Grandparents Luncheon

A few weeks ago, I talked to my dad and Laverne about the possibility of them coming for a special grandparents' day that was happening on the 22nd of May. They had a busy schedule but decided because it was in the middle of the week that they could make it happen. They also brought Grandma Norton and drove up Tuesday afternoon and stayed until Friday morning. Wednesday morning we went to the girls' school around 10am and watched a short musical performance by the 1st graders and then ate lunch with them. It made for a fun morning. Alice was so excited to see us sitting in the front and gave us a big wave and smile. They sang 4 songs. One was about their backpack. The 2nd one was about pizza called "Pizza Love". The last two were both songs about grandparents. They did a good job and we enjoyed it.

The teacher almost blocked our view from being able to see her. She's to the right of him. There are about 100 kids just in 1st grade.

Her teacher took a picture of all of us. She later printed the pictures out and Alice made a thank you card for them.

After the lunch was over, we headed back home to relax for a bit and decided to watch Sing 2. Laverne had seen Sing but not the 2nd one yet. We all enjoyed it. Laverne loved it so much that they found and bought a DVD from the $5 bin at Walmart when they got back to Idaho. I really enjoyed that movie as well. We finished watching it right before the kids got out of school.

I had the ingredients already for making sausage rolls, so we decided that's what we would make for dinner that night. They had never eaten them before, but they liked them. I even had Laverne help me prepare them. Then after dinner while the boys went to mutual the grandparents, the girls and I went to Walmart. I wanted to try and find a copy of "Wonka" for Laverne, but they were sold out. We grabbed a few grocery items and then took the girls to the park to play at the Playground of Dreams. 

The is the girls' favorite thing at the playground, along with many other kids. It's basically a safer merry-go-round. I got on for a little bit, but my stomach couldn't handle it and I had to get off. My stomach just can't handle things like that anymore. It's so weird.

The ticket booth for the train station.

The girls got us up on the train.

This picture cracks me up! Her buns are burning on that fire!

Hanging out on the ship.

It had rained earlier so there were water puddles around, especially on the splash pad. They didn't care. Both of them soaked their shoes right before we left.

It was a fun time at the park but a little chilly. Grandma stayed in the van and my dad rested on a nearby bench. When everyone got back home from their activities, we watched the girls and Garrett read his screen play that he wrote for his creative writing class assignment. Garrett really liked this assignment and made it longer than it needed to be. It was his idea to have them read it aloud to all of us. They even practiced before dinner. I loved watching them do this together and he did a good job.

On a side note, I keep forgetting to mention that Garrett was recently called to be the 2nd assistant in the priest quorum. He was actually excited to get this calling. I hope this helps to bring him out of his shy shell a bit. Curtis was also recently called to be the 1st counselor in the Elder's Quorum presidency and was released as a Priest Quorum advisor. Garrett didn't seem very happy about that, as well as the bishop and the other advisor. But that's how it goes sometimes. There have been lots of changes in our ward recently and the Elder's Quorum Presidency was one of them.

Baseball and Temple Activity

Last week we had quite a bit of wind and even though Curtis weighed down the posts with heavy bricks, our canopy that we had out over the weekend ended up blown over to the fence and flag pole by the middle of the week. It bent up some of the legs and busted some. Needless to say, we'll need to get a new one. Never underestimate the wind we have here.

On Friday the wind calmed down and it was a great evening to go to our first minor league baseball game in Pasco to cheer on the Tri-City Dust Devils. It was a school night, so we got a small discount on our tickets and a portion goes to the school. The boys didn't want to go or had other plans, so it was just us and the girls. We had a lot of fun and our team won 4-3! Go Dust Devils!

Dust Devil mascot.

Having some Dippin Dots ice cream.

We could see the temple. This is a zoomed in shot.

Zoomed out shot of the temple. It's amazing how it just stands out.

On Saturday there was a stake activity for activity day boys and girls at the temple and stake center right next to it. I went with my girls to help out. They had a few stations they rotated through. One station was building temples out of sugar cubes. Another station, they went inside to the church building and talked about pioneers and how they had to keep changing how much stuff they could bring with them when traveling to the Salt Lake Valley. The third station was talking about the temple and then taking a walk around the temple. The kids had scavenger lists to find certain objects while walking around the temple, like the sun, moon, stars, white clothing (there happened to be a wedding at the same time). It was the first time any of us had walked around the entire temple and seeing the grounds. After the stations were done, we all met under some canopies and listened to the stake president. It was difficult to hear him though. Then they handed out a treat and temple magnet to each of the kids. I wanted to get pictures of my girls at the temple, so we went back over after the activity was finished and got lots of pictures.  The girls loved being at the temple and especially the water fountain.

Charlotte made a temple and a church to go next to it.

The front of the temple.

By the front doors.

At the water fountain on the right side (North side) of the temple.

A photographer took our picture for us. She was taking photos of a bride and groom.

Standing in front of a pretty window.

This is the back of the temple.

Again, another person offered to take our picture.

Back to the fountain.

Being at the temple was a great way to start the day. Curtis and I made plans to go to dinner with another couple in our ward, Jennifer and Drew Horne. Then we had them bring their girls over to swim while the adults played Skyjo. They have a 13, 10 and 5 year old. Charlotte and their 10 year old, Ivy, swam the longest even though it was kind of cold and windy. They are both fish! It was fun and they are another couple that we like and can talk with easily. They too have an old house built in the 70's and we can relate with them on some of the projects we have done, because they have done some of the same things. It's also fun to talk with them because they're from Texas and they talk like it (ya'll). 

We got some inflatables out for the pool and Milo laid right down on one.

Mother's Day Weekend

We started Mother's Day weekend off by going to the temple on a double date Friday evening with Paul and Kim Prescott, a couple from our ward. It was really good that we invited them because they hadn't been to the temple in about 1 1/2 years and they've only been to the temple a few times ever. They are a really nice couple. She was just called to be the new primary president in our ward. Paul is in the priest quorum with Curtis as leaders. We ate at Red Robin before we went to the 7:00 session.

The very next morning the boys, Curtis and I all went to the temple to do baptisms. It was busy that morning, so we were only able to get 10 male and 5 female names done this time, but it felt good to be there. Unfortunately, Garrett got too anxious about other people watching and didn't want to baptize Curtis to be able to get 5 more done, but at least Garrett got baptized. He'll get there. We just need to boost his confidence. I finally got a picture of us afterwards this time. I saw someone near the temple and decided to ask her to take our picture. It was hard because the sun was in our faces, but hey we got pictures! Afterwards, we got donuts to share with the girls.

This is on the South side of the temple. Next time maybe we'll try for the North side so the sun won't be in our faces.

Saturday was the day I had the boys take a load to the dump. While they did that, the girls and I cleaned up the front yard and road from the mess of pine cones. I think we had 3 buckets full of pine cones total. The wind sure blew out a lot.

Then all of the kids invited friends over to come swim. ShaRae came with her two girls. After I quickly finished spraying weeds in the front yard, I changed into my swimsuit to join them. The temperature that day was into the low 90's but the pool was still a bit chilly. It was around 68 degrees. It wasn't too bad after you got used to it. I know it will warm up later on though like it did last year. I remember when it was actually almost too warm to swim in because it just didn't feel refreshing in the heat.

After all the friends left and I got showered and dressed, the girls and I went to the store. I needed to get stuff for activity days and the girls wanted to buy birthday presents for a couple of their friends. Curtis drove over to Richland. He needed to do some shopping but he also picked up Jack, who had gone to watch a play/musical at the church. His friends were helping with it and their sister was in it. He now says he wants to be a part of the show somehow. I love that he's getting interested in things!

Sunday morning after I showered and got dressed, I came out to a bunch of surprises on the table and Curtis was cooking eggs and toast. I had told him I wasn't very hungry because I ate too much the last couple days, otherwise there would have been more. The girls made me lots of different things for Mother's Day and Curtis bought me some flowers, a card, and a hat for yard work. I had borrowed his the day before, so I guess he figured I needed my own, ha ha. 

We went to church and the primary sang a special song plus a youth speaker and and adult speaker. Afterwards, they had the women stand up until they had received their gift for Mother's Day, which was a chocolate candy bar and a packet of flower seeds. Then in Relief Society they gave us another piece of chocolate. I was exhausted that day from all we did the previous day and had a hard time focusing on the lesson but it was good. We also had some changes to our ward primary presidency and because of that some changes to the Relief Society presidency. It's always exciting when changes happen. Sister McShane was moved from the Relief Society presidency to the Primary presidency.

Immediately after church I laid down to take a nap. For dinner that day I decided I wanted hamburgers but I also said that the boys should help cook dinner. I was too tired and it's Mother's Day, so I didn't want to cook. Before that though, I had said that I have been wanting coffee cake for over a month now and it hasn't happened, so Curtis and Charlotte made some together. That was our dessert after dinner. After dinner I played some games with the kids and Curtis, except Garrett. We played Trouble, Guess Who, SkipBo and Uno. Nikki also sent me a really nice text that morning. It was a pretty good Mother's Day.

Poems and cards made at school and at home plus the stuff Curtis bought.

The flowers we made at activity days and another paper flower that I think Alice had made. I can't remember.

Charlotte made this in her class at church. Well, the poem was already printed on the paper. I loved the poem!

The primary made these printouts of the kids as bookmarks for a gift. I love this so much! The seeds were a gift to the women in the ward from the youth and bishopric, along with chocolate (which I had already eaten).

I loaded up all of my Mother's Day gifts, except the chocolate I already ate and had Charlotte take a picture.

Before the kids went to bed I wanted a picture with them. Milo and Sage joined the picture also. We didn't know where Coco was.

I had talked to Colby and Cindy on Friday to see if they could help me get a gift to my mom for Mother's Day. She hadn't seen the movie "Wonka" yet and because I really liked that movie and thought she would also, I had Colby buy her the dvd and some chocolates to go with it. It seemed fitting to have some chocolates to go with a movie about chocolate. She likes them! He sent me a picture. 

My mom!