New Name Ideas

HOLD THE PHONE.......We've got a new name! Aaron just couldn't get on board with Leander. And I am sad about that because I do love it so much. But it isn't fair if Aaron doesn't love it as much as I do. So one night I was looking at a list of baby names and it was a collection of names that the authors considered to be the best baby names NOT in the top 1000 on the SSA list from data collected in 2018 (which is the most recent list). I read through the list and there were a lot of names that fit my style. Later, I had Aaron read the list to see if anything stuck out to him. He glanced through, and said "What about Oslo? Ross Oslo Swan."

I was prepared no to like anything he came up with that wasn't Leander, I admit, BUT his suggestion threw me off guard. It sounded really good all together, Ross Oslo Swan. Hmmm.......

So I said, "Well, it sounds really good, and flows well, but I wonder what Oslo means." Because, you know, meaning is important to me, and I thought there was no way it could mean anything that meant anything. Oslo is the capital of Norway.......but that didn't really have any significance, BUT, the reason they names the capital Oslo is because Oslo means "meadow beneath the ridge" so, a nature name! Just like I've been wanting. Not only that, but a nature name that pretty much perfectly describes where we live. I was a little bit stunned. And said, "Aaron it's perfect." And he said that he liked it a lot.

A few days later we were talking about it again and Aaron told me that he always thought he'd come across "the name" while he was indexing, as sort of a blessing for doing what he was supposed to be doing. (Our stake president has asked each ward member to index one batch per week.) But Aaron said when I showed him the list, the thought came to his mind that he should scroll to the bottom section of names, and it would be a little ways up form the bottom, and then his eyes went straight to Oslo. He didn't tell me at first because he didn't want to make too much of it, but I thought it was a pretty cool story. I don't know how much Heavenly Father cares about what our earthly names are, but I do know He cares very much about us and the things that are important to us, and we've been praying about our baby's name for awhile. So Aaron's experience makes me like Oslo all the more.

Then I noticed that his initials would be R.O.S., Ross, which would be his first name, and I liked that too. Just for fun on Sunday we looked on Familysearch.org to see if we had any ancestors from Norway, and I do! Not only that but he came from a little town near Oslo, called Rollag, about 2 hours from Oslo, actually. His name was Eric Gautesson Midtboen Hogan. His parents have different last names, but the farm he lived on in Norway was called Haugen Farm. So he took Haugen as his last name, then Americanized the spelling to Hogan when he came across the ocean with his wife and kids. He was the first person to join the church in the Hogan line. He helped settle Bountiful, UT. My mom's maiden name was Hogan, and she, and therefore I, am a direct descendant of Eric Gautesson Midtboen Hogan from close to Oslo, Norway. So we can add that to the list of meaningful connections that go along with the name Oslo.

I'm in love. Haha! I am about 99.99% sure that Aaron officially agreed that Ross Oslo Swan would be our baby's name. He would go by Oslo and whatever nickname we think up for him (we haven't come up with a nickname yet... maybe Ros (hard s sound like a z) or I think solo would be cute, but Aaron isn't sure). We agreed not to announce the name, or tell anyone about it until after he's born and we see that it fits him. I'm not really worried about it fitting him, it's too perfect not to, but I am totally on board with not having to hear anyone's opinions about the name beforehand. We'll announce after he's born, and it will be a done deal.

Hooper Weekend

Cal, Ollie, Ruby, Ivan, Adelia, and Lincoln making a pyramid behind Papa Stew's grave at the Hooper Cemetery.

Krystal, Baby Ford, Tindy, and Tami

Four generation photo: Granny Jan, Tami Lemmon Sparks, Krystal Swan, Adelia Swan, Ruby Swan

We spent a fabulous weekend in Hooper. We drove up Saturday afternoon, and Aaron took the kids to Mom and Kerry's house while I went out to dinner with Heidi and Tami, two of my wonderful friends from high school. We got together awhile ago for Tindy's baby shower, and decided we needed to make a habit of doing it more often.

Sunday morning we loaded up the Suburban and went to the Hooper Cemetery to put marigolds on my dad's grave since we didn't make it up for Memorial Day. We also located Aaron's ancestor, Daniel Ross (the one who helped settle Hooper), whose headstone is not very far from my dad's. We put a marigold on his too. I know that Aaron and I (and our kids) are probably the only people in the whole world who even care, but I think it's so cool that we have ancestors buried in the same cemetery. And that Aaron's ancestor helped make the tiny farm town that I would later be raised in. Those kinds of family history connections are so fun. As we walked around near Daniel's headstone, we saw so many other 'Ross' family headstones that I'm convinced Aaron is practically a Hooper-ite. No wonder he's so amazing. :)

After that we went to Tindy's and Ben's baby blessing. The baby's name is Ford, isn't that the most adorable? I love it. We went to lunch with their families afterwards. And I was just really happy to be celebrating with them. We definitely don't see them enough since they moved to ID and we moved further south in UT County.

We capped off the trip by celebrating Father's Day with my family. Mom and Kerry did a BBQ in the backyard and the weather was perfect. All my brothers were there for at least a minute or two, and it was fun to chat with them while all the cousins played. My Granny Jan was also there, I haven't seen her in awhile. We took a four generation pictures with Gran, Mom, my two girls, and I. An all around good, family-filled weekend.

Memorial Day Weekend 2019 Utah Lake

Traditionally on Memorial Day weekend we hike Stewart Falls. But this year I'm a large pregnant person, and a four plus mile hike with lots of little people and a dog just didn't sound doable. Not to mention that the weather has been very wet and unseasonably cold. We considered doing a different hike....but all the canyons around us are still closed because of snow pack. We spent a lot of the weekend doing yard work. But I felt like we needed to take at least one day to do something fun with the kids. It was supposed to rain. But we decided we'd head out to Utah Lake, since we've never gone there as a family before. And we decided to bring the kayaks, because we figured even though it was too cold to swim, we could still go out on the kayaks and have some fun with that. Lincoln begged to be able to take his fishing gear. And I thought, what the heck, he won't catch anything, but it'll give him something to do. Boy was I wrong.

We decided to go to Lincoln beach because it had a bathroom. And a pregnant lady should always know where a bathroom is. There were very few other people at the beach, and we had quite a long strip of it all to ourselves. Because it had rained to much the water was high. But it was also very shallow, which is sort of a relief to a mom whose letting her babies go out in the kayaks. It feels safer to know that if they tip over they can just wade right back to shore. Haha!

The older kids went off fishing, while Aaron and Ruby and Cal waded and built a rock-castle (there was no sand). I watched and took pictures using my new iphone camera lenses. It was relaxing. And the weather was actually beautiful. The sun came out and it was a little breezy, but I was perfectly comfortable in my leggings and sweatshirt. Probably about 60 degrees, one of the warmest days we've had so far this spring.

Pretty soon Lincoln comes paddling in on the kayak, saying he's caught a fish. It was a HUGE carp. I couldn't believe it. Not only that, but he'd caught it with his bare hands. Just reached right down into the reeds and snatched it up. It was still alive in the bottom of the kayak, and now we had to deal with it. And by we, I mean Aaron. Sometimes being pregnant has it's advantages. Mostly I sat in my chair watching and laughing my head off at the unlikelihood of this situation we'd suddenly found ourselves in.  Neither Aaron nor I are fisherman.

 So Aaron is trying to smash the head of this huge fish to kill it, and it's not working. And we have no idea if we need to gut it and clean it right away or if we can take it home first. Luckily, Lincoln, who was 110% confident that he would indeed catch a fish, had brought along a little cooler filled with ice.

Aaron finally managed to bash the poor fish to death, and we stuck it in the cooler. Then I called my brother Tanner, who actually does fish, so ask him what our next move should be. He did not want to talk to me, but luckily Jackson answered Tanner's phone, and Jackson has also been fishing a time or two, so he walked me through what we needed to do.

We were good to wait until we got home to clean it. It turned out to be a carp, which is basically a disgusting trash fish. Jackson told me it wouldn't be worth eating, and I knew he was right....but it was Lincoln's first catch ever, and Linc was determined to see the thing through to the dinner table. Aaron was a good sport. He and Linc watched youtube videos about how to clean it and cook it. And they did the best they could with it. It turned out to be pretty much what everyone had predicted it would be. Gross. Although I do think some of the kids ate it all right. I did not go near it with a ten foot pole......again pregnancy to the rescue. I couldn't have eaten it if I wanted to. I could hardly tolerate the fishy smell.

Anyways, overall it was an adventure for the books. Lesson learned, if you don't want your kids to catch a fish to bring home, don't let them bring their fishing gear. Haha!

Cinderella, Theater Style!

Cinderella cast. Ollie is front row all the way to the left. Del is in the middle with the pink apron and bow.

Adelia and Ollie took the funnest homeschool theater class during winter semester. The group did a theatrical version of Disney's Cinderella Kids. Adelia and Ollie were mice, and also villagers, and Del was a ballroom dancer. They both had a few lines, and learned all the dances. And we had a great time as a family going to see their end of the year production.

I loved watching how Adelia thrived in a theater setting. It's her thing. She was making friends, and practicing songs whenever she could in her spare time. And it as awesome to watch her eyes light up interacting with everyone at dress rehearsals and backstage. I think I'm going to have to figure out how to put more theater in our lives. We'll definitely be doing this class again next season.

Ollie had a good time too. But he struggled a bit with the long, late-night rehearsals. We'll see if he decides to do it next year or not.

Ollie and Del before the show starts.

Ollie in the front middle as Luk the mouse.

Del in the pink apron as Perla the mouse.

Del in her green ballroom dress being introduced to the Prince.

Ollie had to be carried in by Aaron after the performance. He didn't even wake up while Aaron put his jammies on. That's one tired kid.

Anniversary Trip Day 2: Arches

Well, the main point of going on this little trip was to conquer Delicate Arch. And howdy, boy howdy we did it. At a very. slow. pace. Haha!! Six months worth of pregnancy is not kind to a gal's hiking skills, I can tell you that much. I was so freaking slow. I had to stop and take a lot of breaks. The trail is pretty steep in parts. But we made it! I was so proud of us. Of course Aaron and the kids were not the problem they did great. I think we COULD have taken Ruby and Cal on this trail, after seeing it, but there were some steep cliff-like drop offs, and I would have stressed and worried about keeping them close or holding onto their hands the whole time, so it was probably best that we didn't bring them. I think we all enjoyed the trail a lot more without the added anxiety of hiking toddlers. (And to be perfectly honest, there were parts where Ollie had me worried because if he tripped or didn't pay attention for just a second, he would have been a goner. There were parts I made Aaron hold his hand through, and parts where I made Aaron walk between Ollie and the cliff edge, just to be safe.)

I definitely need a break after the hike. So we did some scenic driving. Devil's Garden was A-MAZING to view. Of course the picture doesn't do it justice. It never does.

After a good long break, a lot of water, chips, and some air conditioning, I was feeling like we could attempt something else. We decided on Landscape Arch. The trail was actually super easy, and the scenery while walking it was so cool. Unfortunately, my body was done. I didn't end up going the last little ways, but sat down in the shade and waited while Aaron took the kids to the end. And I had to push myself super hard to get back out again. It is what it is. We'll come back another time and I'll do it then. That's one nice thing, Moab is really close to where we live, so we don't have to feel the need to do every single thing there is to do while we're there. We can pick one or two things and really enjoy them, and then come back again another time.

We drove into Moab and ate dinner at a pizza place. The pizza wasn't actually that good, but the fish and chips were excellent and so were the steak fries. Then back to the hotel. Everyone showered and we watched Ratatouille. We thought about swimming again, but everyone was too tired, so we vegged in front of a movie instead. 

Anniversary Trip Day 1: Goblin Valley

Ivan, Ollie, Adelia, Lincoln, Aaron at Goblin Valley State Park

So there's this cool thing where all fourth graders in the US get a free National Parks pass. It's good for a year, and gets them (and their family) into any national park for free. And since Ivan is a fourth grader this year, I've been itching to go back to Moab and use his pass at Arches and finally hike the Delicate Arch trail. I really wanted to go back in February for my birthday, but that didn't work out. And then things at Aaron's work got insanely crazy for awhile there, and even Aaron was saying he needed a break. His work schedule was insanity through April. But I found a great deal on a hotel room in Green River for the the first weekend in May. Hotel, because I knew I'd be six months pregnant at that point and unwilling to tent it. And first weekend it May because that happens to be our anniversary. :) We arranged for Aaron's mom to take Ruby and Cal for the weekend. I think we could have done the trip with them, but it was just going to be a lot less stress not having to worry about the little ones on a long, steep hike.

Since Green River is half way between Goblin Valley and Moab, we decided to spend the first day in Goblin. When we were last there in September, it was so hot that no one wanted to climb on the rocks much. But this go around the weather was beautiful. Pants and t-shirt weather, which is perfect for climbing around on rocks. The kids had a marvelous time. It was harder doing the ups and downs as a pregnant lady, so I mostly stayed on the valley floor and watched everyone else climb all around. I photographed the event of course.

We spent a good deal of time in Valley 2 looking for a cave that we had found years ago when we went with Aaron's family. But, my pregnant bladder didn't hold out long enough to find it. And we had to head back to the entrance and the bathrooms.

After our potty break, we had a little bit of time before we wanted to head back to the hotel for dinner and such. So we drove out of Goblin and up the road a-ways to see some pictographs. It was pretty cool. And the kids enjoyed it.

Then we drove to the hotel, got checked in and all that good stuff. We ate some dinner at a little taco food truck/restaurant. Then went back to the hotel and went swimming until it was bedtime.