Spring Break

We had a great Spring Break this past week. Everything was a little last minute on it, but it all turned out well. We picked up Ethan and Julia right after school on Friday and drove down to visit Rebecca's brother for the weekend. While there, we spent some time with them going on walks, going to the park, eating yummy food, and catching up. In addition, we tried to do some more shopping.

Our big shopping goal was trying to find a piano. Rebecca has been looking for a baby grand. We only have one piano shop here in Pocatello, so while we were in Utah we followed up on a few KSL (like craigslist in Utah) leads and visited several piano stores. Rebecca got to try out many different pianos, and although we didn't end up purchasing any yet, she got a better idea of what she wants at least. It is just so hard to make the final decision because every piano dealer would tell why their particular brand was better than the others and it is so hard to tell which one is truly the best. We also stopped by a few other furniture stores, but no additional purchases there either.

Here are a few pictures of a walk around the Timp temple.





















Then on Monday we made the drive to Bear Lake through Logan. It was a super beautiful drive through Logan canyon. We stopped in Logan to play on the playground equipment at their community center. We had been told about that playground before, but this was our first time actually making it out that way. The playground definitely lived up to its hype. It had a castle, a boat, a train, rock climbing walls, and secret tunnels all over. We just spent about an hour there before getting back on the road again, and the kids loved every minute of it. Logan seems like it would be a fun town and reminded us a little of Pocatello.

































At Bear Lake we had an amazing condo to stay in for a few nights. It was two levels with three bedrooms (one with a king bed, one with a queen bed, one with two twins, and then an extra murphy bed), a full kitchen, dining room, and a living room. It also had two bathrooms, washer and dryer, and four tvs. For the days we were there we would go for a walk in the morning, then do something in the condo for a couple hours while Agnes took a nap in the early afternoon, then hit the indoor pool for a few hours, then dinner and a movie. It was a nice break from our usual routine.







With all the driving we also got in a few books on tape. We listened to Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters and the second Great Brain book. If anyone is looking for a good book for a 6-12 range that they would enjoy too, there are a couple Great Brain books that are really fun to read. A friend had recommended them to us when we were up in Alaska. Rebecca and I read Papa Married a Mormon first and enjoyed it. In it the author tells about how his parents met and about their early life together in Utah. His dad was kind of a wild west guy and his mom was an LDS girl in Utah. It talks some about the differences in those two cultures and groups of people in the early Utah days. The two Great Brain books are about him and his brother when they were kids. His brother is the "Great Brain" because he is pretty clever. The books talk about all of the mischief they get into but also the many ways they help out the people in the small town because of his brother's great brain. I would definitely recommend all three books.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We had a great St. Patrick's Day this past Thursday. It started off nice and early. Julia had woken up before the alarms went off, busted into our room, and tried to give Rebecca and I pinches. Luckily I wore my green pajama shirt so I was safe, but Rebecca didn't have any green on so she got a sore awakening. Julia proceeded to run around the house and got Christian with pinches when he was changing. Unfortunately, he took off all of his green from his pajamas before putting something green on for his school clothes. In that half second while he was just in his underwear Julia got him. Maybe he will be better prepared next year. Then she ran upstairs and woke up Agnes and Elliott and got some pinches in on them. They didn't know what was going on, so there were a few tears shed.

After we got all of the pinching out and everyone had their green on we had time for a St. Patrick's Day breakfast before heading off to school. Breakfast included Scotch Eggs, green milk, and green butter on toast. Although Scotch Eggs kept on showing up when we were searching for Irish food ideas, it sounds like they don't have an Irish history. You would think they might have a Scottish history from the name, but I guess they didn't originate in Scotland either. Based on a number of sources online I guess a department store in London claims to have invented them in the 1700s. But most of the sources online say that they actually come from an Indian or African dish. Wherever they come from, it may be a new St. Patrick's Day breakfast tradition for our family.

Julia, Ethan, and Christian did a lot of fun activities for St. Patrick's Day at school. For dinner we decided to break with our corned beef and cabbage tradition since the kids only ever complain about that. Instead we had reuben sandwiches and french fries. Rebecca had made a bunch of fancy peppermint chocolate popcorn for dessert and in our black pot she made it look like a post of gold. Julia and Christian grabbed it and hid it right before dinner and left a few notes from Goldie the Leprechaun giving clues where it was at. Rebecca and I sometimes do scavenger hunts for the kids, but we hadn't thought of it for the 'pot of gold' so it was neat to see those two take that fun tradition on.

Later that night we went to a 'Walk with Christ' event that was being put on by one of the stakes in Pocatello. One of the church buildings was set up where we walked through it and saw actors portraying different scenes from the life of Christ. It was really well done and some of the acting was excellent. It was enjoyable and spiritual, but when we got back to the car we found out that it took 2 full hours to go through! We rushed to home and put the kids to bed after that.

Agnes in a Toddler Bed

We have been switching around beds here and there as we purchase more and more mattresses. We are still short one queen mattress and a box mattress for a twin bed. This last week received two extra long 10 inch memory foam twin mattresses that we had ordered for the daybeds in our playroom. They are great and exactly what we were hoping for for that spot. So that left us with an extra twin mattress that we could now put in Agnes' room. Eventually we will want a trundle twin over twin bed in there, but for now we have a toddler bed and a twin bed. Elliott was excited to take the twin bed (he will probably stay in there until Caleb goes back to school), so we gave Agnes the choice of staying in the crib or taking the toddler bed. She didn't hesitate. Most of our kids have moved into a toddler bed well before this point out of necessity to give up the crib, but Agnes hasn't had that pressure.

The first two nights have gone great and we haven't had to close the door yet. She knows that as long as she stays in bed she gets to have to door open. Hopefully she will keep this up!

Christian Turns 6

Christian had his 6th birthday on Friday. He is such a neat kid, we are so lucky to have him in our family. Leading up to his birthday he talked about it a lot, just that it was coming up and some of the things he was hoping to do on it. He had talked about doing his first friend party, but decided to just do celebrations as a family.

He doesn't have school on Friday, so we were able to celebrate all day long. For breakfast he chose coco-puffs. I think our kids like that one best because not only do they get the yummy cereal, but they get the chocolate milk after it is all gone. They all had a few bowls, except for Julia, so maybe she is growing out of the sweet cereal. After Julia and Ethan went off to school, Rebecca took Christian (and Elliott and Agnes) out to explore the ravine in our backyard. They love it out there and it is so nice to just have open play areas so close by. Our neighbors did warn us about coyotes though so we have a rule that the kids have to at least stay in pairs. Then they came back in and did some drawings and then Rebecca took Christian and Elliott to McDonald's for lunch and some more playing. When they came back it wasn't long until the older kids got home and Christian got to open his presents. He said several times throughout the day that it had been the longest day of his life waiting for them to come home. Then we played with the presents until dinner time. Any guesses what he picked? Lasagna - his all time favorite. Rebecca made this amazing churro cake for dessert. It had a layer of cake, then a layer of ice-cream, then a layer of churros, then cake, ice-cream, churros, then cake, chocolate frosting, and churros on top. We didn't have any churros, but we did have some leftover homemade donuts that Christian had brought to school (Rebecca had asked if he wanted to bring cupcakes and he said no, but said he would do it if he could bring donuts). So Rebecca just added some cinnamon and sugar to those donuts and they tasted a lot like churros in the cake. Then he picked Spy Kids 2 for a movie that night.

Sorry, I couldn't decide which pictures were best, so I am adding them all

The next day we continued the celebrations. He got to go out shopping to spend some of his birthday money and he picked up a sword from the store. We also went on a big walk into the hills that are behind our house and that was a lot of fun. I will have to bring the camera next time for pictures. Then we came home and did a pinata. The kids loved that and they all got at least one good wack in before it broke. I only got hit once holding the pinata by Elliott.

Some about our 6 year old Christian: He still loves legos. He tries to play with them at least once per day if he can. He also loves pretending he is different people. He likes to be Luke a lot, but has been into being a knight a lot lately too. He loves drawing and does the very elaborate pictures that tell a whole story. And he is a really good actor. We do scripture charades for part of family home evening every week. When it is his turn he loves acting out every detail of a story. He plays multiple characters, yelling switch whenever he changes roles. And he does the best facial expressions with it. He also loves reading and is doing amazing in school.