Sydney's Utah Trip: Clark Planetarium, Old (and New) Friends

The Zermatt was such a cool resort that Sydney and I were happy to sleep in, check out the grounds and have breakfast in the hotel. We were both starting to feel like we needed to bring the whole family back to this place and wanted to make sure we tried as much as we could.

Sydney was VERY happy with her chocolate pancakes and I love a place that will accommodate my request for an 1/2 orange juice 1/2 cranberry juice beverage.

This sign is just outside the entrance and when Sydney saw that Sydney, Australia was listed, she had to have a photo. You can see there's a giant chessboard next to it and in that building behind her is a convention center where a quilt retreat was taking place. 

We decided to hit the Clark Planetarium first, hoping to beat the crowds a bit. Here Sydney is bending a bit of light with her finger.

There was a HUGE projection of the surface of the sun that kept rotating views.

Sydney could jump to see how much she could affect the Richter Scale.

She made the fabric of space bend as she danced.

Sydney hung out on the surface of Mars a bit.

She checked out her weight on other planets.

I love these things- I think they are so mesmerizing!

We even found a little bit of home among the exhibits!

This display allowed you to mimic how craters are made. The disk rotated and smoothed the sand but then you could build up pressure in the tube and shoot air. We spent A LOT of time at this one bc it was so fun. Sydney was having a ball.

Even though I was on vacation, after the place started to fill in I began to feel rather overstimulated. There weren't just kids, there were A LOT of kids. The Clark Planetarium is free which means it fills up quickly. The kids were largely unsupervised. Utah has a child free-range law which is so foreign to me living in Illinois. People call the police if they see a child alone in their own backyard- even if the parent is in the house. Comparatively, Utah feels like chaos to me. At one point, a couple of moms who had been chatting stopped and one of them said, "OK, now where are my kids?" They weren't somewhere in the room, they were somewhere in the building and she had to go down a floor to find them. There were stacks of water bottles in the corner- people just set them down so they could pick them up later. The amount of touching without hand sanitizing and no mask wearing started to get to my Covid weary brain. I'm glad Sydney had a good time, but I was really, really glad to get out of there.

We were able to see my old mission companion Gaylynn and her family. I'm grateful to have those people in my life who can pick up on a conversation from years ago and who don't mind talking about the dark stuff in your closet. As I grow older, I realize how truly rare those friends are in this world and I'm so very grateful for the ones I have. It was refreshing to catch up with her, see how things are going in her life and how much her girl- Liesel's contemporary- has grown! Even though we are going through a lot separately, our visit made me feel like we are going through it together. 

Sydney and I headed out to do some shopping. On my trip with Brigitta, I was hoping she could meet Doug's little girl Bailey but the timing didn't work out. This time, she was available and the two became fast friends. About a month before I cleaned out closets and normally Brigitta and Sydney are just loathe to give anything away- even when it doesn't fit them. Reagan mentioned Bailey could use some girly pieces so I told the girls anything they didn't keep would go to their cousin-to-be Bailey and suddenly they were happy to rid themselves of anything that didn't quite work. 

Bailey was thrilled with the clothes- she immediately started going through the sack and holding items up to her body. I think she would have put them on if we hadn't been in a public place! I got to chat with Doug and Brooklyn and oh my- Brooklyn is such a love. 

The apple doesn't fall far. As we headed to our cars, Doug noticed Sydney's shoe wasn't tied and he immediately stooped down to take care of it.

Once we were in the car I immediately called Reagan and Doug did the same- haha! We had a lovely time getting together with them. It was a nice ending to what started out as a hectic day.

March Tidbits

This was the lid to Ireland's pie which is why it looks like a plate with stars on it. Doesn't it make Sydney look angelic!

 

We are big fans of John Williams music. On Sunday's I'll often ask Alexa to just shuffle music by him and we are treated to music from Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Fiddler on the Roof... it's all so good! We've also been able to hear it live at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra when they do Music at the Movies. I saw this quote and it warmed the cockles of my heart!

I joke that the Pilot is my favorite child. She's just been going and going and going- rarely ever creating problems. So when the odometer his 222222 and a range of 77 miles I had to take a picture! I will be so sad when she quits because she has been SUCH a great car!

We had an amazing Stake Conference! One of the speakers talked about a time she was in a hospital waiting room. There was a family waiting for their daughter who was getting a heart transplant. The surgeon came out to tell them it was successful and they all cried. He said, "It's okay- I was trained for this and because of that your daughter will live." She drew a parallel to this and our Savior who has said essentially the same thing: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world." Ahhhh it was SO good!

Daxko gave everyone a credit to the SWAG store. The vest Brent has been wearing for ages was actually from my last job in Boston so I was glad to replace it. 

Brent was pretty excited too- love his GQ modeling poses!

Ireland's glasses were getting cumbersome and when we realized she could get contacts, we decided to give them a try. It's not the most natural thing in the world to poke at your eyeballs and it took a bit of getting used to. Fun fact- the optometrist said people who wear contacts have a less severe shift in their eyesight over time compared to those who wear glasses.

I called the number and can I say? It is just adorable!!!

Some images from early morning scripture study.

I am as sick of the cold, dreary weather as the next person but when there's a gentle snowfall followed by a windless, sunny day, I don't mind so much. The snow outlines the dark branches. Nature's lace!

That Sunday dinner which morphed into a lesson on how to catch food in your mouth.

Ireland tried her hand at skateboarding with her friend Madison.

Brent and I snuck away for a date to Jimmy's Charhouse where I got the BEST southwestern salad.

Complete with my very own boat of ranch sauce- YUM!

Brent had to go into the office and Sydney yelled after him, "Bring home the BACOOOOON!" It was so cute!

Sydney's Utah Trip: ORD to SLC

It would be a gross understatement to say Sydney was excited for her 8-year trip to Utah. Months before we left she wanted to talk about the trip and even start packing. She had watched all her sisters take off without her and now it was finally her turn.

I'd say about half of these trips are rote and half are unique- at the request of the girls. I always do stuff around Temple Square and BYU with each of them. But everything beyond that is meant to be especially for them and no one else. I think Liesel came up with this after we did the Alpine Coaster on her trip- she asked that we keep that memory for just the two of us and that I not do it with anyone else. 

At the time, it wasn't a big deal but when Sydney's trip rolled around I felt like I had done pretty much everything Utah has to offer and I simply couldn't think of anything to make Sydney's trip special. I was stuck- so I called on a friend for help and in one conversation had a lovely list of where we wanted to stay and what we wanted to do. Sydney was thrilled.

Away we went.

The view out the window changed from this:

To this:

As we neared the airport it looked like this and even my heart started to race a bit:

We went from the lovely hall of flags at ORD to The Canyon art installation at SLC.

Our first order of business was to head over to Cafe Rio and Katrina met up with us with Abigail in tow. As you can see, Sydney was pretty happy to see her aunt again!

Good food and good company definitely started our trip off right!

With all the other girls, we've stayed at a Hampton- our hotel of choice when traveling. However, my friend had recommended the Zermatt in Midway. It was perfect. The pool was amazing, the room was charming and the location worked really well for us since we were going both north to SLC and south to Provo. Sydney loved it for all of that and the fact that none of her sisters had stayed there. She did facetime with them to show off the room and the pool. Eventually the exhaustion of travelling and the altitude overtook the novelty of it all and she fell fast asleep

Staircase Refresh

 On my continuing mission to change every wall color in the house, I decided I couldn't stand it anymore and I had to get rid of the depressing orange on the staircase between the 1st floor and the basement. It was previously a color by Valspar called Copper Hide. While I feel dark paint has it's place, I don't think it's appropriate for small spaces such as a stairway. Like so many other rooms in the house, I changed the ceiling to Super White and the walls to Decorator's White- both by Benjamin Moore. 

Before: 1st Floor Looking Down

Before: Basement Looking Up

It's kind of a miracle I got through this one without falling and breaking my neck. There were some very high spots so taping and painting those nooks and crannies was really a challenge. This one was really tough and I had to enlist Brent to help me with the ceiling portion of it.

Then he had to enlist Liesel's help to tape that same spot. You may be asking yourself if there's really that much of a difference between Super White and Decorator's White that the taping was really even necessary and if you know me at all, you know the answer is absolutely yes. If it had been off, it would have kept me up at night and driven me crazy.

In the girl's bathroom I have framed photos of each of them at 3 months and now that Sydney has been baptized, I wanted to have their baptism photos lining the stairs. When I had hers framed, I changed out the cheap frame on Liesel's at the same time so they would look different yet cohesive. It took a while and custom framing is always pricy but I am SO happy with the results! 

After: 1st Floor Looking Down

The huge mirror used to hang behind the door of the powder room and it had just been sitting downstairs. Initially, I was going to paint the frame a simple black but in the end the frame complimented the light fixture. Speaking of the light fixture, I used to hate it- I felt like it added to the drab feeling of the staircase but once it was brightened up with the white paint it suddenly looked more charming. The mirror on the landing reflects the light beautifully! 

After: Basement Looking Up

The funny thing about this refresh is that in many ways the staircase looks better, but it did emphasize some of the construction- especially the baseboards- are just not done well at all. Once the walls were light and bright, suddenly the carpet looked incredibly dingy. When you line the Before and After up side by side, the carpet actually looks worse in the After. 

I mentioned this to Brent and I could see him inwardly groan that even as I was wrapping up this project I was mentally beginning another one that would inevitably be more expensive than just a can or two of paint.

All in good time my dear, all in good time. When we have the funds, not only will we replace the carpet but I think we can upgrade the handrails and I'd like to get lights along the baseboards just to ensure anyone walking down the stairs can easily see where they are going. I really wanted to finish this project before Sydney and I headed to Utah and I'm so glad it's done!