The Zoo

Hallee has been asking to go to the zoo for a while now.  We found out that Tuesday was $2 so Keith decided to take the day off and go with us.  Tiff and the kids joined us.  

It was freezing!  I set out hats and gloves for everyone, but Wyatt didn't bring any.  He was good about not complaining, but he was freezing.  He was wishing he wore a sweatshirt with a hood. 

We loved watching the monkeys.

Hallee was so excited about every animal we saw.

We had to get a picture of this sign. 

The polar bear just kept swimming back and forth.  We stayed for a while and watched him, it was mesmerizing. 

Hallee was excited to see the sloth.  He was asleep in the basket, but at least she got to see him.

Jonah stayed home to hang out with friends.  We enjoyed a nice long weekend.  Monday was Presidents Day and Keith had that off and then the kids had Tuesday off of school as well so it was nice to have Keith home with us again.  I'm so glad we finally made it to the zoo for Hallee and Keith, he loves the zoo.

Valentine's Day

Hallee made a Valentine's box at school.  They are learning about Utah History so they made wagon valentine boxes.  It's so nice that they do them at school!

Alisha dropped off flowers and chocolates for Caitlyn.  She wrote her a note saying how much she loves her and how grateful she is to have her as a friend.  I thought that was so sweet and Caitlyn loved it.

Keith got me and the girls flowers.  He is such a great father and husband. 

He also got Wyatt and Jonah some candy bars.  I love that he got things for the kids because I didn't do anything.  I'm sporadic with Valentine's day, sometimes I get the kids things and some times I don't. It was so nice to have Keith take care of it.

Jonah spent Valentines Day at the Jazz game.  Ian invited him to the game that day.  We had to pay for a Covid test because of the short notice, but I figured it was worth the money when he gets a prime rib dinner and courtside tickets.  He wore a bright yellow sweatshirt so it was easy to pick him out in the crowd.  There he is courtside.

Jonah and Ian sat courtside for the second half and sat behind the bench during the first half.  Jonah loves every minute of the game! It's such a cool experience for him and I'm so excited for him that he has been able to go three times this year.

He took this picture of Rudy Gobert.  I can't even imagine being that close! He said he can hear what they say during the time outs.  He also got to throw the ball to Donovan Mitchell during halftime warm ups and give him a high five.  He said Karl Malone was sitting a few rows behind him and waved to him. Mel and I were talking about how he is living our dream! 

Last Friday Caitlyn and Kiersten went to an escape room. Kiersten took her little sister and Caitlyn took Wyatt. Wyatt was thrilled, he has wanted to do an escape room.  They had a lot of fun and they solved the puzzle.

Caitlyn texted me and told me that they were going to get a treat.  Then she sent me a picture of her "smoking" a cinnamon stick. I told her that I hope she was setting a good example for Wyatt.

She sent me this picture and said, "don't worry Wyatt isn't smoking."  Caitlyn loves to go to The Wash, a Mormon bar here in Provo.  They have a whole menu of nonalcoholic drinks and sour shots.  Caitlyn is such a great big sister.  They both had a great time.

Wyatt made his own escape room the next day.  He did a really good job and Keith and I had fun solving it.

Saturday night we told Hallee and Wyatt that they could have friends over for dinner and a late night.  Wyatt invited Dallin and Eddie and Hallee invited Tessa.

This was Hallee and Tessa's face when I told them that Tessa got to stay until 9 PM.  They are so cute.

They all had fun playing together.

On Sunday I loved watching all of my kids participate in the meetings.  Jonah blessed the sacrament for the first time, he did great, Wyatt passed the sacrament, Caitlyn was an usher and Hallee gave a talk in primary.  It was so cool to see them all contributing and helping in the ward.  

Keith is such a good dad.  He is always looking for ways to spend time with the kids by doing what they want to do. 

Wyatt has been playing Just Dance a lot lately.  He cracks me up when he walks around the house singing and dancing.

I love watching Hallee play pretend.  She was rushing around to get to a job interview and needed someone to watch her baby.

Cailtyn has her own baby, Jackson.  He cuddles up to her and lays his head on her shoulder, it's really cute.

On Sunday Mel and Amarie came over for dinner.  Caitlyn works every Saturday so she hasn't been able to see Amarie as much as she would like.  Here they are doing Wyatt's escape room.  We had enjoyed visiting and playing games with them.

Spring Fever

We have some serious Spring Fever over here.  We had some warm days and we have loved getting outside and enjoying the sunshine. 

One Sunday we went and played pickleball.  

It was the first time I played and I love it.  It reminded me of racquetball and made me want to play that again too!

Hallee was pretty frustrated because she was having a hard time hitting the ball.  We went back the next Sunday to play with Kyle and Paige and she said she was going to have a good attitude and try and be patient.  She did awesome and made a lot of improvement and she was so proud of herself.  It was fun to play with Kyle and Paige.  Kyle was nice and took it easy on me with his serves.  It seems weird that I'm the old aunt that he has to take it easy on, but I love that he was looking out for me. 

Hallee and I went for a walk in Vineyard by Utah Lake.  The lake isn't the most beautiful, but I do enjoy being by the water and the mountains make everything pretty.

We found this cool teepee.

Hallee loved walking along the wall. 

I took this picture off the school Facebook page.  They had a little photo shoot for kindness week.  Here is Wyatt with his crew.  He hangs out with Eddie, Zoey and Dallin at school.  Zoey and Dallin are in his class. 

Hallee and Wyatt had fun smashing geodes together. Unfortunately, the warm weather didn't last and it has been so cold this week and I think we have gotten more snow this week than we have over the whole winter. Hopefully the warm weather will be back soon.

I feel so fancy with a menu

There is a website where you can enter your name to see if you have any lost money.  Keith found out he had almost $200 from some insurance thing.  I was skeptical, but sure enough he got a check a couple of days later. He said he wanted to take the family out for dinner with the money.  We went to Leatherby's for dinner and dessert so it took almost the whole check! We don't go to restaurants very often so it was fun and exciting. I think it was Hallee that said she felt so fancy with a menu. 

Hallee had a very small amount of ice cream left, but she got a to-go cup for it, we all thought that was pretty funny.  I think she ended up eating it before we left. 

Wyatt loves to go to the temple so I check often for baptism spots.  I got one last Friday at 8 PM.  Keith wasn't feeling great so I took Wyatt.  I showed him how to get onto family search and print off temple ready names. 

I debated about canceling it since Keith couldn't go, but Wyatt really wanted to go so I took him.

That was his first time going to the Provo City Center Temple.  City Center is nice because you can park underground, but we ran upstairs so we could get a picture in front of the temple.  I checked yesterday and there was a spot open today, so Keith and Wyatt got to go to the Provo temple today.  Keith said they were happy to see him because they needed someone to baptize everyone. 

Brad Wilcox did a devotional at Provo High seminary on Friday. They invited the deacons and the younger young women to come as well.  Wyatt said he wanted to go.  It was at 6 AM.  Caitlyn and Jonah didn't wake up for it.  I kept asking Wyatt if he was sure he wanted to go and he said yes so we got up at 5:30 AM and I went with him.  I love Brad Wilcox so I was excited to go, even though I wasn't excited about waking up that early.  Brad gave a fireside last Sunday and someone posted it online and he said things that came across really insensitive.  I watched it for myself and I was surprised at what he said and how he said it.  He is a very charismatic speaker with a great sense of humor and I think it just didn't work that night.  I could see where he was coming from, but I could also see why people were offended.  He put out a public apology, but that doesn't seem to be enough these days.  People have torn him apart this week.  I'm shocked by how many people think they are following Christ by "calling out" general authorities in the church.  I agree that it was good that it was pointed out to Brad why what he said could be offensive and I think it is great that he apologized and said he wanted to do better.  I do not agree with attacking him and spewing hate at him.  He is a great man who has devoted his life to serving others and he made a mistake and he apologized, why can't we accept and admire that.  Brad is in a stake near us so people at the high school are in his ward.  One girl who knows him told Caitlyn that he has been a mess all week and his son flew home from medical school to be with him.  I was wondering if he would still do the devotional on Friday.  He did, but he didn't speak much at all.  He started out by acknowledging what was going on and apologizing very sincerely and then he had his family speak and then he closed with his testimony.  I was looking forward to hearing from him and it makes me sad that he spoke so little.  I hope he doesn't let this keep him from speaking, but I wouldn't blame him if it did. Our world is so toxic right now and so many people are just looking for reasons to be offended and ways to correct one another.  I think a lot of people don't dare say anything anymore because you can be labeled as a racist or a biggot and then people come after you and want you to be fired from your job and black listed.  We need to have mercy and grace, that is what Christ taught us.  We should all be willing to assume good intentions and forgive each other. We don't have to agree, but we can still respect each other and get along, even when we need to correct someone.

Hallee came shopping with me last week and we couldn't pass up this dress at Sam's Club.  She looks so cute in it!

She was excited to wear it to church, which of course called for a sisters picture.

We went to my parents last week to celebrate birthdays.  My kids love going to grandmas.

Last night Jonah got to go to the Jazz game with Ian and Kyle.  I told Jonah to send me a picture and this is what he sent me.  Ha!  This was in Ian's bathroom, it wasn't even at the Jazz game.  The boys went fishing after school and then I dropped them off at Ian's house and his dad took them to the game.  It was the first time Jonah has seen Ian's new house.  It was huge, Hallee thought it was a castle when we dropped them off! Jonah said it was so nice and so big! 

Last semester Ian and Jonah had sports history together and they loved their teacher, Mr. Aulava.  Ian wanted to take him to the Jazz game when they played Orlando because Mr. Aulava is from Florida.  Ian's dad went and talked to Mr. Aulava and told him that he could bring someone and have their courtside seats.  Mr. Aulava and his brother sat courtside and the boys sat behind the Jazz bench.  Jonah said Mr. Aulava sat right next to Dwayne Wade and he talked to him throughout the game.  I thought that was so cool that they would take his teacher and Jonah was on cloud nine that he got to go to another game.

Jonah got high fives from a few of the players including Donovan Mitchell.  Jonah loves the meal they get before the game.  They had steak and fish this time.  It's so fun to hear about it when Jonah comes home.  He usually isn't very talkative, but he loves to come home and tell us all about the Jazz games and what a cool experience it is to watch them so close.

Caitlyn has worked in the drive thru a couple of times this week.  It is a trailer out in the mall parking lot.  She takes the order and then they bring it out on a golf cart.  She has enjoyed the drive thru because it's not as busy as inside and she can get some homework done.  Tiff and Paul went and saw her on Monday.  She loved seeing them and she loved the tip they gave her! Hallee and I went and picked up dinner there last night while she was working in the drive thru.  It was fun to see her.  I didn't tip her, but I did buy her some food! It is so nice that we get 50% off.  

Tiff and the kids came over to play today.  The kids have been playing Scattegories a lot lately, so they all played it together today.  Wyatt and Hallee loved playing with Rockwell and Tessa.  They wish they could see them more, but it is hard with different schedules and school.

The boys came up in wigs! I love that the kids just play and I can just talk to Tiff.