Easter and Dinosaur Spring Break

I think we had the most low-key Easter we've ever had. No visitors, General Conference weekend so no new dresses or ties. I didn't even make a coconut cake! I did make cinnamon rolls, though. They were delicious and enough.

The kids found their baskets after an exhaustive search Sunday morning. They each got a book, a Harry Potter Chocolate Frog, a book and another small gift. Emil got two Dog Man books and he literally spent the rest of the day reading. It was miraculous!

We watched General Conference on TV and just enjoyed the day together. Ahhhhh. The Best.

Colin and I worked on the Polynesian Cultural Center puzzle he got in his Easter basket. We've been there!

Spring Break started the Monday after Easter. We mostly stayed home this year, but we had to get away for a few days and visit Dinosaur Monument near Vernal, Utah. I found a hotel that allowed pets for $35 more per night, so we brought Penelope along. (In my search for a pet-friendly hotel I found out that the Marriott in Vernal charges $100 MORE per night for a pet. The room was less that $100 to begin with. What?) Grandma and Grandpa hosted our kids and Nate on Wednesday for a sleepover while Brian and I ate out and watched a movie at home. Thursday afternoon we left for Vernal. Penelope got carsick and threw up on our way through Daniel's Canyon. Too twisty! The beds were small and Penelope did not sleep well, but the free breakfast was dynamite!

The kids snatched their junior ranger booklets and got right to work in the Visitor's Center. We watched the movie and read some of the plaques under the pictures and touched the dinosaur bones. Colin breezed through the workbook - too easy! Emil wasn't far behind, with a little more complaining (natch), and Bridget had to complete more pages than the boys so she took a bit longer.

The rangers were surprised at how quickly the kids completed the workbooks. Yeah. Try harder, then, Dinosaur Monument. Off to the Dinosaur Quarry!

It's a logjam of dinosaur bones! Can you imagine happening upon this?! I know they've cleared a lot of stuff away, but still. First a drought killed off dinosaurs, then years and years later there was a flood that brought more dinosaurs to this very spot. It's the most Jurassic dinosaur bones ever in one location. And those are Emil's crazy eyes. You should see the first four pictures I took of this. Stinkers gotta stink!

I couldn't leave without seeing Josie Basset Morris's homestead. She lived there alone for almost 50 years!

That's where Josie kept her animals. Look at the well-worn path, the rocky hill. Bridget is holding some thyme from the gurgling stream. I think Josie cracked the code - it was a pretty sweet set up.

Penelope didn't know WHAT was going on during this road trip. Bridget took very good care of her - Bridget even let Penelope puke into her hands so it wouldn't get on the hotel bed. That's a real mom move.

It started sprinkling, that's why Colin looks a little gangster in this photo. Can you see Penelope's tongue? That's how we know which end we're looking at. Ha! But for real - I stared and stared at her in the dark hotel room on the second morning and I DID NOT KNOW what I was looking at. Turns out she was looking right back at me. I think that's funnier than anyone I've told so far. :)

When we got back to our hotel, we cleaned up a little and walked across the parking lot to the Italian place Brian's friend had recommended. From the outside the place, Antica Forma, did not look like much, but it was very charming inside. I couldn't be more over pizza, you guys, but this place was AWESOME. I'd go back just to eat there again. Everyone but Emil was in heaven - Colin even said so out loud.

After dinner our plan was to go to the local rec center to swim. We made sure it was open, but when we got there all dressed in our swimsuits, they said they wouldn't open the pool until 6:00. Huh? It was about 5:00 at the time. We came back and watched a show and played with Penelope, who was acting strangely. Brian ended up taking the kids back to the pool while I stayed at the hotel with Penelope and let her play while I watched Parks & Recreation. I win.

This is an accurate representation of how the kids slept at our hotel in Vernal. This is a double bed. Emil coughed every other breath and ground his teeth, Bridget talks in her sleep and takes up way more room than you think. Bridget asked me which of the three of them I would choose to sleep by - Colin! Duh!

The next morning, Saturday, we had another nice breakfast at the hotel before packing up the van and going to the dinosaur museum across the street. Colin and Emil were still in the mood to learn more about dinosaurs. They loved the dinosaur garden.

I told them to act like they were being chased by that scary T-rex. Hmmm. We headed home from here and made it through a pretty scary snow storm in the canyon. As always, worth the trip. :)

Thanksgiving 2017

I just finished an epic post with everything that happened in December when I realized I haven't done a post about Thanksgiving. Rats. There's not much to tell, but I still like to have a record.

First of all, Cousin Emma stayed with us for the whole week of Thanksgiving! The first morning she was here I was contemplating spending the day doing nothing and I mentioned that we could clean out our storage room. Emma was ON THE JOB! I couldn't believe it. She lifted heavy stuff, suffered me bossing her about where to put stuff, sang with my Chess playlist on Pandora. We got it DONE! It has changed my life.

Emma did a better job babysitting the kids than I do when Brian and I went on a nice date to celebrate our anniversary. She played with the kids. She made everyone happy. It was a wonderful few days. :)

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Kyle and Diana's again. The food was amazing as usual and we had fun talking and enjoying the company.

Bridget dishing up.

What is Darin laughing at? :) Funny.

These guys are taking the feast pretty seriously.

Debbie and Hal. You can see the young fathers in the background facing the TV. Ha!

Diana always makes a beautiful tablescape.

Tradition!

Emma and Bridget retired to Abby's room to do nails together. Girl stuff. 

Kyle and Diana have such an incredible view of Utah Lake and the mountains from their deck.

Yep, it was warm enough to roll on the grass. Colin and Emil love playing with Aiden at family gatherings. That's McKade, Nick and Linzy behind them.

You're Killing Us, June

We did all the stuff in June and now we are dead.

The first Sunday in June we got to meet our newest cousin, Brennan, at his blessing in Salt Lake.

Awww! He is a carbon copy of his Dad, my brother Aaron. I know this because I held his Dad a lot. Aaron's head was a little more narrow, but they are so close! Aaron gave Brennan a beautiful blessing. As always, it was fun to be at church with family.

We brought Taylor with us just so Grandpa Bob could get in a photo with his oldest and youngest grandchild.

Daddy's funny and dimples are the best.

Our kids are so sweet with babies. As long as Bridget is the one holding Brennan, he is perfectly safe. ;)

The next day I went to Stake Girls' Camp at Heber Valley Camp. I haven't been to girls' camp since I was a girl. I went as a stake leader and stayed in a cabin with the other 12 stake leaders. We didn't have cell reception and minimal responsibilities for most of the day, so I had a chance to listen and talk to a lot of really amazing women. I led the second year girls on a hike the first day. Since I was the only one with a map they had to trust me. I'd never been on this hike and the old couple missionaries made it sound like a piece of cake, but it was pretty difficult. The girls had so much energy for it and they didn't even care if we were lost - they were just having fun. The leaders probably thought I was doing it wrong. :)

We started every day with a flag ceremony and every night we had skits and really fantastic devotionals. It was a feast! Oh, and we also had a feast every night. What am I saying? We ate well for ever meal. Luckily there was a lot of hiking and physical activity, too.

The girls from our ward were the best. I knew when I went to camp that I was getting called into the Young Women's presidency, so I tried to pay close attention to the girls who would be in my class. Most of the time, though, I just went where I was needed and tried to be useful.

I was trained on The Wall in the Challenge Course, but then I didn't end up doing that. I did get to go on the zip line (which was much scarier than it looked) and take some photos until a lady told me to move.

Beatrice, Annie, and Marissa - three of my favorite girls. I enjoyed every day so much. Once a day I would take a hike to the lake and talk to Brian. I couldn't do it at night because BEARS, so I didn't get to talk to the kids for four whole days. That was so much harder than I thought it would be. While I was at the lake I wrote each of them a long text message. On Thursday evening Brian came because he's in the bishopric. We stayed for dinner, testimony meeting with our ward, and dessert. Fun week, but kinda nice to get it out of the way. :)

We had two weeks of swimming lessons for Emil and Colin in June. I signed Nate up for the same weeks, so Grandma and Nate joined us for Jan Lamb's Swim School. Emil was in the Stingray class (the second level) and Nate and Colin were in Minnows for the first week.

Emil had improved his kick and his cannonball. He likes to name his jumps before he goes in and yell them from the side of the pool or the diving board before he goes. By the second week Colin was doing everything the Stingrays were doing, but the Stingray class was too big. I love that Colin was cool with that - he still swam hard and did everything his teachers asked and made several friends. I always forget how much time swimming lessons take even though the lesson is only an hour (for Colin they were half an hour for the first week). So much prep, drive time, all the stuff. I had a hard time keeping all the balls in the air that week. We had a church activity every night that week, Bridget was still doing track, and the boys still had T-ball games.

The third Sunday in June, after having a nice Father's Day at church, we went to Sand Hollow (near St. George) for Brian's family's yearly vacation. Every day we were there was a record-breaking heat day. Winners! Oh, man! It was HOT. We had Sunday dinner at Dena and Darin's place in Hurricane, then we went to our very cool, very fancy condo. Hooray for AC!

We spent two days at the beach at Sand Hollow. Dena reserved us a very shady spot with tables and the water was refreshing. The kids had a blast!

Bridget and Brighton

For some reason Emil had a hard time staying on this killer whale. Hmmm.

Colin threw the Frisbee around with Grandma for a while.

Bridget tried for two days to ride this pool noodle like a horse in the water.

Not often successful. :)

Brighton asked Brian a few times, very sweetly, if she could "drown" him. No, thanks?

He did steal her whale, so... It was his birthday, though! Nothing wrong with a 43 year-old man riding a blow-up killer whale.

Cousin Abby tried several times to do a headstand on her paddle board. I'm The World's Best Headstander, so I gave it a try.

I stayed up until Brian assured me he had photos, but really, I could have stayed like that for a lot longer. ;) So funny to hear my kids warning me how hard it was and to be careful. 

There's Brighton purposely trying to tip Emil into the water. Carry on, Brighton

Grandpa went to his 60 year class reunion a few weeks ago and got this awesome shirt. 

Emil correctly doesn't trust Kalvin in this situation.

Colin pretending to be chased by a killer whale.

The view from our condo was sweet. We saw all kinds of rabbits invading the golf course once the sun went down. The kids played in the pool until after bedtime because it was still 100 degrees outside and what else do you do when it's that hot?!

The pool! After swimming all day in a reservoir, what could be better?

Emil woke up early one morning and Grandma did his bidding and let him choose a show until everyone else was up. Lucky!

Brighton and Colin relaxing on the deck.

Emil would have loved to ride in the side-by-side all day, but it was TOO HOT and it kept getting stuck. They discovered that Grandpa's four-wheeler didn't get stuck and had fun riding around in that for as long as they could stand it.

Unfortunately, there was a parasite in the water where we were and almost everyone ended up with itchy bumps where their skin was exposed. Poor Nate got the worst of it. So sad! Colin had a rash all over his body, but Benedryl took care of it after a couple of days. Otherwise it was a perfect little vacation. One of the nights I stayed up watching a show on the Food Network with Emil. I hardly ever get one-on-one time with either of the boys and getting it only makes me want more. I love how fun my kids are - they mostly have a great attitude about whatever we're doing and they make the most and the best of it.

We came home to the last three days of Lehi's Round-Up Week. The kids and I went to Lehi's Animals Got Talent, which was awesome, but made the kids want a dog even more. Thursday night we took the kids to their first rodeo (I think we took Bridget when she was a baby, but it doesn't count). We didn't know what The Deal was with the rodeo burger and didn't think we could wait until 8:00 (when the rodeo started) or later to feed the kids, so we ate out at Culver's first. The boys were riveted by the rodeo events. Bridget put her hands in front of her eyes because she didn't want to see anyone get hurt. I'm somewhere in between. It's a pretty primal show.

On Friday night Brian and I were signed up to help our ward with concessions at the North Shack at the rodeo. I did a story for the paper about the volunteer army that it takes to put on the rodeo, so my appreciation for this undertaking and the purpose of it has grown 100%. Brian fried burgers and I assembled them for four hours straight, and yet it was super fun working with neighbors and serving the neighbors who came to get a burger. Also, now we know the secret of the rodeo burger. Priceless.

I got my fancy Mother's Day apron all gross with sauce. This is inside the concession shack.

Brian frying up burgers. Same thing he does every day, Pinky.

Sometime on Friday my boss Sally asked if I could ride on the Lehi Free Press "float" in the parade. They had a 1957 Chevy truck pulling a flatbed trailer with a rock band on it playing "Footloose" and "Devil Came Down to Georgia." I hurried and found "Newsies" hats for the kids and we sat in the bed of the truck and threw candy. It is so much more fun to be IN the parade! The parade goes down four streets and the kids threw so much candy that it was gone after the second street. 

That's Colin throwing ALL the candy. We had a blast.

Sunday, June 25th was Bridget's 11th birthday! It seems like it would be a bummer to have your 11th birthday on a Sunday, BUT when you have a summer birthday it just means that a bunch of people you wouldn't see on a weekday get to tell you happy birthday. We made her wait until after church to open presents so that Daddy could be there.

She wore dangle-y earrings for the first time.

 Daddy gave her new ski poles. And they match her dress! Bonus. (The kitchen is a mess because I was making a Dr. Seuss caramel cake.)

I got Bridget an American Girl doll - Felicity. She's from 1774 and her story goes along with the Revolutionary War. Bridget immediately dressed Felicity in modern clothes. Hahahahaha!

Grandma made us dinner and we brought the sad (but delicious) cake and the sadder birthday candles. We're never prepared with candles! It was a nice, relaxing little party. Perfect for 11 year-old Bridget.

Two days later Brian backpacked into the High Uintas for a week-long scout trip. We didn't hear from him the whole time! The boys had their second week of swimming lessons while he was gone and I frantically completed my assignments for my family's reunion that started just hours after Brian got home. Whew! Next year we'll plan more carefully, don't you think Drusilla?