Temple Square and Bumper Cars

Tuesday it was my family's day. My mom took off work and Chrissy had the week off for her spring break. I have been wanting to take the girls to see temple square and go see it myself as well. This year, in the Friend magazine (an LDS children's mag), they have featured one building on temple square each month. It really made me want to take my girls to see all the neat things there. We ended up having so much fun I sent three pictures from the day and a letter to the Friend thanking them for the feature each month. One of the editors wrote me back, so who knows? Maybe it will be in a future Friend.
We spent a whole day downtown. The girls were in awe of the Salt Lake temple and were so excited to see where mommy and daddy were married. We walked through both visitor's centers, went on a tour of the Beehive House where Brigham Young lived, walked through the Joseph Smith building and rode the elevators to the top to see the view of temple square from up high and we saw the tabernacle. It was such a neat day. They have really made temple square so beautiful and a wonderful place to visit and learn about our heritage. It was also neat to share with the girls where we were married and reminisce about that day. Our reception was in the Joseph Smith building and we showed the girls where everyone came for the "party" after we got married.

Sarah noticed all the "U of U' flags downtown. Yeah, I'm indoctrinating her while she's young before her daddy gets to her! (o: Angela is confused and calls them "BY-Ute" flags.

The Joseph Smith building entry. There was a man playing the most beautiful music on a grand piano and it carried throughout the whole first two floors. I remember coming here during Christmas several years ago when Sarah was two and listening to a huge group of bagpipe players play Amazing Grace. I still remember how it gave me the chills. I also remember walking through here in my wedding dress feeling like a princess and Chrissy (who was 6!) carrying the back of my dress like the flower girls she had seen in movies. I remember eating dinners at the Roof and Garden restaurants on the top floor with family and friends. So many great memories here!
The church administration building. The girls were excited to think that maybe President Monson or one of the general authorities were nearby! They waved up to the windows saying, "Hi President Monson!"
We had a fabulous lunch at the Lion House cafeteria. Man they have good food! Their famous rolls, Sarah's salad (a family favorite) amazing desserts and so many yummy things to choose from. And the staff are super friendly. I love this place - it feels so homey.

Chris and I were being goofballs doing silly pictures and laughing until we cried. I don't remember exactly what was so funny. But here's a kooky picture from the moment.

At the Beehive house after our tour. The girls were amazed at all the old fashioned furniture and decorations. They loved the children's rooms, the school room and seeing the old toys. Oh and the piece of candy you get at the end because Brigham Young always had a piece of lemon drops to give to guests in his home.

The view from the Joseph Smith Building.

Angela being silly with Joseph. (o:

Grandma and Sarah having a nice visit in the visitor's center looking out to the temple.

This was too cute. My mom said that as soon as Natalie saw this huge statue of the Savior, she said, "Grandma, it looks like he wants to give me a high five!" My mom half expected her to say "a hug", but Natalie must be on friendlier terms with Him. (o: What a crack up.

Angela and Moses.

Outside the conference center. They had all the Young Women flags in all the value colors hanging up for the upcoming Young Women's conference. Someday, when they're in young women's, we'll have to come back and watch the conference here together!

In the evening, we switched gears and partied. We met Russ and Andy's families at Hires for dinner and took the kids to Jungle Jim's in Sandy. It was a blast! Thanks to Tina, we got a pretty good deal. (o: We came the last hour they were open and she convinced the lady working that we shouldn't have to pay full price. The kids loved going from ride to ride, Ned* and Andy had an air hockey tournement and the rest of us had fun watching the kids laugh and look terrified on all the rides. (o: Aunt Chrissy was a good sport and rode on the little roller coaster with the kids. It took a minute to figure out how to fit her legs in. But the night got even funnier . . .

The guy working was in a jolly mood and humored us when we asked if some of us could ride in the itty bitty bumper cars. Trying to get in them was a challenge for all of us and got us laughing to tears. But watching Andy was the absolute highlight of the night. I haven't laugh cried so hard in a looong time. I think even the people working there had sore sides from laughing. These pictures are not great, but the facial expressions they captured - while Andy drove around in pain with each bump because he was so crammed in - are PRICELESS.

Kaleb fit just fine in his car! (o:

"Now how do I get out of this thing?"

This will be a night we talk about for years to come.

Thanks for always making good stories to remember and laugh at Andy!! (o:

Sunshine, Laser Tag and Slime!

Our first whole day in Utah was dedicated to grandma and grandpa P. and Vern's* family. Because both our families live in Utah we always divide our time up and this method seemed to be the most relaxing of any we've tried before! It was great! We had entire days dedicated to each side of our family rather than back and forth. It worked out great on this trip! The first matter of business was a tee time at Boondock's! We love Boondock's and go almost every trip. We lucked out with nice weather in the morning. And ZERO crowds on a Monday morning. (o: Grandpa beat us all and amazed us with his mini golfing skills! He taught the girls a few basics, like how to properly hold a club. We had a great time and Sarah even got a hole in one!


This was so much fun! We had the whole laser tag "court" too ourselves. Angela was a little nervous, but LOVED it. She could not stop talking about laser tag all day. She told everyone she won.

Cafe Rio. Need I say more? We have to make a pilgrimage to either Cafe Rio or Costa Vida and Training Table on each Utah trip. MMMM I'm so hungry....

We were so excited to see uncle Kelly and aunt Lisa's new-ish house! They moved here last year after graduating from law school. It is so nice! And I can't get over the size of the yards in Utah. The cousins all played soccer and had a blast! In the picture above, Kelton and Sarah were playing with some slime. They both love science and goo, so they had a wonderful time together!

When I went to see the upstairs, I found Cameron turning himself into a robot. I LOVE it! This totally reminds me of something Natalie would do. So creative! See the finished product below!

Anna was obsessed with Sarah! She LOVED her! What a cutie pie. Sarah was very sweet and played a ton with her. Notice Angela in the back looking lovely in Anna's dress ups.

What a bunch of nuts! Must be the genes!

How cute is this? Cameron the robot. This was the cherry on top of a wonderful day and visit. Some of the things I didn't get pictured were the girls squealing when grandma P. pulled into the garage after work, playing Barbies at grandma's house, visiting and laughing with Lisa (admiring the monstrosity of a gym that Kelly bought and put in the extra bedroom) and hanging out eating pizza all together. The only thing that would have made it better is if Emily and Casey's family could have been there! Little Isaac and Grace got fevers that day. DRAT!

Watching a movie back at the hotel.

I think this picture must have been in the morning - the girls LOVE getting hot chocolate at the breakfast buffet every morning. And just a side note to mention that I was proud of. I went to the gym three of the days on our trip and ran for a half hour. Yay for me! It was a nice gym which made it easier!

Utah or Bust!

At one point, it looked like we might not make it, but Saturday, March 20th, we were on the road for a spring break trip to good old Utah!

We always break the 12 our drive in half. Most of the time we stay at the Hampton Inn in Nampa, ID. It is so much more relaxing taking a break and we have fun eating out and watching TV in bed at the end of the day! This time, we found a ColdStone (after much trouble) to treat ourselves.
The girls are great travelers! We did have a few questions like "Are we out of Oregon yet?" and "How much longer?" before we were even out of the greater-Portland area! But the girls acclimated quickly to road trip mode and were VERY well behaved. We really enjoy our road trips together! (O: Good times. Nintendo DS and DVD players are a wonderful things!

Sarah and Nat found it extra fun to play their DS's under their blankets!

Sunday afternoon, we made it!

We got checked into our hotel - which was really nice. The Hyatt Summerfield Suites. We loved our suite and got all situated before heading over to my mom's for a PAR-TAY!

My wonderful mom had an open house for us and invited all the extended family to come visit! We felt so loved! Thanks so much mom and thanks everyone who came! It was such a fun reunion with some of our most favorite people in the whole world!

Natalie was excited to hand out all her cute cards she worked hard on during the trip!

Me and Peggy! My adopted aunt. She's been part of the family on my dad's side since before I was born, I think. I believe it started when she stayed with my grandparents while going to college.

Little sis - am I that much taller than you, Chris??

Sarah with my grandparents! Grandma T. - the artist! (o: We have one of grandma's paintings in our living room and the girls each have one from grandma. They LOVE her paintings and I think inherited some of her artistic talent!

Seth and Andy!

The girls! These are my cousins on my dad's side - Kelly, Hailey and Leslie. I haven't seen them forever!! It was so fun to catch up and see their little kids! We laughed about how old we are getting! We used to play and be silly - and we still like to be silly.

Mike and Anne were so sweet to come down from Ogden! We love to see them and miss their visits to Oregon when Jeff and Kelli lived in the NW.

Lara - busy mom of three kiddos less than two years apart! How did she do it? Two at a time! She's so efficient! And fun too! (o:

My cousin Charlie, whom I was especially excited to see. He just got home from his mission to Rochester, NY two (or three?) weeks earlier. I used to babysit Charlie since he was a baby!

And his older brother Brad too! What the heck? My "baby cousins" are getting all grown up!

Silly girls - Hailey and Chris - oh wait, there's more...

I told you I come from a family of dedicated Ute fans! (o: Hailey's car was so cute, I had to get a picture . . .

Or two!

We love Hailey!

Aunt Chrissy is well worth the 12 hour drive to see. (o:

Uncle Andy is a party all by himself!

Ahhhh - time to relax after a BIG day!

Pneumonia!

Friday, March 12th, Sarah came home from school pooped. I was making a few phone calls and when I was done, I couldn't find Sarah anywhere.

She was sound asleep on her bed! Very unusual for my active girl who likes to stay up late like me. She perked up the next day and seemed fine over the weekend.

On Monday, she was very hard to wake up for school. She started getting ready, but said she was too tired. I took her temperature and she had a very low grade fever. Around 99. I let her get back in bed and we just had a lazy day. The next day it was the same thing. I hated having her miss school for such a minor illness. Her fever never even got up much higher than 99.1 and she wasn't really complaining too much about feeling terrible, but she was starting to cough a lot. It sounded like bronchitis - a deep cough. So I made a Dr. appointment. We were planning to go to Utah on Friday so I wanted to nip it in the bud if it was an infection of some kind.

Daddy came and took Sarah to the doctor since I had preschool at our house that week.

I was shocked to find out that she had pneumonia! Her symptoms didn't seem that bad. The cough was getting bad, but I wouldn't have guessed she was that sick.

Poor Sarah also got a wart that has been driving us crazy for a couple months, frozen off at the same appointment. (I had scheduled it later in the week before her illness and decided to kill two birds with one stone.)

Needless to say, Sarah missed school all week, but recovered quickly with antibiotics. Towards the end of the week, I started feeling crummy. I barely made it through preschool on Thursday with a bad sore throat. Because Sarah was home all week and my nights were full, I never got out to run any errands before the trip. I got desperate enough to get a babysitter so I could go get groceries! That was a first.

I actually really enjoy sick days with my kids - weird, I know. I like taking care of them and having them home with me. But sick "weeks" are hard! It's tricky getting everything done! Especially while hosting preschool too!

It seemed like we might not get to go on our trip with everything going on. Luckily, Sarah and I were both much better Friday and we were able to leave Saturday - just a day later than originally planned. What a week!

St. Patty's Day Fundraiser!

From Blog Favorites #3

For Girls' Camp in the summertime - the girls have about $120 they need to pay. So we try to do a fundraiser or two to help them earn money. We had a spaghetti dinner in January and Emily, our ward camp director had a creative idea for a second fundraiser. A St. Patrick's day leprechaun hunt for kids in the ward and neighborhoods. The girls dressed up and brought homemade treats. Families in the ward signed up to have the girls come do a leprechaun hunt with their children. They paid a small fee for the visit and treats.

From Blog Favorites #3

Randie and Nina getting treats onto plates.

From Blog Favorites #3

Kristy helping arrange plates.

From Blog Favorites #3

Britlee, Nina and Kristi getting into their roles!

From Blog Favorites #3

Sarah, Nat and Angela closing their eyes - they missed Lucky the leprechaun, he is so tricky, but left some treats behind!

St. Patty's Day

I usually like to do something fun and greenish for St. Patty's Day, but this week was such a blur (see Sarah's Pneumonia entry) that I was just proud to remember to help Ang and Natalie wear green to school. We had preschool that day and the kids all looked cute in their green. They had fun learning about ABC's that day...

Angela loves to wear her "funny little hat" on St. Patrick's Day. (o: I love it!

Tori meticulously paints her Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree in shades of green. How appropriate!

Natalie's Recipe

I've mentioned before Natalie's love for being a "cook" and inventing her own recipes. This one is a strawberry cream cheese sandwich with a grape suspended in the air by a toothpick. She seriously comes up with all this stuff on her own and never ceases to amaze me with her creative and "fancy" little brain. (o: What a hoot!

My Sweet Baby Girl

Ugh - my baby is growing up and I can't stop her. I want her to stop. I want all my girls to stay little. There is a scene in the Japanese animated film "Ponyo" (it's by the same guy who did "Spirited Away" which we love - very, very different from your average Disney cartoon FYI) Anyway, there is a father of a little fish who is trying to grow up. The dad puts the fish in a jar and tries to physically stop the fish from growing up. He tries to squish it smaller. It was humorous and sad to me all at the same time. That's exactly how I feel. He couldn't stop it any more than I can.

I can't believe Angela will be in Kindergarten next year. What will I do with her gone? I know it will be nice to get some things done around the house, etc. etc. But seriously, I would rather have my buddies with me. I am jealous of those moms whose kids are in the stage when their kids are all home with them. I loved having our own schedule and not having to accommodate the school schedule. Maybe if I went back in time I'd remember better all the hard parts of that season of life too. But as I come close to that being a distant memory, I get so sentimental and sad about moving on to a new stage of life as a mom.

The picture above is Angela with Tori at Out of This World; a fun special playdate - and nice break for Tina and I to just chat. Tina and I reminisced about the days when the only thing we had on our schedules were playdates. Those were fun times and we could hang out for hours - until nap time - unless we were having too much fun. Now we have kids in all different directions, kids going/coming home from school, forgotten homework or lunches, sick days, preschool, lessons, parties, volunteering, etc. Life is much more hectic and not as laid back as it used to be. But I get to sleep through the night. I have time to myself when Angela goes to preschool. I can do so much more with independent children. I can go to the bathroom with the door shut!, get completely ready for the day all at once, practice piano, work on photo shoots, read more, etc. These are all good things. And I love watching the girls grow and show their personalities as they get bigger.

So I'll suck it up and enjoy this stage. But the thing that makes me struggle with this stage is that it is one step closer to the inevitable. When the house will be waaayyy too quiet and there will be no schedules or little people to accommodate. )o: That will be lonesome.

Angela tells people when they ask about her going to Kindergarten next year, "Mommy will miss me." Yep, my little sweetie - I sure will.

One of those days...

I HATE daylight savings, I've decided. I'm already on a late schedule and daylight savings totally messes me up. I forgot to change our clocks in the kitchen last night and accidentally fed my family at 7:30. My mom called and said something about us having a late dinner. I didn't think 6:30 was THAT late. (o: Whoops. Needless to say the girls got to bed late too.

And getting up this morning was a bear. It took me forever to fall asleep last night. My body just likes the old schedule.

Besides the adjustment to the schedule, Nat woke up a little too late to get to the bathroom, Sarah woke up with a fever and there was no clean underwear in Natalie's drawer. Oh yeah, and I HAVE to figure out a way to get to the store (with a sick child) today because we have no milk or essentials and I am making dinner for a friend tonight. Hmmmm.

I wanted to just go back to bed. But moms don't have that option. We just make it work - that's part of the fun and creativity of being a mom. Sooo -

I got Sarah Tylenol.
Searched for the closest fit of clean undies for Nat - it turned out to be Angela's (o: Good thing she's skinny!
I figured out a way to get my workout in since my trip to the gym was out - thank goodness for my treadmill.
I've got Nat's bedding clean (but not back on the bed yet)
Washed the girls overflowing basket of laundry - plenty of clean underwear for tomorrow!
And I've found a quick meal recipe I can make if Bob* can just get home by 4:30 so I can run to get a couple ingredients at Freddy's. If not, I think my friend may have Papa Murphy's, but that wouldn't be so bad, I guess.

The funny thing is - this is actually not that bad of a day - I mean, at least I had a chance to blog about it. I've had way worse! Here's to a FANTASTIC Monday - can you read the sarcasm in that? Nah, seriously, if these are my biggest problems I have it pretty darn good. I can't complain - well, I guess I just did, and now I feel better.

"You're Right Mom"

I was just looking at the picture of Angela and Tori at Out of This World and forgot to share a very important story that I need to document to read back to Angela someday.

When we arrived there that morning, we noticed a brand new inflatable slide/obstacle course that replaced the smaller and worn out one she had played on at previous visits. Angela is a little hesitant about trying new things. I had to encourage her for about 20 minutes to even go inside the inflatable fun house. It wasn't any scarier than the one next to it that she loved. I told her, "Once you go through it and just see it, you aren't going to want to stop playing in it!" I tried and tried to convince her and finally had to drag her over and walk around the outside encouraging her the whole way, "See? Isn't it fun? Keep going - see? You're doing great! Isn't it fun?" She kept looking back very hesitantly at me and really didn't want to go down the big slide. She was so nervous - which cracked me up, because the other inflatable slide she loves is a bit steeper and bigger.

FINALLY she relented and just came down with a very nervous face. However, as soon as she hit the bottom and was in my arms she exclaimed with joy, "Mom! You were RIGHT!" And she ran around to go back in again.

She played on that thing for most of our visit there.

So - I just had to record these words. How often does a parent get to hear that sentence? It is a treasure. Like a beautiful song. (o: I will come back and read this story to her in a few years when she will probably think I am never right about anything.