Big Girl Bed

For the past several weeks we've been preparing for the co- habitation of Kennedy's room. Even though she's been unaware of the 'life change' she's about to undergo, it's been in the works ever since we got Alex. Of course we've talked with DeDe about how Alex is going to share her room with her, but we knew we had to do something to get her excited about giving up some personal space. The ultimate bribe came yesterday - a big girl bed.

It isn't so much of a bribe as it was a necessity. We need Kennedy's crib for Alex, so the best way to get her out was to give her something better. I think our gift had it's desired effect. Last night she told Tara, "Alex can have my crib, I want to sleep in my Big Girl Bed."

Order Up!

In addition to the conference in St. George, I'm also down South this weekend for a GPS traning at Valley High School in Orderville. Where's Orderville you're asking yourself? It's about 15 miles east of Zion National Park. It's acutally a pretty cool drive from New Harmony, as you'll go through several small local towns to get to Zion. One of my favorite local towns in Southern Utah has to be LaVerkin. Where else can you find a town with such an unique personality? A few years ago LaVerkin wanted the US out of the United Nations, with part of their complaints concerning the right to bare arms. It's apparent that some members of town don't agree with the city council...

After reading about the business district of LaVerkin, we continued on into the park. Fortunately, we didn't have to pay the entrance fee (now $25 for 5 days) since we were simply passing through the park. In fact, you almost have to travel across the park in order to reach the towns on the other side. The best part about driving to the east side of the park is the tunnel. A 1.1 mile turnnel cut right into the rock so you cross to the other side. Very cool, and a bit surreal to pass through about 5 minutes of darkness in the middle of so much beauty.

We arrived in Orderville and conducted our little GPS training for about 12 teachers. It was a lot of fun to explore the grounds surrounding the school and see a school that reminded us of a simpler time. My dad commented that it brought him back to his high school, with a graduating class of 40. A school where "everyone knew everyone else." In fact, you could see the remnants of the previous graduating classes, as the school tradition is to paint your class year of the rock landscape behind the school. I'm sure the Sierra Club isn't too fond of the scenery, but it was pretty cool to see the art work dating back to the 40's. It was a fun day and a great chance to get out and see different parts of Utah.

In the Heart of Dixie

It's always a good thing when you're asked to train to St. George in February. Especially when there's a huge snow storm in Salt Lake. The only problem comes in driving through the snow in order to get down South. We came down on Friday and, truth be told, it wasn't that bad. There was some light snow from Beaver (is the weather always bad in Beaver?) down to Cedar City, but it certainly wasn't a white knuckle situation.

Kennedy and Alex had fun getting outside again. Yesterday we went into St. George and spent the day playing. Most of the afternoon we hunted for geocaches, but still managed to find time for a stop at the playground. You always need to find a good park for the kids after being cooped up in the car. Of course, Kennedy loved the slide, over and over and over....

The rest of us enjoyed the nice weather and found a ton of caches. It's kind of fun to find an uncharted area with lots of easy hides. Ruaniteit (Ross), Harmony Al (Dad), and crimson_ crew (Tara and me) had a respectable 16 finds yesterday. In fact, Ross found his 500th geocache! Only 250 more to catch up with the crew. All in all, it was a great day outside. The only things that stopped us was darkness and trip to Golden Corral. What a way for my parents to celebrate their 39th anniversary!

What's up with Alex

In the past week we've had a couple of milestones and one non-milestone with Alex. Last Friday we crossed an important barrier in the quest to adopt little Alex. In order to adopt a child they need to be in your care for 6 months. Well, that milestone came and went on the 16th. The non-milestone is that we weren't able to add Alex to the family on Friday. If there's one thing I've learned in dealing with the state it's that nothing happens quickly. I know it sounds like a cliche, but the government takes their own sweet time in getting anything done. Earlier today we finally heard from our case worker about what's going on. Nothing.

Long story short. We may be able to adopt Alex at some point in the next six weeks. We still don't have an attorney, a date in court, the proper paperwork, all the things that seem superfluous to what we do have: willing parents, a beautiful baby boy, an agreeable judge. It makes no sense, but that's life. Hopefully we'll adopt Alex sometime in April.

The other milestone in Alex's short life was his 7th month birthday came and went this week. It's crazy to think how quickly time is passing by. He came to us as a tiny, little baby and is turning into a chubby, energetic toddler. He's not as quiet as he used to be, but it's so much fun to hear his little voice and enjoy his emerging personality. Hang in there Alex, we'll make it permanent some time this year!

Something's Fishy

For the past month you've read about our attempts to help Kennedy work out some basic childhood issues: Sleeping, Hitting, the Potty. The "Big Girl Chart" has met with moderate success and DeDe's rewards have been modest. Still, we've waited to issue some real rewards until she turns the corner in any of the areas. Our idea was to give her a pet fish once she met a real goal. What could be better? She would love the fish, it would encourage her to continue to meet goals, she could learn the responsibility of caring for the fish, someday we'd learn about life and death - it would be a great thing. So, we've waited for Kennedy to reach the "fish mark." Until Monday that is.

Monday afternoon we were out with the Duncan's to celebrate Chris' birthday (happy 26th Chris!). After going to lunch Tara and I wanted to go shopping for a "Big Girl Bed" for Kennedy. However, taking two kids around to store after store didn't seem very effective. Charlene and Jess were nice enough to volunteer to watch DeDe while we went shopping for bunkbeds. For the next hour we were away from our little girl. Once our search had ended for the day we headed up to Char's house to save them from Kennedy. Imagine our surprise when we pulled into the driveway to discover the cars were gone. The only one home was Chris.

"Kennedy went with Jess and Dakota for a ride. I think they went to the pet store."

Of course they went to the pet store. Well, you'll never guess what they brought back from the pet store. Meet Ariel, the Japanese fighting fish. Dede really loves the fish; she wakes up every morning asking to feed Ariel. So, in spite of our original plan, we're now the owners of a tiny fish. I guess we'll have to find another reward for the "Big Girl Chart."