Three for Sunday

1. Tracy Aviary  This off track time has been consumed with baseball, play practice and bad weather so we haven't been able to do quite as many activities as we had planned at the beginning.  We had a nice week this week and checked some things off our list.  We went to Tracy Aviary.  The last time we were there Matt was 3.  The kids had a lot of fun.

 The favorite part was feeding the birds.

 Abby pretty much chased them around all the time.  She wanted them to come to her cup so badly!

 Sara was very patient waiting for them to come to her cup. 

 With a little help, Abby stood still long enough for them to eat out of her cup.

 

The next favorite part was the bird show.  Since it was Monday there weren't very many people there so we all got to participate.  We also learned that roadrunners can kill snakes.  The bird guy even told us to YouTube a video about a roadrunner vs a rattlesnake.  It's awesome.  Let's just say I need one as my pet!

 

2. Biking and geocaching  The next day we rode our bikes along the river trail and looked for geocaches.  It was really fun.  Right up until the point I saw a snake.  If you saw my instagram you might think you know the whole story, but I shortened it.  So here's the full version.  We were riding to a cache and crossed a bridge.  I happened to be in front and  I see this thing sticking up through the slats.  It was sticking pretty far up.  The thoughts going through my brain are, "snake stick".  My snake sense told my it was a snake, but my brain was so confused by how it looked that it was telling me that it was a stick that looked like a snake.  Either way I went into full panic mode.  I slammed on my brakes, jerked my bike sideways, jack knifed the trailer and sandwiched myself in between the rails of the bridge.  I couldn't go forward or backward and no one could get past either.  I told the kids, "It's a stick that looks like a snake and I'm totally freaking out." I tried to look again, but I couldn't move closer.  It was like a force field around it.  Meanwhile, Sara is saying, "I'll look mom." but she can't get her bike past mine (everyone was using their bike as a shield!).  She helped me move the trailer and then inched closer and yelled, "It is a snake!"  So then I'm freaking out more.  So Matt says, "I'll take care of it."  He gets a stick to throw and helps me turn my bike around.  I get on and start pedaling and he says, "it really is a snake, mom."  We all just end up riding around the pond and while we're doing that, a few guys that were fishing and laughing at me walked over and confirmed that it was indeed a snake.  Ugh!  I have been on high alert since then and I will be until it snows again in November or so.  I hate this about summer!

 

3. The Little Mermaid  Kate decided to do the school play again this year.  Her ballet class overlapped with some of the practices so I told her she could only audition for some of the choruses.  It worked out really well.  She loves being on stage and she did a great job.  She never complained and did whatever she was asked to do.  I really hope she feels a sense of accomplishment from this.  She has worked hard and done really well.  I am so proud of her.

 One of her part was a sailor.

 Her other part was as a lagoon animal.

It's really quite amazing that her elementary school can do this.  There are some really talented kids out there!  Here is some video.

 



Four for Sunday

1. Baseball  Matt was very excited for baseball season to start.  I love that he has so much fun playing.  I think he looks pretty good in his uniform!

 

He has only had a couple of games so far but he got to pitch in one of them and did awesome!  I was so proud of him and to see him enjoy it and feel confident is the best part!  Baseball season is a good time!

 

2. Making pizza  So one night we decided to make homemade pizzas.  Homemade crust, homemade sauce... the works.  We had so much fun.  I loved Kate, Sara and Abby helping me.  It was so fun.  There was flour everywhere!  It was so worth it!

 

 3. Spring storms  So, we got an awesome spring storm this past week.  I mean it was the biggest spring storm I have ever known!  It started out like this: (see the puppy?)

 

And pretty soon it looked like this:

 CRAZY!  When it started piling up like this I knew we had to bust out the sleds and go play in the snow.  I mean, the kids are off track, they had new snow gear, Abby has barely been in the snow and Tulo had never been in the snow, plus we were watching a friend's daughter and she had NEVER been sledding.  What??  We had to go.  Of course, just last week I had put away all the snow boots and snow gear so we had to dig that all out, but it was so worth it!

 Isn't this the cutest face ever!  We are loving this puppy.  Most of the time.  He's definitely a handful and life was much easier before we had him but we are having fun with him too.  And when we get to play with him like this, it is awesome!  He was so funny jumping through the snow.  He had a vet apt and he weighed 16 pounds.  He is getting big so fast.  He's going to end up a little bit bigger than we'd first thought, or been willing to admit.  But that's ok.  He's a really happy dog.  As he gets bigger we see much more springer spaniel than cocker spaniel now.  The most annoying time with him is the mornings.  As soon as he hears those birds chirping he's freaking out!  We might have to take up duck hunting to keep him happy!

 He went crazy for the sleds.  It wasn't all bad though because we could get him to carry the sleds back up the hill for us.  The real challenge was at the top when we had to get him to let go of the sleds!

 It was such a fun day!  Best spring storm ever!

 

4. Utah  Where we live is not ugly.

 

5. Some funny Abby things  Abby cracks me up a lot.  Right now she makes me laugh when she fake sleeps.  Her fake snore is hilarious.  She also makes me laugh when she acts like a frog.  She'll do frog jumps all around and say, "Ebbit, Ebbit, Ebbit."  So funny!

Seven for Sunday

1. Leader of the Month  The kids school is a "Leader in Me School" which basically means that they pay money to Stephen Covey for the title and then do everything basically the same.  If I haven't said it before, I'll say it now.  I think it's dumb, but whatever.  They little award ceremonies each month and Matt was recognized in March.  The quality he had demonstrated was synergy.  Proud of him!

 

 2. Sara shorts At their school they did the jump rope for heart fundraiser which I haven't heard about being done since I was in grade school and all of a sudden this year everyone is doing it.  Anyway, Sara, my sucker for cheap prizes and any commercial, jumps in the car and says, "Mom! Will you pay $200 so I can get this duck trophy?"  Ha ha. In the end, I told her she could do some extra jobs to earn $15 so she could earn two little chintzy ducks.  She decided instead she'd just pay $5 of her own money so that she could get the first duck.  The really cool part is that she really wanted to pay her own money and do it in honor of her cousin who was born with heart problems.  I thought that was so sweet and she was really excited to fill out the submission form and put Macey's name under the "In honor of" line.  What a sweetie. 

 She is also a sucker for selfies.  I deleted 69 pictures that look just like these ones.  69!!!

 

3. The first day of the last year of his 30's  We had fun celebrating Jerry's birthday.  We wanted to think of something fun to do with him and the kids suggested taking him to Chick Fil A for dinner.  He loves their spicy chicken sandwich!  The best part was that they offered to pay for his dinner.  I picked up the tab, but we still had a fun night out.  We even decided to blind fold him and really surprise him.  It worked!  He had no idea where we were going.  He's hard to surprise so it was really fun!

4. Work Day  I made my kids clean out my car.  They did great.  Even Abby had fun!

 

5. General Women's Meeting  Kate has been asking to go to the conference center for the womens meeting ever since we first went together a year and a half ago.  I made it happen this time.  We had a great night.

 We rode Trax up.  Not our favorite part, but we survived.

 

 We had to wait in the standby line and hope we could get in.  Luckily, the weather was nice.  We waited outside for a bit and then they let us come sit in the Tabernacle and wait there.  We had fun even though we were there almost 2 hours before the meeting started.  It always amazes me to be inside the Tabernacle.  I remember coming to so many General Conferences while on spring break.  My dad would get up so early in the morning and wait in a long line and hope to get in.  Then after the session ended he'd rush to get in line to get with everyone else that was rushing to get back in line and wait with everyone that was already in line.  My mom would find him with one of us kids and we'd wait for a much shorter time in line with him.  Sometimes we got in.  But it was always an experience waiting in line with him.  He'd tell stories, usually about the usher he called the "bone crusher".  He'd scootch people closer together so he could sit down.  He'd make himself comfy and then stand up and motion for one more person in line to come have a seat.  I never saw the crusher, but he's a legend!  It's amazing that now we have this huge conference center that seats over 20,000.  Truly amazing!!

 We were waiting in the Tabernacle and the meeting started.  They had warned us this sometimes happens.  So we started watching the meeting and I was so bummed thinking that we probably wouldn't get to go to the conference center.  Then about 15-20 minutes after the meeting started they announced that they could take 100 standby people.  We were towards the back of that 100, but we got in!

 Not a great view, but it was SO awesome to be there!  Kate was SO excited about it!

 We walked out and down the outside of the center after the meeting.  We took a few pictures.  Salt Lake City is very pretty!

 It was an awesome night!  I am so glad we could do it.

 

6.  Tulo and Abby  She loves her puppy.

 



 I've been taking him running with me a bit.  He wakes up too early and just barks in his kennel so I've been trying to take him out with me.  Sometimes I get annoyed, ok, a lot, because that's my time and I do it when everyone is sleeping so it's not a big deal, but Abby makes this dog worth it!

 We had to buy him a new, bigger bed.  He's growing a ton!

 

7. Easter  We had a great Easter.  It was fun to do the whole Easter bunny hiding the egg thing with Abby.  She was very excited.

Matt helped me hide the eggs.  This was one of his ideas.  I thought it was pretty funny.