tautphaus park

i just have to say real quick, i could not have been more impressed with tautphaus park in idaho falls.

literally 8 minutes from the hills & here lies the cutest, cleanest, best equipped little zoo right in the middle of a big park. & they didn't just have a few ducks & sheep. no, no, no: snow leopards & lynx & reptiles & penguins & sloth bears (the best to sit & watch) & huge lions & a baby zebra & a dozen different monkeys. yet small enough to easily get from one exhibit to another. it was just perfect! 10 out of 10!

elles-a-belle likes snakes in books for some reason & after seeing them first, hissing was primarily the only noise we could get out of her the whole trip.

that is until the boys took her over to the neighbors & she decided to roar at their kitty. nice.

  

ellery's favorite part (& my least) was the petting zoo. child had no fear!

okay but i will admit the teeny tiny baby goats were precious.
& the purell station just outside the gate was much appreciated.

we should all have a little tautphaus zoo in our backyard. the end.

u.s. packaging

they package it at a factory somewhere.

they throw it on a truck & stock it on a shelf. i pick it up & take it home. yes, i pay first.

then i have to rip/tear/cut/use my teeth/crack a fingernail to open it. i marvel at how impossible it all is, kitchen shears in sore hand. then my hippy comes out: it's so incredibly wasteful!

humor me for a second; wouldn't it actually be cheaper to let a few pick pocketers have an easier time smuggling it out of the store rather than pay seemingly $billions$ to make opening a dvd a 20 minute process? cut your losses! pick your battles people! what am i missing here?!

then just when i think i'm home free, i see it: a warning label, a sticker, tape, you name it. the paste gets stuck every which direction, the top layer mainly tears off, losing all corner leverage that might have sped up the process, & i am left painstackingly scrapping at adhesive gum with my nails.

then it all clicks. of course! it's a goo gone conspiracy!!

i swear i don't know how a household goes without it unless they are content to have tacky surfaces & wadded paper remains on every item in the home.

so next time you open something & the sticker pulls clean off & you take a victory lap (i know you do!) take note: that company is 'sticking' it to the man.

grandpa var

my first contact with the mr.'s family was grandma & grandpa var. well that's what i always called them but i guess it's grandma & grandpa rosenbaum to everyone else. we'd drive up to payson for the band stand or to help with yard work or for onion day parades & carnivals.

most times austin would be outside doing chores/errands and i would stay inside & visit with his grandparents. austin would get jealous because they would tell me some amazing, personal stories that he had never heard himself. they talked about 'the accident' & how var had not walked unassisted for 45 years. they were both genuinely positive & considered themselves so lucky. i got to know them quite well & was always welcome there.

they came all the way up to idaho falls for our reception there.

i really have a soft spot for grandpa var. austin used to tease me that i had a crush on him. everytime we'd leave them i'd rave 'he is SO cool!!' haha. he has such a sense of humor & always makes me laugh. my favorite is when he's super blunt about things, cracks me up. :) i know he technically isn't but i feel like he is my grandfather too.

here he is meeting ellery for the first time. she loved both he and afton.

last week, we were all thrilled/surprised & now so grateful that they could come up for logan's homecoming. uncle rand gave ellery a ride in grandpa's new chair. :)

it's hard for me to look at this picture now, taken exactly a week before he so unexpectedly left us. var will be missed.

austin & i have never lost anyone before, really. it's unfamiliar, melancholy territory. i have some amazing examples in my life & var rosenbaum was one of them. such an impressive, funny, strong man. i feel almost unseemly for mourning his passing. this is just my short experience with a man that was important to many.

but he had an affect on me. & i feel for those closest to him. his darling wife & my sweet mother-in-law & my austin. & i feel for the gap he will leave.

we are so glad to know where he is. & that he is sad to leave us but happy for what lies ahead.

hemispheres

aust got a computer game. that only works on our desktop. like i've bragged about before, our tv is hooked up to our desktop.

well i'm not bragging now. teach me to be cheeky.

so i've read & finished david copperfield this week (wonderful, sad, charming book) & baked & cleaned & last night read my real simple magazine cover to cover (a gift from the MIL). the whole issue was about organizing your life, a favorite topic of mine. it talked all about organizing to your personality, left-brained or right-brained.

i took the quiz. & hated every right-brained idea they had.

wait what?! i'm LEFT brained?!?!

no, no, no. i know plenty of lefters & i am not one of them. austin's left. i am not left.

sure, my desk & bathroom & cupboards & filing cabinet are pristine. & my disney dvd's are in psychotic date of release order. but my closet is usually a wreck! & i have majorly eclectic, colorfully offensive taste. i'm pretty creative & definitely random. i move our furniture monthly. i hardly ever have set plans & don't care when people change their mind on me. but my gas tank is never close to empty. & i meal plan. & my pictures are perfectly organized & backed up. eww & i can't have more than one window open on the computer.

why am i fighting this?

whether it's concrete processing or holistic or linear or intuitive or logical, i think everyone is both. yet i kept leaning left....

the mr. swears that i am the most down the middle person he has ever known. a clear 50/50. then patronized me with, 'i've got it! you have both halves of a brain! i knew it!". hmmmph.

after an hour of talking austin's ear off & looking up different articles online, i realized something.

obsessing kinda makes me left-brained, doesn't it?

shows what they know. time to find out what color i am.

elder logi bear

austin has some amazing brothers. so do i actually but this is about logan bob.

this is after he shaved off just the top of his head. he looked like such an old man for an afternoon. he'd tip his hat to people & get quite the reaction. 'top of the mornin' to ya!'

once upon a time (2 years ago) he left for a mission for the LDS church to birmingham, england. we have missed him terribly. we missed talking to him about school & girls & feeding him sunday dinner & going to football games & popping his skin & watching joe dirt a billion times.

we read his letters every week & prayed for him endlessly. he left the weekend we found out we were expecting. elles-a-belle is 16 months old today. & i'm 6 1/2 along with numero dos. 2 years is a long time!

he's a right proper chap & it was SO fun have him home & for them to meet

& become quick friends.

& all the hill boys were together again.

awwwwwwwwww.

the end.

how to get away

step one: have a reason to leave. like a friend recently home from a mission or a whole group of friends you love to death & rarely see or the impending doom of having two under two & wanting a get away with the husby or going someplace awesome or if you really need an extra push: all of the above.

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step two: leave this behind.

step two proved ominous. ellery didn't think so. neither did her papa bear. her grandparents watching her for the weekend didn't think so either. just me. but i was brave! really i was!

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step three: know that what you're leaving behind will be taken care of. see here. request ridiculous amounts of updates as your only possibility for sanity.

a big thanks to mom & dad hodgman & family back home! i think i got two pics on the way to the airport alone. :)

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step four: have a good time, eat good food, see the sights, & don't let mr. hill gamble too much.

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step five (optional): to stay extra busy have A leave early for a work trip to florida. for good measure, K runs home to pick up the kid & we'll meet in idaho...

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