Happy Birthday Dennis

I'm so happy every year when Dennis finally has his birthday. I love it when he gets older. I do wonder why men always get better looking with age and women just get older. At least that's how I feel. Well my honey is now the big three-three. What an amazing, talented, loving man he is. What a blessing he is to me. I love him so much!! Happy Birthday love!!

Our Spring Break

This week for our "Spring Break" we left the children at grandpa and grandma Sorensens' house for 2 days while Dennis and I were able to spend some time together. Dennis was invited to speak at the Utah Municipal Clerks Association conference in Springdale. He's becoming a very popular speaker at these kinds of meetings. He was a hit and had the best presentation at the conference. They just loved him there and he really can speak about any topic they give him. He knows his stuff. I loved watching him. I love that he comes home and talks to me about work because then at these conferences I know the lingo and can follow what he's saying.

There really isn't much in Springdale, besides Zions park, but we did enough to fill 2 days without putting me into labor. Dennis finally got to see Avatar in 3-D on the huge 4 story screen that they have there. I'll spare the review except to say that it felt a lot like Dances with Wolves to me and all the business about it being too political or about worshiping nature was a lot of hot air. It was a very good movie. Not too sure why it was in 3-D though. It was cool, but in my opinion 3-D can be a little too stimulating.We drove around some of the smaller towns in the area just looking around. I loved how green everything was there. They are about a month ahead of us in the season so it was all green and flowery and sunny. We drove to Grafton which is an old ghost town where there have been 5 movies shot there, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There wasn't much to it, but kind of fun to look around and take some photos.

(Small shed in Grafton)

(Bell on Top of old Church/Schoolhouse, in Grafton.)

We also walked down Springdale main street and looked in the galleries and shops. I'm more of a green forest person so to me they all started to look the same, with the oranges and browns, but there is such a beauty in that area around Zions that truly is amazing. We found a lot of fun things in the yards walking around.

(More yard art. Some people are pretty creative.)

(Windart - These were amazing to watch.)

We made it home in one piece and now we're glad to be home and have several projects planned for the weekend. It's been a beautiful week.

Fieldtrip

(Kids petting the sting rays)

Back in March when we were doing our classification unit, we promised the kids that we would make a special trip to the aquarium for our field trip on fish. We found out that the aquarium was adding a new penguin exhibit at the end of March so we thought it best to put off our visit until after the penguins arrived. This weekend we finally made it up there and as we drove into the packed parking lot, my heart sank. There was a line to get into the building clear down the sidewalk. At that point Dennis asked the kids if they wanted to see a movie instead, but they all agreed they wanted to go into the aquarium. By the time we found a parking spot the line was considerably shorter which was encouraging. So we dealt with a huge crowd of people there on this beautiful weekend, didn't loose any of the kids, and saw the marine animals and fish.

Favorites:
Jacob - the piranhas
Isaac - tough choice between the anaconda, cayman, the penguins and petting the sting rays.
Afton - the penguins
Khora - penguins jumping on the rocks
Dad - the sea horses
Mom - coral reef fish, of course the fish who swam with their eyes up out of the water were cool too!

Good news, the aquarium still isn't too big so it didn't take more than a couple hours to walk through everything even with the crowds. Bad news, it was a couple hours on my feet and I'm paying for it now. It's still way over priced in my opinion, as much as a zoo ticket, but we had a discount card which made me feel a little better.

(Dinner at the Mayan)

Dennis thought it would be fun, after seeing the new South American exhibit at the aquarium, that we should go to the Mayan Restaurant for dinner. It was a hit! The kids loved it!!! We had an amazing spot to watch the divers which everyone loved. The kids kept saying that it was like eating in the jungle and not a building. Afton mentioned that this would be a great place to go on a date. Isaac said when he's married and has kids he's going to take them there. Jacob was fascinated with the lighting which he kept pointing out to us as it changed.

It was a long but fun afternoon together! Now it's time for bed!

Easter 2010

Even though we didn't have to go to church on Easter, the kids got all dressed up so I could have a mom moment and take an Easter picture before driving to Fayette. I only do this twice a year so it's not much, right.

On Saturday we braved the bitter chill and stood at the park for 15 minutes freezing for 30 seconds of mad dash to collect eggs. Crazy city tradition, but the kids decided about 15 minutes before that they wanted to go. I agreed because we didn't really have anything else planned, not even coloring Easter eggs.

We did enjoy Conference though and spending time with friends and family this weekend. It really was great!

Blossom by Blossum Spring Begins

Last weekend, because it was snowing and raining, Dennis was so good to work on some inside Honey Do's for me. He took everything down off my shelf in the living room, dusted it and rearranged everything so that I could add a few things that I inherited up there. (How fun it is when a good friend remodels and passes things on!) Even though I almost burst into tears Sunday when I saw all the snow, by Monday night it had all melted and greened up the front lawn. Spring is officially here and what is more important, this week, it's acting like it.

I noticed that we had crocus' up. There were even enough of them for Khora to pick a bunch and give it to our neighbors! So with three amazingly sunny days this week I've built up a good amount of time spent outside with park trips, picnics, and yard work. Dennis has been busy too. He pruned our fruit trees and fertilized the lawn. We had our lawn aerated and we've been clearing out old weeds and getting our grow boxes ready. I'm planning to plant peas this week.

Yesterday we finally knocked out the project of repainting our front door frame. You know that is the one cheap thing you can do to fix up anything! It looks like we have a new front door! Check!!

What a fabulous week. I just LOVE spring!!!! I have been one happy camper. Amazing what a little sunshine on your face can do!!!

11 Years

I just had to post something about our anniversary. Dennis and I have now been married for 11 years. Usually for our anniversary we drop the kids off at grandmas and take off for a couple days, but this year it isn't working out until April. Sooooo, Dennis took the whole day off work just to be home, a sure sign that he loves me!!!!! We cleaned out the van and with the Afton and Khora drove to Pleasant Grove to pick up a new dresser. How romantic, I know, but it's a practical thing to do since he was off work and that's pretty much Dennis and I. The only thing I asked Dennis for this year was for him to get my wedding ring fixed. I haven't had it for 8 or 9 months now. (I smashed it between a shovel and rock last summer and couldn't get it off my finger without some effort.) Apparently it was a super easy request that took all of 5 minutes and he got it cleaned too. In a couple months I'll get it resized, when I'm not all puffy and swollen anymore.

Dennis and I went to the temple that night to do sealings, which has also been an anniversary tradition of ours over the years. It was so nice to be there together. Of course the dinner before and the ice cream after wasn't bad either. Chocolate!!!!! YUMMMYY!!!

I'm not big on the mushy stuff so I'll spare it here, but I love you Dennis! Happy Anniversary! Here's to another decade together!

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. The kids had a blast because it was a "Family Day" off school so we all got to play instead of do work. I tried to get some more of my scrapbooking done, but didn't get too much done. I had to go to the hospital so that I could have my RhoGam shot. It took a lot longer than I thought for the paper work and just to get blood drawn and then I had to go back again to get the actual shot. Not exactly what I wanted for my birthday. I did treat myself to some scrapbook supplies though to make up for it, which always makes me happy.

Dennis got off work early and came home and he took me out to dinner. After that we looked around the book section of the DI. It was good to just be together, which doesn't happen much. I could have spent a lot longer browsing, but we had to get home and play some Mario Cart (gift from the kids) and eat strawberry shortcake. It was fun playing together I don't usually get too involved in video games so it was a specially occasion indeed. Dennis and I stayed up and watched 2012 which isn't my first choice of movie since I'm not a big fan of end of the world movies, but it was pretty good I will admit.

So I had one play day and today I've been organizing and cleaning up in the school room which has been "The Cave" for some time now. It feels good. Boy it sure doen't take much to make a birthday special anymore. Thank goodness I'm easy to please!