Last post from Pittsburgh until November!

The past 2 weeks have been full of fun and work and a fair amount of putting off work, as we are set to leave on our grand adventure Monday!  Tyler has finally recovered (knock on wood) from his Kidney craziness and we are on our way to health!

 Alex had her last Girl scout meeting, unfortunately half the troop wasn't there so we don't have a picture of everyone.  She enjoyed her time there and made some good friends.  I'm glad we did it.

 This is a house centipede.  They have started to emerge from the depths and I keep finding them in the kitchen.  The body is about 2 inches long, but the legs are so long and spindly that they seem gigantic!  And they are SO fast!  The worst part is that they are so big that you can't wash them down the drain.

 Our awesome neighbors introduced us to the river trail here in Pittsburgh.  It's not my new favorite thing because you can park for free and then walk to downtown in the time it would have taken you to find parking anyway!  That is if you don't have children, or have a stroller that can hold them all.

 One warm day we went to visit the steps.  They usually have flowing water, but that was off this day, so we just splashed in the puddles and bathed on the rocks.

 This photographer from the newspaper was there and asked to take pictures of the kids.  I said sure, thinking they might be in some broad shots he did, but instead he follwed them around for about 30 minutes.  I should have told him not to waste his time, since they have learned when I pull out my camera they need to run away.

 Quinn had a blast, we all did really.  The girls played mermaid land for about 2 hours straight.

 We had lunch at the park and headed home for popsicles.

 Love these guys.

 We also squeezed in a trip to the International Children's Festival the day before it rained for 3 days.  It was pretty busy but the kids had fun.

 They really just wanted to climb on these chairs all day.

 Quinn is nearing the end of her stroller days.

 Emily took care of Payson and Heidi while Alex, Quinn and I wandered our own way.

 Everything was free and the only downside was that it was downtown and stretched all over downtown.  So didn't get to all the booths because little legs couldn't take it.

 There has been a lot of this going on.  Quinn can escape up the stairs before I know what is going on, and she HATES to have her diaper changed.

 It's been so rainy that we decided to do a picnic on the porch on day so we could still get outside.

 A few months ago I put this map on our table.  We did a geography lesson in preparation for our trip and the kids loved it.  The chocolate chips are mountains, the m&m's mark the Mississippi and the lucky charms show our driving routes.  We also marked the cities we will be visiting and the cities we will be staying at.  (Emily, note that Rochester has a marshmallow heart.)

 Love these kids.

 We also tried another Zoo trip with Jen and the girls.  We went on the day that all the schools were doing their field trip and it was MADNESS.  We left halfway through because it was just too crazy and went to an empty park instead.  We spend so much time with these guys it's going to be pretty sad to be apart for the next 5 months.

 But it wasn't a complete waste because we finally got to see the polar bear in the water!!!!!!

 17th time's the charm!

 I've been having a hard time packing because the weather is finally nice and I just want to enjoy this part of Pittsburgh, the part I love.  The green and great weather and fun things- there is so much to do that I'm already making plans for next summer!

 We will be saying goodbye to these kids as well and I'm already trying to figure out how we can see them on our trip West, as they are moving West in a month.

 So here are all the backyard friends (missing Quinn, and baby Lilly.)  These guys shared backyards, and adventures for the past 10 months and our world is going to be really empty when we return.

 I'm so thankful that this was my welcoming committee when we moved to Pittsburgh.  I couldn't have picked out better neighbors for myself, and friends for my kids.  This was a crazy, stressfull, hard, wonderful, fun and blessed chapter of our lives.  It seems I've been praying for it to end since it began, but not that it is over and things will be SO different, I'm not sure I'm ready!  

 The day before Emily left for Minnesota we had one last day of wonder.  Playing in the front yard, pictures with the kids and then the 3 of us went out to dinner and a movie (Mom's night out) it was so much fun and a great way to end it.  But I can't help tear up while looking at these pictures, and miss my dear friend.

Coopers Rock and Mother's Day

I'm not sure if I've done enough whining about our neighbors moving.  I've pushed this fact to the back of my head and just decided to spend as much time with them as I can.  They invited us to go hiking at Coopers Rock State Forest in West Virginia last week so the girls and I jumped at the chance!

It was beautiful.  They had prepped me with super low expectations, so I was overly amazed when we arrived.  These guys are fun because they come from Utah as well and so we can commiserate together over Pittsburgh roads, the snowfall and the "Mountains".

The hike started of really well.  Heidi was so far ahead I had to keep yelling at her to wait for us.  Alex was carrying the backpack like a pro with all our field guides and butterfly nets and I was hauling around Quinn quite successfully and thinking how awesome of a mother I was to pull this off without my husband there.

Alex adores Payson and may be developing a secret crush on Uncle Tyson.  We've officially adopted them as Aunt and Uncle, but Payson made it a level up and isn't just a cousin, the girls decided he is a full on brother.

Heidi was very perturbed to be forced to wait for all us slow pokes.

There were random giant rocks all around, and the girls had a blast climbing as little as I would let them.  I was determined to go home without tears or injury, which made things boring for them.

I don't know how long we went before I could tell the kids were reaching their breaking point.  Fortunately there was a random 3 sided cabin at that moment and we stopped to rest.  Unfortunately once we stopped moving, Alex noticed the bees the size of her fist and the giant ants.  Quinn wanted to escape the backpack and tipped herself over and suddenly I had 2 children bawling and one bleeding.  And we were out of water.

The hike went from a leisurely adventure stroll to a death march as I tried to get the kids to the car before complete chaos erupted.  Heidi was of course insistent on carrying logs and rocks even as she declared "My legs can't walk anymore!"  The last thing on earth Alex wanted to do was carry that backpack and I was cursing myself for brining along the nets, tupperware, bug identification books and granola bars the girls had packed.

Tyson or Emily developed a magnificent game of finding the trail markers, and it suddenly became a race to find the next red diamond.  It's the only way we made it back alive.  This may seem overly dramatic, but I was so thirsty and Quinn was getting heavy, I had to keep my cool so the kids couldn't sense my fear and revolt/ the neighbors would still talk to us when this was through.

We ended the hike at the fountain of youth.

Heidi sucked that water down for a good 2 or 3 minutes before she would share with anyone else.  Then Alex poured a cup of water on her head.

We still had to check out the overlook, so we pulled ourselves together for the last 500 feet.

I'm pretty afraid of heights as it is, and with a baby backpack from the 1950's strapped to my back I wasn't feeling super sure footed and nimble.  So when I had to walk over this bridge and onto what seemed to be a floating, tilted rock, I about died and had to hold on to something.

The girls were running up and down, this picture doesn't do the tilt justice, and I had to just trust that they wouldn't fling themselves over the edge.

I think this became the bathtub for their house.

I took the picture and then yelled at her to get away from the edge.

Then I set up the camera so we could catch a group shot.  I love how Quinn and I are making the same face.  Turned out the remote trigger wouldn't reach far enough so Tyson had to push the button and run.

It was a blast, and might not have been half as memorable without the bumps.

Quinn is the only one who will still pose with me for a picture.  It helped that she was tied to my back and she loves Emily enough to look at her when she calls.

There was great disappointment when the sign said DONT CLIMB.

How cool are these?  And the forest, you can see through it!

The day after our hiking adventure I woke up early and took Tyler to the hospital for surgery to remove his kidney stone.  A friend had come over to watch the sleeping children and when I got home only Quinn was awake.

She was so funny, so we sat and played while we waited for the others to arise.  Tyler survived and is slowly healing. The kids have reached their limit of "don't touch Daddy" tagged onto the end of "Daddy has homework we need to leave him alone" or "Daddy is at school" and we are ready for rotations!

Alex and Heidi have been pretty sneaky of late as well.  I found this on the kitchen floor the morning after family pictures.  Neither will fess up to it although I know it's Heidi's hair.  This is the most recent on a string of abnormal behavior for them.  comparatively it's all silly things, but naughty behavior for my usual angels.  I don't quite know what to make of it or what to do about it.  Tyler has been telling me not to take it personally and I'm trying.  It's hard.

But then there are the wonderful things they do as well.  Like Mother's Day.  Tyler was still painfully in bed all day, so I got up with Quinn at 6 and we played until her naptime at 8.  I then got back into bed because Alex insisted that I stay there until she woke up.  Well an house later she got up and made me breakfast in bed.  Pie, Macaroons, Peanut butter cups, a Popsicle and 2 cups of the most chocolaty chocolate milk I've ever had!  We don't usually keep all this junk around, but have a few dinners and things to attend that we needed to bring desert.

Heidi woke up just in time to eat half of my breakfast and then Alex went down and made breakfast for everyone else as well.  It was adorable.  They were sweethearts all day, although it helped that after church was spent in the backyard having dinner with Aunt, Uncle and brother, and Heidi's primary teacher.  Great food and wonderful conversation.  I don't know what I would do without such great people here in Pittsburgh!