Family Fun

November 11 2016

Science Museum

The next day of our vacation we were on our own because my parents were busy with a zone conference all day. We decided to check out a kids’ science museum in San Diego.

The kids spotted the Lego area right off the bat and could have spent the entire day in that one spot:

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After making Lego creations the kids had fun exploring the rest of the museum:

We made an arch:

Then we removed the keystone:

We left the museum and saw Santa:

After the museum we drove closer to an aircraft carrier that we had seen from a distance:

We also stopped by La Jolla beach to see the sea lions:

November 8 2016

Over fall break we decided it was time to take a vacation and see what my parents are up to on their mission in Carlsbad. We left on Saturday morning and drove all day. Thanks to the youngest Golden in the bunch, we visited more gas station bathrooms on the way than I had hoped to see in my entire lifetime. For the first half of the trip the longest stretch of driving we did was 45 minutes before Madison needed a pit stop. We thought we would never make it.

Our steady though slow progress finally got us to California. I’ve realized that I reeeeeeally hate making stops on road trips because I just want to get to my destination. I am my father’s daughter. Dallas is not my father’s son (which, considering our marital status, is a very good thing), and he likes to stop whenever he sees the smallest hint of something new and different to experience. The “Welcome to California” sign qualified as something worthy of a stop and a “family” photo:

Me (as Dallas is pulling the car over): “Do we have to do this?”

Dallas: “Why not? Let’s get a picture!”

Me: *grumble, grumble* “What are you doing with your finger?” *grumble, grumble*

Dallas: *snaps picture, shows me*

Me (loving the picture against my will): “Dang. That’s probably going to end up being my favorite picture of the trip.”

We were SO CLOSE to my parents’ house when we heard for the grillionth time, “I need to go potty!” These were the bathrooms our chosen gas station had to offer us:

Finally we made it! My parents were away at a stake conference adult session, so we gave ourselves a tour of the house, set the kids up in the bedroom, and unpacked a little. Spencer and Madison shared a room. This is how I found Spencer after he had fallen asleep:

Madison still sleeps in a crib at home, and this was her first time in a real bed. I suspected she might have issues staying in her bed, so I had moved the mattress to the floor to make her inevitable falls off less dangerous. Good thing:

My parents came home and we had a nice little chat with them before bed. The next day was Sunday. We accompanied my parents to the stake conference they were attending. As we were driving I realized we had brought nothing with us to keep the kids busy during church…and we were doubly doomed because since it was stake conference we’d have to keep the kids reverent for two hours instead of just one. It got a little hairy at times, but we were able to survive both hours. Elder Klebingat was the visiting authority and he called on my Mom to speak. I enjoyed hearing her message and testimony so it made the children wrangling worth it.

After church we had dinner and the kids snuggled up to Grandpa to watch a movie:

The next day was P-day, so my parents were able to cast aside their missionary name tags, don civilian clothes, and accompany us to the San Diego zoo. Did I just give you the impression that my parents were able to relax with us and not think about their job as mission president and wife? If so, think again. This was my Dad for much of the day:

You can take the tag off the mission president, but tag or no tag, he’s still it. There was really no resting or relaxing for him. There was always a phone call to answer, a text to read, a message to listen to, or a missionary needing medical advice. Their life is crazy.

Another family picture, this time with my parents:

We had a fun time seeing all the animals, playing on the structures, and climbing on the statues.

Madison: “Picture me, Mom!”

Again…

And again…

And one more…

The hippo was very active and fun to watch:

The gorillas were also fascinating to watch. So humanlike and yet so not.

Me: “I’m loving all these finger shots, but we would probably be sad if we went the whole trip without your face actually being in any pictures.”

Thank you random stranger for giving us photographic evidence of the rest of Dallas:

September 9 2016

Summer Catch Up

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School has started which means I’m going to do in one blog post that which I should have been doing all summer which is telling you all about what we did. Get ready. We’re just going for it – I’m not breaking this into small doses.

We went to Rocky Mountain Raceways to see the oval track races. Once again we had the time of our lives. Madison loved seeing Rockette, the girl mascot greeting people…

…Until Rockette tried to hold her.

That did not go over well. Madison watched her like a hawk the rest of the night and whimpered anytime she felt Rockette was about to violate her personal space again.

Brooke got bored at the racetrack and found entertainment in taking selfies:

For her birthday we enrolled Brooke in an art class. This was a picture she drew in her sketch pad. She was pretty proud of that curled tail:

Brooke made a car out of wood chips. The car even had a trunk that could open:

We played at a ton of parks:

The three big kids took swimming lessons. Caroline got over her fear of the diving board:

Spencer (somewhat) got over his fear of being in new situations with people he doesn’t know while waist high in water:

We went to Lagoon:

This cracked me up. Madison was just flirting with my camera phone taking picture after picture as we waited for that Chinese dragon ride to start.

And this is what she looked like at the end of that ride. It went a bit faster than she was ready for:

On the log ride. Spencer had just noticed the drop we were about to go down:

Caroline’s dream came true and she got to take more gymnastics classes:

Some friends had all the neighborhood kids over on the last day of school for a water party:

We went to the air show. It was hot and crowded and we had to walk almost three miles just to get in, and it was hot and crowded and the kids were bugging each other the whole time and it was hot and crowded and ugh. I pretty much hated it which made me sad because it’s actually really fun when it’s not so blasted hot.

Brooke and Caroline had birthdays! Brooke turned 9:

Caroline is now 7. I can’t figure out where her picture is of her standing next to her sevens. Mom fail. 🙁

Caroline wanted an Olaf cake:

Brooke wanted Congo bars. She was feeling a little sick so we just stuck all her candles in her own personal bar:

We went to Seven Peaks a lot:

We went on hikes:

We went camping:

Spencer loves a good ghost story:

Brooke loves to be the one frightening everyone:

Brooke engineered a way to roast her marshmallow without needing to hold her stick:

More swimming lesson pictures:

We went to children’s museums:

We went to the Founder’s Day celebration in Fruit Heights. We just happened to be playing at the castle park there the day before the celebration and met the people who were in charge. They invited us to come and said there’d be free root beer and free popcorn and free popsicles and free bounce houses and free train rides and free prizes. My kids could not contain their disbelief and excitement that all that could be theirs for free, so the next day we went back to party. It was fun.

Free balloon animals:

Brooke made some “grasses” as she waited in line:

Free train barrel ride:

We went to the library a bunch:

Dallas went backpacking for a week with his friend:

And he got this close to a bear. Eeeek!

We went over to my aunt’s house a couple of times and played with her chickens and ate her delicious food:

Brooke tied water balloons together to make a huge balloon mass:

Madison is working on climbing the baby tree in our front yard:

The kids have made countless things from Legos:

And with that, you’ve made it to the end!

September 4 2016

On a Mission

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A year ago we found out my parents would be serving as mission president and wife and would leave this past June. They were assigned to serve in the California Carlsbad mission.

While I have been in mourning that they wouldn’t be around for the next three years, the mission call did come with some perks. We were able to go with them when they were set apart by Elder Andersen and Elder Christensen. We gathered in the room where the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve have their meetings:

It was really inspiring to watch my parents prepare so intensely for this service. I had no idea how much preparation mission presidents and wives do before their missions, but the answer is A LOT. Exclamation point. Exclamation point.

All of my siblings and their families were able to come and spend time together before my parents left. We snapped some family and sibling pictures before everyone again scattered themselves across the country:

We had fun with the whole family in town doing a lot of “lasts” with my parents. We had a big family dinner:

We had a final Golden Corral experience:

My parents took us to Texas Roadhouse one last time and the girls got to sit in the saddle to celebrate their birthdays:

My kids had Grandpa give them airplane rides to our car one last time:

While Laurie and her kids were still here we had even more fun at the Discovery Gateway museum:

We took the Texans to the mountains for a good ol’ Utah cookout:

Brooke was pretty proud of this slime ball she made:

We also hit up our neighborhood splash pad:

And just like that my parents have already been out on their mission for over 2 months! Just 34 to go!

July 31 2016

Fairy Forest Fun

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A few weeks ago our friends asked if we had any plans for the day. Our answer was no, so they invited us to meet them at the Fairy Forest in Kamas. It was magical!