Swimming - March 15, 2014

Saturday - March 15, 2014
I started this oil painting when I was in an art class my senior year of high school.  I got really frustrated because I couldn't get the grass to look how I wanted it to look.  So, I set the picture aside, so I would have time to think about it and figure it out.  A year after high school, I did some oil painting with a friend from the neighborhood.  I learned a few different techniques for doing grass and I tried those out.  I really wasn't satisfied with the way the grass techniques were working, so I set the picture aside again.  I took a stab at the grass one more time, when I took an oil painting class from Dell Parson at Dixie College.  I loved that class and I learned a lot, but I still wasn't satisfied with the look of the grass.  I was getting so frustrated, because I had a vision of how I wanted this picture to look, but nothing I tried would give the grass the look I wanted.  so, I put the picture away again.  Ten years after I had started this picture, I was doing some cleaning and came across this picture.  I really wanted to finish it, but I still wasn't sure how.
A day or so after I found the picture again, the kids wanted to do some crafts.  We pulled out all of our craft supplies.  In our stuff, we had these oil writer things.  they were the size of chalk and in a small container with lots of different colors.  It was a different way to oil paint.  It was more like oil coloring.  I pulled those out and started doodling on a small canvas I had and I finally came up with a way to make grass on my oil painting.  I was so happy to finally be able to finish my oil painting!  This grass turned out better than anything else I had tried.  I don't think I'm super talented when it comes to oil painting, but it didn't turn out too bad.  Since it was finally finished, I gave it to my parents as a gift.  I think that had been my original intent when I started the picture 10 years ago.  I can't remember too well, but it just felt like it was meant for them.  I had forgotten again about that painting, so I took a picture of it when I saw it hanging on the wall at my parent's house.

 We were still tired from all of our driving that we had done the previous day.  We spent the morning just sitting around relaxing and watching tv.  Then dad told us about this nice new recreation center in Washington, UT, so we headed over to check it out.  Dad had a pass that made it so he could get in for free whenever he wants.  It wasn't too expensive for all of us to swim, though, so that was okay.  The swimming pool was a lot of fun.  The kids loved it.  I'm sure we will go swimming here almost every time we visit.  The lazy river was unlike any other lazy river I've been to.  The water takes you around really fast.  It was the fastest lazy river I've been in and I loved it.  Brinley loved it too.  that's all she wanted to do.  there was a fun water slide.  Alissa and Parker had a lot of fun going on that.  It seemed all Alissa wanted to do was go down the slide and all Brinley wanted to do was go around the lazy river and Parker wasn't sure what sister to follow.  so, he'd go with Alissa for a while, then he'd go back to the lazy river with Brinley.

Going to St. George - March 14, 2014

Friday - March 14, 2014
So, we decided to take a pretty spur of the moment trip to St. George.  Roger's nieces, Becca and Missy, told us about their plan to go to every temple in Utah in 24 hours.  Roger thought that sounded like fun and he wanted to go with.  but, that made me feel a little bad, because I had been hoping we were going to do something fun as a family this weekend.  Roger and I kept talking about things, trying to figure out if he could go with them or if there was a way for both of us to go.  Eventually, our planning to go with Missy and Becca turned into us planning a last minute trip to St. George instead.  Roger and I were in Logan on an ice skating date, when we had first heard about Missy and Becca's plan.  We spent the whole date trying to figure it out.  Once we decided what we wanted to do, we hurried home and started making all of the arrangements and planning what fun stuff we would do while we were there.  We decided to make the drive there a fun part of our vacation by stopping and seeing lots of sights on the way.
Our first stop was to the Fremont Indian State Park.  We stopped to use the restrooms, eats some lunch, and look around.

 After we ate, we went o a short hike.  At the start of the hike, you can see a lot of drawings on the walls of the mountains.  That was fun and interesting.

 This part of the hike was fun, but it was a little tainted by an annoying bee that wouldn't stay away from me.  We came to a fork in the trail.  Roger and Parker told us to wait, while they walked ahead on one of the trails to see if it looked like the trail that would take us where we wanted to go.  While we were waiting, the bee got really annoying and I was having a really hard time not freaking out.  The bee tried to land on me and that's when I couldn't handle it any more.  I started hitting it with Brinley's jacket and we decided to run on the trail and try to catch up to Roger and Parker.  After we calmed down, the bee left us alone and we were able to enjoy the rest of the hike.

At the bottom of the trail and close to the picnic area, there is a hole in the ground that leads into a small dwelling.  The Indians used to build their homes like this.  It was very interesting.  It was really hot outside, but the small shelter underground offered some relief from the heat.  That was really nice.  Brinley was too scared to go down the latter to see inside.  We tried and tried to convince her, but she absolutely refused.  She was just too scared.

Our next stop on our drive was to Cove Fort.  We took the tour and enjoyed looking around.  The guy who took us on the tour wasn't very friendly and talkative, so that was a bummer.  He was old and seemed kind of fussy.  He just told us what he was supposed to, then we stared at everything in silence.  Roger tried to make conversation with him a few times, but it never worked.  the guy just didn't want to be friendly and talkative or maybe he just didn't know how.  Anyway, it was a nice stop on our drive.

 Our next stop was at a ghost town.  This ghost town is called Frisco.  It was hard to find anything.  Most of the buildings have been knocked down.  It seems like there was just a lot of garbage scattered about.  The big kilns were really cool, but that was pretty much the most exciting thing that we found.  I had wanted to do some research and learn more about the history of Frisco before we went there, but since our trip was so spur of the moment, I didn't have time to do the reading and gather the info.  I think ghost towns are way more exciting when you know the history and you have fun stories of things that have happened there.

After we stopped in Frisco, we were tired and ready to get to my dad's house.  So, we decided against any other stops and headed straight to his house.  We left to go to St. George around 7:00 am and arrived at my dad's house shortly after 8:00 pm.  It was a long day with fun adventure and lots of driving.  It was a little too much for me though.  I had a headache by the time we got there.  So, we went straight to bed after we got there.

Cubscouts at the Fire Station - March 10, 2014

Monday - March 10, 2014
Parker and Roger went with the cubscouts to the Tremonton Fire Station for a tour and to learn all about it.

Alissa and Brinley's Boredom Buster Videos - March 8, 2014

Saturday - March 8th

Alissa and Brinley were bored tonight so I suggested that they make some videos.  I told them to reenact a YouTube video they've seen, reenact a story from my childhood, or make a ghost video.  Here's what they came up:  

Thanksgiving Point - March 3, 2014

Monday - March 3, 2014
We decided that we needed to have another big adventure.  The kids didn't have school today, so we went out to play.  We took the kids to Thanksgiving Point.  We had checked online at some of the activities we could do there.  The most affordable thing was the farm.  It took forever to get there.  It was a forty minute drive to the front-runner, then an hour and 45 minutes on the front-runner.  When we finally got to our stop, we were starving for some lunch.  The train stopped and we immediately got up and started walking down the stairs to leave.  When we and another passenger reached the door, the train door wouldn't open and a worker told us that we took to long.  He had to call someone to get them to stop the train and let us off.  It says that they stop for a certain amount of time at each stop, but they definitely didn't follow their guidelines.  We did not take long to get down to the doors.  There should have been plenty of time for us to exit.  Anyways.... at least we were able to get off and we didn't have to ride to the next stop, catch another train, then head back.
After exiting the train, we went for a walk to Del Taco.  It was about 3 blocks from the train station.  The kids were excited that there was a play place, but bummed when they walked in and there was a big sign that said Alissa was too tall to play.  Alissa was really sad.  Then she ended  up dropping her food on herself and on the floor 2 times.  She did not enjoy that lunch at all, but she cheered up after we finished and left.  Thanksgiving point was about a block or 2 away in the other direction from the train station.  So, off we went.

 When we first got there, we walked around and looked at all the animals.  It didn't take too long.  there really wasn't a lot to see.  The horses were pretty impressive though.

 There were some fun little buildings for the kids to play in.  They didn't play for too long though, it got kind of boring.

 We left the buildings and walked over to watch the guy feeding the horses, while we waited for someone to come and let the kids ride the ponies.  Here are the kiddos on their pony ride.

 There was another building filled with things to know all about gardening.  The kids really liked it in, so we spent a long time sitting in there while the kids played.  After that, we stopped and looked at the cows, then we noticed them loading the wagon for a wagon ride.  We ran over there to take our ride.  The wagon ride was a big disappointment.  The ride didn't go through anything farm related.  It just took us out of the farm area, across the street, around the large, empty parking lot, then around the block on the road, and back in to the farm to let us off.  We didn't pass anything interesting or exciting.  Most of the times, when they offer wagon rides, they take you on a ride to look at things.  This was just a ride through nothing.  It was crazy to me that they even offer it when they have nothing to see.
After our wagon ride, we stopped in the garden building one more time, then we headed inside to see the cow area and a gift shop.  Then we decided to head home.

 The ride home was really long and the front-runner ended up being sooo... crowded.  there was no room to sit in the newer areas, so we got stuck sitting in the old train.  The seats were much more comfortable there, but the windows were old and very small, and it was hot.  It was hard for me to keep from getting car sick.  Somehow I survived and made it back to the truck without being terribly sick.  Parker and Alissa fell asleep, both with the attitude that sleeping would help the ride go faster for them.  they both woke up pleased that they were able to sleep through almost the whole ride.  Brinley stayed awake and enjoyed having all the attention from both her parents.  she was being so cute and funny.

We were really happy to be back to the truck when it was all over and very happy when we got home.  We had a fun day, but it was exhausting.

Parker's Train - February 27, 2014

Thursday - February 27, 2014
Parker used my phone to take some pictures of the train track he created.  I don't think he'll ever get tired of his train tracks.  I think he was 3 years old when we bought him his first set of Geo Trax trains.  He's 9 now and still loving them.

Babysitting Snow Fun - February 8, 2014

Saturday - February 8, 2014
Alea and Parker spent a lot of time playing outside.  They built a snowman and insisted that I take their picture with it.  It ended up looking more like a ghost in the end.  Alea and Parker are funny together.  Alea has a crush on Parker and she told him.  They love to play together, but there's this weird awkwardness between them since they both admitted to liking each other.  It's cute.

Cookies, Friends, and a Sleepover - February 7, 2014

Friday - February 7, 2014
Brinley's friend, Onnika, got to come over and play today.  Brinley was so excited that she could finally play.  Sierra lives close by and is also in Brinley and Onnika's class at school, so she came over to play too.  I made valentine cookies for the kids to decorate.  We waited until after Roger left to work and Alissa's friend, Sydney, got here.  Sydney came for a sleep over tonight.  We all had a lot of fun decorating cookies.  Parker doesn't like it when things get too loud and crazy, so he got his cookies and went to find something else to do.  I didn't pull the camera out in time to get a picture of him.

 Alissa and Sydney stayed up really late playing the Sims on the computer.  Brinley planned to sleep downstairs with them, but she got tired and wanted to go to bed before they did.  So, here she is laying on the air mattress, watching a show.  She was too tired to smile for the picture I took.

The World Fair - February 5, 2014

Wednesday - February 5, 2014

We spent a few hours tonight at Alissa's school.  It was the World's Fair.  They each gathered items and learned as much as they could about a country of their choice.  Alissa chose to learn all that she could about France.  Aunt Carolyn was able to give her some items to display and teach her some things she could share.  Alissa loved learning all about France and she was so excited to do the World's Fair.  They each set up booths.  People came, walked around to look at everything and ask questions.  Alissa did an excellent job.  she studied really hard and was able to answer their questions.  She had a partner for the project.  I can't remember her partner's name, but that is the other person in the picture.

Lego Fun - February 2, 2014

Sunday - February 2, 2014
We love playing Legos.  Parker and Brinley wanted me to take some pictures of their creations.

Brinley's Baptism - February 1, 2014

Saturday - February 1, 2014

I was going through a little bit of a rough patch, so Brinley's baptism ended up getting postponed.  She should have been baptized in November.  She was okay to wait and she is so excited to finally get baptized. There was a big snow storm this morning.  We invited everybody to meet at the church at 9:00am, but because of the storm and slippery roads, there were very few people at the church at 9.  Grandma Moser and Uncle Tyler got stuck behind a hugh car accident.  We ended up having Brinley be the last of all the kids to get baptized, so that they would have more time to get here.  They were stuck there for a really long time.  We did a lot of waiting for everybody, but it was worth it.  It was so nice to have lots of friends and family be there for Brinley on her special day.
Before we left to the church, Brinley and Alissa had the idea for me to take pictures of them jumping. They were trying to lift their feet, so it would look like they were ghost and they didn't have feet. They are funny!

We started taking pictures as soon as we arrived at the church and realized that we would have a long wait, while everyone braved the storm trying to get there.

Alissa and Parker thought they were so funny jumping in front of the camera or right in front of Brinley every time I tried to take a picture.

Brinley and her friend, Mikenna.

 These are all the kids in our stake that were getting baptized today.

 Grandma Moser and Tyler still hadn't arrived.  The little meeting in the sacrament room was over, so we went to the room were they do the baptism and waited for them to arrive.  Brinley was so excited and had a lot of fun visiting with her friends and cousins.  Everybody got to write letters to Brinley while we waited.  It was very special.  Eventually Tyler and Grandma got there and we were able to get Brinley baptized.  She is so happy!

After the baptism, everybody came to our tiny little home.  It was very squishy and we didn't have a lot of food to offer, so we decided to all go to a restaurant.  We went to the Mexican restaurant here in town.  I love that place.  It is too yummy.  We had lots of fun.  by the time everybody left to go home, the storm had stopped and the roads were much better.