On the first Saturday we went for a hike up behind our house. This is the hike that we often do, but it had been a while since we did the full thing given all of the snow this winter. As we got higher up we did still see some snow patches, but it was actually in the upper 60s so it felt really nice out.
On Monday we did some clothes shopping and haircuts. All of the boys really needed both. As for clothes, it seems rare that any shirt or pants will make it through all three boys without getting completely trashed. So we are always on the look out for clothes for them. As for the haircuts, I think it had maybe been 3 months or so since their last ones. Ethan's hair was probably about six inches long. He wanted to keep growing it and pulled the "you had long hair when you were younger" card, but fortunately we were able to talk him into getting it cut still. We also got in a game of mousetrap for our family home evening activity.
Tuesday was probably our busiest day out. First we went rock shopping for our flower beds. We found some that we liked and it ended up being from the company that our neighbor owns. They were also a lot cheaper than I was expecting. Still expensive - about $500 for enough to cover everything in our yard that needs covered, but I was thinking it was going to be over $2000. After that we went to the Okay Ward Park, which is probably the biggest playground in Pocatello. It was crowded, but the children still had a blast. Usually Rebecca and I get tired of the playgrounds after 20-30 minutes, but this time we tried to let the children play as long as possible. I mainly just followed Agnes around and it was fun to see her explore. I also had a contest with Julia where I would do something and then she would try to copy it (like hopping the monkey bars with your hands or balancing on a spinning plastic log) and then she got to do something for me to copy. The one thing that she got me on was holding yourself straight up on the even bars for a minute. I don't know if I was tired from all the other things we had done, but I only made it 20 seconds. Also at the playground, I buckled Elliott in to the handicap swings and then went all out on pushing him. He screamed a ton (a happy scream rather than a panic scream) and everyone in the park was looking at him which I thought was really funny. Then we went to the Chubbuck library, which we have cards to, but we hardly ever go there. The children just played on the iPads while we were there and Rebecca and I got a few movies that we were interested in (Inferno and then Angels and Demons to watch again before Inferno, and The Martian). After the library we went to McKee's pet store. This particular pet store has a petting zoo in the back with tons of goats, emus, pigs, sheep, mules, and llamas. Inside too they have a lot of lizards that are fun to look at. Last, we splurged and went to Texas Roadhouse. The children had all earned tokens for free kid's meals from the summer reading program at the library. The tokens were really a free meal with the purchase of an adult meal, but I had called and explained that we were only two adults with five kids and they said we could still do that. So Rebecca got the steak with salad and sweet potato, and I got the roadkill with salad and french fries and then each child picked out whatever they wanted. They were all in heaven. We also ate a ton of peanuts and I think 22 rolls (I ate 8 of them).
Wednesday was wet and rainy so we made it an inside day. We spent a lot of time reading books and making a welcome home sign for Grandma and Grandpa Swift. Over the break we read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It wasn't as good as the real Harry Potter books, but the kids and I still enjoyed it. I did read it to them making it more in story format instead of play format, but Rebecca felt like the personalities of Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were different. We also started a series called Theodosia which is pretty good. It is about a girl who grows up in the Museum of Antiquities in London in the early 1900s. She is the only one who sees different curses on the exhibits that her parents (dad is head of the museum and mom is chief archaeologist) have in the museum. So then she has to work to get rid of the curses and also stop an organization that is trying to make the curses worse to bring chaos to the world.
Thursday we went to the cheap theater to see Rogue One. Ethan earned tickets from school through his reading program and he had four so I took Julia, Ethan, Christian, and Elliott. They loved the movie! I thought it was pretty good too. At first I didn't like that they were making more and more movies out of the sequence, but after seeing it I thought it was at least as good, if not better, than The Force Awakens. Can't wait till we can get it from the library on DVD so we can see it again.
On Friday we went for another hike. This one was up Camelback Mountain. We had to drive about 10 minutes to get to the starting point of this one. The area was really beautiful, a little more remote than right in Pocatello. We had to start the hike by sneaking through some people's property, which wasn't ideal, but I couldn't find a real starting place for the hike. But then it just took us maybe 45 minutes or so to get to the top. It was really pretty at the top with a view of Pocatello and our neighborhood, but then also a better view into the mountains to the east of the city. It was about 10 degrees colder at the location of the start of the hike, and I am guessing maybe another 10 degrees colder up at the top so it was a pretty cold hike. None of us brought enough clothes to keep warm, but the children didn't complain much and it was still a really fun hike.
Saturday my parents came home from their mission!!! They have been in the Philippines serving for the past 1.5 years. Julia and Christian came to the airport with me. On the drive down to the Salt Lake City airport we were able to listen to the women's session of general conference for Julia. Julia and Christian were both so excited to see them again.
Then on Sunday we got to party out with my parents and Caleb. It was a great week. Now we just to hold on a little longer until summer vacation.
1 comment:
great family picture!
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