Gilbert

The kids had an early release day last Thursday so we'd planned on going to Gilbert after school since we'd got tickets for the Gilbert Temple Open House for Friday around noon.  Adelyn was too sick to go though so I called Kate, who we were staying with, to let her know we weren't coming that night, & that unless Adelyn had a huge improvement by the next morning we weren't going to come at all.  Fortunately Adelyn slept through the night (unlike the several previous nights) and was greatly improved in the morning.  We woke up at 7:30, debated for 20 minutes whether or not she was really okay to haul out of town, and finally decided we were going.  I was hoping to throw everything together in an hour, but 2 hours later we were on our way. 

We headed straight to the temple - we even had the kids wear their church clothes in the car.  Adelyn was a wreck at the temple.  First they have you sit in the adjacent chapel & watch a video presentation on temples.  She wouldn't sit still & was loud & difficult (probably because she was starving).  Then we walked across the lot to the temple & she refused to wear the booties they put on your feet to protect the carpet, so that meant I had to hold her the entire time.  Holding a 3 year old & wearing wedges meant that it was extremely difficult for me to bend down to the kids' level & talk in a whisper about the different rooms we were in.  I kept saying to Jeremiah, "did you tell them about this room?"  Mostly he hadn't.  And then Adelyn started squirming & wanted down.  They'd said when she refused the booties that she could get down if I took her shoes off, but at this point we were almost done with the tour.  And I was done.  Some rooms were nice & cool & some rooms were stifling so I was ready to get out of there.  Fortunately for me it wasn't my first experience in the temple so I hope our children got something out of it.  We went for them after all.  Jeremiah & I are really glad we took them, despite Adelyn's shenanigans. 

We ate a really late lunch then headed to the Porter's & I helped Kate finish putting dinner together.  The Elders joined us for dinner & Kate had made a great meal- flank steaks on skewers, strawberry/spinach salad, wild rice & breadsticks.  One of the Elders was an opera singer & a great pianist so he performed some music for us!  His companion was funny - he just stood back almost rolling his eyes.  I asked him if he'd had to listen to this a lot & he said yes, at every single house!  I asked if he was relieved when people didn't have pianos & he said he was.  Of course our husbands stayed in the kitchen - they weren't really interested in being culturally enriched.  Ellie & Addy made themselves comfortable in their first row seats. Callie was grinning from ear to ear.  She loved it.

On Saturday Kate made me go to a cycling class with her & a couple of her friends.  I'd never been to one before but I've heard that a lot of people love spin so it wasn't completely against my will that I went! ;)  I was totally proud of myself!  I was able to keep going the entire time without stopping!  I definitely wasn't able to keep up with Kate but I think I did pretty well (boot camp pays off again).  She gave me lots of pointers so it will be good if I ever decide to go to a spin class on my own.  I probably won't, but if I do I won't be so intimidated!  For now I'll stick to my early morning boot camp.  Kate had made one of my favorite breakfasts, French toast soufflé, which I have learned from her is a million times better when it's made with actual French bread than with a loaf of sandwich bread. 

The kids had a great morning riding the 4-wheeler, going down the Porter's backyard zip line, & chasing their goats. 

 

We got ready & took the kids to see The LEGO Movie.  Jack had been dying to see it!  He was also really wanting to see his cousin (my cousin!) Hudson, so we invited Hudson to go with us.  Jack & Hudson had a good time together, & after the movie (totally funny & very clever, btw.  Great movie!) we all ate lunch at Kneaders with my uncle/aunt Troy, Stacy & Haley & Hunter.  Jack was so sad to say goodbye to Hudson, but we're going to visit them in a few weeks so I think that helped ease the pain. :) 

 

We were going to head to IKEA from there, but we ended up going to Bahama Buck's with the Porters first/instead.  My friends Miyeko & Katie have gone on & on about Bahama Buck's & how it's the best snow cones.  Bahama Buck's definitely didn't disappoint!  I didn't think it was any better than my fav place, Purple Penguin, in Henderson though.  It's equally great. 

 

By then it was 4:30 & we had a 3 1/2 hour drive ahead of us & I had at least an hour or 2 of singing time to prepare so thanks to Kate's suggestion to order the stuff I wanted from IKEA online (when did they start selling stuff online?), we skipped that stop & headed home.  The kids were excited to see hot hair balloons on our drive.

 

 

It was a great weekend.  Thanks Porter family!!!

Oh Callie!

Callie was tearfully telling me last night about how everybody laughed at her yesterday.  She wasn't tearful just because of the reason she was laughed at - she was in trouble with Jeremiah & was mostly upset about that.  But anyway, she told me that her class was playing science jeopardy & she was up for her team.  Her teacher, Mrs. Perrine, showed a picture of a cloud on the projector & asked what kind of cloud it was.  Callie quickly buzzed in & said it was a puffy cloud.  I had a hard time not laughing when she told me this!  I asked her incredulously if she really said puffy cloud instead of cumulus.  She said yes she had & that everyone laughed.  I asked if her teacher had laughed & she said that she had & that she'd said, Callie! Are you kidding me?!" See the thing is Callie is pretty smart & has great grades most of the time, so it was a little surprising to me (& obvs Mrs. Perrine) that Callie would give that kind of answer! She lost the point & her team gave her a hard time, so that on top of being laughed at was a little too much for her.  I asked her if she honestly wouldn't laugh if she'd heard someone give the same answer.  She said she would & then we both laughed about it.

Sick

As I was wasting time this am browsing a blog I used to follow (when I used to blog) it talked about the "family history" (blog books) she's made.  It made me sad again that I don't blog any more.  I've made 2 blog books from the first 2 1/2 years of my blog & the kids LOVE to look through them.  They'll tell me a story about themselves from the book (as if I didn't know) or say "remember when..."  It's time for me to make more of an effort.  So in a pitiful tiny little pebble in the bottom of my blogging bucket attempt, here's my first post in 1 1/2 years! It would be crazy to think I could "catch up" at this point, especially since before said 1 1/2 years, I had been a sporadic blogger for a long time already.  I waste waaaay too much time on unimportant things on the computer/web.  Maybe I need to put my time into an important thing & rescue my blog/our family history.  It's nice to know that nobody looks at my blog any more & won't even know that I've posted so that if I end up still sucking it will be between me & blogger. :)  So onto a "post" - sort of.

 

Sick:

 

Addy's been sick with a decent fever & cough for a few days.  She had a cold all last week, even on her birthday (maybe I'll get crazy & do a post later about her bday).  But yesterday & today she's been especially miserable.  Except for small bursts of energy, like when Jack & Ellie got home from school yesterday & she decided she needed her ballerina leotard on.  She pranced around for a few minutes then got her miserable eyes again.  This morning she brought in a basket of play food & started cooking me all kinds of snacks.  But now she's curled up in my lap trying to fall asleep.  You can't really see it in the pics, but her eyes are pretty bloodshot.  Even without the red she has sick looking eyes, but with them being bloodshot she looks absolutely pitiful.  Except in these pics of course! She's so so cute & sweet though.  I just love this girl! I told her she was pretty sick so she keeps saying to me & Jer that she's "so so sick."  She wanted to play with Taylor this am & was sad when I told her she was too sick.  She insisted she felt better & then had a little coughing fit & wanted to sit & watch Max & Ruby.  My poor girl.  Thankfully she slept all night last night - unless you count the part where she got up & needed medicine about 11:15.  But I was still up so it doesn't really count!