Jazz Game

Andrew and I had a fun date night attending a Jazz Game last Saturday. Well, actually, we only attended half of it! We dropped off the boys and headed for dinner. I learned that the game started half an hour earlier than I had thought and we decided that rather than stress about getting to the game late, we would just take our time and enjoy dinner. We enjoyed a very relaxed, stress-free time at Chili's and then headed to the game. Don't know why we had ever even thought to worry about the time - we made it in time for tip-off.

At half-time Andrew turned to me and said, "I am not interacting with you as much as I envisioned - let's leave and just spend time together." We debated for a few moments, but decided to go ahead and ditch the game and hang out at the Gateway together. We had fun!

On the way out, Andrew wondered about where Therill Bailey was recording from. He was delighted when we walked right into the "filming studio" area.

We originally left the game thinking that we would ditch half-time and possibly the third quarter. But we enjoyed our time at the Gateway and never did go back. We felt a little foolish when we realized that we could have been there watching the Jazz fight it out in overtime with the Phoenix Suns, but ultimately, we are happy with our choice and enjoyed our night out on the town.

Chocolate Party

Last Saturday Peggy hosted a Chocolate Party. A bunch of people went and dipped a zillion chocolates. It was lots of fun. Ammon and Peter came by in the beginning because Andrew wanted to see the person who ran the party - it was an old neighbor of theirs from years ago. She was so nice and immediately offered to let Ammon be the first person to dip a chocolate. It was a cherry chocolate.
Ammon is such a little scientist - he loved actually being able to get involved and be part of the action. The chocolate was in the spinning bowl and he had to dip his cherry in ever so carefully as to keep it from getting swept away. I think he actually ended up losing his cherry in the vat of chocolate, but Diane helped him fish it back out.

It was lots of fun and Ammon couldn't have been more pleased with his accomplishment! After that, the boys left, and the women took over making literally hundreds of chocolates. We made 9 different kinds, but the mint truffles were my very favorite!

Shadow

Our good 'ol dog, Shadow, died last week. None of us really remembers how old she was. We just know that she has been a part of our family FOREVER. I am not a huge fan of pets, but Shadow was a good dog. We named her because of her love for people. She literally followed us around as if she was our shadow. She was always with someone.

My boys have known and loved Shadow all their lives. Grandparents have saved me from having to be a pet-owner myself. Andrew's parents have cats, and my parents had the dog. My boys love both and I love letting them play with both without having to have ownership of either!


Shadow died a natural death, which brought us a lot of peace and comfort. We knew that she was dying and we were planning to have her put down later that day. We feel much better knowing that she went in her own time and that she really had finished her life. I found it touching that even in her last hours, she was able to bring joy to those around her. She was a wonderful dog and we all miss her. Even Andy.

Catching Up on Last Week

Back in the good 'ol days when we thought Spring had come, Ammon and Peter had fun riding their bikes outside. Until Peter decided he was big enough that he should get to ride Ammon's bike too. It's a bit of a joke to have Peter graduate to a big bike since he still hasn't learned how to peddle his big-wheel, but Ammon was patient and they had a good time together. 03/18/2009

When Andrew headed home from work one day, we had walked over to the park so he came to meet us. Peter was excited to see him (he always is) and ran to greet him. 03/18/2009

It's so fun to see my three guys all snuggled up together. Ammon and Peter so adore their Dad and Andrew just dotes on them. 03/18/2009

One of the days was spent with a luxurious few hours at the park. Here is Peter with one of his cousins on my side of the family and one of his cousins on Andrew's side of the family. It is fun to have so many cousins nearby. 03/19/2009

Ammon had a special date with Grandma Peggy. She came to pick him up which made Peter terribly jealous as they drove away. They headed to the Gateway Mall where they watched a movie on the Imax and got Ben and Jerry's Icecream. Sounds like a fun date! 03/20/2009

Peter and I spent a day visiting Ammon's school. My camera died after taking this picture so even though we were at Ammon's school, I didn't get any pictures of him. But Peter had a fun time sitting at the tables and exploring the different activities. This was the snack table and it was his favorite. Yes, even as children, the best way to a man is through his stomache! 03/23/2009

Starting a Garden

This year my mom decided it would be fun to have a special place in the garden for the Grandchildren to grow some of their favorite veggies. We had a week of Spring and it was time to plant some of the plants that go earlier in the year and won't be hurt by the snow we have had pretty much ever since. Ammon, of course, was elated to participate. They are planting carrots.

In the mean time, Peter enjoyed having me push him on the swings as Andrew prepared dinner on the grill. It is amazing that just a few short days later, we are back to our winter-wonderland of snow. As I drove Ammon to school the other day I made some exclamation wondering what had happened to spring. Ammon piped in pointing out that it is clearly now winter weather. I added to the conversation, reminding him that we had just barely had all those beautiful, warm days. He finally concluded the dialogue by yelling out, "Make up your mind Weathermans!"

Oh well, it's fun to have the variety of weather. But those days outdoors just sound so appealing right now.

Fun at the Park

It feels like Spring is really here! Hooray! Fall used to be my favorite season of the year, but I am learning to love Spring at least as much. We went to the park last night and the boys still wore their coats since the highs for the days were mid-sixties and it was cooling down when we were out, but it was pleasant in terms of temperature and lots of fun.

It was a different park than we have ever played at before so the boys had fun exploring the various features.

It's been a long time since I have been to a park with a merry-go-round in it. What a blast!!! I was so glad we had Andrew there to do the manly pushing for the kids.

After the park, we headed over to the library for a magic show themed around St Patricks Day. It was a fun night. I'm glad I have a sister who knows about these things and fills me in!

Lava Hot Springs

We had a great day at Lava Hot Springs. The road trip was flawless including a little side-adventure off to explore Crystal Hot Springs and a bathroom stop for Ammon at a gas station. We ate an entire bunch of grapes and lots of strawberries on the way!

Ammon and Andrew were the first ones into the water, and the bigger pool was just too hot for Ammon's liking. (Even on the cooler end.) We spend most of our time in one of the smaller side pools that seemed to have the coolest water. It felt heavenly and we enjoyed the contrasting 100+ degree water to the 30-40 degree weather we were having. It was a beautiful day.

We got there just as Peter had fallen asleep so he started out snuggled in my arms. He didn't want to take his shirt off right away - it took some time to work up to that. After an hour or so in the pool we took our trip out to Soda Springs to see the geyser. Ammon and I went back into the hot springs while Andrew and Peter took a nap in the car. Then we all drove to Pocatello to enjoy dinner at Jack in the Box (since they aren't local and we became accustomed to them in Yuma) and then had the opportunity to visit my cousin at her recently purchased home! We had a great visit with them and then headed back for one last dip in the pools.

By the time we got back from Pocatello, it was dark and the temperature had dropped. I made the guys skid to a stop in front of the sign just long enough to snap this one picture and then run run run to the hot water! It was a cold run but so worth it when we sank into the steamy hot pool. Ammon and I spent a lot of the night in the big pool that has hotter temps than the one we were in during the day.

It was so pleasant to be outdoors and feel the cool air as we basked in the steamy warmth of the hot springs. By this time we were a little bit bummed that it was the night of the time change because we didn't want to stay gone too long, but we were having a good enough time that we weren't in any hurry to leave.

We finally wrapped things up and changed into dry clothes for the drive home. The boys fell asleep quickly once we were in the car and Andrew and I enjoyed the peaceful drive together. Even with the time change in consideration, we were home by 11:00 at night so we still got a decent nights sleep after a wonderful day as a family.

Ammon keeps asking when we get to go again. It was definitely a successful trip.

Soda Springs, Idaho

This past weekend we had a fun road trip. One of the stops was Soda Springs ID where we went to see a geyser. It was lots of fun. The first stop was to the little visitor center where we kept warm while waiting for the time when the geyser would be going off.

The geyser is the only "captive" geyser in the world and is set to go off every hour on the hour. When it was just a few minutes to the hour, we headed out of the visitor center and up the snow covered trail to the overlook.

Andrew read a little bit about the history of the geyser and told us that it would shoot over 70 feet tall. He also learned that it originally caused problems with the timing of Old Faithful and they actually tried to seal it back up as they had drilled into it by mistake. They covered it with a 3500 lbs rock, but the next day they heard a loud sound and the rock had been dislodged.

We heard it before we saw it. The geyser started off small, but got bigger and bigger. Soon we were feeling the spray from it. It ended up spraying for a full six minutes. Ammon thought it was awesome! It was a fun little side trip on our day in Idaho.

Crystal Springs

The plan was to drive to Lava Hot Springs. It was about 2 1/2 hours away which was perfect. Yuma (where we lived last Summer) was exactly 2 1/2 hours away from EVERYTHING so we became very familiar with this length of a drive. 80 miles into the drive, however, we saw the signs for Crystal Hot Springs. We decided to go exploring!

We pulled off the freeway and followed the signs until. It was really easy to find and barely more than an hour from home. There is a year round camping spot and then the pools. There is even a water slide which looked like lots of fun!

We debated about what to do. We weren't really ready to be done with our drive - we like road trips. And Crystal Springs didn't open for almost another hour and they were still filling the pool with that steamy hot springs water. We decided to continue on with our original plan and continue on our way to Lava. But we also vowed to plan a trip to Crystal Springs soon.

Playing with Cousins

The hardest thing for me, when I moved to Arizona, was taking my kids away from their cousins. My sister and I have been really spoiled to have our kids together and they are all such good friends, and now that we have moved back, having the kids play together again is the best thing about it.

We love to spend time at Katy's house. There are so many fun things for the kids to do. They keep each other occupied, and Katy and I get to hang out and do whatever we want.

Spring is Coming

Although we are back to having snow, March started out with some really beautiful and warm days. Peter took full advantage of those days and had a blast riding his bike.

He also spent an afternoon mastering the slide. He spent a couple of hours on the slide in the back yard, but he didn't like to go down it unless I was standing there ready to catch him. I typically didn't actually catch him, but for some reason I needed to be there.

Eventually we went to a park where he spent another couple of hours sliding. The slide at the park was longer at the bottom, though, so he came to a stop still on the slide. I guess that made him feel safer because ever since then he has been fine on slides all by himself. And he LOVES them!

Family Lunch Date

After the fair we decided to go out for an impromptu family lunch. It was Andrew's last Saturday working and we were celebrating have Saturday's together! We opted for Panda Express since it was a little nicer than fast food, and it is a family favorite. The boys both really love it.

I find myself more and more in love with my cute little family of four all the time. We had a great time together.

Ammon thought it would be fun to eat his rice through the straw. An interesting concept that was successful although very slow!

Kids Safety Fair

On the last day of February Katy called me up and mentioned that she would be taking her kids to the Kids Safety Fair at the South Towne Expo Center. It was free and Andy was working so I decided to go too. It was Katy and me with Ammon, Peter, Carolyn, Kylie and Isaiah. I got there a few minutes before Katy and spend that time looking for a place to park at the Expo Center. I finally gave up and ended up parking at Jordan Commons. That turned out to be WAY better. I called Katy and she was able to park right next to me. I don't think the walk was much worse than if we had parked in the parking lot there, and it were way less vehicles to dodge getting into the building.
The Fair was set up with tons of booths with demos, games, handouts etc. The kids did all sorts of things including sitting in a firetruck, walking through an ambulance, turning the lights on in a police car, "crashing" in a seat belt demonstration etc.

Ammon and Carolyn enjoyed meeting McGruff although the younger three were all a little nervous about the giant dog. Ammon and Carolyn also got to hang out with a Storm Trooper for a minute (there were several of them there) although niether of them are huge Star Wars fans so I don't think they really get who he was - just a cool looking guy with a gun...

By the end of the day they were decorated with all sorts of badges, had a bag full of goodies and left the fair complete with tied balloons. Andrew also met us there after work and got there just in time to help us round the kids back up and get them to the car. It was lots of fun!

Field Trip

A couple of weeks ago Andrew picked Ammon up from school. That, in and of itself, is has been pretty common for a Thursday afternoon. But what was different was Andrew coming home and announcing that he was going to take time off work the following Tuesday to attend Ammon's field trip. Ammon had asked Daddy if he would come, and Daddy just couldn't bring himself to say no.
So off they went to Braza Grill. They sampled all sorts of different foods and drinks and absoluetly had a blast! Of course Andrew has a tendency to get excited about everything new and interesting so he came home committed to take me out for dinner there. He swears it is better than Rodigio Grill and can't wait to go back!

I am glad that Ammon not only had a fun experience with his school class, but also had a great day with his Daddy. I love seeing my boys doing things with their dad!