Flashback/Flashforward Friday - It's A Delicate Subject

Flashback: Spring Break 1997

My sister Farrah was going to BYU so she was in Utah already, and my sister Kristy and cousin Kathy came up for Spring Break. We went to Moab and hiked to Delicate Arch. I was pregnant with Zac and by the time I got to this spot, I could go no more. I didn't even walk up to the Arch. I just plopped my booty down right there and watched everyone else walk to the Arch.

Flashback: Summer 2007

Steve's sister Heather and her family came to Utah to visit us. We met them in Moab and hiked to Delicate Arch one morning. I didn't go because it was hotter than heck and Addy was just a wee little babe and we didn't want to have her walk all that way on hot rock unshaded and in 100+ degree weather. So Aubrey and I stayed at the hotel with her.

Flashforward: Spring Break 2011

YAY! I finally made it to the Arch! And this time I walked all the way up to it and touched it!




Flashback: Spring Break 1997


Flashforward: Spring Break 2011

En Espanol Por Favor

On Friday, April 15th, Steve and Addy and I spent the day at BYU with Aubrey at the BYU Language Fair. Aubrey is in a Spanish Immersion program at school and has been since she was in Kindergarten. She has 1/2 of her school day totally in Spanish. She is becoming quite the little Espanol girl. We had to start the day out super early, 6:20 AM is when she had to be on the bus. Zac and Em had to get themselves up and ready and off to school all by themselves. I was a little nervous, but it worked out fine. At the fair, the kids compete in different areas using their language skills. This was Aubrey's first year to attend the fair and she was in a play: Little Red Riding Hood, or shall I say: La Caperucita Roja. Here she is with a few of her friends.

Keeping themselves entertained while they waited for their turn to perform

Aubrey was one of two Narrators in the play. She had quite a few lines and she did a FABULOUS job. We were so proud of her.

Her cast

Playing tag while waiting for the closing ceremony. They were all speaking in Spanish while they were playing and as students would walk by they would pause, listen for a minute and some would ask if they were speaking Spanish. It is kinda impressive to see little white kids speaking fluent Spanish.

Our School did a great job and took home the 2nd Place Trophy!

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter Weekend. It started out Saturday afternoon with a 3rd Annual Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt (I live in the BEST neighborhood!). The kids and I have been to all 3, but this was Steve's first time to join us because he usually is working. I can't believe this is our 3rd Easter in our house! The hunt took place over 4 yards, divided up by ages. Addy is in the top left corner in the picture below.

Emily and her friend Savana

After the egg hunt we had lunch

We went to see the movie "Gnomeo and Juliet" after the Egg Hunt. When we got home, Steve helped the kids color Easter Eggs. Zac, who was at a Scout Campout the night before, and who was sleeping all day, finally decided to join us.

The finished product and 3 beautiful girls

Sunday morning we went to church


When we got home from church, my mom and sister Lauren were waiting for us

I seriously need a haircut, thank you for noticing

The kids hunted for more eggs

After the egg hunt, we went inside for lunch. Then we went outside and smashed confetti eggs on each others heads. Thank goodness for the empty lot across the street so I didn't have to have that mess in my yard!

We did a puzzle of the Easter Egg Roll on the White House Lawn

Then we talked about Easter and what it means. We talked about the symbols of Easter and their meaning. I had an Easter Lily and we talked about how the flowers are white and they symbolize Jesus and his purity. I told the kids that the bulbs for the Lily's are underground all winter and then in the spring they break forth from the earth and bloom into a beautiful flower. We talked about how this symbolizes Resurrection. We talked about Jesus and how he was Resurrected. And because he was Resurrected, we all will be too someday. We talked about my dad and how because Christ was resurrected, Papa will be Resurrected and we will be able to see him again some day. We drove to the cemetery and put the Easter Lily's on his grave.

Here is a beautiful Easter Video. If you can't see the video, click here to view.

In God's Country: Moab - Spring Break 2011 Day 3

Thursday, April 7, 2011

As soon as our kids found out we were going to Moab, they started begging us to take them to the Rock Shop. It is one of their favorite places. It is one of my least favorite places. Mostly because I am cheap and the thought of spending money on rocks of all things, goes against everything I believe. So I always give them a limit, a very low limit on what they can spend. But when you multiply that by 4 it still ends up being a ridiculous amount of money to pay for rocks. Another thing about this shop that makes my eye twitch is that it is so jam packed with stuff, and some of the rocks are really expensive. I can just see one of the kids bumping into something or Addy picking up something and dropping it and then El Cheapo here has to shell out $500 bucks for a broken rock. We didn't go here last time we were in Moab, so Steve and I decided to be nice and give in this time. Steve dropped us off while he went to fill up the truck and wheelers with gas. One hour later.....we were finally ready to go.

This was our last day in Moab. We did the 7 Mile Rim Trail. We've never done this one before and we had so much fun. It was full of beautiful views too.

A little bump here:

Emily

Zac

Me

It was past lunch time and we were all hungry. We thought Uranium Arch sounded like a tasty place for a picnic.

Emily

Aubrey

Em on her way up to the top of the arch

Steve and Addy

Addy trying to give Em a kiss

Zac found a phone up on top of the arch. We were able to reunite it with its owner that evening.

When Addy was riding with me, she kept trying to have full on conversations with me. Not an easy thing to do on a trail. She would get so mad when I wouldn't answer her. At one point, I noticed that she hadn't tried to have a conversation with me for a while. I looked back and she was asleep.

Zac

This was a SCARY part of the trail. Here is Steve helping Zac past a spot on a cliff with a big angle. He hitched a ride like this on all of our wheelers to help us keep from toppling down the cliff.

Our two passengers, Aubrey and Addy. Whenever we encountered a hard spot on the trail, they got off and walked it. We encountered a really big hard spot so this time they had to get off and sit forever.

Steve got us all safely over the hard spot and now it was his turn to hitch a ride on the side of his wheeler.

So this might not look so scary from the picture, but it was pretty darn scary. After making it past that angled cliff, we had to go face down this long hill. There were some people at the bottom watching us all come down and after watching us, they decided against trying to go up it and they turned around and went another way. I found this video of some people in Jeeps doing this trail. To see this part we just did, click here. It starts at 5:15 in the video and ends at 7:20. I watched the adults doing it in the video and I thought, "WOW! MY KIDS DID THAT!"

Here is the angle we were on

I thought this looked awesome. It had a section that just crumbled and all the rocks that fell are piled in the opening.

Zac

It was a fun ride. We all made it out alive. It was early evening, and sadly it was time for us to load up the ATV's and head for home. We rolled into our driveway about 11:00 that night.

Click here for day 1

Click here for day 2