Happy endings

We used McKinley's ski passport today to try out Brighton. 
After one run Hayden was done!  McKinley's gloves weren't working well, so there were some tears there too.
We took a break at 2:30 inside to warm and regroup.
Luckily we found a small little green run with it's own lift at the bottom of the hill to try out just "one time". 
Eureka!  That was the right fit for my kids second time ever skiing.  4 or 5 happy runs later...and I am glad we were able to end the day with a positive experience.
Sawyer opted out this time and spent the day with Josh and Daddy.

Sacred Gifts exhibit

The Sacred Gifts exhibit is open at BYU right now.  It features beautiful paintings by Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hoffman, and Frans Schwartz.  Tomorrow is the last day for the current installation, and then they switch over 4 of the paintings for the remainder of the exhibit.
I got my tickets and took a field trip today.  The information online says it takes about 1-2 hours to get through.
Ha!  With my 2 year old buddy pushing his stroller around we made it out in 30 minutes !  Fully prepared for that, it wasn't a disappointment.  And I rewarded him for not tripping any alarms with a trip to the park afterwards.
He wouldn't let me take any pictures of him this time, but he would let me take one of the pretty Y mountain.

Waffle Love

I've never had one, so when I heard that the Waffle Love truck was going to be at Gardner Village today, I put it on my calendar.
They make a scrumptious "leige" waffle from Belgium.  It has caramelized sugar that makes it crunchy and sugary on the outside, but soft and chewy on the inside.  I opted for the "Nutella Love".  It had Nutella, strawberries and a giant scoop of whipped cream.
Josh and I shared the "nummy", as he called it, together.
Highly recommend!  I wonder if Kent would try one?

Coloring

Josh wanted to color yesterday.  He did pretty good unless I turned my back on him.  Then he colored on Josh, the counters, the chairs....you get the idea. 
At one point I cleaned it up because I thought we had moved on.  I was in another room when I heard blood curdling screams!  He made sure to find me and yell "color!". So our coloring stayed out until dinner.

More science

Tonight was the awards ceremony for the district science fair winners.  

After school today I fed the kids dinner.  At 4:00.  Sawyer and McKinley said they weren't hungry.  But that was our only chance of a homemade meal tonight.  At 4:15 I had to head over to the church for my new calling.  The one calling I never, ever wanted, but knew was inevitable with 3 boys in my house.  Den leader.  I left McKinley to do homework, while Hayden (who had finished his homework) played the ipad, and Josh was finally taking a late snooze after playing for a couple hours in his crib during his actual nap time. 

When I returned from a rambunctious craft hour with 8 year old boys, it was 5:40.  I had to wake up Josh and try to avert a meltdown from a post-nap awakening.  Mission accomplished.  I had him buckled in his seat, and ran back inside to gather the camera, herd the other kids into the car, get Josh's juice, snacks, and shoes.  Check, check, and check!  Set the alarm.  Out the door.  We're going to make it on time! 

Where's my car keys?

In the house.  The locked house.

Luckily I had my cell phone. So I called my dad, who was already sitting patiently at the ceremony, since they had arrived early!  He came and picked us up so we could make it to McKinley's award ceremony on time.  Kent had to come home from work to get us a key, but at least he got to see her ceremony when he otherwise wouldn't have been able to.  

At any rate, she is excited to go to BYU!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  The kids are off to school with their Valentines boxes and treats.  

I made Sawyer's box into an evil minion from Despicable me.

McKinley decorated her box with Duct tape into a little monster.  At first she wanted to do a realistic Olaf, but we couldn't figure out how to make a sturdy snowman.  Her class treats are a little snack snowman making kit that say "Do you wanna build a snowman?"

And Hayden has been decorating his box in class at school.  Yay!  So here he is this morning holding up one of the treats he is passing out today.  We went with the twinkies made up like minions that say "you're one in a minion".

BYU

Just got the call that McKinley is advancing to the regional science fair at BYU!  We are so happy for her.  She really wanted to go this year.  I'm sure this will be her (and my) happy part of the day!