Brays and Jennifred

 It was a lot of fun having our 4th child come stay for a few days and man, those girls were happy to be back together again.  The trip ended with a pit stop at the Reindeer farm and a bakery for some yummy donuts!  See you seen Jenni!

Boyd Cave

 Have I mentioned how much fun we are having living over here?  We decided to take the kids underground for a bit.  We have bee to Boyd Cave before and it is really fun to go on an adventure in.  7 people traipsing around in the dark w/ pitiful flashlights

+

 a dog (who's black)

+

1 person who is mildly claustraphobic

=

a good time.

 We had the whole cave pretty much to ourselves the 2 hours we were there so it was quite fun. The kids ran ahead and poked around every corner while Jase and I took our time.

 You can't tell, but that rock right there announces that you have made it to "the End."  The kids didn't qite believe it so they went back (on their bellies) just to make sure there wasn't another big opening for us to explore.  Sadly, the sign was telling the truth. Dang.

 We had luch in the cave just to make sure we had the full experience. It was yummy...just a little dusty.

 Afterwards we took the chance to play by the river, soak our dusty feet and soak in a little sunshine.

 It sure is pretty here!

Spam Museum

 Let me just answer your questions.

Yes, there is a Spam museum.

Yes, of course, Jason went.

Yes, he brought home souvenirs.

The kids got t-shirts and I got a musubi maker.

All's right with the world when Spam is involved.

Peterson's Rock Garden

 I get that it's Spring Break and that these kids of mine want to lay around and do practically nothing but it's sooooo hard for me to do that.  They got away with it until about 2pm today and then we just had to get outside.

 I searched "things to do" in our hometown and Peterson's Rock Garden popped up.  Jason and I were both sure that it was going to be hokey but we were committed.  We didn't tell the kids where we were headed because 1) we didn't want to ruin the surprise and 2) we didn't want anyone throwing themselves out of a moving car. As we pulled up Kahau said in a somewhat dead-pan, unimpressed voice "What is that place?"

 Actually though, it was really cool.  A man named Mr. Peterson spent about 20 years building rock monuments in his yard. He had a museum, a train for children, duck boats in his pond.  It was a real neat place.  He built his last structure in the late 1950's and most of it is still standing today. He spent years and years going all over the world collecting rocks of different colors, shapes and sizes. According to the museum this was his labor of love.  He had the vision and he made everything on his own, by hand.  He is long since gone but his granddaughter still runs the property.

 There was no water in the ponds but there will be as soon as spring hits.  I'm kinda excited to go back and see it in all it's glory. And you better be sure that whenever family comes to visit we are going to drag them over there.  Why the heck not?

 Everything he did was very detail oriented and I decided he's our towns own Walt Disney.  You've got to appreciate the drive and passion he had to create all of this.

 ....and there were peacocks showing off themselves off all over the place.  They were very pretty.

Thanks for the fun, Mr. Peterson

BMX

Jason and Ansen found a BMX track here in town and alllllllllll this kid wants to do at the moment is go and ride.  I can't really blame him. It's pretty cool. Might as well get it in while the weather is nice and cool. There are races on Friday nights and Ansen is itching to race.  We'll see.  He needs a serious helmet and maybe some padding first.

Woodburn

 We made a quick trip to Woodburn at the beginning of Spring Break to do a little shopping and pick up our 4th child, Jenni.  The shopping was okay, and Rammy really enjoyed his hotel stay but the best part was seeing people we know and love.

I popped into the gym to see one of my old classes (my Senior Zumba) and it was soooo incredibly nice to see everyone.  I don't get very "homesick" but I'll admit that I really miss seeing those faces every week.

Braley and Ansen spent the night with Savannah and Hailey and they were happy as clams to be with friends.

Kahau was thrilled to have her own bed at the hotel. Usually its the 3 of them crammed into one bed so she was in hog heaven.

Now to head back over the mountain for a little spring break fun.

Franks

Jason home teaches a family in our ward who just opened a food truck. Not just any food truck....a hotdog truck.  Hot dogs are like the Widing National Food (not this Widing family, but Grandpa Widing LOVES hot dogs.  And diet coke. Give that man a hot dog and a diet coke and you've made a friend for life). 

The other night Jason needed to go home teaching and so we decided to hit up the food truck while he magnified his calling.  It was delish!

Trimester 2

What can I say other than they killed it.

Braley got a 4.0

Kahau got a 3.0

Braley worked super hard to pull off that 4.0 and she is just as pleased and we are.  She's a great student and is on track to take some pretty difficult classes this next fall.  Braley's teachers are always telling us what a good student she is and how detail orientated she is. She must be Jason's kid.

Kahau worked her bum off this term.  4 out of her 5 class were core classes that required a lot of attention. She did really well and is excited to take a few new classes this term. She is done with her English and Foreign Language for the year. This term she has Geography, Algebra 1, Choir, Physical Science and Photography.

Here's to finishing out the school year strong!

Model student

Smart.

Big Man On Campus...yet humble.

Kind.

Good friend.

Role Model.

And so on and so forth.

That is what our parent-teacher conference sounded like.  It was so awesome to hear all the praise Ansen's teacher has for him.  Because he's knocking it out of the park in school he had to celebrate with a burger and shake!

Way to go, Ansen!

Barnes & Noble

 It's never a quick trip when our crew hits Barnes & Noble.  Everyone finds a spot and sifts through a stack of books that they've picked out.  Everyone likes such different kinds of books.

We can agree on one though!

Choir concert

 3rd trimester has started and Kahau is back in choir this term.  The Spring concert was the other night and she didn't want to be left out so she learned the music wicked fast and rocked out with the choir. 

It was a really pretty concert.  It had Irish, Scottish and African music...oh yea, and some gospel.  White people singing gospel is always fun.

Great job Kahau!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Every year I say I am not going to make Corned Beef and Cabbage and every year I end up doing it anyway.  The kids love it and I aim to please.

Happy St. Paddy's Day, everyone!

Pi Day

I take this day pretty seriously...even if math was my worst subject.

It's getting real

This book came in the mail the other day and our whole family has been pouring over it.  We may need a kids copy and a parents copy.  

7 weeks til we are off!

Photography class

Kahau is taking a photography class at school this trimester and so she needed to borrow my camera.  I usually use my iphone camera simply because its always on me so I hadn't downloaded pictures from the last time I used the camera.  Here is some of our summer fun.

Nothing's better than a day on the lake.

So gross

All wrestling season we were so careful not to get ringworm. Ansen always showered right after practice and then we lathered him in anti fungal stuff just to kill anything he may have picked up. Wrestling ended a month ago and I was a pretty proud mom that we made it through without getting ringworm.

-Scratch that-

Not literally though!  Look what cropped up while Jason and I were gone.  Dang ringworm.  We have been using anti-fungal's and drying it out and doing our darnedest to get rid of it but according to Ansen's coach, "this years strain is super hard to get rid of." So tomorrow morning bright and early we are off to the doctor to get some antibiotics to kill this worm.  Which, btw isn't actually a worm.

I'm just crossing my fingers no one else gets it.