Christmas Season 2020

We went to see the Christmas lights in Caldwell. I didn't take a picture of it, but everyone's favorite was the fire-breathing Loch Ness Monster.

The boys collaborated on a gingerbread house. It immediately collapsed, but they had a fun time making it.

We celebrated "Christmas Part 1" on December 22nd.

Silas & Gideon waiting for Ambrose to re-wake up so that they could open their stockings. (Ambrose was awake at 4am and then woke me up at 5am and then climbed into bed with me and fell back asleep.)

I told Silas that he couldn't touch any of the presents until Grandma & Grandpa arrived...so he camped out about two feet from the tree & stared at the presents & waited. 😀

On the 23rd, I drove the boys to Smith & Edwards where they were picked up by Peter and taken to Provo to enjoy "Christmas Part 2."

Earlier this week, I was going over a writing assignment with Ambrose and noticed that he hadn't capitalized the word "I." I reminded him that "I" is always capitalized. He seemed rather surprised and perplexed by this rule. It wasn't until the next day's writing assignment that I understood the source of his confusion:

It's been a busy couple of weeks and I can't believe that November is almost over! Last week the boys and I took a trip to St. George.

This week we've had a lot of fun celebrating Thanksgiving with family. Riki's family and Jace's family both got to come to Idaho this year.

Payden with some of her admiring fans. Ambrose refers to Payden as "the life of the party."

Halloween 2020

We had lots of Halloween-related fun this week. The boys had a Halloween party at their homeschool co-op on Thursday. On Friday, we went to Linder Farms and then carved pumpkins. Gideon also went to his friends' house for a party Friday night. Then on Saturday the boys got to go trick-or-treating and also watched part of the BYU football game.

My niece McKay made this Frido Kahlo cake on Halloween (we nicknamed her Frido-stein).

A couple of weeks ago we went to Babby Farms where we got to pet and feed exotic animals. It was lots of fun.

Silas named this friendly monkey "Lard Cakes."

The black blob in the background is a yak.

After Babby Farms we went to Grandma and Grandpa Stott's house where Ambrose rode Grandpa's pet steer.

We went to the bike park yesterday. The boys were huge fans!

August 31-September 13

Here are some highlights from the past two weeks.

On Saturday, Sept. 5th, we wandered around the Morrison Knudsen Nature Center. It was a beautiful morning and we got to see lots of cool fish, including a sturgeon. In the evening, we celebrated my birthday with family. On the following Monday (Labor Day), we had a family dinner and BYU football party at Grandma and Grandpa Stott's house. Ambrose chose to write about that for one of his writing assignments this week.

"The football game was awesome. There was good food. It was nice and there were screams. Our family from Idaho was there! The end."

This Friday, Sept. 11th, the boys had fun helping Grandpa with chores that certainly didn't feel like chores. Gideon got to use the riding lawn mower for the first time and couldn't wipe the smile off of his face. Ambrose was just as gleeful about using the leaf blower and Silas had great fun using the pressure washer. A little while after we returned home from Grandma and Grandpa's, Peter came. The boys were delighted with his new car and got to go on a drive with the top down on Saturday morning. They also went hiking with him.

August 16th-30th

The boys spent some time in Provo and St. George and celebrated Peter's birthday with him. Unfortunately, they also picked up the Coronavirus. As a result, there's not too much to report on during the past two weeks. Probably our most exciting event was the walk we took last Sunday to a nearby park. The boys practiced using their new digital cameras and these ducks became some of the most photographed ducks in the history of the world.

August 9th-15th

Riki's family came to visit for a few days, so we had some fun family dinners and also went to Eagle Island on Tuesday. At Eagle Island, the boys got to paddle board, kayak, and swim with their cousins.

On Friday, I drove the boys to Ogden where they were picked up by Grandma Wall and relayed back to Provo. The boys will spend the next week in Provo with Peter.

August 3rd-8th

We were able to close on our house and get keys on Monday, August 3rd. Since I didn't get the keys until late in the afternoon when it was already really hot, I decided to wait until the morning to move things in. The boys and I headed back to Emmett for the night. Meanwhile, Kodie's family and the missionaries surprised us by moving all of our furniture in and assembling it that night. The next morning was Gideon's birthday. Kodie took all of the kids to Wahooz for the day while my mom and I stayed and unpacked boxes. Wahooz was a big hit! The boys loved it and Gideon particularly liked the go-karts. In the evening, we celebrated Gideon's birthday with a sushi dinner and a brownie "cake" and ice cream. 

A couple of days later, Gideon got this awesome electric scooter from Peter which he has enjoyed riding all around the neighborhood.

On Monday morning, we loaded up a U-Haul and cleaned our house with the help of many kind people. In the afternoon, we gave our keys to the new owners, said our teary goodbyes to the neighbors, and then backed out of the driveway and straight into our garbage can--leaving a big dent in the can and a small dent in the van. After that dramatic exit, the boys and I drove to a sketchy Motel 6 in Ogden where we learned that it's worth $30 more for clean towels and a bed that doesn't skewer your back with its springs. The next day, we finished up our trip to Idaho and celebrated Grandma's birthday.

The scheduled closing date on our new house got pushed back, but we are hoping that it will close tomorrow or Tuesday.

It's strange to look back on the last post from July 5th because so much has shifted in all of our lives during the past twenty-one days. Just a couple of days after writing that post (on our thirteenth anniversary), Peter and I met with a divorce attorney. (Hence the address change on this blog from 7seven07.blogspot.com to thewallboys.blogspot.com.) So, in the past three weeks

• We started the divorce process.
• Peter hunted for and found a place to rent and then moved out.
• We had an offer accepted on a house in Idaho and hurried the financing through so that our closing dates could line up better.
• I registered the boys for a homeschooling program in Idaho.
• We closed on our current house and have been busy packing and cleaning.

In addition to those things, Gideon also got in a bike accident this week when the front fork of his bike snapped off. He was wearing a helmet, but he hit his chin and blacked out. He also scraped off the skin on his right arm and both of his knees.

On the positive side, we got rain this week and when it rains in St. George all of the neighbors come out to celebrate and it becomes an impromptu party.

We also had a party with the neighbors on Pioneer Day.

Tomorrow we will load the U-Haul and finish cleaning the house and either tomorrow afternoon or Tuesday morning, we will begin our trek to Idaho.

It has been a busy two weeks! The boys and I went on a fun trip to Provo and Idaho.

 While we were gone, Peter traded in our car and bought a truck.

We got back from our trip on Tuesday of this week. On Thursday afternoon, we listed our house for sale and on Friday afternoon, we signed a purchase contract and filled out the seller's disclosures. On Saturday, we celebrated Independence Day with an early-morning trip to Toquerville Falls and fireworks in the evening.

 

Pancake Pro

Ambrose really really loves to make pancakes and he makes them frequently. After producing a griddleful of lovely pancakes, he returned to the griddle to use up the rest of his batter. He poured the pancake batter on and waited and waited and finally said, "I don't get it, these pancakes still aren't ready to flip." I looked at the griddle and realized that he had turned it off between batches so the pancakes weren't cooking at all. When I informed Ambrose of this, he groaned and said, "Ughh, such a rookie mistake!"

Stranger Danger

I took the boys to the dentist this week. Ambrose was the first to get called into the exam room, so I waited in the waiting room with Gideon and Silas until they could go back as well. When I went to check on Ambrose and see how he was doing, the dental hygienist related the following conversation:

Dental hygienist: "So do you ever go biking on the bike trails around here?"

Ambrose: "I'm not from around here." (The dentist office is about three minutes from our house, so I'm not sure why Ambrose said that unless he was just confused about where she was talking about...or unless he was trying to throw her off of his trail.)

Dental hygienist: "Oh, where do you live?"

Ambrose: "That's personal information."

Silas' Jacket Theory

Silas: "Mother, I need a new jacket."
Me: "But it's the middle of summer."
Silas: "I know, but I like wearing jackets."
Me: "But it's like a hundred degrees outside. They don't even sell jackets right now."
Silas: "But it follows the same principle as why you would want to hit yourself in the head with a hammer."
Me: "You mean so that it can feel better when you stop."
Silas: "Yes. If you wear a jacket, it can feel a lot cooler when you take it off."

After being cooped up all week, Peter decided to take the boys out on a hike yesterday. Just as he parked and the boys were getting out of the van, Silas--who hadn't gotten out of the van yet--vomited everywhere because he was carsick. Peter told the boys to wander around while he cleaned up the vomit with the only supplies he could find--a pair of scissors from the first aid kit and a water bottle. He used the scissors to cut the water bottle in half so that he could scoop the puke out of the van. Poor Peter. :(

Random "Insult" of the Week

Since there's nothing else to write about this week, I thought I'd record this insult that I overheard while the boys were "goat wrestling." Silas to Gideon: "You little philosopher with green bean toe nails!"

We just finished our two weeks of quarantine following our trip to London. Now we can go out in public--by which I mean go to the grocery store on occasion--while trying to stay six feet away from other humans. The boys are out of school and will be until at least May 1st so we've been trying to do their schoolwork online. It has not been fun. Since the boys can't play with friends or go anywhere, they've been entertaining themselves by "goat wrestling." (It's like regular wrestling. They just call it goat wrestling because it reminds them of the way goats run at each other and butt heads.) They have a great time, but it stresses their mamma out.

Two Other Things I Forgot to Include in My London Trip Post

One of the most notable things about London was its beauty. Random insignificant buildings were as beautiful as any of the more famous buildings and the landscaping and gardens were gorgeous all over the place. The commitment to aesthetics was hilariously exemplified by this sight:

Those were construction fences to keep people out of construction sites. For some reason the construction fences had these columns of fake greenery. While the fake greenery definitely couldn't hide the ugliness of the construction going on, I still appreciated the attempt. ;)

The other thing that I forgot to mention was the embarrassing (but afterwards funny) moment on a city bus when Ambrose loudly said, "Hey brothers, what if we broke this window and started peeing out of it as the bus was driving along!" Peter and I quickly shushed him, but everyone on the bus heard it. I'm not sure why this thought occurred to him or why he thought he should share it, but it was pretty awkward sitting on that bus until we could finally get off at our stop.