No more pencils, no more books

Thursday was Alex and McKay's last day of school.  (It's not actually a day, it's just an hour and a half.)  It was also their last day of Junior High.  They'll be moving on to high school next year, and they will be Orem Tigers.  It's a nice brand new building, and I think they will like it there

Yesterday was Abby's last day of school, and it didn't end a day too soon.  Her school has all four years of high school, so she'll just be moving on to be a sophomore at her same school.  She felt cheated that many schools send their ninth graders to Lagoon during the last week of school, but her school didn't.  They'd rather have the kids learn stuff, I guess.

To mark the first evening of summer vacation we played a couple games of croquet in the yard.  There's nothing better than a little croquet on a pleasant summer evening.  I had to remark that we were all playing much too nicely; not like the battles I've had with my brothers in the past.  We also played a game of Koob.  It was girls against boys, and Allison and Abby beat McKay, Alex, and me.

Happy summer vacation, everyone!

This and That and Eternal Friends

At Alex and McKay's school, there is an awesome Japanese drum line.  He is in band, and his band teacher (awesome Ms. Ugaki) gave him one of the headbands that they wear.  So whenever Todd helps him play his djembe drum, McKay wears his headband.  It's wonderful!! McKay has so much fun!

Alex and McKay have had a wonderful time in Junior High the last three years!  They have learned a ton and made a lot of friends.  On Friday, their special needs class had a party to highlight all of the things the kids had accomplished.  They talked about Alex helping to dissect a sheep's brain, and some other stuff they did in science class, and they highlighted Alex and McKay since they will be moving on to high school.  (AAARGH!)  The teacher and aids were in tears as they told how much our sweet boys have contributed to the class and how wonderful it is to have them around!  We were very proud parents.

Yesterday we went to Logan for a friend's wedding.  We first stopped at Maddox Drive-In in Brigham City for lunch, then enjoyed the lovely drive through Sardine Canyon.  Once in Logan, we went to see the temple, moseyed through the cemetery to see Todd's grandparents' and great-grandparents' graves, along with several other relatives' graves, and drove past the house where Todd's Dad's grandparents lived in downtown Logan.  (Todd's Dad grew up next door, but his house is no longer there.)  It was a very nice day.

And we saw 8 temples between our house and Logan.  Amazing!


Finally, we went to the wedding reception for Linsey.  Her parents, Brent and Leslie, (see the picture below) were friends of ours in Boston.  Their son, Jake, is about 4 years older than our kids and has cerebral palsy.  These are the friends that we lived with in Hungary 13 years ago when we took Alex and McKay to the Peto Institute.  Brent and Leslie have been wonderful to us and we just love them.  They were so instrumental in helping us work through all of the CP-related issues when our kids were little.  It was wonderful to see them.  And wonderful to visit with Jake, who is truly inspirational.  Despite his physical challenges, he just finished his first year of college at Utah State and starts a full-time church service mission tomorrow working with computers in Logan.  He is so excited to be a missionary!  His speech is much easier to understand than it used to be and we loved talking to him. His candor and wit in explaining to us some things about his life had us laughing.  And he had me crying -- which led him to declare: "Oh!  You're just as bad as my mom!"

It was a wonderful day.  I am so thankful that Heavenly Father has placed so many sweet friends in our path to help us along in our not-so-normal life.

Finally, it's time to make our summer reading lists!!!  Last year Todd and Abby and I enjoyed writing down our summer reading goals, so we're doing it again this year.  We'll help the boys make some goals, too.  I don't need a list to motivate me, but it was fun to keep track and compare notes on what we were all reading.  Of course, last summer Abby and I each had about 20 books on our lists, and Todd had 3.  We keep teasing him.  Well, I think Abby has made her list and now I need to make mine.....

Happy Mother's Day

Dad surprised Mom for mother's day and took her up to Salt Lake on Friday afternoon.  They stayed overnight and came back on Saturday morning.  It sounds like they had lots of fun.

Here are some irrelevant pictures:

Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory.  Yum.

In Harry Potter Land.  I took this picture all by myself.

It's a pillow...it's a pet...it's a pillow pet!

Countdown until Christmas: 225 days

Countdown until school is out: 18 days

Countdown until we go to Hawaii: 23 days

Countdown until Friday: 4 days

Spring Fun

Since I last blogged, our family has had some fun outings and some fun at home. First of all, our little dog Molly had a birthday! So we had a party. She turned three. It was fun.

We had a wonderful time at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens for the tulip festival. It was beautiful. We were very excited to see the beginnings of a permanent exhibit of Angela Johnson's sculptures of the life of Christ. Eventually there will be 15 life-sized sculptures, but right now most are still small and 3 are big. It is already stunningly beautiful. (I was so amazed that I forgot to take any pictures of them, but I'll include some of the kids on this beautiful day.) I predict that eventually when the exhibit is finished, people will come from all over the world to see it.

Abby and I went to see The Secret Garden at the Hale Center Theater. It was amazing. The lead male was an friend of ours, we met him in Nauvoo, and it was so fun to see him and his wife. They are such nice people. So here's Abby with Dallin and Rachel.

Alex and McKay had a great time at the 9th Grade World Fair. Their helper had been working with them on the information to present Bangladesh since January. They had lots of visual things and she programmed their iPad so that they could tell everyone all about Bangladesh. Todd made a lovely yogurt drink, Mango Lassi, to serve. It was really fun.

City Creek Center

Our family likes downtown Salt Lake City.  We go there a lot to visit Temple Square, ride on TRAX, go to concerts, play in the fountains at the Gateway, stuff like that.  So for years we have been waiting for City Creek Center to be completed.  Abby said it feels like she's been waiting for it to open her whole life.  Well, it opened last month, and last week was spring break, so we stayed overnight Friday night and took the opportunity to go check it out.

Our verdict: it's amazing!  The design is incredible, the fountains and waterfalls are nice, the skybridge is cool, and the creek running down the middle is the best of all.  If we had our way there would be a few more restaurant choices and a few less high-end shops, but overall it is a great addition to the downtown area.

After a lot of shopping, we think Alex and McKay had had enough, so we spent some time at Temple Square.  We ALWAYS go watch the Mormon commercials in the South Visitor's Center, but they recently stopped playing them and ruined our tradition.  But now they play "I'm a Mormon" videos and those are good too.  These are the same ones that you can watch at mormon.org.  Anyway, it was a short spring break trip, but we had a great time.

It's your birthday

We had an exciting conference weekend.

On Friday we went to the Brick Oven for dinner to celebrate Dad's birthday. (It's a tradition. We go to the Brick Oven for pizza on every birthday.) My mom's brother David and his family were there and then my dad's brother Bruce and his son Ryan (who were here to see conference) and my cousin Megan came too. It was a party.

Then Saturday was my dad's actual birthday. We watched conference and then went on a picnic, then watched conference and had cake. Dad requested a train cake and it was awesome. Pictures below.

And today is Sunday. We watched conference. It was great.

Above, Dad and Bruce enjoying Blueberry coffee cake for breakfast on Saturday.

The engine is white cake with chocolate frosting and candies. The other cars are white cake with orange frosting and raspberries. The wheels are mini Oreos. It was delicious.

Another Surgery!

Wow! Our family keeps several surgeons busy. This week, on Thursday, McKay had a spinal fusion. He had one last July, also, but he grew so much that he had to have another one. This is apparently quite unusual. We like to keep the doctors on their toes. He's recovering okay... there's a lot of pain, and he might be getting pneumonia, but overall things are fine. He's been sleeping a lot.

I was with him for a few nights and will go back tomorrow. Todd is with him now. It is very hard to have one in the hospital and feel like I need to be there but then I miss my kids at home so much! Hopefully, his stay won't be too long. The surgeon said 5-7 days. We try to handle these times gracefully and with faith.

Let's see if there's anything else to report. Abby went to her first school dance on Friday night. She said it was "lame." But her friend said that usually they are more fun. And her school had a students v. faculty Quidditch match on Friday, which was very fun. Abby and Alex and Todd went skiing on Saturday and had a good time, but it was very cold on the mountain, which was kind of miserable.

This week Abby's school had a series of fundraisers for Make-a-Wish, which was a happy coincidence for us since Alex declared his wish last week. So Abby had pancakes one morning and we all went to Chik-Fil-A for dinner one night. It's neat to see a school do so much service. They are trying to earn money to build a kid a playhouse. Pretty cool.

Well, I'm a bit tired and it's time for our Sunday evening movie party, when we watch something church related together.

Alexander's Wish

We spent weeks working on figuring out what Alex's wish is.  He seemed happy about a few different choices, and we weren't sure what his favorite was.  So Allison sat down with Alex and his iPad and talked about his choices.  Then she had him choose with his Yes/No buttons.  She asked him many different times to make sure she had it right.  And finally it was clear that Alex's wish was to go to Hawaii!

It seems like a great choice for Alex.  He loves swimming, especially when the water is warm.  It will be a relaxing and slow-paced vacation, which is more Alex's style.  He loves to be outside and see beautiful things.  And we're pretty sure he will be a big fan of the Polynesian Cultural Center.  His favorite thing at Disneyland is the Tiki Room, after all.

Thursday evening our family, along with my niece Megan, went up the the Make-a-Wish Foundation in Murray.  It is a beautiful building, and it is all set up as a special place for the kids.  They had a big sign out welcoming Alex, and the wish granters there were so nice.  They showed us around the building, and then we went upstairs for Alex to declare his wish.  To make it official, Alex had to use his special key to go into the Wishing Room.  There everybody said a wish that they had for Alex, and then Alex submitted his wish.  It was really cool.

If his wish gets approved by the board, then we will probably go to Hawaii in June.  I'm excited that we will get to spend a few days just focusing on Alex and making him feel special.  There could not be a more deserving boy.

Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs

So I went to Youth Conference this weekend. It was freezing.

But that's okay. We had great speakers and fun activities--sledding and ping pong and things like that. We also had a lot of good food, yay. It was fun.

Alex has the privilege to get a "wish" from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. We've been trying to think of things he'd like. A big-screen TV, a trip to DisneyWorld, or a trip to Hawaii are just some of the things he's been considering.

Of course I've been suggesting rather creative and crazy wishes. Visiting the moon for example.

Hm. I don't have anything else to say.

Except you should watch this video. I'm a little obsessed.

That's all.

Potpourri

This week wasn't defined by one big moment, but we do have several small things to report.

First of all, on Monday we went to see the movie The Secret Life of Arriety. It's an animated feature based on the the book The Borrowers. We all enjoyed it, but Alex and I loved it. I thought the artistic nature of it was really neat and some of the outdoor settings were just beautiful. I also loved the music. I can highly recommend it.

We had some somewhat sad news about McKay. Last July he had a rod put in his back to fix his scoliosis. Well, he has grown so much over the past few months that on Wednesday the back surgeon said that McKay will have to have the rod extended, which means another major surgery. Goodness! He managed the first one very well, so hopefully this one will go okay, also. It isn't scheduled until the end of April, but we might move it up.

Let's see. Abby is enjoying her Quidditch club at school. It sounds like they all have a great time riding (or running) around on their brooms and throwing Quaffles and such. Awesome!

And I guess our biggest news is that the design of the floorplan of the house we are going to build is done! It has been a long process but I think we will have a neat house that will be perfect for all of us... especially Alex and McKay. I am excited for the digging to start.



Have a great week, everyone!

Hitting the Slopes

Today was our first skiing day of the season.  It has been a strange winter with very little snow and mild temperatures, so skiing hasn't been on our minds that much.  But we wanted something to do for the long weekend, so we went up to Snowbird today.  Our friends at Wasatch Adaptive Sports had things set up for Alex and McKay to ski, as usual.  They've been taking Alex and McKay skiing for 10 years, but every year they are a little bit bigger and we have to figure out how to get them secured in their bi-skis.  The tricky part is to help them hold up their heads while they are skiing, but they managed that fairly well today.  Anyway, it was a beautiful day for skiing.  It was so warm that we didn't need hats or gloves, and the slopes weren't too crowded.  I'm not a very good skier, but because of taking Abby, Alex, and McKay skiing I'm starting to feel like I can do okay.  It's a lot of work to get all of us up there to go skiing, but seeing the big smiles on McKay's face as he goes down the hill makes it all worthwhile.  We're planning to go several more times this winter.

A very exciting post. Wahoo.

Hi. It's my turn to blog this week.

And at the moment, there are two things on my mind.

First, the delicious cookies my wonderful mom made. I just ate four or five of them. They're so good. They're like normal chocolate chip cookies, except better, because you put pudding in the mix so they're super soft and chewy and delicious. Ahhhh...

We also had some yummy potato soup for dinner this week. It was really quite good. You sprinkle cheese and bacon in it, which automatically makes it great.

Second. Remember how I went to Harry Potter Land? (I know, I still can't quite get over it.) Yeah, so all those kids I went to Harry Potter Land with decided to start a Quidditch team at our school. (Those of you familiar with Harry Potter will know that Quidditch is the magical sport they play in the air on broomsticks.) We play a version that's really quite like in the books, except we're on the ground. It worked out well because I go to a charter school, and the majority of us are kinda nerdy, so we didn't have a problem forming a team. I just got back from Quidditch practice for today, and it was great.

Well. I feel like this was a pretty lame post. Let's fix that.

5:51 Add to Kid History - Episode 3 - by BoredShortsTVby NarfBiscuits824,708 views

There. Lame no longer.

The Triplets

It's my turn (Allison) to post this week, but to tell you the truth, nothing very exciting happened. So, I have decided to tell you a little bit about the triplets. They are my favorite topic, after all. I will go in order of age. (They have a 4 minute spread.)

Abigail is our princess. She is such a ray of sunshine in our family and keeps everything going. She LOVES to read -- she enjoys many genres and in recent years has read Harry Potter, Jane Eyre, some Austen, everything by Shannon Hale and Brandon Mull etc., etc. She has read the Book of Mormon through several times. It is wonderful to me to share this passion of reading with her. She is very creative and a wonderful artist with a style all her own. She has a beautiful singing voice. She also has an amazing sense of comic timing and keeps us laughing! She is a delight. But she doesn't like morning.

McKay is the one in our family that provides the fun! We call him Mr. Intensity because he loves things so passionately (or dislikes them completely). He starts smiling before his eyes open and can't wait to get started on his day! He loves music -- Beach Boys, Ryan Schupe and the Rubberband, The Nashville Tribute Band, Lonestar, etc. Jack Johnson is definately a favorite. He loves to move! Although wheelchair-bound, he enjoys swimming, skiing, and biking. Anything outside. He loves to be outside. He is very loving and takes care that we all know how happy he is with his life. He loves a good party! And ice cream!

Alexander is our sweet boy. He is so pleasant all the time. He loves to go to the temple to do confirmations, and he loves anything to do with prophets! He is always happy for scripture study time. He loves to go to school, also. He can't miss the Price is Right and loves to watch sports and other shows on TV. At Disneyland his favorite attraction is The Tiki Room. He also loves The Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He is a joy!

I am sure grateful for my family! They are the light of my life!

Brian Regan

Our family are big fans of the comedian Brian Regan.  We have all of his DVDs, and we watch them pretty frequently.  We also have his CDs.  Quotes from Brian are sprinkled about in our everyday conversation.  So Abby was quite excited when for Christmas she received two tickets to see Brian Regan live in Salt Lake.

Last night was the show, and Abby took me with her.  It was at Abravanel Hall.  Brian is so popular around here that he sold out 10 shows at Abravanel Hall, which seats around 3,000 people, I think.  We got there early and we had great seats on the 3rd row, so we could see his facial expressions really well.  Another comedian named Joe Bolster started the show, and he was pretty funny.  Then Brian started off with a bit from his latest CD (hey, my knee hurts, I guess forever.)  At that point we thought he was going to repeat a lot of things we already knew, but after that he did almost all new material except for his microwave bit (sometimes it dings and I have no idea what's in there) and "I Walked on the Moon", which he did for an encore.

Highlights included bits about dog tricks (did my eyes deceive me or did that dog just roll over?), dancing (I don't know how to transition to the dance floor), and the word "cupboard" (I like to enunciate things properly, but . . .).  But the biggest highlight was spending time with Abby and laughing with her.

Take luck, everyone!