A Few Things

WARNING! RANDOM MCRANDOMNESS AHEAD!

1. Pride and Prejudice:

A couple weeks ago, I saw that Pride and Prejudice was on Amazon Prime, and I started watching it with Nils beside me, thinking he would scoff, mock, and sigh heavily. Well. Not only did he watch 2 hours of it with me that night, but he claimed to like it. The next night, I asked him if he wanted to go on a walk with me (one of our favorite activities), and he said, "I think I'd rather watch Pride and Prejudice." 

Wait...what? To my utter delight, we shared in the wonder that is 6 hours of Pride and Prejudice. I've watched it many times in the past, and it makes my heart happy that we now can shush ourselves together, as Mr. Collins does.  

2. What do you do with an Etch A Sketch?

Sometimes I make an outline of the screen. Sometimes, if I'm feeling really fancy, I make stairs.

This is what Nils does with an Etch A Sketch:

There's gotta be a way he can make money off of this talent.

3. THE YAAAAAAAAARRRRRDDD!!

I now understand what it means to toil, because toil we have. This yard has consumed our existence. The sprinklers took weeks and weeks of digging, gluing, twisting, fitting, never ending tedium, and countless trips to the sprinkler supply store. We can't believe how much work it was. It kept raining and really messing up our plans. Once they were done, it was filling in those precious trenches that we tried so hard to protect, and re-dug after all the rain had filled them back in; cleaning up the street and the side walks, picking rocks, pulling weeds, and leveling. So. Much. Shoveling.

Once we got the yard leveled, we cried out of joy and then said, "All that work, just to have it look like it did when we moved in."

Anyway, here it is (as of two weeks ago), freshly hydroseeded, in all its painted geen glory.

DO YOU SEE THE LITTLE BABY GRASS? We love our little baby grass so much that it's starting to get weird. This picture is from a week ago, and every day we marvel at how much it's grown and changed. Sigh.

4. Fun with cousins:

Lotsa cousin time in the last couple of weeks.

Memorial Day at my Dad's gravesite. Heaven forbid we should be reverent.

Celebrating my mom's retirement with Diet Coke and Mento Fountains.

Took the children on a trip to Richfield to see the Fremont Indian State Park. It's actually pretty cool, but Richfield is a lot farther away then I thought it was. Like, A LOT farther. Here they are in a Pit House. Goooood times.

Having a moment inside the teepee... Hope and Stockton were acting like Indians, and Haylee and Oakley couldn't be torn away from their phones. Hilarious. They were all good sports.

I have a friend from Richfield who said that the only thing worth doing there was going to the Ideal Dairy and getting a slush with ice cream in it.

We also went to Hill Air Force Base with the cousins. I usually take the kids up there once a year with my mom, and they always, always sit on this little merry go round and we take a picture. It's the little things, folks.

Preschool Graduation

Ava graduated from preschool, and boy is she ready for kindergarten! She's had the unique and wonderful (haha) experience of being home alone with me all day, minus preschool, for the last two years, and I think she's had enough of that nonsense. This kid's ready to take on the world.

Preschool was super this year. We had a great group of moms who were all reliable and fun. More than half of us moved at some point in the year, but we all stayed in Saratoga Springs and just had to drive a bit more than normal. I'm thankful that they stuck with me, even though I moved the farthest! Ava loved it!

Ava and bestie Cora

April Adventures

We took one last trip to Logandale, NV for Spring Break. Nils' parents are moving to South Jordan in a couple of weeks! 

We were lucky enough to go at the same time that the Clark County Fair was happening, just up the street from their house in Logandale. It's really the only thing that happens in Logandale. Ever. No offense, Logandale. 

We went to Vegas on one of the days. We keep thinking Vegas is going to be fun, and it never is. It's just gross and gambley and makes us feel violated. Take, for instance, this extremely realistic Elmo and Optimus Prime. Elmo, in his gruff, manly voice, said to Nils, "Hey bro, we work for tips, alright?" Thanks, Elmo, you're really not helping. 

Addie was also puking the entire time we were there. She carried around a barf bag that we named "Barfy" and was completely miserable. So that put a damper on things. Anyway, if anyone has any tips on how to make Las Vegas actually fun, we're all ears. Even though we'll probably never go there again, due to the in-laws moving north. 

But the fair was fun! We really will miss Logandale. We've always appreciated going down there in the dead of winter and getting an early taste of spring, and it's fun going to Nana and GrandPar's house.

(Thanks, GrandPar, for the pics.)

Nils and I watched the movie "Interstellar", and then the next day we had this crazy dust storm. It really didn't help me feel comfortable about things. Our trampoline blew away and ended up at the top of the mountain behind us, completely destroyed. We were just thankful it didn't kill anyone.

Nils was in San Francisco for our 15th anniversary, so I took the kids out to dinner and ice cream. I made them pose in order to get ice cream.

When he returned, Nils' mom was nice enough to watch the kids for the weekend so we could have a little getaway. We went to the Homestead in Midway. It was delightful. We did whatever the heck we wanted with no one hassling us. We ate ice cream, watched movies, took a nap, shopped in Park City, went out to dinner... and then...

...we rode the Heber Creeper. *Shudder* I remember taking a ride on this train when I was a young child, and remember it being pretty excruciatingly boring. I did try to convey this memory to Nils, but he really wanted to ride a train.

Life Tip: If something is excruciating as a child, it's only going to be worse as an adult. Add the Heber Creeper to my list of "What it Might be Like in Hell".

It maxes out at 11 miles an hour, but goes 8 mph most of the time. They also make 2 very unnecessary, overly long stops. There are not enough seats, and the seats they do have were made for pioneer-folk, not the ginormous Americans of today. Thus, we were forced to sit across from another couple and share 6 inches of leg room. Please observe photo below:

Green pants is the strange dude that Nils got to share crotch space with, and the lady across from me covered herself with her coat as much as possible to keep the awkwardness at a minimum. It really was horrible. Just... if you're considering riding the Heber Creeper... no.

 2 hours of our lives that we'll never get back. But the rest of the weekend was marvelous. 15 years!

March Happenings

Ah, March. You went so quickly.

We took our first family bike ride since the move. Ava scared the crap out of us the whole time, since she's pretty new to riding a big kid bike all by herself. She kept braking suddenly and swerving wildly like a drunk person. We had to cross Redwood Road (main corridor in town) and we really thought she was going to get killed there for a second. Nils and I were both pretty shaken up after we got home. We gotta figure out a different route until she's bigger and stops acting intoxicated. Heh-heh.

There was an Activity Days spa night, and I took all three girls since Nils had to work late. Aani did everything, including the mask and cucumber eyes. She's pretty cute.

U.S. Lego exhibit at Fashion Place Mall. This was a fun night out for the fam. Who doesn't love Legos? The kids have quiet time every night for about a half hour after we do the bedtime routine. Lots of times they'll all play with Legos together. Love it. 

Anders got his "kindergarten shots", as I have lovingly referred to them to make them less dreadful. He's all registered for JUNIOR HIGH. I can't handle it. Actually, I can. He's ready, he's got good friends, and I feel pretty good about the whole thing. Ava came to the Dr.'s office to give Anders moral support and offer her expert advice, since she got her actual kindergarten shots about a month ago. She's so excited to go to school and handled her shots like a champ. Anders handled his like a champ, too, since I bribed him with Wendy's afterward. 

We're making a little progress on the yard. The topsoil was spread out and we paid our friend come over and till it with his tractor. It's good to have friends with tractors. 

Last week we had a guy come over and trench for sprinklers. We've got the sprinkler supplies and are hoping to have those assembled and done this week. After those are in, it's curbing and Hydroseeding. Can't. Wait. For. Graaass!

We've learned once again that KSL Classifieds are amazing, and hiring people to spread the soil and do the trenching is well worth it and not much more than renting the equipment to do it yourself. Sprinklers, on the other hand, are RIDONKULOUS! We got some quotes on those and they were all kinds of crazy. Fortunately, NilsyNils and some neighborhood kids got it covered. Turns out that neighborhood kids (teenagers who want money) are a valuable asset in this yard business. Awesome sauce.

Last but not least, I got some onion cutting goggles. No more will I be blinded  and have tears stream down my face while I chop onions! Desperate times, my friends. 

My coolness just keeps increasing.

Math is hard

Thanks to the interwebs, I learned that pi day is tomorrow. I mentioned it to "The Husband" (I have him listed as such in my contacts so that if I get in an accident and the officials are looking in my phone wondering who to call, it's made clear for them. Aren't I considerate? And so good at planning ahead for my demise?), and we had the following convo. 

So yeah, tomorrow we shall eat pie. And maybe we'll go ahead and have it on the 21st, too...just for kicks n' giggles. We're a special pair.

We Burn Things Sometimes

There's a pretty big hill (mountain?) in back of our house, and Aani has been wanting to hike to the top since we moved in. Since we had virtually no winter in January and February, we took advantage of one of the freakishly warm afternoons and hiked to the top after school.

It started out with Aani, Ava and me, since Anders and Addie had chess club (nerds) that day after school. We got a ways up and waited until we could see them walking home from school. Then we yelled as loud as we could to get their attention. They made their way up, and we all got to the very top together. On the way, we saw some jackrabbits and a BALD EAGLE! WHAT? Pretty fun!

Ava looks waaaaay too old in this picture. 

What a view! Saratoga Springs...I love you.

Our house is at the bottom of the street, on the right, all by its lonesome. C'mon, neighbors!

Addie, contemplating life in the cave at the top of the mountain. 

In other fun adventures... our yard. It's large and in charge, and the prospect of putting it together has been stressing me out. On President's Day, we worked for a few hours getting all the huge tumbleweeds dug out of the ground, and we were left with this massive pile. We didn't know how to dispose of it.

So we decided to burn it. I texted my firefighter brother to see if we would get arrested for having a bonfire without a permit, and he suggested we go for it, and plead ignorace if the FD showed up. That made us happy.

SAFETY FIRST! Blow torch and fire extinguisher working together for the good of mankind.

Uhhuhuhuhuhuhhhh....FIRE! FIRE!

This is our huge side yard. Our backyard is mostly a slope. We have a decent amount of flatness in the back, but this side yard is ginormous and a little intimidating.

What to do with this yard? We had about 62 tons of topsoil delivered this week. Apparently the soil here in the 'toga NO ES BUENO, so we gotsta till the earth and all that. Humph. As luck would have it, it started snowing the day they delivered said 62 tons of topsoil, so they couldn't spread it out. Thus, we have a mountain of topsoil in the middle of the road in front of our house until it stops snowing. Hooray for no neighbors to hate us! 

We're feeling a little more settled here, and feel like we know a few people and are getting our bearings around the neighborhood. Last Sunday, I noticed as we walked into sacrament meeting that it didn't feel like we were in a sea of strangers anymore, so that's good. There are lots of very nice people, and I'm trying hard to have my filter turned on so I don't scare them away. Hehehe. 

Christmas, Birthdays, Ukulele & Other Delights

Christmas:

Apparently, the children have always wanted to just wake up and tear into their presents on Christmas morning, rather than going through the torture of opening them one at a time so we can admire each gift. We gave in this year and let them go to town. It was over in 5 minutes and very anti-climactic, so I hope those young whipper-snappers learned their lesson!

We saw Big Hero 6 on Christmas with some gift cards Nils got from work, which was awesome. We got concessions for free, which was also awesome (we never get food at the movies...we are smugglers). THEN, we had to wait for about a half hour longer than scheduled because the projector was broken, so the theater gave us free passes to another movie. WHAT?? 2 expensive movies for free? Amaze-balls! 

Birthday Mania:

You know what January means! BIRTHDAY, BIRTHDAY, BIRTHDAY! It's the on year for birthday parties. Anders turned 12 and invited 12 people to his party. One of his friends brought an Xbox, and we linked our Xbox to that one. We had two TV's set up, and those boys couldn't handle how amazing it was. Anders loved it. Success.

Addie had her besties from school over to celebrate her decade of life. There were Shrinky Dinks, Apples to Apples, constant giggling, and let's not forget the sock puppets Addie made for party favors...out of her old socks. We weren't sure how to handle that one, but she was so gosh darn sincere about it. She's a funny one.

For my birthday, I made Nils and the kids stay home from work and school so that we could have a family fun day. I thought I was being smart by going to places during school hours, thinking they would be less crowded. Turns out those places are still child-ridden during the day due to FIELD TRIPS. Gah! The Museum of Curiosity was so crowded, you'da thought it was opening day. Oh well. Then we saw a crappy movie with our free movie passes. Oh well. Next year the kids will go to school. 

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!

Cuties

Ukulele:

Anders got a ukulele and guitar for his birthday. He got his iPod touch taken away forever (and ever), so he's got all kinds of time on his hands to learn instruments. We love it. He played his ukulele for his class talent show, and advanced to play for the whole 6th grade. We love our kid a lot more when he plays the ukulele instead of Clash of Clans. Amen.

A Deacon??

Anders is a Deacon! He passed the sacrament on Sunday like a boss. He had his first winter campout for Scouts last weekend and hated it, but claims that everyone else hated it, too. He's now in Young Mens, has mutual every week, has the Aaronic Priesthood and passes the sacrament. My witto baby boy!