The Garvin Gobble

It had been nearly a year since my family piled into a very small Honda for a road-trip. So, naturally, we were due for another one. The wonderful thing about road-trips is that Kyle does about 97% of the driving, and I do about 100% of the sleeping. The extent of London's dialogue during the drive goes something like this:

"Hey, Mom? I'm sirsty. Can I have some juice, please?" 

Thirty minutes later......

"Hey, Mom? I have to go potty."

Ten minutes later...

"Hey, Mom? Can we listen to Taylor Sift?"

An hour later...

"Mom, I really love you and Dad and Bellie."

OVER AND OVER AND OVER....... for 13 hours..... all the way to San Francisco.

Cousins on a hike!

We arrived the night before Thanksgiving, with just enough time to bake pies and visit with my sisters-in-law. Thanksgiving day was spent in the KITCHEN!!!, and at 4 pm, we dined on Kyle's great-grandmother's china. Sitting around the table, I felt so at home, and happy, with people that I love.

Friday morning, we took family pictures! I am a huge fan of family pictures because when I was growing up, past the age of three, we didn't really take professional pictures. I love the idea of watching my family grow and change each year, so I hope we will continue this tradition. We spent the rest of the day in the hills on the other side of the Golden Gate, with Kyle's aunt and uncle. They thought of every detail in preparing to have eleven small children in their home. The children had a separate table, with a cover to color on, and a hundred crayons. They invited their grandson to play children's songs on a guitar, and all the kids sat on a mat, making music with maracas, completely memorized. We visited for hours. The air was sweet and warm and the sun was shining, and we ate appetizers until there was no room for dinner. 

BYU played Cal on Saturday, and my husband, his brother, and his sister's husband are the biggest BYU fans I have ever met. At the pre-game party, there was an announcer handing out BYU merchandise for anyone who could answer trivia questions. The questions went like this:

"Who was BYU's wide receiver with the most touchdown passes in 1972, and what was the final score in the bowl game that year?" Three eager hands shot up from the crowd. You have GOT to be kidding me. WHO KNOWS THAT?!   I'll tell you who.

And Kyle was the first person to throw a football through this target. He won a towel. It was seriously awesome. 

The game was by-far the most entertaining football game I have ever attended, with the Cougars and the Bears neck-and-neck, down til the very last second. We pulled off the W, as my husband would say. AND, we happened to have seats next to our dearest friends from our study-abroad in Jordan, whose home we had been planning for months to spend the following day at!

The Borgias are wonderful people whom I will love until the day I die. They live in Monterrey, and it is a heavenly place. Sunday was the final day of our road-trip, and there is nowhere else I would've rather spent it.  

Little Jessica

Kyle called me from work one morning last week. He said, "Hey, so I just got a call from ________ (random guy from church), and he got called into work, but his daughter is flying in at 10:30. He asked if I could pick her up from the airport, so I said I would call you and see if you'd be willing to go get her?"
-"His daughter? I've never met his daughter. How old is she? She'll probably be scared!"
-"She's like 14. Her name is Jessica, and her dad already told her someone from church was coming to get her. She's a nice girl. I'm sure it will be fine!"
-"Uhhhhh, okay!"

So I bathed and fed the girls as fast as I could and jumped in the car. I was on the phone with Kyle when I got to the airport. At the passenger pick-up zone, there weren't any little girls in sight. I said, "I don't see any girls, Kyle. What does she look like?"
-"She has long brown hair---" I DROPPED THE PHONE. Standing there, in Zone 2, was my dear, dear little sister, Sierra. Sierra had been planning a trip to visit us for months, and just like she has so many times before (all while we lived in Utah), she pulled off yet another surprise visit to my house. I brought my hands to my mouth to stifle my gasp, and went running. I hugged her so tight and held her beautiful face and said, "What are you DOING HERE!?"--over and over again.

Sierra and I took the girls to the zoo for the day.

And walked to the park.

We drove to Enumclaw, my favorite little town in the country, for The Pie Goddess.

And London and Sierra made their best fall artwork.

(Yes, the turkeys are 'married and kissing'.)

Her last day with us, there was a terrible wind storm that knocked out the power. We lit a fire in our fireplace for the first time, and cuddled up by the light of flickering candles. 

I once heard the phrase, "A sister is God's way of proving he doesn't want us to walk alone." Sierra is so precious to me. I think about all the times in our lives when I've held her hand, or when she's held mine, and all of a sudden, we weren't alone. It's a closeness that only comes after twenty-three years as sisters, and six surprise visits to my house. 

Words.

"Mom, I said 'Hi' to my soke-detector! Did you know that soke-detectors are really nice?!"

London was terrified of her smoke detector. For weeks, she woke up in the middle of the night, crying, screaming, that her smoke detector was going to get her. WHAT?! We tried everything we could think of to reassure her, and finally found success in convincing her that the smoke detector is an exceptionally nice friend. And now my daughter talks to her smoke detector.

Elle is blossoming into quite the little personality. It is amazing to see how different she is from London. London was dainty, docile, proper, and quiet. Elle is bubbly, vivacious, chatty, dramatic, and messy. London cried if her hands got dirty while eating a meal, and would literally pause and wait for me to wash them. Elle plays with her food, banging her hands on her tray, and throws her food all around her, with the most delightful smile on her face. She is so ticklish that I can't even put socks on her feet without her squealing! All day long, she brings me stories to read to her over and over again. She starts to whimper each time I say "the end" and set the story down. These are the words she knows so far...

Hi
Hello
Bye
Dad
Mommy
No (it is my FAVORITE! Like, I need to record her saying NO because I can't handle how cute it is!)
Boo (her nickname)
Puppy
Go
Wow
Yeah

London's vocabulary has suddenly exploded, too! Out of nowhere, she started using words like:

extraordinary
terrific
imagination
outstanding
enormous

Each time I hear her say a new word, I get so excited!

London asked me the other day, "Mom, what does 'love' mean?"
"Love is when someone is really special to you, and you want to be with them all the time."
"Oh."(pause)... "I love Taylor."

At their soccer party.

The whole adorable team!

London was thrilled to be Snow White for Halloween. As I was curling her hair, she said, "Oh, no! Mom, Snow White has black hair! Not RED hair!" She went trick-or-treating with her cousins--- and collected candy in her "Halloween purse-hat".

Church Halloween Party.

A few weeks ago, an ad for Disney On Ice came on our TV. London immediately jumped up from her seat and came running to me. She cried, "Mom, Minnie Mouse is coming to Washington! Can we go to Disneyland Ice?! Please?! I really want to go to Disneyland Ice!" She counted down the days, the hours, and the minutes, and then I took her, dressed up as Ariel, on a Mommy-daughter date, to "Disneyland Ice".

 If you're thinking about taking your daughter to Disney On Ice, stop thinking, and take her. It is a three-year-old's paradise. For two entire hours, London was completely enthralled by the show! She sat on my lap, laughing and singing and clapping, and when it was over, she asked if we
could watch it again!

The finale!

Joy: A feeling of great pleasure and happiness

Last weekend, my dad and baby sister flew up from San Diego. Maeci is twelve years younger than me, and lives one thousand two hundred and forty-eight miles away, but oh. my. goodness. how I love her! She is considerate, kind, humble, patient, positive, tender, brilliant, beautiful, hilarious, and so much fun to be with. She fills me in on all the important things- like snap-chat, and that facebook is no longer cool, and that it's embarrassing to have a crush on someone who is younger than you. She kept saying, "I can't believe you actually live in the forest."

My dad was meant to be a grandpa. London followed him around all weekend, knowing that he would give her whatever she asked for if she said "Um, Popi?" in just the right tone of voice. 

At London's soccer game.

At Thomasson Farm's Pumpkin Patch.

We drove to Enumclaw, which is this tiny town thirty minutes from me, with the most picturesque farms and quaint, colonial-style homes. Each home sits on acres and acres of rolling green hills, all against the backdrop of an evergreen forest. There, at Thomasson Farm, we picked pumpkins, jumped in a pit of corn kernels, and the girls enjoyed a petting zoo.

"We're going on a walk, we're going on a walk..."

I miss my family. It's harder than I thought it would be to be more than just a car-ride from their open doors. And so they fly to see me---okay, it's mostly just to see London and Elle--- every few weeks. And I get to show them my forest, and they play with my red-headed angels, and, in turn, they leave me utterly full of joy.  

Stay this little.

The picture we used for her invitation!

Elle is currently following London around my house, an apple slice in one hand, a puppy in the other, and saying in the cheeriest voice you've ever heard, "HI! HI! HI!" -----She has now dropped the puppy and replaced it with a kitty, and is bouncing up and down, hugging the kitty with all her baby-strength, and laughing. And this is my one-year-old baby.

My dad and baby sister, Maeci, and Kyle's mom all came for Elle's first birthday. It was an ice cream social, and I loved the way it turned out!

Setting up...

The finished product.

Ice cream play-dough. It was a hit!

I love my sweet, affectionate, absolutely bubbly, baby girl. Kyle made this video for me for her birthday, and I cried/laughed my way through it! This is who she is, and I just watch in wonder.