Beach House

Stephen's parents rented a gigantic house for the whole crew to stay in while we were down in Morro Bay last week. This is the first time, at least since I've been part of the family, that we've all shared the same vacation space. There's something about staying up late to talk or play games with folks that you see in their PJ's the next morning that just makes you feel closer to them. You know what I mean?

The digs were great. What I wouldn't give for a garage game room, deer in the yard and amazing views of the ocean every day. . .

A blessing, a bishop and two anniversaries

June 28, 2009 was a big day in the Geddes family. With everyone in town for a reunion, we decided to bless Amelia on the only Sunday we would all be together. (Mind you, this is roughly twelve hours after we've returned home from the E.R. with Eli and his burned feet, so we were hoping for the best with his not being able to walk.) The blessing went beautifully with all the Geddes men there in the circle, and our bishop even mentioned how he had peeked during the blessing and noticed "that baby Amelia was gazing intently at her Grandpa Geddes." Little did our bishop know just how appropriate that gaze was.

Immediately after the blessing, we all headed over to Grandma & Grandpa's ward where Stephen's dad was sustained as the new bishop. He had only been called the week before, but the timing of all his family being in town couldn't have been more providential. Not only did we get to hear them bear their testimonies, but we also had the chance to be there when Dad was set apart by the stake president. Quite a day.

June 28th also happens to be our wedding anniversary, this year being number six, along with Stephen's parents' anniversary, who were celebrating a big thirty-seven. There wasn't a lot of time for anniversary festivities, however, since following the morning's events we all climbed into our cars and drove down to Morro Bay for a family reunion with the Christensens (Stephen's mom's family). Quite a full and memorable day.

** Sadly we didn't have the whole crew for the above photos. Lisa and her family had to quickly leave the setting-apart to make sure Mike caught his flight home, while Mom and Dad were busy meeting with the stake presidency.

It's not a summer vacation without a trip to the ER

When you start a family you expect to meld family traditions and start new ones. One tradition we did not expect was the annual summer vacation and visit to the Emergency Room for the week of July 4th. As some of you remember, Bennett led us off last year with his broken collar bone in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This year Eli sustained 2nd degree burns on the bottom of both his feet (the day before we left to go on a Geddes/Christensen extended family vacation to Morro Bay, CA. Next year Amelia better not get in trouble :).

How it happened: Eli woke up from his nap and asked where Bennett was. We told him he went upstairs to play with the Schlegel boys. We went on packing and getting ready for our trip. Then a few minutes later we heard Eli screaming about his beet burning "I hurt my feet. They burn". They immediately swelled up. I carried him to the bathroom sink and put cold running water on them and then kept them in cold water for a half hour. That didn't help the pain or the traumatic experience for Eli as he was crying hysterically for about 45 minutes after burning his feet. So Ju called Kaiser and they said to take him to the ER. 4 hours later we found out how to care for his feet. I must of have read about 8 books to Eli about 30 different times total. Including a Clifford book about 12 times. Let me tell you that was a long 4 hours keeping Eli entertained without letting him hop down from my lap.

It made for a very interesting vacation, but after very diligent care I gave him the ok to walk around on the 5th day after his feet recovered. We still have to take him in to the wound clinic in 2 days to assess his skin. Perhaps this will be the experience that helps reinforce our daily plea with him to put shoes on when he goes outside. He is such a tarzan/nature boy he either takes them off or just prefers to walk around without them. But 95 degree temperatures (which we only get about 3 times a year) got the better of Eli this time.

He may have been injured, but it didn't inhibit his love for eating. Here are 3 movie mode clips showing Eli's love for food and hums of satisfaction (the 3rd one shows blisters on one of his feet). It doesn't matter if he is eating home made fries, In N Out cheeseburgers or BBQd hot dogs. And it's not just junk food he likes. He does this eating salad, yogurt, cereal, almost everything. In fact, if he doesn't do it, you pretty much know he doesn't like what he's eating.

A Bit of Millie

Before she changes enough to make these photos outdated, I figured I better get a few of my mom's photos up on the blog. These are from Amelia's first week home, and I'm sad to say we haven't pulled out the camera once since my mom left ten days ago. We promise to improve, however. I am a photo-neglected third child myself, after all, so I should know better than to let "the sins of the father" fall on my lazy little head.

How not to trap a feral cat

Every year this same feral cat decides to use our backyard to have her babies. So as soon as I heard her moan all day and all night (she was in heat and she was so loud we couldn't sleep--even with the windows closed) I decided it was time to call Animal Control.

After learning the trapping rules I decided to do a test run and set it up with no food or water. The next morning I woke up to this pleasant creature:

It must have been an adolescent opossum. And it was quite the cozy home for him, cause it took about 5 minutes to coax him out of there. The rest of the week I tried to persuade the cat with tuna fish and water, but I just couldn't catch anything. Oh well. Hopefully someone else caught the feral cat. Either that, or she figured she just couldn't have her kittens with a curious little opossum nearby.

Berry Picking

Thanks to Grammie Miller we were able to get the boys out of the house for an afternoon. Almost every year she goes to the Phipps Country berry picking farm in Pescadero near Half Moon Bay to pick olallieberries. So we tagged along with her, Haley and Ashley. And thanks to a Disney educational cartoon, Bennett learned exactly how to pick berries that morning from Agent Oso.

Of course, Eli had other ideas. He picked mostly unripe berries and then asked to go see the many old tractors at the farm. And he was in heaven.

I asked Bennett to take a picture of me near one of the tractors and this was the best he could do--he was doing a potty dance...so not quite the brilliant 4 1/2 year old photographer that he normally is :)

At the end of the day this was a great trip for the three of us and a much needed 3 hour nap for Mommy.

Big Brothers

Amidst all the craziness of the first few days home, we did happen to catch a few photos of the boys with Amelia. Eli has been riding the roller-coaster of love and hate with his new baby sister. Our first day home he repeated over and over, "I don't like the baby" only to hold her gently in these photos the next day. It all seems to depend on his mood, whose swings have been pretty dramatic since Millie showed up.

Bennett is pure adoration and fascination as he constantly wants to see what "Millie Tillie," as he calls her, is doing, even if that means watching her sleep. He softly strokes her face, gives her kisses, talks to her, plays her musical toys for her, and encourages her to eat or sleep or burp. Benito's also astounded by how many diapers his baby sister goes through in one day. "Another poopy diaper?!" he'll exclaim every time he sees me changing her.

Eli is also curious and asks, "Where's the baby?" every time he sees me, but his interest ends there. Our biggest challenge with child #2 is teaching him the physical boundaries of a newborn baby and why he can't do somersaults and flips over or around her. I caught him playing drums on her tummy the other day, which made me realize it could be months before I can let this baby leave my sight.