The Worst Baseball Game of the Year

It's weird, the kids didn't seem that cold, but parents were freezing. Baseball season started off on the wrong foot. It's not right to watch "America's Favorite Pass Time" in full winter gear while shivering. Freezing temps makes baseball the worst!

Cali's Piano Competition and Showcase Concert

Cali has a awesome piano teacher, and it's not me! I retired from trying to teach her, and instead enrolled through the college, and found Eileen. She is so great and Cali's skills and abilities have improved so much.

 

At her first piano recital she performed two pieces from memory and they were both beautiful. I was so proud of well she played the pieces. I was so nervous for her, but she wasn't really nervous at all.

 

After the recital she performed in a music festival at the college where she was chosen from all the students in her ability level to play at the showcase concert that night. I didn't want her to get her hopes up in case she wasn't selected, but that morning she said, "Mom, I know I am going to get picked today." Sure enough, she was right.

 

Bethany was able to come with us to the concert showcase that night as well, it was a great night!

Bath Time Buddies

I knew something was going on when these two were being WAY. TOO. QUIET. Come to find out Caleb filled up the tub too high, and then they both dumped their cups of milk in the tub. The water was so gross from the dirty boy bodies and the milk, but they didn't seem to mind at all.

Caleb's First Soccer Season (And Possibly Last)

 

 

Caleb had a love/hate relationship with his first soccer season. He kind of loved it, and really hated it. On more than one occasion he said, "Mom, sign me OUT of soccer and IN to wrestling or boxing". He put forth a pretty decent effort, along with a lot drink breaks and a few random flops on the ground. Other than that, things were awesome! The jury is still out on whether or not he'll play again, or not...

Herriman Visit

It just so happens that Kendra, the girl who does my hair, lives only a few streets from where we used to live in Herriman. So, when I went to get my hair cut I decided to stop over and visit my friend Adrienne. It was a quick visit, but great to see my good friend, I love her so much.

 

While we were there I got a glimpse of our old yard, the grass wasn't looking too great, but the trees were amazing. Christian and I planted the trees in our park strip on our 8th anniversary.

I wish we lived closer, I miss her!

So Many Puppy Licks

You haven't been properly loved by Brock until you've been puppy licked by him. Brock's licking phase was pretty slobbery. If he even, for a second, liked something or someone he would give it a great big lick. Bethany was by far the recipient of most of the licks.

Shake Weight

Getting in shape with the Shake Weight!

Easter Sunday

Historically, our Easter pictures attempts have been a little lacking. This year I even had high hopes of an entire family picture, however, it was not to be. I barely snapped these few right after church. We can't do them before church, because we barely make it there on time in the first place, and we can't wait for Christian to get home... or, we'd have to wait all afternoon. So the best we can do is a kid picture immediately following church, before the rush to the car and the instinctive need to throw on pajamas.

 

Regardless of the picture quality, it was a great way to end a Spring Break week.

Driving Home

After a few wonderful fun-filled days, we headed back to Rock Springs on Saturday afternoon. We quickly discovered that there is not a whole of dinner choices in Thermopolis and decided to get some pizza at the Pizza Hut. Caleb immediately turned the table pizza stand into a jet pack. It took A LOT of convincing to get him to take it off.

 

We stopped a couple look-out points around he Red Canyon area and enjoyed the scenery of Central Wyoming.

 

With only 45 minutes left in our journey, we said good bye to Carl and Vicki who took a route back to Utah. We stayed and hung out in Farson long enough to get some famous ice cream.

 

Then, of course, all the kids had to take turns making a Buffalo Bill style mustache with their ice cream. The wild west seemed to really be rubbing off on them. Well, the wild part anyway.

 

No sooner had we got home than I had to pitch Caleb's teepee. Of all the options in the gift shop Caleb had to have his own tent. In fact, he refused to get out of the display model in the store, and staged a mini sit in until he got his way. It worked, and he's been enjoying his tent ever since. Even sleeping in it from time to time.

Spring Trip to Cody: Day Two

On the second day of our trip to Cody, we awoke to find a fairly agreeable cat wandering around the parking lot. Caleb immediately had to catch, hug, squeeze and release the cat numerous times. The cat was a pretty good sport and didn't scratch him up too bad.

 

The Buffalo Bill Center of the West is actually a compilation of several different museums under one roof. It's the only Smithsonian museum in the west, and you could literally spend several days in each section. So, on the second day we revisited some of our favorite things from the first day, and explored the additional attracts we hadn't discovered the first day.

 

Of course, we had to try for a family picture or two or three before entering the museum on the second day.

 

We went back through the wildlife exhibits and then on to Buffalo Bill's house, the Native American displays and finally the section dedicated entirely to art.

 

We were all getting a little squirrelly and tired, so we took a few minutes on a couch overlooking the mountains and a statue to take a few pictures and regroup.

 

Then we all had to have a round of drinks too. Cheers!

Spring Trip to Cody: Day One

To finish off our Spring Break week, we took a trip to Cody, Wyoming to check out the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Museum. Carl and Vicki followed along in their car and we left Rock Springs on Friday morning. A while ago Christian and I were talking about our lack of Wyoming exploration, and so we set a goal to travel to or through as many Wyoming towns as possible. Driving to Cody gave us the opportunity to see Farson, Lander, Riverton, Shoshone, Thermopolis, among others.

We arrived in Cody on Friday afternoon, checked into our hotel, and headed over to the  museum. There was so much to see and so much to do, the kids loved exploring the wildlife wing of the museum, for starters.

We also had a good time posing for some pictures on a huge map of the Intermountain West, made completely of small ceramic tiles. It was pretty cool, and we tried to get the kids to stand as close to Rock Springs as we could.

We are not natural cowboys or cowgirls, but we got to practice our saddle and dismount skills on some fake horses so we'll be ready when a real horse comes along.

Another whole wing of the museum was dedicated to Buffalo Bill's entertainment and literary endeavors. We spent some time talking with a hologram of old Buffalo Bill himself and participating in an impromptu play on a stage.

Yet another section of the museum was all about guns. We may be the only people in Wyoming without a stash of firearms, but the kids quickly took to the target practice. After a few rounds of shooting at little buffalos and deer Cali exclaimed, "I love hunting!"  Which, I guess, was the closest she'd ever come.

Cali's Piano Recital

Cali was so excited for her first piano recital. She worked very hard on both of her songs, and played them from memory effortlessly. I was very proud of her, she did a great job and has really put for a lot of effort toward learning how to play the piano.

But First, Lemme Take a Selfie

Waiting for Cali to finish her piano lesson while we hangout on the swings by the Green River.

It Was Good Try...

I just want to go on record saying that this may have been the coldest spring of my life. I wouldn't describe Rock Springs as warm, but this spring was sluggish and ridiculously windy. On the first day of Spring Break, and I use the term 'Spring' very lightly, several friends and ward members decided to get together for an impromptu Easter egg hunt.

It was so windy, eggs and kids were blowing everywhere. Most moms with younger kids stuck it out for the children, but I wasn't interested in rookie mistakes or the children. So, after Cali and Marissa hid a bunch of eggs, we high tailed it out of there.

Carter tried to find a few eggs, but ended up having to put his hands in his pockets to keep from freezing to death, which made egg hunting very hard. Since Cali had hidden most of the eggs, she opted out of finding. I also use the term 'hidden' very lightly as well, since I saw her and Marissa dump a whole sack of eggs in one spot. Lucky kid who found that stash.

Caleb got into the spirit just long enough to open and eat the contents of the eggs he found and then discard the plastic shell into the wind. We tried to make the most of it, but after a C+ effort we just plain got sick of it and went home.

Carter's Glasses

After failing a school vision screening, we decided it was time to check out the old peepers with Dr. Ramsey. Sure enough, he's taking after his father in the near-sighted department. He was a little disappointed at first, but after picking out some frames, and actually being able to see he was pretty happy. He also looks pretty handsome too.

Legally Blonde the Musical

When the drama director at the college asked me if I would play a small role in his upcoming musical I responded, "do I actually have to come to practices and do something...?"

He assured me that I wouldn't have to do much and that I really just had to stand there.

Well, "just standing there" turned into several speaking parts and a couple scenes with my new found friends Mark and Dudley.

It was pretty fun, memories were made, inside jokes were created, and it turned out to be a lot of work. I never would have been able to have this opportunity or participate in this production if it weren't for Bethany watching my kids during the many practices and performances.

My parents came to the performance and brought a cake with the word, "Superstar" written in frosting. I was far from the superstar of the show, but it was pretty hilarious!

Matchers

To our complete surprise, Cali and both ended up wearing a very similar outfit.