Ah, love is blind.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Pancakes...or as they're known around here...Can'tmakes
I am the world's worst pancake maker. Seriously. I don't know what it is, but I can't make a round, lovely pancake to save my life. It's honestly amazing that my children can choke down breakfast with these bad boys staring them in the face:
This morning while I was lamenting my pancake making shortcomings, Craig said, "They look fine to me."
Ah, love is blind.
Ah, love is blind.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Temple Treats
Tonight we had a fun activity for our combined Young Men and Young Women. Our original plan for the activity was to make snow sculpture temples. However, Spring has been thinking about making an appearance lately, and so there was no snow for sculpting. Never fear, though, with thanks to my awesome friend Julie for the general idea, I proposed that we sculpt our temples out of rice krispy treats instead of nonexistent snow.
The kids were divided into groups of 4 or 5, and were given a pan of rice krispy treats, a length of pull-apart licorice, marshmallows, toothpicks, frosting, and a few gummy bears. They were also given a packet with a picture of a temple with some information about that temple to share with the rest of the group. We also asked the leaders to share some thoughts about the temple as the kids were sculpting.
The kids were divided into groups of 4 or 5, and were given a pan of rice krispy treats, a length of pull-apart licorice, marshmallows, toothpicks, frosting, and a few gummy bears. They were also given a packet with a picture of a temple with some information about that temple to share with the rest of the group. We also asked the leaders to share some thoughts about the temple as the kids were sculpting.
It turned out to be a great activity, I thought. There were some wonderful testimonies and stories shared about temples and how sacred and important they are. The kids worked together well, and they were quite creative with their temple building. And now, without further ado, I present a few of our masterpieces:
First up, the San Diego Temple (in the unfinished stage):
Next up, two views of the Salt Lake Temple. Note in the picture on the left the gummy bear wedding photos going on out front (the red and green gummy bears bride and groom), with the gummy bear photographer (yellow) and his frosting camera:
The Washington D.C. temple:
The Houston Texas Temple:
And finally,
The Hong Kong Temple.
Monday, February 15, 2010
San Diego Part 2
I returned a little less than a week ago from my second trip to San Diego to see Melanie. This time I flew down and stayed a week with her, all by myself. Girls Week Out. It was so fun!
It started though, with a trip to an Oral Surgeon to check out Mel's wisdom teeth, which had been giving her problems. We found out that both her top and bottom wisdom teeth on the right have broken through the skin. Neither one of them seemed infected though, which was good. Although I think he really wanted us to say "Ok, take 'em out now", the Oral Surgeon did say that she could technically wait until she got home to Utah to get them out. So, we decided to just wait, 'cause who wants to ruin Girls Week Out with Wisdom Teeth Out instead? Nicely, Mel's teeth stopped bugging her about half way through the week, which made our decision seem even that much more correct.
While I was in San Diego we...
--Did lots of shopping (although very little buying). We shopped around at the Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park, where we saw lots of local artist's creations. There were photos, sculptures, glass blowing, paintings, origami, and jewelry. Lots of cool stuff, but unfortunately many of the things were more than we wanted to pay. We shopped around in the Old Town area, again fun little shops with tons of different things, but nothing that both caught our eye and fit our wallet (or even for me, fit my suitcase so I could get it home!) We also went shopping at a mall (again, no purchases) as well as at a shopping center that had good old Kohl's, Target, Walmart, and Payless Shoes. We did make a few purchases there!
--Took walks together all over Coronado Island. We loved looking at all the different beach houses there, although I found that was somewhat a dangerous sport. I probably fell off the sidewalk about 5 times, because I obviously have not mastered the art of walking down a sidewalk while looking at the cute houses lining the sidewalk. We found that the houses on Coronado are WAY adorable, as well as WAY expensive. (Like $1,000,000+.)
--Went to the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center. The Visitors Center has just reopened after being remodeled, and it was very cool to tour. You start the tour by looking at a bunch of pictures of people that were part of the Mormon Battalion, and those pictures come alive and start to talk to you and tell you their stories. Then it’s off to hear more of their story by winding through various rooms in the Visitors Center. There’s an "Iowa Room" where it’s set up to look like the camp the Mormons were in when the Army came to enlist volunteers. You watch a movie reenacting that enlistment on the side of a tent. Then you go to the "Outfitting Room", which is supposed to represent a store where the Battalion was outfitted with equipment for their march. They let the kids try on gear like what they would have given to the Mormon Battalion members. Then they lead you into the "Campfire Room", which is set up to look like you're sitting by the campfire somewhere along the Battalion’s trail, and here you watch more of the movie about the Battalion. Finally you head into a room that is set up to look like the first courthouse in San Diego, which the Mormon Battalion built. After that you have the chance to do some activities such as pan for gold, make bricks, play computer games that simulate being on the trail, or look up members of the Mormon Battalion and find out information about them. It was a neat place to visit.
--Went out to eat. We went out to a few restaurants just Mel and I together, as well as went out with Rod, Brittany, Jean, and Steve (Rod and Jean's son who flew in for the weekend to see Jean). Mel even treated me to lunch at her new favorite restaurant called Carrow's. It's kind of like a Village Inn/Denny's/Ihop--breakfast and a lot of other stuff...so much to choose from!
--Sat by the pool (and played in the pool) in the warm San Diego sun! That was probably one of my favorite parts because pool and sun (and resulting sunburn) in February really just tickled me! Here's a small poem in honor of it:
Winter's so sad with it's cold and gray days
I'd rather be in San Deigo, soaking up some rays
Blue water, warm sunshine, that's definitely the way
To make sure I'm having a great winter day!
--Laughed and laughed and laughed. Melanie and I definitely do a lot of that when we’re together, as we have at least a million and one inside jokes that crack us up. One that got us giggling a lot this time was when we came up with her children’s names, which included Games (that’s James with a “G”) and Back (that’s Jack with a “B”.) We are so silly!
All in all it was a SUPER week! I loved the sunshiny days and the bright blue sky. I loved sitting on the balcony in the morning, overlooking the ocean while eating my breakfast. I loved visiting neat places while exploring San Diego. But most of all, I loved being with Mel and just doing pretty much whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted and finding lots and lots of things to laugh about while we were doing it!
It started though, with a trip to an Oral Surgeon to check out Mel's wisdom teeth, which had been giving her problems. We found out that both her top and bottom wisdom teeth on the right have broken through the skin. Neither one of them seemed infected though, which was good. Although I think he really wanted us to say "Ok, take 'em out now", the Oral Surgeon did say that she could technically wait until she got home to Utah to get them out. So, we decided to just wait, 'cause who wants to ruin Girls Week Out with Wisdom Teeth Out instead? Nicely, Mel's teeth stopped bugging her about half way through the week, which made our decision seem even that much more correct.
While I was in San Diego we...
--Did lots of shopping (although very little buying). We shopped around at the Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park, where we saw lots of local artist's creations. There were photos, sculptures, glass blowing, paintings, origami, and jewelry. Lots of cool stuff, but unfortunately many of the things were more than we wanted to pay. We shopped around in the Old Town area, again fun little shops with tons of different things, but nothing that both caught our eye and fit our wallet (or even for me, fit my suitcase so I could get it home!) We also went shopping at a mall (again, no purchases) as well as at a shopping center that had good old Kohl's, Target, Walmart, and Payless Shoes. We did make a few purchases there!
--Took walks together all over Coronado Island. We loved looking at all the different beach houses there, although I found that was somewhat a dangerous sport. I probably fell off the sidewalk about 5 times, because I obviously have not mastered the art of walking down a sidewalk while looking at the cute houses lining the sidewalk. We found that the houses on Coronado are WAY adorable, as well as WAY expensive. (Like $1,000,000+.)
--Went to the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center. The Visitors Center has just reopened after being remodeled, and it was very cool to tour. You start the tour by looking at a bunch of pictures of people that were part of the Mormon Battalion, and those pictures come alive and start to talk to you and tell you their stories. Then it’s off to hear more of their story by winding through various rooms in the Visitors Center. There’s an "Iowa Room" where it’s set up to look like the camp the Mormons were in when the Army came to enlist volunteers. You watch a movie reenacting that enlistment on the side of a tent. Then you go to the "Outfitting Room", which is supposed to represent a store where the Battalion was outfitted with equipment for their march. They let the kids try on gear like what they would have given to the Mormon Battalion members. Then they lead you into the "Campfire Room", which is set up to look like you're sitting by the campfire somewhere along the Battalion’s trail, and here you watch more of the movie about the Battalion. Finally you head into a room that is set up to look like the first courthouse in San Diego, which the Mormon Battalion built. After that you have the chance to do some activities such as pan for gold, make bricks, play computer games that simulate being on the trail, or look up members of the Mormon Battalion and find out information about them. It was a neat place to visit.
--Went out to eat. We went out to a few restaurants just Mel and I together, as well as went out with Rod, Brittany, Jean, and Steve (Rod and Jean's son who flew in for the weekend to see Jean). Mel even treated me to lunch at her new favorite restaurant called Carrow's. It's kind of like a Village Inn/Denny's/Ihop--breakfast and a lot of other stuff...so much to choose from!
--Sat by the pool (and played in the pool) in the warm San Diego sun! That was probably one of my favorite parts because pool and sun (and resulting sunburn) in February really just tickled me! Here's a small poem in honor of it:
Winter's so sad with it's cold and gray days
I'd rather be in San Deigo, soaking up some rays
Blue water, warm sunshine, that's definitely the way
To make sure I'm having a great winter day!
--Laughed and laughed and laughed. Melanie and I definitely do a lot of that when we’re together, as we have at least a million and one inside jokes that crack us up. One that got us giggling a lot this time was when we came up with her children’s names, which included Games (that’s James with a “G”) and Back (that’s Jack with a “B”.) We are so silly!
All in all it was a SUPER week! I loved the sunshiny days and the bright blue sky. I loved sitting on the balcony in the morning, overlooking the ocean while eating my breakfast. I loved visiting neat places while exploring San Diego. But most of all, I loved being with Mel and just doing pretty much whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted and finding lots and lots of things to laugh about while we were doing it!
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