Spring Break...week 3

Wow! 11 comments on that last post. I feel so loved. I guess all the other posts aren't worth leaving comments on. That's ok. I won't take it personally.

Week 3 has been a busy one. I am so exhausted I think I am taking the first week the kids go back to school off. You can find me at the day spa if you need me.

Monday, as previously mentioned, we went to the beach with the Shoff's. It was so wretchedly hot I couldn't think of a better thing to do. We didn't know we were going to end up on the evening news. What a bonus. Noah was bummed they only showed the top of his head. We had a fabulous time and we almost didn't get any sunburns. My feet were red for the next few days. I can't wait for more permanent warm weather so we can go to the beach more often.



Tuesday the warm weather trend continued (I really don't miss Oregon weather at all) and we went to Sea World for the day. The kids, especially Noah, were so happy to go back. It was such a nice day to be there. We walked with flamingos, sat in the soak zone at Shamu, watched the polar bears take a swim and managed again not to get sunburned.

Wednesday was spent getting ready for our trip, sort of. The boys had an extended play date with the Shoff's while I went to my spin class. Only 2 weeks til the next Triathlon. I am a bit nervous. Lots of piano lessons occurred that day, but no cleaning and some packing. I felt bad leaving Damon with a dirty house, but I can only do so much. We drove to my sister's to spend the night before we headed up to Utah.

Thursday we drove to St. George to visit with Nana and Papa. The trip went ok. Noah was a big help especially when Lily jabbed her finger up her nose and blood started gushing out of it and we were in the Cajon Pass and there is no where to stop. He kept her nose pinched and then cleaned her all up afterwards. My heart rate spiked a little when a police officer turned his lights on and flipped around right when I drove past him. It took about an hour for my heart rate to return to normal and for me to bump my speed back up. We were very happy to reach Nana's. She made Noah cupcakes to celebrate his birthday again. He liked that.


Friday we drove up to Provo. I figure with the kids it is never to early to indoctrinate them into thinking that BYU is the only school for them. They can't stray from tradition. We had lunch at the Courgareat, shopped at the book store, toured the campus, played in the Eyring Science Center, got some yummy treats from the creamery and met up with Pookie. Then we drove up to Riverton/Draper to celebrate our cousin/nephew 8th birthday. The kids were so happy to be done with driving. All of their cousins were there and they all had a blast.





Saturday morning I took the kids up to Salt Lake City to visit Temple Square. They had never been. I told them I would pay the first person who found the temple a dollar. We walked out of the parking garage and the temple was smack dab in front of our faces and no one could see it. So funny. I kept asking them to look around and tell me what they see. They saw fountains, statues, grass, flowers, trees and everything else one could possible imagine. Finally I told them to look up. Finally Noah noticed the 5 story building looming over us. We went to tour the Beehive House. When I told Lily the name she said, "I don't want to go inside because I don't want to get stung by any bees." I chuckled over that. We saw the Assembly Hall, the Tabernacle, Church headquarters, the visitors center, and the Church history museum. We came back to our cousins house for the baptism. After dinner all the kids got ready for bed and Grandpa came down and told stories of his life. We heard all about visiting his grandparents in Fairview, UT and working on the farm during his summer. The kids loved all his stories. I loved hearing them too.

Sunday we left at 8am with my sister and her little baby to drive back to St. George and stay with Nana & Papa. We had a nice drive and a wonderful time relaxing. Damon's mom spoils us. We love her for that and everything else she does. We went to bed early because we were getting up the next morning to finish the drive. I am tired.

Rach uses the word 'junky' on TV

Hey, all - Rach and the kids were on TV today. Take a look!

Spring Break...week 2

This week had its ups and downs. It did go by pretty fast. We are having so much fun, but I am getting a little tired of being the director of fun. Here is our week in review.

Monday nobody wanted to do what I had planned. I live with a bunch of deadbeats. I had planned to take them downtown to the Children's museum and then out to lunch, but no one was interested. I then informed them that they would be riding their bikes around the lake so I could get some exercise. That's when the, "but we want to go to the museum" started. TO BAD! So I got my exercise in for the day as well as 8 loads of laundry. How in 7 days do we accumulate that much laundry? I have no idea. Adam and I were able to plant some green beans and some zucchini in the garden. We hope they grow.

Tuesday ended up being a cloudy day here, but we made the most of it and headed up to Carlsbad to see the Flower Fields. They were as beautiful as ever and we had fun tracking down all the flags and getting our passports stamped. The kids also enjoyed mining for gems. This year we had lots more fun because we went with friends. It rained later that night.

Wednesday it was horribly windy and cold so we had to adjust our outside plans to be inside plans. I asked the kids if they wanted to go BOWLING or to chuck e cheese. We went to the Cheese's. yea. They had lots of fun and I got to sit and work on a suduku puzzle while they ran around to their hearts content. I also got to go to my spin class. It was the first time in weeks and I was so happy to be back even though it was really tough. The boys were able to go play at a friend's house while I was at the gym and they enjoyed that. Adam had a game that night. I am getting a little tired of baseball.



Thursday was a fun day. We just relaxed in the morning and then in the afternoon we went to the Miramar Air Museum and then to see the mad scientist show at the library. We enjoyed both so much. That night Noah had a baseball game. We didn't get home until after 7pm so dinner was provided by Jack & the box, el pollo loco and taco bell. yum.

Friday I was pretty much tired and had errands to run and needed to meet with my trainer. I declared it movie day and we went to Blockbuster and got the movie "Bolt". The kids seemed to enjoy it. Damon was gone all afternoon and night at a show so the kids and I had a simple evening.




Saturday was full of more baseball, errands and house stuff. I planted some new plants in my courtyard. Looks much better. Damon and I went out that night and I really enjoyed my time away from being party planner.



Today was a special day. 9 years ago Noah entered our lives and changed them forever. I can't believe he is 9. He is such a big help to me and to his siblings. He is not perfect, but he does try. Grandma and Grandpa and the Mortensen's came over for dinner and playing. At one point I walked outside to find the hose going as well as all the squirt guns and found some very wet children. I just went back inside and didn't say a thing. They had fun. After cake they all crashed and watched "Bolt".

The house is clean, the kids are asleep, I watched "Amazing Race", and now I need to do more laundry. Leave a message and have a nice day.

Spring Break...week 1

EASTER IS HERE!!

This week just flew by. I don't know how other people do it with only one week for spring break. Maybe I have just gotten lazy knowing that we have four weeks off. Maybe I just plan to much fun and one week is just to short a time to squeeze it in. Here is our first week in review.

Monday was spent cleaning, doing piano and playing with friends. Not a fun day for the kids, but very necessary. Damon was home half the day fixing a window that fell inside the jeep door. I really hate American cars. I am all about supporting our own country and economy, but honestly we have never had so many things break on us that need expensive repairs than we have on our American car. I think Chrysler deserves to go bankrupt because they make such crappy products. So instead of paying the service department to fix the window Damon figured out how to do it himself. Go Damon!

Tuesday was a fun day. We went to the movies with our friends, the Shoffs. We went and saw Monster vs. Aliens. It wasn't bad, but I didn't love it. The kids did and they had lots of fun. I took the kids to Henry's before the movie and the got to raid the bins. We came out with lots of chocolate covered goodies. We also went to the lake and Adam got to ride is bike around the whole thing. 5 miles. Good job Adam.

Wednesday brought Grandma and Grandpa down for a visit. We are trying to see all 21 California Missions before Noah goes into 4th grade. So we started with the San Diego Mission. It was interesting and I think Noah enjoyed it. My dad did steaks that night and that is always a bonus. The best treat of all was Grandma and Grandpa taking both boys up to their cousins house that night for cousin camp. Damon and I got to be parents of one child for two nights. That was great. Damon took the day off to go golfing. He was so happy all day long.

Thursday Damon took his "girls" out to breakfast. Lily was so cute. She wanted to go to Denny's. She looked at the picture menu and ordered exactly what she wanted. We then went to the bike shop to get me clip shoes for my new bike. That night in the garage I got to figure out how to clip in and out of my pedals. So funny. I kept screaming as I lost my balance and Damon kept laughing.

Friday had us heading up to Redlands for the Easter weekend. We stayed at Mortensen Manor. The boys were happy to see us, but didn't look like they missed us. We dyed Easter eggs (7 dozen of them), had a huge egg hunt and BBQ, played with the new baby chicks, ate to much candy and went over to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner. Saturday morning Damon and I were able to go on a bike ride. We got three miles in before it really started raining on us. I love my new bike. It rides so much easier than the last one.

Easter Sunday is always a little crazy with trying to find Easter baskets and getting to church on time. I hadn't been in much of an Easter mood so I spent the morning reflecting on our Savior's life, ministry, death and Resurrection. We try to emphasize that with the kids. Easter is about Christ rising from the dead, not about a bunny. Maybe one day they will get it. We had another big dinner Sunday night where we all ate to much again. Now we are home and there is much sleeping from the kids.

Stay tuned for week two!