Pagosa Springs Trip

Right after From Cumorah's Hill we took a family trip up to Pagosa Springs, Colorado where we rented a cabin with Natalie and Brian.  Julianne and Eric came up the last couple of days, and we all had a great time together.

Dallin went skiing with the grown-ups all three days and did just fine.  He tackled everything we wanted to go on. We put Sean, Daphne and Kyrie in ski school for 2 days at Wolfcreek.  They had a blast and made a lot of progress.  It was cute to ski with them at the end of the day.  

The cabin we rented had a hot tub.  It felt great after you were skiing, but they had some weird chemical in the water that tasted really bitter.  I'm not saying we were drinking the water, but when you are in the hot tub with a bunch of hyper kids, you can't help but get water splashed in your mouth.

The first night Natalie, Emma and I got in with the kids and they kept splashing so much we had to make a no moving rule, and if you splashed you had to get out and freeze your tush off for 30 seconds as punishment.  But they thought it was fun to get out and freeze, so that plan backfired.  

From then on, no one wanted to go in with the kids, but Uncle Brian was a sport and went out to supervise them the last night we were there.  Thanks Uncle Bubba!

Okay, the funny thing about this picture is that it looks like they are posing, right?

nope.

This is totally real.

These two girls were hot and cold.  

Daphne:  "Sometimes we were best friends and sometimes we were NOT FRIENDS AT ALL!

But now we miss each other."

The cabin we stayed at had all these  dead animals hanging on the wall.  The boys thought it was great and Brian spent some time contemplating which stag he would shoot if they were both standing in the same field.  Lilly was very scared of this bison head.  When she first got to the cabin, we were feeding her some lunch and she was sitting with her back to the bison head.  She wouldn't eat, but kept looking nervously over her shoulder and the big black head.  

Daphne:  Me and Kyrie wanted to pet it.  Uncle Eric lifted her up so she could pet it, but she screamed! So then Uncle Eric lifted me up to pet it and I said, "It feels rough."  Then Kyrie did it.  Uncle Eric told her that it is not scary.  But Lilly screamed again.  So Aunt Natalie said, "It's not scary.  It's just a big Kooky-head."  Then Lilly started calling it Kooky-head.  And she wasn't scared anymore.

THE END

Just a cute picture of Sydney

Lilly

Sean and Hayden playing a little chess.

Heading outside to explore

Adventure to the Rocky Mountain Wildlife Park:

One day, Natalie and I took the kids to this Rocky Mountain Wildlife Park.  It's really small but pretty fun.  When you first get there you are greeted by a gang of turkeys.  

I think this Tom Turkey felt threatened by Hayden wearing his chicken hat.  He kept taking steps toward him and finally I had to come over and shoo him away because it looked like there might be a show down.

When we went inside to pay, the gal at the counter said she was about to bring in the baby lamb, if we wanted to stay inside for a minute.  They hadn't named her yet, so we got to write down name suggestions.  Daphne submitted the name "Thumbelina" and I voted for "Sweet Pea."

The lamb drinking her bottle.

This sign made me laugh.  

I think I should make one to wear as a necklace at certain times of the month.

Sydney again.  You can see her two little teeth in this one.

The girls feeding a Donkey and a goat.

Clearly, she's my favorite photo subject these days.

This Elk's name was Trighton.  His antlers weigh about 30 lbs and he usually loses them around March.
We were lucky to see them still on, I guess.

Daphne fell in love with these cute little bunnies.
Unfortunately for her, they were too quick for her to get near.

We had such a fun time together skiing, eating, visiting, playing games, and relaxing in the hot tub.  Oh, I can't wait until we own our cabin in Pagosa Springs!  We love that little town.

From Cumorah's Hill

I'm finally starting to catch up --This is about a month overdue.

I was priveledged to be a part of our Stake's Youth Conference this year, in preparing the youth choir and conducting the choir and orchestra in their performance of From Cumorah's Hill.  From Cumorah's Hill is a Musical Fireside Presentation by Steven Kapp Perry, about the truths of the Book of Mormon and how they apply to our lives.  It is presented by a choir and speakers, and if you ask for the orchestral score, (like we did) you can have a live orchestra as well.  

(Only a handful of stakes ever use a live orchestra, so the score isn't  professionally pulished, and has lots of mistakes in it that need correcting.  So just a little tip,  in case you are thinking about using a live orchestra, be prepared to spend some time fixing a bunch of stuff in the music!)

For the first 6 weeks, the choir and orchestra reahearsed separately, and in the 7th week, we put it all together, with the speaking parts, and costumes and lighting, concluding with performances on Saturday and Sunday nights.  After all that time learning notes and repeating things over and over, it was so gratifying when it came together.

Here are the prophets in their costumes.  Lookin' good, boys!

The choir was comprised of 177 youth, and their leaders brought the numbers up to about 230 voices.  Many of those youth were not musical, didn't like to sing, or thought they couldn't sing, but they came and sang anyway, (some under severe duress from their parents) and I think in the end most of them had a really great experience.  There was a particular young man who I knew didn't want to do it.  I was really surprised when he randomly showed up to try out for a solo.  And who do you think got the "I Never Stand Alone" solo?  You guessed it.  Another young man who came kicking and screaming, got a speaking part and on the way home from Sunday's performance was asking his mom why the Stake didn't do stuff like this more often?

I had the best seat in the house of course, and got to stand in front of this awesome group and feel of their testimonies and their goodness.

 I feel so blessed to have had that opportunity. 

The handsome lighting guy.  Hands off, ladies, he's mine.

Okay, this is me telling the cast about my wand.  I mean, my baton.  It was a gift from Rob Sorensen from the Cherry Hills ward who handmade it.  The handle is made of leftover cherry wood trimming from the  Albuquerque Temple, and the stick part is holly wood.  (And I threatened to stupify any of the youth who were talking during someone else's speaking part.)

Arthur took this shot of the choir the night of the last performance.  It's hard to see, but they looked amazing.  They are up on the stage and spilled over onto risers on the floor as well.  What a sight!

Since our ward has church in this building from 2-5, and call for the cast was 5:30, we all had a picnic dinner together in the YW room in between church and the performance.   It was kind of cool to see lots of families who would be staying for the performance, just make the best of it and eating together in various spots around the building.  It was some pretty good ward bonding, I thought.  :) Emma, Dallin & Daphne got to stay after church on Sunday and eat with me quickly before finding seats in the cultural hall.  Thanks to the Carters for taking our other little guys home from church and tending them until we got home.

Dallin & Daphne with the Gold Plates after Sunday's performance.

Arthur and I after the first peformance--the youth committe gave me these flowers at the cast party afterward.  :)  

I felt truly uplifted and edified through this experience, and felt the Lord teaching me and sustaining me through some very long days.  I love the goodness and energy of the youth, and am so grateful I got to work with them in this.  I am so proud of them for what they accomplished!

My hope and prayer is that those youth will remember the spirit they felt as they sang this beautiful music together.  I hope they will remember the feeling of love and unity and comraderie that followed the rehearsals and especially the performances.  And I hope that they will remember the spirit's witness of truth as they sang the words, "Great things and small things, I can do all things, all that Lord may require,"  "The power of God is plain to see, there are wonders on every hand"  and "I Never Stand Alone when I Stand with God!"  I hope they find themselves humming the tunes and have those songs going through their minds as they walk to their classes at school to uplift them when they feel discouraged.  (The cool thing about music is that it acts as a memory aid.  People remember words set to music much easier than just spoken words.)  

I hope they learned a little bit more about what the spirit feels like and learned to better recognize it's still small voice.  (I know I learned a lot about that through those couple of months!) And I hope their testimonies of the Book of Mormon and of the reality of the prophet Joseph Smith were strengthened.  I hope they came away with a renewed desire to be better disciples of Christ, and better friends to each other as together, they seek after every good thing.  

Spring Break Plans

Tonight in family home evening we were discussing our plans for Spring Break. A few weeks ago, we had planned (rather impulsively) to go visit Natalie and Brian and do Disneyland again and this time hit California Adventure as well.  Emma hasn't been to D-land since she was 14, and when we were just there in October, I left definitely wanting more!

Well, last night Arthur and I took a hard look at our checkbook and decided it wouldn't be prudent of us to go again.  So this morning during breakfast I broke it to the kids, who actually took it really well.  And so tonight during Family Home Evening we discussed a little more about how we didn't have enough money to go to Disneyland during Spring Break, but we could do other fun stuff, like see Tangled at the dollar theater, or maybe visit White Sands & Carlsbad Caverns . . . Well the kids started quoting, "Despicable Me," (their favorite movie right now,) and this is sort of how it went:

(you have to read these with a Mr. Gru voice.)

Dallin:  "In terms of money . . .  we have no money."

Daphne:  "So how, you ask, will we get to Disneyland?  The answer is clear.  We won't.  But instead we will go . . . wait for it . . . WE WILL GO . . .  pause for effect . . ."

Dallin:  "TO THE DOLLAR THEATER!"

We were all laughing and laughing, and I'm so grateful for kids who just made the best of a disappointing situation.  I was pretty depressed today with our change of plans, but I don't feel so bad about it anymore.  After all, for Spring Break, we are going to the dollar theater.  :)

El Malpais

When I told Arthur that we were coming with him to see him start and finish the race, he said, "Well what are you going to do for all the hours in between?"  I said, "I'm sure we can find something to do."  He said, "I don't think there IS anything to do in Grants."  Well as it turns out, you can find something to do even in a little town like Grants.

First on the agenda, a stop at Walmart, (yes, there is a Walmart in Grants) to pick up an umbrella stroller for Sydney since I'd forgotten to bring hers, and also, with Arthur's bike in the back, I don't think we had room for it even if I had remembered.

 Since I wasn't sure what we'd find to do  in Grants, I printed off a list of photo scavenger hunt ideas as a last resort.   A team could earn 250 pts for a picture of the whole team under a picnic table.  Since Jewels and Eric are missing, and Lilly wasn't 100% cooperative,  we'll call it 200 pts.

To kill some time while Arthur was doing his Quadrathalon, we went out to check out El Malpais, just a few miles outside of Grants. El Malpais means "The Badlands" in Spanish.  People tried to settle here back in the 30's during the Depression.  But as the name indicates, not many people stuck it out.  There are some cool things to see there, including a natural arch, great views from the sandstone bluffs, and some ice caves and lava tubes you can explore.  Most of those take some hiking and since we weren't prepared for lots of hiking, and because it was SUPER WINDY!!!  We spent some time exploring the easiest spot to get to, which is the Sandstone Bluffs.

 On the way there, we stopped on the side of the road where we saw the remains of an old stone house.  Since there wasn't anything preventing us from exploring, or signs that told us not to touch, we made ourselves at home.

Poor Hayden fell into a cactus on the way out to the house.

I picked a prickle out of his leg, and it was really hard to get out!

Poor little guy!

What's left of a fireplace--perfect for climbing in.

Here we are at the bluffs:  

It was really quite beautiful up there and we could have stayed much longer were it not for that blasted wind!

A View of Mt. Taylor from El Malpais.  That is what Arthur was climbing while we were hanging out taking pictures.  Mt. Taylor is a 3.5 million year-old dormant volcano, and there is a lot of black lava rock in this area.

  

Emma, Daphne and Jewels looking over the cliff.

We found this little pool of water up on the sandstone.  Here's Dallin jumping over it.

And here is everyone else jumping over.  
Sean fell in the first time.  I knew someone would.
That's half the fun, I guess.

Sydney enjoying the view and some keys.

With my sister and my children in mortal peril, what could I do, but grab the camera?

Sean thought he'd found some snipe tracks, until Daphne burst his bubble by informing him that there is no such thing as a snipe.

Back in Grants, we stayed out of the wind and killed some time letting the kids watch a movie.  

Their current favorite is Despicable Me.

Some of the Grants Scenery.

The boys waited and cheered other racers as they came into the finish line.

Daphne entertained herself by taking portraits of her siblings.

Still waiting.

and waiting.

and waiting.

We were so happy when Arthur finally crossed that finish line!
I'm so proud of him for finishing that race.  It was such a hard thing to do, and I love that he worked so hard to accomplish that goal!  Way to go, Arthur.  
You. Are.  A. Mazing. 

p.s. I don't know what is going on with the formatting in this post. 
It's like one giant caption.
whatever.

February quotes

Hayden:  Thindy is thnucking on her pathifier.

About our tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner

Sean: Oh, not again!  We just had this dinner.

Me:  no we didn't--it's been a long time since we had this dinner.

Sean:  I hate this dinner. (Just for the record, that comment lost him five beads, which is the equivalent of 1 screen-time session).

Daphne:  Don't worry Sean, it's not the home-made kind. It's the kind from a can.  (looks at me apprehensively and starts back-peddling) I mean, the home made kind is good, but Sean just likes the soup from a can better.

Me:  It's okay, Daphne, I didn't like my homemade soup either.

Daphne:  Okay, mom.  I just didn't want to hurt your feelings.

Daphne while making her lunch:

I'm taking a bite from each of these so when my friends ask me for them, I'll tell them, 

"Sorry, I already took a bite."

While Folding Laundry

Dallin: Yesterday was my 2nd worst nightmare of this entire school year.

Mom:  Oh yeah?  What was it?

Dallin:  I had to dance with a girl in music class.  Like one of those old fashioned dances!

Mom: Well, what was your 1st worst nightmare?

Dallin:  when I had to run through the cheerleader tunnel at basketball.  I couldn't breathe because they were short and all of their pompoms were in my face.

Sean:  Stop it Hayden.  I'm getting annoyed at you.

Pottytraining:

Not sure what made me start potty-training Hayden in the middle of everything else I have going on, except the fear that maybe things won't ever settle down to a point when I actually feel like potty-training.  Well, Hayden has been doing pretty good at 1/2 of the potty-training business.  But he's having a very hard time with the other half which is the more disgusting to clean up.

So I showed him a very big toy that had been waiting in my closet for just such an occasion, and told him that if he went poop in the toilet five times, he could earn that big toy.  After a week of pooping his pants once a day, we finally had a breakthrough and he started counting down to earning the big toy.

So yesterday morning, I gave Hayden his daily potty pep-talk and told him that he was so close!  All he had to do was poop in the toilet once more to earn . . .  the BIG TOY.  So Hayden decided he'd head to the bathroom and try to knock that last one out.

Well, Sean has been waiting with baited breath for Hayden to earn that toy. As he set out, Sean patted him on the shoulder and said, "I really hope you go poop, Hayden!"  It made me smile.  And sure enough, Hayden earned his big toy!  He got to play with it for half the day but then got it taken away when he pooped his pants that afternoon.  He's now in process of re-earning it.  It's sitting in my closet where it is occasionally visited by Hayden and Sean who look at it longingly and count on their fingers how many more successes Hayden needs to play with it again.

Hayden: (examing the bottle of vanilla extract)  I think I mutht drink this.

After Dallin's Basketball game:

Mom:  So what color star did you get?

Dallin:  The blue star.

Mom:  What does that one stand for?

Dallin:  effort.

Mom:  Well, great job, Dallin!

Dallin: (sighs) I don't like getting the blue star because it basically means I tried really hard and accomplished nothing.

At Stake Conference in a very loud whisper

Sean:  Aunt Emma, you said this is going to be shorter than church, but it is taking FOR-E-VER!

After "From Cumorah's Hill," we brought all the stake's lighting equipment back to be stored in our garage until the building is fixed.  So when Sean was getting into the car this morning, he noticed the big spotlight, and said in amazement,  "We have a CANNON now?"

Waiting for Dad to finish his Quadrathalon:

Sean:  Dad is NEVER COMING BACK!

Sean:  I think you're right, Mom.  I think Dad has a "black" tire. 

 (I wondered aloud if he'd gotten a flat tire.)

Emma:  I wish I could sing like black lady.

A lunch-time conversation:

Sean:  Hayden, "bad-guy-girls" show their boobies.

Hayden:  yeah, "bad-guy-girls" show their boobies.

Mom:  You mean, they are immodest?

Sean:  Yep. They show their boobies with the line and the fat parts.

Mom:  Well, you're right-that is not modest.

Sean:  And that is what bad-guy-girls do.

Mom:  So, where did you see these bad-guy-girls?

Sean:  Oh, on Three Amigos.

Hayden:  Yeah, they show their boobies like this . . . (pulls down his shirt and says, "BOING")

So . . . obviously, we need to be a little more careful about what these guys are watching.  We watched "Three Amigos" a few weeks ago, which, I think, is a pretty funny movie.  I hadn't seen it in years, so I had forgotten about some of its crude humor (which went over the kids' heads) but I had also forgotten about El Guapo's women and that random girl at the end who comes and kisses Ned Nederlander who is showing quite a lot of cleavage.  Evidently it made a pretty big impression on Sean.  I'm glad that Sean knows it's a bad choice for girls to show that much cleavage, (or as he describes it, "the line and the fat parts.")  So if you are a girl who is showing your line and fat parts, you should think twice about being such a "bad-guy-girl."