A Little Trip to Fairmont

This year for Spring Break, we were lucky enough to get to go to Fairmont Hot Springs for a few days!  I used to go there sometimes as a kid, so I had good memories of it, and going back, it did not disappoint!  The weather was a little bit chilly, but warm enough to be able to do what we wanted, and it was nice that there was no snow on the ground.  We did lots of hiking and "exploring" with the kids and they just loved it.  Griffin called himself a "mountain man" and carried a backpack on his back and a little sharp piece of wood that he called his knife!  It was cute.  The scenery was just beautiful too!! Especially when we got to the top.  Lee decided the regular "trails" were boring, so he always led us up these steep hills and through the trees and brush and deer poop so that we could experience a "real" hike!  It was a bit of a struggle sometimes for the kids, but they actually did really well and besides being a little nervous that we wouldn't be able to find our way back, it turned out to be a lot of fun.  We also explored the natural Hot Springs which were pretty cool - they have a spot you can put your feet in while you sit on a bench, and there's another spot you can bathe in, but we didn't have our swimsuits with us!  It was neat to feel such warm water though.  We also spent a lot of our time at the Rec Center, mostly swimming.  The kids had a lot of fun there, playing together and sitting in the hot tubs. Scarlett loves the water.  Another thing we spent a lot of time doing was just playing family games.  We don't usually have a lot of time it seems to play games, so it was awesome to be able to sit down and have some good games of Monopoly with the kids! It quickly turned into Mason's new favorite game, and he continuously asks to play it again!  It was just fun to relax and be on our own, and explore what Fairmont has to offer!  One day we went over to Invermere, which is only 15 or 20 minutes away, and they had a Wall Climbing thing open at the school for just $5 per person.  We let the 3 older kids all do it, and they had a LOT of fun.  It was a good challenge for them, and was neat to see how well they did.  Dakota really is a natural climber!  Griffin didn't do so well though, he gave us pretty quickly... I think he was nervous.  But he did like the rope swing that was also set up!  He did it by himself and with Dakota and Mason.  Pretty cool.  We even went to church on Sunday which was a bit of an adventure in itself!  There are only 5 permanent members in the branch, and so one lady who was on a mission had to pretty much run the show!  She gave a 1/2 hour talk, she's the Relief Society President, and in charge of the non-existent Primary, which she had to improvise on the spot for us and the other visitors!  She put the parents in charge of the Singing Time and Sharing Time and filled up the rest of the time herself!  It was pretty funny. It made me grateful for our big ward with lots of people in all age groups and the fact that we only have to give a talk about once every year or so!!

My new hobby!

Call me a nerd, but I have taken up crocheting, and I am loving it!  My Mom taught me how to do it while I was recovering from surgery, so I had a lot of time on my hands!  And now I'm kind of addicted to it, and love trying new patterns and making new things.  It's a great thing to be able to do while I'm watching TV.  Here's some pictures of a few of the things I have made so far:

Best Friends

My best friend from when I was growing up came and visited me yesterday.  Lee and I both have so much fun with Emily and Jesse, and for sure I haven't laughed that hard in a long time!  It's neat how even though we hardly ever see or talk to each other anymore, when we get together, it feels like we have never been apart!  Best friends are timeless!  We hung out in the day with our kids, and then in the evening we went out without the kids for dinner, and came back to play some games.  We decided to get a picture together since it had been so long, so Jesse was taking it for us, and he took like a million, and started taking them before we were ready, and then totally made fun of us and our wierd expressions!  Of course the whole situation just made us both start laughing our heads off, which just continued to make the pictures even uglier, it was really quite funny.  But we did manage to get a couple decent ones - I kind of like the one of us laughing since it's just so typical of us when we're together!  So much fun, wished they lived closer!!

Mason turns 9!

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow, I have a 9 year old already!  Is that even possible?  Crazy!  He may not act like it very often, but Mason is 9!  We gave him his gifts from us on the morning of his birthday, and then we picked up the kids from school and took them for lunch to Fatburger!  They loved it, and Grandma came with us too, so it was extra special!

 Then on the following Saturday, we had a birthday party for him.  We booked Sundance chapel so that we could have a Sports party in the Gym there.  Turned out to be a fabulous idea for a bunch of boys with lots of energy!  There were 12 of them, and it didn't seem loud or annoying or anything!  We had a Candy store system going on while we played a bunch of games, so the boys could earn tokens after they played each game, and use them to buy whatever candies they wanted.  They all LOVED it!  We played Dodgeball, Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, and Relay races on the scooter.  Dakota was right in there with the action, it was kind of funny. She doesn't realize how much she is going to love hanging out with Mason's friends one day! :) And they all didn't want to stop to open presents or eat cake!  I made this super easy basketball cake with Reese's pieces - thought it turned out pretty good!

Recovering from surgery... AGAIN!

Here I am again, lots of time to blog, as I recover from surgery yet again!  Didn't I just do this 6 months ago?  Yes.  Yes I did!  Lucky me, I get to go through it all again.  Apparently there was part of my stomach muscle that was still sinking in wierd, so my doctor offered to do a revision to fix that, and hopefully make my scar look better this time.  I went back and forth about it, but finally decided I didn't want to regret not doing it down the road, I might as well just get it fixed now.  Although it definitely STINKS to be out of commission again!  I had to go to the hospital and get put under again, and it was totally dejavue and made me feel very nervous!  But luckily it's not nearly as bad as the first time, I feel a lot better already and it's only been 4 days, so I'm not totally useless.  But I do still need help with Scarlett and I am worn out pretty quickly still.  Thank goodness for a wonderful mother who is always willing to help out!  Thank you MOM!!  She's the best.  Hopefully this will be overwith soon though and everything will heal up nicely this time!

What Griffin wants to be when he grows up...

Just a short comment that I thought was pretty funny.  Griffin learned about careers and what he wants to be when he grows up in Preschool the other day.  They even had a Fireman come in and show them his fire truck and stuff.  Anyway, when we asked Griffin what he wants to be, he said:
"A police man, a hunter, and a vampire".  Love it!

Griffy is 5!!

How did my little boy turn 5 already??  Hard to believe!  He is so big for his age too, he's only a couple cm shorter than Mason when he turned 7!!  This is going to be one big boy - and he definitely eats like it too!  He starts asking for snacks like 1/2 hour after breakfast, and doesn't stop the entire day through!  And no, he's not just filling up on snacks and not eating his meals - he eats large portions of his meals too!  I think he probably says "I'm hungry" like 100 times a day.  Seriously.

But what a fun boy he is, and he is so excited to be turning 5 and getting to start Kindergarten in September. He actually thought he got to start immediately, but I had to tell him he's not finished preschool yet!

So we had a Ninjago Birthday party this year.  I thought the decorations turned out quite cute, although they were nice and simple!  I just added Ninjago eyes to everything!  And his cake was an edible printout.  We played a bunch of Ninjago training games, ate, opened gifts and watched an episode of Lego Ninjago on  TV.  Good times.  Griffin had a blast.  

And since Griff's best friend Jack was out of town for 3 weeks and would miss his party, we decided to take Jack on a special early birthday outing before he left.  So lucky Griffin got 2 birthday events!  We went to McDonald's play place, and then bowling.  They had a LOT of fun - those 2 boys are seriously kindred spirits, they just love eachother and laugh the whole time.  We are totally going to miss them when they move away this Summer. :(