Dastrup Family Reunion

The first annual Max and Claudia Dastrup Family Reunion was a rockin' party. There were some nail-biting soccer games...


some wicked noodle ball...


wild water events...


the Family Olympic Games...


heavenly music, and many other awesome activities not pictured here
such as a hike to Stewart Falls (which we are proud to claim as our first full successful hike as a family, although Jacob did require a shoulder ride from Brigham nearly the entire 2 miles back and my shoulders were about to fall off from carrying Ty in our Kelty).

Ty survived being pushed into our 6-foot window well and then hosed down by a well-meaning cousin ("I was just trying to help him get down!") with only minor scrapes and bruises, so all in all, the reunion was a huge success!

Fourth Festivities

It's nice to live in a place where the Fourth of July is celebrated as it should be again. (I was always bummed that there was not a parade to be found in Albuquerque except on Cinco de Mayo-- causing Brigham to exclaim, "What country is this, anyways?") We had a couple of days of celebration, thanks to the holiday falling on a Sunday. On the third we got to enjoy Sandy city's celebration-- bouncy castles, police K-9 demonstrations, booths, etc. with Grandma and Grandpa Dastrup and cousins, and that evening we attended the Sandy parade. It was really fun to watch our boys during the whole thing. For Jacob it was definitely a love/hate relationship. All of the firetrucks and vehicles were fascinating, but the loud sirens were just too much. Both he and Ty felt like they needed my lap to be secure, causing somewhat of a commotion since I only have one lap. Monday was Provo's celebration, and we enjoyed the parade with the Dastrups (thanks to Grandma and Grandpa who went at 5:30 am to save us a good spot!) and then a BBQ, kiddie pool, and fireworks with the Gronemans. How fun to be able to celebrate with family once again! Happy birthday, America!

Settling In

I have been chastised for not blogging much in the last couple of months. There just always seems to be something more pressing to do-- laundry(currently there are 4 clean batches getting wrinkled up in the laundry basket), weeds to pull, bathrooms to clean (FOUR of them!), etc. This new home is wonderful, but it does require a lot more work, so the blog falls by the wayside. Here is a quick recap of what's been going on.

First of all, we've been loving having family around and have been doing many fun things with both sides. There have been cousin parties, a trip to the zoo with Uncle Brett and Aunt Katie, Thanksgiving Point farm, Wheeler Farm, the highland splash park, and many other get-togethers with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. It's been awesome.

Benjamin loves playing with his cousins as often as possible, and he has made a couple of friends in the neighborhood, though he is still too shy to go ask if they can play. He has been reading up a storm and will be starting swimming lessons on Tuesday (wish him luck-- he's been nervous around water all of his life!).

Jacob has started his summer school program and seems to enjoy it from what we can tell. He's started becoming more vocal in the last couple of weeks and is experimenting with sounds such as "na na na". It's very exciting for me to hear his voice, even if he isn't saying words. I pray that maybe this will encourage him to become more verbal!

Ty is still a crazy kid who has no sense of his own mortality. He's almost constantly putting himself in danger-- running down slides, dancing on the table or his high chair, running in front of swings, etc. He's started becoming more verbal, too. He loves calling to me, "Mama!" and when I answer he says "Okay." Then we repeat that exchange about 50 times in a row. He also asks, "Where is it?" and "-K go? (Where did my milk go?)" He LOVES to draw and will tell on himself for drawing somewhere he shouldn't by saying, "Uh-oh!" when he does it. He never walks anywhere-- his little legs always move as fast as they can. He's completely adorable!

Brigham and I went down to Albuquerque one last time last weekend for Brigham's graduation and his last shift as a resident. His graduation was a very kicked-back affair, but it was good to be there and say goodbye to our friends and Brigham's collegues. Brigham has worked several shifts at his new job and was pleased to find that his fear of not having as many patients couldn't be less founded. His shifts are crazy busy, but he is learning the ropes and figuring the new system out.

Although we are not completely unpacked yet, this beautiful house is starting to feel like home to me. Life is good!

Crazy I Guess

This past weekend was the Wasatch Back Relay-- a 188 mile (although it ended up being almost 190 miles due to a surprise detour) race up and down the mountains from Logan to Park City. Brigham and I ran this crazy race with six of our best friends from Baltimore, and despite only 2 hours of sleep in the almost 28 hours it took us to finish the race, it was awesome! It was definitely hard-- we started at 1:30 pm and ran in the heat, ran all night long in the pitch dark with only little headlamps, up steep mountains and down steep roads. Each runner had at least one leg that made everyone else glad that they were not running it. But unlike most teams who had 12 runners to spread the joy around to, we only had 8. That meant we each had to pick up some extra legs. But it was a surprisingly good time! Cheering for the other runners on our team (the Fantastic Four Couples) and supporting them through difficult sections of their runs was really cool. Each of our team members did an awesome job-- even though it was a tough run and we had to pick up extra legs. Brigham ran like an animal (his second leg was uphill on an unpaved road in the heat of the day, smothering in all of the dust from the support vehicles) but unfortunately on second to last run, something tore in his leg. He managed to limp/run to the exchange point, but after that we all knew he was done. I picked up his last leg for him, which fortunately was only a flat 3-miler. The run that earned my place on the team was an 8 mile run up a mountain at 2 am about 35 minutes after my previous 4 mile leg. Our team finished in just under 28 hours, and we took 38th place in our division of about 656 teams-- which put us in the top 5% of teams. We are quite proud of that-- especially since the other teams had 12 people instead of 8! It was a great memory-making experience and a wonderful way to strengthen our bond with our friends. Even though I was dreading it for over a year, I'm glad that we did it!

Utahans Once Again

After seven years, the prodigals have returned to Utah! Those were seven very challenging years, but they were also wonderful. I loved meeting such amazing people and exploring the different cultures. We've picked up things in both Baltimore and Albuquerque that are now a part our daily lives (Old Bay seasoning and green chilies for example). We've made lifelong friends and seen a lot of neat places. But we are glad to be home. How great it is to have family around! I want to thank everyone who helped us with our move, but I especially want to give a shout out to my parents and brothers Chad and Brett who all took almost a whole week off of work to come down and help us move out of ABQ and move into our new house. They were awesome and amazing. I shudder to think of how long it would have taken us to do all of that by ourselves!

Brigham is back in New Mexico finishing up his residency, but the boys and I are official Utahans. The work around here never ends, but it is so awesome to live in such a beautiful house in such a great area! And I've never felt so welcomed to a new place! We've already met all of our surrounding neighbors, and they are all SO nice. Benjamin has made friends with a couple of the neighborhood kids but is too shy to go over to ask if they can play, so he waits for them to come out. It also turns out that this is "the place" to be for special needs programs-- that people move here just to get the programs. Everything has fallen into place so beautifully, and we just couldn't be happier unless Brigham were here. For so many years I've wondered if it could all be worth it, and I'm pleased to say that the answer is YES!

Jacob's Talent Show

This week Jacob's school put on a talent show, and Jacob's class was in it. They have what they call their "Fourth Grade Buddies"-- a class of 4th graders who comes into their class once every couple of weeks or so to play with them, and they helped Jacob and his class do the show. Brigham and I cried through it (I know, I know-- I've been bawling a lot lately), though neither one of us can tell you exactly why. For me it was mostly two things: 1. There was my Jacob up on the stage like any other kid! 2. There was a fourth grader kneeling behind him, helping him to do the actions, and losing her moment in the sun to give him one. I think Jacob's teacher has been so inspired on so many occasions. How brilliant to give these preschoolers with difficulties fourth grade buddies to look out for them at school! Anyway, we loved the show and hope you will too.(I had to let it buffer a lot to get it to play.) Click here to see Jacob in "The World's Greatest"

Home Owners for the First Time!

It's official! That beautiful home that I've been dreaming about for the last two months is now ours! We couldn't be more excited to move in and start our new life.

We want to thank everyone who has helped us throughout this whole process. A BIG thank you goes to Dad Dastrup who has had to put up with a lot from us as his pickiest and most opinionated clients ever. Thank you so much for helping us make this dream a reality! We also want to thank Mom Dastrup for all of her help in the home search as well. We know you put in long hours on our behalf too-- THANK YOU! A huge thanks goes out to Mom and Dad Groneman as well for babysitting for days on end while we searched for the perfect home and for doing our walk through.

There are others who have helped us with a down payment. You know who you are. THANK YOU. You've made our dream come true!

Now let the happily ever after begin!