Day at the Farm

With the sun shining on Saturday afternoon, Wendell decided it was the perfect day to show Tyler and Emily around his uncles' farm. (Megan had better things to do like go swimming with her friend.) Emily was in heaven seeing all the baby calves. She is definitely an animal lover and loved feeding the babies with a giant bottle. Notice how Tyler is standing off to the side---he just doesn't love animals like his sister does.

Tyler told me this is where over 600 cows are milked 3 times a day. Quite the operation and fieldtrip. Emily did ask me later that day is she could get a baby cow for our backyard. She figured Daddy wasn't allergic and it would be the perfect pet. She must have missed the fact that the babies grow up to be the big cows---a lesson for the next fieldtrip.

Friday the 13th!

We decided since Friday the 13th is supposed to be bad luck, we planned a party and celebrated it instead. We invited our friends and neighbors over for dinner. Emily and Sarah spent most of the night trying on dresses and dancing. I guess that is what they think a party should be.

The older girls played games.

And the boys entertained themselves with the Wii and Legos. As for the adults' celebration, we were all just relieved the kids can now entertain themselves. That's the best luck!

What's better than food and friends? Tyler said that it was the best day ever and not the worst. He thinks the superstition is backwards. I guess it all depends on your perception.

I Love to See the Temple

On Friday we went to the open house of the Draper temple with Mammy and Grandma Grace. The handling of the crowds is like a well-oiled machine there. First we arrived at a church and waited maybe 20 minutes to watch a short video. Then we were taken by bus up to the temple. From the street we entered a maze of tents to get to the door of the temple. There were a ton of people, but we all managed to get through all the rooms in pretty good time. After we followed another maze of tents (heated of course) to a church next door for cookies and water. Emily dressed in her best dress for the temple and kept saying, "Ooh! This is so beautiful!"

We never actually got outside to get pictures of the temple---we were in too many tents. This is the best we could do. It really is a beautiful building.

Tyler and Megan were pretty happy with the cookies. Tyler loved the room with the animals painted on the walls and Megan was pretty impressed with everything. She was a little worried that the huge chandelier in the Celestial room would fall because it was spinning a little. Definitely our worrier.

These are the lines to get back on the buses to get to our cars. They could pack those buses to the doors. Even the wait to get to the church was only about 15 minutes.

It was a great night that I hope the kids will remember.

Thar She Blows!

Tyler's class has been learning about rocks and volcanoes in his class. His teacher asked them all to build a volcano to bring to class and erupt. Parents all came to watch the explosions and add to the "oohs" and "ahhs" of the kids.

This is the start of the volcano building process. Emily was more than happy to help with the clay and molding. Good thing we started on Wednesday for a Friday explosion. The clay took forever to dry. I ended up having to bake it on low a few times.

Tyler then painted the mound. He insisted that the entire volcano had to be black because that is the color of lava. He wasn't into decorating it. He wanted it true to life. He told me that no trees would be around because they would be blown apart by the explosion--good point.

This was the big eruption. They used a ton of baking soda and red vinegar. Who knew 3rd graders would find this so exciting? Now we have to find a place to store the volcano---the garbage is not an option with Tyler.

Blue & Gold Banquet

Our Blue and Gold Banquet was held on Feb. 18th. We served a ton of hot dogs and I shredded 40 lbs of bar-b-que pork. To say we had a ton of food left over was an understatement. I didn't feel so bad about the meet after I saw the potato salad another Mom made with 15 lbs of potatoes. At least no one went home hungry. This is a picture of Tyler's den. They definitely have a lot of energy, but we are able to get things done.

All of the boys carried in flags from all over the world. Tyler is always happy to help with the flag ceremonies as long as he doesn't have to say anything.

The boys then stood at attention guarding the flags. I'm not sure why they had to guard them other than the pack master simply forgot they were there. A parent finally had to ask if they could come and eat. At least they take their jobs serious.

Our den did a skit about a puppy in a box. Tyler and all the boys licked the box and thought it tasted good until another boy came back and said thanks for holding my puppy. Yes, a typical scout skit. I was happy that I just had to hold the microphone. Tyler was excited he actually earned 2 beads and a beltloop. He's hoping to get his wolf badge as soon as the weather warms up.

Ski Bunnies!

Megan's foot is finally feeling better and so her next adventure was to hit the slopes. She's had a hard time not being jealous of Tyler's ski trip a couple of weeks ago. Megan was in heaven going with Rylee.

Wendell was happy that the girls could ride the lift without much assistance. In fact, Megan and Rylee wouldn't let their dads help them.

I just love this picture with the valley behind them. This was a great way for Wendell and Megan to spend an evening together. Megan didn't keep track of the number of times down the hill, but according to Wendell's body today it was probably a little more than he should have done.

Girls' Day Out!

While the boys were fishing on Monday, Megan, Emily, Mammy, and I headed to Logan to try our sledding skills on Old Main's hill. I hadn't been down that hill since college and Mammy hadn't been since she flew over the fence years ago. (They have since taken down the fence at the bottom and now you just sled right into the road.) It's a lot easier on a sled rather than our torn up garbage bags like I did with my roommates.

I love this picture with the "A" in the background. The hills were fast, but also steep to climb. We had to carve out a smaller path for Emily. She was a little afraid of the "really bumpy" trails and couldn't quite make it up the entire hill. The highlight for her was seeing 4 deer running through the trees on the hill.

Megan flew down so many times we lost track. She was worn out. We ended the day by visiting Jeff and having lunch at the Bluebird. Great way to spend a day off of school and work!