Easter

Before we went to soccer games on Saturday morning, the kids decided that they better color Easter eggs. The past few years, the Easter Bunny has stopped by our house on Saturday while we were out, so the kids didn't want to be unprepared.

They are now old enough that they can do it all by themselves!
And when we got home, sure enough, the Easter Bunny had been to our house. Since I got my new carpet, I wish that the bunny would fix the hole in his pocket. It is very easy to miss jellybeans in my new carpet, and I'm worried that one is smashed somewhere that we haven't found yet. Everywhere the Easter Bunny went, there was a trail of jellybeans. Upstairs, and down.

We were also invited to an Easter egg hunt at the house of one of Zak's friends. To start out, they sat all the kids on the back porch and explained to them that they couldn't put any treats into their own baskets. They had to put them in someone else's basket. I really liked the idea of doing it this way. It forced them to think about others, and not just a focus on how much they could get. It also slowed the egg hunt down.
Les & Emily, a friend from school

On your mark,....Get Set....

GO!!!

Zak & Miles helping each other

Amber didn't really want to participate, but she didn't want to miss out on all that candy either.

They certainly filled up their baskets. We have almost as much candy as Halloween.

And Zak had to get a few runs on the Zip line in to end the Easter fun!

We kept Easter simple this year. Just a few treats. But we took time to enjoy the spirit of the holiday and learn about and feel the Spirit of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Soccer

It is soccer season at our house again. Fortunately, the weather was clear, and not too terribly cold for the games this week. Les loves to be goalie. It's just too bad that the other team didn't show up. We ended up playing a family vs. team game.

Les is a good little player. He is always in the middle of the action!

And this is for my friend Jamie! She begged me to not put this picture on Facebook, so my blog is second best! Zak had a good game too. He got to play one of his good friends. He scored many goals this week! If you notice in this picture every kid on the field was between Zak and the goal, but he kicked it, and as you can see....he scored!

And Zak likes to stay right with the ball. He is fast!

Zak, and his friend Connor

Annual Hair Cuts

Every year for Brian's big race in May, the gimmick has been to shave your head. My boys like to follow daddy and buzz their hair too. So a few weeks ago, we took it all off. They needed it desperately. I can't believe how much hair they have.

Zak...before.

I forgot to take a picture of Les before.

And here are my boys after. I never thought they looked alike until I took this picture.

TThey are handsome boys aren't they?

After the haircuts and showers, Zak was doing his nightly reading and rubbed his head the entire night. I have video of it on my phone, but don't currently have a way to get it from my phone to the computer. But trust me, you would be on the floor laughing. Just imagine 20 minutes of it!

Temple Square

A couple of times a year, we seem to end up on Temple Square in Salt Lake. I love the flowers there. I always take more pictures of the flowers than anything else. The temple always looks the same, but the flowers are always different. Over spring break, we were passing through Salt Lake, and decided to go see the new Church History Library. (It was also a good excuse to go see the beautiful spring flowers.) It was a sunny warm day, and since we haven't had many of those, we took full advantage of walking around the church grounds while we were there. The blossoms on the trees were beautiful. I'm sure that they only got a day or two because of the rain. We caught them on a good day.

I wish this picture hadn't had quite as shallow of a depth of field. I was trying to get the Angel Moroni in the background to be just a little more in focus, but I was having a hard time with that. Now, I realize what I should have done to solve that problem.

I love this pic. It didn't turn out quite as I intended, but I couldn't get the right angle on it.

I love this reflection of the Assembly Hall steeples in the business building across the street.

And I love the profile of all of the different buildings here. The only other thing this picture needs is an artistic eye and the roof of the Tabernacle

Just a fun pic to add to my collection!

Ogden Temple & Tabernacle

The Ogden LDS temple is the closest temple to our house. It has never been one of my favorite, I think more because of its location than anything, but we are still going to miss it once it is gone. The church has decided to completely renovate it. At first, I was told that they would leave the inner structure, and just tear down and re-build the outer shell and grounds. Since then, I have heard that they are tearing it down to the ground and re-building it from the ground up. I'm not really sure what will happen. Rumor has it that they will also be removing the steeple from the Tabernacle so that those people who don't know what the buildings are can tell the difference between the Temple and the Tabernacle. I decided to go take some pictures of the "old" temple before it is gone. Maybe I'll be able to get timeline pictures of the demolition and rebuilding as they go along. I was very disappointed with my pictures when I got home, and I sure wish that I had photoshop to touch them up, but I'm glad I got the pictures anyway.

The Tabernacle

The mural inside the east entrance to the tabernacle is beautiful. It catches your eye from the street. I think that is why some people confuse it for the temple.

I have always loved this clock on the north-east lawn of the temple grounds. I'm sure it has a story, and I wish I knew what that story was.

Region Science Fair

After winning the district science fair, Amber had the option & opportunity to participate in the region science fair. She was entered in the Environmental Science category for her project that tested the health of a local river.

She won 2nd place!!

Kids from 6th, 7th, and 8th grade from two of the local school districts got to participate. I think that for being one of the youngest participants she did awesome. I believe there were about 350 (maybe that was 450) students at the science fair. She did AWESOME!

Part of her prize was cash, but the other half of it was a $200 scholarship to the local University if she chooses to go there once she is out of high school!

Visit with Grandpa

Every few months, I go with my mom to visit Grandpa. This time, I took Zak out of school to go with me. We watched a lot of BYU during March Madness, and Zak kept Grandpa busy with games. Grandpa used to own a dairy farm with about 200 head of cattle. He and Grandma gave it up to go on a mission 23 years ago. But my uncle usually has some kind of livestock (sheep, pigs, a horse, or a cow) out back that he is raising for meat for his family, or to sell at auction. My boys love to go see the animals. They would make good farm kids. This cow was very interested in us, and when I would get out the camera to get a picture, he kept trying to eat it. We laughed, and then kept harassing him with it!

Field Trip!

I am so lucky that I get to go on field trips with my kids. I love going with them. It is so much fun to see them learn and experience new things while socializing and interacting with their peers. I am so amazed at the confidence that my kids have. They certainly didn't get that from me. In early March, I went to the Environmental Center with Les and the rest of the 3rd grade. When they go in the winter, they get to cross-country ski and snowshoe. Les loves going there, and since he gets more opportunities than most of the other kids, he has gotten very good at both. He wears me out every time we go. But he loves it. He is in his element up there. He simply can't get enough of the outdoors. He is a smart kid and has never struggled in school, but after he has been contained inside, sitting down, day after day, he gets stir crazy and can't focus. (For those of you who know Brian well, you'll understand) But when he can move, he goes as fast and as hard as he can for as long as we will allow him to. He never tires of being outside exercising.

When we arrived at the Environmental Center, Les beat the other kids up the hill by 5 minutes (it is about a 1/2 mile walk up-hill up a snow/ice covered road). Then we put on our snowshoes, and he led the other kids to the top of a mountain ridge. Of course, he got to the top first, blazing the trail through about 8 inches of fresh powder. Once at the top, he claims they spotted a bear across the other side of the valley. None of the adults saw it, so I can only imagine what those 3rd grade imaginations saw, but Les is usually the first to spot wildlife, so in some ways it wouldn't surprise me.

After lunch, we went out to ski. I think Les did about 6 laps on the big loop. Probably 1-1 1/2 miles. He is awesome on skis. I did one lap on the smallest loop available. I'm a chicken. But we had fun. I love these days.

We're Still Alive!

I started my blog so that my Mother-in-law could see what the kids were up to while she was across the country on her mission. She has been home for two years now, and every time I get behind, I decide that I'm going to stop blogging. Who really wants to read about the day-to-day of our life anyway? Well in the last week or two, I've had a few friends that are far away comment that they are missing my blog. So, for them, I'll keep posting. For now anyway. Ultimately, I would like to put it into a book, but for now, that hasn't happened. So, all the more reason to keep it up until I am able to do that.