Mother Daughter Date

Last week JoLyn and I decided to have a mother/daughter day. Boyd was in St. George and Mitchell was at camp, so it was just the girls at home. JoLyn got to choose the destinations and she decided on the Hoogle Zoo and the Living Planet Aquarium. We went to the zoo in the morning, just after it opened and spent the morning hours there. It was a cool, cloudy day which I've decided is the best time to visit the zoo. I've never seen so many active animals so close up before. The bird show was great!

In the afternoon we went to the aquarium and JoLyn's favorite display was the sting ray pool. They swim around and let you pet them which is way cool! JoLyn sat with her arm in the water petting sting rays for a FULL HOUR!!!! Oh, well, it was her day to do what she wanted.

Later we went to dinner and rented "Marley and Me". We had a great day just the girls.

Hello, my name is Albert Einstein.....

Sometimes schools get really creative when they teach kids about history. Mitch & Jo's school recently held a "wax museum", done by the 5th grade. Each student was assigned a historical figure, they had to research that person, write a report and make a poster about that individual. Then they dressed up as that person, and had a huge wax museum. They set up in the gymnasium, all dressed up in front of their posters with a "button" that people pushed. The student then stood and gave 30 seconds of information in the first person about their historical figure. Mitchell was Albert Einstein. All decked out with a lab coat kindly "donated" for a couple of days from the hospital, with hair standing on end and sprayed white, Mitchell looked the part. I was really impressed with the students and all the different historical people they got to be for the day. Here's Mitchell with his friend Logen who lives next door. I learned a lot about historical figures and was really proud of those kids, it was really scary to stand up in front of strangers over and over again. The whole museum took about an hour to go through and there were tons of people there.

JoLyn's Spelling Bee

JoLyn participated in the Wilson Elementary 3rd and 4th grade spelling bee. There were about 25 kids that participated and it finally came down to JoLyn and one other girl. I think I have an ulcer now. It lasted about 30 minutes and the last few words my hands were shaking, but she handled it like a champ. Here are a few pictures. During the first couple of rounds of the spelling bee.

I took video of the last few words, it's not very loud.

The Big Winner!!!!!!

Again....Winter or Spring?

Another great example of spring, or is it still winter?

Then the next week...............

.

Yep, those are tulips. I learned last year that onions take an entire year to grow, I never could figure out why my onions always were so small, so I left them in the ground and they are starting to grow again, who knew? The adventures of gardening.

The last week has been beautiful, kids riding bikes, going for walks, but still cool in the evenings.

Winter or Spring?

This last weekend remided me of why it is so wonderful to live in Utah. The weather was beautiful over the weekend. On Saturday we took down the rest of the outside Christmas lights because the snow finally melted off the roof, it was warm, sunny and an absolutely beautiful day. On Sunday we took the kids skiing at Sundance. They had a wonderful time. It amazes me how quickly kids grasp new concepts. They had been skiing once before, but Mitchell was sick that day and actually didn't ski at all, so he was a day behind JoLyn. I've confirmed the fact that I'm not a natural snow skiier. Mitchell went a little slower so he and I stayed together most of the day. JoLyn kept wanting to go faster, so Boyd stayed with her. At the end of the day we all got back together and I couldn't believe the difference in them. I tried to ski with JoLyn because I hadn't been with her most of the day and I physically couldn't keep up with her. She went flying down the mountain and dusted me. She seems to have enough control to stop and turn when she needs to, but otherwise she just flies straight down. Mitchell on the other hand was a little more awkward, almost doing the splits while snowplowing down the mountain. He started to get enought speed towards the end of the day, so I didn't feel like I was always waiting. I couldn't go much fast than him anyway, so we made good pair. Boyd is always waiting for me at the bottom of the hill and he said with JoLyn he could ski like he is used to. Anyway, I kept forgetting my camera in the truck and didn't take any pictures, but I hope to take them skiing one more time this year. They kept talking about how much fun they had, which is the important part anyway. This time of year is wonderful in Northern Utah, skiing in the mountains and warm in the valleys.

New Bathroon, Boyd's Korea Trip

We finished the new bathroom downstairs and it turned out really nice, the kids are loving it. The bad thing is it makes me want to remodel the whole house now. I bought enough tile to be able to re-do the upstairs bathrooms, so that will be on our agenda in the next couple of months I hope.

Boyd left for Korea on Saturday morning. He flew to San Francisco, then to Korea. The plane ride was 13 hours from San Francisco to Korea. Because of the time change, Korea is 15 hours ahead of us, he arrived Sunday evening. The hotel had arranged a car to pick him up at the airport and take him to the hotel, then the production plant he was working with sent a car to take him to and from the airport which was nice, he didn't have to worry about how to get around town. He was in Seoul, which he said is a huge city, 10 million people, high rise skyscrapers all over the place. He said even the residential areas he saw were all high rise apartment complexes.

There was a mall under the hotel he was staying at and he went out one night with one of the guys from the plant who took him to a flee market, out to dinner and for drinks which he said was kind of fun. He was surprised that most people knew a little English and usually one other language, which is different from the US where we expect everyone else to know English, but we won't learn any other language. He was also surprised at the condition of the hotel and airport, he said the hotel was nicer than most hotels he had been in the the states, and their airport was very clean, well maintained and the staff was very friendly, but in San Francisco things were run down, messy and the staff was rude. We think we are so great in the US, and it turns out, we're not as great as we think.

The kids and I went ice skating while Boyd was gone. We had a great time, the kids did pretty good once they got the hang of it. JoLyn has a bruise the size of a baseball on her butt, otherwise we came out injury free.

Hope everyone is happy and healthy, hopefully we'll see you soon.