oquirrh mountain temple

We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple openhouse on Monday with Alan & Heidi and their kids. What a beautiful temple! What I think I will remember about this temple is it's openness and natural light. There are definitely a lot of windows and glasswork in this temple. I also loved the chandeliers that were star shaped. I understand at least one of the chandeliers has 19,000 pieces! Wow. When we finished the tour, we walked around the grounds a bit and we could look out over the valley and see the Jordan River Temple and the Draper Temple too. Amazing. Here's a few pictures we took when we finished our tour:

timp cave

A couple weeks ago we visited Timpanogos Cave. It's a "living" cave, meaning that everything is wet inside and the formations in the cave are still growing and changing. A big part of visiting this cave is the 1.5 mile hike to the entrance in which you are rising 1100 feet in elevation as you hike. It's a bit steep sometimes, but the trail is nicely paved and there are some amazing views along the way. We were lucky enough to get tickets for early morning, so the hike was cool and pleasant. Mark carried Matthew on his shoulders, so we made great time hiking to the top. There are a few benches along the way to sit on for a rest, or you can find your own places to take a break.

Here's a few shots from inside the cave:

Check out this pond of water:

The formations inside are amazing:

Matthew was a stinker inside the cave. Visitors are not supposed to touch anything -- he wanted to touch EVERYTHING. There's lots of stairs and narrow trails inside too -- he wanted to go up and down and run all over the place freely -- I don't think so. I think our ranger guide was glad to show us OUT of the cave. A favorite thing they do during the tour is turn out all the lights so you can see just how dark the caves would have been when they were discovered. Amazing --you can't see your hand in front of your face or anything, there is absolutely no light whatsoever. Another favorite was when the ranger shined a red laser pointer on my diamond ring and the light bounced around on the ceiling to make it glitter all over, kind of like a disco ball effect. Cool. It was a fun adventure.

i finally gave in

Last week was a shoe emergency week. I've tried very hard to avoid this for quite awhile & been successful, but all of a sudden, it caught up to me. Ryan's only shoes had holes, Jared's shoes had holes, and Jacob didn't have any sandals for summer. We headed to Big 5. We found super duper deals on athletic shoes and even a pair of Sunday shoes for Jared. Woohoo! No sandals for Jacob and they had NOTHING to fit Ryan for athletic shoes, but they had this super duper deal on Heeley's. Ryan thinks Heeleys are the coolest and has been wanting a pair for years. I think Heeley's are totally impractical and just asking for accidents. Not to mention that they aren't allowed at school, they're heavy, and usually expensive. But, this is summer, it was the only pair of shoes in Ryan's size & he was desperate, and they were a good deal, so yeah, I caved in and he got 'em! He's fallen a few times, but he's generally gotten the hang of them this past week. Back to the shoe quest -- Ryan still needed some athletic shoes and Jacob didn't have sandals, so I ended up at Famous Footwear a couple days later. After searching the store for what seemed a bazillion hours and going through tons of boxes, I found exactly ONE pair of athletic shoes in his size. Thankfully, it was a pair I thought he'd actually like and I was right. The price --ridiculous. Oh well, bite the bullet, the kid's gotta have shoes he can run in. Let's hope they last throught the summer -- he's so hard on shoes. The good thing was that with their buy one get one half off sale, Jacob's sandals only cost $7.

bee-ball

Last night we went to the Bees game for FHE. The kids played in the bounce houses and on the playground and got to give fist bumps to Bumble. Ryan even got Bumble to sign his hat! The line for the train went on forever and we didn't have patience to wait for that. The boys talked (or whined) Dad into getting them drinks. Oh and yes, there was a baseball game going on too. We stayed for about 5 or 6 innings and definitely saw the exciting parts of the game -- the grand slam and the amazing catch in the outfield. We left at the bottom of the seventh inning and the score never changed. Bees won 8 to 5. And there was no rain -- perfect weather for a baseball game!

memorial day

I'm a little slow getting around to posting about our Memorial Day weekend, but here it is:
We spent the weekend in Idaho with my parents & family. One of Jacob's favorite places to play when we visit G&G is in the treehouse in the backyard. It is a simple setup and only the smaller kids are allowed up there. Add the fact that you have to climb to get up and jump to get out, it is perfect for Jacob-age kids:

We visited the cemetery and put these cute spinners on the headstones. I have decided that spinners are the way to go for decorating children's graves because they are more cheery than flowers and just plain fun. There's lots of wind around here, so these little spinners really get a workout -- so cute. Obviously, this is Jordan's headstone, and Cole's is right behind it.

Our favorite thing to do when we visit is to have a wienie roast in the backyard. Mom & Dad's firepit has been used so much over the years it has had to be rebuilt at least once or twice. It has certainly been a place where memories have been created -- we love it! Thanks for all the good times, Mom & Dad. With the firewood all laid out, Ryan and Jared are just waiting for Grandpa to give them permission to light the fire:

Love this cute picture of my Dad and Matthew:

Let the cooking begin:

Another highlight of the excursion was seeing my nephew, Mike, return home from his mission to Argentina. He spoke in church on Sunday and gave a great talk. His English is pretty good and his Spanish fabulous. It's good to have him home and I appreciate his good example for my boys. We enjoyed spending time with the Brady, Jensen, and Bryce cousins. Can't wait for more this summer!

promotion day

Our newest graduate: Handsome kid, don't you think? The elementary school made a big deal out of promotion. The gym was totally decorated and the kids all dressed in Sunday best -- dresses & ties! All the boys had boutonnieres and the girls corsages. What an impressive looking group! Their behavior was excellent as well and everyone cheered for everyone as they marched across the stage to get their advancement certificate.

I played "Pomp and Circumstance" a bazillion times while all the kids (over 100 of 'em!) walked across the stage, so this is a darn good picture considering that Mark was the camera man with a new and unfamiliar camera AND he was wrestling Matthew at the same time. This is Jared shaking hands with the school principal and the graduation speaker, Ivan Paz, a former Mets player.

A couple more photos:

Jared was surprised to receive a President's Education Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, signed by Obama and everything. He was one of 2 or 3 in the class that received the award. That made him feel really good. He has worked hard all year to get excellent grades and we're very proud of him.

sick and smacked

Last Monday I had a lovely stomach flu -- the kind where you basically think you're going to die. No exageration. Mark stayed home from work in the morning to watch the kids, but had to go in after lunch, so Jacob and Matthew were on their own. Jacob did an excellent job of tending Matthew while I languished in bed. Even though he did such a good job tending, I was glad to see Jared come home from school and Mark come home early from work. I had committed to play the piano for Jared's class on Tuesday and thanks to the tender mercies of Heavenly Father, I was able to get out of bed on Tuesday morning and go to the school and get back into the "land of the living" very quickly.

Thursday was the long anticipated field day at school. Things looked way fun -- especially the giant water slide that went ALL the way down the hill in the back of the school. There were lots of different activities and everyone got to do everything. Ryan's class started at the obstacle course where they were using some little gym scooters (wood blocks on wheels) as part of the course. He had been out there for all of 10-15 minutes when one of his buddies threw a scooter at him and smacked him right in the two front teeth. Fortunately his gums took the brunt of the force and his teeth are still completely intact. His gums were all bloody, bruised and swollen and needless to say he was hurting. I checked him out of school, took him home and then to the dentist to get things checked out. Things looked OK on the x-ray, so we just have to wait for the gums to heal themselves. So much for Ryan's field day.