Pinewood Derby

We raced back from Utah to make it to the Pinewood Derby on Saturday night.  This is our 3rd year of Pinewood Derby but this year both William and James got to make cars!

Because of past experience and the fact that we doing have tools to make a cool car we opted to buy the precut versions from the craft store.  The boys prepped, painted, and assembled the cars with very minimal help and they were pretty proud of their cars.

William's car (blue) and James' car (red)

However, this little comic pretty much sums up our experience.  Except that all the cars are awesome and it certainly feels as though our boys are the only ones to have built their cars by themselves.

Our boys came in last on every single race (except one which James came in 3rd).  Our boys were super good sports about the whole thing and at least felt good that they didn't have their dad make their cars.  I think except for the actual racing our boys had a good time running around with their friends.  Alex even got to do the countdown for one of the races and was pretty excited about that!  Maybe next year we'll change our luck... but I just don't think it's in the cards.

Weekend Trip to Utah

When I heard that the Payson temple would be opening this year I wanted to make sure that we headed to the open house.  I have never been to a temple open house and I wanted to make sure my boys (Lydia won't remember) had the chance to walk through a temple and see what it's like inside.

Back in February I found out that Lori (my friend and former roommate) was speaking at BYU Women's Conference.  I just knew that I wanted to hear her speak!  Unfortunetly there are no nursing babies allowed in the sessions.  So going up with Lydia wasn't an option.  It worked out though that the temple open house was happening at the same time as Women's Conference!  Hooray!  So we devised a plan where I could hear Lori speak and see the temple all in one trip.

On our way up to Provo we stopped at Cove Fort. The last time I went to Cove Fort was in high school and we happened to be there as President Hinckley drove through--we even got to sing happy birthday to him!  I thought it would be fun to stop by since no one else has been there.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves and it was good to stretch our legs a little bit.

 We got to our hotel late that night but let the boys swim for a little bit to wear themselves out.

The next morning we headed down to Payson for the temple open house. It was so beautiful!  The boys were so well behaved (except for Alex who thought that it was way too much walking to go up 5 flights of stairs!).  Several of the ushers throughout the temple commented on what well-behaved boys they were.  We had them looking for apple blossoms throughout the temple and it kept them very focused.  It really was a neat experience to show them the inside of a temple and I hope that they remember this experience for years to come.

(The one thing I forgot was their church shoes!  Oops!)

 After changing our clothes at the hotel we headed to BYU.  Our first stop was the Bean Museum.  I haven't been there since they updated it and have been wanting to see it.  I knew the boys would love it as well.

There was a little tunnel behind this slide that they could crawl through.  There was a pretty scary wolf inside.  It took tons of prodding to get them to go through because they thought that the wolf was going to jump out and scare them!

Next was a quick stop at the Cougareat for lunch and then we parted ways.  Rich took all of the children while I went to hear my wonderful friend, Lori, speak at Women's Conference.  While I was gone Rich took them for ice cream, to the bookstore, the library (William really wanted to go here), and back to the Bean.

I had a wonderful time for the 2 hours on my own.  First I saw Lori coming to the JSB to get ready to speak... and soon she brought out Carrie!  It's been years and years since I've seen her!  Oh it was so fun to be reunited... if even for a short bit.  Then all the other ladies started showing up: Amy Jean, Heather, Rebecca, and Michelle.  And then Kristin Stowell came to the session--a friend from NC!  I really have been blessed to have wonderful women in my life!  I was sad that I didn't have time to sit and chat with every single one of them.  Lori did a wonderful job (as was to be expected).  I'm so glad that I could hear her speak!  She's one of my heroes.

After meeting up again we went back to the hotel for some more swim time.... while Rich napped.

That evening we were able to see some friends, the McIntosh's, from Oklahoma.  It was fun to visit with their family and catch up.  Afterwards we went back for (more) swimming and a movie until everyone fell asleep.  On our way home we stopped to see my cousin Brian in Santaquin.  It was a short but nice visit.

Our trip home was not quite so easy (it never seems to be) but it wasn't too bad.   I'm glad that we live close enough and that our children are such good travelers that we are able to go on these short trips to Utah... especially to see the temple.

Captain Underface

Henry is the funniest kid.  The other night he came down telling us that he was Captain Underface.  I don't know what his super powers are supposed to be but maybe they are causing the enemy to die laughing at his antics!

Sing! Sing a song!

Lydia loves to use her voice.  She sings all throughout the day and has quite a bit to say.  She has a very high pitched  squeal... maybe she'll be a soprano!  I captured a little bit of it on video.... sorry it's a little out of focus.

We love our beautiful singing girl!

Exploring Floyd Lamb State Park

Saturday we finally made it over to explore Floyd Lamb State Park.  We are really lucky to have this awesome park within 10 minutes from our home!  I can't believe it took us so long to check it out.  We got there right around lunch time so we had a little picnic lunch near a pond.  (There was a Scottish Festival going on so we were serenaded by bagpipes!)

William was a little freaked out by all the geese that were around and we kept having to reassure him that they were not going to attack us... as long as the boys didn't throw them any food!  We did spy some little babies though!

After lunch we strolled around the park and had a fun time outside.  Henry found this leaf was so excited because it was in the shape of a heart.  He is a little sweet heart.

The little babies were so so cute!

The boys found this awesome climbing tree.

Then we played a little bit of follow the leader on this fallen down log.

And I couldn't leave without taking a picture of these little orange flowers.

Lydia stayed asleep the entire time we were gone!

It was such a pleasant afternoon.  I hear there are tons of peacocks there that we missed (perhaps due to the festival?) so we will have to visit again soon!

cub scout day camp

This past weekend James and William went to our stake cub scout day camp.  They had such a great time!  Rich was able to go as well and walk around with the Webelos from our ward.  I took the little boys (and Lydia) up to the church to watch the egg drop.

{This is James' egg}

Both boys had their eggs survive the fall!

They are already excited about next year!

Ladybugs

When strolling through the garden,

If you should chance to see

A ladybug out walking,

Please say "hi" for me!

For ladybugs are good bugs, 

They help the garden grow

They will bring you good luck,

So always say "hello!"

We were unsuccessful at finding ladybugs for sale at Home Depot so I went home and ordered some through Amazon.  They arrived the Monday after Spring Break.  After homework was done we all went outside to release them.  The boys had a great time letting the ladybugs crawl all over them!