The rest of a great weekend

Right after Adam's play we headed down to Kansas City to see the new temple our Church has constructed there.  It was beautiful and it was so wonderful to see so many people there, both of our faith, and others.  I think Lizzy especially enjoyed it.  Unfortunately, just as we were about to get our picture taken by a kind stranger, the batteries died on Greg's I-phone.  So, the temple pictures I lifted off of my brother's blog.  He is much better at taking pictures anyway:)  Thanks Todd!  Aren't the pictures amazing!








After we spent the morning at the temple we met our friends the Garners at a park to eat lunch and let the kids play.  It was so much fun!  The kids all got along wonderfully.  I am so grateful we have been able to continue friendships even though we have moved.  Thanks to Pam for the pictures.  I took these off of her blog.  I hope that's OK!

Zack, Lizzy, Anne Marie and Adam

Anne Marie and Lizzy, the best of friends.

Here is the whole crew, including some of the Garner's cousins who stopped by for a short while.


The weekend was just amazing!  Awesome to see Adam in Oklahoma.  Awesome to go to the temple.  Awesome to spend time with the Garners.  Then my brother and his family stopped by for a short visit too!  What a great weekend.

Adam in Oklahoma

Howdy y'all,

A couple of weeks ago Adam starred in his middle school musical, "Oklahoma" as Will Parker. For those of you unfamiliar with Oklahoma, Will is the love sick cowboy chasing after Ado Annie. Adam was awesome in the role ... he even _almost_ got his first kiss out of it, but fortunately Ado Annie resisted at the last moment.

This is Adam singing his solo about his visit to Kansas City (audio quality isn't great, but hopefully you can follow along):

Adam on stage with some of his cowboy buddies:

And with Aunt Eller and the ladies:

And finally with his sweetheart, Ado Annie, telling her how much he thought of her every time he roped a steer and pulled it down on its rump.

It was very fun for us to watch him perform.  Not many of the boys his age were interested in being in the musical, but Adam really enjoyed it.  He's a great singer and not at all afraid to be on stage.  Great job Adam!

Easter Weekend--Post 2

The Saturday before Easter was a fun one.  We started off the day by going for a hike and picnic lunch at WildCat Den State Park.  It was someplace we liked to go when we lived in Bettendorf and our friends had never been there.  The kids love that there is an area where they can climb up the rocks.  I love walking in the woods and being together as a family.  It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed ourselves.

Saturday afternoon we brought Lizzy and Adam to see our friends the Garner's.  Greg and I enjoyed a short visit with them as well.  Lizzy and Anne Marie are fast friends and it is nice they still get to see each other once in a while.  Adam and Zack also enjoy running around together.  It is nice that even though we have moved a couple of hours away, that our friendships are still growing.
Greg made some chili for everyone that night and we all prepared for Easter Sunday.  Sunday was a very nice day.  We spent the morning at church.  The messages of the Savior were very nice.  One of the things I love about our church is that we all take turns giving the message in our Sacrament meeting (our main worship service).  It is not just our Bishop who gives the message each week.  In fact we start our children giving short messages at the age of 12.  I loved that not only were the messages lovely on Easter Sunday, but that I had a personal connection with the women who spoke.  I knew of some of their struggles, and I knew of their great love for the Savior.  It was wonderful to go to church with the people we grew to love so much as we lived in Bettendorf for 12 years.  Easter is already so meaningful and special.  How grateful I am for the Savior.  I am grateful for his example.  I am grateful for his love for me.  I am grateful he was willing to give his life for me.  I am grateful for the gift of repentance.  I am grateful that he understands my struggles and sorrows.  I am grateful for his mercy.  What a blessing to know the Savior!

Sunday afternoon we drove to Iowa City to have Easter dinner with my brother Todd and his family (and some of their friends).  We got the easy end of the deal and only had to bring paper plates and cups.  We sure did enjoy the yummy food everyone else brought, though.  As always, the kids love playing with their cousins.  We are sure going to miss them when they move this summer.  At least they are staying in the midwest.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend.  We were grateful to get away.  We were grateful to renew friendships with old friends.  We were grateful to have time to remember the Savior's gift to us.  We were grateful to spend time with family.  We hope all of you had a wonderful Easter, too!


All of the pictures are from Wild Cat Den.  Sadly, we have none with the Garners and none with the Ebberts.

Here are the climbing kids!

Even Jake got in on the action.

It was hard to keep up with the kids.

 

 A short stop at a stream.

The three musketeers.

I had to include this because of Lizzy's face.  Love you Liz.

That's Adam up there.

Our pseudo-twins.

Awesome time at Wild Cat Den.

Easter Weekend--Post 1

All the kids preparing to make a dash for the eggs in the back yard

For Easter weekend Greg had the day off on Good Friday so we pulled the kids out of school and headed back to Bettendorf to see some friends.  It has been a long time since we have been there for any length of time so it was great fun to catch up with people we still care about even though we are farther away.  We stayed with our good friends the Jensen family, who always have a place for us.  We arrived in time for lunch on Friday.   Then Adam had planned an egg hunt for everyone.  He is outgrowing a lot of the traditions we have, but is becoming a big help in organizing things for the younger kids.  This is the first year that I didn't feel all of the eggs.  In fact, I didn't fill any of them.  Adam did it all.  He his all of them too (he may have had some help from Katelyn).  He didn't look for any of them and didn't complain that he didn't get as much candy as the other kids.  Of course he did pass off a requirement for his Family Life merit badge.  Still, he did it all without complaining.  Thanks Adam.

The search is on

The Jensen have an amazing yard for living in a suburban neighborhood. 

Ben found some cheese on the egg hunt :)

While the kids hunted for eggs, Adam shot some hoops.

There was a lot of trading and negotiating going on

Then came more outdoor fun.

The amazing Christian and his gang perform for the circus.

Snow Cones in March???

Earlier this spring we enjoyed unseasonably warm weather. One warm afternoon, on an early out day, Anna had some friends over. Lizzy and Ben were talking about having a snow cone stand where they would sell snow cones. Anna and her friends were all over that so they combined forces to sell snow cones. Ben generously donated materials. He owns the snow cone maker and the syrup. (I donated paper cups and spoons). Anna and her friends drew the poster. Lizzy helped organize the money and the table. They made the snow cones very cheap so they drew a lot of business. They made over $14. They had a lot of fun and they enjoyed the lovely weather. They really did everything themselves. I hardly helped at all.

Here is the poster they made:

Here is the business team. Jacob insisted on helping too :)

One of the perks of putting on a snow cone stand is eating the product. Did this really happen in March?!

DARE Graduation--Anna

A few weeks ago, Jacob and I headed to Anna's school to see her and all her classmates graduate from the DARE program. The police department here does a great job with it and make it interesting for the kids. I think most everyone's favorite part was trying out these goggles that imitate how a drunk person might see. They put them on and then they have to try to walk. Not so easy. I think these programs are great and I think they can really have an effect on the community. I kept thinking, though, how thankful I am that we already know and teach our children these things. Our church has a health code (for lack of better words). We do not smoke, take drugs, or drink alcohol. We also do not drink coffee or tea. We are advised to eat fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. We can eat meat too, but are advised to eat it sparingly. These are things that I have been taught since I was a child, and now I teach them them to my children. I just feel grateful to have this knowledge. It also acknowledges the connection between our bodies and our spirits. When we take care of our bodies, it is easier to be in connection with our spirits and to recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives. In our church, this health code is called "The Word of Wisdom". It is wise, and I am grateful for it.

Here is Jake insisting I take a picture of him while we are waiting.

Anna after she received her certificate.

Another perk is she got to come home from school early. They also give all of the kids a t-shirt. It really is a great program.

St. Patrick's Day Flop

This year Saint Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday. We wanted to do something fun to celebrate. Des Moines has a parade each year for St. Patrick's Day so we thought we would give it a try. I guess we didn't get downtown early enough because by the time we got there is was totally crowded. We didn't really know how crowded it would be, but we quickly realized we weren't in Bettendorf anymore. We walked several blocks looking for a place to plant all 7 of us. We found a spot just big enough but it wasn't in the front of the crowd. We were behind 2 rows of people. The kids were not happy. You don't get any stuff when you aren't in the front. We saw some people in the skywalks so the kids decided they would rather do that. We actually ended up in a window of a building. It wasn't nearly as crowded and we could see quite well. It was quieter. The problem was the parade was pretty boring. No floats, no balloons, it was people walking down the street or driving down the street. I would expect that in our little town of Waukee (in fact it is sort of endearing and you are sure to know several of the paraders), but Des Moines is the largest city in Iowa, and I guess we were all expecting a little bit more. We stayed for a little while, but then the kids wanted to go and we were fine with that.

The most amazing thing about that whole experience was walking back to the car. It was so quick and easy because Des Moines has this amazing skywalk system. You don't have to go down to street level to get where you need to go; the buildings are all connected by skywalks. The area it covers is quite large. It's really impressive and ingenious (unless you want to have balloons in your parade;)). We went home and ate some pizza and then enjoyed attending Adam's last basketball game of the season ( a real nail-biter). The parade was a flop and I don't think we will be going back, but the rest of the day we enjoyed being together as a family.

Quite the crowd at the parade. My favorite shirt I saw said, "Kiss me, I'm Iowish."

Watching the parade from the window.

Greg walked over to the skywalk and took this picture of us in the window.

The view of the crowds and the parade from the skywalk.

Adam at his basketball game: