february around here

Dave and I went with Keri and Michael to see BYU Folk Dancers at the Conference Center. We met up with Aaron and Becky Love for dinner at Crown Burger beforehand.

Anne lost her first tooth. She's only four!

She also made all of the Valentines for her preschool class by hand. It took her a long time but was just what she wanted to do. She loves to draw!

Speaking of teeth, Sawyer's teeth (or the lack thereof) are looking a bit like a jack-o-lantern. How does he even eat?

Ben's favorite shoes to wear are Anne's. Usually an unmatched pair. He also loves to dress up. Reminds me of Sawyer at that age.

We had an Olympics party for the Opening Ceremonies on the 7th. When I mentioned the Olympics were going to start soon, Nathan exclaimed that we had better have donuts just like last time. This party was sort of lame because I was still feeling sick with baby #7. The kids were still happy though. We spent the next two weeks watching lots and lots of hours of Olympic coverage which I thoroughly enjoyed.

We spent lots of time in rehearsals all month. I'm directing a stake Broadway revue that Dave, Emma, Nathan and Sawyer are performing in. Slade and Nathan are also in rehearsals for the school play, Robin Hood, and I help with the choreography. These rehearsals fill our Tuesday and Thursday nights and Saturday mornings.

I took Emma down to Mesquite, NV, for the President's Cup soccer tournament. More on that in another post.

Dave received an award from work. He and I got to go eat delicious food at Thanksgiving Point for the recognition dinner. Then, I got to sit back and listen to how totally awesome my husband is at work. He really is just awesome all around.

While not as much as in January, I still spent a lot of time in bed feeling sick. Of course, this means that there are constant messes all around my house. The counter is usually filled with bread, cheese and milk left out from someone's snack making.

playing in the leaves

I asked Emma to rake up the leaves in the front yard. She enlisted the help of her friends, Eliza and Allison. They raked them all into a huge pile and then proceeded to throw and kick them back all over the yard. They had a lot of fun but the yard ended looking exactly how it started. I guess I needed to specify that the job entailed raking AND bagging the leaves in the front yard.

boston part 1

Thursday, October 7

Emma and I left mid-morning for a week long visit to beautiful Boston. We were flying on stand-by which meant cheap(er) flights but no assigned seats. When deciding on travel dates, it never occurred to me that Columbus Day would be a heavily traveled holiday weekend. In the west, no one celebrates that holiday. I guess it is different in the east. Add to that the fact that we were traveling to New England in the peak fall season and we had a CRAZY day of travel.

We had no trouble getting on the Salt Lake to Phoenix flight but it was all downhill from there. Every flight was full. Every flight had several stand-bys ahead of us. We miraculously made it onto a flight from Phoenix to Charlotte even though we were number 19 and 20 on the stand-by list. Sadly though, our luck ran out and we got stranded in Charlotte overnight. To make matters worse, our bag had been sent on to Providence since that was our original final destination. We got a very cheap, very sub-standard hotel where the front desk clerk yelled at me. No pajamas. No tooth brushes. No clean underwear. We still managed a few hours sleep before getting up at 5:00 a.m. (3:00 a.m. Utah time) to try and catch the first flight to Boston.

Friday, October 8

We made it onto that first flight and arrived in Boston at about 10 a.m. After talking with a very nice woman in baggage, we arranged for our suitcase to fly to Boston on another flight so we could pick it up later. Dana picked us up from the airport and we headed out on our first adventure: the quaint, coastal town of Rockport.

I had fun making Emma pose in front of the cute and colorful shop windows.

We wandered through the shops and let the girls try on the accessories the boutiques had to offer.

Emma was willing to try any seafood including lobster and clams. I was too cheap to let her. She got New England Clam Chowder instead.

We made it back to Dana's in time to meet Avery coming off the bus. Such a happy reunion.

Saturday, October 9

We took advantage of the great weather and a free Saturday and went to Six Flags New England. Usually at amusement parks, I am the one sitting on the bench holding the baby. Dana got to play that role this time. I got to play the role of thrill-seeker and ride all the big rides with Emma and Avery. We stayed the whole day. Just as we were leaving, a fire broke out in the Haunted Mansion. No one was injured but it made for an exciting end to the day to see the flames leaping up from the building.

do re mi

This just makes me happy. It feels like something my sisters and I would do. Only bigger. Much much BIGGER!

jump!

To combat the winter blues, I took the kids to Jump On It, a warehouse full of trampolines and fun. We went right when they opened at 2:00 and almost had the place to ourselves. The kids had a fantastic time and were totally wiped out after an hour.

We headed home just as a nasty blizzard was starting. I picked up pizza on the way home. We were able to hunker down and stay safe and warm at home. I mentioned here that Dave was still at work at 11:30 that night. It turned out that he was not able to get home even though he wanted to leave. The police were not allowing cars to get out of the parking lot because the highway had been closed. IM Flash offered food from the cafeteria and he just kept working until he could head home. He did not get home until 1:30 in the morning. It was nasty storm with not a lot of snow but terrible winds. Cars were stuck on the freeway for hours. Many ran out of gas or had to abandon their cars. Children stayed at school overnight because they could not get home. I was very glad that Dave made it home safely. Eventually.

The next night, we headed up to Salt Lake for a concert and the roads were perfectly clear. Amazing what a difference a day makes.