it opens out to the other meaning of chosen—called out of the world to bless the world. God knew Joseph Millett’s name not because he was partial to him, but so God could, with perfect confidence, tell his neighbor Brother Hall to go specifically to Joseph Millett for help.
--Eugene England 

(Borrowed from my Pop's blog.  This has always been one of my favorite stories.  I hope with some practice I can be more like J. Millett some day.)

SURPRISE!

What do this,

this,

this,

and this

have in common?

This!

Anna:  Oh yes, we did!  Michael's Valentine's Day surprise for me was postponed until July. We weren't quite sure what to expect.  The pre-event picture captures the 'not quite so sure about this' sentiments.  The event picture (though somewhat unscrupulous historically) reflects the varying enthusiasm felt by all.  The post-event picture didn't quite happen as someone was feeling a little queasy.

Michael:  I get sick reading in a parked car!  Apparently the guy on my back thought it would be fun to swing horizontal to the ground a few times.  It didn't help that Anna was squealing for more somersaults above me.  Wheeeeeee.  I nearly lost my lunch.  But check it off the bucket list.  We are bona fide skydiver... novices.

LaVell

I know I'm totally annoying, and it took this poor man 30 minutes to walk 5 yards, but what can you expect when you're a legend?  I HAD to seize the opportunity when it presented itself!  How cool is this?!

He was very gracious and even smiled at me.  I felt quite special!

I just stole all my thunder.  That was the climax of this post.  Well, here's the skinny: MJ, Jake, Isaac, me and a host of friends and family joined to cheer the Big Blue for the BYU/OSU game.  Excuse me, Andrew, most of us cheered for the Y.  It began with a killer tailgate party, then 3 hours of crazy screaming and cheering (in our family you are a lightweight if your voice isn't gone by the end of the game), getting ourselves

acknowledged by the game commentators on TV, "Wow, do you hear those BYU fans?  They're really going crazy...oh!  What's this? False start for OSU?  Oh that'll be a crippling penalty!  And for the third down, incomplete...well, that might be the game for OSU.  I guess we'll see if they can come back from this, they're running out of time..." etc.  We like to think we had a hand in the outcome.

At one point in the game, Cosmo was smelling enthusiasm from our corner and came and plopped down right next to MJ who put his arm around the famous cougar.  All the kids got to take pictures, give him high-fives and touch his tail.

Another fun moment was visiting with my little bro Andrew in the OSU red-shirt team section just as the second half was starting.  I got a lot of dirty looks from a lot of big scary football players, but he hugged me and introduced me all the same.  I sure like this brother of mine!  I sure like this team of our's! 

GO BYU!

Summer Events

My sister got the big idea to recruit family for another trail half marathon this summer.  So after training for a few months in the wee hours of the morning Michael and I headed north to get a personal look at the wilds of Portland.  (With all that running I got Heidi to where she would stay precisely at my right thigh when I patted it.  How incredibly satisfying to run with a nice dog!)  My old ankle injury would rear its ugly head after about mile seven during training and race but, let's face it, lots of things hurt after mile seven!  My bros Pietr, Matt and Dave R. ran it with us, and Miriam and Liz ran the 10K.  Check out the pictures!

XX--Oh wait.  Somebunny hasn't emailed them yet!

Then I got busy training for another triathlon six weeks later.  I am thinking this is my favorite kind of race of all time.  The fun in this particular race was that I was competing with seven other friends, all of whom were doing the first tri of their lives.  What a pleasure and inspiration it was to see them make this goal and nail it!

Waiting for my heat.

Michael and feisty Audrey.  This boy was the best during this whole thing.  What would I do without him?

Getting ready for the whistle with good friend Laura Harvey.

Oh yeah!  That's yours truly.

Madly getting my biking gear on.

 Off on the 16-mi ride.  It was glorious!  The Madras countryside is beautiful.

After tossing my bike on the rack, I headed off for the first few jelloey steps of the run.

Crossing the line was like the triumphal entry through the Champs Elysees!  I was looking a little purple but feeling pretty good. 

My favorite part was coming up to the end of the run.  My family spotted me and started screaming, "Go MOOMMM!!"  I was the only one coming in at that moment, so a bunch of other spectators started cheering "go mom" too.  I had to laugh in spite of myself and it gave me a little extra kick to see my kids cheering.  Thanks, fam!

Laura, Gabrielle, me and Clara enjoying some post-event victuals.

Team Fearless, the conquering heroines!  What a blast, ladies.  Let's do it again next year....