Family is the Best!!!

We had a couple of nice surprises this week.  # 1, Adrienne invited us up to watch her boys play their last soccer games of the season, and have DINNER, and #2, Jieun and Dan had us over to DINNER, the following night.  Two nights of not having to prepare dinner--now those are nice surprises!  We also had the privilege of listening to Caitlyn's Orchestra Concert at BHS.  Her orchestra sounded very good.  You could tell there is a lot of talent in Bountiful, UT.

I'm not sure if you can tell just how "into" the game these two boys are :)

Caitlyn even had a short solo!

The day that Jieun invited us to dinner, Jennie gave me a haircut--on her day off!  She was tending Yuna while Jieun took the girls to a playdate.  

We had our family night this week with the Young Single Adults.  In theory, Caitlyn would go with us and it would be our actual family night, but she had too much homework this week.  We watched, "The Ultimate Gift" and ate popcorn.  

Obviously, things have settled down as far as cleaning, packing and organizing go.  We had only one person go through our house this week.  Hopefully, when school gets out that will pick up.  Roy made this cool bench to make our mud room look more like a mud room.  The bottom piece was on clearance at RC Willey, it had been part of an entertainment center or something.  I have a couple of turquoise pillows to put on it, as well.

My kids don't realize how lucky they are (or maybe they do), to have a dad who is always thinking of fun things to do.  For the Memorial Day weekend (Saturday) we met at the park to shoot off rockets.  Everyone who lives in Utah was able to come.  Dan's family rocket worked fabulously.  We shot it off 3 times.  The third time it came down in a tree and Dan and Caitlyn worked hard to get it out.  They had to cut off the parachute, so we didn't shoot that rocket again.  Adrienne's family rocket whooshed up two feet, then back down and started on fire.  We were all seated pretty closely to the rocket launch, so AJ acted quickly and squashed that rocket with his foot.  That ended that rocket! Matt and Crista's rocket was pretty cool.  It was small, and had an airplane that attached.  The airplane was supposed to separate from the rocket and fly down, while the parachute came out on the rocket part and brought it safely to earth--that's not what happened.  It went up--Really, really high, but no parachute came out and it didn't separate.  There was a soccer game going on in the field below us--which is where the rocket came down.  There were several delighted children who were watching soccer, but one mother wasn't too happy.  She said, "You need to be careful, it almost hit us."  We shot off Matt's rocket one more time--after the soccer game was over.  Matt had tried to tweak it, but the same thing happened.  I would say though, that even with the mishaps, it was a successful activity.  The kids had a great time and the day was beautiful, sunny, and not very hot.  Gunnar and Ollie went home with another rocket kit that Roy had on hand, and Matt went home with some ideas of how to fix his rocket.  We asked Elise if they had got their rocket made yet.  They said they never got it--lo and behold--it was still at our house!

After the rocket launch, we had a barbeque at our house.  When everyone brings something it makes it so easy and fun.  Roy made the burgers and hotdogs, Crista brought a watermelon, Jieun made a Jicama, mango Salad (my recipe that I picked up at Sizzler), and Nick brought salsa, Guacamole and chips (We missed Sara as she was in Arizona with her sister at a friend's wedding).  Adrienne made a delicious lemonade cake.  

Ollie got stung by a bee-we think--but later there was
no sign of a sting on his foot so we're a little stumped.  It all worked
out as he got to watch grandmas lap top--without Gunnar
dictating what he could watch.

After everyone else left, Ori had a minute to the laptop all by herself--a
good thing as she'd been bitten earlier by Yuna who didn't want to share.

Roy was sure lucky, he got snuggles from Ruby who
isn't very generous with her snuggling.

We had everyone over Saturday, because Sundays are more hectic now with Roy's new calling--Plus he's supposed to go to Ward Prayer with his ward.  This, I think, will be a good experience for our family.  Jennie's gone with us once, and we'd like that to continue because it's a nice bonding time for the four of us.  Plus, she doesn't really enjoy going to her own ward prayer.  

We miss our Texas family.  They are in Midland this week enjoying the Jackson family.  We're excited that she'll be here in two weeks!
It looks like Max and Mav will be great friends:

Adrienne and AJ took their family to visit Thomas' grave for memorial day.  Roy and I will do it tomorrow.  We're also planning on driving to Springville to decorate grandpa and grandma's grave.  

Have a good week!

May brings end of school and better weather (most of the time)

It's May already, and that means programs and recitals--the end of the school year is in sight.  I was able to attend Doyeon's and Gunnar's last day of school, pre-school programs.  It was fun to see their smiling faces and their enthusiasm as they sang with their groups.  Gunnar, of course, is on to kindergarten next year, and I'm guessing that Ollie will take his place in Miss Lisa's pre-school. Doyeon has one more year of her pre-school.  We're grateful that Davis county has such a wonderful system in place to help children who have speech difficulties, because they've helped Doyeon tremendously.  She now speaks in full sentences and never stops talking!

Roy is already busy in his new calling.  Monday night for family night his young single adults had a service project.  They split all the kids into several groups and he and 9 or 10 of the young adults went and pulled weeds out of a creek in someone's backyard.  (a backdoor neighbor to our new house).

Thursday evening, while Roy went to the Ice Skating Club meeting (he's still on the board--serving for Caitlyn and I), I went to Logan with Nick and Sara.  We went to the Malouf friends and family sale with Crista.  Of course, Matt was there, too, but busily working.  We saw him but didn't get a chance to visit with him.  I was able to get some sheets and pillows.  It's nice to have a source for such great deals.  Afterwards, we went to "Tandoori Oven," a little restaurant inside a gas station with Indian food.  It was very good.  I had the shrimp curry with a Naan that had cauliflower inside it.  We then went back to Crista's and played a fun game that Nick had brought called Splendor.  I brought some food home for Roy, which he waited for, so he didn't get to eat until about 11:00.

Ruby took 14 steps while I was there, but I missed it because
I was contemplating my next move in the game.  She obviously
loves shopping.

Ori and Ruby are great friends.  Ori even shared with her--until it
 looked like she might run out of blueberries.

Friday, Roy went to Farmington to tend Finn, Gunnar and Ollie because Adrienne and Aj went to Texas for the weekend for a friend's wedding.  Guiltily, I went ice skating, cleaned up a little, and prepared some food for our weekend jaunt,

 Caitlyn, Roy and I headed up to Flaming Gorge to de-winterize the trailer.  We went on our traditional 2 mile hike and really enjoyed the beauty the Gorge has to offer.  I thought I might see deer, bunnies, and/or cows on our walk, but instead we were rewarded with duck, geese, marmots, a squirrel and a chipmunk. When we go to Flaming Gorge, we're usually too busy with hiking, boating and family, to play many games.  This time we played Wizard and watched a couple of episodes of Firefly, which was interesting but didn't really grab any of us.  We went to bed somewhat early and slept in  a little bit, also, so it was all in all refreshing--even though we had 7 hours of driving in two days.

Marmot

I was getting tired and didn't really want
to climb through the fence.

While we were gone, our realtor held an open house in our home.  She said there were 6 groups/couples that came through, with two of them showing some interest.  One lady really liked it, but was a little unhappy with the price.  We have had mostly good feedback, so I'm not worried.  I'm sure we'll sell the house at some point.  Later this summer would definitely be more convenient, but if it happens sooner it will relieve the stress of having it on the market and we'll work out whatever arrangements we need to.

We also had a few showings during the week--before the open house.

Other pictures from the week:

Elise sent us this "fuzzy"picture because she said it
melted her heart.

We're not worried about Maverick getting
enough to eat :)

Our little emergency room specialist.  Nursemaid's elbow with inflammation

Cousins!

 Saturday Night, Caitlyn and her best friend Annika went to our framed new home and took model shots:

Yes, they're a couple of goofs!

Jennie came over for dinner Sunday night and tried out the new hammock Caitlyn bought for
camping this summer.  She looks pretty comfortable.  It was fun to spend time
with her--we don't see her very often.

I titled my post May brings end of school and better weather (most of the time).  Today in primary, as I was teaching the kids a new song, the thunder and lightening was scaring most of the kids right out of their seats.  I was pretty startled by it, too.  The hail came down fast and furiously, but by 2:00, right as church was over, the sun was up and the clouds were parting.  Amazing.