The Great President's Day Migration

Someone made the comment to me that we always seem to be traveling somewhere and going out of town.  I feel a bit spoiled, but it is sort of true and a large reason for that is my Mom’s move to St. George.  I mean we didn’t go down once this summer (too hot and too pleasant up by us to be intriguing), but all fall and winter whenever we have had a 3 day weekends or the kids had a day off it was too easy only being a 3.5 hour drive not to take off down to St. George and Grandparents and warmer weather.  We have loved loved having them closer and a place to stay in sunny St. George.  So with President’s Day approaching, we decided it once again sounded lovely to sneak down to St. George.  The only slight problem was that the rest of Utah County had the same idea.  I felt like we were part of a great migration.  The roads were so busy and we stopped to grab dinner in Fillmore on the way down and had to wait a half an hour for a burger king burger (not worth it)!  But once in St. George and down in Sun River we pretty much avoided the crowds and had a pleasant time.  We borrowed Dr. Gill’s bike rack so we could take the kids bikes down.  The first day we let them ride up and down Mom and George’s street (they were all a little rusty having not ridden since summer).  Then, the kids and dog loaded into the golf cart to take London to the dog part, Derek and I rode bikes—easy on the way down and a bit of a work out up the hill on the way back.  

Then, Derek and George hit the golf course and Mom and I took the kids to the pool. 

Nay and Benz drove up for dinner to the kids delight and were talked into spending the night against their original plans.  

Carter attached himself to Uncle Nathan—once he knew he was coming he didn’t want to eat, or do any more fun activities until Uncle Nathan arrived.  As soon as he walked in the door, he grabbed his hand and pulled him into his bedroom to play Minnie mouse matching and was by his side and on his lap for most of the rest of the evening.  

Mom took this opportunity to celebrate Geroge’s upcoming birthday and roped me into making his favorite cake Czech apricot cake, which is actually pretty simple and delicious despite it appearing a bit liked a bunch of fried eggs.  

We all kept referring to it as “egg goop cake” and Benazir literally thought it was a fried egg on top and politely pushed it around on her plate with her fork afraid to take a bite while watching all the rest of us thoroughly enjoying it.  When she finally discovered that it was actually an apricot on top and not an egg, she gladly decided to brave some bites and found out that it was indeed as enjoyable to eat as the rest of us let on. 

Camden is still set on playing the guitar someday and was so excited that Babi had a guitar for him to have "guitar lessons" on all weekend.  He would take it out multiple times a day to practice and was delighted when Uncle Nathan actually played it for it.  I pulled out my rusty guitar skills and played a few cords as well.  Can't say I disagree with his thought that knowing how to play the guitar and having a guitar would be awesome.

 The next day, Derek and the kids and I went to church Terri and Randy Allen met us and attended with us.  The kids excitedly all ran out of sacrament to primary (all except Carter who wanted Dad to stay with him for just a bit and then did great).  There were two other 3 year olds with them this time.  At first, Liv was sad to have to share the spot light with them, but they decided to make her class president for the day in charge of handing out all papers, and helping with the littles and calling on people to say the opening and closing prayer—so she basically loved that.  They put together this coloring kit for each kid and they all excitedly colored all the pages most of Sunday and on the drive home.

 

After church Terri and Randy came over for lunch and we got to visit with them for a bit.  

Then, Mom, Nay, Benz and I went to see a few of the parade of homes houses.  It was fun to hang with them for a bit sans kids.  Derek and George took the kids on a bike ride on the bike trail close by and then on a hike.  Then, we had dinner with Nay and Benz and said our goodbye and sent them back to Las Vegas.  In the morning, we had breakfast at the golf course grill with Babi and Papou.  Then, we stopped by Mark and Mary Robinson’s house.  Mary spoiled the kids with snacks and treats and the kids had fun playing in their game and toy room.  Now, we are part of the great Exodus back to Utah County on the drive back home.  The kids seem just fine with the extra two hours it took us to get home.  They belted the Greatest Showman Soundtrack the whole way home.

V-day

True fact:  Holidays are just more fun when there are kids around.  My kids live for holidays.  They loved each one, talk about it for days afterwards, and anticipate the next holiday for weeks in advance.  Valentine’s is so fun especially at the stage my kids are in where it’s not about romantic interest more just love for their friends and parents.  All week and still a week after my cute boys have been asking me if I will be their V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E (a song they learned from Let’s play music), and it’s adorable.  I let them each pick out their valentines of choice to distribute.  Nothing too labor intensive on my part this year.  Camden picked glow sticks to pass out, Carter wanted to give Swedish fish, and Olivia wanted simple princess valentines that didn’t come with any candy for the girls and used some old left over animal valentines for the boys.  She attached Valentine’s pencils with tape to each one (her choice).  She hand selected an Ariel valentine for Hallie (her BFF and Hallie’s favorite princess) which read Best Friends Forever.  Carter surprised me.  He totally got into addressing valentines.  He loses interest with some many things and struggles with focus more than my other kids, but he addressed all his valentines with attentive fervor and then wanted to help everyone else address all of theirs.  Due to the excitement factor, we had all the valentines addressed days before Valentine’s Day.

When the day arrived, I gave each of the kids their Disneyland character signature books filled with pictures from each character, and season tickets to the Orem Hale Center Junior season and The Jolly Postman Book (no candy whatsoever, which was a bit of a let down, but school valentines and grandparents made up for that).

My Cherry Tree work folk decided to exchange Valentines this year.  Everyone was encouraged to decorate their own Valentines box, but were provided a bag if they hadn’t.  I decked out a red box with yellow McDonalds Ms and then posted a picture of Ronald McDonald on the front that said, “Your body must be from McDonalds because I’m lovin it!”  

Everyone loved it.  Then, I passed out Extra gum to everyone  with a printable that said, “I hope your Valentine’s Day is extra special.”  It was sort of fun giving out valentines.  I have done that since I was in elementary school.

Last minute, I got a hankering for making heart shaped sugar cookies, and I found a copy cat recipe for Cutler’s Sugar cookies that I wanted to try.  So I made the dough and realized I had no sprinkles which is the fun part for kids, so we threw an impromptu day of small kid cookie decorating party and invited all the littles in the neighborhood to bring sprinkles.  We had the Watkin kids, Ashlynn Vought, and Martha Riley all over with my boys around my counter cutting out sugar cookies.  I found a Valentines bingo game, so we played that while the cookies cooled and then glazed and sprinkled them. It was super fun and made the day feel like Valentine’s.

I got two beautiful bouquets of flowers one from my Dad (never misses a year) and one from Derek.  I made a fancy dinner for the kids and Derek at home that evening.  Set the table, lit a candle, and the Menu included: Filet mignon, broccolini, corn on the cob (mainly because I knew that was all Camden would eat), and the risotto Mom and George brought me back from Italy then completed with chilled sparkling cider, plastic champagne glasses, and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.

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