Spring Break in Nampa Part 1

Our kids had spring break the first week of April and we decided to spend it in Nampa. Curtis had to do some work stuff in Pendleton on Wednesday, so he didn't join us until late Wednesday night. The kids and I drove down on Monday the 31st of March. This time we decided to bring Milo so he could meet some friends and family. I asked grandma if it was okay if we brought him as long as we kept him outside or in the garage (in his crate) and she said yes. The boys weren't thrilled about traveling with a dog and the dog smell that comes with it, but they survived. It was mostly Jack that had a problem with it. Things were a bit stressful when it came to packing up the car with dog stuff and the kid's video game systems. I even had a little breakdown, but we managed to figure it out. We folded down the single seat in the back and leaned Milo's folded up crate on the side with the window. Then stuffed his bed in and then we were able to fill in the spaces with suitcases and Milo's bag. I also brought my computer, thinking I would catch up on blogging while at grandma's house. I almost did one day but just felt too tired to do it. Then I just got too busy.

Well, Milo laid down in the middle of the bucket seats most of the ride and did really well. The weather on the ride down was crazy. We had a little bit of everything. It started out with sun and wind. Then by the time I stopped to gas up in Pendleton, it hailed. At that point I didn't let anyone out of the car but me. I figured we would stop later on at a rest area, and that's what we did. When we reached the higher elevations on the mountains, we got some snow and then rain. We were blessed to make it to grandma's without incident. After we arrived and unloaded our gear the girls and I picked up pizza from Little Caesar's for dinner (paid by grandma). We also took Milo on a walk around the block and to Lion's Park. The girls played on the playground for a few minutes with Milo since nobody else was there because it was almost dark when we went.

Charlotte took this panoramic shot of a full rainbow that we saw on the trip. Pretty good for doing it while moving.

The main things I did on Tuesday was go grocery shopping to get our family some food for the week, work on a puzzle with grandma, play Golf with Grandma, Dad and Mom and take Jack and his friend Porter to the trampoline place. I was pretty tired that day and not really feeling like doing much. Garrett and I did also go to his orthodontist to pick up his extra set of retainers. In filling out his mission papers, they said to bring an extra set. They weren't cheap either.

Playing Golf, which we did several times that week.

When driving back from picking up Jack at the trampoline place, I noticed that Beefy's on Garrity has officially closed and is about to become an Idaho Burrito, which I have never heard of before. I wonder if it will be any good. I don't recall ever going to Beefy's when it was in business.

On Wednesday, the girls, Milo and I met up with Ashlie and Sydney at Midway Park. The girls played on the playground, and I threw a frisbee for Milo a little way away. We then all went over to Ashlie's where we introduced Milo to their puppy Mr. Wrinkles. Their puppy was a little too much for Milo. Ashlie had to put him on a leash because he kept wanting to jump on Milo. It doesn't help that he's not fixed yet, lol. After a little while I decided to take Milo back to grandma's and Charlotte came with me, while Alice stayed to play a little longer.

I told Grandma that I had talked to the kids about helping GG out with things she might need help with. So that's what she did. After the boys played videogames all day, Grandma asked them to help her outside with trimming bushes. I went to pick up Alice. I was so happy to see them all helping.

I had been vacuuming floors upstairs because all of her carpets looked like they hadn't been vacuumed in months. I also got both stairs done and a small section of the basement before we decided it was time to do some swimming at the Rec Center. Grandma had some guest passes for us to use and we all brought our swimsuits just in case. Curtis wasn't there so we invited Jack's friend Porter to come along since he didn't have youth group that night. We spent about 2 hours at the pool. The boys and I were ready to leave after about an hour to an hour and a half, but the girls were having fun so we let them swim longer. Then my hunger pains started and we decided it was time to leave. The rest of the evening the kids played videogames or watched movies. Grandma and I made a late run to the store for some ice cream and pop. I normally don't drink pop but I talked Grandma into buying some Fresca, which I really like and it has zero calories. I didn't realize it was a sparkling soda water, and not another flavor of soda pop until recently. Growing up I always just thought it was pop because it fizzed like pop.

I often saw this scene or something like it either first thing in the morning or throughout the day. I didn't like them playing so many videogames, but at the same time it was Spring break for them. Plus, most friends were at school in Nampa since their spring break was the previous week. This is what I saw Thursday morning. While they played, I went and did some shopping.

I invited my friend Whitney over to introduce our dogs. There was a little bit of excitement when they first saw each other, with some barking, and even Milo had an accident on the ground in the garage and just outside the garage. I had to use Milo's towel to wipe it up. Other than that, the dogs did pretty well together in Grandma's backyard. We had originally planned to meet somewhere with the dogs that would have more space, but I learned from Whitney's experience that you can't let your dog off leash in a city park or you'll get cited a $65 ticket. And her dogs don't do well at dog parks. We didn't have time to take them out to the country, so we just decided to have them over at grandma's and it was just fine.

That same evening, we took Milo over to meet our old friend Barry Cox and his dog Sophie. We thought for sure they would have lots of fun running back and forth in the yard, but Sophie decided she didn't want anything to do with Milo. She'd try to sniff him but if he tried to sniff her, she would let him know she didn't like that. As we were getting ready to leave and got Milo loaded up in the van, then she started to run around like the old Sophie we knew. I think she was intimidated by Milo because he's so big. I guess Barry told us that their old neighbor dog cornered her once and their dog was a great Dane. So, it made sense that she was standoffish. 

On Friday Dad, Mom and Grandma went to the temple. Dad called while they were driving and invited the kids and I to go to Chick-Fil-A with them for lunch after they finished at the temple. Curtis was getting off early but already made lunch plans with his friend Scott Gibbons and he had a dentist appointment. So I said sure! I went to do some shopping that morning to try to find new tennis shoes and a puzzle to do. I found shoes at Famous Footwear and then went over to DI to look for puzzles. I had done all of the puzzles that Grandma has, so I was ready for something different. I was looking for something around 500 pieces because Whitney was going to come over and work on it with me and I wanted to make sure we had time to finish it. Well, I didn't find much. Most were the small cheap puzzles or the big 1000-piece puzzles. I did find one that was a winter scene, but I also found a smaller one that was 500 pieces, and it had Mickey and Minnie Mouse on it. I bought three puzzles. The winter scene, the Disney one and a small cheap butterfly one. We chose to do the Disney one but didn't realize how small the pieces were going to be. They are about 0.5 inches in length. We decided to challenge ourselves anyway. The hardest part is that there's a lot of green and blue from water, sky and plants. That was making it very difficult. 

We didn't get far before it was time to meet up with Dad for lunch. Garrett surprisingly said he didn't want to eat there. I had a feeling it was because he doesn't like eating in a crowded place. I don't blame him. I had picked up Porter after my shopping because Jack and Porter were planning on going to see the new Minecraft movie together. Our family had thought about going together but I heard it might not be that great, so I didn't want to waste a bunch of money on it. I still gave money for Jack to see it though. They hung out at grandma's until it was time to go. Then I dropped them off at the Edwards 14 theater on our way to Chick-Fil-A. The girls and I at least enjoyed our meal. We almost had to eat outside because it was so busy, but thankfully Mom and Grandma found a tall, long table that opened up, because it was a little too chilly for eating outside.

Here we are stuffing our faces.

Like I said, I'm not a pop drinker so I actually ordered blue Powerade.

After lunch I came back to grandma's and worked on the puzzle some more while waiting for it to be time to go drop off kids to friend's houses and head over to my in-laws for an adult only get together. Curtis's brother Nic just got out of prison and there's no children allowed over there with him there right now. Charlotte went to her friend, Elie Hayes' house. She had to be picked up by them after we had left, but Grandma was there with her. Then we dropped off Alice to Sydney's house. Garrett was able to say hi to Lilly while there and she got to meet Milo as well since we took him with us to the Butterfield's. Curtis went and picked up Jack and Porter for me, then dropped off Porter at home and met me at his parent's house. Then the boys drove our van over to their friends, the Hansens, from our rental house ward. It happened to be Calvin Hansen's birthday that day and they were having a party, so it was perfect.

Curtis's sisters were there, Rick and Nic out of the siblings. Jeanie's husband Glen and their son Jared also came. And Shauna's husband John showed up later because he had to work. We started out by eating dinner. Then they wanted to play Secret Hitler. I'm not a fan of that game so I opted to go play with Milo in the back yard for a bit. Then I came back in and Steve and Lori Spence showed up. So I visited in the other room with Mom and Lori. After they finished that game, we had some dessert and then we played Bank, the new dice game we just learned. I played with them this time. They all seemed to like that game. We played two 20-round games. I won the first game and then got 2nd the next one. It was a nice evening and fun to see Nic again. 

Then it was time to pick up the girls but we had to wait for the boys to come back with the van first. Garrett came with me to pick up the girls. I think he was hoping to see Lilly again, but she had fallen asleep. Jim got to meet Milo and we got to show him some of the tricks he does. I think he was impressed. I got a picture of the two friends before we left. Then we went to get Charlotte at the Hayes' house and introduced Milo to their dog Velvet. They did okay and did their intro in the front yard. I forgot to get a picture of Charlotte and Elie.

Sydney and Alice

By the time we got back to grandma's it was after 10pm so we all just went to bed. I was going to do one long post, but I think I'll stop here and finish in another.

Activities and Concerts

Our last activity days was originally supposed to be a family history activity put on by the Chandlers (Susan and Dave) in our ward, who are in charge of family history. Sister Chandler had to tell us a few days before that she wasn't going to be able to do it on the 24th because she was able to get an appointment for her eyes to be dilated prior to surgery and said last time her eyes stayed dilated for about 13 hours. Sister Gale was supposed to be out of town, and I thought it was going to be just fine because of the family history activity. When that changed, Sister Gale decided to come home from her trip early and she found a bunny craft for the girls to make. We did the craft and a game, along with jump ropes.

They are made out of heavy paper and have a weight in the back to make them rock.

I guess the Kennewick School District has a tradition they've been doing for a long time now for the 5th graders. Each year the 5th graders practice some songs that they will sing together. It's called the 5th Grade Choral Festival. All of the 5th graders from every school will perform together. Except they do have to split it up into two sessions because there are so many. On the same night as activity days was Charlotte's performance and there were 9 schools. The second night there were 8 schools. They did some popular songs that I love and some I hadn't heard of. The funny thing was that I went to the practice earlier that morning as a chaperone and there were a lot more kids at the practice than the actual performance. I had heard Charlotte's teachers tell the students that they didn't have to go unless they wanted to or their parents made them. The cool thing is that they did record it on YouTube and so anyone could watch from anywhere. I totally forgot about that option until right before the show started.  After they sang several songs, the choirs from Kamiakin and Southridge High schools performed one song each. Then the 5th graders sang more. One of the songs I really liked was the one by Carrie Underwood called "I Will See You Again". 

The students who sang were in the bleachers.

Charlotte was in this section, right side, 3rd row from bottom.

The very next day they had an awards assembly at the girl's school and Charlotte won the Citizenship Award in her class. 

To celebrate, I took Charlotte to get a free ice cream with a coupon she had won previously. She saw the big spoon by the doors and had to get a picture.

Okay, I don't remember what we were doing before taking this picture, but I love it and wanted to save it here. Alice is such a sweetheart!

Jack had a Wind Ensemble Band Concert on the 27th. It basically means advanced concert band. We enjoyed watching like always, and it was great to actually see him up front this time with his French horn!!

The weather was nice one day and so the girls and I took a walk in our neighborhood. Charlotte would let go of the leash sometimes to see if Milo would stay with her, and he did! It was funny because he also stepped in the loophole that we usually hold on to and just kept walking like that. We had walked down to the Gale's house to let Milo play with his new friend, Harley. They had so much fun running all over the yard and playing keep away from each other with some of the toys.

We spotted this bird in someone's front yard on the walk home. At first, I thought it was a chicken, but I'm not sure. It's kind of cool looking though.

The last weekend of March was the first weekend of the kid's spring break. I knew we would be going out of town the next Monday and staying in Nampa all week, so we did a little clean up in the yard before going. I trimmed a bush while Garrett raked leaves. The only picture I took was of him working. I'm posting a picture of the bush I trimmed but it was taken a few days earlier. I hated to trim that bush when it looked so pretty with all of the yellow, but I knew it needed to be done because that bush would get huge over the summer. I wish I could have gotten out there early enough to trim the bush before it bloomed. Next year I'll either trim it really early or wait until after the yellow blooms fall off before trimming it.

He worked hard for me and I'm so thankful he was willing to help.

This was what the bush looked like several days before I trimmed it. 

Alice was finally able to wear her new spring dress she got for Christmas from her Grandma Butterfield.

Baptism, Play and Other Stuff

On March 14th, it was "Pi Day" (3.14....) which is a math term, so some people like to celebrate with having pie. I usually forget, but this year we were invited to a Pi Day party. It was for any adults in the ward, but it was at a member's home, Andrew and Michelle Gould. They have only been in the ward for about a year. Anyway, I didn't actually find out about it until the day before the party and I didn't have time to come up with any special kind of pie to make, so I went with pumpkin, because I already had a can of pumpkin ready to go in our pantry. There was a competition for the homemade pies, but I didn't really care about that. I knew I wouldn't win with just a pumpkin pie, but it was definitely a popular choice to have a slice. We cut very small slices so that they were sample size. By the end of the night we came home with only two small slices, which the girls were very happy to finish off for us. 

The next day on the 15th, it was the annual Leprechaun Dash. Curtis and I took the girls and Milo to the 1-mile run/walk. It was really cold that morning, so I wore my long underwear and multiple layers. I was nice and comfortable. Milo did a lot better this year and we were actually able to walk him with the crowd this time. Charlotte held his leash most of the time. Curtis, Charlotte and Milo were going a lot faster, so Alice and I walked together. It was a cold morning, but it was still fun. We even got there early enough for the girls to get a free t-shirt. Afterwards, we took the girls to get a donut from the donut shop called Popular Donuts.

On Monday the 17th was St. Patrick's Day, but my kids did not have school that day because it was a reserved snow make up day. The school district scheduled two snow make up days and decided to use the one that we needed for the weekend of Memorial Day, especially since it was only a half day originally. I took the time to open my new puzzle and got the border put together. Well, that's as far as I have gotten to this day. Curtis needs to buy me smaller puzzles, like 500 piece so I can do them quicker. AND not so complicated. I'll do this puzzle, but it may take as long as my balloon puzzle did, even though it's 1000 piece instead of 2000 piece.

On the 20th, our relief society put on a dinner and service activity. We had a few sisters in the ward that made us a Mexican dinner that included tamales, rice, beans, salsa, and fried tortillas sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. It was all delicious! After the dinner, they did a short tamale making demonstration and then we filled Easter eggs for the ARC. We had a pretty good turn out with about 25 women.

I was there early to help set up and get us in the building.

Catalina Diaz, Margaret Quintero, Toni Diaz

The weekend of the 22nd we drove over to Lewiston for Bridger's birthday and baptism AND Jayden's play. We drove over Friday night and got a hotel this time because Michelle's family were staying with them. After checking in we drove over to Stillman's to hang out and visit for the evening. We thought our hotel would have a pool and packed our swimsuits to go swimming. Well, they do have a pool, but it's outdoors and still closed and too cold. Our second disappointment with the hotel is that we thought breakfast was included, but it wasn't. It was available to purchase separately restaurant style. We decided to go get breakfast at a little place in downtown Clarkston (because our hotel was in Clarkston) after we all got showered and dressed for the baptism and checked out of the hotel. Curtis and I shared an omelet, and it was good. I can't remember the name of the restaurant, just that it seemed to be in downtown, I think. After breakfast, we drove straight to the church for the baptism of Bridger. He happened to get baptized on his birthday. It was neat that the family all had parts in the program. Jayden gave a talk, and they even had Keaton read a talk that Alex wrote while on his mission. Alex was able to watch the baptism online. Technology can be great for these types of things!

 After the baptism we all drove over to Stillman's to eat lunch. Then it was off to see Jayden in his high school play, The Wizard of Oz. They did a great job!

Charlotte thought their statue of the mascot was pretty cool. This was by the front doors.

Curtis saw this golden toilet and of course had to get a picture. I don't remember what it was all about, but it looked like it was some sort of rivalry trophy, kind of like when Nampa had the bell.

Laverne got a picture of Alice with "Dorothy" after the show.

Jayden already changed before he came out for pictures.

These guys are great buddies. Jack talked up a storm with Brogan before and after the show.

Alice by the statute.

After the show it was back to Stillman's for a birthday party for Bridger. We quickly put up decorations while he played video games downstairs. It was Spiderman themed. I remember when Garrett and Jack loved Spiderman and Batman.

As soon as the party was over, we finally hit the road to go back home (at like 8:30pm). It's a good thing it's only a 2 1/2 hours drive. We needed to get back for church the next day, especially since they were sustaining Curtis to be the new Elder's Quorum President for our ward. He was already a counselor before so it's not as big of a shock or adjustment. He'll do great and it was a great weekend. We were so glad we could be there for the baptism and play.