WhirlWindy Spring Break

It's our spring break this week. Spring break in Idaho has nothing to do with Spring since it's still snowing, but the kids get out of school for a whole week and so we took a little trip.

We went to Utah. Normally, when we go to Utah, it's to visit family. This time we did visit family, but only because we were there. We really went so that Chad could buy some barbed wire he wants to use on the pasture fence. Even with the gas we saved money. Although, if you factor in the museums we went to, it may have not been such a great bargain.

We left on Tuesday, late morning. We visited Ogden Union Station where you get to see trains, a collection of Browning guns and some old cars (think Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). The train part was good. The guns were boring as they were all in cases that you walked around and looked at. The cars were pretty interesting, but there were only about 10 of them and it was only cars...no hands-on stuff, etc. But it only cost our family $12 to get in, and the train museum was worth that much.

After the museum, we grabbed some burgers from Carl's Jr. and visited with my mom and step-dad for a while in South Weber. The kids had fun playing in G-ma's toys. Then we piled everyone back into the van and drove to my sister's house in West Jordan - our final destination.

We visited a bit, had dinner and put the kids to bed really late. Joseph didn't like the change in routine and Leah kept waking up during the night in fits. It was a rocky night. And if I think it was bad, think how Chad felt about it - he was the one that got up each time!

On Wednesday, we awoke to lots of white and more of it coming. I figured it was a heavenly April Fool's joke. I played a small joke on the kids. (It's hard to really get a good prank going when you're not home.) I gave them chocolate milk in their cereal. Pretty lame, I know, but it was all I could come up with! And if you think that's gross, you should know they all asked for seconds. I did stick to simple rice cereals so it wouldn't be too bad.

After breakfast, we trudged through the snow to the van and drove to Thanksgiving Point to go to the Museum of Ancient Life. We spent nearly 4 hours here! The kids were impressed the moment we walked in the door. That was the free part. We bought admission tickets as well as tickets for one of the 3-D movies they show there. That was the $78 part. There were tons of things to read (I hardly read a thing) and lots of things to do. The kids ran all over that place. We took time out halfway through to grab some lunch at their little cafe there. The food wasn't too bad, but if you ever go and decide to order a kids' meal, don't opt for the mini corn dogs or dino nuggets. It's not much food. The hot dog and grilled cheese were decent sizes.

From lunch we went to the movie. It was called "Wild Ocean." That's the first REALLY 3-D movie I've been in. I was glad I hadn't gone about 6 weeks ago as I'm sure the "motion" would have been a little too much for me. Leah had a 4-D experience as she was certain she could smell fish. After a while, she and then Rebekah were no longer wearing their glasses. And I ended up with a headache, but it was a good movie. (Don't judge it by the wimpy Colletts.)

By the time we limped out to the van, we had just enough energy to drive back to my sister's house. Chad and I were both falling asleep on the couches!

We got the kids to bed a little earlier that night (OK, it was last night) and Leah actually slept through the night! I was shocked. Joseph did better, too. Rebekah had a near catastrophe when she lost her blanket in the middle of the night. But Super Daddy was there to rescue her.

This morning we packed up, said good-bye to those still at home and drove to visit Chad's two sisters. We gave them about 1 1/2 hours notice, so they had fun frantically cleaning their house. I'm glad I'm not the only one who does that. The kids dug into the toys there (all for a toddler, but we are apparently not picky) and we had a tour of their "new" home.

Our next stop was IHOP for lunch with my dad. The kids were pretty well behaved while we were there. Joseph is excluded from that category. Leah nearly perished waiting for her food, but survived without losing any serious weight.

With our tummies full, we drove to the Hill Aerospace Museum. This was a free museum. They accepted donations. I was already to give one, and then felt the sting of the trip and decided to be stingy. I did feel a little guilty when I was taking a drink of water. Oh well. There were LOTS of planes to walk around and see. And that was the problem. Walking. I was about done in from museums and lack of sleep and traveling. I sent the kids in to a hands-on area with Chad and sought out a bench. The bench didn't have a back, so I wrapped my legs around the stroller, piled up the diaper bag and coats and slumped over into it. I even almost fell asleep. At one point, I heard a family walking by and a little voice asking, "Is that a real person, Mommy?" Her mother whispered her a "yes" and hurried by. Don't mind me, I'm just a bum sleeping on the bench here! Eventually, a volunteer approached me just to make sure I was OK. Yes, I'm fine. Just a pregnant, sleep-deprived, mother of 5 who is tired of traveling!

So we jumped into the van eventually and drove straight home. We arrived about 5:45 this evening. Dinner was about 6:05, baths for the girls and Joseph at 6:30 and kids to bed at 7. The boys fell asleep by 7:30, but those stinker girls always play around for about 45 minutes. I don't know how they feel, but I'm looking forward to a good sleep tonight!

And that was our spring break. The wind blew, the snow/rain fell and tempers flared. But we weathered the storms and had a good time. Unfortunately, the camera stayed home, so we'll all have to rely on our personal memories.

And don't forget that important barbed wire! It arrived safely. :)

I t's Spring Break!

It was Spring Break this week. We finally got out to celebrate on Thursday. We felt a little restricted by this weekend's General Conference because we didn't want to be somewhere that would be hard to listen. So our plans to travel much distance were nixed. We ended up driving all the way to a small town, famous for it's church college, recently turned 4 year University.

Upon arrival, we stopped in Winger's for lunch, then drove down the road to DI for some treasure hunting.

Next, we drove to the building next door to do some bowling. We were bumper bowling because of the kids, but it really helped the grown-ups, too! The kids used a ramp to send their balls down the lane. We did fairly well. The kids all got into the 90's and Chad and I were one point different from each other, in the 120's. For the first 8 frames, I was dead last in the family. We had some really pretty shoes there. I know it's to deter you from stealing, but I have to think that some things get so bad that the temptation returns just for proof of the hideousness! The hardest workout of the game was making sure Rebekah didn't get herself killed as she wandered around us while we slung stone balls back and forth!

Here is some video of the kids launching their bowling balls. (Sorry it's a little grainy. I spliced 5 movies together and had to use a different format to get YouTube to record it all. Just stand back a few paces from the computer screen!)

By the time we were done bowling, it was late enough to check into our room. We had some time to get a short rest while the kids watched a couple of Magic School Bus shows. We then donned our swimming gear for 20 minutes in the pool. I REALLY look forward to the day when the kids can swim on their own and we won't have to have one or two hanging on us in self-preservation. Then we were back to the room in a quick scramble to get dressed, and up to the campus for a quick bite to eat on our way to see the planetarium show at 7. Rebekah and I wandered around the science building for 75 minutes while we waited for everyone to enjoy the show. Apparently, the kids were not really captivated by the show and were pretty wiggly in there.

So we were finally able to head back to the room for a bedtime treat and SLEEP! The three older kids slept in one bed together and fell asleep much faster than Rebekah. It was a risky arrangement, but despite elbows and knees, no one was seriously injured.



We slept in as long as we could. Sometime before 8 AM, we were up and getting dressed. Free breakfast at the motel and then we were headed out to an airplane museum. The museum people must have been able to sleep in longer than us because despite their posted hours saying they were open, they were not. No explanation.

So, we had a whole day and nothing planned. We decided to put some miles on the van. We drove to Arco and had lunch in a little restaurant called, "Pickle's Place." It was painted very green. From there we drove a little further to Craters of the Moon National Monument. It was cold! But we were tough and even hiked out to the caves. We went down inside an old lava tube now called Indian Tunnel. It was very rocky and Rebekah was carried most of the way. In another month, that's going to be a nice place to visit (not too hot, not too cold). In two months, there will be wildflowers blooming among the lava rock. We won't be back until much longer than a month or two from now.


We finally got home again around 5 yesterday. We were very tired. So we had cold cereal for dinner and watched an old movie, "How to Frame a Figg."

General Conference will now be starting in about 10 seconds. We are rotating our 72 hour kits today, so the kids have been looking forward to GC all week! Rebekah has already downed a package of fruit snacks!