Our Impulsiveness Strikes Again!

I'm really glad our Israel trip didn't work out because the time between Ryan's graduation and leaving for Army training was too short as it was. We knew in February that Ryan's family was planning a cruise, but didn't give it much thought mostly because it was just a few days before Ryan needed to leave for Ft. Jackson. Then... on a whim (15 days before sailing) we booked the cruise. I'm not sure if we were actually invited or just tagging along, but we tried minimize the impact of our children on our fellow travelers. The fact that we weren't required to have passports made the trip much less complicated.

I was really worried about driving 25 hours over a 70 hour period with our 3 boys especially since James had cried all the way home from Spring City on Easter weekend with less than a 2 hour drive. As we planned it, we decided to drive straight through to Dallas (20.5 hours) without stopping right after Benjamin got out of school on Friday afternoon so that we could go to church Sunday morning and have a short drive that afternoon. The first ~3 hours of the drive seemed like it would be a long trip, "Why aren't we stopping for the night!?!?!?" (B. was very concerned that we wouldn't be staying at a hotel) but after Moab, UT it was okay. They boys slept fine in the car and we almost made it straight through, but ended up stopping in a random empty lot one exit short of a rest stop near Amarillo for a 3 hour cat nap at 2 a.m.

We should have taken more photos and we missed a lot of good opportunities, but it doesn't help that I can't find the camera battery charger. I know it was packed, but don't remember the last time I saw it (I finally found it weeks after our trip). I also didn't get the photos off Ryan's phone before he left for South Carolina, so I'm not sure what I'm missing here. There were photos from our gas-up in Moab among others.

Speaking of Moab, Ryan says I'm granola (based on my cooking habits and lack of daily showers), but I'm not THAT granola. (B. while listening to our conversation said I make the best granola :) The sign in the City Market restroom that said "no shaving, bathing, or washing clothes in the sink" and the people on the streets that inspired the sign verified my lack of "crunchy granola-ness".

I never did get my Taco Cabana tortillas and queso while in Texas, but the surprise trip to Free Birds made up for it thanks to Lisa Pippin (Her and her hubby's hospitality was much appreciated. It was fun to catch up)! I don't have the stomach capacity I used to because a "Monster" spinach black bean burrito was too much, but I still gladly devoured it all.

Sailing out of Galveston.

I can't remember what the boys were whining about... but they were being grumpy.

The boys ate with us in the dining room every night except one. I wanted them to be able to try all of the exotic foods and the dining staff was great in helping to entertain them with napkin animals and origami frogs. 

I love how my boys are willing to try new foods. For lunch right after we boarded the ship, Benjamin ordered an anchovy pizza and motivated me to try one too. He didn't even flinch, but I gagged when I hit a bone. I thought it tasted like what the beach on Galveston smelled like. It was pretty gross.

We all ate frog legs (which tasted like chicken. Ryan said they would have been fine if he hadn't know what they were. I'm wondering why they're not kosher?), baked Alaska, and all sorts of other gourmet foods. I was hoping they'd have escargot on the menu one evening. When I mentioned the possibility to Benjamin, he said, "No Snails!!! Snails are my friends." Too bad he didn't get the opportunity. :)

 Formal Night. I can't believe all the boys are smiling. Sorry for the spoiler, but this is going to be our family Christmas photo this year because it looks like Ryan is going to be gone.

Since Ryan will also be gone during our 10th Anniversary in July, we decided to count this trip as part of our celebration. We haven't had a portrait together alone since before Benjamin was born. 

We didn't get a towel animal our first night because we were initially scheduled for late dining and our steward didn't get the communique so he was surprised when we showed up and wanted to get the boys to bed before our original dinning time. The following evenings, the boys were excited to find the towel animals, but Benjamin has a destructive streak and they generally didn't last more than a minute or two.

Port at Progreso, Mexico

I'm glad Ryan is as adventurous or more adventurous than I am. I wanted to see two sets of ruins and there wasn't a tour to do it, so I researched hiring a private taxi. I was having second thoughts when we found the taxis, especially since our driver didn't speak English, but Ryan went ahead with my plan and it all worked out as we intended.

Dzibilchaltun Mayan Ruins

 Benjamin was acting like he had to pee at the museum, but he kept saying he didn't need to go. We walked out to the ruins trail and then he decided he needed to go. Ryan took him back while I took Alexander and James to the ruins. 


There was a set of ruins in either direction and I chose the further ones because I figured we wouldn't have time to go back to them if we went to the ones by the sinkhole first. I held Alexander's hand while I carried James up the pyramid and then asked them to stay put while I hiked back down to take a picture. They willingly sat there and waited for me to climb back up. It was a bit amazing (if not a slightly reckless decision on my part)! 

Ryan and Benjamin hadn't found us where we were, so I decided we needed to get to the other ruins. The trail was really rocky and I had a hard time pushing the umbrella stroller. We didn't have enough water. Alexander really wanted to whine and if you know him, he sometimes goes overboard with the whining (He's 3 and I'm hoping it's just a stage. Being the younger brother doesn't help he sense of control either)... but he was really good for me on the humid, sun-beaten, dehydrated, bumpy trek to the other end of the park and willingly held James on his lap in the stroller. We found Ryan and Benjamin right away after our arrival. They had climbed a pyramid on the other side when they couldn't find us. It turns out that Ryan figured I would pick the closer ruins. He must not know me that well after 10 years... because "we're Lewis' and we do hard things!"


I wish we had time to climb more of the pyramids, but we were afraid we'd run out of time.

I asked the boys if they wanted to get their swimsuits on before we left the taxi because we wouldn't get a chance to later, but they were sure we wouldn't need them. I wish they would trust me more. They were wishing they had their swimwear on when we were at the cenote (sinkhole).     





Xcambo Mayan Ruins.

 Yes, we were the only ones there!!!!!

 Our taxi driver Gaspar. Our tour was a sad waste of a 15 passenger van. I wish we could have found some people to share our adventure with us, but it was sort of impulsive like we tend to be!

Glass Bottom Boat Excursion at Cozumel.

They need better air-conditioning (I'm not sure if it was worse because I'm expecting, but I was quite nauseated by the end of the trip)! In my opinion, the tunnel in the Omaha Zoo Aquarium is a better experience, but I think the boys enjoyed the boat.

 Benjamin proved he can color in the lines when he wants to!

 On our last day, we scoured the ship in a family scavenger hunt looking for life boat #13 that doesn't exist (Ryan went out an employee door into a blustery afternoon and was questioned by a security officer). We received bonus points for eyeliner mustaches, but couldn't get anyone to loan us their false teeth. I separated from Ryan and the boys in an attempt to get more points. It's amazing how many people talk to you when you have a fake mustache.






Dana, our steward, fulfilled our request of making a monkey towel animal for us on our last night. The boys loved it and it lasted a lot longer than the other ones (~ an hour, but only because we protected it) except for losing its eyes.


As we were driving out of Houston, Benjamin wanted to turn back and re-board the Triumph. He wants to know when we'll go on our next cruise. I wonder if they'd have a stateroom for 4 kids?



We stopped in Amarillo on Saturday night so we could go to church Sunday morning (the internet is so amazing b/c we booked our room an hour out from a McDonalds parking lot after reading reviews and getting a great internet rate!), Afterwards we drove through the rest of the way to UT and arrived at 2 a.m. on Monday morning (Google maps took us on an out-of-the-way tour of south-western Colorado and we luckily found a gas station with pay-at-the pump before our fumes ran out and our tank hit empty). Benjamin even made it to school on Monday (He was well rested because he didn't wake up when we carried him in from the van). Ryan left Tuesday morning for a summer at Ft. Jackson, SC only 3 hours behind schedule.

We're blessed the trip went so well. I love being impulsive when it works!

The puppy wants to run with the big dogs...

James wants to be big like his brothers so badly. He gets incensed when his brothers go somewhere with daddy and he's left behind. Lately daddy's been taking him too for mommy's sake (and b/c daddy has a soft heart under that gruff Arrrr-my exterior).

 He watches his brothers intently to see what they are doing. Here they are sticking out their tongues...

Then he does what they do!

Here's another example from a few weeks ago!

Alexander and Benjamin sit on the potty so of course James needs to!







The boys have been playing "Lion" the last couple days and James was crawling around rwaring today too. Of course he stopped when he saw the camera, but I tricked him a little into doing it again:

As an aside, I wish I had a photo of his pouty face. It's so cute and sad all at the same time. One time he knocked over a box (Ryan: I repeat, it was hulled barley and NOT bulgar wheat!) and fell over in the process and when he stood up, he had that pout, like he was sad, hurt, scared, mad, and embarrassed all at once. I've seen the same look a few times, but it never seems like an appropriate time to get out the camera.

Alexander is a pooping machine! (And his 3rd b-day celebration)

This almost should be two posts and I haven't been so chronological in the last few posts, which is triggering my OCD, but I can't figure out how to easily organize them otherwise!

I have a way of getting things I wish for... My earliest "I want that one" memory is of the Care Bears playdough set I won during a Yule Log hunt. Burger King crowns were hidden all over the Green Belt with numbers on them that corresponded to prizes. On the way back to the Stone House, I unknowingly traded for my winning crown!

Ryan experienced this early in our marriage when we were playing Candyland and I got Princess Lolly right after saying "I want that card". He thought I had cheated!

So, the evening before free bread delivery (Thursday), I told Ryan that I needed a 1/4 sheet cake with white frosting that I could redecorate for Alexander's birthday... It turned out that I was the one who went for bread and when I got to the office, one of the neighbor kids was holding the (one and only) cake I was looking for... It was fortuitous that he had grabbed it because a lot of times the bread products are snatched up quickly. I convinced him that he wanted cinnamon rolls instead of the cake (his mom later thanked me for helping him choose :)

It was a "balloon cake" so all I had to do was remove the plastic balloons and a few colored frosting balls and smooth out the white frosting. Alexander wanted an Angry Bird/Thomas Cake. We found Angry Bird fruit snacks at BB and B a few days before and I used our Angry Bird board game catapolt (the boys love the game).

 Here they are plotting about what candy they'll eat first. We had the cake before lunch so that Ryan could go study for the day.

It's good we took a lot of photos of Alexander opening presents because he's convinced he didn't have a birthday celebration.

 This is my version of Buzz Lightyear in Connectagons. I didn't get photos of the Woody and Ham I built for him.

I wasn't very impressed with Kiddie Candids, but Alexander was so excited about the "Jimmer Picture" and he looks so grown up in the photo on the right.

 I had a hard time not buying the photo with him and the 3 block out of tradition, but the only one with a good smile looks very similar to his photo last year.

Ryan's mom came to town for the weekend. After Alexander's photos she took us to Red Robin. The boys really wanted to drive the race boats and she let them race twice.

While they were riding the escalator James wanted a ride on the carousel. B and A were convinced it was unfair that James got a ride and they didn't. We tried to explain that James didn't get to race the boats. They threw quite the fit leaving the mall.

Chuck E. Cheese has been regular thing for special occasions while we've been in UT. We went Monday night after Ryan's mom flew home.

Foreshadowing of what it will be like when these boys are teenagers and driving?!

Alexander was sad that we didn't see the guy dressed up as Chuck E. Cheese. I told him I thought either the guy was sick or he only shows up on weekends... SO, if Alexander started pooping in the potty and got his 5 stickers we could go back even if it was next weekend.

I started potty training Alexander in August because he was waking up dry. I didn't know what a big deal it was that B. was poop trained before pee trained and that a lot of kids struggle with poop training. I stopped the training b/c I couldn't get A. to poop on the potty. He did it once probably by accident and there was a single sticker on his chart for the last 6 months.

I was in the process of researching potty chairs for him because he always goes in his room and shuts the door behind him when he's pooping. I almost sprained my ankle or broke something when I tripped on more than one occasion while chasing him into his room so I could grab him and try to carry him to the potty in time, but I was always too late by the time I got to him. The good thing was that he never peed at the same time as pooping and was only doing one solid one a day so it was fairly easy clean-up, so in January he pee trained quickly and I just put him in underwear expecting to have to clean him up once a day. It was an okay system for the time being, but I was also trying to figure out what would work to get the job done.

We went to his 3 yr check-up at the Dr. on Tues and talked about it a little, but with no solutions. I never did make it up to Ikea to buy the potty chair. Then on Weds evening, after Alexander sat on the potty twice earlier in the day to no avail, I was in the kitchen with James in his high-chair and Alexander started yelling from the bathroom "I pooped, I pooped" and he had. He proceeded to fill his chart the next day. I finally told him that he didn't need to force out little poops just to get more stickers because we would be going to Chuck E Cheese on Saturday.

For how sad A. was about missing Chuck E. Cheese, he was still weary of him and sure didn't want to pose for a photo with him. James wan't impressed either.

BTW, Saturday is NOT the day for Chuck E Cheese b/c it's really crowded and hot. Monday was a much less claustrophobia inducing experience.

As an aside, we took a neighbor girl with us to Chuck E Cheese on Saturday and she spilled a full cup of root beer in my van on the ride home. I'm sure if she were my own child I would have yelled at her for making a mess. I pondered the situation quite a bit. 

That morning, I had gone to the Worldwide Leadership Training for our church and this quote from Elder Russell M. Nelson really hit me: "...[W]e are raising our children in enemy-occupied territory. The homes of our members must become the primary sanctuaries of our faith, where each can be safe from the sins of the world." (See: https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/worldwide-leadership-training/2012/01/the-doctrinal-importance-of-marriage-and-children?lang=eng)...Our home should be a holy place like the temple (Hint: that's why we named our blog what we did). When I go to the temple, I feel peace. I want my children to feel peace in our home and like it is a refuge from the "war zone". They can't or won't if I'm yelling. I want to treat my children as well if not better than I would treat other people's children and I want them to feel safe, protected, and to feel joy (inner peace) in our home. 

We had a family council at Chuck E Cheese on the Monday (It was torture for the boys to have to wait to use their tokens!) and we found out we all disliked the same things about our family (just from different perspectives). I promised the boys I would go to sleep earlier so I can be more patient. They are currently working on incentive charts of not bullying (B.) and not whining (A.) We're only on day 2 (as of 23 Feb), but it seems to be helping so far. Wow, it's hard to change ingrained habits. 

M&M obedience training has been helping too and I probably need to start that up again (Benjamin obeys the first time more than ever before and I'm doing a lot less counting)... but for now we'll focus on the bullying.

Ryan and I are also trying to use the Taoist philosophy of Wu Wei. Ryan explains it as being like water flowing... Not getting crazy when our kids are crazy... Not taking things too seriously... And not getting upset about things that don't really matter. We want to teach our children to use their agency and not just be acted upon, or directed, or told, "YOU WILL OBEY!"... We really can't control their actions (just give consequences), so why pretend we do?!