The Roberts Family Discovers Great Wolf Lodge (in 2017 and 2018)

Two years ago, I was suddenly filled with a huge desire to go on a fun family trip. All the kids were actually getting along ok, and I felt like we needed to do something fun all together! I scoured the internet for really good deals and saw a Groupon for Great Wolf Lodge (GWL). I remembered watching an "Undercover Boss" episode with Brynne that was about GWL, and Brynne and I had both thought it looked like a really fun place to go. We got a Groupon deal for two nights at the GWL in Traverse City, MI, and just three weeks later we were off! Sure enough, the kids had so much fun! My heart melted when I even saw Morgan holding Melissa's hand as we were leaving to come home!! I took so many pictures and felt so blessed to have a fun vacation memory with the whole family!

It's rather unusual that we'd get seats all together like this on a normal flight, but we took a red eye! We left SLC at night, flew to Detroit where we had a short layover, and then flew into Traverse City. The little ones managed to get a little sleep, but not much. I was really surprised how well everyone did on our trip considering the lack of sleep!

We took this family picture just before we left to come home. I absolutely love it!

This was taken as we were walking out the door to go home. Just to the left of Morgan is an area where they had crafts and games for the kids to do. At night, they read a story to the kids in front of the big clock in the background, and then a character came out to greet the kids. The teens weren't too excited about the story time, so they just stayed in the room.

All four of the kids together for one last picture on the way out the door to come home.

The thing that makes GWL so cool is the indoor water park. There are around 13 lodges all over the U.S., and each has amazing indoor water parks. This was the main play area for kids, but there were three big slides behind this along with a lazy river, hot tubs, and two additional swim areas. Morgan took Melissa onto this play structure and taught her how to dump water on the heads of other people as they walked by underneath. There is a huge bucket just above the picture that fills up with water and drops every five minutes. We had to hurry and take this picture before the bucket tipped!

Another cool thing about GWL is the themed rooms. There was a bunk bed inside the "Wolf Den" that Melissa and Brynne slept on. Katherine was lucky enough to sleep on the floor inside the Wolf Den too and, thankfully, thought that was great!

They have fun characters statues all over the lodge. Every time we walked by one the kids wanted pictures. This one was right in front of a sweet shop that had fudge, cookies, shakes, and all sorts of goodies! We finally gave in and got treats on our last night there.

This snake was in one of the play area, and as you can see, the kids had tons of fun on it!

We took a portion of one of the days and went to check out the beach at Lake Michigan. It was a bit windy and cold, but everyone still had fun skipping rocks.

I took a TON of pictures, but I just posted a few here to give you an idea of what the lodge was like. On the way home we had a couple tender mercies... When we checked the flight loads the night before, it looked like there was a good chance we wouldn't all get back to Detroit and there was an even worse chance we'd all get back to SLC without having to wait in the airport a long time. Thankfully, we were blessed to all get on the plane to Detroit the next morning (all though we were the very last people on the plane!). When we got to our gate for the SLC flight, it looked like maybe two of us would get on if we were lucky. I think we decided Lee and Katherine would go because with him on the other end then I could send the kids one at a time on later flights if I needed to. We all stood at the gate, though, ready to board just in case. Sure enough, some people didn't make their connection; so last second they told us we could all get on! I felt so blessed because if we'd been stuck in the airport it would have cast a negative glow on our otherwise wonderful vacation, so a huge thank you to Heavenly Father for pulling that one off!

We ended up going back to the exact same GWL the next year (the kids kept begging and Lee actually had some days off in a row, so why not?), but Morgan didn't want to go with us that time. It was during this trip that Katherine figured out she could swim by herself. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to take pictures with all of us, but here are a couple from our second visit in 2018.

I'm Back!!! Five Years Summarized in One Post

I've been feeling the pull to start blogging again! When I started Facebook I quit blogging as much because I could just pot and update people on Facebook; however, lately it's getting more and more scary to share details about our family there. I'm guessing no one really even checks this blog anymore, and to be honest it took me a little while to remember how to access it myself! But now that I'm here, I hope to post at least a couple times each month.

It could obviously take a real long time trying to tell you what has happened in the last 5 years, and that's a rather daunting task. Instead, I'll do a quick summary to try and bring this blog up to speed.

For starters, we no longer live in Spanish Fork. In June 2015, we moved to Payson Utah to live in my parents' house. They had retired to Payson from Rawlins, WY at Christmas a year and a half before, and they were leaving on a mission. We decided to live in their house for the 18 months they would be gone, so we found people to rent our house during that time. While we were living at their house, the house directly behind them went for sale. We felt really good about buying it, so we bought it in June 2016. We continued to rent our house in Spanish Fork until we decided to sell it in December 2017.

Lee has continued to work for Skywest Airlines, but he upgraded to captain in the Spring of 2015 (about the time we moved to Payson). It was a tough decision because it would mean he wouldn't be based in Salt Lake City anymore and would be gone more. When we did decide to have him upgrade, we hoped it would be less than two years before he'd be back in SLC; yet, here we are almost four years later and he's still not in SLC. But.....starting in March (one month from now) he's finally going to be back in SLC!! We're not sure what his schedule will be like, but we're sure we'll have him home more often. All things considered we're really getting along well as a family and are really excited for this change! Lee became a huge hunting fan probably about the time I quit writing. He likes to hunt Elk with both guns and with a bow. He also is just a huge gun fan in general, and he has made an effort to have his family of girls learn to be comfortable with guns as well. Lee recently began focusing on his dream to go to Mars, which is definitely something I'll talk about more in posts.

I feel like I've lived many lifetimes in the past five years. Moving to my parents' house after living in our Spanish Fork house for eight years was quite a big endeavor! I can't tell you how grateful I was when we moved to our new house in Payson and I knew we'd never have to move again! Funny to think back and realize I used to love moving and had it down to a science. :) I've done various work-from-home endeavors since I last wrote. I sold Blendfresh (fresh-dried fruits & veggies without any additives) for a year before stopping during some big family challenges we went through. I've been teaching piano lessons for two years, and although I enjoy the kids I think this will be my last year of teaching. In March 2017, just after starting piano lessons, I also got involved in the Life organization. I won't say much about it now other than that it has been life-changing both for me and for Lee! Although being a mom is my first job, I do enjoy having something else to do that I feel blesses me as I help others.

Morgan is now 17 1/2! I can hardly believe it! This has been a hard five years for her. Moving to Payson was a huge blessing because the kids here didn't know her so she got a fresh start! She got the lead in the musical her junior high was doing, and she made lots of friends right off the bat. She continued to struggle with various things, though, and spent a couple weeks in a behavior hospital and a couple months in a residential treatment facility (Jan - March 2016). That was hard for all of us, but it did give us all a much-needed reset. While there, Morgan was diagnosed with high-functioning autism (formerly called Asperger's), and that knowledge has helped us move forward in helping her. Morgan hasn't ever gotten along with school very well. The teachers all love her but the kids are often not really sure how to take her, which makes it difficult. She should be a senior graduating in May, but she hasn't gone to school much at all in over a year, so we're working on trying to get her graduated. Morgan started her first job, working at Taco Bell, the very end of December.

I think this move was also a big blessing for Brynne, who is 15 years old now. Not long after moving here she met a friend named Skylar Holdaway, and they continue to be good friends. Brynne really struggled when we went through the hard times with Morgan, and she has been trying to regain her footing ever since. She had a hard time with school so we pulled her out and put her into Kimber Academy, which is a private LDS-based school. In general that has been a really good thing for Brynne, but lately she's struggling to stay awake to do the online classes. She's considering going to high school next year. Brynne has grown to over 5'9"; so she's a tall, beautiful, red-headed girl. She loves baking, and cupcakes are her favorite. She is especially good at decorating cupcakes and wants to have her own cupcake shop when she's older. She and Lee just returned from a school trip to Israel last November.

Melissa is seven years old and is really looking forward to being baptized this year. Melissa really is the glue in this family because she is generally level-headed and super sweet. Admittedly she is starting to stand up to Katherine more, which causes some contention, but she always wants to do what's right and gets along with everyone in the family. She had the toughest time with our move because she went from having five little girls within a house or two in all directions that she could play with to not having anyone her age to play with. In time we've met kids, and she continues to be super social. Last year she begged me to start an after-school club for friends, which I agreed to do once a month. She is never quite sure what to do with herself if there isn't a friend to play with. She does really enjoy dance, and has been in dance class for a year and a half. She's in the second grade and is starting to get good at reading.

Katherine is going to be five in three weeks! One part of me can't believe she's getting so big, and the other part feels like we've lived ten years in her five years of life. She has kind of been along for the ride, but she has made sure we won't ever forget she's here! She has a very strong personality and isn't afraid to let anyone know how she feels. In fact, our biggest car arguments were always Morgan and Katherine arguing about the music or noise level even though Morgan was 15 and Katherine was 2 or 3! Katherine loves to dance and do gymnastics; in fact, she spends most of her time either twirling or standing on her head. She goes to preschool but doesn't always love it. I'm curious to see how she'll do in kindergarten next year. She is my pickiest kid when it comes to clothes, so I stopped dressing her years ago. She almost always has a skirt or dress on and refuses to wear anything that isn't colorful or "pretty."

That's about it for the updates except to mention we also now have a cat named FoxStripe. We got a dog, Bentley, right after moving into our new house a year and a half ago. We had high hopes for the dog helping Morgan with her depression. Not long after that, we got FoxStripe as a kitten to try and help Brynne with her anxiety. We really struggled as a dog-owning family, so in the end we found Bentley an amazing other home to go to. Admittedly, most of us wouldn't mind doing the same with FoxStripe. He thinks quality people time means people petting him while he eats. He doesn't just come snuggle and let you pet him, which is the whole reason we got him. And since he learned to play from the dog, when he is feeling playful he comes and jumps on our legs and bites us. He has several other quirks including thinking he needs to drink water only from the bathtub. Melissa is our biggest animal lover and still talks about Bentley and manages to love FoxStripe with all his quirks, but I'm really hoping he figures out to snuggle soon!

So there you have it! It was really hard not going into details about everything I said, but I knew an important part of starting back up was not feeling the weight of having to write about everything that happened in that time. I figure I might do flashbacks in upcoming posts, but for now I'm just grateful to be back!

Katherine's Newborn Pics

My friend Denise Brown took some newborn pictures of Katherine for me. She was nice enough to reduce the 230+ pics she took to only 130 pics. My mom then chose her favorites from those 130. Unfortunately, I have been unable to reduce it any further than that. :) Feel free to tell me which picture(s) is/are your favorites! (P.S. I've included a funny one of Katherine and some super-cute ones of Melissa.) Happy looking! :)

Melissa LOVES Katherine! She loves to hold her, help burp her, get her binky for her, etc. When we first brought Katherine home, Melissa would get upset when Katherine was sleeping. She wanted her to be awake and ready to be held or played with at all times! She is great about sharing her things and her room with Katherine. So far she really is cute and helpful, and not "too" helpful. I really enjoy watching how much Melissa loves her little sister!

Katherine Meets Her Sisters

When Melissa first came in to meet Katherine, she was very hesitant. She actually didn't want anything to do with Katherine. She just wanted to sit with me. She had been away from me for almost two days, so she was having a hard time. I got her to relax a little by playing with the hospital bed buttons, and finally she decided she could look at Katherine. Eventually, she let Daddy hold her and Katherine together, then finally she decided to touch Katherine and hold her hand. She has loved Katherine ever since!!

 

Brynne had a chance to hold Katherine the night she was born, but this was Morgan's first time meeting and holding Katherine:

 

 Our new family of six!

Katherine Ann Roberts

What better motivation to break the blogging silence than to announce the birth of our sweet new daughter:

Katherine Ann Roberts

Feb. 17, 2014

9:42 pm

20 1/2 inches

Katherine was due on Feb. 27, but she decided to join us 10 days early on my brother Brandon's birthday. I had been having contractions for weeks and really felt like she was ready to come. Lee got home that day and had the following two days off, so I knew it would be the perfect day for her to join us. I walked around until my contractions were regular enough to warrant a trip to the hospital, then Lee and I set off with the goal of convincing them that they needed to let me stay. (I figured the only hope I had of getting an epidural was if they would admit me before my contractions got too intense.) Here is me just before heading to the hospital:

When I arrived, I was 3 cm dilated. They monitored me for an hour to see if I was progressing. My contractions were regular and strong, but I knew they weren't full-on labor yet. (I had Morgan and Brynne without an epidural and knew the contractions would get a lot stronger.) Every contractions I would visualize progress and literally willed my cervix to dilate. This is how Lee spent that hour: :)

I was so worried they would send me home and that I'd end up going into labor that night and end up having a baby in the car on the way to the hospital with no epidural - not what I wanted! My body decided to be kind to me and I managed to progress just enough by the end of that hour for them to decide to admit me. Hallelujah!!! The doctor decided to get my IV and epidural going and then return to break my water. I called everyone who was planning to come to the birth to let them know what was happening.

I had previously talked to Morgan and Brynne about the possibility of them attending Katherine's birth. They both seemed interested, so we talked a lot about what to expect. We talked about what could go wrong for me and for the baby; we talked about what I might say if I didn't get an epidural (i.e. if I said I was going to die, it wouldn't be true and really everything would be ok); we talked about how the baby would look and how privacy is a bit different during a birth. Basically, I wanted to make sure there were no surprises and make sure they really did want to attend the birth. After weeks of these discussions, we realized Morgan would be okay not attending the birth, but Brynne was very excited to come. While she waited for Katherine to come, Brynne busied herself with games on my phone:

The nurse came to check my progress an hour after the doctor broke my water. I had progressed to 5 cm. (She actually called it 5 plus.) I should mention that by this point I was really, really hoping to have the baby on Brandon's birthday. It was about 9 pm, so time was running out. It had taken an hour to progress each of the last two centimeters, so I was thinking Katherine wasn't going to make it before midnight. Here I am enjoying my epidural. It looks like I'm holding on to a basketball under the blanket, but that really is Katherine still in my tummy! :)

Things got real interesting real quickly: I started to feel really strong contractions on my left side. I figured I could handle it if I was nearing the end of labor, but when the nurse said I was only at a 5+, I figured I wanted my money's worth out of my epidural. I asked the nurse to find the anesthesiologist to come take away my pain. He came in and did something to fix the epidural on my left side. Then the nurse thought she'd check me again, even though it had only been about 10 minutes. She said I was at 8 cm. As she checked, though, she lost the baby's heart rate. She was moving the heart rate monitor all around while simultaneously calling in extra help and the doctor. They gave me oxygen to help the baby and the doctor went to put an internal heart rate monitor on Katherine's head. When he did, he said, "Actually, she's at a 10!" The good news is that they were able to pick up Katherine's heart beat, but it was really low (120 bpm).

My previous experience with the pushing phase of labor is that my body does most of the work and I only have to push a couple times. Seeing as how the anesthesiologist had just freshly rendered my lower half numb and useless, I actually had to work this time. I was having a hard time focusing my effort where it needed to be, but then the nurse brought out a mirror for me. One look at the top of the baby's head and I was able to get her here right away! Look at this beautiful girl!!

It was a whirlwind delivery there at the end - going from a 5+ to delivery in 18 minutes! They think that is what caused Katherine's heart rate to drop - having things get too intense too quickly for her. I was just super, super glad I was at the hospital with an epidural!!

I LOVE that Brynne wanted to be at the birth. She opted to watch the Olympics on the TV for the actual birth, but she was right by Katherine's side the moment she was born. In this picture it's Brynne's hand on Katherine's back. Definitely a proud sister!

I hadn't had Katherine for more than a few minutes when she turned her head and tried to find food. She was way off the mark, but you can see we all got a laugh out of how cute she was. (And for the record - I did feed her soon after, and she has been a champ eater ever since!)

Lee, Brynne and me with Baby Katherine. :)

With my doctor: Reed Skinner. He always reminded me of someone, but I wasn't ever sure who. Denise took one look at him and knew immediately who it was - Matt Hoisington, a friend of ours from Seattle.

Katherine loved sucking on her fingers. She went right for them! It became apparent why her hand was always right by her face every time they did an ultrasound in the weeks before her birth. Although it's super cute to see them sucking on their fingers, I opted to give her a binky right away, because you can take binkies away eventually! I guess we'll see if she still loves her fingers when I stop swaddling her for bed.

My mom holding Katherine.

Lee and Katherine. Lee calls her Katya (sounds like Kot-ya or Kaw-cha), which is a Russian nickname for Katrina or Katherine. She has yet to pick up any other nicknames, but there is still plenty of time. :)

Everyone who attended the birth: My sister Ashley, my mom Ann Marie, my best friend Denise, Brynne, Lee, and Lee's sister Ruth. Ruth actually missed the birth by about 5 or 10 minutes, but it was really nice to have her there to enjoy our new baby with us!

Katherine and Aunt Ashley.

Katherine and Denise. Followed by Katherine and Ruth (I can't seem to get space to type between the two pictures...).

Lee picked an orange bow for after her bath. :)

Me with Katherine a couple hours after her birth:

Such a cute personality!

We are so happy to have Katherine here as part of our family and can't wait for all of you to meet her! :)