Zions

Our first vacation of the summer was taking the kids to Zions National Park. We've been talking lately about all the places we want to go with the kids and how many great places there are around us, so it motivated us to start some new adventures.
First we stopped in St. George and walked through the temple visitors center.
Then on to Zion!

After checking into our hotel, we changed into our grubby gear and headed for the Narrows.
I was a little nervous about the late start we got, but it was actually perfect. The whole hike was shaded and warm and much less crowded than earlier in the day.

 

We had to look at this nasty stitched hand on the shuttle all the way up. Kinda gnarly.

But it did prove useful when my kids would squeal at the cuteness of the squirrels and how unafraid they were of us. Taking advantage of this teaching moment, I told them life's not a Disney movie and reminded them of said stitched hand and they'd back off. They're growing up so fast, right? :)

I was so proud of them! Thank goodness the water levels were low. Scott was commenting throughout the hike on how high the water usually is when he comes with the scouts. He's lucky we weren't taking our kids on this adventure with conditions like that. I would have killed him! I want to hike the narrows, not swim them up river. Already did that in the Subway a couple years ago. Check.
The kids enjoyed scaling the rocks and walking in the water. I was proud of their positive attitudes and courage.

Wee Sadie!

 After Zion, we headed back to Cedar City and went to the Shakespeare Festival with the kids. Saw Les Miserables and To Kill A Mockingbird. We even watched our Stake Conference online Sunday so it was like we were never gone. :)  It was a great family trip.

Sometime in... June

 Scott's brother Todd and his wife Kelsey welcomed the healthy arrival of their new TRIPLET (!!!) girls.
Elliet wanted to help me with our gift for them so she got her first sewing machine lesson. Some mothers get teary when they send their kids to Kindergarten, I had a moment witnessing this. Backwards, I know.

 And now that school is out, all kinds of rambunctious ideas develop. This particular night it was the game "Lava". They've done this before but I thought the route was inventive. It went way back from the playroom, which you had to start from the corner and climb over items before hopping onto your "safe" floor items to avoid the lava floor.
All the way down the hall and up the stairs to the top. Eavesdropping to the sound of planning and strategizing was so fun.  Kids are the best!

And below is a piece of Sea art that Luke brought home from school that I can't wait to hang.
Such great color composition and creativity! I love this stuff. Oh, the big red octopus on the right is supposed to be the Kraken.

Later May

I said I would explain more about Luke's other broken arm but apparently I have no pictures of that fun time, so I'll fill you in now. Do you remember how last year Sadie broke her arm in the Spring, and then Luke broke his in the fall? And you know how when those things happen you at least can fulfill your insurance deductible? Can you also imagine how annoying it is to have your child break another arm, again, and owe all over, again?
Aside from that annoyance, I did have true mothering emotion when it happened. Really I did. But the thoughtless child was riding his bike down the community center stairs and tipped over (I learned later this was not his first time doing this!) and landed on his elbow. He only cracked it this time, unlike the fracture and surgery required previously, so we only needed a cast this time. Sheesh!

Now, back to the photos. The second grade classes put on a little Mothers Day play for us and I circled where they are. I filmed most of this on my video camera because my little point & shoot camera is about to fall apart. I'm amazed I can still get pics from it, though the days are numbered. It was a cute little performance. They are growing up too fast. These little innocent performances are almost over for me. Tiny, sentimental tear....
Anytime I go help in the kids classes, I love to see the collected artwork of kids on the walls. This was outside Sadie's room at the end of the year. They all made penguins. Sadie is small in her class. Which penguin do you think is hers? Hint: you know that saying where if something is big it's usually making up for a small insecurity? Just a hint.
(It's the heeeeuuuuuge one in the upper left corner)
She brought it home and it's in my office. It's taller than her and awesome. I love it.

Scott also turned the big FOUR-O this month. We had a small party for him and made Lemon Cake, his fave.
He's still so handsome and fantastic. Glad to celebrate over and over again with him. Hope I'm still able to make him an 80th cake when I'm weak and feeble. :)

Early May

 Well, please forgive my lack of posting.
AGAIN.
I will try to do better. I am a little anti-social when it comes to social networking so I'm not really posting anything anywhere except here (well, and Instagram but I don't 'blog' with it like many do so I'm still dropping the ball on memory keeping).
I'll catch you up on life thus far with us.
Big news in May was we finally got Sadie to ride her bike! Our family enjoyed lots of evening bike rides together and it was so nice to finally do it. But then Luke broke his other arm so those were on hold for a while (more on that fun later).

 The twins baptism was also the first weekend in May. It was nice to have family come in town for the weekend. We had a lot going on.
After the baptism that morning, everyone came over for lunch after and of course, snow cones with cousins must follow.

That same evening was our Ward Talent show. This year we decided to use the Saturday Night Live "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" jingle made famous with Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz. We changed the words up to fit the acts of the evening. It was really fun.
Luke & Sadie were on maracas, Dad on Guitar, me on Synth and Elliet was the 'Tracy Jordan' dancer. Good stuff.

Spring in NY

 

A few of my close friends and I went to NYC last weekend.

Did we have an agenda? Oh yes. Explore, eat, shop. The top three.

We could not have picked a better time to go. The weather was the best it has ever been

during a visit (for me) and I saw more new things. The more I visit this city, the more I love it.

It's so easy to get around and there are always new places to go along with favorites.

Here are some of the things we did.

 

We walked all over the city (naturally) and one of our routes was the new High Line park.

If you have not heard of it, it is very cool and worth checking out. Read about it here.

To sum up, a young architect turned a long span of abandoned, elevated freight rail line into

a walking path and it's beautifully done. I loved the way the landscaping blends with the modern benches and walkways. He even left the old ties within the plants. So cool.

 

Ahhh. The food! You don't have to read all the following, but I don't want to forget where we went so I am going to type what I want to remember. Tartine (always yummy), Hampton Chutney was a new discovery and so good (my first Dosa!), Mary's Fish Camp for the worth-every-$32 dollar-bite lobster roll... My favorite meal of the entire trip hands down. It was THAT good. 

LeVain bakery for the best, thick, 'brick' cookies, Cafe Cluny, Magnolia bakery for their non-cupcake items. I think we sampled the entire store with our purchases. Winners were fresh Banana Pudding and their key lime cheesecake.

 

The shopping is always fun and I always enjoy how much the stores decorate.

The Jcrew had the coolest modern decor. Mom! Check out the HEEUUUGGE Macrame owl!

We ran (well, ran and walked... ha!) through Central Park one morning. Gorgeous.

One of our friends moved to the NYC area almost two years ago and was able to meet up with us for half of the trip. It was so great to see her again. She had a friend who works for the Met, so he got us in first thing on Saturday morning. Wow. That place is incredible. It was my first time and the works there are astounding. Way too much to see in a single trip. We blasted through and saw some amazing things. Here are just a few images to give you an idea.  We hurried up to the modern levels and didn't see any others for around a half hour. The place to ourselves. Amazing!

 Amid the Soho shopping, we fit in my trip to Tinsel Trading Co and MJ Trim. Wow. To have those resources at your fingertips would be like a meth addiction. We also went to a little swap meet just to balance out the new purchases with some old. :) All of us left here with some cool treasures. I discovered a bunch of David Passalaqua sketches and came home with a cool fashion Illustration of his. Bonus!

It was an incredible trip with great friends. All that shopping and eating isn't always as feasible during a family trip, right?

Easters and Eighters

 

I can't believe the twins have finally turned eight! We got home from CA and celebrated their birthdays that very weekend. Since Mimi shares the same birthday, we always try to celebrate together. We tied everything in together - Easter egg hunt, Easter dinner, Bday cake and gifts

in one night. Bang. It was a fun evening.

Plus, hiding the eggs gets more fun every year.

 The biggest awakening was not only have them hit this milestone, but that Luke now goes to Cub Scouts and Sadie goes to Activity Days. Oy! My kids are growing up. Sad face. I love them so.
Luke's first activity was a long Saturday Scout Day activity and he came home looking like this. As he was sitting there on the steps telling me about it, I couldn't help but take some pics of him in his adorable scout shirt that is too big and that toothless smile.

 Even though they are now eight, they do, at most times, still act the same. The same as in playing-naked-with-toys-after-our-morning-shower-instead-of-getting-ready-for-school.

Spring Break

These moos-taches were a last minute accessory for reading week. The kids wear book themed clothes all week and we were short on the Lorax orange/yellow day so I made them these instead.I thought they would stand out and be hilarious but turns out tons of kids' parents did the same thing.Ah. Speak for the trees!

Shortly after, my parents came and joined us for a few days in Newport.

The weather was awesome and we had a great time relaxing. We hit Dland one day and Elliet rode California Screamin' for the first time. We also consumed a huge amount of Sprinkles and Gelato Paradiso (goodnessmesoyummy).
It was really fun to play with my parents. Wish they could have stayed longer. Next time!
All week long we kept trying to get Luke to pull out his other front tooth, which was totally loose and diagonal. It wiggled when he talked and had worked it's way to the midline of his mouth.
We called him "Lucas McPhee" until it came out right when we got home. Ha!

I've also been on a popcorn kick lately. Want to hear a funny story? Well, you're going to hear it anyway.
There I was at Sur La Table getting sucked into all the kitchen goodness when I come across the gourmet popcorn brands. One of them was full of blue corn. And I think to myself, "Blue popcorn?? That is awesome! How cool would that be to have blue popcorn. How have I never seen this before? I have to try this. It will be a hit at the upcoming book club!" So I buy it.
I go home and have to pop it in my big lidded pan (because we don't have a popper) and guess what? No blue popcorn. White popcorn. Whaa? Then it hits me what a doofus I am. Blue corn does not mean it will actually pop blue. I'm an idiot.
Gullible tastes good, though. My favorite rendition of homemade popped corn as of late is to melt a couple of tablespoons of Trader Joe's salted caramel sauce and drizzle it over freshly popped corn, then adding more fleur de sel. Yes. yes. yes. Try it.
 

 

My tasty pan salted of un-blue corn.  Yemmers.

Oh Lucas...

Couldn't help but share some of Luke's journal entries that have come home over the past couple of months...
Looks like the question is the printed paper glued in and they answer it to get their minds going.
Since some of these are tiny print, I'll retype the question above each image to make it easier (and faster) to read through. Enjoy!

Why do you think crows are afraid of scarecrows?

Do you think football or baseball is the better game?

Do you think it is better to be honest or brave? Why?

(Oh wow. He means it.)

We just finished reading the entire B of M as a family last month! Woot! Now we have started over. Thought it was cute he wrote this one day.


Awwwww.




I want those mad skillz myself.

Saint Pats

Another St. Patricks day has come and gone in our household.
And, as is custom in this house, the kids scavenge our recycling for things to trap the leprechaun the night before so we are left inventing a makeshift trap at the last minute.
This year Sadie conceived most of the plan. Since the leprechaun usually runs away before a trap can fall on top of him, this year she wanted a trap he could fall INTO. Clever. Also making my lying responsibility more difficult butwhateveritsaboutthekidsandnotme.
We took a milk box, cut a square on top and then replaced it so the weight of the leprechaun, when standing on it to get the 'treasure', would fall in and be trapped. They wrote their notes and went to bed.
The highlight of this for me was Elliet. She came to me privately and asked me if this is really real, so I confided in her that it wasn't and invited her to help me make it fun for Sadie and Luke. She lit up and loved it. It was so fun to have her be part of it, hence her wink in the photo.



Our 'escape plan' in the end was a hole cut out of the box at the bottom and the leprechauns note said he used his magic to get out. Bummer! But this has renewed Sadie's determination to catch him. She said next year we are going to use a metal trap so he CANNOT get out, even with his magic. Maybe Mom will just spill the magic beans, as it were.