Olsen Family Thanksgiving Break

We spent a fun Thanksgiving with the Olsen Family in Utah this year. Cal was so excited to see his Grandma & Grandpa and his cousins, he got his suitcase out and packed (the essentials--all toys) almost a week before our flight.

We flew right into Provo, and boy was it cold in Utah! Luckily, Cal had his wool hat and mittens that Aunt Heather had knit him.

The boys had such a fun time together. They are both getting to the age where they play well and really enjoy each other's company. It was sweet to watch. 

One of the days, we all met up at the new Scheels sporting goods store so we could ride the indoor ferris wheel (yes, you read that correctly -- land is so inexpensive in Utah that you can build a store large enough to house an indoor ferris wheel).

There are so many fun activities in Utah at Christmas time! We also took the boys to see a small display of gingerbread houses, which they loved. Each of us got to vote on our favorite.

Cal took this picture of two houses that he really liked:

Even better, we were surprised to discover that the rest of the building was basically an awesome children's museum about the history of Utah. There were so many cute hands-on exhibits for the boys, including a house with a table and a kitchen, a yard where they could fish, milk cows, and hang laundry from clothespins, and a grocery store with hundreds of moveable food items.

The boys loved it, and so did the parents! It was fun to see them imagine, and to play with them.

Thanksgiving was filled with food preparation, the Macy's parade, and the Westminster Dog Show, which I insisted on watching. Cal helped Grandma make her famous rolls:

And of course, we all made ginger snap cookies (Cal was shirtless at this point, nbd).

Grandma Rosemary brought a fun activity with her. On a long scroll of paper, we each drew pictures of what we were grateful for. Then, after dinner, the boys got to present it to us by scrolling through the drawings. They were so excited about it, so we got the show several times.

The day after thanksgiving, Reed and I dashed off to Boston, leaving Cal to spend some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa. We are so grateful that they are so good to him. He absolutely loves his grandparents.

Reed at I flew back early Sunday morning, and we all went to church together. It's always a treat to see the Christmas decorations in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I got some extra time to enjoy them, since my RLS had me walking the halls during sacrament meeting.

We had some delays with our homebound Allegiant flight, but eventually we made it back to California, safe and sound.

This year, we are grateful for our wonderful family and friends, good health, Reed's wonderful job, and the new baby that will be joining us in January. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Reed's High School Reunion

Our second night in Boston, we went to Reed's 10-year reunion. One never truly knows what to expect, but we had a surprisingly great time. They had a great turnout -- more than 50%, I think -- and it was so fun for me to finally put faces to the names I've heard about over the past decade. 

Reed had a very positive high school experience, so I think it was fun for him to reconnect with some of these great people from Boston.

I am very proud of Reed. He has accomplished a lot in the past decade: serving a mission in Brazil, graduating with his Bachelor's and Master's degrees, landing his dream job at Apple, getting married and starting a family (not to mention leading said family with courage and love!), traveling to India, Dubai, Germany, England, and New York… he really has accomplished so much in the last ten years.

Here's to the next ten! So glad I threw my lot in with this guy.  :)

Boston Trip

We had a vacation within a vacation this year! Early Friday morning we hopped on yet another plane, this time bound for Boston. It was a very quick trip, but we squeezed in a lot of meaningful activities. Just after we arrived, we drove out to the LDS temple and did work for Reed's ancestors. It was my first time doing sealings -- what a beautiful ordinance. We caught the last endowment session of the night, too. 

The next morning we hopped in our little rental car and drove out to visit Reed's cousin Jeff and his family. Just as we pulled up in front of their home, I hit the curb and popped our tire. (Ironically, we had just been joking about how aggressively the guy at the rental counter had tried to up-sell us on the insurance.) Reed and I just sat in the car staring at one another in shock as the tire let out a prolonged squeal, like the air leaking out of a balloon.

Thankfully, we had a maintenance number to call, and plenty of fun activities to distract us while the tire was switched out. It started with a lovely brunch of waffles, bacon, and homemade maple syrup with Jeff & Saydi and their awesome kids. It was so fun getting to hear about the goings and comings of the Shumway kids. Next, we set out to hunt for a Christmas tree! Saydi led the caravan to an awesome tree farm up north.

The drive was amazing. Massachusetts really did not get the short end of the stick when it comes to natural beauty. It was cold when we reached the tree farm. I've never had the experience of sawing down my own tree, but Reed took his turn along with the kids, and soon we were hauling our conquest via bobsled over to the tractor-trailor for a ride back down the hill to our car.

We ended our outing with popcorn & hot cocoa in front of the fireplace while Christmas music played. Perfect! It was a brief visit, but a wonderful one. I'm so glad we got the chance to check in with the Boston Shumways. Thanks for a fun (and incredibly merry) day, guys!

Family History Love

Something people might not know about me? I am a family history nut. I got interested in genealogy when we moved here -- a time when I had few friends and needed a serious hobby to keep myself sane. I'm happy to say that the hobby has turned into a pretty fruitful passion that will last the rest of my life. 

One of the things that has always held me back from getting involved in my family's genealogy was the assumption that all the work has already been done. Both my grandmothers are wonderful genealogists and family historians, and they've been working on our lines for years -- what hope do I have of making any difference?

The starting point for me was the realization that Reed's father's line was largely untouched. Richard is convert, so there are only a few people working on specific branches of the tree. I decided to start there, because it felt like a blank canvas. It was also easier to learn how to find sources, because I was working with more recent (20th- and 19th-century) census records. When I called Richard to ask a couple questions, it lit a fire under him. We both started searching, finding, and entering names. On a trip to Utah, we ended up scanning boxes of family records that had been in his possession for a while. He had been working hard on his line since I'd talked to him, and showed me this:

Look at that family tree! We looked at all the names, and decided where there were holes and where each of us would search. It led us both to interesting avenues of searching, including making letters to historical clubs in tiny rural towns in the south (no email).

Richard has even made trips to the sites himself, which is invaluable, since lots of the records we need are not digitized -- they're just in a storage room at the county office (a tiny building on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere). The search has yielded precious fruit. We've found photos, records, letters, graves, and even living relatives with memories of those we're searching for. Richard, Mr. Likeable himself, cold called distant Olsen relatives and was recounted a priceless oral history of August Olsen, the first Olsen of his line to come to America from Sweden. 

And after years of searching into Reed's paternal line, I've looked at mine, and realized that it has mistakes and holes. It was wonderful learning how to do genealogy with Richard's line, and I feel like I have a much higher level of discernment now, which I need, since being what I call a "proof-reading genealogist" is pretty nuanced and tricky. It has been wonderfully rewarding, though, to know that I am contributing to the accuracy and completeness of my own family line. I also appreciate the church's new family history system (familysearch.com) so much. The fact that we are all working on one live document feels so much more efficient that duplicating work privately and without connection. It is completely inspired, and makes me feel like my efforts make a cosmic difference.

I've also tried to make family history real in the here and now for my family. Cal had a cultural celebration at his preschool this year, where they asked each student to bring a dish from his country. I had him bring rosenmunnar (red lips) cookies, a traditional Swedish treat. The teachers loved it -- we are one of the only scandinavian-descent families, so we felt exotic amid all the other nationalities represented. What an awesome activity for all the children.

When we were in Boston, Reed and I took Olsen family names to the temple and did their work. It is so beautiful to feel connected to these people through ordinances. Names that need work from MY family tree are rare, but I have found three that need all the work done. I've mailed them around to my siblings, because I want us all to participate in the work. Family history binds us not only to our ancestors, but to each other, too. And as one of my local heroes, Julie Nef, said in ward conference a few years ago, doing the work for our ancestors frees them to bless our lives here on Earth.

I love that. I love genealogy, and I love how it transforms my heart.

Radiolab and Mahler

Recently, Reed's been listening to the Radiolab podcasts. He has slowly introduced me to the show, and we both love it.  Reed found out that they were coming to do a live show at our local college, and at the last minute, we finally bit the bullet and bought tickets.

I had my doubts about how a radio show would translate into a satisfying visual experience, but they pulled it off! The first half was about a new theory of dinosaur extinction, and the visual elements did not disappoint. Several huge puppets made their way onto the stage…

...and the set was equipped with huge screens that projected demonstrations of small-scale physics experiments, all of which illustrated the plausibility of the new extinction theory. It was completely fascinating!

It was refreshing to attend a show where the presenters assumed we knew what they were talking about.  The audience was really responsive, and I had this moment where I just sighed contentedly and thought, "These are our people!"

And lest you think, "But what about the right side of the brain?", check out what was waiting for us only two nights later: The Stanford University student symphony, playing Mahler's 2nd.

This was my first concert in the brand new Bing concert hall at Stanford, at it was not a disappointment.  The space was beautifully designed, with perfect acoustics.  We will be making it a goal to return to concerts there as often as we can. We even got to enjoy a cup of cayenne cocoa with our friends afterward at a Venezuelan coffee shop downtown. And again, there was that feeling: "These are our people." 

With everything it has to offer, Silicon Valley is turning out to be a fantastic place for us.

Happy Halloween!

Cal loved trick-or-treating with a little group of his friends this year. We went around to about two blocks' worth of houses, with Cal eating his candy at nearly the rate of receiving it. As you can see from his full mouth, the candy consumption didn't stop once we were back at the house.

Happy Halloween from the Olsens!

Shots. Ouch. :(

Welp, I've done it. I looked the four-year-old vaccine schedule in the eye and conquered it. Well…maybe "conquered" isn't the right word. "Submitted to" and "lived through" might be more appropriate. I have always tried to tell Cal the truth about things like shots, because it's really important to me that he trust me, so when we went to the pediatrician's office and he asked me, "Is she going to give me a shot?" I bit my lip and answered truthfully, "Yes."

I feel strongly about being honest with him, but getting shots was a really hard ordeal for the both of us. I had to hold him so he didn't wiggle, and he cried and cried; the poor thing got 4 shots that day -- two in each arm. If there was any way I could've gotten the shots in his place, I would've. It's hard to see your kids go through that, but I really believe immunizations are crucial.

After he calmed down (which was not a brief period of time), we went to get his hearing and vision checked, which was adorable and hilarious. Here are a few shots from that little experiment. 

After even more time recovering and asking the nurses questions, we finally left the hospital, and headed to Kara's cupcakes for a good-job-getting-shots treat. (Incidentally, Cal got a LOT of treats that day. I started making a lot of promises when the needles came in on that nurse's tray!)

The little guy deserved the treats. His arms were very sore for nearly four days, and I kept accidentally taking him by the shoulder or lifting him up to the counter or into his carseat by his forearms. He'd give this desperate squeal of pain and then start crying. I felt terrible every time! :(

It was definitely a difficult week for the two of us, but we made it through, and I'm proud of us both!