Spring break 2012 - day tripping style - day 2

Day two of spring break adventures finds us at the Thanksgiving Point gardens.  Once again the older boys were off doing their own thing so it was the girls and Nicolas and Cody.  Today we added Dana Harrell, who is Markee and Tamsyn's friend and my friend Laurie's daughter.  

The weather held out for us until just before we left when the wind started whipping.  The rain began after we had returned home.  Perfect!

The gardens were beautiful and the girls had a great time together.  I am so blessed to have wonderful sisters-in-law and fabulous nieces.  How fantastic that the cousins are all such good friends!

 The younger boys had fun hiding from the girls and spying on them from afar for much of our walk around the gardens.   The tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, etc were in full bloom and we were able to enjoy the splendor without the hassle of the crowds who will descend on the gardens for the Tulip Festival later this week. 

One great addition to the gardens is the "Light of the World" garden which features full-size statuary of scenes from our Savior's life.  It is a work in progress so right now there are only a few life-sized statues, although there are many models of the work to come.  It is going to be incredible! 

We, of course, had to finish up our adventure with ice cream from the ice cream shop at Thanksgiving Point.  It isn't an adventure unless ice cream is involved!

 Here are pictures of our day:

Posing on the bridge

See a statue, be a statue

Feeding the fishies

Not sure exactly what was going on here . . .

But now they are all the fiercest models they can be.  Unfortunately Tamsyn was hidden behind Markee. 

Marin mid-leap

Spying on the girls . . .

"It is I, be not afraid". I was touched by this amazing statue. 

Best friends

Planking in the secret garden

Yoga in the secret garden

I love hyacinths!

Rolling down the hill, of course

Markee being Spidey up the hill - psst! is the sound of her webslinging.  There is a story that goes with this.  When we were at LegoLand last year a little boy was walking by Markee.  He looked at her and just held out his hand, Spiderman-style, and said, "psst" and kept walking.  It was hilarious!

 Can't go home without a stop for ice cream!

What?!  The ice cream is gone??

Spring break - day-tripping style - Day 1

We decided that this spring break is going to be a stay at home one so I had to come up with activities that we could do working around my work schedule.  Fortunately cousins decided to do the same thing so we have company on our activities.  Any adventure is more fun with cousins!  Peter and Erik would rather do their older "teenage boy" things so we invited Nicolas' best friend Cody to come along and everyone had a buddy. 
Today we went to This is the Place to see the baby animals and then stopped off the the new City Creek Center in SLC. Much fun was had by all, from doing pioneer chores to petting baby lambs, bunnies, chicks etc, to riding the train, "planking", coonskin cap dueling and shopping. Here are some of the highlights . . .

Wish they would work on OUR garden so enthusiastically!

Why can't I get them to do laundry at home??

Sweet tiny pig and lamb friends.

Baby lambs!  They got to feed the lambs, too.

 Planking

Dueling with candy sticks on stick horses in coonskin caps.  Silly girls!

I was laughing at how it looked like the statue was gazing adoringly at Tamsyn so all the girls joined in.

May I have this dance?

Continuing the animal theme at Forever 21 at City Creek Center.

Hiatus

Yeah, I let the blog lapse for a while.  I'm ready to get back to it.  New post coming soon. . .

Markee and Tamsyn's recital

So the day has come and gone.  The day that Markee and Tamsyn and their friend Dana, among others, have been training for all year.  And they performed beautifully - well, funkily, if that's a word . .  They had a great time and I am just really glad that the hobo dinner spacesuit will now be retired!  I didn't video the recital this year because Peter and his friend Jake were hired to film and edit and make DVDs of the recital.  I hope they get them done soon!

The girls waiting for their time to go on . . .

Striking a pose after the performance.  The spacesuits make them all look heavier than they are, but I LOVE Markee's face in this picture . . .

Yeah, Markee forgot to bring a change of clothes so she was really happy to be at Maggie Moos in her hobo suit. :-)  Ice cream - a Randall/Jones tradition after every event.

The Year of the Grape

 

My vision, from the year we moved here, was to have grapevines covering our fence the length of our property. About 3 years ago, we finally got our first grape plants in. Last year one of the 5 plants we have put in so far produced a few bunches of grapes and what a feeling of accomplishment that was! This year, due perhaps in part to the cold wet spring we have enjoyed, all but one of our grape plants have tiny baby grapes. I know this may not sound blog-worthy, but if you don't think so, you have never grown a garden or fruit trees. The thrill of seeing the first shoots pop out of the ground, the joy of seeing the fruit tree blossoms evolve into little nubs that will become apples, pears and peaches, the euphoria of biting into a fruit of your labor; it's like creating a work of art.

This weekend I was giddy when I saw bunches and bunches of grapes on all but one of our plants (one we had to replace this spring so I didn't have any illusions that it would produce this year). I can't get enough of looking at them. They are so cute!!!

 

Hobo dinners? Baked potatoes? No, funky cousins!

Markee and Tamsyn have their recital next week, but their teacher always gets to showcase some of her classes at Pony Express Days - our town's summer festival.  I would love to post a video of their dance, but it is far too long to upload to blogspot.  But here is a picture of Markee and Tamsyn in their aluminum foil, I mean, costumes.

Garden update - it's growing!