Golden Spike: the spot where the Union and Central Pacific Railroads joined to create the first Transcontinental Railroad back in 1869. Pretty big deal for our country’s economy!

Not much else out here.

Waiting for the train demonstration. Liam’s photobombing.

Pretty fun! Had a nice little visitor’s center, too. We learned that on a record day, the crew laid 10 miles of track!

We are having lots of fun going on adventures this summer! Little day trips and hikes around our beautiful state. We went out to the Bonneville Salt Flats famous for being a racing paradise (when it’s dry enough to race). It’s so flat here you can actually see the curvature of the earth! Bryce and I came home from this trip and just had to watch The World’s Fastest Indian with Anthony Hopkins. Great movie and shot on these very flats!

Miles and miles of salt. The part where we stopped had a couple inches of water.

See? Salt!

This about sums up Amelie’s home life. Staying calm while the boys go crazy.

Easton.

Mommy and Liam.

The day after he turned 5, Easton was at preschool, getting ready to celebrate with his friends and do the Montessori walking around the sun tradition. As I was on my way to his class for this little celebration, I got a call from the school secretary telling me there had been an accident. You pretty much never want to get a call from your kid’s school and so I was already nervous. Then she told me that Easton had, apparently, stuck his pointer finger in to the classroom’s electric pencil sharpener! Curious, he had slipped off the plastic casing of the sharpener and got his finger too close to the blades. His teacher told me that she had been sitting right next to him and that he didn’t make a peep. She saw him go over and stand in the corner of the room and then a minute later he started crying out once his finger started bleeding. The sharpener had gouged out a chunk of the side of his finger and nicked a blood vessel, so there was quite a bit of blood. When I got there, they had his finger all gauzed up. My poor little man. He was so heart broken and I’m convinced he thought he might die.

At the suggestion of his pediatrician, I took him to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake. They took a good look at the injury and did x-rays. Easton was pretty brave during all of this, even though I’m sure it was quite painful. At the end of it all, they just wrapped the finger really well and told us to make a follow-up appointment with a doctor who specializes in hands. All throughout this experience, everyone kept telling him, “Well, I bet you learned your lesson, huh? No more sticking your fingers in pencil sharpeners!” I kind of rolled my eyes (internally, of course). Clearly, he had learned his lesson!

Everything is healing perfectly now and there haven’t been any complications. What a dramatic (and probably traumatic) day for my sweet boy! So glad he’s on the mend now.

Always a ham for the camera, even when worried for his life.

He made this face for the camera, but I’m pretty sure that’s a good reflection of how he was feeling on the inside.

Feeling a bit better.

This past weekend, Bryce and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. I like that number. To celebrate, we went into the canyon to Sundance Resort. It was so beautiful up there! We had a cozy cabin to ourselves, delicious food, a massage, and we even went on a short hike. Relaxing and wonderful. Bryce is my truest and best friend in the world and I savor the time we spend together on weekends like this one.

In honor of our 12 years together, here are 12 random things that I love about Bryce:

#1: He loves to cook. Preparing our Blue Apron meals together is so much fun and the food is always delicious!

#2: He’s an avid reader. Mostly non-fiction, but he’s gotten into some fiction lately as well.

#3: He takes such good care of our yard. I hardly touch it. He takes pride in all the mowing, weeding, maintenance, and upkeep.

#4: He doesn’t complain when I have to leave in the middle of the night. He’s the best husband a doula could ask for.

#5: He tells me he loves me. It makes my heart so happy when I get an email from him out of the blue telling me so.

#6: He takes his responsibility as the main breadwinner in our family very seriously. And I very much respect him for that.

#7: He enjoys trying new things. This makes things so fun!

#8: He’s a thinker. Sometimes, when he shares with me some of the things he’s been thinking about, studying, and mulling over in his brain, I’m just amazed.

#8: He can be silly. I adore his sense of humor and just laughing with him.

#9: He takes the kids’ questions seriously. One time I came out to find them all huddled around our big subwoofer speaker in the living room. I think he was answering a question that came up about a sonic boom. I love it when the kids bring a question to him and he gets so thorough.

#10: He sees my good intentions. Even when I make mistakes, he can see the intention behind my actions.

#11: He’s surprising. It’s nice to realize that after 12 years together, we can still surprise each other. There’s always more to learn about each other.

#12: He has dreams. It’s fun, sometimes, to sit and chat about our dreams. There’s a lot of heart in our dreams and we feel safe sharing them with each other. It reminds me of this lovely poem by Yeats:

Had I the heaven’s embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light;
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

I love you, Sweetheart! I’ve spread my dreams under your feet and you’ve only ever been so wonderfully gentle with them. May we walk together sharing our dreams for many many years to come.

My baby is 3 years old! 3 years ago, we were in the NICU with him and I’m just filled with joy that he is so happy and healthy now. I tried to interview him like I do with the older kids, but darling as it was there’s not much to transcribe here. At 3, Liam is charming. He says “thank you” in the most sincere little voice whenever you give him something, pats the couch next to him and says, “sit down!”, and pulls you along saying, “Come on! I show you something.” He’s excited about the world. He especially loves our trampoline, his blankie, milk, and giving the biggest hugs. He’s learned a bit of naughtiness–sneaking some Play-Doh from Easton’s stash, or hiding under our dining room table where he thinks he can play with/eat/tinker with/explore almost anything without anyone finding out. All photos taken by the wonderful Adam Johnson.

What a little stud.

There’s that silly side!

Back to serious. He posed himself here.

Excited! Every time Adam said Liam’s name to get his attention for a photo, Liam would neigh in response. It was pretty funny.

Quiet Liam.

Just talking about life.

My sweet precious boy.

Happy birthday, my love!