in which i post lots of vacation photos...

yes, we went to disneyland and no, it hasn't lost its shiny happy place in our lives. this trip was marked by a weekend with the Rowley's at their place that included zip lines, chickens, the superbowl, homemade brick oven pizza, and lots of time with great friends. thank you!


while our kids aren't opposed to giving hugs to each other, the number of hugs given in a given day multiply by ten at disneyland and this last trip was no different. anytime my kids are hugging each other is a good time.


amy loves it when i snap photos of her as if she were a supermodel. and while she is a supermodel to me, you can see the slight irony/exasperation in her expression here...who better to spend a family trip to disneyland with than her...


ella continues to carve out her own personality and niche in our family. it was on full display this last trip...


michael is a joy in my life. he is fun, intelligent, happy, curious and handsome (if i do say so myself...)



the rowleys!


i like to think that i contributed to mitt's recent rise in the california polls--outpacing santorum by 20 points in the most recent rasmussen poll...


some of the kids most favorite parts of disneyland can be done at the local carnival--the merrygo round and bubbles...


so serene. abby is an example of finding joy in the simple parts of life.


a character..:)


what better scenes than to have your children embracing each other. may it always be so.


this ride ranks 2nd to last in the park next to the tea cups. i gracefully waited this ride out to take photos...



i definitely prefer my girls to gain a little attitude to help weather life's waves...


my little bekah is growing up. she loves to explore her surroundings, she likes to try out her new ideas verbally with us and i love being around her...


true?

Mother's Day 2011...

It is Mother's Day... a day that means more to me each year that passes. As my children get older, my heart gets bigger. I care more. I worry more. I am more invested. I have more experience. I have more happy/sad/silly/hard stories. I am tougher than I've ever been. I'm more sensitive than I've ever been. And I'm on my knees more than I've ever been in prayer for the good of these little people I care so very much about.

I want to just record my thoughts in this quiet moment on Mother's Day, when my heart is full of love for my children and gratitude for the opportunity to be a mother.

Michael--my sweet, smart boy. You are so tender and thoughtful, fun and personable. Through the years of dad's medical school and busy residency, you became my friend and buddy. I am so glad it continues to be that way. I enjoy so much your maturing sense of humor and ability to get inside jokes. I love to see your beautiful mind work out how the world works. You are keen and smart in so many ways, including how to be a friend to your mother. Thank you for the love you have for our family and the good way you treat the women in your family.


Abby--my lovely, loving girl. You are full of affection and life. You feel things so deeply, and I love experiencing the excitement of life through your eyes. You make me grateful for hugs and kisses and sweet words. I love the honest way you express your feelings, and the cute ways you explain your thoughts. I learn from your friendly spirit and you bring out the fun side of me. Thank you for loving us so very much. Thank you for always requesting mom to put you to bed. It means a lot to me.


Bekah--my thoughtful, thinking girl. You are always thinking of what to do next. Where to go. What to make. What game to play and whom to invite. I love your constant stream of love notes and pictures. We all love your heartfelt goodbyes and welcome homes. I love your determination to do whatever you think is best, and your desire to do what is best for others. You love to make us all feel loved, and you have a mothering way of treating your siblings that is endearing and sweet. Thank you for caring about us so much.


Ella--my cute, cuddly girl. You are the youngest in our family, and you are adored by us all. You love to hug and be held, and I love that I could cuddle you for hours each day if I only had the luxury of sitting still for hours each day! Your imagination draws us all into your world of cuteness, and I have loved the impromptu songs and dances you have been doing for me this week. You are often the comic relief in the comings and goings of our schedule, and you love to be toted around to whatever is planned for the day. Thank you for being a cute goonie bird.


Paul--my adorable adoring husband. Thank you for being my second wind and my saving grace. I could not be the mother I am without your understanding heart, willingness to help, and ability to infuse us all with your spunk and spontaneity. I appreciate so much all that you do with the kids. You carpool, cuddle and read, and do music practice in a pinch. You manage them better than I do in public, and don't sweat the small stuff. You are the best dad to them, with abilities that bring out the best in all of us. You are a tender and emotionally connected father. You are encouraging in all the right ways. Plus... you are a whole lot of FUN!!! Thank you for valuing my role as mother, and helping me in all the most important ways. I love you.


Thank you to my family for making motherhood a fulfilling, challenging, and happy experience. I love you all!!

michael's final b-ball game...

michael's final basketball game is tonight! i will try to get a great shot of him in his junior jazz outfit to add the this video-post. it has been a joy to watch michael play this year. he is a kinder player than i was at his age. he still has a competitive streak in him, but it's kinder and gentler. he passes more, cheers his teammates on, cheers when they score etc. i have lots of b-ball footage, but i focused on a single game for the video below. this is the game after the SDSU game where we saw jimmer drop 43 on the 7th ranked team in the country. we hadn't discussed before the game, but michael decided he should take long jimmer-length shots early in the game.

we talked at half-time about how he is more of a brandon davies type because of his height compared to teammates. we discussed the meaning of 'high-percentage' shots and that until he's made over 1,000 three-pointers in the gym he should work for the higher percentage shot. he took it to heart and the video shows his progression during the game as he moved closer to the hoop.

he's a sweet kid and loves this game...

an historic night at the MC...

what a night!!!

i've been excited all month for this one and it did not disappoint. jimmer went off for 43 points and jackson emery held their leading scorer d.j. gay (30+ ppg in his last two) to 0-7 from the field and 0-5 from behind the arc.

the place was louder than i've ever heard. the fans knew how big this game was and they were willing this team to win. it seemed every time jimmer crossed midcourt someone was yelling for him to shoot it.

michael, amy and i had a 'nice fun day'.


the night started with pizza and poster creation. we entered the marriott center at 6:30pm as the doors opened to the public for the 8:15pm tip.

michael was loving the warmup period.


michael counted every shot jimmer took from the moment we came out, and while we were watching michael counted 209 points made..:)

and what a treat to have mom with us. she's always spicing things up with her presence...



the crowd rushed the court and michael could not be held back. it was fun to mingle with players etc and before you knew it we were on TV!

thank you cougars for a spectacular night. a meeting of two top 10 teams in provo was all it had been billed. we won't remember this night soon and i made a little video to commemorate..:)

biggest game in the state...ever.

michael, amy and i are going to a game together. not just any game. the game.

i grew up going to BYU games with my dad. his father has had season tickets to BYU football and basketball games for like 50 years (or so.) my pops will be at a young men's activity tomorrow and offered his tickets in the lower bowl to michael and me. however, when my aunt and uncle (who sit next to pops) offered to take granpa anywhere he wanted with them as chauffeur he said, "I'd like to see BYU v SDSU." it was a no-brainer--he should have our seats. these have been his seats for 50 years (or so) afterall. i moved quickly and purchased some bench seats soon thereafter. so we're set!

byu has an RPI of #1 in one of the big three national RPI rankings. (for those of you who don't know, RPI is a rank of the strength of a team's schedule.) this means that BYU has played--according to one expert--the hardest schedule in the country with a record of 19-1. BYU is also ranked #9 in a tie with syracuse in the national polls. SDSU has an RPI of 4 and is ranked 4th in the country with a record of 20-0. so tomorrow at the marriott center two top ten teams will meet in provo for the biggest college basketball game to ever be played in the state...oh and there's a certain jimmer who is in a neck and neck competition for player of the year playing for the cougars.

buckle up and enjoy the ride. we'll be cheering as loud as we can and will give you a report on how it went.

concertina...

we got a piano! after 10 years of marriage and my patient wife dropping hints from day one, we purchased a piano... it had to wait for other large purchases in the marriage including mountain bike, road bike, house and 3 different computers. each of those purchases passed and amy (and my mother) lamented mildly the lack of a piano in our home. what kind of musician am i? how did this happen? well, the final straws were watching our sweet kids practice their let's play music on the floor in the front room. in december, amy organized a musical presentation for the young women and i found myself sitting on the floor of the front room looking up at those for whom i was accompanying. the time had come.

and so a new era begins in our home.

each of the kids have climbed onto the piano separately to sample the musical wares.

michael has daily (or so) practice for his let's play music songs. and i have enjoyed accompanying for each of the kids string instruments!


by the light of the christmas tree..:)


and even a small dance party in celebration of its arrival!

here's to years of productive learning and performing on our new friend...

gymnastics..!

the alpine aerials group that bekah and abby are a part of let us know on fairly short notice that the group would be performing at half-time of the utah flash game.

the girls had a ball.

michael loved the ambiance as we were courtside for the rehearsal.

abby may not show it here, but she too loved it.


the girls have been taking gymnastics for a year and have loved each week. they have learned a lot about their bodies and have enjoyed the social nature of their weekly practices...

they are learning cartwheels, and if you watch the video you'll see how they are in the very early stages (ie. they've got the hands right, but the feet are lacking.)

anyway, it was a surprisingly good time watching these two cuties give it their all in the gym...

holiday reading...

my reading, at times, comes in binges. and the reading decisions i make are often random and unsystematic...

this month has been a binge, beginning with reading a book during our new york trip to glorious pre-christmas days with no work and no school--reading with michael for hours at a time.

without further ado, the four books i read this month.

'freedom' jonathan franzen. 'freedom' is a sprawling, epic of a novel. it took franzen 9 years to write the book after his last blockbuster, nyt bestselling 'the corrections' spurned the oprah book club and went on to sell millions of copies. ironically, i read the book because my mother in law brought it by and set it on our counter and said i could read it if i wanted. i started without knowing a thing about franzen or the novel itself and was hooked. i wasn't hooked in the mystery, suspense variety but in a 'wow, this is unique' way.

franzen writes in a very frank, at times ironic and always poignant way regarding surburan life. his characters are compelling, rich and interesting. the story is at times heart-wrenching and at times repelling.

here is an example early on in the book of the way he skewers yet nails the suburban experience as he gives examples of the concerns early on in walter and patty's neighborhood, "Was it true that the glaze of old Fiestaware contained dangerous amounts of lead? How elaborate did a kitchen water filter actually need to be? Did your 240 sometimes not go into overdrive when you pushed the overdrive button? Was it better to offer panhandlers food, or nothing? Was it possible to raise unprecendently confident, happy, brilliant kids while working full-time? Could coffee beans be ground the night before you used them, or did this have to be done in the morning? Had anybody in the history of St. Paul ever had a positive experience with a roofer? What about a good Volvo mechanic? Did your 240 have that problem with the sticky parking-brake cable? And that enigmatically labeled dashboard switch that made such a satisfying Swedish click but seemed not to be to anything: what WAS that?"

in the end, the book was compelling. it laid out the lives of its main characters in a way that required me to re-examine my own life and the reasons behind the major decisions i've made.

the politics in the novel were intriguing and eye-opening for me. it was interesting to read the character's take on contemporary politics as the book was based in 2004. the politics and opinions of the characters were intriguing and forced me to think about several topics in new ways.


'pathfinder' orson scott card. some of orson's recent novels have seemed preachy and political, but this book was a return to form for him. the story and characters were classic orson. smart, snarky, compelling, unique, inventive, intriguing and fun. it is the story of a young boy with the ability to see the paths of people after they have passed through an area. he teams up with a youth from his village who can slow time. together they wend their way upriver and grapple with increasingly perilous dangers and intrigues. it was a page-turner and i read 2 and 3 hours longer than i should have on several evenings to finish the book.

don't be a hater stephen. try it.



'fablehaven--grip of the shadow plague' brandon mull. this is book three in the series and i am reading it outloud to michael. the girls sit in occasionally, but are often not engaged because of the vocabulary and story. michael loves it. the story is based on two siblings, kendra and seth, who's grandparents are the caretakers of a perserve for magical creatures. they are collectively battling the 'society of the evening star' to prevent destruction of good in the world. this book in particular was compelling for the re-introduction of several very interesting characters with whom we'd interacted with in previous novels. the children in the book are increasingly given greater roles to play in the plot because of their innate qualities and those qualities and gifts bestowed upon them by the magical creature with whom they interact. great story. great ethics. great topics to discuss with my growing son...


'the promise' jonathan alter. yes, thank to peter for recommending this book. the title would seem to portend propaganda and fawning on the annointed one, but it is a great read. the insider status allowed alter gives an intimate picture of the power players in the obama white house. if just for a look at the work of the president it is worth the read--regardless of your politics. i loved reading about obama's handling of the transition and the financial crisis. i remember distinctly listening to POTUS on XM in yosemite when mccain 'suspended' is campaign to confront the financial crisis. the insider details of this moment in the campain that sunk mccain's chances were one example of the delightful details in the this book.

the other great thing about reading this book, was that i did the bulk of my reading during our trip to new york and can you think of a city who would be more approving of a white male reading about obama on the subway..? aren't i such the hipster?

the call of the pheasant...

michael went on his inaugural pheasant hunt this month! this is a tradition that i've gladly been a part of since i was 8 years old and trudging up the main ditch-line on grandpa's farm with my dad, cousins and uncles. michael was a bit hesitant at first as you can tell from the picture above. he walked five or six steps behind me as we walked in line with other hunters. however, after i shot the first bird and told him if the bird had flown out behind us he would have been in the line of fire he stayed right near me or whichever hunter he accompanied.

we all enjoyed ourselves. back in the day there were enough native birds in the area that we could hunt freely and have enough for all. however, as the years have gone on and the fox population had increased it is rare to see a native pheasant on grandpa's property.

and there is the dilemma. how to continue a great family tradition without anything left to shoot? we purchase birds from a pheasant farm, twirl them around till their too dizzy to fly and let them free in the brush to play the game of life and death (we let the dizziness wear off before we hunt them.)


this year's hunt was much more like prior year's hunts as we had cousins jeff, brian, darin, ryan, cutler and my brother jonny. uncles doug, kelly and my dad were there as was grandpa. the big difference was that jeff, darin, jonny and myself all brought kids! (where have the years gone?)

all the younger hunters got a bird and here is michael fulfilling the duty of a ditch trudger--carrying the pheasant back to the cars.

it was great to see everyone this year!

this tradition would not be complete without driving from gunnison to cougartown for a byu football game. here you see four generations of frandsens (grandpa frandsen's hand can be seen holding the binoculars behind my pops.) enjoying a traditional byu trouncing of unlv.

it is our final year in the MWC and after some of the things coaches and school presidents from the MWC have said about us it has been nice to beat every team in the conference to this point aside from TCU and Air Force (and this in a re-building year:)

some of that sentiment can be seen in michael's take on the game below...

traversing timp...live!

this is a five minute video of the hike described in the post below...

traversing timp...

michael and i hiked timp!

michael is seven and usually up for an adventure. he is, however, very deliberate in his decision making. monday before the hike (last thursday) i asked if he'd be interested in hiking mount timpanogos. it was after school and the summit is visible from his school. he looked up at the mountain for 30 seconds or so and said, 'yeah'. we didn't talk a lot about it before the day of the hike. mostly because i worked late the night before the planned hike-date and i was worried i might not be up for it. however, the weather was going to turn soon and i figured it was now or next year so decided i'd better man up and sleep some other time.

it was busy in the ER the night before the hike, so i got home and was in bed by 3 am after setting out our gear. i had hoped to start at 5am, but couldn't drag myself out of bed till 6:15. i awoke michael, we each had a bowl of cereal and headed out. luckily i'd been reading accounts of the hike on the internet the day before and threw some gloves and fleece jackets into the car for the hike.

michael was bright eyed after our bowl of cereal and neither of us knew quite what to expect from the day. i'd only hiked timp once back in junior high and did so from the sundance side. we chose to hike from the AF side and we knew very little about the trail, the difficulty and how long it might take us. time wasn't on our side as i had to be back for our double date with mom and dad at hale center theater (the drowsy chaperone and a great time..:)

we were hiking by 7:20 am. there was little light as we started and it was chilly. low 40's? i brought my REI hiking poles i'd purchased for mount whitney and asked michael if he wanted to use one. he definitely did so we adjusted the size for him and headed out. i brought my camelback--100 oz--and cycling goo, crackers and my phone with tunes. we wore orange in case there were any elk hunters out.

the first part of the hike was taken up with discussions of college football, byu's woes, current college FB rankings, oregon football etc. etc. then we moved onto math problems. michael has always loved story problems and he was a good sport on this trip.

the summit of mount timp is 11,749'--second highest in the wasatch mountains. the summit is 7.5 miles one-way. emerald lake is 6.5 miles one-way with an elevation gain of 3210. we spoke with one group who said they plan 8 hours round trip to the saddle (the point where you can see out over the valley) and 12 hours round trip to summit. i've read accounts by avid hikers who made the summit round trip in 6.5 hours.

at hour two (and maybe 1000 vertical feet gain) michael seemed to be waning in his interest. we'd exhausted the limits of my college football conversation. he had found plants and rocks that reminded him of his sisters (we collected them to take to the girls on the way home) and he was getting plain bored. it wasn't so much he was tired, it just seemed like the task at hand wasn't holding his attention. i will say that we saw some amazing views as we hiked with the sun coming up over the 'valley' of AF canyon and the peaks opposite us.

at this point i resorted to the one thing i figured could save us from boredom and failure--broadway show tunes. on a recent trip home from granpatty's for dinner we broke out les miserables for the kids and explained the story as we listened to the songs. they loved it! michael in particular was enthralled by the characters, the songs etc. so i fired up my phone and we started listening to big river. big river is much more accessible to a seven year old than les miserables. there are quite a few love songs, but by and large we were able to have some good discussions about the musical. we talked about civil rights, slavery, mistreatment of others. we talked about school, huck's misbehavior and his struggle to find the moral good. we talked of trust in authority and misplaced trust in 'authority'. i always love talking to michael. by the time huck and company were waiting for the light to shine for the final time we were almost of the final climb up the plateau where emerald lake awaited.

during the time we listened to big river we'd shed our coats, taken several potty breaks, hiked the steepest and most sheer sections of the hike, and replaced coats when we hit the shade with a biting wind coming down the canyon. michael asked when we could turn around when the wind became really cold and before we began les miserables. we took plenty of drink breaks from the camelbak and hiked and hiked and hiked.

michael was the pacemaker for the majority of the hike. he would walk out in front of me and rarely strayed from the path. we hiked side by side at the steepest points as my spidey sense said i needed to shield him from the sheer faces to our left as we hiked.

3.5 hours later after we'd begun we arrived at the turn-off to emerald lake at 10:50 am. michael was a good sport to go that far as he would have gladly turned around 30 minutes prior. both of us were happy to make it to that point though as the view of timp summit was grand and the views of the valley below were stunning. we stopped to eat our PBJ's. they tasted outstanding and gave us a second wind--ready to conquer the hike downward.

because neither of us had done the hike from this side and we hadn't really discussed a specific goal, not summiting didn't seem a disappointment. in fact, reaching emerald lake the way michael did for his age was a great accomplishment and one to build on for future hikes and adventures.

way to go michael!


at 11:20 am we headed down the mountain to the sounds of poor fontaine's tragic life. our discussions down the canyon were more diverse as we discussed the french revolution, life's disappointments, hardship, and evil. les miserables ended and we had several hours more to hike. i tried playing hairspray, but decided it is meant for a more mature audience. we didn't turn it off before we had the chance to discuss what a 'double meaning' is. specifically in hairspray, tracy sings, 'mama i'm a big girl now' we talked about how she meant she was 'big' meaning old and 'big' meaning fat. michael laughed and referred to this double meaning later when we heard elphaba sing, 'i've been changed for good.'

anyway. we were broadway'd out by mile 11 and turned back to BYU football. as we came closer and closer to the car michael became more and more giddy. we started a rhyming game where would try to use words that rhyme with you. he loved it and we laughed often as we found new phrases to use.

we arrrived at the car at 1:50 pm and were happy to be back. when i asked michael what his favorite part was he said, 'goo breaks.'

it was a great day. when we do it again we'll definitely talk about our goals for the hike, get more sleep the night before and possibly train a bit in the lead-up...