Ukulele, Piano Rockstar, Busy Sunday, Aquarium, Broken Shower

We have had a pretty low key week.  I do have to say that Noah seems to play hard at recess.  Every day he comes home with both shoes full of sand.  Wow, I am surprised there is any sand left in the playground after all the sand he brings home in his shoes!  Most of the time I catch him before he takes off his shoes inside the house, but then again, there are a few sand piles around because sometimes I don't catch him in time.  He is getting better and when he remembers he tries to take off his shoes and empty them outside.  Here's all the sand after just one day:

 Noah is getting bigger so the rare times he falls asleep on the couch are becoming few and far between so I had to take a picture.  I love how little kids can just pass out wherever they are if they are tired enough.

Friday night we had the Einzingers over for dinner and games.  Last minute before they came Aaron decided to take a shower.  I told him he didn't have time, but he assured me he would be fast. Hmmm famous last words....Unfortunately, when he was done showering as he was turning off the shower the shower knob stopped working.  You could spin it around, but you couldn't get it to turn off the shower.  Well Aaron tried to fix it, but nothing was working and we couldn't get the shower to stop flowing.  Good thing we were able to call Grandpa T to come take a look.  All the while the Einzingers came.  It was crazy because everyone was hungry, but we had to fix the shower.  Luckily, Blaine was able to find a Youtube video to show how to fix it (YAY for YOUTUBE!!).  With Grandpa T's help and the Youtube video they were able to fix it.  Come to find out Sarah and Noah had been hanging on the handle during their showers and bent the handle to the point it finally broke on Aaron--the stinkers!  All the while Erin and I had to run and pick up the pizza for dinner.  What a crazy beginning to the night, but after fixing the shower everything else went smoothly and everyone had fun.  It is nice having adult conversations and having all the kids play together.

The next morning everyone was a bit grouchy since most everyone didn't go to bed until after midnight and no kids in my house can sleep past 7 am no matter what time they go to bed.  We had plans for a family day that Saturday, but everyone was such 'Chuckles' we decided we better just have a chillaxing day at home.  Matthew was quite upset with that idea, but everyone else was fine with it.  In the afternoon I did take Matthew out to run a few errands with me and that seemed to placate him--thank goodness!!  That kid loves to be on the go all the time.That evening we put everyone to bed early which was nice.  We were going crazy listening to all the kids fight all day long because everyone was 'Chuckles'.  Aaron got to watch the BYU football game on tv with a friend while I was able to take a bath.  It was a nice change of pace to have a relaxing Saturday because they don't happen all that often.

In other happenings Matthew is progressing with the piano.  He has been wanting to play the piano for priesthood and has been practicing playing the hymns.  He finally got that chance this past Sunday.  He played the prelude music and did great.  Then when it came time for everyone to sing he started playing and got really nervous and played Nearer My God to Thee really fast.  Oh well, I do the same thing, too which is why I don't play the piano for church.  Anyway, he was so excited to be able to play which probably another reason why he played it so fast. Our bishop who is a joking kind of guy came over to Aaron afterward and jokingly said, "Wow, That's the closest version to a rock song that I have ever heard Nearer My God to Thee!" (because it went so fast).  Aaron just smiled and was glad Matthew was able to play despite his nervousness. Matthew didn't care he was just excited to be able to play--way to go Matthew!

Sunday Josh also got the opportunity to teach the Deacon's Quorum lesson on Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy.  He prepared a lesson mostly on his own and did pretty well.  After church Aaron asked the Deacon's Quorum advisor how Josh did and the advisor said he did great except he got a bit nervous and went through his lesson pretty fast.  Good thing the advisor was able to stop Josh at different parts to ask questions to stretch the lesson out so they didn't end after just 10 minutes.  It was a great experience for Josh.  I can't believe my kids are growing up to the point they can do such things so independently.  It is crazy!  Even this morning I was talking to Josh and he now is right at eye to eye level with me.  He is growing so fast!

Sunday was a busy day for our family!  During Sunday school Aaron realized his Elder's Quorum teacher wasn't there as well as his second counselor who was in charge of the teachers for that month.  Doh!!  That meant he had to prepare the lesson for Elder's Quorum during Sunday School. He was even more nervous when he found out the lesson was on the Law of Chastity.  Double DOH!!  I am glad that it was him and not me that had to deal with that.  I don't do well with last minute things like that.  I think the lesson went ok--any one you can walk away from is a good one, right?!  I will say he was relieved when Elder's Quorum was over, though.  Thank goodness for all the church teaching resources!

Daniel has been busy at school.  His class is learning how to play the Ukulele this year.  I tried ordering one online, but when it came it, it was broken.  DOH!!  Since I didn't have time to send it back and get a new one before they needed it I had to rent one from the school for the year. I was just glad to be able to have that option.  Daniel is having fun with it so far.  I must say it does get pretty crazy when Daniel and Josh are practicing at the same time, though.  Let's just say the Ukulele and the trumpet don't mix very well with each other--haha!

Yesterday I got to go on a field trip to the Aquarium with Daniel.  Wow, that was a long bus ride.  Yes, it was only 60 minutes down to the Aquarium, but that 60 minutes was full of 3rd and 4th graders talking, shouting, and playing games.  Whew, I was glad when we finally made it to the aquarium.  Here we are on the bus ride down:

I had a group of three boys that I was chaperoning.  One of the boys is a fellow Epi penner like Daniel so he and Daniel will always be in the same field trip group and I am the official Epi pen carrier--lucky me ;). Anyway, I love the Aquarium.  There are so many neat things to see there.  Here's a few of the things we saw.  This station we learned about water conservation:

 We liked watching the otters and penguins swimming.

 In the Amazon Jungle section there was a rope bridge you could cross:

 There were lots of fish to see:

 We got to pet some sting rays:

 One of the favorites was the shark tunnel.  You got to go through a tunnel of water and see all the fish/animals from underneath.  We got a close up view of many sharks and this turtle:

 Here's a few of the sharks:

 Here's the size of Megalodon jaws:

 We also got to see a large octopus which is attached to the wall in the top right of the picture:

We had a fun day at the Aquarium and I was glad I was able to go with Daniel.  I was also grateful G&G T were able to pick up Noah from kindergarten that day.  Noah LOVES having G&G T pick him up from school.  G&G T have only picked up Noah twice from school so far this year, but every day Noah is disappointed to see me instead of G&G T when it is time for pick up from kindergarten.  When I am there picking him up he will ask me where G&G T are and then is disappointed to hear they aren't coming.  What a stinker!!  Glad to know I am chopped liver--haha!