St. George

Our good friends, the Bennetts, have an airBNB down there that we stayed in. It was perfect! Spacious and comfortable and had a pool just feet away. As soon as we got down there we immediately headed to the pool. It felt amazing to swim!

The next morning Ben had to work. I took all four kids by myself and headed to Zion National Park! Hudson has his parks pass for another few months and I'd really wanted to see Zion with the kiddos. Last time I was there was in 3rd grade and I didn't remember it at all. 

The park totally lives up to the hype it was absolutely stunning. The shuttle bus hop on hop off system made it so smooth and easy to see everything and the boys loved all of it. 

We did two little hikes. The first one was to Emerald Pools. The waterfall was stunning- pictures don't do it justice. The sun was shining so we could see a rainbow at the bottom, which Lila loved. Then we headed on to the last stop in the park to the Narrows. We did the little riverside trail that leads to the entry to the Narrows and it was also so beautiful.

The boys loved all of Zion. They were great hikers and had such good attitudes. I love that they sincerely seem to appreciate the beauty of nature and the unique experiences they get living so close to these natural wonders. Lila on the other hand...took ZERO steps in Zion National Park. And by that I mean she made me carry her for 3.5 miles of hiking. Whenever I tried to set her down she would scream and refuse to even let her feet touch the ground!!!!! I have no idea what got into her, but it was hilarious and exhausting and I may have gotten a little frustrated with her. Also, I was glad I work out as much as I do so that I can carry a three year old while hiking all day!

 After a fun 6 hours in Zion we headed back to the airBNB for more swimming. It was fun to be on vacation to stay up late watching movies, finding fun restaurants for dinner, and just relaxing!

The next morning Ben was able to take a few hours off work to explore with us, so we headed to Snow Canyon State Park. It was also so beautiful and unique! We spent a good long while at the Sand Dunes, where Hudson directed several photo ops, and all the kids loved digging in the sand.

Then we headed over to the rocky part and the kids LOVED climbing all over these rock faces. Even our Hudson, who is typically quite scared of heights faced his fears and found a love for it!

After a stop for donuts at a local bakery and a little more pool time, the kids were getting restless. So I took them to Dixie rock to play around and climb on even more rocks while we waited for Ben to finish work and headed to get some pizza for dinner. 

Our last morning before driving home we headed to Thunder Junction park. It was super fun! Dinosaur themed and so many cool things to do. The kids had a blast there for a couple of hours before packing up to make the long drive back home. 

This trip was a lot of fun- and a lot of work. I had very realistic expectations of how Lila would do. And truth be told, she did a little worse. But I was still so glad we did it. These memories are the best!

Davis Turns 6!

 

Sweet Davis waits through so many birthdays every year before it’s finally his turn! 5 birthdays in 8 weeks in our family and his is the last one. He was so excited this year and could not wait to be 6!

Due to Covid and life busy-ness, Davis had never actually had a friend birthday party! We finally did it this year. I was really hoping for nice weather, but it was freezing and snowing the whole week of his birthday. We reserved our church gym and invited like 12 little friends! (He has way too many friends!) I took no pictures but it was awesome! I had a few ideas in mind of games to play, and also planned to  just let the kids run around because kids love that. As soon as we got there, Hudson immediately organized the kids into games and continued to just host and run the entire birthday party! It was amazing!

We had spidey-themed cupcakes and Davis opened his presents and he felt so happy and so well celebrated! He really is just the best kid and it was so fun to make him so happy! 

Initially he was so sad that his birthday fell on a Saturday, meaning he wouldn’t be able to celebrate at school. His teacher assured him they’d do an alternate day (the 3rd) and he kept referring it to as his “half-birthday” like the summer birthday kids do.

The next day we did Sunday dinner at Nana and Papa’s and celebrated Davis and Papa together like we do every year. Nana made papa cherry pie (his favorite) and we brought leftover Spider-Man cupcakes.

A few things about 6 year old Davis:

• He continues to be just the cutest, funniest child ever born. I say this about him all the time, but it’s just true. I don’t know how humans this cute even exist.
• He loves people. I love how quickly he embraces people of all ages. He’ll talk to anyone.
• He has so much energy! He learned to cartwheel this year and he does at least 20 every single day (probably many more). He’s always had a passion for any situation that puts his feet over his head.
• He’s reading so well. He hates to do his reading homework, but he’s really picking it up!
• He loves school. He is excited to go every single day and when I ask him how it was he says “SO SO GOOD!”
• He loves Spider-Man and Ironman, Sonic, and the Transformers.
• He wants to spend all time forever with his dad, he can never, ever get enough daddy time. He told me that he likes his dad better because “you decide what we have for dinner mom! Also, dad is taller.”
• His favorite food is definitely pizza, and he also loves hamburgers a lot. Anytime Ben takes him on a little date he always wants to go to McDonalds so he can get a hamburger and “black rootbeer” and play on the play place.
• His BFF at school is Luke R. And they hug every day before going home. Around the neighborhood he loves to play with Will and Hudson, but lately has been playing quite a bit with Daniel and Grant, who have lived in our neighborhood for years but are both in his Kindergarten class so he’s gotten to know them better.

To teach him to spell his name, I taught her a (modified) version of a cheer from my high school days, “D-A-V-I-S, Davis Jack is the best!” And it’s true, Davis Jack, you really are the best!

March

 

The tummy bug that Davis caught at the end of February continued to make its way through our family- Lila getting it the worst and on to Ben and Chase. Ever since Ben’s tonsillectomy last December, she’s decided that sick people need jello and luckily I still had a package to make up for her.

This is how I found Davis casually watching his shows on the google one day. This kid is so strong and basically never sits still!

The school hosted a read-a-thon one night. The kids each got a new book and we spent a little time reading together.

Nora was the most darling little “who” in Suessical at her school. We loved watching her perform. It fell right at the end of National reading week with Dr. Suess birthday, which was a big deal in kindergarten, so it was very exciting for Davis, who sat on Papa’s lap and didn’t stop talking all the way through the play (about the play, he had a lot of thoughts).

During one spontaneous talent show at family dinner, four grandkids all ended up on Nana’s lap. I think this is while Hudson was playing a song on the piano. 

State Robotics! This was a long day, but so cool to be part of it! Chase worked so so hard for this! He was such a good sport even though he carried the whole burden for the whole team. Their teamwork challenges didn’t go super great, but he did awesome on skills and autonomous and between those two he got an invite to WORLDS! What an accomplishment! Due to the logistical factors and cost (like $5000) he isn’t actually going to compete at Worlds in May, but just the invite was such an honor. I am so proud of this kid. He persevered through a lot to get to this point, learned so much about problem solving and critical thinking. This boy is going places! 

It’s hard to tell what’s going on here, but Davis and Hudson were playing some sort of survival game in the backyard. They pack up blankets and rope and backpacks and create little survival tents and are clearly imagining so much!

Pi day! A dinner pie and dessert pie! Somehow my kid who loves Pie the most (Hudson) isn’t in this photo!

Lila’s favorite pastime became doing the dishes. It gets water everywhere and she’s busy for a good 30 minutes every time. Also- a lot of the time there aren’t actually any dishes to do, so I just pull clean bowls out and she’s delighted to “clean” them for a good long while. 

The boys started doing sleepovers on the big couch on weekends and it’s the cutest. I love the bonding going on with all three of them!

We had a random Friday in March off school so we took the girls and used our Discovery pass the final time before it expired. It was such a fun morning (if not a little crazy) with 7 kids. Chase and Hudson were very, very helpful!

Then the magic of Aladdin took over our lives! Chase was the sultan and I spent a lot of time over at the school the last week there helping out. I loved every minute I was there. These kids all worked so hard and the show was truly magical!

Chase was the sultan in three of the shows and then was a chorus member in the other three. I love that they double cast it like that, he got the best of both worlds! He did say he much preferred his nights as Sultan. 

He had so much fun with the other kids in the show, although I didn’t get pictures with really any of them except Jaz. I loved seeing the confidence all these kids gained doing this show. Our good friend Lindsay was the director and she really built these kids up and helped them just shine! 

Chase was hilarious as the sultan. He had a couple of really funny lines and he knew how to really sell them and make everyone laugh. I loved watching him eat it all up. I also loved all the big group numbers. There was just something amazing about seeing all the kids up there, singing their little hearts out, trying so hard. I would tear up every single time! 

Also a very monumental day- Lila got to wear this dress! My mom made it for me when I was three and it was my favorite dress. She saved it for me and Lila loves it! 

For Davis’s birthday, Heidi sent Bei Bei a mini Bei Bei which Davis promptly named, Baby Bei Bei. Lila loves it and steals it all the time because “I love pandas too!”. Davis was so mad about it. One day Heidi witnessed this interchange over FaceTime and the next day an identical baby panda showed up on our porch for Lila! She loves it and it’s gone through several names. Today, it’s name is Charlotte.

We have 12:00 church and so I’ve been making these snack boards for their lunch really quick before church. We try to do our little Come Follow Me meeting at 11:00 followed by a quick lunch and off to church. I love these Sunday mornings.

March 27th graced us with yet another snow storm! The eternal winter continues! The kids got a late start, which turned into a remote learning day! We got over a foot of snow in a matter of hours! The kids played in it a lot, we shoveled a lot, and as much as we wanted spring weather we are so thankful for so much snow!