On a hotel boat!

Many of you know Spencer had been obsessed with cruise ships. He saw one while we drove over a bridge in Maine vising Aunt Annie last year and has been asking about "hotel boats" ever since. He says he's saving his money to go on one and often asks how much it will cost. I knew that some cruise ships docked in Long Beach but couldn't figure out how to get on without paying full price. That's when Uncle Paul mentioned the Queen Mary. It is permanently moored there and operates like a museum. So it was a perfect way for Spencer to experience a hotel boat within his one-hour attention span. Except that it turns out that hotel boats (well, maybe just 80-year-old ones) aren't really all they're cracked up to be.
This is the chain that holds ONE of the two anchors.
On the bridge.

On to the aquarium . . .

Earlier this year I had contact with the PR people at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach; they were interested in me doing some work for them until their budget got cut. So I called my contact and she was more than happy to get me and Spencer in free for the day. She took him right to the shark-petting tank and he got to touch bamboo sharks like this one. This was definitely the highlight of the trip for him.



Luckily we hit the stingray tank right at feeding time.

They also had "real" sharks of maneater size. Our hostess made sure we were in the right spot to watch when they were fed. Spencer would have watched them all day.
He liked the 3-D movie glasses so much he smuggled them out of the theater.
They have a big outdoor cage housing dozens of Australian birds called lorikeets that will land on your arm to lick nectar out of a cup.

We stayed at the aquarium for a full four hours and also saw sea lions, sea otters, a sea turtle, poisonous sea snakes, and giant spider crabs. They also had these shark egg cases with the top cut off so you could see the baby sharks wiggling around inside. Both of us really loved everything there. I recommend the aquarium even if you have full price.

From there we drove to the airport and got dinner at In and Out Burger. Traffic was so light we even got on an earlier flight, so the sun was still up when we landed in Salt Lake City. (Spencer was mad that he missed the weekly trip to Grandma Cathy's :).

I can't wait to take one of the girls on my next trip. They were both very kind to defer to Spencer on this trip since it was to a spot near his favorite attractions.

A fun outing to the Conference Center

We have officially made Wednesdays this summer as our day for an outing, usually concluding at Grandma and Poppy's house because Poppy has the afternoon off. So many of our outings take us north to Salt Lake. We've also had a rainy month, so we've been saving some of our outside excursions for better weather. We had one such excursion a week and a half ago. It fell during the week that Michael was out of town for 6 days and I needed a boost myself. It was rainy and I was racking my brain to think of some place new (and inexpensive, and indoors) to take the kids.Voila! The Conference Center. My kids have never been there. Of course they complained the whole way there saying they didn't want to go, it would be boring, etc. In the end, they loved it. And we had so much fun! [The Conference Center is across the street from Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake. It is a huge building constructed mainly for the purpose of holding a Church-wide conference every 6 months where our prophet and leaders speak to us. Always a highlight of my year. The Conference is broadcast all over the world, in numerous languages, so that it is widely available for anyone who wants to watch. Previously this meeting was broadcast from the old Tabernacle on Temple Square that held about 2,000 people. This building was built about 9 years ago and seats about 22,000 people so that more people could participate in person. It also hosts concerts and other performances and meetings throughout the year.]

David in front of the creek running outside.

The inside is beautiful. The kids were fascinated by the different water features outside. They were extra excited by a water fountain inside too!

This beautiful star window (reflected in the glass) is directly above the fountain.
A nice older man gave us the guided tour of the building. He was an experienced grandpa, so he kept it all at the kids level and we moved along quickly.
This is the interior of the center. The kids are familiar with this building because they watch Conference and see our leaders speak on TV broadcast from this building, but they were amazed by the size in real life.

The Conference Center also has some gallery space with some wonderful original artwork. The kids (especially the boys) were so excited to see these paintings. They have the prints hanging on the walls of their rooms and love the stories. (Our guide was really impressed that they knew who they were.)
I love these Arnold Frieberg paintings too. But I especially love seeing my boys with their heroes.

I'm always amazed how huge this mural is of Christ visiting the people in the ancient Americas. Massive.
Here's looking down at the fountain from three stories up. (I used to laugh at my mom when she would hate us getting close to balconies. Now I totally get it. I almost threw-up just taking this picture. I am getting way more scared in my old age.)

Spencer with Spencer Kimball

At the end of the tour we got to visit the roof. The kids loved fountains and gardens on the roof. Also the view of the Salt Lake Temple. For some reason I didn't get a picture of all the flowers and trees up there. I love that. It's so pretty, but also camouflages the vastness of this huge building and keeps it from looking like a massive sports arena, even though it's the same size.

A really fun outing! The kids were so good and we had a fun, special time together. It also kind of amazes me that we went with no stroller and and no diaper bag. Wow. We really are heading into a new stage of life!

A recent favorite photo

The End of School

I am pretty sure this year was one of the best years of my life. So many exciting things happened this year(a few of them can be found in both recent and old posts.) I miss my class so much! I just wish I could rewind this year and do it all over again. But I guess I would get tired of it. To all the people in my class; thank you so much a wonderful year(even though you will probably never read this.)

One of those days

Spencer has been taking a gymnastics class this winter and his final performance coincided with the last day of school for the girls, which made it a hectic, but fun morning.
Since his birth Spencer continues to be a freak of nature. Considering his parents' gene pool (no offense to all of you relatives out there) we're not sure where it comes from. Spencer has some serious muscles and is an athletic kid. His teachers were amazed by him - he was far beyond all the kids in his class, and this was only his first time taking a gymnastics class.

It was really fun watching him!

While we were at the Little Gym, David ran up to me in the middle of the routines saying he needed to go to the potty. So we HURRIED, got him on the potty just in time, but not pointed in the right direction and my leg and the floor took the full force of his urgent need to go, until I got him aiming down. (We have since been practicing going standing up and he likes to aim his 'little hose' [greatest euphemism ever, thanks to cousin Mary] to spray the water.)

Following the gymnastics showcase we needed to go to Target. It was right across the street from the gymnastics and I wasn't about to drive all the way home to change and haul everyone back. This was my first time this summer (and hopefully a rare experience) taking all 4 kids to the grocery store at the same time, but we needed new summer shoes for the oldest of each gender, so I figured I would just grit my teeth and get it over with.

So there I was, with my fire-hydrant pant leg, trying to help my kids pick out decent shoes. (Can I just say here that Target let me down for the first time in 10 years? Not a great girl selection in shoes this spring.) While we're looking for the right sizes, the child who doesn't need shoes (Emma) is happily walking around in turquoise patent-leather gladiator sandals, the boys are not going for the generic shoes but begging for the light-up Spiderman sneakers ("because they make me run REALLY fast, mom!") and I'm trying to swallow the fact that Catherine has really grown 2 shoe sizes since we last bought her shoes.

Then while we pick-up the necessary groceries Spencer keeps asking why we aren't buying "the super-absorbent Ultra Charmin" or the Juicy Juice with antioxidants "because this will boost kids' immunity mom!" And I'm feeling the guilt of letting him watch just a little too much television over the past few days.

Finally we get home after a super busy morning, get everyone fed, my pants changed, David down for a nap, the older ones playing with the pre-arranged post-last-day-of-school playdates and I'm ready to sit down and sew or something. Then I look outside and see Emma wearing the turquoise gladiator sandals! My first thought is that she somehow smuggled them out under her shirt and I have a thief on my hands. When I ask her about it she timidly says, "I just put them in the bottom of the cart."

Well, I've had plenty of times where my sneaky children put stuff in the cart, and because I'm a sneaky mom I always find it and stealthily hand it to the cashier saying "We aren't really getting this Transformer today." This was the first time I actually bought something I didn't know was there! I allowed her to keep the sandals (partly because the tags were cut) because she always gets the hand-me-downs, but I told her if she ever does it again, she's paying it ALL out of her allowance.
Clearly I need to find some other way to do my grocery shopping this summer with out bringing everyone with me. Last summer I got to the point where I kept pulling food out of our food storage before I finally had to cave and go to the grocery store.

End of School Festivities

Some end of the school year pictures. Our kids had such wonderful teachers this year. I continue to be amazed and I got quite teary thanking them and telling them good-bye. Catherine's teacher was expecting a baby towards the end of May, so she finished the year at the beginning of May, hoping to have the baby soon and be able to come to the last day of school. Turns out she had the baby late and was only being discharged from the hospital during the last day of school. Too bad.
The class had a baby shower for Mrs Merryweather and Catherine really wanted to make a quilt for her teacher. And she did it! She picked out the fabric and sewed the stripes together. I added the borders to square things up a little and a friend that I work with quilted it for us. It turned out very cute. Good job Catherine! Mrs Merryweather was a super-special teacher and we are excited for her to have her own new little pupil.
Emma's awesome teacher was Mr. Backman. He was super. Emma LOVED his class this year. He video-taped the kids throughout the year and gave them a class DVD on the last day of school. I think that DVD has already been viewed about 93 times.

Emma loved to tell us the sagas of the fish hatching in her class.

And Spencer graduated from preschool! (My boy is off to Kindergarten!) He went to a little neighborhood preschool and had so much fun with his friends. He really had a ball and such cute little friends. We'll miss them next year!

And here is some footage of the elementary school dance festival. The theme was dances around the world. The second grade did a medly of American dances that was so stinkin' cute. (I only got a small clip here with the digital camera at the same time that I videoed the whole thing with the video camera -an incredible mom-feat. Emma is in the middle of the screen wearing the red dress with the dark read waist band.)

The Fourth grade did a cool african dance, wearing tribal masks they'd made. Alex Boye came and sang the opening chant from the Lion King for them. Pretty snazzy.
(and my mask kept falling off. -C.)

Memorial Day Hike with the Sorensons

On Memorial Day we had GREAT morning hike with our cousins, the Sorensons. We met at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon.
Our kids were so excited for this hike. All three of the older kids each conscientiously packed back packs with snacks, water bottles, and foam swords. (I didn't discover the sword until we were actually on the hike. Always be prepared, you know.)

Our hike ended at a beautiful reservoir. I LOVE Utah in May. The mountains are so green with snow-capped tips. Gorgeous. And we had great weather too. Not too hot.
The kids thoroughly enjoyed eating their prepared snacks at the reservoir. Poor Madeleine fell and scraped her knee (i think?) and all three of our older kids excitedly ran to their backpacks and pulled out band aids. I didn't know they had brought those either! It's so nice to know that I'll have such well prepared people to take care of me in my old age.

Catherine and Madeleine.

David was a trooper. Kind of grumpy by the end and taking turns riding on mom or dad's backs, but he did it. And he wore his hat the whole time. Good boy.

Beth and Emma

Yea! Hopefully only the first of many happy family hikes.