Spring Break-
April 1st was our first day of Spring Break-no fooling! (We don't do anything around here for April's Fools Day because I am not creative enough.) We had no concrete plans for Spring Break, we just knew we were going to hang out with Heidi and her kids at the beginning of the week and go stay for a night in Plain City at the end of the week. I also had a day blocked off for lessons so there was that. With that flexibility in mind, our week ended up filling up and the kids were gone from home from Monday morning to Friday night!
Tiana and Molly wanted to do a mountain bike ride so we went to Eric and Heidi's on Monday just after lunch so they could do that. The other kids played and it was nice enough for them to be outside so that felt wonderful.
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| Tiana and Molly |
Gene and April invited all the Utah grandkids to have a sleep-over at their house for that night so after the girls' bike ride, we drove the kids up to Sandy and dropped them off. Heidi and I didn't stick around to see what they ended up doing but I know they had fun. Molly directed a movie, they flew kites at the park, got to eat Grandma's yummy cooking, and had sleepovers with each other. Justin and I had the night to ourselves so we took advantage of it and went to dinner. (Really exciting.) We dreamed about our house and what it could really be like someday...one of our favorite past-times.
I was planning on picking the kids up the next morning but April said they could stay longer...then she suggested having them stay that night and to pick them up on my way to Plain City the next morning and save a trip. Justin was at work so that meant I had the entire day to myself. I should have tackled a project but relaxing sounded much nicer so that's what I did! I felt no guilt about it. I did drive down to the temple in the morning and did a round of initiatories. It had been a while since I had done that and I had a sweet experience that morning with one of the temple workers. It was a downpour walking back to the parking lot and I was glad Justin had an umbrella in the truck.
I only had two lessons on Wednesday morning (all my students went on vacation!) and then I went and got the kids. I was glad they were able to spend some time with Gene and April and Brett. We had a quick lunch there and then drove on to Plain City. They spent the rest of Wednesday running back and forth between my parent's house, Jeff and Ali's next door, Bryce and Erin's across the street, and the Walker's down in Warren. Molly and Abby went to Young Women's with Chloe that night. Ben, Chloe, Molly, Abby, and Gavin slept in the living room at Grandma and Grandpa's; Stockton, Grant, Brynn, and Seth slept in the boys room at the Broadbent's; and Ivy and I shared a king bed at my parent's house. It's this way every time we go to Plain City and it is great!
The beginning of the week had been wet and rainy but it cleared up for Thursday and Friday so we decided to do some things outside on Thursday. We went to a nature preserve in Syracuse. There was a visitor's center and a loop trail where we could do some bird watching. It was so nice to be outside and it was a beautiful day!
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| Grant and Stockton |
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| Molly, Josie, Brynn, Chloe |
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| Stockton, Molly, Brynn, Gavin, Seth, Lucy, Tessa, Josie, Chloe, Harper, Ivy, Grant |
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| Harper and Ivy |
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| Seth, Gavin, Grandma, Grant, Stockton, Harper, Brynn, Ivy |
After the nature preserve, we went to a park that was all swings for a picnic lunch. There was a swing zip-line and that was the favorite of the all the kids. I was starting to get hot in my long-sleeves but no one heard any complaining from me!
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| Stockton and Gavin |
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| Tessa and Ivy |
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| Molly and Chloe |
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| Ivy and Grandma |
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| Grant and Stockton |
My mom and I took a quick stop at Target on the way home to look for a swimsuit but I had no luck there. That night we made homemade individual pizzas, Jeff took Gavin, Molly, and Chloe mountain biking, and the rest of us rode bikes around Plain City. I packed my bike along with all the kids' bikes and I loved riding around with them...just like I did when I was little. I showed them the best riding spots-around and around the credit union drive-through and in the church parking lot. I think I will be packing our bikes every time we go to Plain City for more than a day!
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| Harper and Brynn |
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| Molly, Chloe, Gavin |
On Friday we wanted to go swimming. We decided to wait and go after lunch. In the morning, the kids rode their bikes a few blocks to the pickleball courts. My mom, Ali, and I rode ours down after we cleaned up breakfast and let the littles play at the park there. They played for an hour or so, until we started to get rained on.
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| Grant and Stockton |
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| Ben, Tessa, Molly, Gavin |
We went back for lunch and then we drove in to the Clearfield Rec Center but their pool was at capacity to we went to Surf and Swim instead. It's an outdoor wave pool with a winter bubble. Surprisingly, the older kids didn't last long in the pool. The younger group outlasted them by a lot! We stayed for a few hours then found an ice cream spot close by before we all headed our separate ways-all of them to Plain City and me and my crew back to Heber. It had been a busy, fun week and we were tired!
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| Lucy and Ivy |
I met Justin in Park City and gave him Molly. They were heading to the Jazz game as their Daddy-Daughter Valentine's date. They were supposed to go in March and were going to go to the temple but March ended up being crazy so it was nice when he got tickets from work and could use this for their date-and only a few days late! Molly had so much fun and really loves her one-on-one time with Justin.
Before Spring Break, we had made a list of everything we wanted to do during the break. I thought that we'd have more time at home. A lot of the list was to do things with our cousins so we checked most everything off. Stockton had really wanted to make chocolate muffins and we hadn't done that so he and I made those in between Conference sessions on Saturday. He was so proud of himself!
We also needed to make our countdown-to-summer chain. Brynn helped me with that. Each ring represents one day that the kids have to go to school. They get excited when it's no longer on the floor, above the windowsill, etc.
Conference Sunday is always at Gene and April's but it's a quiet one now that the Tanner's are in Atlanta. Eric and Heidi are usually at their property so it was just us. Ivy made a "dollhouse" during the afternoon session and after dinner we played a lot of baseball. Stockton hit the ball over the fence and very cockily did a bat drop that had us rolling with laughter-he would never have enough confidence to actually do that in a game!
Ivy wanted to play Old Maid with me so I told her to set it up on the rug for us. She thought I meant the runner in the kitchen where we deposit our shoes when we come in the house, not the living room rug that I had really meant. Silly girl!
Justin took his turn to go to parent-teacher conferences. It was nice for him to meet the kids' teachers and for them to meet him since it's usually me doing that stuff.
Brynn had a Mother-Daughter activity for Activity Days. We tied quilts and donated them to a nursing program in Utah County for under-privileged mothers. I hadn't tied a quilt since my Young Women's days and Brynn never had so we had a lot of fun working on a little baby quilt together. I appreciated the effort it took the leaders to put so many quilts together.
Molly had a game that morning that I missed. Justin took her and brought two extra girls home when the game was over. When I got home with Brynn, I found them in the kitchen playing "Chopped." Stockton had picked five different ingredients that they had to incorporate into a lunch dish. They had a lot of fun but I don't think I've ever seen three kids make a bigger mess! Brynn was the judge. Molly had made a roast beef sandwich, Caroline a salad with homemade vinaigrette, and Sara a breakfast burrito. Molly was the winner. They had a lot of fun but I told Molly not to plan on doing that every time a friend is over!
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| Molly, Caroline Turner, Sara Cope |
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| Brynn, Molly, Sara, Caroline |
These girls got a ride in the back of the truck while dad was doing some work outside. I think this is one of those "simple joys of childhood." Also, those clouds and that blue sky are pretty amazing...or amazingly pretty would work as well!
I pulled out these wooden blocks one day when I was baby-sitting and Ivy had so much fun with them. She built castles for all of her little princess people.
Justin made progress with my birthday present. Here is a sneak peak of my new swing. It hangs in front of Brynn and Ivy's bedroom windows, underneath our master bedroom deck. He's done with his part, now it's my job to sew a cover for the mattress. I'll show a finished picture when that is all done.
Stockton had his pinewood derby. He made a Wasatch Wasps car with his baseball number underneath the "W." His car looked great but it didn't race so good this year. Justin said he bent one of the axles too much and it was rubbing against the wheel and slowing it down. Stockton was a good sport and took it like a champ and had lots of fun despite the slower car. Crossing my fingers that they still do pinewood derbies with scouting going away!
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| He got to do the color guard with Kelton Webb. |
I like to go to at least one field trip each year with the kids. I already went with Brynn in the fall so I was able to go with Stockton in April. We started at Wasatch State Park where we did a nature hike and I learned that trees set their buds in the fall, not in the spring. I thought that was an interesting tidbit. We got a little sprinkled on, so we had to find somewhere to eat our lunch where we wouldn't get rained on. We just sat on the sidewalk up against the visitor's center. Two birds had built nests facing each other and we watched them carry on what looked like a conversation.
After lunch, we loaded the bus and drove to the Swaner Nature Preserve in Park City. There, they divided us into three groups and we went to three different stations. The first was more of an informational station where the kids learned about invertebrates and larvae. They had to match the larvae to the parent (they don't look alike). I am not a bug person, but this was actually very interesting.
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| I don't know many kids in Stockton's class so I can't tell you who these boys are. |
We also got to walk around out on the preserve with binoculars, looking for animals or traces of animals. And our last station was one in which we got to see live animals-a turtle, a cockroach, and an armadillo. Stockton liked to touch the animals but when the worker put the animals on the floor to walk around, he scooted out of the circle-he didn't want them coming close to him! I was so glad I got to go with him and it was one of the better field trips I've been on.
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| Stockton and Kyson McAffee |
Ivy was able to go stay with my parents for a couple of nights so I could go and she was so excited to be going just by herself. My mom took her and Lucy to the Treehouse Museum and to see the flowers at the temple.
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| Ivy and Lucy |
Molly had back-to-back soccer games on the last Saturday in April. The first was at 10:30 in Sandy. When that was over we had to rush to the second game which started at 12:30 in Lehi. It was a busy morning! When both games were over, I took her shopping. She was sorely in need of some shorts for summer and was very pleased with what she found.
There is a girl from Heber, Avery Tanner, that had a horrible accident when she was repelling for her Saturday afternoon prom date. She fell and hit her head and immediately went into a coma. Our community was so incredible in support for her and her family. Businesses donated proceeds, several different functions were held around the valley, our local dinosaur dressed as her, there were fasts held and designated prayer/meditation times held specifically for her, and hundreds of kids in all the schools were writing #avestrong on their wrists/helmet/cleats/jerseys in support of her. It really was incredible to see everyone pull together. I have followed her dad's posts on Instagram regularly (as has Molly on my phone), even though she is a stranger to me, for two reasons: 1-just because it's been a sad and amazing journey to watch; I can't imagine what her parents have gone through, and 2-a couple of the boys in our ward were also repelling in the same group and one of them is the one who actually caught her. They have struggled in dealing with what happened. Anyway, one of the mom's on Molly's soccer team had #avestrong bows made for all the girls and they have worn them for every game since. They also do a cheer for her before the start of the game and before the start of the 2nd half. No one on the team has met her but this is how it has been all over Heber since the accident. Before I lived in Heber, I never really wanted to live here but now that I do, I am so glad! It is full of some great people!
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| The bows are really hard to see but those girls were proud to represent Avery! Molly is #10, third one in from the right. |
The kids spent a significant amount of time one Sunday setting up an obstacle course outside so after dinner, we all went out and had a try at it. I do believe that I was the quickest through the course but no one really cared what their time was. Brynn and Ivy were distracted by Brynn's birthday swing. Later, we went to the church and played some baseball, although we didn't last long because it was a little cold and windy and the girls were getting bored and fighting over a blanket. So we went home and did Come, Follow Me.
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| You had to do the first half blind-folded! |
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