Oh Boy...It's a Boy!

Yesterday Michelle went in to see her doctor. This is a different doctor than we have seen for Michelle's previous pregnancies. So we were surprised to discover that through out this pregnancy we will have 3 ultrasounds performed! (We're used to just a single ultrasound at 20 weeks.)

The good news is...the baby seems to be growing and developing just fine, about 1 week ahead of schedule.

The bad news is...there is no bad news! However, I would be lying if I didn't admit I was a little bit disappointed to discover that we are having baby BOY #5. I really did have my heart set of finally having my little princess. And I thought I had provided enough body guards to get her through those rough years. But it seems I'm destined to supply the church's missionary force single-handedly.

Michelle was very excited at the news of another boy. She loves our 4 boys and feels very comfortable raising boys. A girl hasn't appealed to her as strongly as it has appealed to me. So Michelle was gloating the rest of the evening that she had been right (in her guess that we were having a boy) all along.

We're all very excited about the arrival of this new child. The boys are excited and can't wait to play with their new brother. I don't think they realize that it might take a few months before he'll really be able to run, play, slide down the slide, etc. But we have a few more months to help them get mentally and emotionally prepared (after all, every single boy will be a big brother!).

Our biggest challenge with having another boy is finding another boy name. Michelle has come up with Quintin Khayyam. She was thrilled when our sister-in-law (Tosha) also came up with that name. What other names might work for our 5th boy?

S.H.M. Customer Appreciation Party

Security Home Mortgage hosted their semi-annual customer appreciation party. They provided dinner and entertainment. The dinner was hot dogs, nachos and popcorn (not exactly the healthiest meal) and they had a "live" band. At least sometimes it was live and other times is was more like Karaoke. But they did a good job.

However, my boys were most excited about the inflatable toys! They were so distracted by the toys that they couldn't focus on anything quite as mundane as eating! And off they went. They had a blast running around to each of the three inflatables and sliding, jumping and running everywhere. Aleky tried his best to keep up but there were just too many big kids there. Aleky did make it down the big slide and the little slide once.

The disappointment of the evening happened when we decided to go home at 8:30 pm before they let us into the water park. We wanted to go swimming but as the sun went down we decided it was best to go home. The boys all threw tantrums! At that point we knew we had made the right choice. Our boys don't do well after 8:00 pm. So we'll have to go swimming another day.

Here are some highlights of the boys playing on the inflatables...

Hike to the Y

It's hard to believe that I started this blog 1 year ago with our family hike to the Y. And here we are again, with another family hike to the Y. This has certainly been an incredible year for our family with lots of memories and experiences. The great part is that a lot of those experiences have been now been written down.

This hike to the Y wasn't anything super spectacular but it was an enjoyable trip. David has been looking forward to it since the end of school. His kindergarten teacher gave him some summer homework which included things like "go to the park", "go camping" and "hike to the Y". So he's been asking us when we were going to go hiking to the Y. So we decided that Saturday was the day.

Donovan was excited for this hike because he wanted to carry the water backpack. David was pretty certain that he didn't want to carry the water backpack on this trip. And since he knew where he was going it was pretty hard to keep him contained. We had to give David specific instructions to not get too far ahead of the rest of the family. Had we not given him these directions he probably would have run to the Y and back before we made it to turn 2.

Don't let 'em fool you. This was the closest we were to David until we reached the Y. The other boys started strong, trying to keep up with David but their legs aren't quite as long as David's and they eventually decided that hiking with mom and dad was a better hiking strategy.

I hiked with Aleky in the child backpack so that we could move a little faster. But it was still hot (mid 90's) and we were excited to sit down on the Y and have some water while we rested and prepared for the return journey.

(It took us just over an hour from our house to the top of the Y.)

It's almost hard to believe that the Y isn't perfectly smooth. It looks so good from nearly everywhere in Utah County. And the cement is cracking, paint is peeling, etc. But that didn't stop us from enjoying the trip. They boys had to go up and down to check it out. However, we had to put an end to the rock throwing (our boys favorite pastime).


We knew it was time to go when the boys starting exploring other parts of the mountain. They were pretty proud of themselves when to got on top of this metal bunker/storage thing near the Y.

The boys decided they didn't need to wait for us on the way down. Michelle thinks we've officially become the slow-poke parents. The boys made it to the bottom and Michelle and I were still up around turn 2! My legs were getting tired from that descent. But it only took us about 20 minutes to walk down the mountain.

At the parking lot we had a chance to offer a little bit of service. A fellow set of hikers were unable to get their truck started. Fortunately their truck has a standard transmission so we were able to push the truck back and then roll it down the hill to help them get it started. However, after we loaded up the boys in our car and headed down the hill we passed them again, pulled over on the side of the road. Oh well, we tried.

David got home and went straight to his summer homework paper that we have posted on the wall. He got his marker out and checked off another homework assignment. We gave the kids quick baths and threw them in bed. We didn't have to fight them to go to sleep! They seemed quite content to go to sleep all on their own.

Hot Dogs and Snickerdoodles

I received a phone call from Michelle while at work. "Do you have plans for tonight?" she innocently asks. Since my plans had been rescheduled I didn't have anything set, just some ideas in my head. "Well, I sort of made plans for us..." she continued. Quite frankly, I'm not sure I could reconstruct the events that lead to our evening with our friends but I'm certainly glad the forces of fate combined to create such serendipitous circumstances.

Unfortunately the plans were all to commence prior to my arrival at my own party! Michelle tried to assure me that it was okay. When I finally was able to make it home I found my boys trimming the hedges? You can see Donovan in action!

Michelle had started the fire all by herself and Kyle was splitting some wood to add to the fire. The Simmons came over as the fire was getting started. The Johnsons would show up shortly after that.

We didn't waste anytime getting the hot dogs roasted. Everyone was hungry and we couldn't come up with a good reason for waiting. I helped to roast the younger boys hot dogs but David and Donovan felt like they needed to roast their own hot dogs. They did just great, with a little coaching from the sidelines.

The irony of the eating situation was that the kids all needed to sit at the big (adult) table and the adults were forced to use the small (kids) table.


It was an enjoyable dinner with splendid company. But we couldn't wait until 8:00 pm to put the boys to bed. They still struggle with the concept of bed time before the sun goes down but we persist in trying to help them understand this concept. I'll be excited for daylight savings time when it will be dark at bedtime.

It took us nearly 45 minutes to get the boys in bed! Obviously they were having too much fun to stop for something as trivial as bedtime. But, in the end, they went to bed. The Johnsons put Zachary to bed in our room and we set up a monitor in the hallway to keep an ear on them while we went next door to the Simmons for some games.

The Simmons had a game called Imaginiff

That was quite an interesting game. You use all the players and random people (if you're playing with less than 8 players). Then each round you read a question about someone different and you get points based on the what the majority of the players feel is the best answer. It leads to some funny descriptions about the people playing because you are trying to guess what the other people are going to guess.

After that game we had to play a few rounds of "jungle" Uno. We had a little trouble trying to decide which "house rules" we were going to use. The biggest dispute was about the "match/play" rule. One version of "match" is that you simply get to play your card anytime you can exactly match the last played card and play picks up from you. The "match/play" rule says that you can go anytime you can play your card and exactly match the last card played and, if your quick enough, play any other playable card. Maybe we were just too tired to fully enjoy the "match/play" rule but we threw it out after one round.

Regardless of who could "match/play" or who drew the most cards we had fun time. Michelle had made some snickerdoodles for Elisa as a visiting teaching treat. I hope she actually got to eat one because the rest of us certainly did! Actually, Michelle felt bad that we had eaten all of Elisa's snickerdoodles and so she ran back to the house to grab some more to replace them. I have to say we are fortunate to have such wonderful friends. We went home around 11:00 pm and the kids were all sound asleep!

(When we woke up this morning the three oldest boys were being sooo quiet, playing the computer downstairs. So we didn't realize they were all awake and they let us sleep in!)

Family Reunion (part 5)

Family Reunion (part 4)

This morning there was a somber mood among all the kids. I think they knew that their time together was coming to an end. Of course it may have just been the cooler mountain air and overcast skies and the fact that the fire had been put out by the rain. But this morning the kids did everything together. You couldn't separate them.

The first activity of the day was to try and get the fire started again. I think the chances for success would have been greater had the matches actually lit when you struck them. We finally resorted to using a lighter.

The camping experience was starting to wear on some of the kids. Katie hadn't had a shower in days and this was a real problem. Most of the other kids didn't seem to mind missing that important aspect of civilization.

Aaron seemed to be content simply eating the topping off of his muffin. After all, these are healthy muffins so the best part has to be the topping.

Michelle caught me in her picture as she tried to capture the scene for her panoramic picture stitching program. (I moved to soon and the stitching program chopped my arm off!)

More breakfast under the canopy (to avoid the random rain drops)

The kids were playing some sort of treasure hiding/finding game. Then they played red light green light but with dragons! I'm sure they played some other games as well. They spent the morning together and would hardly even separate when called by their parents!

I'm not sure why they started rolling the logs. These logs were originally set up for a family photo but were never actually used for that purpose. The kids found them more exciting to roll across camp.

Next came the thrill ride of the day. We all loaded up on top of James' new suburban rack and went for a ride up to the main road and back. This is a bumpy road and would have rivaled any ride at Lagoon, especially since this one doesn't have seat belts or safety gear!

After the roller coaster ride we went on a treasure hunt. We were working fast because the Kims had to get on the road and head for home. The kids went to work following clues like they were stars in National Treasure or something. Once they read each clue they were off at a sprint to find the next one. There were 10 total clues.




The kids finally found the gold at the end of the hunt. It was a glorious moment. All of their staunch determination had finally paid off.

It was sad to say good bye to the Kims. These several days had been wonderful to be together. But all things must end and the Kims were the first to leave. Jared's family would leave next but not before they had a chance to defend our camp from the attacking squirrel.

With the camp secure and safe we finished packing. I happened to catch this candid moment as Hailey helped David bring up the high chair to be loaded into the jeep.

This camping trip / family reunion has been an awesome experience. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins for 4 days! We got to see each other all together for the first time in a couple years. As the family spreads across the country these times will be more and more precious.

I am certainly grateful that I was able to spend these 4 days with my family. We had a fabulous time and we've made many great memories.

Family Reunion (part 3)

Our boys were awake at first light and couldn't understand why we wanted to sleep a little longer. After all, 6:30 am is still early, even while you're camping. Somehow we managed to keep the kids still and quiet for almost 30 more minutes. But kids can't burn daylight and they wanted to get up. But what do you do while you wait for breakfast?

The boats turned out to be a hit once again. The little inflatable row boat seemed to steal the stage. I suspect that a large part of the appeal was that the kids could go into the lake unsupervised (at least directly) and could row under their own power. It took a few tries but the kids really began to get around the lake in this little boat. We only had to tow kids back to shore on a few occasions.


Jared managed the "save of the day" when he plucked Aaron from the lake's grasp. I didn't see what happened except Jared was grabbing Aaron by the ankle and pulling him out of the lake. Apparently Jared's "snatch" occurred just as Aaron slipped and fell into the lake and Jared caught the ankle before it slipped into the water. As a result, Aaron had one dry shoe but everything else was wet.

By this day the kids were having a great time playing together. You would see three or four kids running around playing a game here or there. It was so much fun to see them getting along so well.


With the arrival of Jared at camp, the chain saws were unleashed and several dead trees were relieved of the stress of standing tall in the forest. As a result we had a massive wood pile. With so much wood everyone seemed excited to take a turn trying to split the logs. Some managed impressive, single swing explosions while others needs a couple of extra swings to split the logs into burnable size pieces.

Chris Kim(Cynthia Boel & Chris Kim)(Janeil Kim)(Cynthia Boel)(Kaylynn Meyers)

(Random cute picture of Troy Kim and Milly Petersen)

One of the best activities of this camp out was when our entire family went back to our tent for a nap. I couldn't hardly contain my excitement, not so much that even David was tired enough to go to sleep but that I got to go to sleep.

When we finally were aroused from slumber we discovered that the camp had been deserted! Finally a lone cousin wandered through camp and after careful interrogation we discovered that everyone had gone rappelling off a nearby cliff. David was off like a shot! Aleky and I finally caught up only to discover David hanging on to the side of a cliff (Michelle and the other boys took longer to wake up).

Okay, I'll admit it...I was very proud of David for going over the cliff on his own rope! Of course I was also happy to note that Aunt Tosha was there to talk him down the cliff and make sure he didn't fall.

David made 3 different rappels gaining confidence each time he went down the cliff. He was one excited boy!

Meanwhile, the other boys woke up from their naps and they joined us at the cliff. Donovan decided that he wanted to go down the cliff too.

Donovan and I went up the cliff to get into the rappelling gear. We decided to let Donovan try going down the cliff on his own rope. Well, let's just say he wasn't quite ready for that experience just yet. He was close enough to the top that Grandpa Petersen just hoisted him back to the top. Having already started down the cliff I quickly descended and ran back up to the top to try again. This time we decided to try a tandem (on the same rope) decent. Donovan felt much better about that idea.

While I am excited that my boys were helping at the bottom of the cliff I think I would have been a little more confident with a little more experience (and weight) and the end of the ropes. But everything went just fine so there's really nothing to worry about.

Once we reached the bottom I had an excited boy on my rope. Donovan was thrilled to have gone down the cliff. I think he would have liked to have gone again but it was time to put the gear away and get ready for dinner.

Devin wins the award for the most descents. He had to have had at least 6 descents while we were there and I have no idea how many additional descents he had before we arrived. He was having a blast going down the cliff face.

Since my boys were the last ones down the cliff I helped pack up the rappelling gear. When I finally made it back to camp I was in for a little surprise! My boys were swimming in the lake...in just their underwear! Michelle was quick to point out that the instigator of this experience was Uncle Jared. In the end, I think this ended up being one of the boys favorite memories.


Janeil was able to get all three of her children to help prepare dinner. Tosha was left all alone while her three boys went swimming in the lake. In the end, the dinner turned out amazing! Great food is pretty much expected at any Petersen camp out.

I think everyone enjoyed the food. Although, some of the kids found it difficult to eat everything on their plates.

Aleky discovered that he was partial to the rolls and honey butter and he downed 2 of them but didn't make much progress on the rest of his food.

David and Michael also struggled through dinner but Donovan actually did a fantastic job clearing his plate.

After dinner was another round of s'mores. Even though the kids didn't eat all of the dinner we let them have treats. After all, we're camping!

After putting the kids to bed the adults congregated around the fire. The discussion seemed to revolve around politics and vehicles (and the politics of vehicle manufactures). It was probably as good as the conversation from the previous night which was on kids and pregnancies. It was an enjoyable evening in the outdoors, at least until it started to rain. That broke up the campfire talk and everyone immediately headed for their tents and for bed.

I enjoyed listening to the rain on the tent roof. There was enough rain to give the relaxing background noise but not too much rain to get everything extremely wet. The ambiance was soothing as I drifted off to sleep.