Issue 73

Bean Musuem by Dad

Ellie the turtle, being attacked by a dinosaur.

Saturday afternoon I took the kids on an outing down to the Bean Museum in Provo Utah, The museum is part of the Provo Campus of BYU. We slipped away to give Noreen a much needed break after very hectic week. I always like to steal away on fun outings myself so it was a treat for me to be with the kids in a fun environment on a Saturday afternoon. I was surprised at ll of the good feelings and nice memories that came back to my mind. I spent most of my schooling years in or around Provo. I attended middle school at a then Provo school, Waterford, and then also received my bachelor's degree in History from BYU. So, it felt like a fun homecoming to be back on campus and telling my children stories. The museum was moderately packed and we had a great time reviewing all of the bird and wildlife exhibits. We have always tried to help our children develop an interest in nature, birds, and the outdoors, I believe since we derive so much pleasure in those items ourselves. We had fun looking at every exhibit and Ellie even participated in the reptile show as a turtle. The show director put a large turtle shell on her back and demonstrated the difficulties that predators have when trying to eat turtles. After the show and our time at the museum we headed to another great spot, the BYU Creamery. Yes, ice cream. I promised Janey that when she finished her reading book, 300+ pages, that we would celebrate with an ice cream. Well, we all benefited from her success with a bite ourselves. Good fun was had by all.

Great-Grandma B

We had Great-grandma B over for a lovely Sunday dinner. It was so wonderful to spend time with her in our home. She is still full of life after almost 87 years! She has 90 Great Grandchildren and 5 more on the way and 21 of her Grandchildren aren't even married yet! She truly is a Great Grandma and we are lucky to have her.

Issue 72

New Zealand Friends and Football

I just didn't get to say enough last week about how wonderful it was to have our dear friends and adoptive grandparents visit from New Zealand. We were privileged to spend time with them three different times over the weekend. Daniel is excited that Auntie Hoki promised to send him some New Zealand coins for his collection along with some more "Legacy of Love" books for Dad.

Auntie Hanna looking so beautiful and strong!

Uncle Dave, Uncle Owen and Daniel at a BYU football game with dad.

Phun with Physics by Janey

(Note by Mom: The Utah Museum of Natural History at the U of U is free on the first Monday of every month, which is a great deal in any one's book! They also have a Phun with Physics program on the first Monday that is highly entertaining and educational. We definitely recommend it!)

For Family Home Evening we went to the Museum of Natural History. They did a show downstairs where they put a ball in liquid nitrogen. They then did a bouncing contest and we all went outside to the front steps of the museum. They thew the balls up in the air and when the ball that was soaking in the liquid nitrogen hit the ground it shattered and broke into different pieces. I thought the show was cool!

Dance!

Ellie loves her tap and ballet class that she takes with 3 of her friends from church. Moms got to come watch this week, so I took the chance to snap a few pictures of her having a blast.

3-D History

Last week while studying the Byzantine Empire we made our own mosaics. I love how Janey's flower turned out. I know it looks like M&Ms on a cake, but it's really glass pebbles in plaster!

This week while covering the Arabian Dessert we made our own edible oasis. Here's Daniel's before he gobbled it up.

Bionicles, posters, and authers (oh my!). by Steve L.

You can see the movie to the right.

Me and Greg

Friday I went and met Greg Farshtey! For those of you who aren't Bionicle fans, Greg is the author of the entire Bionicle series! We went to Wall-mart, (big surprise) and there next to the Bionicle isle, was a big table covered in Bionicle stuff, and there was Greg! Being one of the first 200 people there I received an autographed poster. I asked a few questions, had him autograph a different poster for me, then I waited over where they were screening the new movie. After that, we had a Q&A session then had a prize drawing. I didn't get any thing though. (Nuts.) After that, the scouts picked me up for a camp. (See Burstons Pond camp.) Meeting Greg was awesome!

Burston's Pond by Steve L.

JB and our tents



me, Jared, and the choc-chip pancakes

dad taking the plunge

Last Friday, after meeting Greg, we went on a fishing camp out to Burstons pond. After arriving near dinner time we set up camp and had a dinner of hot dogs and chili. (yum.) After multiple games of ghost in the graveyard and roasting starbursts around the fire, (double yum.) we went to bed. In the morning after we had a breakfast of our famous chocolate-chip pancakes (triple yum.) JB gutted his first fish! (and if you think I'm going to say "yum" here, you've got another thing coming.) Then we headed down to the rope swing to take the polar bear plunge! A.k.a. you swing of a rope into water that is literally one degree above freezing!!!!! Then we packed up and left. We had a lot of fun!

Star Wars Recycled

Daniel saved up his allowance to by a Star Wars action figure. Once he got home he realized that his commander was going to need a base and a ship. He build a base out of Legos, a hanger out of his Lego boxes and a fleet of ships after raiding our recycling drawer. I love his resourceful and creative spirit. Here a just a couple examples.

Mini cruisers out of muffin boxes.

His destroyer name Goliath.

Issue 71

New Zealand Grandparents

We had a lovely weekend spending time with our adopted New Zealand Grandparents, Hoki and Owen. They were visiting Utah for General Conference, and we were honored to haves them spend time with us. Lots of other fun things happened this week, but they will all have to wait until the next issue since this blogger desperately needs to go to bed!

Issue 70

Lucky 13

Happy 13th Steve! Legos, Legos and more Legos. A family party on the big day and Birthday B-B-Q with his friends on the weekend. What more could a guy ask for?