Spring Break

It was Spring Break this week for the Stowers and Masons.  Holly drove everyone down to come for a swim.  These poor little children look so depressed.  I don't think they were at all excited to ride the elevator down to the pool.

 

 

Holly is the baby whisperer.  She can always get Brigham to calm down.

 

Why do I love kids in goggles so much?  Liv looks very "special" in hers.

It was a tradition to have popsicles after swimming when the kids would come to our house.  So we are keeping up the tradition at the apartment.

Saturday

The minute it got light on Saturday morning we went on a bike ride from our apartment to City Creek Canyon.  We had been chomping at the bit to get out on our bikes.  It is only about a half a mile from the door of our apartment building to Memory Grove, which is the entrance to the canyon.  It was frrrreezing!  The higher our elevation, the colder we got.  At about mile 6 we had to turn around because the path was too snowy and we couldn't get our bikes through it.  But we are still so glad we went.  Although we did each take about a 30minute hot shower when we got back home.

 

Then we went over to the Gateway and watched the St. Patrick's Day parade while waiting for Alex to arrive on Frontrunner.  It was a weird parade.  I did like the Irish dancers and Irish music. 

We live right next to Brigham Young's grave site.

We hiked up State Street and stopped in at this building, which is now the tourist center for the city.  We came out with an armful of brochures of things to visit in this great city we now live in.

We walked across the street to the State Capitol building and took a self-guided tour - courtesy of one of our brochures. 

 

 

 

I hadn't been inside the capitol for years.  It is such an impressive building.

We didn't get to finish touring the capitol because we were in a hurry to get Alex back to the train.  So we will be back again, for sure.

We zipped down the street, past the OC Tanner building.  This is a beautiful building.  And although Dave works for OC Tanner, I don't think we could afford a single item sold in this very upscale jewelry store.

We had a dinner that night with all of the members of the branch presidency we now serve with.  And also the two sets of service missionaries that serve there as well. Then we met Andrew and Megan at our apartment later that night.  They had gone to a Jazz game and stopped over to say hello. 

I still feel like we are on vacation instead of living downtown. 

Literacy Night

While I was babysitting, it was Literacy Night at Lily's school.  They had an author come and speak.  Lily got to have him sign a book for her.  She loved it.  They also played several games.  All three kids played the musical chairs game for about thirty minutes and each won their own book.  Olivia thought she was pretty grown up.  She did so well for a 2 year old.

Cotton candy was a hit.  I wasn't really paying attention and before I knew it Olivia had eaten her entire glob of it. Later that night she was on  sugar high and ran around and around until she finally crashed and fell asleep almost instantly.

This is the classroom where Lily spends half of each day in Chinese immersion.  She is learning to understand and speak it so quickly.  She says Chinese math is tough, though. I could barely handle math in English, so the thought of learning it in Chinese blows me away.  Yikes.

The next day Ashley brought Logan and James over to Holly's house and I watched them, along with Lily and Jack, while Ash went to pick out new carpet and get a blessing outfit for Brigham.

 

 

I love Holly's new kitchen.  They are still waiting for the handles for the cupboards, but white cabinets really makes the room seem bigger and so cheerful.

The weather was mild, so out went the kids to play.  They all got along really well.

 

When it got too chilly, they came in and continued playing together in Jack's room.

Brigham reminds me of a little Peruvian baby in this adorable hat that Carrie gave him.

On Saturday Carrie, Debbie and their kids came to visit us in our new place.  I'm pretty lucky/blessed to have two of the best sisters, ever!

Babysitting

Holly went with Cody for a few days on a business trip of his.  So I went up to their house and watched the three kids. 

 

One of the days, after dropping off Lily at school, I went over to Ashley's for quite awhile.  I hadn't seen Brigham for a week and he had changed a bit.  He is starting to smile.  I love the dimple that is beginning to show up on his left cheek.

Logan actually stopped for a second so I could get a picture of him.  Usually all the ones I take of him are blurry because this kid is always on the move.

 

James and Jack love playing the Wii.

 

 

Olivia and Logan had these plastic walkie-talkies.  The funniest part about it is that Olivia calls them Laffy-Taffy's.  I think she knows they are called something that rhymes.  She just doesn't get the words quite right.

The kids were getting pretty silly while eating their lunch.

Later that day, after I had picked Lily up from school, the kids all wanted to play outside.  Across the street from their house is a home that hasn't been lived in for a long time.  The yard is a disaster and that seems to fascinate the kids.  They loved playing over there.

 

Jack is standing in pine needles several inches deep.

 

Jack is another kid that is always moving, climbing, jumping, running. 

A walkabout.

 

The weather has been so nice I decided it was time for another walkabout.

 

And what should I first come across, but these little yellow flowers. They weren't crocus but I couldn't tell for sure what they were, poking their way up through the dried leaves.  But if that isn't a symbol of hope and rebirth I don't know what is.

When I was in high school we used to like to come down to Salt Lake to the Church Office building and jump in the elevator as it took us to the 26th floor.  Now they have an escort with you so that put the kabosh on that.

But I still went to the roof to get a great view. This is to the West.

A view to the north.

I had heard they give tours of the Relief Society Building but I had never done it until yesterday.  I spent two hours there.  Not only did I get a personalized tour, but I met several service missionaries (you have to be a current stake relief society president to be one).  They gave me some wonderful ideas of things I can do in my new calling with the homeless sisters.

This is the original painting of the meeting of the first Relief Society.

They had several of Minerva Teichert's (one of my favorite LDS artists) works.  I loved the border of this painting. There are quetzal birds at the top of each corner.

And I have always loved the "pioneer woman with her handbag"painting.  That's not the official title of the painting, of course.

When the Church announced, just after World War II that they were going to build this building, they asked all of the women of the Church to donate $5 to help in construction costs.  The women of Europe were not allowed by their governments to send money out of their respective countries because of the dire financial situations they had been left in after the end of the war.  So the sisters there purchased gifts and sent those.  This is an elaborate Dresden piece, worth thousands of dollars today I am sure.  There were quite a few other delicate and very beautiful gifts that had been sent that are still on dislplay there.

In one of the rooms, there were portraits of all of the former presidents of the Primary, Young Women and Relief Society.  I just had to snap a shot of my former neighbor and visiting teacher, Michaelene Grassli.  Just to tell you what an amazing visiting teacher she was, she once sent me a post card when she was in Switzerland because she wasn't going to be able to visit me that month.

I then trudged up the hill to the pioneer museum.  There were hundreds of paintings and photographs of the pioneers who settled this valley.  I swear I could hear them whispering, "Carpe Diem".  No, actually I think they would have said something to the effect that I had better not make all of their suffering and sacrifice to have been in vain.  They each deserve the most elaborate mansions that the celestial kingdom has to offer, that's all I can say. 

An actual handcart that was pulled across the plains to Salt Lake.

It was time to get home and make some dinner for my sweetie pie. So I headed back to our apartment, passing this loveliness:

I like to take a shortcut through the Joseph Smith Memorial building on my way home.

 

Then it's past the Church administration building.  I always get chills thinking of who all is in there.  Elaine is pretty lucky she gets to work there.

I have bought Lion House rolls 3 times since we moved here.  Oops.  Not gonna lose any weight if that continues.

I took a tour of the Beehive House last week but didn't bring my camera.  So I'll have to do it again sometime.

It's amazing how much there is to see and do down here.  I'm looking forward to a very enjoyable spring and summer.