Spring Break

This year's Spring Break was supposed to be a calm event at home centered around taking the boys skiing. Well, Sunday morning Josh convinced me to drive out to Utah to visit Kathy and her family. We left Wednesday morning and drove all day. The boys did great--probably better than me! I thought we would never get out of the Price Canyon.

Our first day there Kathy took us to the Children's Museum in Salt Lake City. The kids loved it. There were a ton of dress up opportunities which Jake loved--he was a postman, a horse, a grocery clerk, a prince and even a princess. Josh avoided the costumes (especially the dresses) but enjoyed making his own movie and being a news anchor. But the Flight-for-Life helicopter was the star of the show. We had a hard time dragging Josh out of there.













We visited BYU on Friday to go bowling at the Wilkinson Center and try some BYU Creamery ice cream. Yum! The weather wasn't cooperating for skiing, so we tried a tubing park on Saturday instead. It was near Park City and had a huge hill. But best of all, it had conveyor belts to take us to the top of the hill--no trudging up on our own! Josh loved it, but Jake had enough after two rides. I finally convinced him to keep going for two more trips and then he could take his snowmobile ride. The park had mini-snowmobiles that children over five could drive on their own. They had a great time--maybe next year we'll hit the slopes with skis.

And the winner is . . .

Josh REALLY enjoyed his first pinewood derby. He took first place overall without losing a single race! I'm not sure how we pulled it off--he made his car with help from me (mostly internet research) and from the past bishop who has a wood shop in his garage (but kept telling us he had two girls and this was his first pinewood derby car too). We were both very excited about coming home with a trophy. Josh has wanted one (from any kind of event) for about two years and recently started asking me to buy him a trophy. So I'm very happy that he earned one and I don't have to hear him say how he's NEVER going to get one anymore. Sigh--it's so hard being eight. Now on to the district race in Colorado Springs in April!

Josh' car is in the far lane. I put this in just because I was impressed that I actually got his car in the shot. I have several pictures of the empty track because my timing wasn't quite right.

Jake was checking things out before the races got started. They really went all out decorating the gym.

Me and my friend Monica. Jake had us posing for quite some time so I gave up smiling and just went goofy. Of course that's when he finally snaps the shot.

Happy Chinese New Year!

A few weeks ago, Josh said that I could order whatever food I wanted and he wouldn't complain. He wouldn't eat it, but I could finally go to whatever restaurant I wanted. So I said that on the Chinese New Year we would have Chinese food. I ordered beef and broccoli and then took the kids to Burger King so they could eat chicken nuggets with chopsticks. It was fun to watch them try--Jake just stabbed his chicken but Josh got the hang of it enough to dip his food in ranch dressing. Oh, and Josh did try the Chinese food--not a fan.

Mom's blanket

Since Mom decided to stay a few days longer than Dad and Susan at Christmas, I decided to give her a project to do. :-) I had a ton of jeans that I wanted to make into another blanket. Armed with ten yards of flannel I got on sale the day after Thanksgiving, we set to work. Correction--Mom went to work. I tried to help but was really just moral support. In three days she cut, sewed, and quilted the whole thing. Very impressive! We've really enjoyed having picnics in the basement and snuggling under a blanket than can fit all three of us. Thanks Mom!

I took a picture next my usual blanket so you could see how big it really is.

Snow days

A couple weeks ago we got about eight inches of snow--nothing compared to the East Coast, but it was enough to build a great snowman. That snow has long since melted, but the crazy weather is still here. Last Saturday it was 55 degrees. By Monday, the temp had dropped 30 degrees and school was delayed two hours Tuesday, cancelled Wednesday, and delayed Thursday again.The high across all three days was 2 degrees. BRRR!! Friday we started to warm up--I never thought 32 degrees could feel so balmy.

We buried Josh in the snow.

Jake likes to eat the snow.

Science Fair

Josh loves participating in the science fair. Science is his second favorite subject--after history-- and he likes getting the medal for his "medal collection". (His collection consists of two medals he's earned from science fairs and two medals I got as samples from award companies.) He got second place this year for his project on creating electromagnets.

The ER

This happened before Christmas (December 13 to be exact) but in the excitement of new toys and a new school semester, I forgot to post it in the right order. Poor little Jake took us on our first trip to the emergency room. The boys were getting ready for bed and in my room brushing their teeth. I was in the kitchen doing who knows what. Josh came running in and told me that Jake was bleeding. Since he said it in that special voice used only when things are bad, I went running. Apparently he had jumped off a stool and landed on the edge of the bathtub (which isn't rounded--sharp 90 degree angles around here). It wasn't big but it looked deeper than other wounds we've had so we grabbed shoes and drove to the hospital. Josh held a washcloth on Jake's face during the drive and Jake just laid there quietly. Kind of freaked me out to have him NOT scream so I kept asking him to talk to me. He was fine in the ER and as you can see from the pictures they had a good time playing on the doctor's chair. I thought he would need stitches but the doctor actually just super-glued his face. Both boys thought that was HILARIOUS. Jake's biggest concern of the night was the poster of smiley faces that depicted different levels of pain. He was very proud of himself that he was at a zero--happiest face on the page. What a trooper!