Tomorrow's the big day

Sabrina starts kindergarden tomorrow. Wendy and I are so excited for Sabrina to have all of those great experiences. We met with Sabrina's teacher last week and it sounds like Mrs. Winters will be wonderful for Sabrina.

We've been preacticing getting up and ready in time for school this past week. It will be a little adjustment since we like to roll out of bed about 8am at our house. We decided we need to push that up to about 7am. We'll see if we can get Sabrina to school on time.

35 minutes 22/25 seconds

About a month ago it came to our attention that the Roy Days' 5k was coming up. Wendy said she would only run it if she had someone to run with her. I volunteered. We stayed side by side for almost the whole run. My goal was to "not get beat by Wendy." The course is the same as last year which meant that the last half-mile or so was uphill. When we were about 400 yards from the finish Wendy picked up her pace, then again at 300 yards, 200 yards, 100 yards, and by the end we were in a dead sprint. She didn't want to get beat by me and I wouldn't let her get ahead of me. In the end, it was my long legs that won the day. I came in a mere 3 seconds ahead of Wendy. We just about collapsed at the finish line. It was fun for to have that early morning "date."

Brayden the Little Farmer

Since Wendy works four nights each week I get to spend time with the kids alone. This year I decided to try square foot gardening in hopes to keep the weed population under better control. While I was out tending my garden Brayden pulled one the kids chairs out into the garden and plopped himself down on it. I turned around and whipped out my cell phone to snap a quick picture. It matches a picture of my father. Maybe Brayden is growing up to be a little backyard farmer.

Air Show

Salt Lake City was chosen as one of three cities to get an Air Show this year put on by the United States Air Force. I took Sabrina and Moira to the Air Show on Saturday along with about 80,000 other people. Even though we could see the planes from our house it is a different feel when you are there on the tarmac up-close. Sabrina was most interested in seeing an airplane that could fly backwards. I was most interested in seeing the Thunderbirds perform. They were the grand finale, of course, and by then the kids were pretty tired of the airplanes. Luckily, they found some friends to play with so I could watch.

Wendy stayed at home with Brayden which was wise because he wouldn't have lasted 20 minutes. I bought the girls some souvenier jet airplanes and they were thrilled about those and played with them for the next week non-stop.

Watch out for striped skunks

Saturday was our 9th wedding anniversary and I decided that I wanted to do something fun as a family. We spent the day at the Hogle zoo in Salt Lake. The kids loved it! The night before Sabrina made a special map of all the animals she wanted to see and took it with her throughout the zoo. Brayden kept yelling at all the animals and had to be restrained from jumping in with the penguins, and the gorilla, and the meerkats. Moira just wanted to go spend her money on a big swirly lollypop at the gift shop. We walked and walked and covered miles. My feet were ready to fall off but the kids were still going (at least until they got in the car and fall asleep). They rode on the train and the carousel. And they watched the elephant do tricks at the elephant show. Sabrina's favorite part was a giant elephant statue that made sounds and even trumpeted the pop goes the weasel song and squirted water out of its trunk at anyone standing in front of it. Ingenious. The animals were pretty docile, probably due to the humidity and the sheer number of people at the zoo that day. (It was packed, memorial day weekend, of course.)

After the zoo we dropped the kids off at aunt Annalyn's house to eat dinner and play while Adam and I went and spent time doing stuff WE like to do. We went to a restaurant supply store that was totally awesome. I know, how boring can we be, but we love it! I bought a big, giant stainless steel bowl, a one-piece metal pancake turner (they're hard to find), and a small sifter for powdered sugar. Again, how boring, but we loved it!! Then we went to go find a quiet restaurant for some good comfort food. We ended up at Mimi's Cafe which we hadn't been to in years but figured it could be a safe option. Oh, it was heavenly. We were early enough that we skipped the dinner rush and ordered food that wasn't overly seasoned or over-cooked. My requirements were for cushy seats, soft lighting, soft music, and delicious desserts. I got it all as I finished off with a decadent chocolate mousse. I've decided that I LOVE french cooking. Adam even got to have scallops and bread pudding. Not together, but they are his favorite foods (besides ice-cream, of course). It was a short date but we were tired. Grabbed the kids, went home, put everybody to bed and fell asleep at 10 pm. I haven't gone to bed that early in months. Does that mean we're old, now?

Because I feel like it

This aloha print background is pretty cute. But it has no significance other than that I felt like it. No, we're not going to Hawaii for our anniversary next week. That's still on my wish list. But our anniversary did make me think of Hawaii and all my great memories from my mission and meeting Adam, etc. As parents we don't get many opportunities to do something just because we feel like it.

Instead of going to Hawaii we're going to the Salt Lake City zoo with the kids. They are super-excited! Sabrina is telling us how she's going to get a map and go straight to the Lions and Tigers and just stay there all day. I'm looking forward to it too. I think we'll have a lot of fun if we can keep our kids from losing themselves and falling in an animal pit.

And next year Adam and I are planning on a real anniversary vacation: no kids, no schedules, no worries. Wouldn't that be heaven! After ten years of marriage it will be time to take a break. But since I have another year before that happens. . . .

Spring is here

Spring has finally arrived at our house. I know it's been a long time since we posted, but spring is a very busy time at our house. We spend a lot of our extra time trying to stay ahead of the lawn mowing, garden cleaning-out, planting the vegetable garden, spring cleaning the house, etc. It's been hectic. We also had ten windows in our house replaced (actually 9 windows and 1 door). The difference is incredible. I had no idea that we were living in such a drafty house. I just figured we were too cheap to turn up the thermostat.

We've also been having problems with our rental property. Looks like we will be heading to the courts once again to deal with tenant problems. After this experience we have definitely changed our format for handling management issues. Even though it's painful, expensive, and time-consuming I look at the experience this way: the only way we learn is from making mistakes. If we did it right the first time we would have no way of knowing why it worked or if we were just lucky. When we make mistakes it forces us to look at the underlying issues and decide if the problem is us, the tenant, the property, etc. That way we actually know why it works.

Onto lighter topics: everyone's doing well. Adam's job is still there, mine is still there, the kids are still there only a little bigger and suntanned. They keep telling us they need a bigger swingset. We have opted to build them a big teeter-totter in the meantime since it's about one percent of the cost of a swing-set. We'll post pictures when it's done.

I've also been busy making strawberry freezer jam. Trying to keep up with the demand in our household. Little kids will eat a lot of jam if it's good! I confess this is a really good batch. Like candy. I bought a flat of strawberries (8 lbs.) for $4.99, spent $6 on pectin and made three batches of jam. Made about 11 pints of jam. Only 9 pints made it into the freezer. IT'S GOOD!!!