A Birdseye View

Last week I took the kids down to the Legacy Center for the Lehi City "Information Fair" which sounds really boring, but ended up being a lot of fun! Joe and his team brought their vehicles to show what they are capable of. This is him in front of his amazing UCS van.

Lots of other organizations were there, too, like the Fire Department, the Lehi Police, UDOT, and the power company. The older kids got to ride in the bucket of the power truck. They thought it was really cool and "a little creepy"! Josh wanted absolutely nothing to do with getting in the bucket and going that high. We also checked out the huge earthmover/bulldozer(???) that UDOT was displaying. The kids also all got to drive remote control bulldozers across the parking lot. We also had popcorn and hot dogs and drinks FOR FREE! (you have to say that in an Adam Sandler voice - rent "Bedtime Stories" if you don't know what I'm talking about!) Overall, a nice activity for a chilly Spring evening!

Love Story meets Viva La Vida

I had the opportunity to go to a Piano Teacher Seminar by Jon Schmidt this morning. He is one of my favorite composers and it was a great experience to learn a new method of teaching note recognition to beginner students. This is Jon's newest release - the album will be out at the end of May (I think). Turn up your speakers and enjoy - he is really amazing!

North Carolina State Report

In fifth grade, the kids have to do a report on one of the 50 states. McKayla requested North Carolina. She has to do a written report, an oral report, and a poster with certain requirements.

She has been working on the poster for the past couple of days, and it is DONE!

This is a 3x4 foot posterboard that McKayla painted blue. She found all of the pictures and info online then put it all into Word documents all by herself. The only thing I did to help her was give some design tips and help glue some things down. The first block of the trail says "Follow Blackbeard's trail to find out ten AWESOME FACTS about North Carolina", and at the bottom in the diamonds she has the state items (bird, flower, tree, etc.) Didn't she do great!

Aloha from Hawaii

Joe had the lucky opportunity to do some maritime training with some members of his team in Hawaii this week, so he is spending Spring Break on the sunny island of Oahu! He tells me he is working hard, so I have to believe him, but even the work looks like fun to me! Here are some pictures he has taken (and I'm sure there are lots more to come):

Spring Break Entertainment

It is finally Spring Break for the Alpine School District. Since Joe is out of town, and we have an entire week to have fun and relax, we are going to try to do something fun everyday. These are some of the things we have been doing this week so far:

My friend Tina and I took our kids to Temple Square to see some of the sites on Monday. We went to the Church History Musem, toured the Conference Center, visited the statue of Christ in the North Visitors Center, looked at Temple Square from the top of the Joseph Smith Museum, played in the reflection pond, and peeked in the Tabernacle. One of my favorite things about Temple Square is the flowers. They are always amazing, and they smelled SO good. It was a gorgeous Spring day, and we even got a little bit sunburned!On Tuesday, after much persistent requesting (not quite whining, just dilligent asking) from McKayla, I took the kids swimming at the Legacy Center pool - their favorite place to play! We were there for 2 1/2 hours. Can you say "Waterlogged"?

Wednesday we went to the theater at Thanksgiving Point to see "Monsters vs. Aliens" in 3-D! It was pretty cute and the 3-D effects were really great.This morning we woke up to 9 inches of snow! So I spent some time shoveling the driveway and the rest of the day relaxing and watching it melt. We didn't go anywhere, but we made some big banana splits and called that "the activity of the day"!

Lost camera = long time between blogs

I lost my camera last week. I had a couple of days of worry and wondering how I was ever going to fabricate the missing photos for my "picture of the day" album. Luckily, a family in our ward found the camera and returned it to me at church on Sunday (along with some choice photography that they added!). Thanks Taylor family! So now I can finally update. Here are a few things we have been up to lately:

Rock Band and dinner at the Carter's house. Joe wasn't sure he wanted to play, but once he started he liked it! Thanks Anna and family - it was a lot of fun!

Visiting Grandma & Grandpa Bell over Conference Weekend. This is Grandpa and Josh enjoying the NASCAR race between sessions.

Did I mention that I was called to be the Primary President in our ward a couple of weeks ago? I have some great counselors and secretary, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. We went to the Primary training session before conference at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.

This is the Primary Presidency - Anne Fisher, Melissa Southwick, Tina Orton and me. We had our first big activity last week (just a week after we were put in). It was a Family Talent Show and it involved many of the families in the ward, all of the Primary children, the Young Women, the Young Men, and the Bishopric. It was an ambitious project, but it turned out really well!
Joe and McKayla did some freestyle jujitsu,
Kyle and Josh danced (breakdance style!)
and I did the chicken dance with the presidency (hence the masks).
Joe was the MC for the night - and he did "Father Abraham with the bishopric!


Coloring Easter Eggs on Saturday before Joe left for Hawaii.