Easter and other things that feel like a long time ago

Writing is a funny thing.  Sometimes, no matter how much I need to write about something I just can't find the drive to do it.  The words don't come and I feel stuck. 

Other times I have a feeling where all I want to do is write.  The words flow and the process is almost a joy.  

For the past two weeks I've had these feeling simultaneously, but for two different blogs. I've had pictures uploaded in this post so I could update the Illguthlife blog. But I just couldn't get anything to flow.  Instead I've had deep desire to work on 51 Cent Adventures posts - specifically Yellowstone Posts.  It's been almost a year since I've done anything with the Yellowstone posts so I was happy that I felt like writing those again. 

The result was that I now have FOUR new Yellowstone Posts up on 51 Cent Adventures and it's been over THREE weeks since I've updated the Illguthlife blog. 

I still have the magic writing feeling for the Yellowstone posts, but this blog is burning in the back of my mind and I don't want to fall further behind. So let's bust this thing out quick so I can get back to the Yellowstone Posts. 

Okay so where were we?

Oh yeah, Derrick's 7th Birthday! On April 8th - over three weeks ago. 

We put together his Shark Cake on Sunday.  He's wanted about 5 different cakes. He's talked about a "Marty's Car" (Back the the Future) cake, a train cake, a car cake, a dinosaur cake, and then finally settled on a Shark Cake.  I wasn't sure what that would look like and basically imagined making a cake in the shape of a shark.  Then Veronica and I found a whole Shark Explorer themed toy set at Walmart for $14. I KNEW this would make the cake look amazing. I didn't think about how big every thing would look on the cake. 

We ended up using a little bit of cake to make a sand bar of sorts and frosted the bottom of the cake pan with blue frosting to look like water. We used Swedish Fish as fish, and Veronica had the idea to use jelly life saver candies as waves.  

Charlotte and Lydia stayed up and helped me and Brandon blow up balloons.  Derrick was so excited to wake up to them on Monday morning. 

 He was dying to open presents, but was willing to wait until after school.

 We were waiting for Brandon and both sets of Grandparents to arrive.  Derrick passed the time by staring at his cake and singing Happy Birthday.  I ended up not recording when we sang to Derrick so I'm glad I caught this.

Derrick has turned into quite the musician lately.  About a month ago he started humming and humming and humming.  If he's happy, he's humming.  And it's not just random humming.  He's humming songs. Songs that he's previously told me to stop singing. I wrote them down over an afternoon the other day.  Songs I've heard him hum include: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, I'm a Little Tea Pot, Nephi's Courage, Praise to the Man, The Star Spangled Banner, How Far I'll Go from Moana, Found a Peanut, 99 bottles of Pop on the Wall, and several others.  The humming has shown me that he's paying attention to things he hears - even if it doesn't seem like he is. 

The twins entertained themselves by playing with all their stuffed animals.  (I'd dumped out the stuffed animal box to use to wrap one of Derrick's presents so they'd found several animals that they'd forgotten about.)

They also wandered outside with Veronica and picked flowers.

Derrick had two presents in his backpack. One was a present from his Day Care Teacher Miss Wenda.  Derrick doesn't go to Daycare anymore, but Miss Wenda drives the Day Care bus so she made sure to give Derrick his present when he passed her bus on his way to the school bus.

The other present was his long awaited Birthday Bag. His 1st grade teacher puts together Birthday Bags at the beginning of the year and hangs them on a calendar on the wall.  Derrick has been OBSESSED with his birthday bag and has wanted to see what's inside ALL.SCHOOL.YEAR.LONG. 

When Brandon and the grandparents arrived we decided that Derrick had waited long enough to open his presents.  So that's what we did first.

He loved everything! Brandon's parents bought him a bird that repeats whatever he says.  He's had a lot of fun with that.  My parents got him a "Shark Gun" which made his day! The birthday bag had fun things like a magnifying glass and a calculator.

One of the presents that Brandon and I gave Derrick was a giant Killer Whale.  His therapist saw it at Goodwill a few weeks ago and texted me a picture.  I called Goodwill and had them hold it for me until I got off of work.  I bought it and kept it hidden in the garage.

Derrick was so happy to have a big whale.  He named it Willy and it hangs out on his bed with his smaller whale that he got for Christmas.

The kids went downstairs and watched the new Curious George DVD that we'd given Derrick.  The adults stayed upstairs and discussed the big news of the day which was that  . . .  

Brandon had accepted the job in Twin Falls!  We were so excited about that and so we talked over the ins and outs of the job.  

We had hamburgers for dinner and then had cake.  Derrick was so happy with the cake.

The day after Derrick's birthday was a fun day.  Veronica and I stopped by my old office and told my friends that Brandon had found a job. We also ran a couple errands including picking up new shoes for Derrick since he'd completed destroyed his on the playground earlier in the day.  Charlotte and Lydia had a field trip to an orthodontist's office.  They had fun with that.  

All week long Veronica's daycare had fun little things going on each day.  On Wednesday it was Wishing Well Wednesday.  Her wish was to get a dog. 

Here she is next to the wishing well.

A dog is still not happening for a couple months so Veronica has developed an interest in worms.  She found this one and named it Sweety. Later she found another one and talked Brandon into helping her find a jar for the worm.  Now we have probably 30 worms living in jars on our kitchen counter. Brandon says it's okay because "at least she's interested in something!"

Lydia drew this picture and it blew me away that it was so well done.  As a reminder, Lydia is 8.  This is better than I've ever been able to draw.

Thursday was an exciting day for all the kids.  They got to start their Rock Climbing Class!  Last fall when Charlotte took dance classes at the Rec Center we could see the climbing wall in the room next to the dance room.  Later I found the catalog for the rec center and saw that they offer four week classes for children in 1st through 6th grade. Brandon and I have long dreamed about raising our kids to be rock climbers.  Brandon even bought a lot of gear as a late Christmas/tax return present this year. He wants to take the kids climbing at the South Cliffs in Pocatello this summer and I figured it would be a good idea if they had some training in the indoor class before that.

Technically Veronica is too young for the class since its for 1st through 6th graders.  But I knew she would hate it if she had to wait outside the class while her siblings had fun climbing. She's always mistaken for a 1st grader when we visit Derrick's class so I figured she'd blend right in with the other kids in the class.  And I was right.  So far no one has noticed that she's a bit younger than the other kids. 

During the first class the kids worked on Bouldering Skills. That's where they climb without the ropes. 

They can't go above a red line that goes around the whole room.

Charlotte and Lydia have always been natural climbers so they did really well.

Derrick and Veronica had a bit of trouble. They did okay at first, but their fingers started hurting.  The class is an hour and a half long and they both were done by the hour mark. Veronica was crying and Derrick was starting to shut down from being overstimulated. We went out into the hall and took a break.  It wasn't bad for a first class, but I told them that next week I'd give them a quarter if they stayed in the whole time. 

After class was over we zipped home, had a quick dinner, and then I ran over to the church for the monthly Relief Society Meeting.  This one was about Gardening.  After March's big dinner activity I wasn't really worried about this one at all.  We ended up having about 15 people there and we had a good night. 

On Friday I went to Derrick's school to help him with a Craft Project sponsored by Home Depot.  We made these clocks. There was a little bit of hammering involved and Derrick really liked that.  It was good I was there to keep an eye on him though.  He tried hammering a nail into his desk.

On Saturday morning Brandon took Charlotte, Lydia, and Derrick fishing.  Veronica and I stayed home where it was warm. Soon the fishermen came back and joined us.  They took us it wasn't warm enough to have fun fishing yet.

That afternoon Brandon helped our neighbor Riley with his car.  The car reportedly had a bad starter and hadn't worked for 2 weeks.  But when Brandon got involved the car started right up. 

On Monday after school Brandon went to print some things off at the FedEx Store.  When he went back out to the Jeep it wouldn't start!  He called me and had me pick him up.  (He wanted me to tow him and I told him that wasn't happening in rush hour traffic.) Later that evening Riley helped Brandon tow the jeep home. 

They left the Jeep parked in front of the house.  On Tuesday I took Brandon to work.  As we were leaving he noticed he'd left the drivers side window open.  So when I got back home I went to roll up the window.  On a whim I tried to start the Jeep. To my surprise it started right up!

I told Brandon that his and Riley's cars are just conspiring with each other to get Brandon and Riley to do their Ministering assignments. Riley is our Ministering Brother and Brandon is assigned to Riley's family.

Backing up a bit to Sunday.  We had some friends over for dinner on Sunday.  Noah and Kristen are in our ward and wanted to talk to us about our summer in Yellowstone.  It was fun talking with them about that.

On Monday I was able to watch my friend Nicole's baby for a few hours in the morning.  I realized its probably one of the few times in my life I've been alone with just one baby.  We had a good time together.  He's young enough that I could prop him up on the couch with me and work on the computer without him trying to grab anything.  After a little while I just laid him down on the couch and he fell asleep while I worked.  I was like, "This is different."

On Monday evening (after I'd picked up a stranded Brandon) we dyed Easter Eggs.  I wanted to try something different so we tried the whipped cream method. We did this on Monday night so we could do them with Derrick's therapist, Miss Christy.  It's always nice to do these things with an extra adult around. 

Everyone enjoyed this way because of the fun of licking their fingers.

This was way more delicious than vinegar.

According to the directions we had to wait 10 minutes for the color to set.  Charlotte and Lydia entertained us with a dance. 

The video tutorial we watched didn't really specify how to get the whipped cream off.  We ended up leaving the eggs in the cream over night and then wiped them off with paper towels the next day.  The color wasn't as bold as I would have liked, but the marbled effect was cool.

Tuesday was the Indian Hills Art Show. The school has a parent run art program where parents come in and teach and art lesson once a month. The kids create a portfolio of different projects. Then at the end of the year the students select one piece of Art to display at the show.  I've been able to participate as a volunteer a few times this year. And so I was happy to help out with the show.  I signed up to sell tickets.  I also volunteered Brandon to be one of the local artists.  My logic was that Brandon is drawing on his computer every chance he gets so that qualifies him as an artist. 

Brandon went early to help set up.  He was gone for maybe 5 minutes before the kids and I looked at each other and thought "Home is boring, lets go wait at the school.  So we drove to the school and played on the playground til it was time to go in.

The show was really fun.  Here is Brandon's display.  He brought a computer with a free drawing program on it.  Kids had so much fun using that.  So many of them said things like, "WOW you can draw on a computer!"

I sold tickets that could be used to buy things like cotton candy, face painting, and cookies.  It was fun working with cash again.

I hadn't really thought about who would keep an eye on Derrick while I was doing my half hour selling tickets and Brandon was at his display area.  Derrick started freaking out about getting a ticket for cotton candy and I was trying to figure out how to keep him happy when the lady in charge of the whole event offered to take him around.  She's a speech therapist so she knew exactly how to handle him.  He went with her and I was able to finish my half hour without any incidents. 

Then I went around with Derrick and looked at all the art.  This was Lydia's sunrise picture. 

Charlotte did an abstract shape that she decided looked like the Grinch.

And here is Derrick's finger tracing project. 

Charlotte and Lydia had brought their own money for cotton candy.  But Derrick hadn't brought any.  Some how he'd sweet talked his way to two tickets from the lady in charge and bought cotton candy with them.  He didn't want to eat the cotton candy though.  He just wanted to walk around with it.  He walked all over the school with the candy held high.  Honestly he probably earned those two free tickets with all the advertising he was doing for the cotton candy.











On Wednesday night I was able to go with Charlotte and Lydia on their Activity Day's Activity.  We went to a Walk with Christ event at the Alameda Stake Center.  The stake does this every year.  They decorate different rooms to look like places in Jerusalem and then have people dress up like Biblical People.  Small groups were led throughout the church and would listen to the actors talk about how Christ had impacted them.  We met the blind man Jesus healed, the women with an issue of blood, Peter, Pilot, Mary Magdalene, and Thomas. I was very impressed by the production value.  The rooms were COMPLETELY transformed.  Check out the pictures here.

The only thing I didn't like was that we never really walked with Christ.  Instead it felt like we were more following his trail.  We were encountering people who told us about what Christ had done, but we always seemed to be just missing him.

Still it was a great night and I think it really helped make Easter seem more about Christ and less about the Easter Bunny for Charlotte and Lydia.

On Thursday we were back at the Rec Center for the second Rock Climbing Class.  This time the kids could use the ropes.  Charlotte scrambled right up to the top.

Lydia did too, but I kept missing pictures of her. 

Derrick did okay, but would get scared after reaching the blue line.

And Veronica, well Veronica isn't very stable on flat surfaces.  Climbing UP a surface was a tricky thing for her to learn.  But she got better as the class went on.

I took a lot of pictures so Brandon could see and I'm so stinkin proud of them so here are some more pictures.  Here's Derrick.

Lydia is climbing on a slightly inclined wall.

This moment made me so proud.  Derrick had climbed up, but quit after going past the red line.  The belayer asked him if he wanted to try again and then encouraged him the whole way up.  Derrick made it past the place he'd quit earlier.

Charlotte wanted to attempt this tricky climb.  She didn't make it very far this week, but in week three she made it pretty far.

I love Lydia's smile in this picture. She and Charlotte are so happy in this class.

Here they are bouldering. 

Before class Derrick had about an hour of therapy with Miss Christy.  He'd decided he wanted to buy bird seed with his birthday money so they went to McKee's and bought some bird seed.  When we got home from Rock climbing we had dinner and then we went outside.  Derrick put some bird seed in a bowl and then waited to see if a bird would come.  He waited patiently for a long time, but there were no birds.  Later we made a bird feeder with a pinecone, peanut butter, and bird seed.

I'd spent Wednesday afternoon cleaning out the garage while the kids played in the back yard.I'd gotten the big sections better organized.  On Thursday evening Brandon came out and started going through his smaller piles of randomness.

I wish I'd taken before pictures because this place was a mess. The garage doesn't have a light so all winter long we'd been making quick dashes into the cold and dim garage to find things and then hurrying to toss them back in.  It needed some major TLC.

The kids had fun playing in this unplanted section of the garden. 

They've been digging holes and finding worms.

We have a lot of pet worms now.

I'd been looking for an orange infinity scarf to wear for Brandon's graduation.  I couldn't find one so I ended up making one.  It went together fast and I love how it looks.

On Friday we went on a little hike up Red Hill so we could take some pictures in preparation for Brandon's graduation. 

The kids thought it was so fun that they could see the day care from the hill.

Brandon wore his regular clothes and then changed into his cap and gown when we got to the top.

Here's a sneak peek of the pictures.

After the pictures we had a picnic dinner on top of the hill.

We had a lot of fun up there. 

I love days like this.

Then we went down the hill and hung out on campus.  Brandon went to the registrars office and picked up some honor cords.  (we really should have done that before the pictures, but oh well.)

We were waiting around until 6:00 when we could go see Lego Movie 2 for free at the campus theater. It was only like 4:00 so we had a lot of time to kill. The weather was perfect so we didn't mind. Brandon and the kids ran races on the Quad. 

The kids all piled on each other.

I wandered off to go take pictures of an area that has really pretty flowers.  I love walking and driving by this area.

This daffodil was so cool looking.

This long strip on flowers always makes me so happy.

At 6:00 we could go into the Student Union Building for some Lego related activities before the movie started at 7:00.  But before we went in we discovered there were some other activities happening on the Quad.  There was a big boucey house thing and some big balls.  The activities were free so of course we went to do those. 

Charlotte and Lydia had so much fun with the big balls.

It was a perfect night.

Derrick and Veronica loved the inflatable slide.

Then we went inside for the Lego Activities.  I'm not entirely sure who provided these, but every child got SIX lego figures for FREE.  Veronica has wanted a Lego Emmet and Lucy for a while and so she was so happy to get them.

Then we went into the theatre and waited for the movie.  I'm going to miss these free screenings.

The movie was so funny.  Of the three sequel movies we've watched at ISU this year (Incredibles 2, Wreck it Ralph 2, and Lego Movie 2) this one was my favorite.  I laughed so hard - especially at the Die Hard reference.  I was also really touched by the movie.  Lucy singing "Everything's not Awesome" was a really cool part that summed up why it's important to keep hoping even when things aren't great. I highly recommend the movie.

On Saturday I got up a little after 7:00 and went for a hike up City Creek. I basically had the place to myself.

I love this sunrise picture.

I'm going on a trip to Zion  National Park with my sisters in a few weeks and we have a lot of hiking planned.  My knee has pretty much healed up from the car accident, but I was a little worried about how it would do on a trail.  It did great. 

Back at home the kids were playing with Legos.  Derrick would pretend to trap his Lucy under the laundry basket and Emmet would save her.  It's always fun to see Derrick pretend.

We had everyone take baths and then they all put on their shoes and we went out to the car. 

We drove down to Utah for what was supposed to be an Easter Party with Brandon's family.  Despite the best laid plans though the party kind of got pre-empted by other things.  One of Brandon's sisters couldn't make it on Saturday and his mom was invited to go on a special temple trip for most of the day.  So instead we went to Brandon's sister Melanie's house for a relaxing afternoon.  Charlotte had fun with one of the chickens.

And Derrick really had fun with a chicken.  He'd been asking to play with a chicken earlier that day (?) and so it was convenient that we were visiting Melanie.

The girls had fun with their cousin Oakley.

Veronica's static-y hair was so funny.

When it was time to go I looked all over for Derrick and finally found him here.  IN the chicken coop!  That boy was so sad to say good bye to the chicken.

We went over to Brandon's parents house and got there a little after they came home from the temple.  They fixed us dinner and then we went outside for an egg hunt.  Jacque had prepared 200 eggs just for our family.  I hadn't known that so we'd brought eggs too.  So our kids ended up with quite the egg hunt.

They had so much fun looking for eggs.

They had so many eggs they didn't all fit in the baskets.  The kids had to empty them into grocery bags from time to time. 

Lydia was pretty excited about her haul.

Then we went inside and the kids emptied everything out.  They got so much candy.  Next year I'm thinking of filling our eggs with nickels and dimes.  This candy things is getting out of hand.

We had a lot of things to do on Easter Sunday so we didn't stay over at Steve and Jacque's.  Instead we drove back to Pocatello Saturday night.  Before the kids went to bed we had them set out their baskets.  After the kids were in bed we sleepily filled them and hid them.  I hid the baskets super well because I didn't want the kids finding them and eating candy before breakfast.

I also laid out the kids Easter outfits.

The kids (mercifully) slept in and we did have something resembling a healthy breakfast.  Then they found their baskets.

The kids were excited.

I like being able to do this for the kids.

They like these things and that's important to me.

Brandon had bought the kids these giant chocolate bars called, "Bunny Money."  They were huge and took a long time to eat.

Lydia said her's took 4 sessions.

Soon it was time to get ready for church.  Everyone looked so nice in their new clothes.  Lydia and Charlotte had gone with me on separate trips to pick out their dresses at DI. Charlotte's Jelly Bean Dress was absolutely perfect for Easter.

At church I was able to sing "Jesus Once of Humble Birth" with the ward choir.  It was a difficult song, with very high sections followed by very low sections. We'd never run through it without stopping until the rehearsal before Sacrament Meeting. During that run through we sounded really good.  I started to focus less on the notes and actually paid attention to the words.  That was probably a mistake.  I started crying during the final verse and just mouthed the words - "Once all things he meekly bore, But he now will bear no more."

It was probably good that I cried during rehearsal because I was able to keep it together during the actual performance.  We did so well and I'll never sing this song the same way again.

1. Jesus, once of humble birth,
Now in glory comes to earth.
Once he suffered grief and pain;
Now he comes on earth to reign.
Now he comes on earth to reign.

2. Once a meek and lowly Lamb,
Now the Lord, the great I Am.
Once upon the cross he bowed;
Now his chariot is the cloud.
Now his chariot is the cloud.

3. Once he groaned in blood and tears;
Now in glory he appears.
Once rejected by his own,
Now their King he shall be known.
Now their King he shall be known.

4. Once forsaken, left alone,
Now exalted to a throne.
Once all things he meekly bore,
But he now will bear no more.
But he now will bear no more.

Brandon taught Sunday School on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how it helps us overcome not only sin and death but also Trials and Weaknesses. 

After church my parents came over and we had a dinner that I called "Variations on an Easter Theme." We had sliced ham instead of spiral cut, we had diced red potatoes instead of mashed, and we had hollow rolls instead of regular rolls. It was yummy. 

And that gets us all caught up - or it would have if I'd been able to get this written a week and a half ago like I'd planned.  But it's good enough for now.  

I'm hoping to knock out another post in the next few days so I can be caught up in time for Brandon's graduation on Saturday.