February Recap

In February, some of us played in boxes:

One of us went to Wisconsin on a recruiting trip for Micron during the blizzard of the decade, coming home in time to go to the Klondike Derby with the Boy Scouts.

One of us sang 10 Singing Valentines with a quartet.
One of us took some tests (college ACT included) for admission to Treasure Valley Math and Science Center.
Some of us ripped holes in jeans that then needed to be patched.


All of us celebrated Valentine's Day with heart-shaped pancakes.

All of us got sick: colds (no voice Feb 9-12), conjunctivitis (Feb 12-15, 21-27), stomach flu (Feb 20-22).

And now for things we did that didn't have pictures taken. We attended Junior High orientation, TVMSC orientation and Environmental Field Trip orientation. Sabrina babysat all of her brothers while Ryan and I went to Ballet Idaho's "The Piano" - it was really cool! Hyrum discovered that the place he likes to go on Wednesday mornings to play is not "Bodies and Lotion" but "Bodies in Motion". Leo was given the push car for 1 year olds and likes to push and be pushed on it (it's a toy Sabrina got for her 1st birthday). Roderic freely admits his favorite thing about learning to play the violin is playing with the Legos at his teacher's house while waiting for Sabrina's lesson to finish. I finished the finishing touches of our 2010 Christmas pjs (the elastic had been safety pinned, and the appliqué was only attached with wunderunder). Soccer practice started for Sabrina. We bought more wheat for our food storage and Ryan put the containers in the crawl space, doing a little reorganization at the same time. I took Roderic, Hyrum and Leo to the Jim Gill concert at the Egyptian Theatre. Roderic was impressed with the 'artifacts' of ancient Egypt. [Speaking of Egypt, during the last week of January, Trail Wind Elementary had an art exhibit on display to teach the students about ancient Egyptian art and the whole school did art projects on that subject. Since Egypt was someplace they now knew something about, when they heard mention of Egyptian protests, they asked me all sorts of questions. It was good for our family conversations.]

Lunch with Hyrum

Sometimes you have to stifle your 4-year-old's creativity.

Today I drew the line at making a ham, cheese, pickle, mustard sandwich using chocolate chip zucchini bread. Even though he says it would taste good and he would eat the whole thing.

I think I would puke while trying to make it.

Epic Vacation, Step 1: Dreaming

With Ryan's parents and sister serving a mission near the "Cradle of the Restoration",


it has become my dream to plan a Church History vacation for my family to take this summer. You see, July is the best time to visit church history sights in Upstate New York. I'll give you the reason in 3 words:
Hill Cumorah Pageant. The Hill Cumorah Pageant is a part of my family history. My grandparents (and their children) were in the pageant for years and years. In fact, I was in the pageant with my family in 1981. I saw it in 1987 when they changed the script, again in 1989 when I was there for a family wedding, again in 1992 when we missed a family wedding (van troubles), again in 1997 for my Grandparent's 50th anniversary party (they were married in Nov, but the party was in July during the pageant -they are pictured above in 1970 as King Mosiah and queen), and again in 2001 when we went with Ryan's parents and little sisters.

So I'm working on the plan. My thoughts are to drive cross-country and see America and many church history sights along the way. Here is a tentative itinerary:

July 1-5 drive along I-90 see Mt Rushmore, Wisconsin, Chicago, Detroit, Niagara Falls
July 6-10 be in and around Palmyra, NY
July 10-12 Kirtland, OH
July 12-16 Nauvoo, IL
July 16-19 Independence, MO, Winter Quarters, NE, Chimney Rock, NE, Fort Laramie, WY, Martin Cove, WY and home

It will be a lot of driving.
A lot of church history.
A lot of fun.
An epic vacation.

Predictions for 2011

On New Year's Eve, I asked everyone what predictions they have for the new year. This is what they said:

Roderic: We will go to New York when I'm 7.
Me: I predict I will still be the choir director for the 2011 Christmas program.
Ryan: Leo will learn to sleep in his own bed.
Hyrum: I will play Wii Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga. [he accomplished this on 1/1/11]
Sabrina: There will be another financial crisis. [perhaps we listen to NPR too much]

Then I asked what milestones they'll achieve:

Leo will be sleeping in his own bed, running, walking and weaned.
Hyrum will finish Joy School (year 1) and learn to read.
Roderic will learn to ride a bike.
Sabrina will be a Beehive and a junior high school-er. And go on Pioneer Trek.
Ryan will have more than 10 employees reporting to him.
I will plan an epic vacation for our family.

O Christmas Tree

Decorating the tree on December 4.
First we put on the lights, then the 1997 Hallmark ornament that has a man and a woman ice skating. (Do you know what activity we did on our first date in 1994?) Then, we invite in the children to help decorate the whole tree.

Beautiful Tree on Christmas morning.

We bought this tree on Dec. 3 in the evening at the fruit stand on Broadway. Today as I am taking off the ornaments, it is still sending out it's wonderful pine smell! Heavenly.

Ivory Anniversary

We've never given the traditional gifts for our anniversaries - I had Ryan look it up on his Droid last night to see what it should be this year. Ivory. Perhaps we should get a new-to-me piano with ivory keys. Ha ha.
We were married at 7 am. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see the lights still on the temple. It was that early. You really have to be in love in order to get married at 7 am. We were the 4th couple to be married in the Salt Lake Temple that morning. (My friend Liz and sister Shanda were both married in June at 7 am, but there were weddings taking place as early as 6 am then!)

Happy anniversary, love!

Merry Christmas!

Wearing our "Christmas Toto pajamas" (Hyrum named them). We're having a very Merry Christmas, hope you are too!