My 31st Birthday

Joe and I were apart on my 31st birthday this year. He was on day 1 of his travels to Chicago, where Brek, myself, and my parents would be joining him in visiting with my sister and her family the following day.

Each time Joe stopped that day, he sent me a text of things he loved about me. They were sweet and thoughtful and I wanted to remember them.

Stop 1 -Ogallala: I love cuddling with you while we watch tv or sit at home, or at church, or pretty much any time at all!
Stop 2 -North Platte: I love that you support all of my crazy ideas and always manage to find some way to make them work.
Stop 3 -Kearney: I love your ravioli bake and your sweet potato medallions and your roasted veggies and your steak and your rolls and EVERYTHING!
Stop 4 -Lincoln: I love that you always either laugh at my jokes, or else laugh at me :-). You have a very genuine laugh and a smile that lights up any room.
Stop 5 -Des Moines!: I love that you never ever EVER complain about my pit stops. Not even once have you made me embarrassed about my special colon.
Stop 6 -Williamsberg: I love that you can make the right students cry, and the right students laugh!

A Good Brother

I didn't want to forget the details about this Brek story, and the important details were too long for facebook, so I figured I would write it on the blog. That's what it's for anyway, right?

I took Brek to the park around the corner from my parent's house, which we have been frequenting a lot since we arrived in California. Brek was excited that there another kid there to play with. She was a 3-year-old little girl. She also had a little red balance bike, similar to his. He rode his bike around for a while, up and down the hill and around the park. Eventually he invited her to ride with him.

She was a typical 3-year-old: wobbly and unbalanced, quick to get frustrated and give up, and plenty of tears when things didn't go her way.

But how Brek acted made me love him even more and just feel proud of the person he is becoming.

When she fell, Brek would stop and make sure she was ok, and help her up. There were times when he came close to crashing and falling because of where she was or what she was doing, but he handled it calmly, rode carefully, and made sure it was safe for both of them. When she cried because he was faster than her, he would slow down and suggest that they "ride together". For a kid who is always competing and racing, it was very sweet to see him compassionate towards someone else's feelings and frustrations. When she gave up because she thought it was just too hard, he came over and sat with me and talked about her bicycling skills. We talked about some of the ways he has worked to become better at bike riding, how he has learned to handle hills and riding fast, and what he does when he feels like he's losing control. After a few minutes, he told me that he was going to go teach her some of the things he has learned. Then he invited her to try again.

Over the 90 minutes that we were at the park, it was very exciting to see this little girl improve and get better at riding her bike. Brek was a great cheerleader for her as she tried hard things.

It was definitely a proud mommy moment.

Of course, there couldn't be a Brek story without some humor - no worries: During one of their bike breaks while they played on the playground, Brek started singing at the top of his lungs and busting out his very awkward dance moves. Gotta love his unrestrained charisma.

I pushed them both in the swings and after a while Brek got out of his swing and pushed her for a while. At one point he looked up at me and asked, "Is this showing that I will be a good brother?"

My heart broke a little. If there ever was a small child that had a sincere desire of their heart, it is this boy for a sibling. Sure I get a little annoyed at the frequency at which he's pushing on my tummy and asking me if I am pregnant. I wish it weren't so complicated to adopt. But it is. And we're working towards it. His adoption came about with a lot of thinking, but not a lot of planning. This time around, we're trying to do the thinking and the planning. It of course requires patience. Almost 5-year-olds are NOT patient.

But I guess if there is a sincere desire of MY heart, it's to grant the desire of HIS.

August

So August happened. When I wait so long to blog, I know I miss out on the details. And I wasn't so good at taking pictures. The highlights/memorable moments would be: I went to Girls Camp. We swam at the pool. We enjoyed our garden. Joe had a birthday. School started. Brek got sick. Summer vacation ended. Ok, those last 2 weren't highlights per se, but they were big events that happened.

The 2 pictures I took:

This is Brek on the way to the ER on Joe's birthday. He woke up with over a 104 degree temperature. By the time we arrived the children's tylenol had kicked in so the doctor on call didn't have much to say about him. We were home several hours later. It ended up being Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (which he contracted by swallowing pool water). He only got the sores in his mouth, which I guess was pretty lucky compared to some of the other stories I have heard. It took us over a week to get him eating again, which wasn't fun. Joe started making him malt-o-meal "shakes" (and Brek still asks for them). It was definitely an adventure.

I didn't get this picture rotated, but this is Brek holding the biggest watermelon from our garden. We got 3 or 4 about this size, but sadly none of them were fully ripe. We eventually had to pull them when it got below freezing. It was a really great summer for our garden. We planted 2 varieties of tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and then the watermelon.

Hair Cuts

After our trip, we decided it was finally time to cut Brek's hair. I am always sad to see it go, but this hair cut was partially needed because we couldn't get sand out of it. (His cousin Anna dumped a bucket full of sand on his head on his birthday because they got in a little disagreement; something involving sand castles.) Brek is not really a fan of hair cuts, so Joe made an agreement with him that Brek could cut off Daddy's hair if Daddy could cut his off. And, with all those curls, it really was easiest to shave it all off instead of doing a trim. (It actually made it less painful for Brek, so it ended up being a good thing all around.)

So here they are. I'm honestly not a fan of either one of them with hair this short. I called Brek my "chemo baby" for weeks. And it's not like Joe needs anything to add to the visual perception of his health. But like always, hair grows back.

Biggs Family Reunion 2014 - "I've Got Your Back"

We were able to attend our Biggs Family Reunion this year. We don't make it every year, so it's nice when it works with our schedule. This was also the time we had this summer to be with my parents and brothers, so we really put a focus on being with family.

We basically spent all of our time at the pond; all Brek wanted to do was swim and be in the boats. It worked for us, tho it did limit our social time with others. But the boy was happy, and that's always good. 

Checking things out with Anna

It didn't take long to convince Daddy to take Brek out in the boat.

Brek, waiting for Joe to bring the boat around

I love this picture!

All the while I sat here and observed:

But eventually they talked me into coming out too:

Which was all fun and great until it was time to get out:

Long story short - Brek sank the boat.

Long story long - When we got to the "dock" I lifted Brek up to get him out of the boat and onto the platform, and instead of planting his feet, he sort of freaked out and kicked the platform, which sent the boat back out into the water, and tilted to the left. So I reached over to the right, trying to grab the edge again, and still holding Brek up (trying to get the bigger boys standing there to help, which didn't happen), and the boat tilted all the way over to the right. I was up to my waist in water, holding a freaking out toddler, and then Joe went down too. 

Unfortunately, the phone and camera were in our pockets. Fortunately, thanks to rice, they are working again. And fortunately again, we had a professional photographer at the reunion, and she was able to take the above picture. Unfortunately again, the only closed toed shoes and pants that Joe and I brought with us were now soaked. But all in all, good story to tell, right?

Thankfully again to the photographer, we have all these other pictures from the reunion. (I only downloaded the ones of us 3, but seriously she took hundreds of pictures over the 3 days we were all there.) 

Another big hit during the reunion was the bubbles.

Joe, apparently, gets very serious when he's making bubbles:

Back at the pond:

Hanging out with my dad

I love this picture of my big brother David

 And of course, it wouldn't be a reunion without a big family photo

Brek's highlight from the reunion was the swing rope into the water. He was the youngest kid to give it a try. We of course don't have any pictures of the 4 or 5 times he tried. He did great (except for the fact that he wouldn't let go of the rope, so either Joe or I had to stand in the water and grab him off the rope so he wouldn't hit the rocks. Little bit of a power struggle over that one.)

Joe's favorite part was tbd.

I loved the talent show. Brek got to get up with almost all of the little (and big) girls and sing "Let it Go" from Frozen. And my Uncle Marte and Aunt Diana sang a song and it was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had in a long time.

Springville Splash Pad

The highlight of summer was our trip to Utah to see both Jensen and Biggs families. We were able to visit our old ward in Provo and our old ward in South Jordan, where Brek was born. We hadn't been back there since he was a baby, so it was fun to drop in and show how much he had grown. We were also able to attend a missionary farewell of one of Joe's former students. Many other former students were there as well, so it was fun to see so many kids. While up in South Jordan we walked around the Oquirrh Mountain Temple where Brek was sealed to us. 

We shopped at Ikea and I did some clothes shopping, along with lunch at Zupas and double date dinner at Cafe Rio with Joe's brother Dan and his wife Michelle. 

One day we met up with Michelle and her kids at the Splash Pad in Springville. Apparently it's the only part of our trip with Jensen family that we took pictures of, so enjoy: 

 

If you've never been there, they have these bronze statues of kids playing along this splash pad river sort of thing. Both Joe and I kept losing Brek because we thought he was one of the statues.