spring break

 

After indoor sky diving, we went to the flow rider with cousin Lance.  The kids all had a blast, but I think Jer had just as much fun as they did.

Evelyn had some performance anxiety.  She did so well surfing for real, but tried this once and fell pretty quickly.  She didn't believe Ada, Sam or Dad that surfing her was not quite the same.

Seth had the instructor out there showing tricks.  Some of the tricks they learned were how to do barrel rolls, go on their knees and hop, and to go without hands.

Springbreak

 Usually, we go somewhere and visit people on Spring break.  This year, we decided to do a staycation and see if we could save some money to go on a big vacation all together next year. We still did fun things, we just stayed within 2 hours of home. The first two days, Jer and I both had work, so the kids had two free days of reading, computers, tv and friends.  Wed we drove up to Ogden to do indoor skydiving.  They did awesome!  It takes a lot more core strength than we knew about, so everyone was pretty sore.  Seth and Sam especially loved it. Evelyn didn't like it.  She said she didn't like not being in control of her body, and she's super flexible so the wind tunnel just folded her in half backwards.

We were joking that this is what she looked like in the wind tunnel.

Happy smiles when they were all done.

I love this adventurous and happy man.

Seth LOVED this one.  They had to turn the fan down for him so that he wouldn't fly away, but he sure loved it.  The instructor basically held him by his foot and would walk him around like he had him on a leash.

Ada caught on pretty quick.  She didn't like the feeling of not being able to breath as well because the air was being pushed at you so fast, but she had the most control and the instructor let go of her to let her do it on her own much more than the others. The pictures of her and Seth are the best though because of the way the googles pushed their cheeks down and the wind tunnel blew them back up.

Seth on his leash.

Sam, who is often very anxious was not anxious at all. He even asked the instructor to do something called 'high flying'.  He took him up high in the wind tunnel and back down low a few times.  Sam said it was awesome.

Here's Miss Evelyn.  She was fine while she was in there, but decided she didn't like it after.

Her's her turning into a taco.  The lady sitting next to me said, "Whoa!  That's really bending her backwards."  I wasn't afraid of her getting hurt since that's what she trains to do, but she really didn't have the core strength pull her body straighter. 

General Conference Weekend

 

This weekend was the first in person General Conference since Covid started.  They only allowed 10,000 people because of the construction in the area.  But, Uncle Brad had tickets that he offered to my parents.  They used 4 and we used 4.  Jer took Ada, Sam and Evelyn.  They sat on the 10th row and loved it.  Ada and Sam really appreciated being there and feeling the Holy Ghost.  Evelyn struggled a little bit, but she mostly just chilled.  She's struggling with anything that she deems boring lately and sitting still for 2 hours is one of those things.  She enjoyed talking to the couple sitting next to them.  They showed her where the prophet would be coming out and talked about some tricks on how to listen without being too bored.

Conference had a couple of themes this time.  Missions, forgiving, not speculating doctrine, and lots of new temples.  There were17 new ones announced.  They've actually started doing some pre-fab work for temples that can be shipped to far away places that don't have the same materials available. It's neat and it will help certain areas be able to receive temple covenants sooner and much easier.

Seth and I cuddled and watched from home.  Then we did chores and I taught Seth how to use the stove to make mac n cheese and soup.  After the family was back for the second session, some friends that are less active came over to play.  They were only going to stay between sessions, but they ended up staying for the Women's session.  That was an unexpected, but welcomed, surprise.

Sunday morning, we watched from home and then went to our Robertson grandparents for lunch and the second session.  That was fun and almost felt normal again.  Ada hurt her rib jumping on the tramp, so we tried to give her a muscle relaxer and ice for a while.  Then we drove over to our Wilcox grandparents house and had dinner, did a puzzle, played twister and watched Relative Race. I didn't think about pictures at my parents house.  I think I was tired by then and it didn't cross my mind.

I love that we live close to grandparents.

This is what the foundation of the Salt Lake temple currently looks like.

We took turns massaging feet.

Seth and Evelyn traditionally make forts to watch conference.  It started when we did a conference that we talked about pitching our tents towards the prophet... and it morphed into biannual living room forts.

The boys brought our frontrunner train to show off to Grandpa and he showed off his new Hogwarts express train.

This week

Seth did sidewalk chalk with me and the daycare.  He drew these wings so that everyone could pretend to fly.

For Young Women's, two of our class presidency really wanted to make flower crowns, so we did.  I didn't get a picture with everyone, but here are the few that were there late.  These girls are really very creative.

Ada and Dani. Ada kept saying that hers had too many flowers and that she needed to take some off.  I seriously love it with more flowers.  It made it look like a Hawaii dancer or a folk dancer head dress.

The new rec center was having a sale on their passes.  We used to have one when the kids were smaller and loved using it.  We bought it, got all of us registered on it and then went to go look around and see what the new rec center had to offer.  We promptly went back to the front desk and tried to get our money back which they refused to do.  There is LITERALLY only one activity that we can do together as a family whenever we want.  Swimming.  The kids' playground is only for Seth and Evelyn's ages with a parent supervising. The track is only for Mom, Dad and Ada ages.... with the exception of Friday from 4-5 (while we're both working), when everyone except for Seth can go on it.  To play racquetball, we'd have to reserve 3 of the 4 courts simultaneously. The weights area is only for adults with the exception of 12 teens a week that can take a class.... first come first served. All of the kids' classes are 15-20 people and only 1 class a day mostly at 3 or 4pm.... while parents are working.  So, unless we quit our jobs and only swim our pass is completely useless for family activities.  Either the kids can exercise or the parents, but we can't do it together apparently.  If we had wanted a gym, we would have gone to a gym.  We wanted the family rec center that we had available before they rebuilt it. Not what we signed on for.

 

Clarys

 We had a nice visit.  Happy and sad visit.  We heard that the Clarys were coming into town for a minute.  Apparently, James' Grandpa died and they were coming for the funeral and other things.  We loved spending a couple stolen hours with them.  I love that Sam and Rocky have gotten to the point where they just start up where they left off last time.  I loved talking to Owen.  He's one smart 4 year old.  He was more mature and better prepared for school than my daycare kids and it was fun to hear him.  We spent some time talking about how little seahorses are and how smart an octopus is. He's apparently the coach.... he wears a hat and a whistle at all times.  I love visiting with Becca and James.  They are very easy to be with.  I don't feel like I need to be anyone except for who I already am to hang out with them.  It's definitely a spiritual gift.  Becca took a selfie with Jer, but I didn't think to take any pictures.