Claire Has a Gift

Claire's school choir had their concert a few weeks ago and Claire Bear sang her first solo.  She was nervous but she really loves to sing.  She goes early to school for practices and those were always our best school days.  On the day of the concert the choir performs it for the school during an assembly I got a text from one of the teachers at school saying what great job she did.  I feel sad that in our digital world that I don't have written notes to save for the kids so I'm posting her comment here so Claire will have it later.  

I thought the text was so dang nice and it made me excited to hear her sing that night.  Our elementary school doesn't have a theater so we were on hard chairs in the cafeteria and I couldn't see because of the person in front of me but I could hear her voice and it was awesome!

A few days later I invited one of Claire's friends over to play and her mom also commented on Claire's singing and her kind words warmed my heart.

I told her I was surprised by her voice and when she dropped off her daughter she was so adamant that Claire, "had a gift" and "a responsibility to use it to lift others through song!"  I was delighted of course.  Who doesn't love hearing someone sing their child's praise!?

Claire also had her dance recital this month and I absolutely love seeing her dance.  I love being backstage in the dressing room and doing her make-up and hair.  This year Aunt Pammy came too and that was fun to have her be a stage mom with me.

The theme of the show was All That Jazz.  So the numbers were based on musicals.  Claire was in three numbers which meant three costumes.

Closing Studio number from Hairspray - You Can't Stop the Beat

Opening Studio number - Bob Fosse

And the Little Mermaid.  

One of Claire's best friends, Ginger, was in her class.  Two little cuties.

Special girl with her special daddy.  So proud of her!

Luke's University of Learning Graduation

At Luke's elementary school they have a program called University of Learning where the kids do 15 hours of outside work for each "degree" that they want to earn and read two books on their level. They start with a technical degree and then move through associates, bachelor, masters, doctorate.  After the 15 hours of study they present their work to the class.  Luke earned his Bachelors.  For that degree he studied WWI and WWII.  It was fun watching him learn about this important time in history.  He also earned honor cords for good class behavior, music, and being on the Green Team. (in charge of recycling)  It's a lot of extra work and graduation is a big deal.  

Luke was asked to speak at graduation.  He wrote his speech by himself and I was so impressed with his poise and that he could get up in front of everyone.  

It makes my heart squeeze to think that all too soon he will be getting his high school and hopefully college degree.  He's growing up, darn it!  

These are Luke's close friends Jaxson and Christian.  Cute boys!

Disneyland 2017

When Disney laid Tim off the thing that made us the most sad was that we could no longer get into Disneyland for free.  We had some tickets left that we had been saving and they had to be used before the year was out so we planned a trip to Disney for the first week in May.  It was the first time we went to Disneyland with just our family and we missed my sister Rachel and her family but we loved having so much family time.  It was a blast!  

It was the first time that the kids had flown in an airplane.  They were nervous but they were troopers. Due to some crazy turbulence on our way home poor Luke lost his lunch and that was sad but that was the only bad thing of the trip!  Claire insisted she sit with her dad and I got the two cute boys.  

On our first day we headed to the beach.  Huntington beach is so beautiful.  The kids were unfazed by the less than hot temps and we became obsessed with finding shells.  

Tim and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary while we were there and getting a picture was a bit of chore but this one turned out really well!  This is the third time we have spent our anniversary in Disneyland with the kids.  We've got to do something else next time!  

A picture of one of the kids playing in this fountain is iconic in our family.  Every time we go someone does this!  

This is the first time that we have seen the light parade.  It did not disappoint.  So cute and fun!  

This time we took the time to do some things we haven't done before.  Like the main street horse drawn trolley, the playground in California Adventure, the River Boat and the Lincoln theater.


It's nice to go to Disney when all the kids are big enough and brave enough to ride all the rides.

Except California Screamin.  Claire and Luke didn't want to try that one so we did the carousel instead.

Luke's favorite ride is Bear River Rapids.  I got soooo wet!

Gage is obsessed with Splash Mountain and asks to ride it incessantly.   

That awkward moment when Claire left me hanging.....

That other awkward moment when I couldn't see anything through my hair....

My all time favorite is Peter Pan.  My family is so nice to indulge me because the line is always super long.

*Not pictured is Tim's favorite which is Space Mountain. (Hard to take a picture in the darkness!)  And Claire Bear fell in love with Big Thunder Mountain.  

When you have Celiac Disease this counts as a meal.  Tortilla chips, lunch meat, apples, cheese sticks, and juice. The kids thought it was so fun to have a picnic in our room the last night we were there.  I sure love this crew.

Sarge stayed with Tim's parents, who he loves, but he gets pretty upset when we leave.  This is a picture on our ride home from picking him up and is it just me or does the look on Sarge's face say, "If you leave me again I will cut you"?

Brandon Mull

Gage loves to read and one of his favorite authors is the writer of the Fable Haven series Brandon Mull.  Mr. Mull has ties to Utah and often comes to the library for author's events and signs his books.  When I found a flyer for the event at the library and gave it to Gage he was so excited!  For a book kid meeting your favorite author is as exciting as some people get over bands or favorite actors. The event was awesome!  We found out that two of Gage's other friends were going as well and so we all went together.  Mr. Mull is actually really funny and he spoke for about an 45 minutes before he started signing books.  Gage answered a question about the series correctly and won a prize and then Brandon left to begin signing books.  At this delicate time Gage had to go to the bathroom! Nooooooo!  He and I ran to the bathroom and I was so worried we were going to miss when they called our group to go.  We were running through the library like crazy people and made it back just in time! 

These kids were dying to get picked!  

     

While we waited in line Gage was rehearsing what he wanted to say to Mr. Mull.  The anticipation was killing him.

Gage has a beloved pen in the shape of the sword that Bilbo Baggins carries in the Lord of the Rings. The sword is called Sting.  When he got to the table Gage said, "I have to ask that you sign my books with my Sting pen."  Brandon was very gracious and made a Lord of the Rings reference and there was some serious stars in Gage's eyes by the time it was over!

These will be treasures forever!

The kid in the hat is Gage's good friend Davis.  He is so funny and told Mr. Mull that he didn't want to brag or anything but that he single handly started the Brandon Mull fan at his school.  Brandon was indeed impressed.  Little did he know that this picture features the entire club.  Hahaha!  We had a great time with great friends!  

Dinosaur Land on Spring Break

Over Spring Break we took the kids on a short adventure to Dinosaur National Monument in Vernal Utah.  We had been wanting to make this trip all year.  Did you know that 4th graders and their families get into national parks and monuments for free?  Well, when Luke's class was studying the national parks his teacher helped them print off their pass and then gave them an assignment to research a park they wanted to go to.  Dinosaur National Monument was the park Luke chose.

This was all happening when Tim was unemployed and I was so hopeful we could make the trip in time for Luke to "pay" for the family.  Luke was thrilled when I told him where we were going.  To be honest I thought it was going to be kinda lame but I was so wrong.  It was seriously one of the coolest places.

In the monument you can hike to all kinds of petroglyphs.  Pictures do not do them justice.  They are so stinking cool!  The rock formations are super neat as well.    

I loved the alien guy behind us.

The weather could not have been more perfect.  Overcast and warm and at times we felt like we had the park to ourselves!

This was the sound of silence trial.  Tim teased the kids that they couldn't talk on the hike.  They did not listen.  Nevertheless, the scenery was breathtaking.

This little cabin is in the middle of the park more than an hour by car from the town of vernal.  The woman who built it lived here alone for 50 years.  She raised her own garden and animals and loved the solitude.  Claire was fascinated by her.

One of the main features of the park is the "Wall of Bones"  It is essentially a dam between two canyons where dinosaur bones piled up and were stuck in the mud.  The light is shining on the only in tact Allosaurus skull in the world.  The scale of this wall is hard to capture in a picture.  So many bones.  So stinking cool.

Kids can be sworn in as Jr. Park Rangers at any national park.  They have to complete some tasks and then they get sworn in.  They promise to respect and protect the park.  It was pretty dang cute!

Claire sported her badge for the rest of the trip.

So it turns out that small town Utah is not the best place to find gluten free food.  The concierge almost laughed when I asked him if he knew of any restaurants I could find some GF food at. Thankfully they had a Wendy's but there is only so much chili and baked potatoes that I can eat so I starved but I did get to hit this Indian Trading Post.  I loved it!  

There is also a really neat museum in Vernal.  So many artifacts.  Luke liked the statues outside.  It was cold our last day!

Miss Claire was so excited to go that this was how she woke me up.  Packed and ready to go.  I don't have any pictures of our hotel but the kids loved to swim at our hotel.  Sometimes I get the feeling that I could go anywhere and if the kids got to swim at the hotel then the trip would be a success!