Hogle Zoo

 Nanny Nancy bought us a Hogle Zoo pass for Christmas. We spent a day of our Spring Break braving the chilly weather and checking out how the animals fared this winter. The zoo continues to improve every year. The new exhibits are really well done. We even got a little sunshine during our lunch break.

 This picture was very uncomfortable for everyone...for some reason no one wanted to sit down in the big nest. I'm kind of laughing about it now because I forced them to do it--and it really is a weird thing isn't it?

 The bears were the most entertaining thing we saw all day. They're fighting some pretty serious shedding/hair loss, but at least they were moving around.

 Lachlan really wanted me to take her picture riding this lion. Note the vest on the outside of the coat--could not convince her to wear it the other way around. Now I'm noticing that Jack was doing the same thing...oiy. And poor Louisa, freezing cold day and guess who's coat got left at home. Never been so glad that I keep an old quilt in the back of the van--she wrapped up in it while she rode in the stroller the whole time.

 Well, except here...while we watched the tiger spray his scent on the fence.

 ...And here, while we rode on the carousel.

 You have to wait in line to have your picture taken on the trunk of this elephant.

 My favorite moment of the whole day was watching Jack get the attention of the meerkat. It's a lovely moment with his reflection in the picture. You can almost see that dimple in his right cheek.

 Funniest moment of the day is Louisa's face with this rhino horn up her rear end.

 Oh, Lachlan. Bless your heart. Look at Louisa staring at her...telling her to climb up, go up, get up...and then realizing that she better come and push her up from the bottom end. Babe, you're awesome, but we better start doing some push ups and work on some basic coordination skills.

Well, spring break has come and gone--not to mention two full weeks of back to school. I don't know how the time moves so quickly this time of year. It seems like winter will never end and then all of a sudden overnight I've missed the spring.

We spent last weekend doing yardwork. I have so much to accomplish this year because I let everything go last year...I just didn't have the strength to deal with all of it. I had to transplant several plants that were totally overgrown and a few more that were just entirely in the wrong spot.

The kids have been practicing basketball in the driveway after dinner. Jack told us tonight that he was finally good enough to play with the kids at school. It's been a goal for him since Christmas. He's been working so hard on dribbling and controlling the ball. I think it's awesome because he didn't really even know about basketball until last fall.

Lachlan is learning about rocks at school. She went to the geology lab on campus this week and listened to her 4th grade buddies tell all about the different types of rocks. She really wanted to touch some of the rocks, but they were too special so she was excited when Jeff hauled out his childhood rock collection. No joke, who saves a rock collection, but Jeff Murray?

Louisa is still going to preschool. I keep waiting for someone to call and tell me they can't take it anymore. We are beginning to see some progress with her speech. She is very good at the "g" sound and even said, "Tiger" this past week. She loves riding the bus and her driver, Gloria. I think it's been really good for her to go more frequently during the week.

Jeff's birthday is next week. I got him a real present. I'm very pleased with myself because it is completely overwhelming for me to find anything for him. This year I had a huge burst of inspiration and was able to pull it together--yay, me!

Spring Break!

 We spent a day of our Spring Break visiting the BYU campus. I thought that it would be a good idea to show the kids where dad went to college. Jeff was able to tell the kids some stories and show us where he lived. Apparently, back in the day he did a lot of rollerblading to get around town. It's for the best that we didn't meet until a decade later. I'm quite certain it wouldn't have been an endearing quality I would have embraced.

We spent a few hours at the Museum of Art. The Carl Bloch exhibit was incredible. I'm so grateful that I've been teaching Gospel Doctrine for the past four years. It's given me such an appreciation for the bible. There were several pictures which I wish I could have stayed and studied--the kids were good, but not THAT good.

I also wanted to see this original nativity piece by Brian Kershisnik. It's probably my most favorite piece of artwork. Jeff gave me a print for Christmas. I rarely look at it without being incredibly moved and given a small breathe of the Spirit. I'm always moved by the blood on the hands of the midwives...the mortality of Christ and the necessity of caring and skilled women to help him begin his mission on Earth. [sigh] Amazing.

After lunch we drove by the tabernacle/temple downtown and were able to see that they were going to place the Moroni on the temple. I thought that they would expand the size of the tabernacle to make the temple a bit bigger, but it seems to be about the same size.

The next stop on our cities tour was downtown Salt Lake.

 We visited the Church History Museum. I have such great memories of the museum. Grandma Carver was a docent here for many years. I remember coming and having her give a special tour and sharing her love for church history. I had forgotten this large angel Moroni--it's two inches shorter than an actual statue--I was probably only a bit older when my mom took a picture of me and my sisters in front of it. There was a "Women of Charity" art exhibit. The art was wonderful. I wanted to take some pictures but it was heavily guarded.

 All my life I've wondered about the view from the top of the Church Administration Building...here it is. I thought for certain that you would be able to see out over City Creek, but the south view is completely blocked.

 The view to the North.

 We toured Temple Square, City Creek, and the Beehive House. The tour of the Beehive house was cut short when I realized the kids didn't have a clue who Brigham Young was, or what he did, or why we were even there. In fact, this trip highlighted a number of critical pieces of history they are missing. They know about pioneers, but they didn't know Joseph Smith was murdered. They knew people crossed the plains, but didn't know they came to Utah. After touring Temple Square for 15 minutes Lachlan thought, "it looked like the place we went to see the Christmas lights."

Sara and I took Brooklyn and Lachlan to the first General Women's Meeting. I also wanted to take Lachlan up to the newly added photographs of the leadership.

Louisa Skis the Beav

We started off Spring Break by taking the kids out of school a day early. I can't remember a season in a long time where we skied on a foot of new powder on nearly the last day. This is a quick video of Louisa learning to ski for the first time. We were pretty impressed with her 3-year-old skills. She was pretty determined to learn it all in one day--which says something about her true character. I did have to laugh because the next day she told me "yegs hurt. youch." Curse the snow plow. AND--Jack would like you to notice that he is practicing his backwards skiing at the end of the video. His goal is to ski down the whole mountain backwards and "spinning around."

Louisa is quite athletic. I'm always surprised by what she can do physically, even though she is small. Lately, she is obsessed with jumping rope. If you're within 20 feet you'll probably lose an eye or at least get a wicked burn from the plastic rope whipping wildly through the air. She jumps at least 50 times on both feet. If she could coordinate her arms and legs at the same time she could compete.

Here's a few more shots of Jeff doing all the work. I'd love to say that I helped, but mostly I skied the powder. I took Jack and Lachlan with me. We did a few runs with no wrecks and a few runs where we all were covered. I'll admit that on one run I cleaned snow out of my helmet and pants.

 Louisa staring at her new ski pass. She wore herself out and fell asleep before we even got to the stop sign on the canyon road.

 Taking a lunch break. Lachlan told me that dad "made her eat 15 oranges" and it made her a little "seasick" on the lift later on that day. I asked her why she didn't tell him that she was full and she said, "I don't know, he just kept peeling them and I kept on eating them." Thank goodness she can do her "deep breathing" and keep it all down (unlike Jack, the vomit machine).

Our first family picture from the top of the Little Beaver lift. Jack was "practicing with his poles"--he hates skiing with them. He told me that they "wear out his armpits" and that he needs to get to the gym and get working on them to get stronger. Buddy, I seriously hope you never get strong armpits. Yuck. It also makes me laugh when I see him with those poles tucked up in his armpits. Hilarious.

Lastly, we had a cousin ski day a few weeks ago--it was so fun to ski with all the kids together. We need to get Erica and Landon out here! We didn't lose anyone and there weren't any tears! It's so fun for the kids to ski together. I was so bummed that we didn't get a picture of the kids with the Beaver at the Snoopy Carnival. Next year I will be better prepared. Lachlan was mad that I didn't tell her to wear her princess costume...