Spring has Sprung

It's a rainy day today, but not too cold. Our daffodils and tiny blue flowers are gorgeous and I don't want to hear the words "It's snowing" for at least 6 months. (Is that asking too much?!?)

I took this picture of my girls with Sister Clifford on Easter Sunday. Last month Sister Clifford said "Hope you don't mind my asking, but can I please sew Easter dresses for your girls?" I said "Sure!!!" Aren't they adorable? She did such a great job and S. loves that it spins just like a princess dress.

And let me just put it out there so everyone is clear on this: Please feel free to sew things for my girls anytime!

Not to be outdone, our eight-year-olds got new church shoes. I'll post a picture of their old ones too so you'll believe me when I tell you that they REALLY needed new church shoes.
Ben continues to be quite the loser. He's lost 20 pounds in seven weeks! As of last week every co-worker weighs less than they did seven weeks ago--their office total is 61 pounds lost! That's not to say there haven't been a few questionable methods involved. Two weeks ago, one of Ben's co-worker drank tons of water before the weigh-in because he figured he wouldn't win that week anyway. It improved his chances the for following week's weigh-in. Sneaky, eh? This is the same guy who brings a whole cake into the office every Friday in case people are hungry! Ben has admitted to wearing light-weight clothes and taking off his shoes and belt for the weigh-ins but at least he hasn't been employing his old wrestling tactics. In high school Ben had to lose weight before every wrestling match. One of his favorite tricks was to fast and then wrap himself in plastic wrap and go running before weighing in. (My favorite is that after making weight he'd scarf down a sleeve of Ritz crackers with cheese and drink a Coke.) Don't ask me why his coach couldn't just be sensible enough to put him in a bigger weight class. Ben wonders if wrestling in the wrong weight class through high school stunted his growth. If nothing else, he knows how to lose weight when he wants to! He says the trick is not stuffing himself at meals, not eating donuts and running. Good advice--not to brag, but I already knew about the not eating donuts part. (Not only is Ben skinnier than he's been in years, but his wife is hecka hilarious!)

This Biggest Loser thing is all in fun, but I wonder if all this dwelling on weight-loss is doing permanent damage to the kids. The three oldest kids, but the boys especially, must have weighed themselves a hundred times at Grandma and Papa's house (we do not own a scale). They would randomly run to the bathroom to weigh themselves, eat something, run back to weigh themselves, jog in the basement, run back to weigh themselves, drink something, then weigh themselves some more. Possibly more running around than Papa bargained for, it kept them occupied and out of the snowy cold weather. And it made me and Grandma laugh a lot!

Yes, R. is wearing fuzzy pink socks. They're mine. I was sitting on the couch sporting my fuzzy socks and he walks up to me and yoinks them! Sweet kid. . .

So I haven't been to Provo since August of '07, but with a DVD player in the van and overnight pit stops it was a bearable journey. We stopped at a hotel in Montana on the way and ran into our neighbors, the Ericksons, in the lobby! Too funny.

The two highlights of our Spring Break were watching General Conference and J.'s baptism. Grandma took me and the boys to the train "Trax" in Sandy early Saturday morning. The girls stayed in Provo. We rode to Temple Square then waited in the rain in a pretty long line with our tickets (thanks, President Pitcher!). It was so interesting to see the behind-the-scenes side of conference. I think the boys and I will be looking back on our Conference session as we watch for years to come. We studied the T.V. cameras, big screens, and sign language section with fascination. And when President Monson arrived, everything got quiet and we could each feel the Spirit telling us he is a prophet of God.

We won't do it again for the girls, but we (actually J.) decided that since R. was baptised in the Icicle River that J. could be baptized at his other grandparents' in their stake's baptismal font. Ben and his mom drove down to join us for the baptism. It was worth the headaches to have his uncles, aunties, some cousins be there and participate in the program. And if it's possible, I think J. has matured a lot since his birthday. If anyone has better pictures than these, let me know. This shot has a thumb in it! I almost don't want to post it, but I can't help myself I guess.

Several fun activities helped round out a very busy, fun-filled trip:

We couldn't call it a true trip to Provo without a visit to The Museum of Paleontology at BYU a.k.a. "The Dinosaur Museum" in the Southeast corner of the LaVell Edwards Stadium parking lot. The kids always have such a good time there and we always have the whole "museum" to ourselves.

For FHE we went to the farm part of Thanksgiving Point where the kids saw a bunch of animals, got a pony ride, and colored a butterfly. We rebounded nicely from the butterfly coloring activity with dinner and ice cream.

Grandma, Papa, and Uncle Buckethead took us to the 3D movie of Monsters v. Aliens. Loved that the President of the United States communicates with the aliens via rockin' keyboard riff! Loved the cheap popcorn and soda too (every city should be a college town--such good deals in Provo!)

We took full advantage of this college town with a trip to the Monte Bean Museum. The insects and ocean creatures were our favorites. (I remember the hammerhead shark and swordfish from my childhood.)
On my birthday we bounced around at Jump On It and then wasted no time replenishing any lost calories at Dad's favorite restaurant Los Hermanos. We wanted to hike the Y but it was snowing and we couldn't really see the Y. So instead we strolled/hiked up Rock Canyon. And collected rocks. We can't seem to hike without bring home a rock or two. Or ten.

We stayed with friends from our Moscow days on the way home and even though the trip was great it was so nice to get home. Even if it means cutting wall board and spending too much money on boring stuff like dry wall screws and two-by-fours.

We had a fun spring break and are grateful that my kids got to connect with their grandparents, and my awesome baby brothers and their awesomer (yesitsaword!) wives. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for putting us up, putting up with us, and spoiling us all rotten!