Hogle Zoo

This week is Spring Break for the kids. While I would rather be in San Diego, we couldn't make the trip this year since Rob had a meeting in Salt Lake on Wednesday and is on the staff for Woodbadge Thursday through Saturday. So we've dealt with the crummy, not-so-spring-like weather the majority of the week. We went to the ice skating rink on Tuesday and on Wednesday it was actually a nice day so we took a trip down to Salt Lake to go to the Hogle Zoo.

With Trevor in charge of the trusty map, we were able to make our way to see all the animals...

We always love to see the baby elephant...so cute! 

Rhinos...

Crocodile...

Ashlee with a Sand Cat.  She thought it was sooooo cute....

Trevor and a couple of porcupines...

This giraffe came really close to the rock wall, but then of course everyone rushed to see it and it walked away...

The tigers were sleeping under a shelter when we walked by the first time but then when we went by again, two of them were walking up the hill and settled right by the fence...

Orangutans...

After we saw all the animals, we decided to ride on some on the carousel...

I think the kids sometimes think the statues of the animals are more fun than the live ones...

FHE Legos

For Family Home Evening, we played a game where everyone created a scriptural scene out of Legos. Then everyone else had to guess what the story was.

The challenge for our loyal readers is to guess not only what scripture story is being depicted but who created each one. T didn't participate.

Makeshift Recital

The girls' piano teacher had an early emergency C-section, but mom and baby appear to be doing okay. Congrats Nicole and Talon!

The recital was cancelled, so here are the girls playing their songs for all our loyal readers and for you, Nicole. They were each shot on one take.


Scarborough Fair


Persian Market (I was doing my best to keep the boys quiet, and I'm surprised T's giggle in the middle of this was the only one.)


Starry Starry Night


Coconut Shuffle

Dinnertime Drama

What could be so sad at dinnertime to cause tears like this?



Yes, we ran out of broccoli.



After making more, he was happy, until it ran out again.

20,000 Bouncy Balls

Ever wonder what it would be like to see 20,000 bouncy balls drop from a helicopter?  Well, you're in luck!  This past week was Geek Week at Utah State University so the College of Science had different things going on each day.  On Thursday, the physics department had a helicopter hover over the parking lot near the football stadium and drop all those balls.  It was really cool...but then kinda scary when all those balls start coming at you like a tidal wave.

We took a video of it, but it's not that great (and it was taking forever to upload to here).  You can find the video on Youtube.

The kids were able to collect quite a few balls to take home...


When we got home, Trevor's Sunbeam teacher brought over cupcakes since it was St. Patrick's Day.  She is the cupcake queen and makes everything from scratch.  Oh my, they were delicious.  A slight mint chocolate flavor.  Yum.

Double Digits

After things settled down a bit and there was a weekend that Rob was going to be home, we celebrated Ashlee's 10th birthday. Since it was a repeat of Brynlee's party, I'll just post some pictures. It definitely went ALOT smoother this time around. Probably a combination of fewer, older girls and doing it a second time.

A Science Fair and A Spelling Bee

In February Ashlee participated in the elementary school science fair.  After looking up different ideas...and deciding that we needed a QUICK one seeing as the science fair was the next day, she decided to test to see which brand of paper towels was the most absorbent.  We headed to Walmart (at 7:00 at night) and bought 5 different brands of paper towels.  We folded each brand into a square (first cutting each towel the same size because, of course, no two brand of towels are the same size), put it in a bowl of water for 15 seconds, and squeezed it out into another bowl and measured the water.  Repeat this 3 times for each brand.  Made a few calculations based on price and volume of water and guess who came out on top?  Great Value....who'da thunk?  Even beat out the quilted, quicker picker upper....Bounty.

A few weeks after that, Ashlee was in the Spelling Bee for the 4th and 5th graders at the school. The top 3 kids from each 4th and 5th grade classes participated, for a total of 15 kids.  She was given a list of 450 words to study back in January, but that list kinda got put in a stack of papers somewhere. So on the Monday before the Spelling Bee (which was Wednesday), we got studying. Notice a theme here? Yeah, I'm passing on my procrastination skills. Oops. Bad mom. I had glanced at the list when she first brought it home and I thought there were 150 words. Well, there were 150 beginning words and 300 intermediate words. Needless to say, the top 3 obviously studied from day 1 (I know that because I talked to 2 of their moms and they said they've been quizzing them since they got the list), and Ashlee wasn't one of them. She got out in the first round.  At least she wasn't the first one out.  There were two girls before her.  I think it had mostly to do with nerves because she had never spelled the word wrong when we were practicing. The word was "scientific" and she forgot the "e". Guess what word she will never spell wrong again in her life.

January Girls Road Trips

Alright, time to back up a bit and get caught up. Somehow I missed blogging about two fun trips I was able to take with some of my most favorite women. This first was to St. George....to run a half marathon. Why take a trip down to beautiful St. George in January to run a half marathon is beyond me. Obviously when the idea came up to run this race, all we could think about was how great it would be escape dreary Cache Valley to run in St. George in the winter. We obviously didn't think about how awful it would be to train in the winter in Cache Valley. Thanks to my previous 2 half marathons within the last 7 months, I was able to pull it off sans training...well, I did get a few runs in starting a couple week prior to the race, which included about 6 days of 4 or 5 miles (on an indoor track where one mile was SIX laps...talk about boring) and one 8 mile run that I was actually able to get outside and run since it decided to warm up to about 30 degrees. Yep, not much. But I managed to finish right in between my last two races with a time of 2:13.

There were 10 of us in all from my neighborhood (8 ran the half and 2 ran the 5k). We left Thursday afternoon, arrived just in time for a quick dip in the hot tub at the hotel before it closed, and enjoyed late night chats. The next day involved eating (hey we were carb loading!), shopping, more carb loading and more shopping. Then came race day. It was quite chilly starting out but warmed up quickly. Here we are for a post race picture...we all survived!


I headed back home that night with two other ladies since I had to speak the next day in Sacrament meeting. Then the packing for the next trip began!

A couple days later (Wednesday) I left with 4 of my friends from our old North Logan neighborhood and drove to Albuquerque. Kind of a strange destination, huh? But our plans included the show Wicked...what more can I say. Love that show. We had originally planned a trip to San Francisco to see Wicked about a year ago but it never happened. One of my friends saw that Wicked was going to be in Albuquerque and her mom lives there so we decided to take a little road trip out there...cheap travelling (splitting gas amongst 5 people) and cheap hotel arrangements (aka a mom's house=FREE!).

MJ made sure we had safe travels...


 We went to PF Changs before the show...


Julie flew in from Phoenix since she moved there after we had planned the trip but still wanted to come.   Posing by the poster...


We were able to do a session at the Albuquerque Temple the next day.

Pretty sure the celestial room was on the other side of this window...oops! We may or may not have been a little loud before we realized that.

On Saturday we visited Old Town and did some "touristy" things. This is the San Felipe de Neri Church.  These were the only two pictures I took on the trip.  The other ones I stole from Lindsey's blog or got from Julie's email.

We arrived back home Sunday night, just in time for me to prepare for Brynlee's baptism that Saturday.  Whew!  It was a fun, but stressful couple of weeks!

A Special Day

Brynlee was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on Saturday, February 5, 2011. It was a wonderful day and she looked absolutely beautiful...truly glowing! Her baptism was at 2:30 p.m. and ALL morning and early afternoon she asked how much longer until her baptism. She was so excited to be baptized and we are so happy for her for taking this important step in her life.

 

Brynlee was baptized with two of her friends, Alivia and Elizabeth.  I hope these girls always remember this special day that they were able to share together.

Thanks to all who joined us for this special day! We got a picture with family that was there but didn't get one with her friends. Thank you to the Horsburghs, Sister Anhder and other friends from our neighborhood for supporting Brynlee and letting her know that you love her!

Sewing Lessons With Grandma Barton

For Christmas, Rob's mom asked for ideas of what to give the girls for Christmas.  My girls have been asking me to teach them to sew but I just can't find the time to get everything out and teach them so I suggested giving them some sewing supplies of their own plus teaching them how to sew.  So for Christmas, they both got a little sewing kit with basic supplies and then there was a note inside that they would get sewing lessons for their birthdays since their birthdays are soon after Christmas.

The first day Grandma Barton came over and taught the girls some basic sewing terms and showed them basic stitches and how to follow a line.  She brought over some flannel squares for them to sew together, which eventually became the top to a recieving blanket that the girls' Great-Grandma Jones would finish up to give to the Humanitarian Center to go in newborn kits.  Then she took them to Jo-Ann's to pick out fabric for their first project...a pillow case.

Learning how to thread the machine....

Practicing sewing on a line.  Grandma had some striped fabric for the girls to practice on.  If you look close, um, not so straight! :)

Day Two of Lessons

Finishing up the pillowcase...

The finished projects (pillowcases and receiving blankets)...

The girls loved this experience and I'm so glad their grandma was able to spend time with them teaching them a skill they can use for years to come.  I love to sew but just don't get around to it as much as I'd like.  Even though sewing 10 aprons for the party was stressful (on a time constraint) I loved doing it because it's fun for me.  Maybe I'll organize my life a little better so I can get back to fun sewing projects!