Home

Got home about 2am this morning. I'm thrilled to be back where it's warm, the girls are thrilled to be back with their toys, and Jason is thrilled to be back to his yard, which he spent a lot of time inspecting in the pitch dark last night. Yellowstone was amazing. Mary Grace's favorite part was "the geysers and learning about why they shoot up, and the mud pots." Willa's favorite thing was "the thing Mary Grace said," and Evelyn's favorite thing was "going hiking and seeing the fairy waterfall." Jason loves being outdoors with his family no matter what the circumstances, and my favorite was watching the girls love it so much. Already planning our next trip. Big Bend? Grand Canyon? Hmmm.....

Wow.

Just sat parked on the road between Yellowstone and Grand Teton for
two and a half hours waiting for a wreck to get cleared (no
fatalities, thank God.) I'd say half the car occupants were out of
their cars drinking. It was like a big party. At one point Jason took
his lawn chair out to sit in the sun and do sudoku puzzles. I read
Mary Grace about 50 pages of Harry Potter. Definitely the most scenic
traffic jam I've sat in.

Our Junior Ranger

All the national parks have a junior ranger program where a child can
complete a series of activities and get a little badge. This was our
first time to do the program with Mary Grace. We got our activity
book, and quickly discovered that this was no kiddie busy work thing.
She had to attend a ranger talk and get the ranger to sign her paper,
do a hike, answer a whole bunch of questions that required visits to
different visitor centers, mark a map with places she had visited,
keep a camping journal, and do four pretty complicated activity pages.
That's more work than I had to do on this trip! If you know Mary
Grace, though, you can imagine how seriously she took this. She
carefully completed each activity and brought her workbook, clipboard
and pencil everywhere. It was awesome. She even had a long talk with
one ranger about how one becomes a real ranger. We have the sweetest
video of her getting her junior ranger badge and taking the junior
ranger oath. When she finished, I told her she could pick something
from the gift shop. I should have guessed, but rather than a t-shirt
or stuffed animal, she asked me to buy her the National Geographic
Yellowstone Profile book. So she's in the backseat pouring over maps
and photos. Our little Adventure Girl.

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Super-Children

Our daughters stepped it up today. We did a 5 mile round trip hike out
to a gorgeous rainbow-colored thermal pool and a 200 foot tall
waterfall. After one outing using two baby backpacks, I was forced to
admit that I'm too wimpy to carry the girls while hiking. Who was I
kidding? I'm lucky if can get myself and a bottle of water out and
back on a hike. Did I think going on vacation would suddenly turn me
into a Mom who works out and is in great shape? Actually, yes, I did,
and I was way off base.

So we went out on our hike knowing that Evelyn and Willa would have to
trade off riding in Jason's pack...and this did not inspire a lot of
confidence. Boy did they show us! They each hiked half the trail and
did almost no complaining at all. In fact they were rather adorable
and cheerful the whole time. Did I mention that I brought a bag of dum
dums along and continually supplied them to whichever one was
walking? Mary Grace loved it, too, but is on to bigger and better
hikes tomorrow. She and Jason are going to hike the tallest peak in
the park - Mt. Washburn. That is, if Jason can find some appropriate
footwear. His ancient hiking boots completely fell apart about a half
mile from the car at the end of the hike. He has been super gluing
them together for awhile, but the shoes have officially given up the
ghost.

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Wildlife

There is tons of wildlife here in Yellowstone, and it roams freely
through the park. We've seen bison, elk, ravens, and chipmunks so far.
The bison are amazing. I think they think we are little ants: tiny,
and a nuisance, but certainly not anything to worry themselves about.
We've seen about 20 so far, and even one mama bison with two babies 10
feet from a trail full of people. The best, though, was when we were
sitting in what we affectionately call a bison-jam where someone stops
in the middle of the road to take a picture of a bison in a meadow, so
everyone behind them has to stop, too. When the photographer had his
pics and started to move on, the bison just walked on into the road,
right in front of our car! As if the bison was saying, "I posed for
your silly picture and now I'm going to cross the street so stay out
of my way tiny humans.". I love bison.

I admit, though, that we are not the most patient when driving behind
people who stop to take pictures from the road. Today, we were behind
a line of cars and the person at the front kept stopping, then going a
few feet, then stopping, then going again. It was so frustrating. We
couldn't even see anything worth photographing, which made us even
madder. We were about to just go around the guy, when we realized he
was taking pictures of a beautiful fox bouncing through the meadow
right by the road. We both said "awwww!" immediately stopped our car,
whipped out both cameras and started snapping pics...completely
infuriating the people driving behind us.

Ok, this is silly.

For a place that constantly reminds you that it sits on top of an
active volcano, it's ridiculously cold today. A front came in last
night, and when we woke up it was snowing. Yes, you read correctly.
Ther are places where it snows...in JUNE, and apparently people choose
to live live here. We knew it would be cooler here, but it averages
highs in the mid sixties, lows in the forties. We happened to choose a
time when they're having a cold snap...I'd call it an insanely frigid
snap. It's 32 degrees and snowing and it's noon.

Admittedly, I'm the only one in the family who has been incapacitated
by the weather. Jason is happy as can be, and all three girls slept
through the night in their sleeping bags without making a peep. This
morning they were playing catch with a stick before breakfast like
they were pioneer children or something. I was immobile by the fire
trying to massage some feeling back into my frozen toes. We're doing a
nice indoor visitor center and a SHORT walk to see some thermal
features. Maybe I'll hop into one of them and warm up!

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Great camp site

Got an amazing camp site at our first choice campground! Set up camp
and on to old faithful for a geyser hike. In heaven.

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iPhone, how I love thee.

So far today we have used our iPhones to map our route, look up
hotels in Billings, find out how plateaus are formed (and spelled) and
find a beautiful municipal park in a small town called Glenrock for
our picnic lunch. This trip is our first no-reservation/no planning
trip. If you know me at all, you know that such an idea is completely
anathema to every impulse I have. But my planning is often my
downfall since I get so bent out of shape when things don't go "as
planned." So far all the meltdowns and tantrums have been performed
by our children, and not by me. This is fabulous. Although every once
in awhile I find myself wondering if I could install Excel on this
thing...

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Great Friends

Back in the day, we used to love hanging out with the Spragues. They
lived in Austin, and Holly and I worked together and were part of a
quartet of amazing women who (even though we live all over the country
now and have babies and different lives) still get together as often
as we can. It was just like no time had passed. Holly and Jon grilled
burgers and hot dogs for us and their sweet adorable children played
with the girls as if they had always known each other. Mary Grace
loved Reid and they caught tons of bugs and enjoyed scaring poor Holly
with them. Harper is a little chatterbox and loved showing Evelyn and
Willa all her toys. It would be SO fun if we lived nearby each other.
But then everyone else would have to hear about our amazing friends
and how much fun we have together ALL the time and it would be
obnoxious, so maybe it's for the best. Sigh.

On our way this morning to Billings Montana after a truly awful
McDonalds breakfast. Did you know they serve a breakfast sandwich of a
sausage with two syrupy pancakes as the bread? Ugh. The girls
looooved it.

Lunch on the road

Just crossed the border into Colorado. Was hoping for instant
mountains, but this looks just like Kansas. They should redraw the
Colorado border so that as soon as you cross over the border you catch
your first glimpse of the Rockies. Maybe then more people would
associate Colorado with mountains.

Anyway we had a nice picnic lunch at the Visitor Center, crossed into
the Mountain Time Zone (man they are proud of their time zone here -
signs EVERYWHERE) and on to Denver. Girls are being very quiet.
Probably plotting a coup.

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Kansas

Woke up in the rolling hills of Western Kansas. It's actually quite
pretty out here. The sleeping beauties are still asleep! Compared to
the last time we did this, this is a miracle.

Just caught Evelyn laughing in her sleep.

It's 2am and we stopped for gas and to change drivers when I looked
back and saw Evelyn in an unbelievably uncomfortable position with her
head falling back and mouth wide open. As I was trying to get a pillow
for her, she started laughing in her sleep. Now I have to admit, I
think my kids are pretty stinking cute, but that was gold star
cuteness right there. I would challenge the grinch (pre heart growth)
not to give that an awww. Seriously, though, the overnight drive is
going really well (knock on something). The sleeping beauties are
doing great.

We left around 6:30pm, stopped in Dallas to drop off the dog with the
world's kindest dog-sitters (jason's parents) and hope to be in Denver
by mid-afternoon. Based on the many scenic pull outs and some shadows
alongside the highway, we missed some pretty scenery just north of
Ardmore, OK, but we will also miss out on about seven hours of "I'm
hungry. She's looking at me. Mama! Mama! Mama!"

Oh, and for all you Texans, trust me, we do NOT want casino gambling.
If you think the endless strings of identical big box malls are ugly,
you should see these sprawling behemoth casinos covered in neon.

Jason's driving now, so I'm going to catch some Z's once my caffeine
buzz has worn off. Hope to wake up to some scenery in Colorado!

Sweetness

I'm sitting here after dinner watching Mary Grace and Evelyn color at the dining room table together. They are so sweet, with each one dramatically complimenting the other's work. Evelyn: "I LIKE the plant you drew!" Mary Grace: "I see you used a lot of GREEN! Good job!" Adorable. Willa decided at the last minute to go with Jason to adult choir rehearsal, so it's just two here tonight.

I know the whole kids-say-the-darndest-things is mostly just interesting to the particular child's parents, but the twins really do say such adorably weird stuff, and Mary Grace is so matter of fact and yet also patient with them. Makes for some hilarious conversation as I eavesdrop:

Evelyn: "I like purple. Only girls like purple."
MG: "No, Daddy likes purple."
Evelyn: "Yes, that's right. And there are stars at night."
MG: "Yes."
Evelyn: "I don't like storms. Sissy, do you like storms?"
MG: "Sometimes."
Evelyn: "Storms are BAD! There. I drawed a Redbud tree."
MG: "Mom. Evelyn just drew a Redbud tree. Isn't that awesome?"
Mommy: "Yes. Wow."
Evelyn: "I want to give this to my teacher tomorrow."
MG: "It's a stay home day tomorrow. You can give it to your teacher after the summer."
Evelyn: "Ok. Next time I want to draw a monster."
MG: "Well you have to draw it scary."
Evelyn: "I have a funny dance...watch!"

Love these girls!

Looooong day.

Wow. It's been a really long day. This morning we got up, ate
breakfast, then packed up and checked out of the hotel all before 9am.
We headed to Schlitterbahm Beach waterpark here in S. Padre which was
one of the more highly anticipated parts of the trip...for the girls
anyway. After spending what felt like 2 hours putting spf300 sunscreen
on the whole family, we were ready for fun. We went one time around
the lazy river to get everyone "warmed up.". This is usually a safe
bet. Bummer that at this particular waterpark, the lazy river ends
with a four foot waterfall drop off and about a minute long ride
through white water rapids. When we went back through it later in the
day, I noticed the four or five HUGE warning signs pointing this out
and giving you multiple chances to get out before the drop off. After
their harrowing experience in the ocean yesterday, I'm pretty sure
I've successfully scarred the little ones for life. They spent the
rest of the day playing in wading pools and eating junk food, while
Jason and Mary Grace rode all the rides. Everybody was very happy
with this arrangement...that is, until I accidently got some sunscreen
in Willa's eye. From around 12:30 on, she was fairly inconsolable. And
by "from then on" I mean until we left the park AT NINE THAT NIGHT.
Poor baby...poor everybody else.

We're on the bus now and the good news is, Evelyn and Willa are
already asleep. And as we left the park today, Mary Grace turned to
Jason and said, "I had fun on the beach trip! I love you Daddy!"

I'll second that.

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Day 2

Got in really late last night, but the girls were troopers
throughout. The high school kids and directors went to their festival
this morning while the girls and I stayed behind. We would have
enjoyed hearing the groups play, but with all the logistics and down
time, Schayot statistics show that the chances are very good that we
would have added unnecessary drama. And Daddy doesn't like drama. So
we went to the beach this morning. It was overcast and windy, so not
ideal beach conditions, but the girls didn't care one bit. They
sprinted for the water as soon as it was in sight and it was all I
could do to keep them from drowning themselves before I could even put
our blanket down. Our first foray into the water met with a mini-freak
out from Evelyn and Willa. The waves make them nervous, the surf was
really agitated, and I am obviously doing something seriously wrong in
trying to help them feel comfortable in the water. Near the end of the
morning, they finally agreed to sit next to me in the tide and let the
water wash over their laps a little. That was as close as they got to
swimming in the ocean. Mary Grace, on the other hand, seemed pretty
sure she needed to swim to Cuba today. I managed a happy medium
keeping her in sight while helping the twins build sand castles and
make sand "pasta.". We headed back in for lunch, but couldn't walk by
the hotel pool with taking a dip. I think they had even more fun
there. We had a ridiculously expensive lunch at the hotel restaurant,
although the food was spectacular and we were waited on hand and foot.
The only other option was to walk down a busy street 10 minutes to
McDonalds. No thanks! We wen up to our room where Evelyn and Willa
immediately fell into sweet little child comas. Jason eventually got
back and took an eternally grateful Mary Grace back out to the beach
for some "real" ocean swimming complete with several near-death
experiences I'm sure. Right now we're headed out to the pier to catch
a boat that is taking the whole high school group to an island luau
party. Never a dull moment!

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To padre!

We just finished the first leg of our bus trip to south padre with the
Georgetown High School band, orchestra, and choir. Mary Grace has been
on several of these trips, but this is the first for Evelyn and Willa.
I felt confident that they would all be fine thanks to the DVD players
on coach buses these days. Sure enough, thanks to Nemo, Princess
Giselle, and those two fuzzy guys from Monsters Inc, the girls sat
riveted through the whole ride so far. The giant carton of goldfish
crackers and the sack of Dum Dums didn't hurt either. Then, when we
got to Corpus Christie, and the Joe's Crab Shack where we were
scheduled to eat, we discovered that they have a big playscape here at
the restaurant! What good deed did I do in a past life to deserve such
god fortune? I'm doing some serious knocking on wood, but so far this
trip is going pretty nicely. On to the hotel in South Padre after we
scarf down some burgers and shrimp!!

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The Pianist

We had Mary Grace's annual piano recital today.  Her teacher has a studio of about 20 students.  At the recital, each student plays one solo, and also plays one or two duets in which they play with the teacher, a parent who also plays piano, or another student.  

I kept Evelyn and Willa at home last year during her recital, so I haven't heard her play along side her peers in two years.  I've heard her practice plenty at home.  She practices every day, so I know how she plays.  I just haven't heard what other children her age sound like in a long time.  

(I'll warn you now that I'm about to brag on my child.  If you don't want to hear it, I don't blame you.  You can skip the rest, and go browse YouTube now.)

Mary Grace is good.  If I do say so myself, she's really good.  She plays the right notes and right rhythms of course.  But her musical understanding and expression comes from somewhere deep inside.  When she plays, she means it and makes the audience feel it.  I don't know how else to describe it.  Her solo blew me away.

Then she played a really cute duet with Jason (who gets tons of credit for working with her nearly every single day, going with her to every lesson, and playing for her and the twins as much as he can.)

Then came the piece that impressed me more than anything else.  She played a duet arrangement of Frere Jacques with another little boy.  He played the somewhat easier melody line while she played the accompaniment.   She counted them off and started the piece, following his tempos, slowing down when he did, and speeding up when he did.  Pretty awesome for an 8 year old!  Then after a few measures, he got a little lost and stopped playing.  Uh oh.  So Mary Grace did what any professional musician would do and VAMPED!  That means she had the wherewithal to play the last few notes over and over until the other child came back in, then as soon as he started playing, she immediately was right with him and along they went.  What?!  Who taught her to do that?!  Jason says, she "just knew what to do."  Pretty amazing...if I do say so myself.

If you want to see the video of the recital, go to http://gallery.me.com/schayot/100114

Sleeping Beauties

Mary Grace had her 8th birthday party this weekend! She wanted a slumber party, so we planned a backyard campout for a handful of girls from her class. It was her first time to have more than one friend sleep over at a time, so I was pretty much expecting the worst. Screaming...obnoxious amounts of giggling...bickering...hurt feelings...back to screaming and giggling...me yelling at them at midnight to go to sleep...children wanting to go home...me yelling again at 1am...and at 2am. I decided that these girls are probably like toddlers (I figure everyone at some level is like a toddler) - they just need to be kept busy. I had craft after craft after craft ready to go. We cooked, flavored, and colored our own bubble gum, made dream catchers, and painted pillow cases. In between activities, they were allowed to scream and giggle...a little bit. At one point, I realized they were holding an impromptu piano recital when they realized that more than half of them took piano lessons. I got that one on video. Who would believe me otherwise?

Jason set up the tent on the patio since it was raining on and off all day, and when they got in, I gave them a bunch of those glow sticks and necklaces. They told each other ghost stories, some of which were terrifying, "Then he stabbed the guy over and over and over and over" (good grief!), and some of which were obviously make-it-up-as-you-go, "then they moved to Texas, then to California, then to Alabama, then to New Mexico..." (huh?) They dropped off one by one until it was just Mary Grace and her best buddy giggling and whispering. It was actually really sweet, and they were all asleep just before midnight.

Of course, they were then all up and awake at 7:00am. Wow. Okay. Pancakes, more giggling, more screaming. Neighbors are preparing to call the police for disturbing the peace by now. About an hour before the parents were supposed to come pick up the girls, I took them on a quick walk around the neighborhood. That's when they found the random black mud puddle and within five minutes, they were somehow covered in mud. Hello parents, here's your child who was in mint condition until 10 minutes ago. Sorry about that! Honestly, though, Mary Grace adores mud, and it was the perfect ending to a perfect party.

Easter

Easter weekend was an EGGstravaganza! Sorry, couldn't help myself. We had egg decorating, egg hiding, egg hunting, egg cooking, and egg eating. The girls made complete messes of themselves and several pieces of furniture dying eggs. Next year maybe we'll do it outside and naked (just them). Anyway, the eggs turned out lovely, although the house smelled pretty egg-y until today when we started devouring the eggs deviled-style. Yum. We got sitters and celebrated Jason's birthday on Saturday listening to some live music in Austin and eating lots and lots of meat at Fogo de Chao. That place is quite an operation. I'm not sure I ate my money's worth, but Jason at his own and mine as well, so it all evened out. We played outside when it was nice, and played inside when it wasn't. We all went to the Good Friday service and Easter morning service. Jason sang and played trumpet. The girls enjoyed their Easter goodies from Mr. Bunny. They all got Peeps (among other things) and I found their reactions to the Peeps indicative of their personalities. Mary Grace immediately began biting the heads off of each of her Peeps. Such a little sweetheart. Evelyn called them her babies and covered them with a napkin/blanket and carried them around in their basket/bed. Willa took one bite, said "Ew!" and threw hers in the trash (my feelings exactly). They all eventually, though, succumed to whatever it is that makes people like to eat these sort-of-food-products, because as of tonight, they are all gone. Everyone went to bed exhausted, but having had a fun-filled, and somehow really relaxing family weekend. Few and far between for us this time of year. Love these girls! Check out the gallery for Easter/birthday/bluebonnet pics. http://gallery.me.com/schayot

And the rowdy shall inherit the earth.

We've started bringing Evelyn and Willa into big church to sit with us through the service. We did this with Mary Grace at about this age with mixed results. She's never been one for the whole "sitting still and being quiet thing." Evelyn and Willa, however, behave beautifully and don't even need reminders to be quiet...let alone needing to be dragged out by one arm and yelled at in the vestibule. Ah, the memories.

Anyway, we get lots of comments from people at Church about how well they behave, etc. It's nice. Then there was today. During the children's sermon (when all the children go up to the front steps to sit in front of everyone) Evelyn was trying to get Willa to laugh, and when Willa wouldn't oblige, she started poking her in the eye repeatedly and then hugging/choking her. Did I mention that they were two of five children up there? Very nice, ladies. I'm sure we made lots of parents out in the congregation feel much better about themselves today. Amen.

I love the smell of bleach in the morning

There is an extremely short list of things that could make me happier than having a sparkling clean house BEFORE spring break even starts. I announced last night that the next day I was going to clean, and that I needed everyone out of the house while I did it. I've never seen a group of people so happy to comply.

I had three uninterrupted hours of cleaning time. It was great. Don't get me wrong, I would certainly prefer not to have to clean the house, but the result is SO satisfying. Where is the line drawn on OCD with regard to cleaning? Do I have tendencies? Possibly. One of my sister's nicknames for me is Monica. (Thanks to all of you who get the reference.) But am I a nut? I don't think so. The house can get pretty dirty. It's just that I get all out of sorts when it's like that. The sun shines directly through our kitchen/living room windows in the late afternoon, and I just get so creeped out the way it highlights every fleck of dust in the air, not to mention the junk on the floor. It puts me in a bad mood. It's not that I'm obsessed with cleaning. I have three children, a husband and a dog running around. I don't have time to be obsessed. I just REALLY REALLY REALLY would prefer for things to be clean. This is just making me sound crazier, right? Even in high school, I was kind of nutty about making my bed, and keeping my bathroom clean. My sweet sister, in protest, would refuse to let me clean her half of the bathroom, and I'm pretty sure she kept it extra messy on purpose just to bother me. Same way with my wonderful husband, who just can't manage to rinse out the sink after he brushes his teeth, or get his dirty clothes in the hamper, even if I put it right where he likes to pile things. When Mary Grace was very small, she was talking to me about how Daddy teaches the band kids. I asked her, "And what does Mommy do?" No hesitation - "Mommy cleans up our messes."

I guess the question of whether or not I have a disorder doesn't matter nearly as much as how happy I am right now sitting in my nice clean house.

Cheese

If the first three ingredients are water, oil and corn starch, it
isn't cheese.

Choices

I had a great conversation one morning this week with Mary Grace. I
told her that at every moment of every day you are spreading either
peace or chaos in the world. She tried hard to come up with a
scenario in which that wasn't true, but couldn't come up with one. I
can't come up with one either. I also told her that the world is
full of chaos and sadness, and we should always be trying hard not to
add to it. One of my main goals with my children is to teach them
personal responsibility for their choices and actions. Mary Grace
came home from school and proudly told me that she spread peace in
her classroom all day. Who could ask for more from a child? I guess
now I have to live up to her example and do the same.

The Christmas Blog

We celebrated what seemed like the 12 Days of Christmas this year.
We had Christmas Day in Georgetown, Christmas in Dallas a few days
later, then the twins' birthday in Dallas, then Christmas and
birthdays in Houston at New Years! But instead of partridges, golden
rings (that would've been nice) and lords a leaping (that would've
been weird) we had:

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, some Tamiflu
in a pear tree. Not really in a pear tree, but I couldn't come up
with another rhyme. Willa got the flu three days before Christmas,
but recovered quickly. We sent the other two girls to Granny's,
everyone stayed healthy and we were back on track by Christmas Eve.
On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two princess
ariel dolls. This is so that Evelyn & Willa wouldn't fight over
them...too much. Any gift that had anything to do with Ariel had to
be a double gift with one for Evelyn and one for Willa. Any other
type of gift could be doubled or not, it didn't seem to matter. They
are fine sharing anything but their precious Ariels.
On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three million
craft projects. Mary Grace got tons of craft stuff. She has
knitting, sewing, painting, drawing, paper folding, weaving, and
cooking just to name a few. She also got a couple of video games,
but has logged way more time knitting and painting.
On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me four nieces
and nephews. We loved playing with Julia in Dallas. She smiles ALL
the time, and is so sweet and easy going. In Houston, Mary Grace got
her playtime in with Daniel and Avery doing all kinds of "projects"
around Granny's house. Brandon is another baby who smiles
constantly...unless he's being fed baby food bananas, which might as
well be lemons as far as he's concerned.
On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, FIVE HAPPY
SCHAYOTS! It was a great two weeks. We feel really blessed to have
such amazing families who we love to hang out with.
On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...just
kidding. I'm done. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!!