Do I Really Look That Old?

Adam and a couple of his friends were having a little conversation about who was taller.  Here is how the conversation went:

Friend #1 to Friend #2 - "I'm taller than you."

Friend #2 - "Nuh-uh 'cause I'm older than you."

Friend #1 - "You don't have to be older to be taller."

Adam - "Duh, my brother Jared is taller than my mom and he's only 15 and she's like a million!"

Please tell me I don't look ancient... it's just his way of saying I'm a little older than Jared, right?  Kids make me laugh.

Is it Spring or Not??

Yesterday.....

Today.......

Draper Temple Dedication

Yesterday we attended the Draper Temple Dedication. We took this picture on our front steps just as we were leaving for the dedication. If you look really close in the upper left corner of the picture, you can see the temple up on the hill. We didn't actually get to go to the temple for the dedication, we went to a nearby chapel which was packed to the very back. It was a wonderful service and we're excited for the temple to be open for use now.


After church and dinner, we started a game of World Domination Risk. Jared, Joshua, David and I started at 5:00 p.m. and I conquered the world by 8:30 p.m. Yes, I actually won which I think is a first. I am usually defeated very early in the game.

Notice all my yellow guys as I move through to wipe out Jared's red guys. Talk about family fun!!

Starting a Garden

David, Jared, Joshua and Tanner built some garden boxes on Saturday. We are starting with 3 boxes that are 10 ft. x 4 ft. The picture below is the corner where we'll be putting them in our back yard. Wish us luck and we'll keep you posted!!

We had a fun St. Patrick's Day dinner last night.  I'm not sure it's very authentically Irish but it was fun nonetheless.  We had:

- Irish Stew

- Irish Soda Bread (yummy)

- Green Jell-o

- IBC Root Beer in bottles (to honor the Irish Pub traditions without actually having beer)

- Grasshopper milkshakes

Wish I had a picture of our cute table but sometimes the camera just gets left in the bag.

HAPPY MARCH!!!

Skiing Again!

We had such a great time last week we decided to go again and this time we took Rebecca and Adam. We went to Alta so see what that was like plus you can ski using their rope tows for free all day and at 3p they open some of their lifts for free for about an hour and a half. It's really hard to buy a $32 pass for your 4-year-old when he doesn't know how to ski and you're not sure he will want to do it for more than an hour.

I spent most of the day with Rebecca and Adam on the bunny hill going up on a rope tow. Adam just stood in front of me while I held onto the rope handle to go up. He thought it was great. Rebecca caught on really quickly and is a natural. She loved it!

Adam on the other hand took a little longer to get the hang of it. He loved going back and forth across the hill but every time he wanted to turn he would just lay down and flop his skis over and get back up to go the other direction. He would have nothing to do with "pizza" position (snowplow). The hill was so gentle he didn't really need it.

David, Rachel and Joshua spent most of the day skiing all over. They had a great time. David also spent some time helping me with the little kids. It is much harder work to ski on a bunny hill with a 4-year-old than skiing all over a big hill by myself but it was still so fun.

At 3pm we got to take Adam and Rebecca on the chair lift. Rebecca did great. She did about 4 runs in the hour and a half we had to ride free. Adam did great too after the first big mishap. He just started going straight down... right past me. I yelled at him to stop. He didn't know how. I yelled at him to fall down. He didn't. I screamed at David to stop him. He quickly stuck out his arm and knocked Adam down. Adam was going fast and it hurt him. He cried and was really scared. David felt really bad because he said he pretty much just punched Adam. It woke Adam up though. He immediately learned "pizza" and "french fries" (parallel skis). From there on out he skied all the way down by himself in total control. Turned, stopped, went a little faster, etc. HE DID GREAT!!! We did it 3 times and by the 3rd time he was going faster than David but in total control. AMAZING! Yes, I am bragging because I was so astonished myself... at both Rebecca and Adam. They skied all day long and David and I fell asleep before they did at night. Oh to be young again. 

Adam had it easy.  When he got tired, I pushed him or Joshua (above) pulled him with his pole.  When we had to carry skis, I carried Adam's and he carried my poles.  When it was time to get on the chair lift, the ski guy lifted him up and set him on.  When it was time to get off, I lifted him up and carried him off.  

Top:  Rebecca and Adam         Bottom:  Joshua and Rachel

Tanner didn't go with us because he left Friday night to go cross-country skiing with the scouts.  They skied with backpacks to this "Yurt" which sleeps about 15 people and has a big wood-burning stove inside.  They spent the night there and skied out the next morning.  He got home during the day so he missed our ski trip.  He gets to go night skiing this week though so he didn't really miss too much.

The Best Snow on Earth!!

I introduced the kids (Jared, Joshua, Tanner, and Rachel) to my most favorite sport..... SKIING!!! We had a great day up at Brighton Ski Resort. It's been quite a while since I skiied but it came back to me pretty fast and it is just as awesome as I remember. We did the little tiny bunny hill about 3 times and then we were on to bigger and better slopes. The kids all picked it up very quickly and by the end of the day we were all having a great time. We had a few good wipeouts.... even me. We had some great laughs and just lots of fun.

Tanner

Gaylene and Rachel

Painting it Blue

The girls are still off-track this week so we decided to paint Rachel's room. She chose the color and then I helped her prep. and paint. She worked hard and did a good job. The color turned out beautiful. It is bright and so much better than the greenish yellow that was on the walls before. She even got to do a little grafitti before we started the actual painting.

This is the view from Rachel's window and as you can see, we got some snow last night.