traveling around the world

This year at school, Ben's class has been learning about the different continents, and for the past few weeks they have been studying Europe. They asked for parent volunteers to come in and talk about places they have visited or lived, so I went in one day to talk about Russia. I went to Voronezh, Russia from January to June of 1994 to teach English to pre-school children (4-6 year-olds), and it was a blast! I love that it's given me many opportunities to go into the boys classes and talk about living there. I had lots of cool props like several Disney books in Russian; two matrioshka dolls--one with traditional paintings on it, and one of the Utah Jazz (from back in the day with Karl Malone, John Stockton, Jeff Hornacek, etc.); I had Russian rubles, their form of money; and many other things, including this beautiful teapot that my Russian family gave me when I left--I keep it on our stovetop as a decoration. Ben was so excited for me to come in, and he got to stand next to me and help me out by showing pictures, holding up props, etc. The next day all the kids wrote me thank you notes for coming in, and I wanted to include a couple of them in this blog. Can you guess which of the two below are from Ben?! (He still can't get enough of Spiderwick!!)

Then last week Ben talked Daren into coming in to talk about Austria, where he went on a mission from '90-'92. Daren didn't have quite as many props to show the kids as I did, but he won them over with his stories about the bone rooms at the cemeteries and by bringing in Lindt's chocolate truffles. Stories of bones and chocolate--it doesn't get much better than that!! These are a couple of their thank you's:

I love being involved when I can in the boy's classrooms, and they love it too.

On another note, I wanted to post this, which I copied from Alisha's blog: One of our favorite places, which you will know if you've followed this blog, is Pirate's Cove in Las Vegas. Some of Alisha's and Jed's good friends started a show called Nitro Circus, which plays on MTV, and this week they showed their visit to Pirate's Cove. They are replaying it all week on MTV, so try to catch it if you can. *warning: the guys are CRAZY...don't try their stunts at home!* **warning II: can cause serious side-aches from too much laughter!!**

This is an aerial view of Pirate's Cove, which I, again, copied from Alisha's blog--thanks!

garbage man and a giant of a man

Jake has always been such a good helper in our family! This morning he was the first one to clean up his room, make his bed, vacuum his floor, and just for fun he helped me sort the laundry, which he called his "piles of garbage." I guess that makes him the garbage man! I guess I need to start checking pockets and pajamas of boys because recently we've had a hot pink crayon go through the wash and dryer full of jeans (nice!) and a pull-up go through the wash--what a mess!

**On another note, Larry H. Miller passed away yesterday, and although I don't personally know him, I know some of his family and I'm sure this has to be a hard time for them. What he has done for the state of Utah over the past 20+ years has been remarkable, and I just wanted to say to him and his family THANK YOU! Just after I turned 16 (1986) I went on a date to the Salt Palace to watch the Jazz play the Chicago Bulls and a very young Michael Jordan--this is the year Larry outright bought the Jazz and kept them here in Utah. I was there at the Delta Center with Daren for both Jazz playoff runs to the NBA finals agains the Bulls in '97 and '98, and we were there when MJ, who had been sick all day, took "the shot" over Brian Russell to beat the Jazz in what many of us thought should have been the Jazz's year to win. Plus, however many other games, concerts, special events, etc. have been held there. Without Larry Miller, the Jazz would have been gone, and none of these other things would have happened.

Larry has also built numerous other facilities around the state, but our favorites have to be his movie theaters. After traveling around the country last summer, I can say that there are no other theaters around anywhere like his. The reserved seating is the best thing to EVER happen to make your movie going experience so much better. I could go on and on about what we love about his theaters, but I won't, and if you've ever been there, you already know.

Last year the Salt Lake Tribute picked Larry H. Miller as the "2008 Utahn of the Year." He is a very generous man who will be greatly missed. I told Ben last night that Liberty's grandpa died, (Ben goes to school with and is good friends with her), and since then Ben has remembered to bless Liberty and her family "to be happy" in his prayers. Bless you Larry Miller and your family!

happy b-day!!!

Not only do I look forward to Daren's birthday each year to celebrate the coolest guy/husband/dad/friend, but also so I don't have to hear (for 6 weeks, to be exact) what a fogie I am because for that short time I am "2 years" older than him; although he wasn't too bad about it this year. It's a crazy time for a few days in February ("the month of the heroes" according to Daren) because of Valentines Day on the 14th, and what used to be Gpa Waterwheel's b-day on the 15th, and then Daren's b-day on the 16th. Whew!
Daren worked at the fire station on Valentine's Day and he's working today, so we celebrated Valentines on Wednesday by going out to dinner (crab fest at Market Street Grill--yum-o!) and to the Utah v. San Deigo State U. basketball game after (Utah won and is now in sole posession of 1st place in the conference). Then we celebrated his birthday yesterday with one of his favorite breakfasts, cheese blintzes, and later we had dinner at his parents house.

Now I have to say that when it comes to presents, I like to find something that has meaning and that is also pretty cool, but I have to say, in my humble opinion, that this one has to be up there with one of the coolest presents EVER!

I saw this map of Route 66 in a museum in Hesperia, California, while we were on our trip last summer. I was able to buy one of them and had my brother, Darren, frame it for me--it's beautiful, thanks D! To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the opening of Route 66, this guy, Ken Trumel, traveled all 2,448 miles getting postmarks and other stamps and signatures of significant meaning along the way (this was in 1995-96 that he made the journey). Then he made only 2,448 copies, one for each mile, never to be reprinted again-we have #1126. Some of the post offices have closed since then, so this really is a one-of-a-kind print. It's fun to look at it and remember some of the places we went, and it's great to have a beautiful reminder of such a fun trip!!

I love you heed!!! Happy Birthday!

real love

May all your days be filled with real love!

...and as Will likes to say, "Happy Balentine's Day!!"

goodbye robyn

Today was the funeral for my friend, neighbor, and fellow worker in young women's, Robyn Johnson. She has battled breast cancer off and on for 13 years--she was an amazing and strong-willed woman and was such a fighter until her body literally wore out last week. She leaves behind her husband, Dave, and son, Davis (17 years old). This past mother's day, Davis spoke at church, and read this poem he wrote for his mom, and he read it again at her funeral today, and it was so sweet I had to include it. Thanks for your inspiration Robyn--we'll all miss you!

draper temple

Yesterday we had tickets to the open house at the new temple in Draper. We can see the temple from our house, so we've been watching it as it has been built over the past couple of years. The boys were way excited to go--especially Ben since he got out of school early!

It's absolutely gorgeous inside the temple, and it was fun to take the boys through and explain a few things. Daren had Will with him, and every picture they saw Daren would ask Will, "Who is that?" "Jesus Christ." "Who's that?" "Jesus Christ." And on and on. Finally Will said, "Hey, that's my Jesus Christ." It was too cute, and too true!

questions

I was just thinking about how many questions we, as parents, are asked on a weekly/daily/hourly basis? I kept track of some of them this week, and here are the best of them:

Conversation in car on the way home from school with Ben

Mom: Who did you eat lunch with today?

Ben: Sophia and Hughie

Mom: Do you ever talk to Bella anymore?

Ben: Mmmm...sometimes. We only have one marriage left before she dumps me--at least that's what she said. *asks so innocently* Mom, what does dump mean?

Conversation at home with Ben

Ben: Mom, do I have to keep my last name when I get older?

Mom: Why? Don't you like your last name?

Ben: I do, but I want to change my last name to Spiderwick and then name one of my boys Arthur. Don't you think that would be cool?! *again, asked so innocently*

Jake and Jaycie playing in the front room

both: Hey, will you take pictures of us with our "power" stuff on?!?!

standing in parking lot at Soldier Hollow to go tubing (forgot camera)

Ben and Jake: Mom, where are our coats? (whoops, forgot those...and Will's snow boots! But it was a beautiful day, so luckily they survived!!)

tv

What's better than the new season of shows starting in the fall? The new shows starting in January!! These are our favorites! What's yours?

Why are there so many, songs about rainbows; and what's on the other side?

(I couldn't resist these pictures I took as I left Kaysville today. They have the most beautiful sunsets up there)

ciera's baptism

This is our niece/cousin Ciera, daughter of my sister, Brenda. She was born three months before Ben, so they have grown up together--at least whenever they get to see each other since we live 45 minutes away from them. She just turned 8 years old and last week was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It's amazing how fast time goes!!

It was a great night--Grandpa and Grandma Airplane flew up from California for the occassion. Grandma Airplane gave a talk on baptism, and Brenda gave an amazing talk on the Holy Ghost. I just sat there in awe of the way she spoke, thinking, "Is this really the same sister I've always had?" Well, no--it isn't. She has been through plenty of trials in her life, and to see where she is now is truly a miracle. Brenda is very tender-hearted, and it showed in her talk. It was cute to watch Ben during the whole program because he was really trying to take it all in, I think because he knows his 8th birthday is coming up soon and he will be experiencing the same things. When it was time to go home, we discovered that Will's "Indy's Father's" hat was missing. I was completely frustrated at that point, when Brenda, the tender-hearted one, suggested we say a prayer. I'll let Ben tell you what happened in his own words:

One night at my cousin's baptism, we had fun watching her getting baptized. When it was time to go, I noticed that one of my favorite hats was missing. My brother had brought it to the baptism with him. We tried looking all over the church, but couldn't find it anywhere. My aunt Brenda had a suggestion to say a prayer to Heavenly Father. I had faith that Heavenly Father would help me. And it actually worked!! Brenda got an idea to look by the piano in the room, and then I remembered that I put it down on the seat of the piano. I ran to the room where we sat for the baptism and looked at the piano, and sure enough we saw it. I was overjoyed when I saw it. And then we said another prayer for thanks. I felt happy that Heavenly Father answered my prayer so quickly.

Ben has really gotten into reading the children's publication that the Church puts out called the "Friend" magazine. He had been reading some of the stories earlier, and so when this happened, Ben mentioned in the car on the way home that he wanted to write this story down and send it to the Friend magazine. I don't know if it will ever get published, but it was so sweet that I had to include it here. Ben didn't mention what a cute prayer he said. It was so heart-felt and sincere, and when he asked Heavenly Father to please help us find the hat because it was "Will's most loving hat," it was all we could do not to burst out. He really prayed with great faith, and it was amazing that within seconds of the prayer being over Brenda thought of the piano (where we had been not long before that looking for the hat). It showed all of us that faith can go a long way.

Well, Grandpa and Grandma did come to stay with us on Saturday and left Sunday after church to go home. The boys had a blast with them, of course. They played a lot in the front room with the elaborate train tracks we had set up, and we went to see Marley and Me at the movie theater.

In the end it wasn't as hard to say goodbye to Gpa and Gma because we will be in California in a month to see them--and we can't wait! What a fun weekend!!

if i'd only known

If I'd only known that the nintendo ds Santa brought Ben for Christmas was going to cause so much trouble around here, Santa might have had second thoughts about it!! I mean...we might have sent a different wish list to Santa...one with other options! Geesh, you should see the way the twins freak out over this thing, especially since I have to limit their time on it. Ben has been so patient, for the most part, throughtout this trying time. His answer to it all is, "Mom, their birthday is coming up. Maybe they can each get one." Hmmm, he might be on to something!!

If I'd only known what that noise was coming from the kitchen one day last week! I was frantically trying to get a blanket done for my niece's birthday, so I was slaving away in my office when I heard little noises from time to time in the kitchen. The boys were watching Scooby Doo, so I didn't worry much about it. When I emerged from my room, this is what I discovered--pineapples everywhere! I think they found every pineapple cup in the house, and had managed to chow down every single one, except for the few on the floor, which they may have polished off if I'd given them enough time!!

They were, of course, completely oblivious to any sticky mess they had made, and were simply content to be watching their show.