Zoo Field Trip with Olivia

The whole first grade took a field trip to the zoo this year.  I wasn't planning to go, but Liv asked me to go multiple times and after the 3rd time I told her I couldn't go and had to work she burst into tears and cried, "You haven't been on any of my field trips this year, and you got work off when we went to Grandma Nadine's house, so you can get off for this too."  Well, I decided she will not be begging me to go on her field trips forever, so I better take advantage while it lasts.  I asked for the day off and was going on the zoo field trip.

I carpooled up with two other Mom's from the class and it was fun to visit with them.  I had Liv and Jane and Leo (who were in her animal report group on lions) and then two other girls who were supposed to learn about alligators.  They had brought the school wheel chair to sit in incase Leo got tired.  The girls loved pushing him around in it.

We started out visiting the animals for their report and learning about their habitat.  We had a little form we were supposed to fill in.  Then, we all had lunch and watched the sea lion and seal show.  After that we had a little bit of time to wander around and explore the zoo.

We saw most everything and even played at the park.

As an added excitement, I ran into my friend Lindsey Monson, who I went on study abroad to London with.  I haven't seen her since college.  It was so fun to run into her.  Unfortunately, I couldn't visit with her as long as I would have liked because I had to keep track of the kids.  Nonetheless, a fun surprise.

Shortly after the zoo field trip, all the kids put together little animal habitats in shoe boxes with clay formations of their animal and stuff the brought from home.  Liv scoured the yard finding the perfect "pride rock" for her lions and she brought some grasses.  Then she drew red marker all over zebras, and giraffes for prey.  I think there was more bloodied prey in her habitat than lions--but no matter.  They had a 1st grade zoo that we were all invited to tour and each kid gave us a little spiel on their animal and read us a page from their report.  It was really neat and the boys loved walking around and learning about all the animals.

St. George CME trip

The annual UAPA conference is in St. George every year.  I love to go, but it always hard to find arrangement for my kids.  Well, with Mom and George in St. George this year...I decided maybe I would let the boys miss a day of preschool and they could hang with Babi and Papou while I sat in meetings all day.  We left Wednesday right after their preschool ended and headed back home Saturday after my meetings.

Liv is gone at school from 8:30am-4pm every day.  So, I left her home with Derek.  Wednesday her friend picked her up almost straight from the bus to go to show choir (I had Andie an older neighbor girl wait for her choir friend to get there), Thursday Derek met her at home and took her to her soccer game, and Friday Steve and Diane were going to pick her up and take her home, but Hallie invited her to play...so Steve and Diane brought her to Hallie's then Derek picked her up after work and they had dinner with Steve and Diane.

The boys were really good in the car.  I let them each pick a few things from the dollar store for entertainment.  They were cute popping their toy guns and plunking on the plastic guitar the whole way.


 I also bought them a new movie, Big Hero 6, which they enjoyed.

I packed the boys bikes in the car and they rode them around every day.  Carter particularly liked arranging various race courses for us.  He's an Evil Knievel though.  He likes to ride across the bumpy rocks or grass hill.  Someone, not me, needs to introduce that kid to mountain biking.  Wednesday evening while I was in class, I think they mostly rode bikes around the neighborhood and did the sun river rock maze.  Thursday, Babi and Papou took them to the children's museum and to play in the down town water fountains.  Then, we all met up for dinner at Pizza Factory.  Friday, I know they took them swimming at the community center pool.  That night Uncle Nathan drove up after the boys were asleep and it was a fun surprise from them in the morning to wake up to Uncle Nathan being there.  Nathan and George took the two boys on a bike ride by the river.  Then, I came back and the boys and I headed home and Nay and George headed to the golf course.

It was a good trip and I got 25 hours of CME!!!  With Babi in Papou now in St. George,  perhaps I need to look into attending that conference more often.

Spring Break 2018

The week following our return from Grandma Nadine's was Spring break.  I had to work almost every day and didn't take any pictures!  I tried to arrange fun things despite having to work a bunch so Spring break was fun.  On Tuesday we unpacked, and I took them all to Nickel City.  We played laser tag for the first time.  I thought it was super fun, but basically I had 3 kids trailing behind me all through the dark hiding behind me while I took all the hits.  We went up to the curiosity museum in the afternoon after I got home from work on Wednesday with our neighbor who works there and could get us in for half price.  The kids discovered the trading post where you bring things from nature and earn points to trade it in for something else from nature.  They all really enjoyed that.  Megan babysit them all the days that I worked and I left her some money and ideas of fun things is she felt brave enough.  She took them ice skating on Thursday, and to McDonalds for lunch and to play at the play place on Friday.

Working most of Spring Break and missing a lot of the fun while my kids were home made me come to a realization.  I always thought when my boys started 1st grade and were in school all day every day that I would go back to working almost full time.  But that spring break was rough.  I would hate summers of being gone all day every day--summer is my favorite when I get to just play with the kids every day and no one has to go to school.  Also, the rest of the house seemed to fall apart with me gone so much.  I couldn't get the laundry done, or any cleaning, or make it to the grocery store--we ate fast food almost every night that week.  So working most of Spring Break was a good realization, that I would like to keep my work to a part-time schedule so I can keep the house running in an orderly manner and have time to volunteer in my kids classrooms and play when they are home.

Spring break weekend, we took all the kids and our neighbors who haven't yet had the opportunity to be sealed together as a family up to the Jordan River temple open house.  It was a neat experience to share the beautiful building and House of the Lord with our kids and neighbors and talk about the important promises we make there and the incredible blessings our family receives because of the promises we make in the temple.