A Farewell To Boxie

Nick said goodbye to a faithful old friend today.

Several months ago, Erik got a sand blaster which came in a very large cardboard box. Nick has played with that box for months (literally). It has been a house, a restaurant, even a turtle shell! You name it, he's done it with that box. The box has finally had it, so he said goodbye, and then wrote goodbye on the box (so that boxie wouldn't forget he loved him). So here is a final salute of farewell to Boxie:

Great times with family

While we were in California we got to spend lots of time with family. Before the wedding we spent time at the country club that the wedding was at with Erik's family.

Nick spent a lot of time playing with Grandpa, it was fun to see them have so much quality time together. They slayed "dragons" together while riding their trusty steeds. Grandpa's horse was "Lucky" and Nick's was "Champ". They had a wonderful time together.

Grandpa even tried to teach Nick a little golf (not that grandpa is a golfer). Golf is now Nick's favorite sport, because Grandpa taught it to him :)




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After the wedding we stayed an extra couple of days so we could take a trip to Disneyland. We haven't been in years, so it was a lot of fun. My sister, her husband, and kids, and Erik's parents all came with us. We even got Nick onto a fast ride, the Matterhorn. When he went on, my neice Ashley, who is about 9 mos younger than him, turned to him and said "I'm so proud of you for going on the fast ride" isn't that sweet!

Here's Nick on the A for the California Adventure Sign:


Nick and Ashley on the Finding Nemo Submarine:


and Squishy too (just a little bit after his 1st birthday here)


Oh No! Thrown in jail by Uncle Carlos :)




Oh No! Locked up again? This time on Tom Sawyer Island



Can he get the Sword In the Stone Out?

Wedding

This post is wayyyy late, but we've had a busy couple of months, and I haven't done good about keeping the blog up to date. I'm hoping I can get it caught up and do better with it now.

At the beginning of May, we took a trip to California for Jason and Page's Wedding (Erik's brother and his new wife). The wedding was beautiful, the trip relaxing and a lot of fun. There was only one problem, Erik was sick as a dog for the wedding, he didn't even get to stay for the reception he was so sick. He did manage to pretty much make it through the wedding although he did have to sneak out and sit down for a couple of minutes. Here are a few of our pictures from the trip:

All dressed up for the wedding:


Before the wedding, and before Erik started to turn green (although he was already feeling pretty sick at this point)



At the reception, Nick shows off his missing teeth. It was amazing how good he behaved for the wedding, he was so well behaved, I couldn't have been prouder!



Nick and his grandpa:


Dancing with Grandma:

Dandelion Jelly

We made dandelion jelly today! The weather finally cleared up and it was a beautiful day so we decided it was time to get a batch made up. The kids loved running around outside picking dandelion flowers. The only problem is:



Even after you wash your hands two times, they are still yellow!

Nick decided he was going to help me make the jelly. He brought in my huge canning pot, boy, did that make him proud, the pot is half his size, but it's very light. Once we had the pot in, I put him to work taking the lids off the jelly jars and dividing the lids, rings, and jars.



Next he poured the dandelions into the pot:


Then the water:


Nick thought that the jar rings made an excellent bracelet.


All done :)

Return of the Dinosaurs

We've actually officially reached the point where we are learning about dinosaurs now. We've watched some videos, read tons of books, and now Nick has decided it's time to resume painting his t-rex that he dug out of the sand back in September or October. So yesterday we finished up the red layer of paint. Tomorrow we'll work on the next layer and i'll try to get some photos up.

An Interesting Conversation To Have With A 5 Year Old

I was sitting on the couch working the other night, and Nick and Erik were watching a science documentary on TV. Nick runs up to me, very excited (this is obviously not word for word):
Nick: Mom do you know how big a neutrino is?
Me: No, I don't, how big is a neutrino?
Nick (emphatically): Very small, it's even smaller than an atom.
Me: Do you know how big an atom is?
Nick: An Atom is so tiny you can't even see it! It's really, really, really tiny.
Me: And a neutrino is even smaller than that?
Nick: Yes, it's smaller than an atom, is super tiny.

So... my 5 year old son now knows about neutrinos. You'd have thought he was discussing dinosaurs he was so excited. Somehow I don't think teaching him science is going to be difficult.

Utah Natural History Museum

Sorry it has been so long since I've updated. I'm going to try to get you caught up most of the way today. A few weeks ago, we took a trip down to Salt Lake. Erik was finally feeling a bit better from his cold and had a touch of spring fever, so we needed to get out and do something fun.

The museum is on the campus of the University down there, so parking was very interesting to say the least. We spent 20 minutes circling around trying to find a spot to park that would give us long enough to visit the museum. The museum itself only has 5 parking spots and most of the other spots in that area have a 30 minute limit. We finally got one of the museum spots, only to find out they weren't enforcing parking that day (despite the signs everywhere that say they enforce 24/7).

Anyways, it was a great trip. We drove down and stopped at Jason's deli for lunch. When I lived in Oklahoma Jason's was one of my favorite restaurants, so it is a nice treat when we get it. We only discovered the Salt Lake Jasons in January, so this is only the 2nd time I've had it in more than 10 years :) Anyways, went to Jason's and my sandwich had some olive pits in it. I couldn't believe it, I almost broke a tooth! Thankfully I didn't though, and we all had a very yummy lunch topped with their free ice cream, and I got to bring home yummy left overs too!

Then we stopped off at the chocolate factory, where you can watch them make their chocolates. Unfortunately, it turns out that they do not make chocolate on the weekend LOL... Still we all had fun looking around.

Next it was off to the museum! I was really surprised by the size and quality of the museum. I was a little nervous when I found out it was on a college campus, but they use every inch of space and use it well. We were there for a few hours.

When you first get inside, they have this really cool dinosaur. Nick absolutely loved it.

The kids can "feed" it (money) and it talks to them. Nick thought that was great, then he had some fun feeding it his arm!

Nick had been talking a lot about totem poles lately, an interest that seemed to show up from nowhere, although I'm sure it must have come up in a book or TV show. You can imagine his delight when we saw this:

It was the first totem pole he's seen in person, and he was really excited.

And then of course... what good is a natural history museum without a spot to dig for dinosaur "bones" like an archaeologist?


After the museum Nick asked us if we could move, apparently there aren't enough museums in Idaho Falls. I'm so glad he enjoys museums, we love them and it's so nice to be able to share that time together.