Zion

We just got back from Zion National Park and we are still alive. This was our first camping trip with Helen and we were a bit worried about getting no sleep. That wasn't a problem though.
Here's a picture of Helen just after we got out of the car. She was as happy as she could be to have new things to look at. I think she'll be a Nature Girl, like me. Well, I like to fancy myself a Nature Girl but I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to bugs with long legs. Spiders and beetles. Yuck! I can look at them but if you get them near me, "No, Gracias Senor!!!!!!"
I love caterpillars though. The cottonwood trees were covered with these net/nest type things full of caterpillars. The kids had so much fun with their pet caterpillars. They tried to save as many as they could because they were covering the ground by the visitor's center. You really could not take a step without squishing one or two or three of them. It was quite sad. They were friendly little things.
Helen lived up to her other nickname "The Best Girl in the World" given to her by Cinci. She was such a great hiker. We left our campsite around 9 or 10 in the morning and came back around 6 each day and she didn't complain. Just as long as she could eat she was fine.
The Virgin River was a nice place for the kids to throw rocks in. I love rivers. Sometimes parents take their kids to playplaces in the fast food restaurants to get a moment of peace. That's what you get. A moment of peace. Then they come to you asking for something. Rivers are better for my boys. The can throw rocks as long as they want. There were no other people around. It was great! Of course we had to keep our eye on Hector just in case he got washed away, but other than that Jonathan and I got to rest a hundred feet away in a little grove of shade with Helen.
Here's Jonathan, Hector, and Atticus one morning. I got to sleep in the van with Helen and two of the boys were up in the pop top, and he got to be outside with those two. The weather was so perfect for sleeping under the stars. We even brought Atticus' telescope to look at the stars but it broke on the drive to Zions thanks to our oldest's hyperactivity! Oh well. It looks cool in our campsite at least.
Here's Jonathan and Helen in front of some of those steep, red, cliffs by the temple of Sinawava. Really striking and breathtaking. Whenever the kids ask me what the word breathtaking means I remind them of an experience we had just last Christmastime. We were driving south to Newport Beach and we were making good time. We saw the sign for Kolob Canyons, which is part of Zion National Park, just south of Cedar City. I had been to Zions before when I was a teenager but I didn't remember anything about it. So, we decided to drive in a little way just to see what it looked like. The mountains from I-15 look really boring if you look east. How pretty could Kolob Canyons be? Really? No skin off our backs if it was boring hills with slight shrubbery. So we drove in, passed the visitors center, followed the curvy road for a few minutes and BOOM! My hands grabbed the sides of my seat. Red rock mountains dusted with snow loomed before us all of a sudden. "Oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!!!" I basically screamed. Atticus turned around in his seat, "What Mom? What's wrong?" He faces the back of the car in our van so he couldn't see what I was seeing. Sherman rarely notices anything outside the car so of course he didn't react. Cinci might have noticed but had no comment. It was like the moment in Neverending Story where Atreyu rides the luck dragon around the pieces of the destroyed Fantasia in search of the ivory tower, when it finally appears in the movie, the music comes on real strong and the camera zooms in on the ivory tower. It was just like that moment, except it was at Kolob Canyons.

So, Zion was really fun. We had an enjoyable camping trip with daddy. The last night of our camping trip, none of the boys wanted to sleep in the pop top or the van. They all wanted to sleep out with Jonathan even though there wasn't enough room for all of them on the mattress. Jonathan is a hardworking daddy. I'm sure glad that Helen is probably our last kid because Jonathan looks pretty beat most of the time. He really gives life his all. I'm so glad he joined me on this camping trip. I think its one of the best activities for our boys.

What's going on?

I guess when your children are young, everything is soooooo busy. There is so much to do in life. There are so many things I want my children to experience, and a lot of these things they can and should only do when they are children. Really, can they go trick or treating when they are big teenage boys? Would they really be interested in starting piano lessons when they are teenagers? Maybe, but will we have money for the lessons in ten years. Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, I feel like I'm racing against the clock to make sure my kids do all they can while they can. I try to not be overly stressed about it though. There is only so much we can afford, and only so much we have time for. We took the kids out past Delta, Utah to dig for trilobites. We were quite successful but we found out that one of our children didn't like it. He wasn't too good at perservering, especially when he saw that other people were finding more than he was. I was so mad that we'd drivin so far so he could have this experience and he ended up hating it. But of course my husband talked some sense to me and reminded me that our job as parents is to expose them to things. If they like it, great. If they don't, they don't. There's nothing we can do to force them to like something. I hate shrimp! There's nothing anyone can do to make me like it. I wish my son liked hunting for trilobites, but he doesn't. Oh well. I'll live.

This particular child received a rock tumbler last Christmas. A really nice rock tumbler. He finally pulled it out and threw some dusty rocks into it. You can see them at the beginning of this post. I couldn't figure out how to move the picture down to this part. Anyway, I was really impressed with how they turned out. At least he likes to tumble rocks. Who wouldn't? They turned out so nice and smooth and pretty. I remember the yearly road trips my family and I would take from California to Utah every year. We'd have to stop for gas several times throughout the trip. In the Sierra Nevadas and in Nevada. In the gas stations and casinos, where my dad would sometimes stop to throw away his money, there would almost always be a big box of gems and geodes and things of that nature. You could fill a little leather bag full of the "treasure" and feel like you owned a bit of the Old West. I saw my kids burying their hands in piles and piles of polished rocks at the "This is the Place" monument in Salt Lake City. I understand that desire. I used to love the feel of smooth, polished rocks.

Halloween came finally. After four years out of the country, we were finally able to celebrate this holiday in the USA. My husband told me, "If you go into labor on Halloween, I'll be so mad!" I was a bit worried that I might screw it up for everyone. Fortunately, our baby stayed put and I was able to experience the stress only a mother feels, the day before Halloween. I think I should now be grateful that I've been out of the country for four years. It's saved me from having to scramble around finding costumes for my kids who become more demanding every day. I think I bought my first Halloween costume this year because I didn't want to "deal with it". I did, however, make my four year old's costume because he wanted to be R2D2 and I saw a really cool R2D2 helmet that a girl made online. I copied it and he was very pleased. They got tons of candy and I guess in the end I was happy for them. I remember the day after Halloween when I was a kid. My brothers and I would always get together and have a big trading time in front of the TV. I'm sure most American kids whose parents let them eat candy did too. Why keep a Baby Ruth if your brother wants to give you his skittles?

Our baby girl finally came on the 2nd of November. I won't bore anyone with the whole story. In short, she came on her own, she came quickly, and we have all adjusted nicely to this new addition. Her name is Helen Kleio McCollum. I know, it's not unique enough. But for us, it is. Helen of Troy is pretty unique, and Kleio is the Muse of History. Google it.

Plus, Helen of Troy and Hector of Troy were brother and sister in law (if you consider Helen and Paris husband and wife, which they weren't really) Hector, as you see above, is growing nicely. Especially in the chin area. He and his little sister will get along wonderfully we hope. Here he is reading train books with daddy. His favorite word is "Choo choo".

What a pair! Atticus and Sherman started piano lessons back in September and they are learning so much. They had their first piano recital last week and did great.

Helen made her first friend around her three week mark. What she likes about R2D2 is that he's soft, he likes to beep, and he stays in one place. Cinci is nice enough to share him with her.

Here's my nephew eating by himself at Thanksgiving. All the other kids were running around the church playing games and trying not to scream too loud. For the last four years we've celebrated Thanksgiving abroad. I think while we were in Turkey we didn't even celebrate it once. We were so poor I didn't have the energy nor means to do anything different than we normally did which was make a meal with what we already had in the little fridge. I don't even think a bird the size of a turkey would have fit in the fridge we had at the time. In Qatar the first year we celebrated famously. I remember I was pregnant with Hector, the kids wove placemats, and we bought orange plastic chalices to drink from. I made two whole chickens instead of a turkey and we drank shirley temples. It was very fun and the kids enjoyed it a lot. We actually talked about what we were grateful for before we took our first bites. Then last year in Qatar I made our family eat only the things they had to eat on the Mayflower for three days before Thanksgiving. Then we went to the meal that the church planned and had Thanksgiving dinner there. My kids didn't enjoy it as much as the previous year but I think they were grateful they could eat whatever they wanted again. This year there were so many festivities going on that I couldn't arrange to have the three days before Thanksgiving be devoted only to the Mayflower diet. We only did one day and that was enough. I made up another batch of hard tack, we ate our oatmeal made with water (yuck), and instead of frying fish fillets for everyone, most of us had fish sticks. I even splurged and let those who wanted lemon have it on their fish. We enjoyed Thanksgiving with our family. Aunt Wendy, who isn't really my aunt but my sister in law, went all out as usual. She loves to cook and try new recipes. Every obscure word involved with cooking or names of foods that are rarely eaten in the United States I learned from her. I suppose she deserves a special nickname. Perhaps "Sunset Lady" would be okay. I'll have to consult my husband for more ideas. Anyway, because of Sunset Lady, we did not have to slave away in the kitchen that day. We arrived at the church, which is where we had our meal, and everything was already there. Perfect! It was nice to be around family for a change.

Here's Great Grandma Hill with little Helen. There are 92 years in between these two ladies. Words can't express what thoughts come to mind when I look at this picture (and I'm not trying to be sappy). I guess I'll let the picture speak for itself.

Truth vs. Price

Yesterday Jonathan and I dropped off Atticus and Sherman with some family members for a few days. We stopped at the grocery store on our way home. It was the easiest shopping trip we'd made in a very long time. We decided that since the two older kids got to stay with cousins, which is a super special treat for them, that we would indulge our third son, who felt a bit left out. He saw Mater on the back of a cereal box and really wanted to buy it. It was Apple Jacks. We've actually never bought Apple Jacks before. Well, actually I bought one box once for a friend who absolutely loves them. So, Cinci was extatic! Really eager to have some special cereal to himself the next morning.

So this morning while I'm eating my Raisin Bran and he's enjoying his Apple Jacks I'm looking at this special Cars 2 offer. You get prizes for collecting codes from participating Kellog's products. Of course they don't tell which are the participating products. I decide to check the internet site they list on the box.

Here is a list of some of their participating products: Frosted Flakes, Frosted Mini Wheats, Cocoa Crispies, Pops, Eggo, Nutri-Grain Bars, Town House Crackers, Graham Crackers, Crispix, and a few more.

As I look at this list of products sliding across the screen, here, I answer the question that a lot of foreigners have asked me. Foreigners that have never spent "real" life here. Life where they have to go grocery shopping every week and manage a budget here.

The question is, "Why are Americans so fat?"

I know why they, I mean, we are so fat. Because of these flashy offers that announce themselves so attractively at every corner. This is a country where it is cheaper to be fat than thin. This is a country where most of the population thinks that a Nutri-Grain Bar is a healthy breakfast option. It must be, right? It includes two key words. Nutri which must mean it's nutritious. And Grain, which must mean it actually came from something that grew out of the ground at one time.

As I slowly adjust to life in the States once more, I try to remind myself not to buy into the tricky sales they have here. Buy five cereal boxes for 10 dollars. What a deal! Well, it is a deal, I agree. We used to pay 28 riyal, which is about 7 dollars, in Qatar to get a box of Cheerios. What kind of deal is it really? It's a deal of endoctrination. If I feed my kids cereal every day for breakfast, they grow up thinking that it is healthy and "the" way to live.

So, off to the store I go, wary of those tricky sales. Will I be the one to teach my kids what's healthy, or will the prices do the teaching?

*This post is coming from a woman who enjoys a bowl of Lucky Charms with her husband almost every night after the kids go to bed. Please do not be offended.