The Cabin and Eliza's New Tricks and Other Big News

This last weekend was a lot of fun. We went up to a cabin in Huntsville, UT. Johnny loved it there. He saw horses and water and fire and ate s'mores and hot dogs and chips, it was a dream trip for him.

We got there on Friday afternoon and moved our stuff into one of the bedrooms then we went for a little walk to the barn that they had on the property. On the way there was a little stream that went through the property, and Johnny had fun just throwing rocks into it. He didn't want to leave it. Then we took him across the street so he could see some horses, which he liked as long as we kept our distance from them.

That night, we built a fire in the backyard and had an old fashioned wienie roast. It was delicious. Then we roasted marshmallows and had s'mores. Johnny liked that as well. The next day, it was kind of rainy in the morning, which disappointed us because we had planned to go canoeing that afternoon. In the morning we went over to David O. McKay's childhood home. We signed to Johnny that it was a prophet's house, and he thought that was really cool. He has been obsessed with prophets lately, so it was really neat.

After lunch on Saturday, it cleared up quite a bit, and we were able to go canoeing. We drove down to a little reservoir and took the canoe and kayak down to the water

and everyone took turns going out in the water. Johnny loved being on the canoe with us. He thought it was great because he was on a boat on the water. He was mad when we had to leave.

We left the next day after church, and after we almost caught the cabin on fire when we cooked some pizza. All in all it was a great little getaway.

Now for Eliza's new tricks. She has been spending more and more time on two feet instead of on all fours. She has even started taking steps. Today, while I was at work, she walked across the living room. It is amazing to watch her. She'll be sitting on the floor, then she'll get herself up and start walking, just like that. Pretty soon she is going to be chasing Johnny

down the hall. It is funny to watch her, she always gets so proud of herself when she walks, and looks around, and waits for us to clap for her, and then she claps for herself. It's fun.

The last part is our big news. We are excited to announce that our little family of four will soon be a family of five. It is a little sooner than expected, but we are excited nonetheless about the addition of another baby to our family.

Wonder Woman

When I was younger, there was only one thing I really wanted to be: Superman. Unfortunately, I can't fly, I don't have super strength, and I've never tried, but I'm pretty sure I'm not bulletproof. Not to mention my physique, which is not exactly super. Maybe I didn't grow up to be Superman, but I got close, because I married Wonder Woman. For those of you who read this and know Erica, you know what I'm talking about, or you at least have an idea. For those of you who don't know Erica, you're missing out.

Why is Erica so awesome? Where do I start? The world has it's own ideas about what makes a "wonder woman". This is a picture of perfection- the ultimate career woman who is also the ultimate soccer mom, who also keeps a perfect house, whose kids are just perfect, and through all of this her make up stays perfect and not a hair is out of place. This is not reality. The sad thing is that the world is missing out because the reality is so much better.

Erica does not have a career. She gave that up, by choice for her kids. Our house may not always be perfect, and neither are our kids. My wife doesn't have to worry about her make up smearing, because she is more beautiful without it, than she ever could be with, and fortunately for her, her hair looks great no matter what. So apparently. she does not fir the world's perception of perfection.

Let me tell what she does do. Last year, our world changed forever. In some ways we were planning on this, since we were expecting another child, which always changes things. What we were not planning on was being catapulted into a whole new cultural world. Our world was broadened and changed when we found out that Eliza was moderately deaf, and then a couple of months later, we found out Johnny was profoundly deaf. Erica, up to this point had no experience with deaf kids. She did not know a lick of sign language. She knew nothing about deaf culture, and had never imagined raising a deaf child, let alone two. This could have been enough for anyone to start questioning why things happen the way they do. As much as i would like to deny it, it was easy at first to see this as a trial and a challenge, a tragedy. Erica never did. She knew it would be hard, but she knew that raising kids would be hard. She seemed to realize from the beginning that this was not a tragedy, but a blessing. Through it, she has brought our family closer together, and has had nothing but love for our kids all the time. She has loved them unconditionally. How fortunate my kids are to have her as a mother, someone who will help them find strength in who they are, focus on being able, not disabled. She has grounded me in the knowledge that our kids are the most wonderful kids in the world. It has gotten to the point that we would be a little disappointed if our next kid was not deaf.

Besides all of this, Erica has been a wonderful mother. Our house may not be perfect, because Erica puts a priority on spending her time with the kids. She seeks out different activities to help the kids experience new and different things. She has shown me nothing but love, and has made my life worth living. She is always willing to pull me back down when need be and help me stay grounded, whether that is financially or whatever.

Erica is one of my heroes, and right now, I feel like she needs to now that, and I want others to know that. Sometimes, we get to caught up in what we are not doing right, and miss all the things that we do really well. I don't want this to be the case for Erica, because she does so many things, so well. I love her, and I look forward to our eternity together.