Dinosaur Museum

I conquered my fear of driving in Lehi and took my boys to Thanksgiving Point for their $2 Tuesday special. We made it to the Dinosaur Museum which was a thrill for both boys. We have been studying about dinosaurs, so it fit in perfectly with our curriculum. We were there for just one hour, so I was especially glad I didn't have to pay full price. The boys were literally walking as fast as they could through the entire thing. I don't know why they were in such a hurry. The only thing that could have made it better was if Brandon could have been with us. 

Off on a little hike

I had heard there was a fun hike to do that was close to the canyon in Spanish Fork. So, one morning, the boys and I ventured out for a little exploring. It turned out to be a very easy hike to the dripping rocks, but in order to get to the rocks you had to make your way down a pretty steep embankment. Peter refused to do it, and Luke was nervous the whole way down. To make matter worse, there were others people there that had a Labrador dog that was wet, muddy, and jumping all over everybody. Not cool. So, we didn't stay long. Hopefully we'll be able to go again on a day that no dogs are there. Whenever we go out into nature we take along nature journals for the boys. That way they can stop and draw pictures of what they saw. It's fun to see what makes an impression on them.

Floating Stairs

These crazy stairs are in the classroom wing. Brandon calls them Harry Potter stairs so Peter was so excited to see them. Luke and Peter spend a good 10 minutes running up and down them. Due to my extreme fear of heights I stayed as far away from them as I could.

Papa's new office

Last weekend we had a chance to drive up to SLCC and see Brandon's office. He needed to take his mini fridge into the office and the boys and I were excited to see his new area. The Administration building on this campus is HUGE and it's only a few years old. I easily got so turned around. One wing is the administration area, and the other full of classrooms.

It was fun to find out that our home teacher works for the company that did all the fancy curved benches in the building. It is an interesting building because there are no straight hallways. They are all curved. Super strange and it reminded me of a hospital. But whatever. I guess some of the people wanted to get a vending machine for the building, but they can't figure out where to put it because there are no straight walls on which to position it.

I thought Brandon's office at UVU was pretty big, but this space is about twice the size of that one. I'm not a fan of the dark wood, but Brandon is thankful for the small table and lots of chairs so he can hold staff meetings in there. Hopefully, at some point, they will get his name put up on the wall.

For Brandon's birthday we bought him the Dr. Who lego set. Anytime we visit, the boys just sit and play Legos. It's been so much fun for them.

This painting is just not my cup of tea. We'll see if it ends up sticking around. The pen holder below was gifted to Brandon from one of his former employees. It is such a practical memento that was generously given. 

The two windows on the top right are Brandon's. Funny thing - when were were there Luke put his hands on the window when he was watching Daddy and Peter bring in the fridge. I never noticed, but apparently they are quite distinctive and a lot of people have commented on them being there. I guess they don't wash the windows very often in the building so the staff says they will be there at least a year.

I love this quote which is located right by the front entrance to the building. It's such a good thing to remember.

Learning about butterflies

Last week, for our science lesson, we learned about the life cycle of butterflies. I bought a butterfly kit and we will have live caterpillars arriving soon, but in the mean time I thought it would be fun if we could go out and find our own caterpillar eggs. I did a whole lot of research online to find the right habit, and then we ventured out. Luckily there is this spot right by our home that is the perfect "home" for butterflies.

After quite a bit of searching, and destroying some milk weed plants, we finally found two eggs. If everything goes right, they will hatch within a week. We put them in a container with a paper towel and then we have to keep the paper towel moist until they hatch.

 

The boys are pretty excited about having our own butterflies. They even decided to pretend they were hatching out of cocoons.

2016 Raspberry Picking

It is finally raspberry season out here. The boys and I had a very lovely morning recently picking at the McBride farm out in Mapleton. Luke was actually able to pick some this year which made me so happy.  Once he was done picking I handed him the camera until I was finished. These were just a few of the great shots he got.

A picnic with just myself

The boys have been away this weekend on an extended Thomas side camping trip. While they've been gone I've been working on the longest "to do" list ever. One of the things I wanted to do was find a curtain rod, and new curtains for my kitchen area. When we moved in, I didn't want to spend much money, so I bought a cheap rod and used fabric I already had. It has worked for 5 years, but the rod is now bent from the kids pulling on it and the weight of the fabric.

So, yesterday (Saturday), I headed out to find exactly what I wanted. I made a list of 5 stores to visit that I knew would have what I was looking for. I also packed myself a little picnic lunch because I knew I would be close to UVU when lunch time came around. Sure enough, I had just finished looking at the merchandise at Bed,Bath,and Beyond when the noon hour arrived.

I drove the 2 minutes over to UVU and parked by the Computer Science Building. It was a beautiful day, and the temperature in the shade was perfect. In my mansion in heaven I am going to have the same amazing grass and well trimmed trees that UVU does. It was so fantastic to spend a few moments here. I always remember all the memories I've had in this location. I remember in our early years of marriage meeting Brandon in this building as his classes were finishing for the evening. I also remember many friends/study sessions occurring in this building. And, if I remember to my earliest years at UVU, I can remember the gravel parking lot that was located here. It blows my mind to think about how much this campus had change over the last 20 years. My heart is often heavy when I think that Brandon will no longer be involved with the campus. I imagine it will continuing growing and expand as the years pass. Right now, they are focusing on building a new Fine Arts building and a new building for Autistic Studies. They have also approved the plans to build a new warehouse (which will impact the Purchasing Department) out on the Vineyard property.

Even though I am sad, I am also thankful for all the wonderful memories I have of this place. I remember walking around campus sure in the reality that I would never have the chance to be a wife/mother/homeschool teacher - and now I'm living that dream. I really do have so much to be thankful for. 

Temple Trips

This week I attended the temple twice on back-to-back nights. I've never done that before. Our RS planned a night to go on Thursday. We ended up at the Provo Temple. It was very enjoyable to do a session with these great ladies in my ward.

Janelle Christensen, Jenette Houguaard, Me, Marci Smyth

The next evening I traveled down to Payson in a rain storm to attend the temple there. I was hoping/praying to get into the session that my Dad would be helping out in. He was given a new assignment and this was his first night fulfilling it. When I got to the temple HUGE drops of rain were falling. I thought maybe it would pass if I stayed a few minutes in my car, but it never did. I ended up looking like a wet dog with water running down me. It was pretty funny, but so worth it to be in such a beautiful building. As luck would have it, when I walked into the room there was my Dad dressed all in white. It was the most amazing sight ever! It really was like being in heaven. I am so thankful for that tender mercy from Heavenly Father. While we couldn't communicate verbally during the session, we did do a lot of smiling at each other. I am so thankful for such a great example of righteousness.

By the time the session was ended 2.5 hours later, the sun was out and the sky was beautiful. That is one thing you can always count on living in Utah. If you don't like the weather at the moment, just wait awhile and it will change.

School

I decided to start the boys on August 1st. We have had a break since the beginning of May (when we took off for London), and we are all craving some structure in our lives. I've been preparing for weeks, and I was so happy for the date to finally arrive. The boys, of course, were super excited as well. They mostly were excited to use the new Legos I bought them to help with Math this year.

Our first week went pretty well. The boys both enjoyed their Math textbooks (along with their new Lego's). I am super impressed with Peter. For the most part, he was able to jump right in where we left off in April. He is doing double digit addition with three sets of numbers. He really enjoyed having his legos there to help him. Luke also enjoyed using his legos to model the pictures in his math book. It was fun to see him build a yellow teddy bear wearing a green hat with legos. He did three pages of Math a day, whereas, Peter did 1/2 a page a day since we are having to relearn some of the techniques needed.

We also had fun with science this week. It included learning about light and how energy from the sun can power things.

We also managed to squeeze in a fun lunch date with Luke's favorite friend Jackson, and his nanny (plus my good friend, Rebecca). Luke and Jackson were a bit on the CRAZY side eating their food, but we all had fun regardless.