Animals Galore

In addition to getting chicks and going to Baby Animal Days, the kids have been getting their animal fix in other ways.  They are also working on that "dog savings" jar, but I am continuing to postpone that until we have grass.  Don't even get me started on the amounts of mud we have around here right now!  We did have the chance to take a visit to Kent's farm to see the baby calves.  FFA might be a good fit for Seth!  He loved it and even got to drive the tractor.  We also went to the zoo for Leah's preschool field trip.  I let Ian sluff kindergarten and come along because he had been begging to go to the "tiny zoo."  He loved it (despite his bored face).

 

 

Spring Break Part II

In addition to our trip to Zion and General Conference/Easter weekend, we managed to squeeze a few other fun things into the kid's week off.  We went to Baby Animal Days (ugh) with cousins and the kids had fun.  Totally took one for the team on that one.  It was cold, crowded...may be our last.  We also headed down to SLC with my mom and went to the Museum of Natural History again.  The kids all loved it and Ian was truly so excited about everything he saw.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter

We officially became chicken people this year for Easter.  We have been talking for a while about getting chickens to have the eggs and give our kids a chore.  We finally did it.  It's been kind of a big pain but once they're a little older they won't be quite so high maintenance.  Unfortunately they are already bigish, ugly chickens, but they were dang cute for a while!  We celebrated Easter for several weeks running, enjoyed Conference, ate lots of candy, and had good times with family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Break Zion

We began our Spring Break (the last week of March) with a camping trip to Zion National Park.  We got a late start Saturday night after Ryan and Alicia's wedding and stayed in a Best Western in Layton.  Yes, Layton.  If we mix in a swimming pool, then the vacation is considered a success.  The kids had a lot of fun swimming, but the pool had so much chlorine and fried their skin!

We camped in the Watchman Campground near the entrance to Zion.  It was a nice camping spot but no showers.  We were some stinky campers three days later! The kids were so tired and all slept amazingly well with all of us in the same tent.

Seth brought his pocket knife and whittled everything in sight.  Ian begged for a pocket knife and ended up buying one with his souvenir money.  He proceeded to stab himself in the face with it the next day but has since been accident free!  I got the worst look ever from an older man who had been laughing at my kids but abruptly stopped when my 5-year-old whipped out a pocket knife the second we got off the bus.  And that bus--Zion was so crazy crowded.  We had a fun time but I've been a lot less crowded places that are more beautiful in my opinion, so I don't think we'll be back for a while!

 
The first day we hiked the Emerald Pools.  It was easy for all of the kids, and they had a lot of fun messing around in the water and climbing around along the way.

We cooked at camp for most of our breakfasts and lunches and a delicious dinner of hotdogs and smores, but we also ate in Springdale twice.  My little rock hounds were in heaven in this place.  They weighed and sprayed every rock in the joint.

 
The second day the littles and I made a trip to the visitor center, played by the river, and made a trip to the Weeping Rock.  Jer took Luke and Seth to Angel's Landing.  They turned back in sight of the very top.  They both had moments of being sketched out along the way which was aggravated by the fact that it was so crowded and they had to let go of the chains often to let people come down.  When it came right down to it Seth was willing to go (he had Jer's constant attention) but Luke was done with the exposure.  They did great!

 

It was unseasonably warm this year, so we spent the afternoon playing in the Virgin River.  Seth was first to brave the water up to his "giblets" as the boys would say.  Luke put on quite a song and dance show for us.  Luke & Seth both screamed like little girls when a giant, weird, water bug crawled onto their rock.  I attempted to give my hair a water only wash which pretty much turned it into a matted mess.  Not good.  We also saw a movie about Zion climbing in town (would not recommend) and ate lots of ice cream (that was good)!  Fun memories.  Another camping trip in the books.

Biography Fair & Archery

Luke and the other 5th graders participated in the Biography Fair at the end of March.  Luke's face in these pictures indicates his level of excitement for this evening!  He was not all that stoked to dress up and chat with a bunch of adults about his character, but he did a great job and ended up having fun.  He researched, wrote a report, and created a timeline and poster about Daniel Boone.  He said the best part of the night was wearing his slippers to the school!

When school let out for Spring Break, we headed up to Preston for the Bear River Archers championship shootout.  Luke, Boyd, Jer, and Kyle's team was tied for first with another team, so they had a tie breaker night.  They ended up winning so apparently they have plaques waiting for them at the archery club.  It was fun to see them in action, and it was a great experience for Luke.  It was especially nice for him to have all that time on the drive each week to just hang out with his dad.  They talked about everything from maturation and the birds and the bees to hunting to sports to you name it!