Spring Break- Aquarium Day

Even though we stayed home for spring break I wasn't crazy enough to think that I could plan to stay around the house and have happy, entertained boys all week. And since we weren't spending any money traveling I figured we could splurge a little and hit up some of the museums we never go to (mostly because they're a bit of a drive away and I'm lazy).

So Monday after we'd cleaned up we headed off for free breakfast at IKEA followed by a visit to the Aquarium. All in matching brown since I've learned they're easier to keep track of all looking alike. And since I wasn't bringing a stroller, that helped me keep track of 3 little boys.

Amazingly Miles was so enthralled by all the fish that he was the easiest to keep track of. He rarely moved until I told him to and prefered to just stay and watch.

Isaac was the one most often running off to the next exhibit very excited to yell back to us to come and see something cool.

And of course they love the play tunnels with small aquariums in them.
The new exhibit at our rather small Utah aquarium is river otters. The first time we passed by they were all still sleeping. But when we came back an hour later they were in full play mode.Overall a good morning and just the right amount of activity for the day. After that just lunch, naps, some playing outside, dinner, and ready for bed. Fabulous!

General Conference

For the first time ever we were able to watch General Conference at home, on our TV. Surprising right? But while we lived in DC and had cable, only those in Virginia got conference on TV (there weren't enough DC signers of the petition) and then once we got to Utah, we skipped cable for the first 2 1/2 years we were here so we ended up just watching over the internet again. It works, but not as comfortable to watch on a small screen in an office chair. This year it was fabulous with a couch and a big screen.

And since my boys are getting older, I put in more of an effort to make it meaningful (and make them actually want to listen) for them. I found all my ideas at sugardoodle.com if you'd like your own for October. That's my favorite sight for all things primary related.

We missed Saturday morning session with soccer games but were around for the rest. Here all 3 boys are playing bingo with jelly beans. Next time I'll use some kind of markers instead of candy since Miles couldn't resist eating them all and then had nothing to play with. Also Ethan couldn't stop holding them in his hands which made them sticky, and him sticky, and then my new carpet sticky. Lovely!

I printed off topics charts and taped them up on our only "wall" in the room with space.
Here's the close-up. Basically we listened to a talk and then halfway or all the way through we'd decide what the main topic for the talk was and then we'd get to eat the corresponding candy. This worked mostly well except next year I'll make my own papers with topics I think are more likely to be covered and that the kids will recognize.
After we decided on the topic (and ate the candy) then we'd tape up the picture of the apostle who had talked about it. The good side effect of this that I hadn't thought of was that it gave my kids a natural break during conference. It's a LOT to ask a 4 and 6 year old to sit for 2 hours straight and just listen. And then to ask them to do it 3 times over 2 days is just TOO MUCH. So since I only had pictures printed out of the apostles, I decided they only had to listen when an apostle was speaking. Any other general authority they got to ignore (ie play quietly on the floor with some toys, since this is the toy room). Someday I'll ask them to listen to all of it but for now, small bits of listening mixed in with small breaks to play was about perfect.
The other activity I had was to tape up pictures of the apostles when they spoke. In primary they've been learning the names and faces of the apostles so this was another small activity for them to see if they could match the face on the TV screen with the face on my print out.
I learned from this experience that it is easier to send my kids downstairs to play so I can listen and enjoy conference myself. That's what we've done in the past and I definitely get more out of it personally. But then they don't get much of anything out of it so I guess it's about time for me to be a little more self-less and help them learn to listen. So we'll try this again in the fall with a few small modifications.
And in the end everyone was happy and full of sugar and we'd had some good family time.

Easter Bags

One of my main complaints with our family traveling so much is that we always do it around holidays. We're ALWAYS gone at Christmas and then Spring Break is always around Easter so we seem to miss that holiday too. Don't get me wrong, I manage to squeeze in the basics like stocking and easter baskets, but I do feel like the meaning behind the holidays is often lost in the chaos of being somewhere new.

So this year since I'm just 6 weeks from having a baby and WAY sick of traveling after Tahiti and NYC we decided to stay at home for a stay-cation. And since we were staying I had time to make Easter more meaningful. So for the 2 weeks prior to Easter we had nightly FHE where we opened up an "Easter Bag" to find a surprise that went along with a New Testament story of Christ.

Okay so I'll admit that we didn't do a bag each and every night, sometimes we missed a night because we were off doing something together but it was nice to each night gather, read some scriptures, and then get a small surprise to go along with it. In case you're wondering I absolutely did NOT come up with this on my own. I found it on Pinterest (which I LOVE) so you're welcome to look me up and "pin" it for next year for your family.

I severely neglected taking pictures but I did remember the first night where we read about Jesus' many names and then found small playdoughs inside our bag. Then we used the playdough to spell out each of our middle names which are all family names and have more meaning because of the people and stories they represent.
A fun tradition that I'm hoping to continue in years to come. Check out pinterest to see all the different day's scripture stories and the coordinating small gift. (another favorite of the kids was reading the miracle of the loaves and fishes and finding 5 crackers and 3 swedish fish in their bags :)

Another PINK Baby Shower

One funny fact you may not know about me: I have 3 little boys but I've only ever had a pink baby shower. And now- I've had 2 pink baby showers! Thankfully this baby WILL be a girl and WILL get to wear all the adorable clothes and shoes I got.

When my neighbor said she wanted to throw me a girl shower, she asked if I'd bring along the pink outfit I'd told her about . So here's the story for posterity. When I was pregnant with Ethan, Taylor and I worked every Thursday night in the Washington DC temple as ordinance workers. There were a few other young people but mostly just older couples that worked there. And one night when I was very visibly pregnant, one of the other ladies on my shift brought me a gift and a story to go with it. Her very elderly mother had died recently and in cleaning out her home, she found this beautiful crocheted sweater and bonnet in a hope chest. She assumed that she was the only baby to ever wear them since she'd been the only girl in her family. She also assumed that her mother had been saving it to give to a descendant but unfortunately she'd only had sons and her sons had all only had sons. There were literally no girls for 2 generations. So this cute old temple worker gave me this beautiful, antique sweater and bonnet that she'd worn 60+ years ago and told me with a wink and a smile that she hoped now the curse of no girls would be broken from her family.

I was a little overwhelmed because it was a family heirloom and because it was such a beautiful outfit but I was excited to put it on my own little "Olivia". Unfortunately ETHAN was born and the pink outfit was forgotten until much later and the temple worker had moved on by then.
So it's been carefully folded in a box in a closet for the past 7 years just waiting for an actual girl to put it on. And hopefully in another 2 months it will ACTUALLY happen!!!
So I attended by second pink baby shower put on by my amazing next door neighbor who has 5 boys of her own and was so excited to do something pink. How cute is she? See the table cloth? She wanted to make a little flag garland and couldn't find paper to match so she color photocopied the tablecloth and printed off exact copies. Have you ever heard of that? I thought it was genius! and adorable!

They literally stole my camera out of my hands and pushed me into taking a picture- which is fine since really this is probably one of the only prego shots I've ever had. So fine, there's one, now we're done forever.
So fun to be pampered and to get cute pink clothes. I CANNOT wait to use them!!!

St. Patrick's Day

Since St. Patrick's Day was a Sunday this year, the kids kind of missed out on the normal school parties and other festivities we'd normally do (like going to collect all the fun "green" treats at stores). Luckily for them though Grams came through with a great St. Patrick's Day dinner.

A goldfish rainbow with a pot of cheese "gold" at the end for appetizers.

Shamrock glasses- just because they rock!
I don't even remember the rest of the dinner and toys but it was fun. Lots of green and of course corned beef and cabbage for the main course. Taylor was in heaven!

Mardi Gras

Even though we live right next door to Taylor's parents, the truth is that we hardly ever see them. The one tradition we have in place though is Sunday night dinners at their house. His mom usually cooks and we bring some sides. Since his sister and her fiance have moved back to Salt Lake, our dinners are even more family filled and more fun. Plus Taylor's mom has started trying to plan dinners around a holiday theme. And when his dad is in town that means they end up taking a trip to the party store to make everything more fun- including the food.

So in March when it was Mardi Gras time they went a little crazy at the party store and then we in turn went a little crazy with all the fun toys.

Masks, beads, and noise makers are of course a necessity.

And since no one wanted to eat frog legs (or try cooking them) we had plastic frog jumping contests instead.
And my boys learned how to use a kazoo (oh joy!).
And there were spinner contests.
A double kazoo? Why not?
So much fun! So nice to have family around!

Grandma Tina and NYC

When we first moved back to Salt Lake and Taylor started traveling a lot, he tried to convince me that we should get a Delta Skymiles card so he could have the card perks every time he travels. Unfortunately for him I disagree with paying an annual fee when there are so many other cards who actually pay you to use them.
But after seeing how much he traveled and after hearing him give me the speech several times I finally relented. So he gets free bags, free upgrades to 1st class (about half the time), he gets to skip to the front of the security line (and in Salt Lake he doesn't even go through normal security), he gets to go in the Delta lounge and have free wi-fi and an office to use and all the snacks he can eat, priority boarding. I'm sure there's more but I can't think of them. And the last benefit is that each year he gets a free companion ticket. This is actually what sold me on the whole card. I figure the card's annual fee is covered by us taking one trip together a year and not having to pay for one of us to fly. Plus a forced trip each year with just the 2 of us is good for our marriage. That's my rationalization anyways.

So this year we squeaked our trip in between renovations and the baby being born. My mom flew out to watch our kids which made leaving them super easy. See they don't even need us around- they're already more interested in her than in us.

Of course when you make all their favorite meals and take them to sled with the cousins you can't go wrong.
We left on a Wednesday afternoon and flew into NYC. We stayed with Taylor

brother and fiance to balance out the cost of the trip. Then we had 4 days to visit sights and friends and eat, eat, eat because apparently that's what you do when you go to NYC. Seriously, when we'd ask our friends what we should do or visit, the answer was always another bakery or another restaurant. And they were right of course. The food their is scrumptious!

On my personal visiting list was a visit to The Cake Boss shop in Hoboken, NJ. Just a quick train ride across the river and a 5 minute walks brings you to heaven.
Must remember this cake for Ethan's b-day. He LOVES mario and the vintage is just too cute.
This is the one prego shot I allowed. I had forgotten how exhausting NYC is. So many stairs and so much walking. Next time I'll be glad not to be pregnant.
Taylor was happy to be in the photos for me.
And while I was feeling good the first day I took lots of pictures. Don't worry, I gave up pretty quick.
Taylor's cousin suggested we visit a few of the lesser-known museums so we hit of the American Bible Society's museum and the Tenement museum. Both of which were amazingly interesting and well worth going to see. Here are some of the bibles from the Civil War.
This one on the left even had a tin-type inside it of the soldier who was killed. The tenement museum didn't allow photography but it was fascinating to see how people actually lived in NYC at the turn of the century and all the trials they endured to survive. I am VERY thankful to live now!
And no trip to NYC would be complete without going to the regular museums- we hit up the Natural History Museum and the Museum of Art.

Breathtaking to see all the beautiful works of art.
We met up with several of our friends from GW law school and GW undergrad as well as Taylor's cousins and then again his brother and fiance. So fun to see everyone and to take a break from all the walking. Taylor's brother took us to this great restaurant under the Brooklyn Bridge.
Next time we bring the kids back hopefully the new Brookly Carousel park will be open.
We had a fabulous trip and it was SO nice to be without the kids. So much easier to fly, to get around on the subway, to eat at restaurants, and to go to see things. Luckily they didn't miss up one bit while we were gone (okay so Miles might have missed us a little but he might have missed his nap even more everyday since they were off doing so many fun things!). Can't wait for next year and I'm happy Taylor talked me into a tradition that benefits him almost weekly and benefits me and our marriage each year!