Gone Camping

Well hello from sunny some guys property!  We had a ward camp out Friday night, and we even managed to dodge the thunderstorms!  Yay!  It really was supposed to be thunderstorms all night, but the closer we got to Friday, the later the storms got, until they weren't till Saturday morning.  The camping was great, though it was pretty windy at times.  I was in the advanced company, meaning Monica dropped Grayson and I off to set up the tent while she went to pick Winry up from dance.  I later went back to get Brooke, and in the end we all enjoyed a night together in nature with no ear infections!

Monica hosted co-op preschool this week, and the kids learned about the fire department.  Lots of fun.

Here's Grayson (and probably Lincoln) playing a fun game of kicking rocks down the slide.  Every kids favorite game.

As mentioned, Monica and Brooke are getting into birds.  I don't know what this one was, but maybe Monica will say when she proof reads this.  Also, it flies up and knocks on Grayson's windows in his closet sometimes.  I heard it once from in his room and went to take a look.

The weather has been warm, so of course the kids had to go to the pool.  My understanding is that the water was chilly, but manageable.  The things I miss at work!

Um... duck, I think you misplaced your egg!  Please go get it.

And check out this hawk!  I actually don't know which tree this is, but I think they kids said they saw a hawk carrying an animal around.  I'm guessing that's not this picture though.

Winry has been taking part in MCO in the kids choir and has been loving it.  Brooke went for a week or two, but it conflicts with dance so she wasn't able to participate in choir with Winry.  Winry really loves singing those songs and can often be heard around the house singing about George Washington.

I don't know where everyone is going, but Narly is secured and ready for the drive!

While we were out camping Grayson though it was really funny to see how big his head was in his shadow when we held the light just right.

We enjoyed spending some time sitting next to the fire and chatting.  Brooke and I were the last ones out there from our family, and I think we headed to the tent for bed around 9:30. (....10:15)

Here's Monica and Winry hanging out in the tent.

This is the picture that shows the most of the tent, and so I wanted to use it. But it's also Grayson, and he's the only one in camping pictures, so I just had to include some others.  But here's Grayson all snuggled up.

And Brooke snoozing away in the morning.  We got this tent quite a while ago, but it's got "dark" technology, so it doesn't get as light inside when the sun is up.  It does make it a bit easier to sleep in a little later.  Also, I don't think it was the light that got me up in the morning, but the wind all night long.  It was pretty windy, and I definitely woke up time and time again.  All in, it was a super fun night and I'm so glad we were able to go.

Brooke had a dance competition on Saturday!  It was about 20 minutes away.  She had two dances with her company team.

Here is the second one.  She's been doing so great working so hard all year, and it's fun to see all that work pay off.

She also performed her DUET!!  Grayson, Winry and I were all able to make it out and watch too.  We were only there for around 3 dances and Grayson was already at his limit, but we both got to watch and see the awards presentations!

And good thing we did stick around, because Brooke and Oliva took first place!  Yeah!  Winry stayed with Brooke and Monica to watch the older kids solos and duets, and Grayson and I headed for home.

I found this Zelda board game and printed out a copy and Grayson has been dying to play it.  We've been able to play it here and there, but now we finally had enough time to get all the way through.  It was a lot of fun, and Grayson loves to talk about it the adventure we went on.  I think we're definitely going to have to try out playing the NES game together some time.

At dinner Jelly was REALLY interested in carrots, and I thought she was going to try a bite.  I think she licked it once or twice, so it was definitely hers, but she didn't bite it.  We thought maybe a carrot sliver would be better, but she didn't go for that one either.

Brooke saw the most amazing sign for Thin Mint Frosties, and so we went out for a treat Saturday night.  There was a crazy rain storm that we braved, and we picked them up and headed to a park.  We ate them in the back of the van, which is a fun tradition we have going back to getting Kids Meals during COVID.  We even opened the back hatch and watched the rain, and fortunately the wind was calm enough we didn't get soaked.

And after all that weekend fun, it was time for Sunday afternoon naps, courtesy of Jelly!

And that's a warp!  Have a wonderful week.  Oh wait! I forgot.  We maybe have cardinal(s) living in our tree out front!  We can tell one is male and one is female because we're bird people now (thanks Toadstools). One of them lands next to Grayson's closet windows and taps it's beak on the window.  I'm sure it's just saying hello, but hopefully Jelly doesn't find out or she'll never hang out in the office with me!
 

Let the Dancing Begin!

This week kicked off dance competition season for real!  Brooke got to perform her dances at whatever this expo is that we went to last year as well.  Her company only did one of their dances, but they did a fantastic job.  It's also nice that it's local and only 10-ish minutes away.

Here are the planter boxes all ready to go in the backyard.  Now we just need to fill them.  Monica is looking for branches and leaves, etc. to start filling the bottom so we don't have to get quite so much dirt.

Here's Brooke at Toadstools.  I believe they made birds nests, though I believe the nests are actually meant to provide easy materials for birds to make their own nests.  Also, there's been lots of talk about different birds that live in the area and the calls we're hearing etc.  It seems like we're starting to become bird watchers here.

At activity days they did Olympics, and the kids won Oreo medals.  Yum!

The kids really needed to go to Bahama Bucks to get snow cones one night.  I think the reason why was because there had been a potty emergency on the way home one evening and they stopped there to use the bathroom there. Then the kids just couldn't get Bahama Bucks out of their minds and had to go back one day after dinner. So I took them.  We played a lot of connect 4 and enjoyed our snow cones.

Grayson got invited to a birthday party on Saturday, and I took him.  It was pretty apparent to me that most kids at his preschool go to the church it's associated with, and ALL the parents seemed to know each other and were having great conversations.  That said, the party wasn't about me knowing everyone, and Grayson had a great time playing with his friends and enjoying the festivities like the pinata.  We only stayed for about 2 hours, and the party didn't seem to be winding down.  I just thought maybe they planned too much, but when I got home I found out there wasn't actually an end time.

Sunday morning the kids were reading blog books while waiting to go to church, and I figured it was worth taking a picture.  It's nice to see my hard work writing this is being enjoyed, and they really do love looking back over the last year as soon as it's available.  They also really love looking through their birth years, or the year after as well and seeing themselves as babies.  It's definitely been worth the effort.

And that's all I've got for this week.  Here's to another great one ahead.
 

Livin' for the Weekend

Hello, and welcome to our weekend!  We had a little bit of an extended weekend, as Nicole came to visit starting Friday.  She came out to help Monica make planter boxes to overhaul the garden in the backyard.

They used an ancient technique to prepare the wood.  It involves a propane tank, a blow torch, and burning the week.  I'm sure there was more going on here, but that's all that's obvious from the video.

On Saturday I took Grayson to Parker's birthday party.  It was under the sea themed, but then they also had a nerf gun war.  Connor was obviously there, but Isaac also came and we had a pretty great nerf war.  I think kids only cried three times in the cross fire.  Grayson even got a chance to try out the gatling gun.  It's pretty sweet.

There was a fishing pond, and I was able to double hook these absolute beauties.  I'm just lucky my line didn't break reeling them in.

While renovating the garden, Monica dug up a whole heap of strawberries and we put them out for free if anyone wanted them.  There was so much demand we ran out.

Winry was doing a spa in our bathroom and had put some water in the bathtub.  I don't know if Jelly ever worries about what might be in the tub, but it looks like she jumped straight in.  I did hear the panicking cat clamber sounds but she came running out before I could investigate.

I wrapped her up a in towel and helped her dry off for a bit.

Brooke had a dance intensive.  Monica picked her up and got to see the dance she learned as well.

Meanwhile, I was asked to move a sprinkler for the garden beds.  In process, I found out that we have a parallel pipe to our sprinkler line that DID have water in it, even with the sprinklers off.  I expertly punctured it with the pick axe, and got to make an emergency run to Lowes to buy some pipe and glue to fix it.  I was able to get the water back on before we went to bed that night, but I did have to replace this pipe twice as the first time one of the sides didn't glue properly...

Sunday was more relaxed after my water line fiasco the day before.  Grayson, Narly and I all played a rousing game of Sorry.  Grayson managed to pull of the victory in part thanks to Narly deciding one of his pieces needed to go around the board twice, and I sill managed to lose to both of them...

Grayson found a great game, which was burying Nicole in blankets on the couch.  That one was a keeper in his book.

Nicole flew back home Sunday afternoon, and things are essentially back to normal now.  We need to fill the garden beds, and put in some trellises too, but all in all a successful weekend project, thanks Nicole!
 

Happy Valentines Day

Happy Valentines day!  Technically this isn't Valentines day, nor oven the correct week!  I'm stealing this picture from the future on Monday evening!  Monica and I went out Monday night for a Valentine's date to a nice restaurant and Paris Baguette for some dessert.  On Saturday we also had a V-day date which included watching the BYU basketball game and eating tot-chos (tater tot nachos) for dinner.  After the kids were in bed I brought out the big guns and read my choose your own adventure story to Monica, where her choices influenced what we did on our date.  The start was of course the BYU basketball game, and then we ended up going down the path of playing a board game and having a dessert.  So all in all, not that crazy of a night in, but the possibilities were there!  And I think Monica thought the story I put together was pretty fun too.

Grayson wanted to give the roller skates a try.  His sisters were kind enough to share theirs with him, and he had a good time.  He wanted a hand and some help getting to the car, and had a little trouble getting around on his own, but it was his first time, so it makes sense.  Monica and I stepped inside for something and when we came out like 30 seconds later he'd fallen backwards on his bum and was crying. He was done with roller skating for the day, but man did he look good while doing it.

Grayson had a Valentine's pizza party at school, and this is probably the first picture I've put in where you can see his whole class!

Grayson was working really hard on valentines day preparations all week long.  That heart isn't gonna scratch art into itself!

Monica had the chance to go check on how the temple construction is going.  Looking pretty good I think!  Hopefully it's still on track to be done sometime within the next year.

Winry had a party in class, and Monica signed up to help at it.  It's not often that we get a picture from inside Winry's classroom, so I just had to include this.  That's a pretty fine rainbow rain she's got there.

For Valentine's, Monica put together a charcuterie board, a favorite for celebrations at our house.  They're very nice because it's one of the only meals where no one complains at all about what they're going to eat.

We've been doing secret valentines this past week, where everyone drew the name of someone in the family and has been doing something nice for them each day.  On Saturday it was time for the big reveal and gift swap.  We ended up going to stores in the morning to look for gifts, and Winry was able to find this narwhal for Grayson, which he truly loves.  Monica was cleaning out the freezer, and Grayson really wanted to put his narwhal in to chill for a bit, but they compromised and instead Narly cooled off on our big ice pack.

He was so comfortable he couldn't move.  That said, that doesn't mean Narly wanted to be alone, and so Grayson made sure to stay close by and play with him.  Monica was even willing to join in for a game or two of sleeping queens.  Party in the hall!  Good thing no one walks there.

That's a wrap for our week.  It was a pretty involved week with secret valentines galore, however much of that goes uncaptured.  OH, and I have tomorrow off work, but Grayson and Winry both still have school!  So I guess I get a true day off or something.  I'm sure Monica will know just what I should do!
 

Just Hanging Out

Looking through the pictures for this week I'd say there's no real big highlight moment that occurred.  We did host preschool at our house, and I guess we ran an experiment on the strength of a folding table.  The good news is that it can support the weight of 4 5 year-olds, phew!

They also had fun doing this thing with bowls!  Look, I don't always know what's happening in pictures, but there weren't many that caught my eye, so preschool got 2 this week. (They were thawing dinosaurs from ice blocks that they were frozen in!)

While on a walk through the neighborhood, Monica and Brooke stumbled upon a heart shaped cactus!  It's getting pretty close to Valentine's day, so that's quite appropriate.

I don't know where this car was, but they're doing an excellent job bedazzling it.  It looks like it's still a work in progress, and for some reason the thing that comes to mind when I see it is "a pack a day," except, you know, not cigarettes, but instead sticker gem stones.

I had to replace the light above the stairs this week.  It actually wasn't too bad, but it is pretty high up there.  Oh! There were no pictures of it, and I was gone, so I forgot to mention it when I wrote last weeks post, but we got our house painted inside while I was gone.  What reminded me of it was that they painted all the ceilings, and Monica said this is how they set up their ladder here too, and that they were on super tall ladders to paint around our living room!

On Friday, Brooke had a dress rehearsal type thing for her duet she's been working on this year.  She's dancing it with Olivia, one of her best dance friends.  They did an incredible job and I'm sure they'll wow the judges.

Monica found pineberries at the store.  They look like strawberries, but they're supposed to be white or light pink when you eat them, so we had to try them.  If case you forgot, Grayson used to hunt for strawberries in our garden, and would gobble all of them he could find, no matter how white they were.  He also ate the two that grew together.

Grayson got out his pinball table and was having a really great go of it, though, the song Brooke is dancing her duet to was definitely still stuck in his head from the night before.

We had some people over for the Super-Snack-Bowl, and I helped with the cooking.  Monica made her much beloved enchilada puffs that we have every year (I think we need to start having more super bowls each year so we can eat them more often...), and I made soft pretzels.  I made some pizza, and some plain.  However, I decided to be crafty and add more flour while the mixer was still running, and the dough hook caught the measuring cup... Oops, so much for my efficiency gains...

The super bowl watching was fun.  We had the Packers and the Weeks over.  Everyone headed out sometime in the 3rd quarter since we needed to get kids to bed. Honestly, once everyone left, we didn't even turn the game back on.  Oh my, I just looked up the score, and it looks like both defenses took the rest of the year off after the 3rd quarter, and we missed all the good plays... sigh.