April

 April was a very busy month!  We made a lot of fun memories!

Our month started off by watching General Conference.  I love that the kids get so excited to watch General Conference every 6 months.  I'm sure all of the fun food helps with the excitement.

Lincoln went with Joseph to Dave & Busters for a report card incentive.  They had a lot of fun together.  Lincoln spent most of his time behind the wheel!

The second week in April was Spring Break.  

The girls and I took a hike at Green Lakes State Park.  We were adventurous and did the 3 mile, 2 lake loop.  It was probably a little too adventurous for the girls.  They were tired the last mile or so.  They were good sports about it though and we had a good time.

New York City

Day 1

Thursday and Friday of Spring Break we took a little trip to NYC.  It was the first time we had gone to NYC as a family.  Joseph, Rebecah and I had all been there.  I was really nervous about taking the younger kids, traffic, parking, etc, but it all worked out so well.  We intentionally kept the schedule very open so no one got too tired.

We started our adventure by riding the Staten Island Ferry so we could get a good look at the Statue of Liberty. The kids enjoyed the ferry ride and seeing Lady Liberty.

On the Ferry.  Eden didn't want to be in the picture.

  I enjoyed the 9/11 Memorial.  The two memorial pools felt really peaceful, like I was standing on sacred ground remembering all of those people who died during the terrorist attacks.  (We didn't go in the museum because I figured the kids might be bored.)

All of the kids, except Kimball, had their first subway ride.  Lincoln especially enjoyed riding the subway.  Thankfully, we were riding the subway when it wasn't very crowded so we were able to get on and off and find seats without difficulty.  

We met up with two of Joseph's cousins and their spouses for dinner.  It was my first time meeting them and they were just wonderful.  It was nice to get to know them and we were so grateful that they made the effort to meet us in NYC.  Our restaurant didn't have a very kid friendly menu, but we all found something to eat.  Besides, we weren't there for the food, just family. 

We walked home from dinner in the rain.  That wasn't the most pleasant experience, but everyone took it in stride.  Rebecah let me use her jacket so I didn't get all wet, which I really appreciated!

Day 2

After breakfast we left our hotel for a fun day ahead of us.  When we talked with the kids about things to do and see in NYC no one really seemed to care about seeing Times Square, so we didn't plan it into our trip.  Well, Kimball must not have been around because he wanted to see it.  While Joseph drove everyone to the parking garage at the Natural History Museum, Kimball and I walked through Times Square to meet up with everyone at Central Park.  

This trip was only my second trip to NYC, but walking through Times Square just makes a trip to NYC. Kimball enjoyed all of the lights and action.  Everyone told us to look for people dressed in costume, or unique people walking around, but we didn't see anything out of the ordinary.  

Fun story.  We stopped at a souvenir shop and decided to buy some NY hats and shirts only to realize that I had left my wallet in my other bag.  We were 2 miles from my wallet and feeling very disappointed.  Kimball and I decided to walk to meet everyone in Central Park, get my wallet from Joseph and then walk back to the shop to make our purchases.  Crazy, I know!!  We ended up walking a total of 6 miles to get these hats.  I could have found the shirts for Rebecah and me anywhere, but Kimball really liked the hats at this particular store.  On our walk back to the store we looked in all of the sister stores on our route and none of them had the same style of hats.  It may sound crazy, but walking the streets of NYC with Kimball was the highlight of my trip.  Kimball is a fast walker so he could keep up with me and he got really good at reading the signs/traffic lights so we could be prepared to step into the street as soon as the lights changed.  By the end of the 6 miles Kimball's feet were starting to hurt walking at such a fast pace.  (It's not a good day for me unless I get 20,000 steps logged on my Fitbit, so I was doing fine!)

Central Park.

While Kimball and I were pounding the pavement everyone else enjoyed time in Central Park.  They played on some rocks, a play ground, and we all enjoyed the view from Belvedere Castle.  It is nice to have the green space in the city that never sleeps.

Our final adventure for the day was the Natural History Museum.  We had tickets for 12:30 and it took forever to get through the line.  Thankfully, they weren't picky about us finally making it to the ticket counter at 1:15 and not 12:30.  The kids have seen the movie "Night at the Museum" so they wanted to see as many of the exhibits from the movie as they could.  Here's what we found:

The dinosaur

The African animals

Teddy Roosevelt, who was gracious enough to pose for a picture.

This was a hard one.  Annika had her heart set on seeing Sacagawea and we couldn't find a mannequin that was specifically her.  Annika was SO disappointed, so we just told her that this woman looked enough like Sacagawea to take a picture.  

Easter Island statue.  

Everyone had a great time in "the city" as people in New York refer to NYC.  If you are ever in NYC and want to leave before traffic really picks up, leave from the Natural History Museum about 3:00 and head north to the George Washington Bridge.  I was amazed at how light the traffic was by NYC standards.  I didn't have to grip my seat even once!

Joseph really likes astronomy so he has been following the "Planet Parade" over the last few weeks.  This is a picture he took of just 3 of the planets one morning.  If you look closely you can see the 3 stars forming a diagonal line in the center of the picture.

I LOVE Easter!!  It's one of my favorite days of the year.  I have really tried to keep the commercial aspects out of my Easter celebration.  We give the kids candy on Saturday and that is it.  We never talk about "the Easter Bunny" but the kids don't care as long as they get candy!

I really wanted Easter to be special this year.  We had just talked about the Passover in Sunday School and as a family, so I decided that since Passover was 2 days before Easter we would have a mini Passover Seder for Easter dinner.  I spent a lot of time researching the meal and the order of eating the foods.  It really made for a meaningful Easter.

Here is what our plates looked like.  Obviously we ate more food than this, but as we went through the Passover questions we just had enough food to participate before we really ate dinner.  Everyone tried the lamb and most of us liked it. I would definitely have another Passover Seder. The symbolism of Passover is so wonderful.

Enjoying a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Joseph took the little girls to a Disney trivia night at the library. They LOVED their mouse ears!

Twinning!

Festival of Arts.  

The school hosted Festival of Arts again this year, after taking a 2 year Covid break.  Rebecah's band performed and they sounded really good.  Annika and Rebecah both had art pieces in the show, so it was fun seeing their art work.  

It was a great month.  Kimball is running track again, and soccer starts this week for Rebecah, Lincoln and Annika.

March

 March is always a very busy month for us. 

I have always hated the chunky railing that goes from our eat-in kitchen into our family room.  I mentioned to Joseph a few years ago that I would love to have it gone.  He finally did it!!  I love it and the two rooms feel a lot more open without the railing.  Joseph was good about including the kids in the project.

Lincoln helping to take down the railing.

Eden and Joseph scraping off some cement.

Finished product.

For the school musical the kids have three dress rehearsals from 3-9 after school. I volunteered to help serve the kids dinner during these dress rehearsals.  Rebecah loved having me there and it was fun to see her interact with her friends.  I grabbed this picture of her in her costume.  I was very relieved when she told me that the ladies in charge of costumes decided improve the costumes.  No ugly orange for Rebecah as you'll see in later pictures.

Joseph took the big kids skiing.  They had a lot of fun

even though Kimball refused to pose for a picture.

We signed Eden up for a 6 week ballet class.  She loved it and her teacher, Miss Erinn.  On the last day of ballet the girls had a little recital.  Eden was in the back so I couldn't get any great pictures of her, but she had a fun experience.  Miss Erinn is the daughter of one of Eden's preschool teachers so that was extra fun.

Orchestra concert.  

Kimball played the bass and the bass guitar in the concert.  It was fun to watch him perform.  He says this will be his last year in orchestra so I was glad I could attend his concert.

St. Patrick's Day promised to be beautiful and sunny with temperatures hovering around 70 degrees.  The weather did NOT disappoint!!  I picked Eden up from school and we went straight to Green Lakes State park.  It was a wonderful day to walk the lake trail.  Eden had so much energy and loved the walk.  The next time we have a nice day I think we'll go back and walk the extra mile loop around Round Lake.  I think Eden could easily do three mile round trip.  Half of Green Lake was still covered in ice so that was a different perspective.

I was so glad Eden and I had this beautiful, fun day together.  It all went downhill later in the day.  I had a mild sore throat for two days and at times my nose felt stuffy, so I decided I better do the responsible thing and take a Covid test.  I was SHOCKED when it came back positive--I didn't feel that sick.  I doubted the first test so I took a second and it was positive, too!  Where had I gotten Covid?  I have been the most cautious of any in our family, I interact with the least amount of people, and I am still wearing a mask in public even though it is no longer required!  (The kids still wear masks to school even though it is no longer required.  I'm not taking chances after our experience in December.  Covid cases are on the rise in our area again so it's only smart to have them wear masks another month or so.)  My isolation didn't feel too bad since I had already had symptoms for a few days and the isolation period was decreased to six days with four days of mask wearing after isolation.  I did my very best to stay away from my family, but there is something about my bedroom that just attracts children!  I kept having to remind the kids that I had Covid and they needed to stay away from me!!  Thankfully, I didn't have any awful symptoms.  A slight sore throat, stuffy nose occasionally and fatigue.  I also was able to avoid the biggest symptom of Covid...boredom!  I'm a homebody and I love to read so having an excuse to stay home with extra time to read was heaven!  I also limited my time in the kitchen as much as I could for a full 10 days.  No extra baking for me.  Everyone else tested negative.  The three little ones had a cold with a cough at the same time I had Covid, so I actually tested a few times just to make sure they were still negative and they always were.

This is a picture the school captured of the String Fest dress rehearsal.  I love that Kimball went straight from track practice to this rehearsal and is still wearing his prescription sunglasses!

I have missed all of the other String Fest concerts Kimball has been in.  I guess there were only two previous concerts, because Covid canceled concerts for two years, but I was glad I could attend String Fest.  It was my first day out of isolation.  I wore a mask at the concert and Joseph picked seats where I wasn't sitting near anyone other than my family.  String Fest is where all of the orchestras in the district get together and hold a concert.  The groups don't play many songs to keep the concert at a reasonable length, but the music sounded so good!

The  middle school musical this year was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  Rebecah was very excited to be cast as Issachar's wife.  The musical practices are intense and most weeks Rebecah had musical practice five days a week.  The musical is such a wonderful experience for the kids.  It was good for Kimball and it was good for Rebecah.  Rebecah made a lot of new friends and strengthened old friendships.  It was SO fun to watch Rebecah perform!  She always had a smile on her face and loved dancing and singing.

Aren't these an improvement on the orange tunics?

Rebecah with Melanie Dolson.  Friends since Kindergarten! 

Rebecah is with Caitlin Klei.  They were in preschool together, but Caitlin is a grade younger than Rebecah, so it has been nice for these girls to renew their friendship.  Caitlin's mom just so happens to be one of Eden's preschool teachers this year.

Ava and Reece, two of Rebecah's friends that came to watch the show to support their friends.

Rebecah and Gianna

The musical director gave awards to all of the cast members. 

Rebecah's award was "Best Team Player".  

Joseph and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary.  I had Covid when we were supposed to attend the symphony, so Rebecah went on our anniversary date with Joseph.  I made a cheesecake stuffed chocolate cake with a white chocolate mousse and dark chocolate ganache with Oreos sprinkled on top.  It was really good!

Rebecah went to the temple for the first time for youth baptisms.  She had a wonderful experience and is asking to return as soon as she can.  Joseph was able to attend with her, but he forgot to document the special occasion with a picture.  

February

 It was a busy month, but we don't have many pictures to show for it!  

One Sunday evening we reminisced about books I had read to Kimball when he was a little boy.  He definitely had his favorites that Joseph and I memorized from reading them so many times.  Since these books were so well loved they got destroyed and we no longer own them.  We were able to find YouTube videos of people reading most of his favorites and we sat and watched them together.  Kimball was like a little boy again!  I have made a list of his favorites and I'm going to acquire them so I can give them to him when he becomes a dad in another 10+/- years.

Our snow fall has been below average the last few years and this year has had the lowest amount of snow.  It's really disappointing.  Skiing hasn't been very good for Joseph and Kimball and the snow fort didn't last long either.  We did get 6 inches of snow at the beginning of February so we decided to go on a horse drawn sleigh ride.  We did this the first year we lived here, but hadn't gone back for various reasons.  I must say it wasn't as magical as I remembered.  The ride wasn't very long and we went on a really cold day.  Wearing our masks definitely kept us warmer!!  All in all the outing was still fun.  We ate lunch in the lodge and those that wanted to went down the sledding hill.

For Valentine's day this year Joseph and I went to a Shen-Yun Chinese dance performance.  It was really nice.  I loved all of the flowing costumes, learning about some of the traditional Chinese stories and seeing the dancing.  On Valentine's day, I kept it simple.  I gave the kids some candy and I made a red velvet cake for dessert.  I'm trying to get away from making the little holidays "big" holidays.  No one asked for a special breakfast so I was off the hook and no one seemed too disappointed that we skipped presents.

We have taken up roller skating as a family.  We have enough skates or roller blades for everyone in the family.  It is fun seeing the little ones master roller skating and it's something the entire family enjoys, except for Eden.  She hasn't caught the skating bug and she isn't willing to try skating very long before she is ready for a different activity.  She'll get there eventually, and if she doesn't, that's okay, too!

Winter break was the third week in February and the kids enjoyed a week off from school.  We didn't do anything overly exciting, but there were football workouts, appointments, play dates, and musical rehearsals that kept us busy.  

Night Skiing during Winter Break.