Misc...

Just a few random pictures from the last of our month of March.  After a rainstorm on our way to school, there was a humongous worm!  He wasn't even stretched out, he was even longer when he did that!  We usually see a lot of small ones, this one must be the granddaddy!

For Lilly's homework, she was to find certain words in a magazine and glue them on her homework.  We looked and looked and could not find the word "upon." Who uses that in regular speak anyway?! So I told her to just write it and tell her teacher we couldn't find it.  Let me interpret what her homework says..."we couldn't find upon my grandma said to write it. upon." She makes me laugh!

This was donut day with our super hero Jacob!  Zander would only eat some donut if I held it for him!  Doesn't like to get his hands dirty!  ha ha.

 Rock star day...

 And Zander loves to play with the "whales."  He sets them all up and names them all.  It's like his own little open ocean exhibit!  And with that, March is done!

Uncle Vanor...

My mom's brother, Vanor, passed away this week.  On March 15th.  He is just a few months shy of 90 years old.  He was a kind and gentle man.  He will be missed.  The reunion in heaven must be glorious though.  Today they held a short graveside service.  Cousin Bret Brown came with his Patriot Guard Riders. They met the hearse way up almost to the Idaho border (he passed away in Idaho) and accompanied the hearse all the way to the cemetery in American Fork.  They are a beautiful sight with all their flags and their respect.  They lined the way from the hearse to the graveside.  After his body was at the resting place, they then circled the gathering.  I love that and the symbolism of it.The military honors were beautiful as always and always bring a tear to my eye.  Naomi's daughter read his obituary which was a brief life sketch.  Aunt Naomi said there will be a memorial service at a later date so we have time to gather pictures and honor him together.  Several cousins were at the graveside and almost all the families were represented (of the 10 siblings).  It was great to see them and visit for a little bit.  Then some of us went to Sizzler and had dinner before the aunties hit the road back to Wayne County. I am so sad to lose another uncle.  I only have 1 uncle left between my mom and dad's families.  We will look forward to the memorial service.

 

Cousin Bret...we love you and your Patriot Guard Riders!

 Auntie Bev, Auntie Elaine, Uncle Valoy, and cousin Gary Bagley

 Cousin Chrissy Brown with Gary and his wife Julie (back of head, blonde hair)

 Auntie Elaine, Dave (my favorite!) and cousins Cherie and Kevin Brown (who also came on motorcycle)

Soccer, Spelling and Zander...

When we have a lovely spring day, the kids like to go out and play soccer!  Zander of course loves to play with them.  We check on the chickens and gather eggs, and sometimes we do bubbles with our bubble machine.  We like it when the weather lets us get outside for a bit. On our trip home from Vegas we worked with Lilly on her spelling words.  I gave her a white board and had her practice.  We told her that Irish was with a CAPITAL I.  We usually don't get her words in time to practice so her spelling tests are not always too great...but one day there was a picture on instagram of Loralye (Lauren's daughter that they met at the shark exhibit in Vegas and her and Lilly hit it off perfectly) with her first ever 100% spelling test!  I told Amanda we needed to show that to Lilly to inspire her.  Well guess what, that very same day she came home with her spelling test and she got 100%!!  AND, she was the only one who capitalized Irish!  Way to go Lilly!  We still showed her the picture of Loralye and told her they both know now how to push yourself and get a higher grade.  Practice! I have to add a few pictures of Zander.  He is so cute when he falls asleep with his sippy cup still in his lips.  He LOVES to help me swap out the laundry, and he can reach clear in there and get the stuff from the back!  Sometimes his hair looks like horns when he comes in the morning or gets up from a nap, but he is a sweetie and is a lot of fun and cuteness to have around.  He is part of our family.  I love all these kids!  Being a grandma is the best!

Vegas Vacation day five...

Well, we were sad for our vacation to end, and even more sad that Grandpa wasn't driving home with us!  He had to stay for the big construction show at the convention center.  Amanda drove all the way home!  I offered more than once to take a turn, but she just kept at it.  We stopped at a pancake house first before heading back.  We had yummy cinnamon french toast, s'mores pancakes, cinnabon pancakes and I don't know what else...it was all so good! It was hard for us each to pick one!  We had a nice drive back and it felt good to be home in the late afternoon. Jacob drew a really cool picture on his etch a sketch.  A family picture and he signed it "from Jacob."  That boy has some etch a sketch skills! What a fun vacation that was afforded us at the drop of a hat!  Thank you Asphalt Zipper and Dave's co-worker for treating us so well!  

   

Vegas Vacation day four...

Two different people had told David before we left for Vegas that he HAD to go to the Pinball Hall of Fame.  So we google mapped it and went for a drive Tuesday morning.  It is this old building and it has rows and rows of pinball machines!  A lot of the really old ones only cost 25 cents to play.  Others were 50 cents and 75 cents.  It was crazy!  We got there when it first opened, but after we had been there about 30 minutes it got busy!  The kids each had a dish of quarters to spend as they saw fit.  Jacob was very careful with his money and played mostly cheaper games so when the other kids were out of quarters, they just had to watch Jacob play!  He was really sweet and offered to share his quarters, but his mom told him those were his and he got to use them.  It was kind of a fun way to spend the morning.  One of the machines David was playing, stopped playing right, so the lady working there (all the people who "work" there, do it for free, just as a fun hobby) came and sat down and fixed it for him.  She explained some things about pinball machines.  

We went back to the hotel and decided to try the pools again.  The kids got in, Amanda sat on the edge, and Dave and I sat under the shade watching the airplanes go by.  It got too chilly for me so we finally went back upstairs.  My friend who I have known since we were 8, and probably haven't seen since then (but have kept in touch all these years) lives in Las Vegas and she made the trip across town (30 minutes!) to visit me for a little bit!  With a broken toe!  Her foot was in a boot.  What a trooper.  Janie McCollaum Moore.  We both lived in Alaska and our dads were in the military.  Not sure how we kept up all these years  (well, back in the day we wrote letters to each other) and her brother served his mission in Mesa and randomly knocked on my door one day.  Wow.  Anyway, we had fun visiting for a bit and trying to remember what we could about Alaska and our baptisms.  

One night for dinner, we had bought a frozen pizza but the store didn't have a disposable pizza pan.  We bout a roaster type one and Dave smashed it down to a shape we could put our pizza on.  Necessity is the mother of inventions, right?  Another night we ate at the restaurant in the resort that was like a 50's place...burgers, fries, milkshakes etc.  It was really good!  We had to walk through an old smokey casino and that was pretty gross, but we were happy for the great meal we got! Our vacation was coming to a close.  It has been fun and relaxing.  No stress and no schedules! The kids enjoyed each taking a turn in the jet tub.  On the drive home I said I thought I was going to take a jet tub bath and the kids asked where....and I said, in my bathroom!  They didn't know my tub has jets in it!  ha ha.  

Vegas vacation day three...

On Monday I was most excited...we were going to The Luxor!  It is the pyramid hotel and they have the Titanic Exhibit!  I have wanted to see that forever...and Dave took me!  He didn't have to be to work until Wednesday...so we had a couple of days to play.  While he and I did that (it was fabulous!), Amanda and the kids met Lauren Green and her kids at the hotel next door, Mandalay Bay, to see Shark Reef.  The kids loved that!  They got to touch a stingray and see all kinds of neat sea things.  I love the Luxor and if I ever can stay for free, I would!  At the Titanic Exhibit they give you a card of someone who was actually on the Titanic and at the end of the exhibit you see if they made it or not.  They had many artifacts from the Titanic and many stories and pictures, and they had some rooms set up like what they would have looked like.  It was very interesting, and both Dave and I "survived" the Titanic Disaster.  After our fun exhibits, we met back together and walked on down the strip.  We stopped at the Hershey Store and the M&M store.  Both amazing!  We could not believe all that they had!  There was a chocolate Statue of Liberty and a whole section dedicated to Reeses.  At the M&M store they had every kind of M&M imaginable!  All those colors...wow!!  We walked back to the Luxor (where we had parked) and saw some pretty icky things all the way back.  Why do people have to be so creepy and disgusting?  Anyway, I tried to get a good picture of the sphinx but didn't have much luck. When we got back to the hotel, Amanda and the kids decided to try out one of the pools (there were at least 4!) but it was too windy and cold.  They didn't last very long.  Isn't Vegas supposed to be warm and sunny!?  We just kept asking that question...it turned warm again right after we left for home...