House O' Sullivans

Since I don't have a functional kitchen and I'm committed to only eating treats once a week for the rest of the year (or I owe my friend Kimberly $600), I haven't made cookies in FOREVER.  (And I LOVE cookies.)  Realizing that my kitchen will be ripped up forever, or longer, I collected (from various parts of my house) all that I'd need to make some dream cookies.  Milk chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut, walnuts, oats, whole wheat flour, butter, real vanilla.  And they were AWESOME!!  I used my Grandma Olsen's tin measuring cup (the only one I could locate) to do the job.  My mom told me that when she was growing up, she and her siblings would fight over who got to drink out of it.  I had my cookies with cold milk from THE CUP.  Nothing better!  (Thanks for handing it down to me Mom!) This afternoon, a neighbor friend, Amelia Rose, came over to play while her mom, Marnie, went to work.  When her dad, Hayden, came to fe...

We really LIVE in our living room right now.  With the turn in the weather, the outdoor dining is less appealing and the people have moved inside to consume their victuals.  The girls seem to think that the couch is where they should wipe their greasy hands and Zeke is sure that's the place to clean his face.  Arrggghhhhh! So Casey and his friend Jeff (a French stone-carver and sculptor) have been working on the granite countertop.  They started a few weeks ago and have put in maybe three days total labor on it.  They put the corner piece in last Saturday (the one that you can see in the photo).  The rest of it is in the garage getting polished and primed for a supposed install this weekend.  Last weekend, Casey and Jeff were flipping it over (the big piece) and it snapped in half on the narrow sink surround.  That was a mighty set-back since they had to reinforce it with metal rods, patch, and polish all of the newly create...

Sophie and Hallee finished their soccer season last Monday.  They sure were cute players although what they mostly did was run up and down the field in the swarm of uniform-clad kids.  Their games were all on Mondays and Saturdays.  Since I tutor a student on Mondays, I missed several of their games.  After teaching my student last week, I hustled up to the Holladay-Lions Rec Center to catch the action and got there just in time to watch the kids give high fives and HUGS to their teammates and the opposing team.  (Take a lesson from the three and four-year-olds!)  I wanted to get some action footage of the Bumblebee Dragon Princesses in all of their glory, but we'll all have to settle for the post game show. Note the way Hallee handles her teammates and opponents.  What a woman! 

"The Romeros" were out here for two weeks and it was starting to feel like they lived here.  I even made them an invitation for the annual Halloween party in Wayne's Bar.  I realized when I came up with one extra, that I'd made one for ALL of my siblings (minus Nate who is in Afghanistan--a scary celebration of Halloween in and of itself).  Here are some pictures of where we were a week ago--at This is the Place with the Walters and the Whites. The girls loved riding the train and the ponies, playing on the giant ship replica, and making homes in the Indian wigwams and teepees.  They played in this fire pit for a long time together.  While the girls were loving life, Zeke was one grumpy cuss.  He's been cutting some mighty big molars for the last week and a half.  Drooling, fussy, moaning, and sleep deprived.  Casey and I have taken to sleeping in the basement (aka Wayne's Bar) on camp mats for some nighttime solace and silen...

Since H.B.'s Karen is in town, we planned a girls-only weekend.  H.B. dubbed our adventure the "Mom-A-Bout" since he and Newel and Craig (and whoever else) do these things called "walkabouts."   Walkabouts, from what I can gather, involve a flurry of intense activity and it's only the men-folk.  The ladies planned an over-nighter at the Lodge at Snowbird.  We had dinner at El Chanate ("the Bird") then soaked in the outdoor pool and hot tub surrounded by the glorious peaks (snow-covered mind you) of Big Cottonwood Canyon.  We enjoyed a late night movie fest.  Slept it all off, then had breakfast the next morning at the Lift House--again surrounded by the beauty of the Wasatch.  We'd planned to do some hiking, but ended up strolling the loops of Tanner Flats Campground instead.  The aspens trees are the coolest fluorescent yellow-green right now and the whole canyon is magnificent!  (We missed you Jessica!!!!) ...

After realizing that we hadn't been hiking as a complete family for a couple of months, we set aside the millions of things we could have been doing and headed for the hills on Friday morning.  What a perfect day too!  We hiked part of the Bonneville Shoreline trail, up Parley's Canyon, and around Mount Grandeur.  I LOVE hiking with my family.  When we are all together in a beautiful place--moving, exploring, and happy--I can't help but feel overwhelming glorious delight.  Sophie insisted on taking some pictures of ME! This is my favorite picture of the morning...Soph sweetly handling the Zeke-Horse up the trail.

This morning I met my friends Emily and Mel (and their kids) at Sugarhouse Park for some intense play time.  Sophie and Hallee both hit it so hard their faces were soon flushed with exertion and their bodies covered in slide-rash.  Of course, Zeke just follows the big kids up to the highest slide and goes right down--alone.  The guy is 15 months old and he's been doing this for a while.  I just let him go for it and tried to visually locate him every few minutes to make sure he was okay.  Right before we left I did my periodic check for him and couldn't see him anywhere.  Emily quickly spotted him up on some random climbing aparatus that stems off the main playground equipment.  He had stepped off of a high platform and worked his way out over a void of thin air.  I could tell that a bit of anxiety was setting in by the way he was gripping the bar in front of him while he straddled an even smaller one.  I had Emily spot h...

Mar invited everyone to Kaysville for an epic FHE.  All 18 grandchildren of Grandma and Paka checked in: Kristen's: Ruthie, Zoe, Beatrix, Tabitha, and Izzy Mine: Sophie, Hallee, and the Zeke-Horse Mary's: Gretha, Annie, Pieter, Phoebe, Adam, and Jacob Newel's: Arden and Maya H.B.'s: Mia and Mae-Mae ______________________ Add 'em all up Uncle Dewey, Aunt Cupcake, Laura, and Locke-Duran-Meekrob-Elkins also checked in.  I think that's 32 people.  Way to go Goebel's!  Phil labored over a boiling vat of oil and worked out mounds of yaki mandu--a family classic that Paka brought back from Korea.  After the feasting subsided, Annie taught us about temples.  Way to go Annie! This one is for GRANDMA!!!

We FINALLY caught up with them on Monday afternoon. While I had the kids strapped in the car (coming home from our hike in Bountiful) I drove to Kristen's house in search of Beezer, Karen, Mia, and Mae-Mae.  Lee Maur Street produced no sign of them.  After a few phone calls, we got on track and headed up to Wheeler Farm where we merged with the family herd. Zeke trekked off alone, oblivious to the rest of us, to observe the milk cows.  Every time I retrieved him, he'd turn and run back over to watch them.  Cows are cool. The kids took a lesson from Mike (the local blacksmith) on the art of the smith.  That's a red hot piece of metal Mike's holding--VERY dangerous.

On Monday morning, I hauled the kids up to Bountiful to meet Kim, Joseph, and Izzy for a hike up Holbrook Canyon.  The trail starts nearly right across the street from the Bountiful Temple.  Of course, it was another beautiful fall day.  The kids had fun crossing little bridges over the creek, collecting leaves, and climbing rocks.  I realized when we finished that not one of the kids complained along the way--no "I'm tired", no "carry me."  My plan is working.  I think they're learning to like this kind of stuff.  Zeke was mesmerized by the "wawa" and it was hard to keep him away from it and out of it.  The Horse also on-sited several burly rock formations.  That kid is not afraid of anything! Climb on little buddy! 

Casey went hunting this week--Thursday through Saturday--with John (his boss), Kevin (a co-worker), and Doug (his dad).  I overheard Sophie explaining to Hallee while he was gone,  "Casey has a buck tag and Kevin has a cow tag."  After questioning her, it was evident that Sophie thought that Kevin was out hunting for a cow (moooo!).  I had to explain to her that a COW elk is a female elk and NOT a cow.  From the scene out in my driveway this morning, it is evident that the hunters had success.  Kevin and Doug both got their cows.  Casey, however, did not find his buck (but he did cart home an elk hide).  The kids found great pleasure in working it over this morning. 

I love it when the kids find ways to happily entertain themselves (and each other).  Sophie and Hallee were out yesterday and today (in the COLD) taking turns pulling each other and the Zeke-Horse in the wagon.  Zeke often ambles outside and climbs into the wagon, begging for rides from his sisters, but they've taken it to a new level with the tricycle attachment.

Sophie and Hallee love to do what they call "craft."  Nearly every day, Sophie implores, "Mommy, please set us up with a craft."  When the girls do "craft" I'm always a bit nervous because the girls inevitably leave out markers, pens, scissors (all of the good stuff) then Zeke finds them and gets to work.  (Or Sophie and Hallee pull them out when I'm not supervising and get to work . . . cutting each others hair, re-creating their wardrobes, decorating walls, etc.  The solution?  Wayne's Art Bar.  A place where we can leave everything out and the girls can go set THEMSELVES up anytime they want.  All of the stuff in one place.  All of the stuff up high.  The girls (especially Sophie) are in crafting heaven and have been for the last two days.  I turned off the water to the faucet embedded in the bar and covered the sink area with a giant piece of counter top from the garage.  (We just happen to have random thin...