Summer's end.

I've got one more day before I lose Tyler to Chatham.  I can't say I haven't enjoyed having him all to myself the last month.  I've almost gotten lazy- changing 1/2 the diapers I normally would, putting the kids to bed 1/2 the time, getting the girls breakfast- never.  Makes me sorta wish Tyler was an entrepreneur and we could be business partners working, playing and parenting together. 

 

Because I know I'll be on my own from here on out, I've been making Tyler do fun things.  Fun things tend to stress Tyler out. No- taking all the kids out of the house and into public places where they will misbehave, run away or get stolen- stresses Tyler out.  Children mixed with heights stresses me out.

Which is why we decided to visit the Duquesne Incline last week!  Duquesne is one of the 3 commonly used Pittsburgh words I've been struggling to conquer.  Monongahelan and Allegheny are the other 2.  The Incline is sort of a box car that goes straight up a "mountain."  They call it Mount Washington, but don't be fooled, it just a hill.   

 

I may have been able to fool the kids into thinking I'm not afraid of spiders, but they can see right through my panic stricken white face as I cling to their arms,  standing a good 20 feet from the fenced edge.  They know I'm afraid of heights and it has rubbed off.  I about had a stroke letting Tyler that close to the edge while holding Quinn. 

I didn't really enjoy the ride, I just stared at the floor the whole time, trying not to imagine the cable breaking and my entire family plunging to their deaths. 

 Those tall buildings are the point of demarcation between civilization and Mordor.  Venture on those terrible, confusing, tiny, one way roads at your own risk.

Here you can see the point, where the Monjkljisdoghjl whatever river and the Allegheny come together.  We live on the edge of the Northern river (Allegheny), the cleaner looking of the two in this picture.

The Incline was an experience, we got a magnet so there is really no reason to return.  We can't seem to stay away from the Zoo though.

This was our third trip and we just visited the play grounds and the Children's area.  We got to see the Sea lions being fed right when we arrived which was a treat.

Quinn doesn't much care for the Zoo, but she does love the stroller.

We got to witness the garbage pick up this week!  Here the garbage can's are actually can's, and you must recycle.  Garbage goes in the alley on Wednesday night after 7 and Thursday morning the truck comes to get it.  Actually, 2 guys walking behind the truck and dumping the can's into the truck come by- it looks exhausting and not much fun.  But the best and strangest thing is that Wednesday nights you can walk down the alley's looking for treasure! 
    Our neighbors put out an old office chair and within hours it had disappeared!  I've heard of people finding toy play houses, slides, and great toys that people had just set out for the taking or the trash!  I've got my heart set on an old entertainment center so I can turn it into a toy kitchen for the girls.  It seems wrong to drive down the Alley looking through people's trash, but at the same time how much easier is that than going to, or dropping off stuff at DI?! 

I also realized today that while we are far from the oldest family in the ward, I think we may be tied for 2nd place as the biggest, first place going to the couple with a teenager.  I guess a lot of the Medical student families leave for the summer on rotations, or to visit familes, so our ward may grow a bit come fall.  But it's odd to me that while most of these families seem to be our peers in age, we are 5 years and 2 kids ahead of most of them.  I guess that's our big sign we wern't cut out for the medical school route- I can't imagine Tyler finally graduating and Alex being 13.  It's crazy enough that she will be 8 before we even start looking for a real job and starting the kind of life that most of our friends began years ago. 

Church is about a 10 minute drive away with good traffic, Alex class is the 5-8 year olds and there are 4 kids. The only other kid within 2 year of her age is our neighbor boy with whom Alex may be falling in love.  I write a lot about church because the only time I get to blog is Sunday evening, it's on my mind.

There is a tradition in the ward of 'porch sitting' we do it in the backyards because there are 3 mormon families living side by side in our row.  The fences have been rolled back a bit so the kids can run in between the 3 yards.  Sunday evenings families will gather in the backyards to chat and eat cookies and such while the kids run wild.  It was fun to be a part of tonight, everyone is so kind.  I look forward to getting past that 'newness' and really connecting and becoming comfortable with these people.

Who needs a tripple stroller when you have one of these!  We are always quite the scene with 3 tired girls heading home from the Zoo.

Target has escalators and a parking garage.  When it pours rain the dungeon floods a bit but it runs right to the drain.  The girls are all sharing a room and doing wonderfully at it!  I will have to post pictures now that we are a bit more arranged. 
   OH, one more thing!  The grocery store!  There is one called Giant Eagle (cool name right?) and they have an 'Eagle's nest' where you can drop your kids off to play for free for 2 HOURS!!!  Tyler and I went grocery shopping and signed the kids in, it was amazing!  The prices are higher, but oh, to shop without children, glorious.  I'll be returning.  I think stores in Utah should catch on, but there would probably be too many kids.
     I feel at home here, it's not so foreign anymore and the streets are becoming our own.  We love our home, our neighbors, our car and our family.  I feel like we have grown a lot closer since the move, it's been good for us.  Also, our house has yet to be broken into and I haven't wished for a pistol a single time. 

The hottest week of my life

Whew what a week! Let me explain.  There is too much to explain, let me sum up.

Monday we did just about ever big and important thing a person could do, all in one day.
  We enrolled Alex into PA Virtual Academy, an online charter school where I will be her 'learning coach' (it's homeschool), this was a huge adventure because the meeting was in the most obscure and hidden room possible inside the cafe of the Carnegie Museum of Art- and it was hot outside.
   We learned this week that above anything else, the thing that makes Mommy irritated the quickest is heat.  We lived through some 100+ days in Utah just before leaving- 80 degrees in Pittsburgh with humidity is so much worse- you can't escape it.
  After the meeting we drove downtown to get our PA drivers licenses (because we couldn't buy a car without PA drivers licenses (dumb rule)).  Imagine taking your 3 kids to the DMV, now add onto that the stress of not being able to find parking, for 45 minutes.  Then throw in 90 degree heat with humidity which makes it feel like 103.  It was fun.  Especially when Alex started to talk and ask questions about all the black people really loudly, and there were a lot of them.  Awkward!
   After the DMV was bagels for lunch and then a meeting with the car insurance people.  Then we went to the car dealership, check in hand, and bought a Honda Pilot!  Returned rental car, went home, assembled high chair for Quinn so she can join family dinner, and then went to the Zoo because it hadn't been a full enough day.
   

There is a super tall escalator that takes you from the front gate, to the actual Zoo.  It is located inside a glass tunnel, that intensifies the heat and humidity.  I rode it once, and will never again in the summer.  The girls on the other hand could ride it all day.

We decided to hit up the aquarium part of the zoo that day because Pittsburgh was suffering through a heat wave and we desperately needed to be somewhere with some AC.  The shark tunnel was cool.

 The whole zoo is really great and we especially love the aquarium part.  The greatest part of the zoo is that we live 2 minutes away.  The zoo stops letting people in at 4:30, so we go at at 4:15 and have the place to ourselves until 6!!!  It's also great because there is no need to kill yourself seeing all the animals  in one day (the zoo is on a big hill so you have to hike up and down and all around to see everything).

 The rest of the week was spent doing a million things I can't think of.  We are still unpacking and at this point I'll be happy to live here forever if it means I don't have to move again.  Although give it 2 years and I'm sure- like childbirth- I will have forgotten the pain and be willing to pack up once again.

Some of my favorite things about Pittsburgh.  Square milk.  We couldn't find the milk at Costco because it wasn't in cardboard boxes, and it's a giant rectangle.  It makes me happy every time I pour milk- except that i'm always spilling the milk because the opening is huge and has a tiny lip, and spilling it makes me mad.

Also, weekday Costco is amazing!!!!! In fact, weekday anything here is amazing!  It's not like Utah where there are 100,000 people just like us- students with 3 kids who go to the store on Tuesday afternoon.  Here there is so much diversity-  We had the ONLY baby in the entire store and I only saw 3 other kids there!!!!!  If fact the whole place was practically empty, we parked RIGHT BY the front door!  At IKEA too!  The kids went into the play area and there were 5 kids total.  TOTAL!

 Unfortunately Quinn doesn't like shopping, and halfway through our "moving in" list, she decided to cry, LOUDLY.  This is what happens when you are focused more on the baby than the shopping list- you have to go BACK to Costco a few days later to return the 50 pound bag of powdered sugar, to get a bag of regular sugar- and yes we do anticipate this lasting us the rest of our lives.
   Shopping carts here are called buggies.  Loving it.

 Here we are on the front porch, new car in the background.  Before Pittsburgh, Tyler was a really calm driver, not aggressive at all.  I have to say that changed really fast here!  There are so many sudden lane changes and streets peeling off here and there that you have to be on your guard all the time.  You can't just u-turn later or go around the block- if you miss your turn you are done for-  it will take a good 20 minutes to get back where you were suppose to be.  I've driven once.
   The drivers are actually really nice here though.  Besides everyone going a standard 10 over the limit, any and everywhere- people will always let you in to change lanes or do whatever.  There is something called the Pittsburgh Left where when a light turns green the oncoming traffic will usually let a car or 2 turn left before they go straight, even with no green arrow.  Very kind and courteous drivers in a zipping around 'can't believe we've only seen 2 wrecks' sort of way.

 The end of the week was torture.  The electricity went out Wednesday evening around 4, and it had been in the 90's all day.  Once the air conditioners were off the house heated up like a sauna.  We went for a walk with the neighbors to an abandoned school so all the kids could ride bikes on the blacktop.  I was sitting in the shade, not moving at all, and sweat was pouring off my face, down my legs and arms.  It was miserable.  We took cold showers and used candles to get to bed after staying downstairs as long as possible.  at 4:30 am the power came back on.  Glorious.

Thursday it happened again, and we went to the Zoo.  Even the tiger was hot.

 Alex's hair is pretty poofy with the humidity, as is mine.  Our hair is just poofy and wavy and weird.  Heidi on the other hand has stick straight hair- but she seems to sweat 4x more than Alex.  My child.  Thursday we had dinner with the neighbors and the power cut out again.  It was so much worse that we left the house at 8pm to go shopping at Bed Bath and Beyond (bedtime is usually 7).  We even looked into going to a 9pm movie just to sit in an air conditioned room.  We set up beds on the downstairs living room floor to try and survive the night and just then the power came back.  I've never been so grateful for electricity and ever since then I feel wasteful just having a fan on or opening the fridge.

 About Friday Quinn doubled in size and is now a giant baby.  She is as tall now as Alex was at 6 months.  She loves attention, especially from the girls (when she is in a good mood and they arn't attacking her).

I tried to get a few shots so you could imagine what was going on.  Heidi climbs on the bouncer, braces herself and takes them both on a wild ride.  Quinn thinks it's a hoot.  Unfortunately the video camera, along with everything else I want to use right this minute, are still misplaced in the move.  

So far I've been very impressed with the people here.   Strangers in the neighborhood stop you to talk, and I mean talk!  Everyone is so friendly and genuine.  My theory that everyone in Pittsburgh talks like a telemarketer (that distinct accent) still holds true and we are definitely not in Zion anymore.  

While leaving the zoo, I overheard a mother of what looked to be a newborn and a 7ish year old say "First one's crying, now both are crying- an you wonder why I drink?!"

The kids have to point out every person that smokes, and our neighbor seems to enjoy cigars.  Not the exact scent I would like wafting in the toy room window.  

Everything is so green and it's been raining about 1/3 of the days- but not terribly (all the time).  The kids love the bridges, and going over them.  Most of the places we shop are at least one bridge crossing away and that is fun.  Our Pilot has great AC and is so big and roomy- we are so happy with our purchase.  But the GPS we bought is crazy and takes us the most obscure ways to get even the simplest places.

I like it here although I don't know if I could stay- I don't like feeling like I'm being watched every second I'm outside- with the number of people crammed together, and the way the old ladies hide on their porches- I'm pretty sure we are.  I feel safe in our neighborhood, but there is plenty of graffiti at the playground and strange people at the bus stops.  I miss the wide open spaces and the privacy a bit, but I think I'm going to love Pittsburgh for the next 2 years.

The move In no specific order

I found some more pictures to document the move.

We loved our experience with ABF.  They were super friendly and professional and fulfilled their end of the agreement to the T!  We were super excited when the truck showed up- it had been such a hassle getting the permits and driving all over to get the documents so the truck could park there for a few hours.

It was an overcast day and not too warm, but Tyler was still sweating buckets unpacking alone while Quinn lazed on the porch.  A neighbor's father who was visiting from out of town came over to help, and then just as they were finishing- all the ward help arrived!  Poor Tyler still did the brunt of it all himself though- one tough cookie.

Our street is a one way, which is actually nice for traffic.  We have to park on the street but it's never been a problem finding a spot.

I am blown away by the number of homes crammed and stacked together.  In Utah- the same space that occupied 4 homes, houses at least 15 here.  Everything is long and tall and skinny.

 There are a lot of odd customs too.  If people are really paranoid about their parking spot, they will put a chair in the road to save it.  Had I not read it in a book, I would have been pretty confused at this site. Instead I laughed and smiled and took a pictures.

Here we are!  Our front yard is mostly taken up by a giant hedge wall.  It does provide a slight secret garden effect to the 3 square feet not taken up by the bush, but we don't play in the front yard anyway.

 This is no where near our house.  This is a picture from the Hulls in Missouri.  So pretty!  Greir took us on rides town the county roads in this 4wheeler type thing.  The girls loved it and loved him for it.

Before we left, the Hulls took us paddle boating at this beautiful lake and park.  Tyler almost capsized Alyson and both the girls, and we all took turns switching boats in the middle of the lake- it was a lot of fun.

 I can't say enough nice things about this family.  Every single one of them were so kind and polite and serving the entire time.  I don't think I heard a single person say anything negative or mean the whole time we were there.  A bit of heaven on earth.

 Grier was so willing to carry the girls around and play with them at the playground.

And Heidi and Aunt Lisa both seemed to get a kick out of each other.

The outing ended with some great icecream from Springdippers in Arkansas.  It was so fun.

Here is a shot of Tyler's brother's home in Germantown, just outside of Memphis.  It was as beautiful on the inside as it was on the outside.

The whole drive I kept commenting on the amount of trees. (Missouri)

 I think Tyler got tired of it after awhile. (Tennessee)

 When we hit Pennsylvania it was the bridges too.  (Pennsylvania)  You just don't see trees like that in the states I'm from.

Here we are standing in the livingroom looking out the front door.  On the right by the front door there is a sitting room we will make the toy room.  Then you can see the stairs, and the giant grate that keeps eating the kids toys.  I suppose It's a good way for Heidi to learn not to roll marbles down the stairs.  Every day that someone doesn't fall down the stairs is a victory, they are the tallest narrowest stairs I've ever seen (well, second only to Aunt Sandy's).

 If you turn 180 degrees from where i was, you will see the living room.  This is where the fireplace is and off to my right, along that wall is the entrance to the dungeon.  That deserves a post of it's own.

Here we have the kitchen.  It's such an upgrade from our house on Center street in Provo that I can't complain at all.  While sitting at our kitchen table (which we are quickly outgrowing), One person can open the fridge and grab the milk while another gets the cereal from the cupboards and a third loads the dishwasher.  But there is still room to move around so I'm happy.

Today we went to church.  Our ward is made up of around 75 people.  3/4 of them are medical student families and the last 1/4 is split between single, middle age, inner city converts with about 3 established families with older kids.  The Primary has maybe 15 kids in it and I think nursery is where everyone really hangs out.  When I dropped off Heidi I counted 7 men and 1 women- there were only about 5 kids.  Alex's primary teachers as she describes them "There were two grown up people.  A boy grown up with light skin and a girl grown up with with dark skin who said I could call her Daniella."  Daniella has a strong African accent and Alex is entranced by all the diversity that surrounds her here.

We made some friends at church, everyone is very kind and helpful.  It did take us a good 5 minutes to find the chapel though- it's a two story building and the primary and chapel are upstairs, while the adult classes are downstairs.  All the families sat on the edges of the chapel, leaving the entire middle to the single people.  The place looked empty!

We spent the rest of the day huddled in the rooms with window units, dropping toys and shoes down grates.  We had frenchfries with gravey and cheese for lunch and PB&J with boiled eggs for dinner.  We are sort of missing family dinners in Utah and Susan's good cooking.  Tomorrow we have to get PA drivers licenses, go to an appointment for Alex's online charter school, go to the bank to get a check to buy our car, and return the rental.  Then there is the zoo that the kids keep begging to go to, (we went on saturday just after it closed!), and oh grocery shopping, ordering internet, getting car insurance, health insurance and everything school related for Tyler.  And unpacking.  I'm glad we came early- there is a lot to do in the next 2 weeks!  

The drive to Pittsburgh

Wednesday July 3rd we woke up early and said our goodbyes.  It had bee a whirlwind couple of days and we were up late cleaning and packing the car .  It was heart breaking leaving Grandma and Grandpa behind, Heidi broke down within the first 30 seconds "I just want to be with Grandma!" which of course had me in tears 2 seconds later.  She did calm down a bit though when we established that Pittsburgh had both food and beds.

The first stop was Cheyenne Wyoming!  A drive that should have taken 8 hours, took us 12.  We only stopped to pee on the side of the road 4 times, and drove off with things on the hood of the car twice.  We were VERY glad to arrive at Grandma Sanderson's house where my mother had decided to meet us for the 4th of July!

 The next day we enjoyed as a family, and had a picnic at the park.  Then we drove out of town to pick up some fireworks!

 Nearby the firework stand was the Terry Bison Ranch and so we made a quick detour to see the buffalo, llamas, camels, tiny horses, donkeys, pigs, ostrich and other animals.  We got home, had a great dinner and then broke out the sparklers, snakes, smoke bombs and poppers.  It was hilarious.  The girls stood about 30 feet away as Tyler lit the snakes and smoke bombs- I've never seen two kids more terrified of something so harmless.

 The 5th of July was Nebraska.  The day started out once again with tears as we left more Grandma's behind as we traveled East.  I'll admit I was surprised at Nebraska, it had a lot more green to offer than I remembered.  We did slightly better at the stopping this day, but it all caught up to us in the end.

 The kids seemed to have a better game plan than the adults, and had organized a stopping schedule so that every hour or so, someone would have to pee, eat, barf or poop.  We got to tour lots of random places along highway exit ramps.
  Nebraska also marked the point at which I developed a sudden and terrible UTI.  After an unexpected 2 hours in Lincoln looking for a insta-care, waiting at an insta-care, and getting antibiotics, we decided to hunker down for the night.  Apparently Lincoln is pretty popular because it took forever to find a hotel not sold out. It was a fairly traumatic day.

 On the 6th we crossed into Missouri.  We loved Missouri for various reasons.  Number 1 was that we found the most amazing hotdog place in Independence.  Best Hotdogs Ever.  Alex was even talking about them 2 days later (Updog).  After hotdogs we stopped by Liberty Jail and then made our way to West Plains to see my Aunt, Uncle and cousins!
   I need to get some pictures from my cousin, we had so much for at their house!  They treated us like royalty, and the kids love them so much that we barely saw the girls at all for the 2 days we were there! I will have to devote an entire post to that stay.  Church, yummy food, laughing, paddle boats, MULE rides, fireflies, armadillos, humidity, movie on the ceiling. It was fun.

 We left Missouri's beautiful rolling hills for Tennesse after a day and a half, and were excited to arrive at Tyler's brother's home.  I LOVED the nursery and had to take a picture- the whole room is pinterest worthy.  The whole house is really.  The kids ran wild with their older cousins- we went swimming, they played lego's and a million other games.  Alex was heartbroken to leave, but consoled by the fact that her sweet older cousin gave her a Kindergarten workbook to teach her all she needs to know for school.  It was precious.

 While the older girls played with the older boys, Quinn and Madison became best friends.  Quinn can wrap giant toes over Madison's feet.

 And even though Madison is 6 weeks older, Quinn towers over her by a good 2 inches.

 Us Momma's ooohed and ahhhhed and baby talked these little ones all day, I suppose next time they see each other they will be a bit more interested in each other.

 Although Quinn is the baby basketball player of the two,

 Madison totally won the baby race.

 I love this picture.  Each child is doing the exact same thing by age... The oldest two- obeying and looking after the youngest.  The middle children- goofing off in their own worlds.  The youngest- not looking at the camera, subject to the will of the oldest.

 Heidi totally rocking her new cowgirl boots in Kentucky.  Oh, and the humidity- it ate your face it was so awful in Tennessee!  It was just terrible!  I was so happy to discover that it's so much better in Pittsburgh!  And we had the best southern BBQ and banana pudding with Sam and Natalie- it was a great stop.

 After Tennessee headed up!  Mammoth Cave is in Kentucky and we were excited to stop.  Only to find that the tours were 2 hours long and that wasn't going to fly!  So we ventured down to the opening to enjoy the cold air and explore a bit.

 I was content to continue on our way at that point, but the girls were begging to go in a cave, so we found nearby Diamond Cave and went on a tour there instead.  The kids did great and had a fun time, while Tyler and I thought about cave food and earthquakes the whole time.

 We had KFC in Kentucky, survived a freak downpour, and made it to Ohio for the night!  Here we had what turned out to be the first of a weeks worth of cereal for dinner nights.

Thursday we arrived!  We found our home (barely surviving traffic, more on that later) picked up the keys and some groceries and then played Boxcar children that night- eating and sleeping on the floor all together.  The kids have already made friends with the neighbors and we are very happy!