A Night Out with Coldplay

Four years ago last month, I went to see one of my favorite bands, Coldplay, for the first time with my brother, Brent, and his two girls who are also huge fans.  It was an amazing performance and one of the funnest nights of my mothering life.  With those fond memories, I knew that I would jump at the opportunity to see Coldplay in concert again if they ever made their way back to Seattle.  Last month, I just happened to walk into my bedroom while the television was on right when a commercial was advertising Coldplay's return to Seattle.  Needless to say, I stopped right in my tracks!  I couldn't believe that they were coming back to town and in just five weeks.  I immediately texted my brother to see if he and Sarah (his one remaining daughter who lives at home) were interested in joining me.  Within a matter of hours, I learned that he and Sarah could not come due to some commitments that weekend, BUT that his other kids, Spencer and Kelsey, and Spencer's wife, Hannah, all wanted to fly up from Utah and Idaho to join me.  I couldn't believe it!  Spencer was serving his mission in Taiwan four years ago and missed our first concert and Kelsey, who had been a senior in high school and who had come out with Brent, had loved it so much that she wanted to go again.  Although I was disappointed that Brent wouldn't be joining us, I was still so grateful that my fun niece and nephew and his wife were willing to make the flight up here to join me.

Fast forward five weeks and the night arrived last night!  I met the three of them at the Seattle Temple (since they were staying at my parent's house) and drove all four of us out to Seattle to see Coldplay in the brand new, Climate Pledge Arena that had just opened up this past week.  We were the second venue to be hosted in this beautiful, state-of-the-art arena that only holds 17,000 people.  After an early start at 6 p.m. with the opening band playing, we were so surprised to see Coldplay walk out onto the stage at 7:08!  This is unheard of for the main act!  Regardless, the tired and exhausted momma in me was so grateful to be starting the concert this early in the evening.  We then danced and sang our hearts out for the next 1.5 hours as our favorite guy, Chris Martin, and the rest of his band thoroughly entertained us.  Although I wished that the concert had lasted a little longer, it was so fun to just forget about all of my worries and stresses for the evening and act like I was twenty again with my 20-something niece and nephew at my side.  When we were all dancing to "A Sky Full of Stars," I just looked around the stadium at all the dancing lights (from the glowing wristbands that everyone was wearing) and thought about how wonderful it was that every person in this arena was just happy and having a good time and getting along with each other for those few minutes in time.  And that seems to be a rare thing these days!

Spencer, Hannah, Kelsey, and me outside the Climate Pledge Arena.

Standing with my beloved niece and nephew with the Space Needle in the background.

All four of us standing in front of the awesome sign that greeted us as we walked into the arena.

A close-up of the sign with the Seattle Skyline beneath the concert logo.

The four of us waiting for the show to begin from our seats.

The stadium all lit up by the glowing wristbands after the band walked onto stage.

Another shot of all of the beautiful colors that changed throughout the night.

A purple glow throughout the arena and on the stage.

Our wristbands all lit up!

A close-up of Chris Martin singing from one of the hanging screens in the arena.

And, although this was tonight instead of last night, I just had to include this picture, too.  Since Spencer served his mission in Taiwan, Ron and I have wanted to take him to this Taiwanese restaurant in Southcenter for years.  It is simply amazing and almost changes your life when you eat there for the first time!  So we were so excited that the three of them were able to join us for dinner the night after the concert.  We ate dumplings and other Taiwanese delicacies for almost two hours and it was amazing!

A Columbus Day Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

For the first time ever, our school district had Columbus Day off.  Since our Saturdays are so busy right now with two soccer games every week and since this holiday was forecasted to be a sunny day, I asked Ron if it was okay if I took the kids to the pumpkin patch without him this year.  Since he is so exhausted from work right now, he was happy to let us go without him to free up some time on one of his precious Saturdays this month and let us go without him.  After taking Trenton home with us last night after spending the evening at Chris' house to celebrate his 50th birthday (yikes!), he was able to join us on our outing this morning.  I decided to take the kids back to Knutson Farms this year after enjoying it so much as a family last October.  The five kids and I had a great time wandering around this wonderful farm for over two hours taking advantage of all of the fun activities they have to offer.  It was so fun to watch Emmett enjoy everything along side his older siblings and cousin.  At the end, we picked out our pumpkins and headed back to the car with muddy feet and smiles on our faces!  Here are some pictures of our morning at the farm...

Ella, Logan, Trenton, Lia, and Emmett posing around the trailer at the entrance of the farm.

Mom and kiddos pose for a group photo before heading into the farm.

All five children ready to go have some fun!

Emmy and Ellie posing around the travel sign post.

How tall this fall?  Emmett at 2.5 years old.

Ella at 7.5 years old.

Logan at 9.5 years old.

Lia at 13.5 years old.

First stop: the awesome sand boxes to play with some trucks and scoopers.

Next stop:  the cornhole game!  Logan getting ready to throw his bean bag.

Ella winding up to throw her bean bag.

We then wandered over to catch a ride on the cattle train.  Here are Logan and Trenton ready to take off.

Ella, Lia, and Logan waiting for the tractor to pull them away.

The gang posing in front of the massive lines of pumpkins for sale.  Since we were there in the morning, we were able to take this picture with NO one in the field.  Amazing!

Next stop:  Tricycle races.  Emmett and Ella LOVED this!

All five kids posing for a photo inside the barn.

Mama and her four kids.

After looking at the animals in the barn, we headed over to the massive corn maze where we spent several minutes wandering around.

Emmett running through the maze trying to keep up with the bigger kids.

Emmett chasing after Lia and Logan.

We went from the corn maze over to the hay maze.  Here is Ella striking a pose on top of some bales of hay.

Logan doing the same.

Emmett in the maze.

The kids enjoyed quite a bit of time at the duck races at the end of our morning.

Ella and Lia racing against each other.

Emmett sending his ducks down the gutter.

Ella, Emmett, and Lia posing in the truck cut-out.  Logan and Trenton were still too busy racing ducks to join the other kids in this picture.

The gang posing around the wheelbarrow after picking out our pumpkins.

A close-up of my darling, two-year old pumpkin with his sister behind him!

One Week Down!

As the youngest of four children, Emmett has always thought that he can do everything and anything his older siblings can do.  Ever since he was about 1.5 years old, Emmett has wanted to just be a part of the "group" and to keep up with his older brother and sisters.  Although I have known this about Emmett's personality for quite some time now, it never dawned on me that this mentality would also apply to potty training.  Since Emmett is a boy, I naturally assumed that he would be like his older brother and be forced into potty training kicking and screaming some time after his third birthday.  So it came as a total surprise when he sat down on the potty chair (that I have kept in our powder bathroom for years) back in April and went #1 with zero encouragement from any of us.  Since he was barely 2 and 1/3 years old, I was totally blown away by this!  However, since Lia and I were leaving on our big trip to NYC and DC a few days later, I knew that there was no way that I would start potting training him at that time.  So, I told myself that I would attempt to potty train him some time after I returned home.  After getting back from this trip, I still had almost two months left of homeschooling before summer started and I was just too exhausted, stressed out, and overwhelmed to take on this task.  And once school got out, our busy summer full of activities, day trips, and vacations started which is not the ideal time to potty train either.  So although Emmett would continue to go pee pee in the toilet whenever he felt like it or whenever I mentioned it (which usually was once or twice a week), I told myself that I didn't need to start training him until after summer ended. 

After the children went back to school on September 2nd, Ron decided to take the three older kids camping a few days later for one night over Labor Day weekend.  While they were all gone, I decided that this would be a good time to start potty training Emmett since it was just the two of us.  After having a large accident with #1 one time and #2 another time, I threw in the towel.  I was still just too exhausted from our very busy summer to deal with constantly cleaning up messes.  I told myself that we would revisit this all again in a few weeks.  Although I still was not really ready to face it again, Emmett and I came home last Monday after he had spent the morning at a friend's house while I was at a physical therapy appointment for my back.  After we got home, Emmett started complaining about wearing his very wet diaper (which he has done several times over the past few weeks).  Before I had the chance to change it, Emmett took off his pants and his wet diaper and asked to put on his underwear.  I just couldn't believe it!  He was so tired of waiting for me to make this all happen that he decided to do it himself--at 2.5 years old!  After realizing that there was no turning back, I quickly put on a pair of his underwear that I had bought last Spring and decided to commit myself to making this happen.  And I am happy to report a week later that Emmett (and me) are still going strong.  He has gone pee pee in the potty several times a day every day since then and has only had a few, little accidents.  In addition, he has woken up from his nap every day and even most mornings totally dry!  Although Emmett hasn't begun to master going #2 in the toilet, I have learned to not worry as this has always been a separate process for all of my older children.  So, with #2 set aside, I am so proud of Emmett for being the one to make this happen and for making his first week of potty training a success!  Good job, Emmy Bems!

 

Lia's First Cross Country Meet

For years, Lia has looked up to several of her older cousins who have been runners and participated in their schools' cross country and track programs.  As a result, Lia has always expressed an interest in competing in these sports once she was old enough.  At the end of her 5th grade year, Lia finally was able to participate in her elementary school's track program that ran April through June of that year.  However, during her second week of practices, Lia's coach asked the kids do the long jump for the first time.  With little to no coaching on how to properly land in the sand pit, Lia landed wrong and sprained her ankle.  This began a two-year process of healing that was very frustrating and disheartening at times.  Although it was a disappointment to have her 6th grade year of track cancelled due to the pandemic, it also was a relief to us as her ankle still was bothering her.  After multiple doctor's appointments (including two with a children's orthopedic doctor), two sets of x-rays, and hundreds of hours in physical therapy, her ankle finally healed last spring in time for her to participate in her school's, 4-week, intramural track program that was held the last month of school.  Lia and I were both so relieved that her ankle did not bother her the entire time.  And although Lia didn't know anyone when she showed up for the first day of practice, she luckily met one girl, named Abby, who became her friend throughout this shortened season.

Fast forward to this fall, Lia was planning on participating in the cross country season with one of her few friends from church who also attends the same junior high.  We were very disappointed to find out a few weeks before school that her friend has changed her mind and decided not to participate.  Although Lia was hesitant to turn out for this sport without her, I insisted that she give it a try since I knew that it would help her to meet people and become more involved in a school where she barely knew anyone.  The first day of practice, Lia was so nervous and totally did not want to go.  She kept on begging me to let her quit, but I refused to give in.  I hoped and prayed that she would meet some friends and grow to love this sport.  Luckily, when she showed up on the first day of practice on Sept 7th, she found the same friend, Abby, who she had gotten to know during the track season last spring.  And within a matter of days, she quickly became friends with a lovely group of other 8th grade girls--even providing two new friends to eat lunch with in the cafeteria on a daily basis.  A month later, I am so relieved to report that Lia leaves happily for school every morning and never complains about staying after school for two extra hours to practice with her cross country team.  She has run her heart out, running several miles a week and has gone from not being able to run the 2-mile course without stopping to being one of the fastest runners on her team.  

With all of this progress that she has made over the past month, Lia was still unbelievably nervous about competing in her first meet today.  She was so afraid that she would be the last girl to finish and that it would be an awful experience.  She had a total melt down at breakfast with me this morning.  After giving her several words of encouragement and saying a prayer with her, I sent her out the door this morning with a prayer in my heart that this first meet would be a positive experience for her.  After watching the rain fall all day long, I woke Emmett up early from his nap and drove to the junior high downtown where this meet was being held.  As luck would have it, the rain miraculously stopped right after we arrived.  Ron was able to slip away early from work and met us in the school parking lot right as we pulled up.  Emmett, Ron, and me then walked out to the track where we found Lia warming up with the rest of the girls on her team.  After saying a brief 'hello' to her, Lia and her team soon lined up on the track with the other team to begin the 2-mile course around the campus.  After the bell went off, we had so much fun cheering her on every time she ran by us (which was a few different times).  We were so pleased that Lia came in 4th place out of her team and in 9th place (out of 26 girls).  She ran the two miles in 15 minutes and 52 seconds with was a PR for her.  Lia was so relieved and pleased with her progress.  It was so nice to see her gain some confidence and have some success by pushing herself to do something difficult and out of her comfort zone!  Afterwards, we were able to meet a few of these new friends that she met at school and congratulate Lia before saying goodbye and heading home.  One cross country meet down and five more to go!  I can't wait to watch her run in several more races!  

Lia lining up with the rest of the runners at the starting line.

And they're off!  Lia and the rest of the pack taking off after the bell was rung.

Lia running with the pack.

Lia running right past us at the beginning of the race.

Lia running her past us during her second loop of the race.

A close-up of our girl as she ran right past us a second time.

Lia crossing the finish line at the end of the race.

Our proud runner giving me a smile after the race was complete!

Lia talking with a few of her friends (Jacqueline, Heather, and Erica) after the race was over.  It seriously just warmed my heart to see her laughing and talking with her friends afterwards.