March and April 2011

March and April really flew by this year.  Joe was out of town for work for a week in March.  Having him gone really makes me appreciate him and all that he does to help with the kids.  I would not be a very good single mom. 

Brad played another little season of indoor soccer…and it went pretty much like it has before.  He is a pretty decent goalie, but he hasn’t quite figured out the offense thing yet.  He is REALLY good at telling everyone else what to do.  I wonder if they have a place for kids to be assistant coaches?

At the recommendation of his Pre-K teacher we had him tested for the Extended Learning Program (ELP) in our school district.  When we got the results back I was really unsure of what to think.  He scored far above average on their math and reading test and in non-verbal problem solving he was in the 94th percentile (no surprise there).  However he didn’t get into the program and it’s probably based on the fact that in verbal problem solving he was in the 30th percentile.  It’s hard not to get caught up in what that means, but since I really have no idea what the test consisted of I can’t analyze it too much.  Chances are he just wasn’t interested in whatever it was they asked him to do.  Anyway, he’ll be going to kindergarten in the fall at Newman Elementary which is where he’s gone to Pre-K.  It’s not our closest school, but I really like it there and think he will thrive.

In March I got a very exciting new toy – my Trek Lexa SL:

After riding my hybrid bike around last year and renting a road bike for the Heber Valley ride in September I decided that I really love biking enough to invest in a road bike.  Joe helped me pick out this one and I simply adore it.  It’s so fast!!   The first weekend in April Joe and I went down to St. George for a little get away and rode ALL over.  We rode up the bike trail in Snow Canyon which was a blast even though it has some crazy steep hills.  I’m not very good at hills – imagine me trying to let go of all my inhibitions and hurl myself down a hill and breakneck speeds where if you hit a rock you just might die – not really my thing.  I did get going about 37 mph down one and was pretty proud of myself.  It was a fabulous weekend (although apparently I didn’t take pictures).

We had a very festive Easter season this year.  The kids were invited to 3 Easter Egg hunts!  We’re still eating Easter candy.

Our friends, Shannon and Mac Bludworth, held a massive Easter hunt at their house.  Their yard was literally COVERED in candy, eggs and toys.  The kids had an incredible time and it was so generous of the Bludworths.  They are some of those really good people that you just love to be around.  Here’s some pics:

The yard before the kids got to it:

 

They also got to have an Easter Egg hunt at Mike & Stephanie’s house at a Pitts family party.  Bree gave each kid their own color of eggs to find which was fun and challenging for them.  Mike had Easter Egg games for the grown-ups too including a relay race where you had to hold an egg on a spoon in your mouth, a game where you had to toss a raw egg back and forth with your spouse and an especially entertaining one where spouses placed an egg between their belly buttons and had to try to roll it up to their necks without using their hands.  Since Joe is 1o inches taller than  I am our belly buttons and necks are not really in the same place.  It was pretty funny.

On Easter we got together with the Larson family at Tenille’s house and had a fun lunch and egg hunt there too. Pictures:

Dad and Tenille:

Nick & Lacy & Jayden

Lucy found one!

Ross

Brad hard at work.

Chelise with a full bucket.

Jack (and Carly).

And Mom and Janet…I think Janet is smoking a pencil.

A friend from the ward, Samantha Behl, needed to do some pictures for a photography class at school so she asked if she could take some of my kids.  We went to a local park and she got some great shots – here are some of my favorites:

And one with me:

The only other exciting thing that happened in April was that we lost Lucy at a Utah Blaze (indoor football) game.  We were there with the Hughes and Joe and Steve had taken the kids out to play on a small playground they have there.  The next thing I knew Joe was bringing Brad back in and saying “I’ve lost Lucy.”  I really thought he was kidding at first…but he wasn’t.  She had taken off and was nowhere to be found.  We reported her to security who (not so) reassuringly told me “Don’t worry, we haven’t really lost one yet.” and within 1o minutes they had found her inside the arena watching the dancers.  Brad actually spotted the security man bringing her down the stairs and he and Laura were the first ones to her.  I didn’t actually break down until they found her and then my emotions got the best of me.  It was really scary not to know where she is and to have all kinds of bad things running through the back of my mind.  Luckily all was well and we’ve had lots of talks since then about staying where you’re supposed to be.

February 2011–California and the Happiest Place on Earth

In February Joe and the kids and I took Joe’s parents and went to California for five days. I have to admit that I was slightly skeptical about the whole Disneyland trip. I was 18 the first time I went to Disneyland and I wasn’t sure that the Disney magic of childhood would live up to all I had heard. Turns out it totally did. We had an amazing time. And I think the kids liked it too.

I took a million pictures, unfortunately a lot of them are saved on our currently malfunctioning hard drive so you get the ones I already had posted on facebook.

The first day that we got there we rented a van at the airport and drove to Huntington Beach. It was Lucy’s first time seeing the ocean and Brad’s first time that he could remember. It was too cold to go into the water but we had fun walking the pier, finding shells and watching some crazy surfers. We also saw a seagull with only 1 food…I should have taken a picture of that.

We spent 3 days going to Disneyland and California Adventure. We stayed at the Desert Palms which was about a 10 minute walk from the parks which was perfect for afternoon naps. It did rain on us a little bit which I guess is the hazard of going in February, however since we never waited in line for more than 20 minutes for any ride I will totally take a little rain.

Kathy and I took Lucy to have lunch with the Princesses at Ariel’s Grotto. It was totally worth the money because the princesses came to our table and talked with and hugged Lucy and she was absolutely in 7th Heaven.

Obligatory teacup shot:

Lucy tells everyone “I was a CRAZY driver!”

And some randomness:

One of the really nice things about taking Joe’s parents with us was that Joe and I got to have some time alone. One of the nights we went to California Adventure alone and rode the “Tower of Terror”. It was a GREAT ride! We both loved it.

It was such a fun trip and I’m so glad we did it. I can see why people go back again and again.

January 2011–Zumba Instructor? Me?

Beginning in the fall of 2009 I started taking Zumba classes from Jessica Thompson at our local Rec. Center. It’s funny really that a form of exercise based in Latin Dance would appeal to me since I seriously lack in rhythm, but I fell in love with it and just couldn’t stop. In November of 2010 I started toying with the idea of getting licensed so that I could teach my own classes. At first I thought I was crazy, but the more I thought about it, the more I got really excited about it. On January 7 I took the certification class and got my license to teach. I decided to jump in with both feet and taught my first class to an enthusiastic group of family and friends on Martin Luther King Day and then got my real induction the next night substituting a big class of Jessica’s. Since then I’ve started teaching my own classes 4 times a week and I love really love it. I never thought I would be teaching exercise classes – especially ones based in dance, but I guess all those lessons I took starting at age 3 really paid off finally.

Oh! And I have a facebook Zumba page – check it out – www.facebook.com/NatalieZumba

And…..we’re back – Holidays 2010

I’m not sure why blogging sometimes appeals to me and sometimes doesn’t.  I think it’s because I have a desire to have a record of what happens to our family, but I don’t really have a desire to write it.  Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to want to write itself.  So without further ado, here’s some of what’s happened to us in the last 5 months or so:

Joe and I made our third December trip to New York City.  It’s awfully convenient that I have to go there for work during such a fabulous time of year.  We stayed over an extra day this trip so I got some extra site seeing this year.  We had an amazing dinner date at a place called Insieme and also went to the Natural History Museum.

Christmas was a lot of fun this year.  Brad is old enough to really know what’s going on and Lucy is old enough to be appropriately impressed by everything and to get excited about all the fun.  I snapped a few pictures of the kids before church the Sunday before Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we had the Larson side of the family over to our house for dinner.  Grandpa Larson had a very good time playing Santa to all the kids.  He got Lucy a doll stroller which she had been wanting and got Brad a Pirate Ship playset which Brad has played with all the time, and everyone got some books, so Grandpa did a great job.

Lucy woke up bright and early on Christmas and wanted to get dressed and ready before opening presents.  She got very excited about everything.

Brad’s School had a Santa’s Shop where he got to take money and buy presents for each of us.  He had a lot of fun with it.  He bought me a ring of purple gemstones, he got Joe a “World’s Best Data” paperweight and he got Lucy this:

Brad got a fun set of Hexbugs which entertained all of us.

And Lucy’s big present was a Baby play set that I got a killer deal on at Costco.

That day we met the Tibbs family at Josh and Jo-Elle’s house for our annual gift exchange.  Joe and I had to make a homemade gift for Steve and Kathy and I put together a book for them featuring Brad and Lucy as the main stars: