Let's Go to the Movies

Hi everyone (everyone as in the maybe two people that read this blog), Abby here.

One thing that our family loves to do together is go to movies.  It's a fun option for us because it is a totally normal thing that we can all do.  Then again, even going to movies turns out to be not very normal for us, since we can only sit in certain seats, and it's hard to keep 3D glasses from falling off of Alex and McKay's heads, and we have to make sure there's no ice in McKay's drink, and it takes like half an hour to get Alex's coat off.

All of this is a bit challenging, but the biggest challenge is finding movies that are appropriate for us all to see together.  However, lately there have been a lot of good movies coming out that we've all enjoyed.  Here are a few that we've seen lately and that we recommended.

Saving Mr. Banks

 This movie was gorgeous.  The story was incredible, the acting was incredible, and the cinematography was incredible.  Also, Ruth Wilson was in it, who plays the main role in the Masterpiece Theater version of Jane Eyre that Mom and I love so much.

The Book Thief

If you haven't read this book or watched the movie, stop everything you are doing and make that your highest priority.  Mom and I saw it back in November and then we had to run out and buy the book.  Both the book and the movie are absolutely stunning on all levels.  Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

“People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and ends, but to me it's quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spot blues. Murky darkness. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.” 


“I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.” 

“Somewhere, far down, there was an itch in his heart, but he made it a point not to scratch it. He was afraid of what might come leaking out.” 

It is just so full of brilliance and amazing writing that I don't know what to do with myself.  The movie almost made me cry and I never cry.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Not everyone that I've talked to has loved this movie as much as we did.  But oh man, it is now one of our favorite movies ever.  The cinematography was gorgeous (cinematography is a big deal to me if you haven't figured that out yet), and Ben Stiller was hilarious.  I've been listening to the soundtrack on repeat for the past like two weeks.  Mom keeps saying that if you laughed a lot during this movie, you have a similar sense of humor to us.  And the storyline was pretty profound.  Hollywood needs to make more movies like this one.

The Lego Movie

"Everything is awesome!  Everything is cool when you're part of a team!"  This movie was actually really cute and funny, and a lot better than I thought it would be.  We all liked it a lot.  We generally don't like kid movies that aren't made by Disney, so this was a fun surprise.


So, in this world full of R-rated, stupid, inappropriate movies, it is nice to know that there are still some great options out there for our family to enjoy together.

***You may have noticed that Frozen was not included in this list.  We all really liked Frozen, but we're not really understanding why everyone is obsessed with it.  So if anybody has a solid explanation for me of why Frozen is the only movie I've heard people talking about since Thanksgiving, I'd love to hear it.

Skiing Season!

Yesterday our ski season started! We will ski every week this month.

McKay with his fun and talented instructor, Anna.

When the triplets were four, I saw poster advertising snow skiing for disabled kids, so I signed the boys up!  They skied at Sundance and Snowbird six to eight times a year, and their kind instructors would give Abby a lesson each time, as well.  Todd and I started feeling left out, so we learned how to do it, too.  

Abby and Todd waiting for the lift.

Now our whole family skies together four or five times a year at Park City with the National Ability Center program.  We love skiing and we love doing it together!

People always ask me how it works for the boys to ski.  They sit in a chair with skis on the bottom and the instructors push them or hold onto ropes attached to the back of the ski to steer them.

  

The ski, with padding added.

Alex

McKay

 Our family has come to look upon this time together with tremendous joy, and we are grateful for the kind people who make it happen.  Todd and Abby and I have really improved in out skiing skills over the years, but we still aren't as fast as Alex and McKay!  We usually can ski all over the mountain, but we are most comfortable on green runs and a few blues.  Park City is a great place for us because there are so many green runs.  

The weather was beautiful yesterday and we had a great time! I love this family of mine!!!!

Temple Trip

Yesterday our family decided to go to the temple.  In our faith we go to the temple to perform ordinances such as baptism for those who died without the opportunity to receive the ordinances.  We have the good fortune of having 6 (soon to be 8) temples within an hour of our home.  We decided to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple in South Jordan, because it is the only one of the 6 that has a changing room for people with disabilities.  When we got there, however, we saw that the temple was closed for cleaning.  Well, only one city in the world has two temples, and that is South Jordan, Utah.  So it was only a short drive for us to go to the Jordan River Temple instead.  This was our first time to go to the Jordan River Temple as a family.

The temple is such a peaceful place, and it is especially nice to go there as a whole family.  Invariably, people thank us for bringing Alex and McKay to the temple.  Sometimes people don't realize that Alex and McKay can do temple ordinances, but this is one thing that they can do perfectly well.  All they have to do is take the place of a deceased person, and their bodies are perfectly able to do that.  And it always makes Alex and McKay (and the rest of us) happy to be there.

Artist Abby

This is Allison reporting this week.  I was fortunate to grow up with a real live artist for a father.  Our home was filled with beautiful artwork!  Sadly, the artist gene skipped me totally. Sweet 16-year old Abby, however, got plenty of talent from my dad.  She has taken art classes for years and comes home with beautiful drawings and paintings, like this pen sketch of the Taj Mahal in India.

And this is a cool pencil drawing copy of a sketch my dad 

did of a church in Normandy, France.  

 She recently began a pottery class and has been throwing bowls for me to eat my cereal out of every morning. And she's made little pots for decorations and condiments.  It's really hard to throw pots... (my dad says he can't do it!) and I am so proud of her accomplishments!

One of our favorites:  a pastel of the Godiva Cheesecake 

from The Cheesecake Factory. 

(The actual cheesecake is delicious as well as being pretty!)

I am so proud of my Abby and all she has accomplished.  It's a bit of heaven for me to have her stuff hanging on our walls and decorating my house.

Sacred Gifts

I'll just go ahead and post today as if it hadn't been over six months since our last post. . .

Saturday our family went to the BYU Museum of Art to see a special exhibition entitled Sacred Gifts.  It features paintings of Christ of three renowned European artists: Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hofmann, and Frans Schwartz.  It took 12 years for the museum to arrange to have all of these paintings brought in from various locations to be shown all at the same time.  The show includes many beautiful paintings, but two impressed me the most.  The first is Christ and the Rich Young Ruler by Heinrich Hofmann.  It's a popular painting that you have probably seen before, but seeing the actual painting up close made me appreciate it much more.

The second is Agony in the Garden by Frans Schwartz.  I don't think this painting is as well known, but it is beautiful, and I stood and looked at it for a long time.  The picture below does not do it justice.

Anyway, our whole family loved the exhibition.  I recommend that anyone near Provo get out to see it before it closes in May.

Sixteen!

I guess it takes a big event to remind me to post on our blog, but we had a big event last week, so here I am.  Alex, McKay, and Abby turned 16 on Friday.  First things first, Abby went to get her driver's license.  I'd do the old "Stay off the roads!" joke, but she's actually doing a great job, so I think you're all okay.

In the afternoon on their birthday we went up to the Gateway and McKay got soaked in the fountain

and we went to Bruges Waffles.  Mmmmm waffles.  We also saw an Imax movie about monarch butterflies.  It was fascinating, but there were no employees available to answer all of our butterfly questions.  We tried to time things properly to get home about 7pm, because we had a surprise party planned.  But by the time we got there, we had had so many goofs that Abby, McKay, and Alex weren't surprised at all.  But it was a great party anyway!  Our wonderful neighbor Kitty made them each a cake.

And we had a Kettle Chip tasting contest.  We had a bag of every available flavor of Kettle Chips, 20 in all.  (Okay we were missing Unsalted, but that doesn't really count.)

The contest winner?  Jalapeno Jack.  It's a limited edition this year for their 30th anniversary, so if you see it, be sure to pick up a bag.  Anyway, it was fun to share the birthday with some of our best friends and to celebrate Abby, McKay, and Alex.  Happy Birthday!

Disneyland!

So about a month ago, we visited the happiest place on earth and had a fabulous time!
(And I'm bad at blogging so this is late!)

We were a little worried because McKay wouldn't be able to ride all his favorite rides---Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railroad---since he just had his surgery.  But Thunder Mountain was closed anyway, and he had tons of fun on the other rides.

We had three-day park hoppers and stayed at the Grand California hotel.  Staying at that hotel is definitely the way to go even though it's pretty expensive.  There's an entrance right out of the hotel into California Adventure, and an entrance straight into Downtown Disney which leads into Disneyland.  The whole not having to ride shuttles or rent a car or anything makes it a lot easier on our family.  Not to mention they have three different pools and it's a gorgeous hotel and they give you little chocolates at night.  :)  Oh and they show old Mickey Mouse cartoons in the lobby which is so fun.

Anyway.  We spent a lot more time in California Adventure than we have in the past.  Number one reason?  Cars Land.  Oh, it is the cutest thing ever.  It's like you've walked straight into Radiator Springs--it's laid out exactly as you see it in the movie.

Mater, Lightning McQueen or the fire truck who's name I don't know 

just might come cruising down the street and say hi.

And you can go to the Cozy Cone and get snacks.  All the snacks come in cones.  

I had yummy churro bites from there while we watched the Pixar Parade one night.  :)

The main ride in Cars Land was the Radiator Springs Racers.  This was a good one because it was really cute at the beginning, seeming like your average Disney ride where you go through and all the characters talk, and then you enter the "race" and it picks up speed a bit and becomes a little more roller-coaster ish.  We went on this one a lot because it was one that we could all ride and we all really liked it.

There was also a new Little Mermaid ride in California Adventure which was adorable.  We all agreed that California Adventure has definitely stepped it up a notch.  Cars Land was exactly what it needed to draw more people and have more of the Disney feel.  Dad and I also rode Tower of Terror a few times, and California Screamin'.  Oh and Mom was brave and rode those ones with me too!  Way to go Mom!

So California Adventure was definitely good, but we can't leave out Disneyland.  

On the last night we rode all our classic favorites--Casey Jr. Train, Mr Toad's Wild Ride, Peter Pan.  We did the Tiki Room of course (Alex's favorite), and Pirates of the Caribbean, and all that great stuff.  And of course we got corndogs and beignets and Dole Whips.

Oh and I went to Captain EO all by myself.  Nobody else would go with me.  Captain EO was this weird little Michael Jackson movie in Tomorrow Land, and it was basically the best 20 minutes ever.  Ok not really, but it was good.  Just imagine Michael Jackson in a Star Trek-type setting singing and dancing in 3D.  And the seats would bounce along with the beat, which was kind of weird and wonderful at the same time.  It's worth going to if you've already done everything you wanted to do in the park. 

Here's Mom and McKay being very excited for the parade.

And here's me with a chipmunk (Chip or Dale? Pretty sure it's Chip but I always mix them up) 

at the restaurant at our hotel.  No matter how old I get, this still make me smile.

So it was a good Disneyland trip.  One of the best.  

In other news...

-Spring Break is next week and The Band Perry's new CD comes out that same week.  

-Dad's birthday is on Sunday!  So is Easter!  WHOO!

-I joined the golf team at school and I've never played golf before...heh.

-Thinking about the Downton Abbey season finale still stresses me out and it was like a month ago.

-This month has been missionary month...all the youth in our ward do missionary-type activities and this week is the last activity where we go to someone's house in the ward and have dinner and give a lesson.  All month we've been encouraged to get up by 6:30, listen to church music, stuff like that.  And we're even separated into companionships and stuff.  It's pretty fun.

-Mom has challenged herself to go off desserts for a little while!  She's doing a great job!

So I guess that's it for today.  Peace out.  

Heart Attack

Because McKay is still recovering, we haven't had any big adventures this past week, but we did have fun last Monday night when our cute friends came and Heart Attack-ed McKay's bedroom door.

These sweet kids are the children of our Heather, who started working for us when we first moved to Utah and our kids were 3.  She is wonderful and took such good care of us!  Then she got married and we adore her husband and her kids and love to see them whenever we can.  We are grateful for these friends!

The kids brought McKay a Milky Way, some rootbeer, a couple of cool Lego guys, and lots of hearts -- notice that there are several blue ones, as little Ella found out that blue is McKay's favorite color.

We can't believe how fast all these kids (ours and their's) are growing.

We have long recognized that because of McKay and Alex's disablities, we meet the most wonderful people in the world!  Thanks to everyone who takes care of us  -- body and soul!

Night Skiing

McKay is healing, but has had more pain the last few days.  I think he's having muscle spasms.  He is mighty brave, but he will be glad when he gets feeling better and can go out of the house more.  He is really stuck here!

On Friday nights our friends Meridith and Scott come to watch Alex and McKay so that Todd and I can get out on a date.  We are so grateful for them -- Meridith is a nurse, so even when the boys are sick or recovering from a surgery, we can usually still go.  (They're probably better off with her than us!)  Meridith and Scott bring their 2-year old with them, and we adore him and are so thankful for the wonderful way they all take care of our boys.  (Sorry Scott -- the only picture you that I could find was from our New Year's Party last year... hence, the crown.)

On Friday I had been feeling kind of cooped-up and stressed out, so I didn't know what I wanted to do on my date with Todd.  He came up with a wonderful plan.  We went night skiing at Sundance and then had dinner up there at our favorite restaurant.  We had so much fun!  The weather was perfect, it wasn't crowded, there was a full moon, and neither of us fell.  It was wonderful to just relax and have fun!



Last night, Abby and I went to the BYU production of Phantom of the Opera.  It was terrific!  I could hardly believe how beautiful the talent, costumes and set were.  We had a great time.  What a blessing it is to have BYU nearby and to be able to have such amazing entertainment.  That is really quite a show!

And finally, Abby and I have been busy decorating.  I thought of this cool way to hang up Abby's artwork -- I love it and we can interchange it when we want.  I put two strings up in my craft room, a small one in the boys' room, and one in the hall.  It is so cheerful!

And Abby created a wonderful photo wall above her bed.  She is so creative!  I love her cheery yellow walls with the turquoise accents!

And finally, I couldn't resist a picture of my sweet Abby knitting!  I taught her a few years ago but she didn't do much, but this Christmas she started a new project... and I am working on socks!  It's very fun.

Man of Steel

Last week McKay had surgery on his back.  It was his third spinal fusion surgery in the last year, this time on his neck.  He now was metal all the way up and down his spine.  He had the surgery on Thursday, and he was able to come home on Monday.  He'll be out of school for a few weeks.

The day after the surgery McKay was already happy and smiling, even though he must have been in a lot of pain.  He really is one of the toughest people I've ever known.  He can go through things that would make most of us cry and still be cheerful.  McKay, you are amazing!

Christmas all over again

Hi.  Abby here...Mom's making me post.

Another Christmas has come and gone.  We went on our annual Christmas Eve sleigh ride up in Midway and had a great time.  Our driver could do a really good Donald Duck impersonation.  :)

For Christmas, Santa gave us a trip to DISNEYLAND!  We're going in February.  I'm super excited, Disneyland is basically my favorite place ever.  And Dad got a Kindle.  Cool cool.

We also saw The Hobbit.  I went with Dad at midnight when it came out, and I went again with Mom during the break.  It was so good!  It was visually gorgeous and the guy who played Bilbo was awesome.  We loved it.

I also saw the new Les Mis movie with my friends.  Again, visually it was a beautiful movie to watch.  Overall I thought it was so well done and the actors they picked to play the characters were great.  On the musical side of things...the actors were all really talented, but some of them were more talented in their acting than they were in their singing, in my opinion.  When Valjean sang "Bring Him Home" I didn't get the buzz that I normally get when hearing that song sung by someone else.  (I was probably picky since we had just gone to the Alfie Boe concert, see previous post)  The girl who played Eponine was fabulous though, I loved her voice.  She was probably my favorite.  And Marius and Cosette were pretty good too.  Mostly it was just Bring Him Home that was a bit of a letdown.  But overall, I really did like it.  Worth seeing for sure.

This weekend Mom and I were in Denver.  The reason we went was to see a Vincent Van Gogh exhibit at the Denver Art Museum with my grandparents.  It was a fabulous exhibit.  The art geek side of me was in heaven surrounded by all these paintings that Van Gogh himself had done.  Seeing them in person is nothing compared to seeing them in a book.  We both discovered some new favorite paintings of his.  The exhibit was also really educational and we learned a ton.  One cool thing was that Van Gogh kept a journal, and throughout the exhibit there were lots of little quotes from him. 

"One can speak poetry just by arranging colors well, just as one can say comforting things in music."

"I'm an artist...those words naturally imply always seeking without ever truly finding."

"How much there is in art that is beautiful, if only one can remember what one has seen, one is never empty or truly lonely, and never alone."

We also had fun playing in Denver and eating yummy food.  We had a great time.  And I got some cute shoes too, which is always a plus.

ALSO, last Sunday Downton Abbey season 3 started!  This is a big deal, folks.  Mom and I are kind of addicted.  And tomorrow we'll watch episode two!  It's like Christmas all over again!  Matthew and Mary are quite adorable.  :)

Christmas is Coming.....

Christmas is almost here and we are already having fun!  We're all decorated, we've been baking cookies (although we've more to make), we're enjoying our clues (a family tradition including treats and gifts), our Christmas stories, and our Christmas music.  I love this season and it is so nice to think more about the reason for this grand celebration... the birth and life of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

 Saturday afternoon we went to Salt Lake.  We went to dinner, then headed out to Temple Square to see the lights.  It was beautiful, of course.  We enjoyed having my sister-in-law and a couple of cousins join us.

 

We stayed overnight at the Marriott at City Creek Center, which was very comfortable, then the next morning we attended the Tabernacle Choir Christmas program of Music and the Spoken Word with the special guests Alfie Boe and Tom Brokaw.  After the official taping of Music and the Spoken Word, they did a mini concert so that we ended up seeing all of the Christmas Concert.  Needless to say, it was  just amazing and we enjoyed it very much.  That Alfie Boe can sing!!!  The highlight for us was that our Alex, who has been feeling so sick a lot of the time lately, was totally well during the concert and was so happy to be there.  We were so glad since he is the Choir's biggest fan!  The concert was musically, artistically, and emotionally stunning.  

Then on Sunday evening we had a Christmas Musical Fireside.  Some friends joined us at our house, we sang lots of Christmas songs, and those that wished to performed... we had guitars, violin, cello, and  vocal performances.  And below you will see McKay playing Feliz Navidad on his drum.  He had a blast and everyone loved it.  He did it at the beginning, then did it again as a command performance at the end.  It was a very fun evening.... maybe the First Annual?

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!!!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving break last week.  It was nice to have all the kids out of school for a few days.  We had an unusually large (for us) crowd for Thanksgiving dinner.  Our friends the Swindles came, and so did Megan, and two friends from China, Zilu and Enji.  Allison made way too much food, and it was all very tasty.  It was a beautiful day, so we went to the park for a while.  And of course we watched some football.  It's always nice to see the Cowboys lose.

So the holiday made us think about the many things we are thankful for.  Our family, the gospel of Jesus Christ, a home to live in, food to eat, and a free country, to name a few important things.  And then there are the less important things like the Price is Right, pillows, and Pop-Tarts.  There's a very big list of things we have to be thankful for, and we feel very blessed.

One more thing to be thankful for: our Cougars.  It's been a tough football season, but we can always hope for next year.  And now the basketball season is upon us and Tyler Haws is looking like the next Jimmer Fredette.  Unless, of course, Jabari Parker is the next Jimmer Fredette.  Jabari, if you are reading this post, the kids below want you to come to BYU.

Hooray for November and TSwifts new album!

So the big news lately is that we've re-modeled our house!  We didn't knock down walls or anything, but we did put in new floors, paint the walls, put in new countertops and lights, etc.  It was time for a change since we decided not to move or build a new house.  

 New floors, new couches (p.s.--they recline!)

 The kitchen is pretty spiffy

Alex really likes our new 60 in TV :)

The best part, is that I got to move down to the basement.  I now have two closets, like six power outlets, my own bathroom, and the basement fridge is ten steps from my bed.  It's like I'm living the teenage dream here.  Why didn't I move down there years ago?  It's lovely.

A few weeks ago we went to Moab for fall break.  We had lots of yummy food and went hiking in Arches and stuff.  Pictures:

 Sooo much pretty red rock.  I love it.

This wasn't taken in Moab, but it is me wearing the sweatshirt I got.

That sweatshirt is quite comfy.  I wore it for like a week straight.

Halloween was the same as Halloween always is...we hand out doughnuts and apple cider to all the trick or treaters.  It's pretty fun.  I went trick or treating for a little while with some of my friends and it was fun, even though Halloween is probably my least favorite holiday.

...Which is why I'm super excited that it's November.  Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday ever, right up there with Christmas.  Plus it's Mom's birthday on Wednesday.  That means Captain Crunch for breakfast and maybe a trip up to City Creek in salt lake.  November is such a good month.  :)

I forgot some fun things.

Refer to the blog post below (which I did not title -- I simply couldn't think of one) for most of our info this week, but I forgot two fun things.

First, Todd surprised me by being a fantastic Polynesian dancer at the ward Luau a few weeks ago.  It was really fun!  There was fire dancing, too, but Todd didn't learn how to do that.

And Todd, Abby and McKay all ran a 5k last weekend.  They beat Beethoven, which means that they ran the 5K faster than the length of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (about 32 minutes).  Every year we run into Jonny and Melody -- they used to help out with Alex and McKay and we love them!  Jonny is really fast!  He won the whole race this year.  Melody pushed the baby and still wasn't very far behind.  McKay loves the whole thing and is so glad Todd will push him.  Abby did great even though she didn't train, and Alex and I cheered them on at the finish.