Well life has been rolling along. When it comes to newborns I don't find that I have realized much perfection with practice. It seems the baby is screaming all the time and Lexie and I are still kind of stumbling around in a sleep deprived stupor. That is the way I remember it being with all of them. The good news is if I remember correctly in a few more weeks the baby is going to get better at sleeping. With that said a personal development I sense is that I do think I have had deeper feelings about Jacob than I did about the others as newborns. Not to say I love him any more than the others but rather I think I am capable of more love now. I appreciate all of my children more than I ever have. I almost started crying when they came to greet me at the end of church today I was so overwhelmed with what a beautiful family I have. Yes this is still Dan writing. I will point out almost crying is still manly, where as all the way crying 90's man stuff is still sissy.
Back to logistics of having a baby ... When we started our trip I was very concerned about whether or not we would have enough space for a new born in our small trailer. In fact I started with the idea that we didn't and that we would simply buy a bigger trailer when the baby was born. Now our plan is to keep our smaller one for a while longer. All travel trailers are small and we have the one we are in figured out. It turns out that it works out really well to walk a baby back and forth through our little hall way. In fact, in that I respect I don't notice any difference to having had babies in a full sized house. Jacob seems just as happy to be walked in a short orbit than any of the others did to have their longer orbits for their night walks.
As the Canadian geese are flying over head I am getting more and more anxious to follow them. Realistically it isn't practical to leave for a few more weeks. However waking up to frost covered ground and feeling a little cold bite in the breeze pushes my thoughts toward warmer places and waiting adventures. I am putting some thought into not actually going east right away this winter and simply starting down in Arizona for a while. It seemed like we blitzed through Arizona way to quickly on the last pass through. However with that said there are several places we haven't even passed through yet.
I asked my two oldest today what their fondest dream was. Tyrell's is to put the first puppy on the moon, Dallin's is to go to the moon. Those seem like the kind of dreams which could easily change by next week or even could have changed already, however it did make me think we should swing though the Johnson Space Center in Houston in route to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida just in case they weren't the kind of dreams that changed. I don't know if I have told them or not, I probably have because I talk a lot, but I can't look at the moon with out wanting to be on it. I revel in imagining how great it must be for the astronauts who have had the opportunity to view the world from space. I also find myself enchanted thinking about all of the mysteries held in space, the keys to answers of some of which could be as close as our very own moon. From there of course the eye turns toward Mars. I don't have any doubt there are breakthroughs in human understanding to be had from getting a closer look at the red planet. Astronomy was definitely one of my favorite classes in college. I just haven't ever found time or channels to pursue it much. Something I have loved about road life and indeed something that pulled me toward it is that I see a lot more of the night sky. The summer in Alaska of course was a dearth of night star gazing. Now farther south with winter coming on the Idaho sky is lighting up in an incredible way. I get really excited when the kids look up in the sky and then ask for the star chart.
On the subject of doings and happenings. Tyrell got his Bobcat rank in cub scouts. He has been very enthusiastic about working on his cub scout requirements. A quick funny about Dallin before I forget it ... Today at dinner he jumped up from the table and plunged his head into the garbage can gagging. Lexie and I were of course understandably concerned. We broke down in a fit of laughter when we found out what had happened was that Dallin in his own words "had tried an experiment" of eating a whopper candy together with a small pizza pocket. Yes Dallin that was an experiment doomed from the start, but now you are a smarter six year old. One of Natalyn's funnies of late was when she was asking for a drink Lexie told her to have the drink by her bed. The water had been sitting there all day and of course was likely quite stale. Natalyn responded "I don't want that water,it tastes like hornet's blood". Okay ... I'm not one who could say it doesn't ...
Each night Lexie reads to the children a chapter or two from a book. The latest books have been Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. The whole family loves mysteries and that includes reading about Scooby and the gang. Natalyn has been practicing her sleuthing skills. Tyrell's pet grasshopper died. Natalyn was quick to announce, "We're on the case! Clue 1 something was blocking it's way. Number 2 - water report: it had no water, and it loves water!" I think she might make a pretty great detective.
David was pretty pleased with the stickers he found to decorate his sword.
Tyrell has his bobcat rank.
The kids always seem to have fun at pack meetings.
Oh yes! another event of great importance since I last wrote is that we celebrated the thirty third anniversary of the dawn of consciousness, my birthday. Honestly I can't say that consciousness has truly dawned yet but some days it seems closer than others. I am old enough that getting older doesn't feel quite as exciting as it used to. In fact it is kind of the opposite. Even though life comes with no guarantees expressed or implied. Somehow every time I see a year go by lately I feel like I have used up a part of that non existent warranty.
Yes, somehow that is a 33 on that cake!
We had a leak under the bathroom sink which I didn't really have a clue how to fix and didn't want to invest the time in figuring out so we took our trailer to the Bish's service center. It seemed unfair to have to take the bathroom sink to the plumber instead of having the plumber come to the bathroom sink. I can't think they worked on it for more than a couple of hours but they tied up the trailer for the entire day. It was strange being homeless for a day. We had a good time while we waited. Before the oldest boys were done with school we went for a quick visit to Grandma Meikle's. We also did some belated birthday shopping for me. I now have a running pack to carry my water bottle. After the boys got home we went to Freeman park to wait for the trailer to be ready. We had a very nice game of steal the flag there as a family. Ty and Dallin are getting fast enough to be a little challenging to catch. After picking up the trailer we decided to take advantage of being off leash on a Friday and went to Twin Bridges to camp rather than coming back to Thornton. We joked to the kids that they would know they were camping because they weren't allowed to turn on the lights, run extra water and they would be cold in the morning. Some how that's fun and it is. Well the some how of course is at night we were able to witness another one of those amazing skies and in the morning we went exploring. I am disappointed with myself for not getting pictures but I will leave it in text that the South Fork of the Snake River is beautiful in the fall.
We were able to have a quick visit with Grandma Meikle.
Our cutie, Jacob.
Share those cheeks Jacob!
Photographic evidence that I exaggerated at the beginning of the article. He does not always scream (even though I can hear him now as I am writing). Sleep well little angel!
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