The month began with a snowstorm, which seemed like such a cruel April Fool's joke. Luckily, spring eventually came, and we enjoyed so many nice days in the warm sunshine. Our activities included, but were not limited, to . . .
Working . . . as the CFO of Rocky Mountain Power for the day. Clark went to JA Biz Town with his grade, and he and his friend, Evie, headed up Rocky Mountain Power. This is a highlight of fifth grade, and he took the role very seriously and worked hard all day to keep the company in good financial shape. Chick-fil-a for lunch, being with classmates, and supporting the other businesses rounded out the day.
Swatching . . . and planning for a lot of projects but finishing nothing. Some months are like that. My knit night conflicted with a band concert of Max's, but I decided to try to do both. I started with my knitting group, stayed for 40 minutes, drove 20 minutes back home, watched 40 minutes of the concert, drove 20 minutes back to knit night, and stayed until the end. It was kind of crazy.
Experiencing . . . the stunning beauty of Hawaii. We went to Oahu for spring break and had such a wonderful, memorable time. It was our first taste of Hawaii, and we quickly understood why people love it so much. I'm still hoping to write up some Hawaii blog posts (here's the first one), so stay tuned for those.
Turning . . . right around and leaving again. We got home from Hawaii at 6:30am on a Tuesday. By 12:30pm, on that same day, Mike was back at the airport, headed for France. It also happened to be his birthday. We had already booked our Hawaii trip when he was asked to go to Grenoble, France for meetings with some of his French colleagues. So in one day, he traveled seven hours from Honolulu to Salt Lake City, ten hours from Salt Lake City to Paris and four hours (by train) from Paris to Grenoble. It sounded brutal to me. He said it was very pretty in Grenoble and he did get to do a little sightseeing in Paris, but mostly it was just work. Very jet-lagged work.
Receiving . . . dinner from friends. A couple of my friends reached out when we were coming home from our trip to tell me they were going to bring us dinner. They knew that re-entry was going to be hard and that Mike was leaving right away for France. It wasn't, "Hey, is there anything I can help you with," but rather, "I'm bringing you dinner on Tuesday. What time works?" It was the kindest, most thoughtful gesture. I felt a little guilty accepting help because, after all, we had just been to Hawaii and so I felt like I couldn't whine about the challenges of coming home, but my friends saw my need and jumped in to help, and I was so grateful.
Attending . . . school. Sorry to have so many entries about the aftermath of our trip, but just one more that made me laugh: we got home early on a Tuesday morning after flying all night. I told the kids they didn't have to go to school, and everyone took me up on it except for Clark. While the rest of us hurtled ourselves into bed as fast as we could, Clark got dressed, brushed his teeth, and prepped his backpack for the day. And then, while we all were fast asleep, he left the house, walked to the bus stop, and headed to school. That's dedication (or missing his friends).
Running . . . into Aaron and his date at Smith's. Aaron went to prom with a big group of friends. They went to Fat Cats in the morning, took photos at Memory Grove Park, and ate dinner at Tucci's. At that point, there was time to kill before going to the dance, so Aaron and his date and one other couple broke off from the group to get milk at the grocery store. That's when Mike and I, perusing the produce section, saw them. They were so nice to not pretend like they didn't know us. During the course of their shopping, they decided they really needed chocolate chip cookies to go with their milk, so they came over to our house and whipped up a batch. It was such a spontaneous thing, and I loved it. I also loved the boutonniere Aaron's date crocheted for him. I mean, how cool is that?!
Speaking . . . to the Alexa. For the first time in his life, Silas asked something of Alexa, and she understood him: "Alexa, play Ice Storm." "Okay. Playing Ice Storm by Lindsey Stirling." The delight on his face was unmatched.
Wowing . . . a captive audience. Cosmic Clark made another appearance at a birthday party. The attendees were mostly 8 and 9 year-olds, and that seemed to be the perfect age to be totally impressed with his tricks. I got to watch this time, and he convinced me too!
Keeping . . . Easter. I had to scale back our Easter activities this year due to Mike being in France and just getting back from Hawaii. One thing I was planning to forego was the neighborhood egg hunt, but then one of my neighbors asked about it, and I knew it wouldn't be very difficult or time consuming to execute, so we did it (and as it turned out, Mike got home just in time to sort and hide eggs--lucky him!). We also made a new Easter playlist, attended our ward's Good Friday celebration (where Bradley, Aaron, Ian, and I all contributed music), dyed eggs, gave Easter baskets, worshipped at church, and went to my parents' house for dinner and another egg hunt. The boys got Lego sets in their Easter baskets, and all six of them spent the afternoon putting them together.
Celebrating . . . Ian's eighth birthday. He received a new bike among other things and immediately took it out for a spin before school. His best buddy, George, came over in the evening for cake (it was shaped like the Triforce from Zelda) and presents and video games. Mike and I took him out for his favorite burgers at Five Guys a few days later. Ian continues to give us a run for our money as we figure out how to parent him, but his joy is contagious. He has the best laugh.
Hitting . . . four years post-transplant. It's a huge milestone for Aaron, and we celebrated with Mrs. Backer's pastries and singing, "Happy birthday, dear bone marrow!" Silas was indignant: "Bone marrow is NOT a real guy!" He was born after the fact and has no understanding of how much we all love that new bone marrow.
Praying . . . for my dad. He had a detached retina and underwent emergency surgery to fix it as quickly as possible. It was a miserable recovery, especially the first week when he had to lie on his chest, face down, the majority of the time. We truly live in a miraculous time though when something like that can be detected and repaired so quickly.
Attending . . . the Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair. This was my second time going to this event, and even though I knew what to expect this time, it still delighted me at every turn. I definitely planned to make some purchases but didn't have anything specific in mind. I wanted to support small businesses (easy to do since all the vendors are small businesses), buy things I couldn't easily get at other times, and support my friend, Deborah, who was vending there. I was successful in all three! I bought a bag and yarn from Sego Fibers, owned by a woman in Murray (the bag was made by her mom, so that felt even more limited than the yarn), a couple of skeins from Sew Happy Jane who is based in a small town in Idaho , and a skein of DK sock yarn from Candy Shoppe Yarns. Many of my friends from my knitting group were also there. We wandered through the booths together, ate lunch, chatted, and admired each other's purchases. I also stopped by the Notlwonk Springs booth where I had purchased yarn last year so I could show the owner my finished cardigan with their yarn.
Finishing . . . up a very successful first year of choir. Two of my friends and I started an elementary school choir at the beginning of the school year. We didn't know what kind of response we'd get, but week after week, dozens of kids showed up and sang. We practiced two mornings each week and worked on a variety of music. I got to be in my happy place behind the piano while Heather and Diana conducted. Silas was my little tagalong and knew the songs almost as well as the elementary kids. He played with Heather's son every morning, and the two of them were the choir mascots. We had our final concert at the end of April (coinciding with Art Night) and then had a little party and a school performance a couple of weeks later. I'm so grateful I got to work with these talented women and share our love of music with such awesome kids.
Saying . . . goodbye to the binky. Silas has been very attached to his binky since the day he was born. It was great during the first year of his life--so helpful when he needed to be soothed or go back to sleep. But he is well past the age of needing it all the time. I made several half-hearted attempts over the last few months, but I always caved because it was such a quick fix anytime he was sad or hurt. However, I finally decided it was actually time. I didn't mind so much if he continued to have it at night, but I wanted it to be gone during the day. We made a chart that included all of three squares. If he didn't use his binky during the day, he got to put a star in one of the squares. After all three were filled, he got an ice cream cone at Macey's. That first chart was hard and there were many tears, but after he earned his first ice cream cone, we made a new chart with four squares, and after that a chart with five squares, and before long, he never even thought about the binky or asked about it during the day. So we have officially left it behind, and that's a good thing.
Attending . . . a bridal shower for our nephew's fiancé. It was the most elaborately-themed shower I've ever been to with exquisite decorations highlighting their love for adventure and the outdoors and including an intense game guessing locations from 40 different photos of them and also an abundance of food.
Surrounding . . . ourselves with other Pride and Prejudice fans. It was the twentieth anniversary of the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and it was re-released in theaters for a few weeks. Mike and I went to it with Sonja and Rob. I have always loved this version. I saw it originally in the theater in 2005 and have watched it countless times since. There was something about seeing something on the big screen again now that it has become so familiar and so loved that made it absolutely magical. The cinematography was breathtaking. But the best part was being among other people who loved it just as much as we do. Unlike the first time I saw it, everyone in the theater knew all the scenes by heart which made the reactions much more dramatic: the outburst of laughter when Mr. Collins said, "What excellent boiled potatoes"; the bated anticipation and subsequent whoop with Mr. Darcy's hand flex; the collective sigh as Mr. Darcy strode across the field in the morning light. It was the best movie theater experience I've ever had.
Spending . . . the day together to celebrate 20 years of marriage! Our anniversary fell on a Monday, and the only picture I have is of Silas drinking Sprite when he and I went to lunch at Mike's work. However, on the Saturday before, Mike and I went to the temple in the morning to do sealings, did some shopping in the afternoon, went out to eat at Pago's for dinner (where we were blown away by, of all things, the mushrooms), went for a walk around the Gilgal sculpture garden (a rather bizarre place, in my opinion), and came home to watch a show together. It was the nicest day, but I ended up not taking any photos.
Using . . . the van warranty. This is worth writing about because 1) Mike did not want to get a warranty when we purchased our van a few years ago, 2) we ended up having a problem we could use the warranty on, and 3) it actually worked and saved us a lot of money. One of the sliding doors on our van stopped working, and if you have young children, you know that a non-working sliding door can increase the hassle so much. Mike took it to the repair shop and found out that the warranty would likely cover it but it would take at least a week to jump through all the hoops. We decided it was worth the annoyance of not having a van for awhile (and thankfully, my parents were willing to lend us one of theirs for the duration). Not only was the van door covered, but we also had some other repairs that needed to happen at some point, and these were able to be fixed at the same time. In total, we would have spent $4100, but because of the warranty, we only spent $900.
Failing . . . to get the baptism photos I was hoping for. A week before Ian's baptism, I wanted to take some nice photos of him looking all spiffy in his suit. We went to the Taylorsville temple on a Sunday evening for a nice backdrop, only to find the gates locked. Then we drove to the Jordan River Temple where we found the same thing. Since the grounds on a lot of the bigger temples (like San Diego, Washington D.C., Laie) are open on Sunday, I just assumed that was the case for all temples. Apparently not. We didn't really have time to take photos on a different day, so I just snapped a few outside the gates and decided they would have to do.
Roasting . . . the first s'mores of the season. We had to take advantage of a nice spring evening to bust out the marshmallows and chocolate.
Riding . . . a horse. Silas and I went to Curiosity Farms at Thanksgiving Point with a friend of Silas' and his mom. They have a membership to Thanksgiving Point and generously shared it with us for a fun morning of seeing animals and playing at the park.
Helping . . . out with a fundraiser. The youth in our ward put on a dinner and concert to raise money for summer camps. Max and Bradley performed a saxophone/trombone duet of Cruella de Vil, and Aaron accompanied a violin duet by a couple of his friends.
Returning . . . to a park from my early days of motherhood. Silas and I went to lunch with Mike and on our way home, I decided to make a spontaneous stop at a park I used to visit all the time when Aaron and Max were little. The memories came flooding back as I watched Silas play in the sand, hang from the same bar, and go down the slide. It feels like a lifetime ago, and also not.
