What a day!

Saturday started bright and early with Savannah's first road race. "The Running of the Leopards" is sponsored by her school, and known as the fastest 5k in Utah- straight downhill! I got the feeling that she kind of wanted to do it on her on- so I sat on the sidelines. I think she learned a LOT, and the next road race will go a little smoother.

She HATES this picture- but it's all I've got!

The girls had to spend most of the day preparing for the General Young Women's Broadcast later that evening. Tyler and the boys were invited to go sailing on the Great Salt Lake.

It looks cold, but I think they had a lot of fun.

I spent the day making a bunch of bread for my "Bread of Life" lesson on Sunday.


That evening, Georgia and I got to go listen to the broadcast in the Conference Center. The girls did such a great job and it was so fun to watch and listen to them.

It was much harder than I thought to find them! I kept seeing Emmaline and was really worried that Savannah was never going to make it on the screen until the last song, when she got a close up. What a relief! We went to Costa Vida for dinner afterwards (the director told the girls that was part of the deal- they sing and their parents have to take them to dinner) and had cupcakes from the Sweet Tooth Fairy for dessert. It was a great day, but we definitely needed Sunday to relax.

Park City

Jeff and his kids came to Park City for Spring Break so I let the girls play hooky to snowboard for the day.


I was worried that the girls might have lost some of their skills since they didn't do the school program this year, but luckily they hadn't! Tyler took Emmaline down a double black diamond (she may or may not have cried- but she made it down) and Savannah says her S-turns were effortless (for some reason she has always had a problem with over-thinking those).
I brought Oliver up to have his first shot at snowboarding. He felt so cool in the parking lot, he was flashing a peace sign to everyone as they passed by.


Poor kid had to borrow the girls stuff. I think it wasn't quite as easy as he anticipated, but he did great.

Afterwards, the kids all wanted to go to the hot tub.

This picture might seem strange until you realize that it was SNOWING and the hot tub was outdoors. This is absolutely my new favorite picture of Tucker. He likes to call the pool the "swimming cool." Amazingly appropriate in Utah.
What a great day. So glad Park City is the place they choose for Spring Break.

The girls are gonna be on T.V.

This Saturday is the General Young Women's Meeting for our church and the girls get to be part of a choir that will be performing during the meeting. I've only been able to sit in on a little bit of some of the rehearsals, but I'm been so impressed with the choir director. One of the songs is entitled "Guardians of Virtue." She has talked with the girls a lot about maintaining their virtue. She has told them that every time they listen to gossip, they lose a little virtue and every time they participate in perpetuating it, they lose a little more.

Another thing I loved that she said is, "I'm really concerned about the little things. We haven't been asked to cross the plains, but I have asked you not to chew gum and yet some of you are still doing it. We've asked you to wear skirts that cover your knees when you are sitting and yet some of you still have skirts that are too short. I'm worried that if we can't do the little things we don't have a chance when we're asked to do the big things." I thought that was really profound.

Anyway, if you get a chance to watch, I think it will be enjoyable. When Emmaline came home from practice last Saturday, she said her head hurt she had cried so much. The spirit was so strong and when they sing, "Through virtue we find the power divine that change the world"- you FEEL it. I don't know if the girls realize what a special thing it is to be able to participate in this, but I'm so excited for them. This kind of thing makes it almost worth living in Utah. I have to remember that as I look at the snow billowing around outside!

History Buffs

Oliver has an older teacher that I just love because she kind of teaches the same way I was taught as a child. She has spent the last month teaching the kids about American history and the constitution. Oliver loves history, but has been known to fabricate very plausible sounding facts when he doesn't actually know an answer, so we were intrigued when we got this note from his teacher.


Tyler quizzed him on a few stories and we were quite impressed with what he knew. It reminded me of something that Emmaline did in preschool.
Preschool was difficult for Emmaline. She didn't want to learn the alphabet and sitting still without fidgeting was difficult. One of her teachers adored her, but the other was quite frustrated and often pulled me aside after class to discuss various things. It was a pleasant surprise one day when she pulled me aside to say, "Emmaline is REALLY bright." When I asked what she meant, she explained that they were studying flags from around the world and when they came to France, Emmaline began spouting out facts about the Statue of Liberty. Savannah had been doing a school project about the Statue of Liberty (including making a clay model) and we hadn't realized all that Emmaline was soaking it all in. When she came home, I asked what she had told the class. She repeated the facts, then added, "I told them that they took it apart in France and sent it over in a bunch of suitcases. My teacher told me that wasn't right."
We laughed our heads off. Another funny Emmaline story...
The other day she was telling me about a boy in her class that was really smart. She said she guessed he was so smart because his Dad was always talking to him about history and politics and he actually understood it! I'm guessing she must be feeling a little lost during some of our dinner table discussions.

Quote of the Day and Happy Fat Tuesday

Since we didn't do much except eat King Cake to celebrate Mardi Gras this year, Emmaline decided to make some masks with the boys. This is the conversation that ensued as Tucker showed his mask to Tyler.


Tyler- Oh, you're in disguise.
Tucker- How'd I get dere (there)?
Tyler- How'd you get where?
Tucker- In dose (those) guys?

Icebreaker Tournament

As usual, we headed down to St George for the Icebreaker tournament during President's Day weekend. We've had a particularly wet spring and you wouldn't believe the mud! I think my car will never recover. Here is a look at the parking area for the tournament. Just to give you an idea of how bad it was, I saw one team being put in the car wash afterward.


We had a little bit of a slow beginning, but the girls really pulled through and ended the first round with the most points. During one game, a girl pushed Savannah down into a really deep puddle. She got up so fired up- I haven't seen her play so well in a long time. Tyler was wondering if maybe we could pay someone to do that every game! =) Unfortunately, our final game was about 20 minutes after our other game so while the other team had hours to rest and get ready for the finals, we were tired, wet, and muddy. Although we had beaten them easily (4-1) that morning, it was close (2-1), but we just couldn't make it happen. A very sad ending- but one more 2nd place medal to add to the collection!.

I don't know why, but I thought it was funny to see all these bags all lined up in the hallway at the hotel.

We were in charge of the ice for ice baths one night.

Somehow I have no pictures of Savannah and I can't figure out how to download them from the Facebook site!

The "F" word

On the first day of school, there was a Mom in Oliver's classroom that really made an impression. She was extremely loud and could not stop talking the entire time the parents were there.

One of the conversations with her son went a little something like this, "Now honey, I think you're supposed to sit here at this desk and start to write on this paper, eyes down on the desk, paying attention, I know it's hard for you to pay attention, but focus on this sheet of paper, eyes right there until you get this done, right here on this desk, front and center, let's get this done quickly, pay attention...."

I'm not sure how she was even taking a breath, but it went on and on. She wears a lot of blue eyeshadow and is extremely animated. Her son had a birthday party on Saturday. When I went to pick Oliver up, he said, "Andre's mom keeps saying this "f" word that really confuses me and my friends. I don't know what she is talking about." You can imagine my relief when I went to thank her for inviting Oliver and she kept saying, "Oh it was phenomenal. The kids all had a phenomenal time. It's been a phenomenal day." (I'm not kidding- she said it three times in a row.) The "f" word-phenomenal- whew! That's one I can explain.