Wow, I am really behind! Here's what we did over Spring Break. We decided to not go anywhere so we did a 'Staycation' instead. Monday morning we set off for a day trip up to Shoshone Falls by Twin Falls, Idaho. When we left home it was 55 degrees so we weren't dressed for cold weather. Unfortunately, it started snowing shortly after we crossed into the Idaho border. You can see the clouds already looked threatening as were crossing into Idaho:
We did stop by to see the Twin Falls temple which is tiny, but beautiful!
We got the Shoshone Falls which is nicknamed 'The Niagara Falls of the West'. It was really pretty, but really COLD!!
It was huge! The pictures don't do it justice that's for sure!
Being cold already outside the mist from the waterfall didn't make things any warmer, either!
There were a few hikes around where you could see the falls from different vantage points which we took advantage of:
Did I mention that it was really cold and windy--BRRRR!
There were a lot of birds around. Daniel was getting in touch with his inner bird while I recorded him without him knowing--haha!
It was still cold by the time we got back to Utah, but at least it wasn't snowing anymore. I thought it supposed to be SPRING BREAK not January 90th--haha!
Monday was the only day Aaron was able to spend with us. The rest of the week we were on our own. Tuesday we had a chill out day which was nice. Wednesday Josh had an early morning 10 mile run with friends up on Antelope Island. Afterward I took the kids down to the Church History Museum. They have redone part of it and it was pretty cool. They had a printing press set up so you could see how the original Book of Mormons were printed. Each individual letter had to be placed so it took a while just to do a few pages.
A funny thing happened while we were there. I am just used to being bumped and touched all over from the kids so if something runs into me or stands by me I just assume it is one of my kids. Well I was looking at an exhibit and Noah (or who I thought was Noah) came over and stood right by me with his hood on his head. I hate when he pulls his hood up over his head because I want to see his face. I reached over and pulled the hood off his head when I realized that it wasn't my kid--whoops! The kid ran over to his mom with the look of fear on his face. I had to go and apologize and say that I thought he was my kid blah, blah, blah. The mom just laughed and said she had 10 kids so she totally understands thank goodness! Next time I will try and be more aware of where MY kids are at before I do such things--haha!
They had a replica of Liberty Jail set up. Good thing Josh wasn't imprisoned there because there was no way he'd be able to stand straight!
They had a pulley system set up to show how they hoisted the rocks into place. The kids all got to try it out and see how they temple was built:
They have an Angel Moroni that used to be on top of a Washington chapel instead of a temple. This Angel Moroni was two feet shorter than the ones they use on the temples. Usually you can't touch it, but there was a worker there that passed out white gloves to all the kids so they could touch the statue as long as they were wearing their white glove. The kids thought it was pretty cool:
They also had a mock pulpit set up just like the one in the Conference Center. Sarah and Noah were a bit short, so Josh helped them out by kneeling down and letting the kids stand on his back to reach the microphone:
Everyone took a turn 'speaking':
They had a lithograph station set up, too. It is where you carve in an image you want printed and then put ink on the carved image and then stamp the carved ink image on the paper to get the result.
The kids all carved their own image:
I even got in on the fun. Here's my image that I carved with a red pen and then inked:
Unfortunately, I didn't take into account that I should have carved a mirror image so my print came out backwards--DOH!!
They had a kids area which we spent a while at. The kids liked making their own stained glass windows on the light boxes:
They also had a pioneer area that showed how they kept track of how many miles they walked. It was a counter attached to the wagon wheel that counted the revolutions of the wheel as it spun and let them know how far they walked. My kids just spun the wheel as fast as they could to see who 'walked' further...
They also had a mini organ set up that you had to have one person pump air into it as the other person played the keyboard. It was pretty interesting.
This section made me feel a bit old. It was a section of all the prophets and about their lives. They had a typewriter set up you could type things out on. The kids were fascinated by it. They had never used an actual typewriter before. The sad thing is that I have actually used a typewriter to type things out for school. I had to show them how to load the paper on it as well as how to finish a line and return the typer bar or whatever it is called to start the next line. Boy did that make me feel OLD!!
They also had a replica of what they thought the Golden Plates looked like. They were actually not 100% gold, but a gold alloy which is a combination of different metals which ended up looking like it was gold. The replica was heavy. All the kids got a chance to try and lift it up:
Here they are looking at the pages on the mock gold plates:
On our way out we stopped by the old pioneer cabin. I am amazed the pioneers could have as big of families as they did and live in such small spaces without driving each other CRAZY--haha!
Thursday was Noah's birthday. To celebrate he wanted to go to see a movie so we did.
We went and saw a Jumanji matinee and then met up with G&G T at Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch where Josh and Noah got their 'Cookie Monster' birthday desserts.
Here's my cute birthday boy:
After lunch we then went over to the Family History Center in Layton. They have some huge touch screens where you can look up your pedigree, where you ancestors came from and how closely related you are to certain celebrities. It was pretty interesting:
Josh even showed Daniel how to do some indexing while we were there, too.
When we got home we had Noah's birthday cake which was an ice cream cake.
He made a wish and blew out his candles:
Then he got to open his presents:
The next day G&G M came in to town. Aaron reserved some Jordan River Temple open house tickets so we were able to tour it with them. Here we are waiting for the introduction film to play:
It was beautiful inside. They didn't change too much, but just updated it. We asked someone to take our picture outside. I was hoping to get more of the temple in the picture, but it didn't quite work out. It is still a good picture of the family, though:
I decided to take the type of picture I actually wanted even if it meant I wasn't going to be in the picture--haha!
Saturday morning Noah got baptized. I still can't believe me baby is that old! The primary president embroidered Noah's name on a special white towel and gave it to him with this saying:
Here's my handsome 8 year old!!
Here he was before he changed into his white jumpsuit:
G&G T:
G&G M:
The nice thing about having a big family is you have lots of people to do everything! Wahoo!! Matthew played the prelude, in-between the baptism and confirmation music, and postlude music, Josh played the piano for both the opening and closing songs, I did the spotlight, Grandma T did a talk on Baptism, Daniel did a talk on the Holy Ghost, Aaron baptized and did the confirmation, Grandpa T and Grandpa M were the witnesses, Sarah did the opening prayer, Aunt Johanna led the music, and Matthew did the closing prayer. Here's the program:
Here's the people that came to support us in getting Noah baptized:
Afterward we had a luncheon at our house. Aaron had smoked a pork shoulder all night long so we had pulled pork sandwiches with salad and chips for lunch. It was an awesome day. It makes me a bit sad to know that he is my last kid to baptize, though....I am glad he chose to be baptized!
While G&G M were here they got to get some Noah snuggles:
Sunday was Josh's birthday. Since his birthday was on Sunday instead of going to Pizza Pie Cafe I let him choose his favorite dinner and cake and then made it for him. He wanted cheese manicotti with Better Than Anything Cake. Since it was Josh's birthday I just planned to make everything myself, but was very surprised when the kids actually
wanted to help me. Usually when there is work to be done they make themselves scarce--haha! Anyway, they actually asked to help me stuff all the manicottis which I was more than happy to let them. We made cheese manicotti for dinner, but I also made 6 additional pans for freezer meals so it was quite a bit of work. We had quite the manicotti factory going on! I was glad for the willing help, though.
I tried to surprise Josh by 'frosting' a balloon decorated as a cake for him to slice. He wasn't fooled so he stuck the knife right in the fake cake and it exploded and sent frosting everywhere. Oh well I tried--haha!
Later that afternoon we had G&G T over for some cake:
He's getting too old where he can't blow all the candles out in one breath. I told him it just goes downhill from there--haha!
The next morning which was Monday Aaron got up early and surprised Josh with a box of 15 donuts from Madbrooks.
Soccer is in full swing. Noah is really into playing this season which is nice. I didn't sign him up last year since he would rather pick grass than play soccer so when he begged me to sign him up this year I was a bit skeptical. He promised that he actually wanted to play and he does. Wahoo Noah!
One thing didn't change though, his favorite part of the game is still snack/treat time, but he's not the only one:
Daniel is doing great in soccer. He loves to play and works well with his team. Here's an action shot of Daniel jumping to kick the ball--he is the one with the green striped shorts in the center of the picture:
Josh had his semi annual dentist visit and has no cavities--wahoo!
Noah started Cub Scouts!! I pulled out our old Cub Scout shirt for him to wear to scouts and he was pretty excited to try it on and go to scouts. Here's my handsome Cub Scout:
Noah is still quite the sweet boy. He still picks me flowers on his way home from school everyday and I LOVE it!!
Sarah finished her orthodontic treatment for this phase and got to get her braces off Thursday. She was pretty excited. Here's the before:
They even had her name on the chalkboard to celebrate:
Here's the after:
I think it's awesome the orthodontist sends them home with balloons and a goodie bag full of snacks they couldn't eat while they had braces on. Sarah loved it:
Daniel, unfortunately, had to get two huge springs put on his braces to get his jaw aligned correctly. He absolutely HATES them!
Oh well, it is only for a few months. He should be getting his braces off toward the end of summer so not too much longer.
Saturday we finally made it to Lagoon for the first time this season. They have been open for a couple of weekends, but we have been busy the last few Saturdays. The kids were excited to finally make it there. Josh was helping a friend make a video so he didn't go with us, but everyone else went and had fun. We tried out the bumper cars:
Terror Ride:
It was a fun couple hours there. However, we did run into some mean teenagers. As we were in line waiting to go on Cannibal Matthew was stimming which means he was flapping his hands, making some noises and in his own little world. Some teenagers about 30 people in front of us started making fun of him. They were pulling faces and imitating him and just laughing. It made me sad. Thankfully, Matthew was oblivious to it, but the rest of us weren't. We decided to get out of line and to go to a different ride instead. Sigh...I can't dwell on mean people like that I and trying to concentrate on all the awesome people I have dealt with who love Matthew and would never do anything like that.
We got some good news from Daniel. In Jr. High they have a club called the Hope Squad. It is a club where they try to be friendly with everyone and be good listeners if someone needs to talk. To start out in the club transitioning from elementary school to Jr. High they have all the 6th grade classes nominate 4 different people who they think would do a good job in this club. Daniel was one of the kids chosen out of his class. He brought home this paper to show me that he had been nominated by his peers and that they would be having interviews later in the week. I am excited for Daniel! Here's the form they sent home:
I started working this week. I have worked over 45 hours this week alone and that does not include traveling time, either. Luckily, I have the next few days off, but I can really tell I haven't been around at home--ugh! Aaron's had to pick up the slack since I have been gone and he is on a sharp learning curve. He has been able to do most things, but there have been a few things slip through the cracks. Sometimes I wonder if I am needed around here, but this week really showed me that I am--haha! Poor Aaron is traveling for work and had to pack while trying to get the kids ready for school one morning--hahahaha! That didn't go over so well. He ended up forgetting to pack clean underwear and a few other necessities. Kids are like that! When you are concentrating on something and then you have 50 different requests fired at you while you are trying to do 10 different things you end up forgetting things--like clean underwear to name one. Poor Aaron!! One good thing about me being gone so much this week is that it helps Aaron appreciate the things I do at home a bit more.
I did have to work bright and early Saturday morning. Unfortunately, Saturday morning was Sarah's dance pictures. DOH!! That meant that Aaron either needed to quickly figure out how to do Sarah's hair and make up (EEK!) or I needed to ask someone for help. Thankfully my friend Bethany was more than happy to Sarah's hair and makeup that morning. Bethany spent a long time with Sarah and did an awesome job. Here's what Sarah looked like for her dance pictures:
Thanks Bethany!!
Also Saturday morning I signed Josh up to volunteer at a duathlon down in North Salt Lake. Through this race circuit site I follow they were offering free race credits if you volunteered to help. Josh has been wanting to run a certain half marathon in the summer, but it is really expensive so when I saw this opportunity to volunteer we signed him up. Daniel woke up Saturday morning and wanted to go along with Josh. Josh got to help write down times for people while Daniel got to ring a cowbell to cheer people on. The duathlon involved cycling and running. Josh didn't mind helping out, but Daniel didn't particularly enjoy it. Josh is just excited to run the half marathon in the summer. I'll just cheer Josh on and be happy that enjoys things like that--haha!
This past week we were able to meet with the behaviorist to help draw up a behavior plan for Matthew. He came and spent over an hour with us asking us questions and seeing what things we wanted to be put in the plan. He, hopefully, will have it done by the end of April so we can start following it. I am hoping we can curb some of Matthew's difficult behaviors. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!
