Zion National Park with My Parents

At the beginning of the month we took off on Thursday afternoon to Zions National Park.  We picked up my parents and drove down to stay in Springdale, which is just outside of the park by the east entrance.

Friday morning we took the shuttle from Springdale to the entrance of the park, and then Zion's shuttle up to the lodge.  I love that area of the park.  There is a big huge tree in the middle of a large grass area...it is beautiful and so peaceful.

From Zions lodge there are a couple of hikes, one being The Emerald Pools.  We decided to hike to the Lower Emerald Pool, which is about 1 mile round trip.

Walking with dad

Both have their camel back.  :)

Mom and Dad felt they could do it....and they did!  It took a while, but at my dad at 81 and my mom at 74...they were troopers.  We took rests, but it worked.

On the bridge...beginning the hike

They made it to the lower emerald pool.  Here they are looking down into the area.

Jason and Jacob playing in the "water fall" at the Emerald Pool

After the hike they needed a rest.  We went back to the lodge and sat outside for a while before catching the shuttle back to Springdale for lunch.

A little later in the afternoon we went back into the park and took the shuttle up to the Temple of Sinawava and walked along the river.

Jacob and Jason went across and managed to get up on the rock.  Good thing he has a dad or he would never get to to that!

Mom relaxing by the river

The next day, Saturday, we drove through the canyon to the west entrance and saw the Checker Board Mesa.  We look like such tiny little specks out there!

Once on the west side of the park we decided to go and see the Coral Pink Sand Dunes.  The sand really is a coral pink...it is hard to tell in some of these pictures, but it was so pretty.

Jacob's photography

Then it was on to the drive home...we arrived on Saturday afternoon and Mom and Dad made it!  Fun little get away!

Eating Asparagus

Cooking for Jacob is pretty easy because he eats just about anything.  He loves tomatoes, cucumbers (sans dressing no less), string beans, etc.

Last night I made noodles that were spicy--a bit too spicy, and asparagus.  He tried the noodles and then kept eating the asparagus.  I wanted him to be full and encouraged the noodles...telling him, no more asparagus until you eat the noodles.  Then I tasted them...they were pretty spicy so I let him forget about eating them and he ate asparagus, tomatoes, cucumbers, applesauce and yogurt.  

Birthdays and Skiiing

The beginning of March was my birthday.  I have to say that Mom birthdays are not quite as celebrated as my birthdays when I was working at school.  Because I was the principal EVERYONE said Happy Birthday.  It just made you feel better about getting another year
 older.  :)

As a mom there are still the mom things to do (like at school there were still school things to do), but there aren't many people around celebrating the day with you.  :)  In addition Jacob's preschool class had a field trip that day to Discovery Gateway.  So I drove on the field trip.



















Jason asked what I wanted to do for my birthday and I told him that since it was on a Thursday we should wait until Friday to go out to dinner and I wanted to go to PF Chang's.

On Friday Jacob and I took Trax downtown to see Disney on Ice.  We had won tickets from the library because of a reading program we had done.  I wasn't sure how Jacob would like it since this year it was more of the "princess" stories.  They did the Frog Prince, Cinderella and Rapunzel.  Because Rapunzel was done like the latest movie and there was "flying" above the ice involved, Jacob liked that one best.

Before the show started Jacob saw the vendors walking around with cotton candy, drinks, etc,

These items cost an arm and a leg!  One shaved ice drink cost $12 bucks!

Luckily Jacob was pacified with the bag of fruit snacks I had thought to bring along with us.

After the show, Jason picked us up and we went to dinner.  I got the lettuce wraps--which I love!  The next day I opened my presents....so my birthday was spread out over a few days.

Mom and Jacob with mom's b-day cupcake.

The following week we took Jacob up to Brighton to take a ski lesson.  He has been talking about skiing this winter and we wanted him to try it.

 A lesson was probably the best since I don't think he'd follow instructions from us....or I should say Jason, since I don't really ski.

It was fun to watch him start out and try.

Getting ready to snow plow

Riding up the chair lift.  He has the red skiis

 The lesson was 2 hours, but he came in about a 1/2 hour early--said he was tired.   I think he'd try it again, but we'll probably wait until next year.























At the end of the month it was Jacob's 5th birthday.  Can't believe he is 5!!!  We did a birthday party here at our house.  In Jacob's primary class there are 11 boys.  Plus 2 boys from preschool and 2 boys who live across the street.  All of whom we invited.  In a way it was lucky we had spring break coming the next week and 4 of the boys couldn't come.  I have nothing against any of those boys, but it made having the party a little bit easier with 11 rather than 15 boys!  :)

Everyone trying to wash hands

We had pizza.....




played a game where they put a balloon between their legs and did a relay race,

.

opened presents and had cake and ice cream.  My cake skills leave much to be desired! 

It snowed that morning so we couldn't do any of the games outside, but the boys had fun.









Later in the afternoon he opened presents from us.

Ear muffs for when working with loud tools to protect your ears

An electronics kit

Putting the sun powered circut board together

Playing the next day with his sun powered circut board

Last week was spring break and we had great weather!  Kids could play outside....Jacob had a great time! On Friday we went over to a friend's house and colored eggs.

Saturday we went to an Easter egg hunt with some friends

Looking for his basket and eggs

Hunting for eggs in the yard

and yesterday my parents came for Easter dinner.

I was shopping on Saturday for dinner and found strawberries for .99 a carton.  That is a great deal, but I groaned inside because it meant that in addition to trying to prepare Sunday dinner I would be doing jam.  I worked on jam and got things ready for dinner from 3-9:30 p.m.  I was exhausted!  But the jam is good and we had a great time on Sunday!

On to April!!

Swimsuits by Hapari

My friend Brooke loves these suits.  I think they are pretty cute too!  Check them out!
http://www.hapari.com/

"Let's Go Crazy, Crazy, Crazy"...We're Raising a 4 Year Old Who Thinks He is 14!!

                                   

On Sunday night we were coming back from my parent's house.  Jacob has a 10 year old cousin who likes the group One Direction and has their CD with the song "Live While We're Young."

Jacob loves to sing the chorus.  The italic part are the words he doesn't know and just fits the words in as he hears them..."Let's go crazy, crazy, crazy, 'til we see the sun, I know we only met, but let's pretend it's love, and never, never, never stop for anyone.  Tonight let's get some and live while we're young."

I just love that my 4 (almost 5) year old is singing, "Tonight let's get some and live while we're young."  I think I can only stand it because I know he knows the words to "I Am A Child of God,"  "Choose The Right," "I Love to See The Temple,"  etc.  Only he doesn't just break out in song with those tunes coming out of him!

I diverge....as we were driving home he wanted to hear that song on the radio and we explained that you have to wait until a song is played (we didn't mention that we don't have any stations programed that would play that song anyway).  We then pulled out Jason's phone and played it once for him, but he wanted to hear it again. We told him it was Mom and Dad's turn for a song, turned on the radio and started to listen to a song by Journey.

He wanted the phone again and we told him not right now.  We continued to listen to Journey.  Jacob then began to sing at the top of his lungs, "Let's go crazy, crazy, crazy, 'til we see the sun..." trying to drown out Journey.  Jason and I just started laughing and wondering what 14 is going to be like.

Never Seen Things Better

I wore glasses similar to these when I was younger

In February we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on the 4th, Valentine's Day on the 14th and I was in charge of Stake Acitivty Day on the 23rd.

While our anniversary is always a big deal for me..this year the bigger date was February 26th...the day I had cataract surgery.  

About 3 years ago I noticed my vision was a little blurry at the bottom of my eye but  I really only noticed it when I was putting on make-up.  I went to the Dr. because my contacts just didn't seem right.  I went in to try and get them adjusted, but nothing seemed to work.  I decided to see an ophthalmologist.

At first he couldn't see it, but upon further examination he said I had a cataract forming.  He told me he doesn't normally see mothers with 4 year olds who have cataracts, but they do happen.  
                                           

   

I have worn glasses since before I was a year old and just before my mission I had surgery to relax the muscles in my eyes so they wouldn't pull in quite as much--allowing me to get contacts.  I could have gotten contacts, but without the prism they put into glasses, one of my eyes would always be pulling in and look funny--let’s be honest, if you're getting contacts you don't want to look funny!  :) 


We decided to wait until the cataract was more developed before they operated...more developed meant it got to the point of it being like looking through a window with Vaseline rubbed on the middle of it.  My peripheral vision was good; it was mainly the overall center of my eye that was blurry.

I was nervous about getting it done.  This is my eyesight we're talking about.  Who wants their eye cut into?  What if they didn't get the lens right?   I had confidence in my Dr., but I have also worn contacts long enough to know that sometimes adjustments need to be made.  Once the lens was in how can you make adjustments?

But the operation went fine and it only takes about 20 minutes. 

Getting ready to go in

The Dr.  makes a small incision in your eye, puts a laser in, breaks up the cataract impared lens, sucks it out, inserts the new lens and--voilà--it was done!

 

I was so amazed at how I could see--without glasses or contacts!!  I still have to wear reading glasses for my up close vision...I have developed the "now you're over 40 so you can't read things very well anymore" syndrome, but with the lens they put in I can see everythig else WITHOUT HAVING TO PUT GLASSES ON!!  It is amazing and I am so thankful it went so well.  

We live in such a wonderful time and are so blessed to have this type of technology!