Igloo Days and Igloo Nights

On 12-21-12

• I braved the mall! and even at 9:45 am, there is a long line at the JC Penney cashier. Long enough to hear the cashier ask several customers ahead of me whether they'd like to donate to the Salvation army: 44 cents, 43 cents, 38 cents--sounded like random number generation to me. Wondered if his randomizing method increased his success or not.
• I went to the library, found some books I might want to read, found some educational audio books I might force myself to listen to, and made myself get some writing done (a struggle! the spirit is weak!)
• I took my girls Christmas shopping for hours--and nobody even tried on any clothes until our penultimate stop for Becca shoes. (It takes a long time when you get lost in Marymoor park trying to find the mall, and then have to drive around forever to find parking.)
• We saw a loon? heron? cormorant? [I need a birdwatching tutorial from my dad] sitting on a snag in the river in Redmond, neck stretched towards the sky as water rippled around it
• We got Katherine into an extra gymnastics class that was a new challenge for her, Becca joined an evening activity with pizza and Santa, and I nailed down a good draft for my blog post
• Lar took Alex iglooing, an activity which I skipped because I didn't want to wear myself out, only to wonder after hours of shopping and shuttling kids whether I hadn't chosen the harder day!

Becca says

"Are you going to be a mommy forever?"

what a happy thought!

In the Moment

I am sitting half-cross-legged on the hard gymnastics bleachers, on top of a laptop case and a folded sweater for padding, with my laptop perched in front of me on a tiny wooden child's chair. Katherine is trying out the advanced gymnastics class, which astonishingly she fits right into, although I had to restrain myself from racing to shout her off of the tall balance beam with the least amount of padding--you mean she's supposed to walk backwards on that thing? what if she falls? Becca has been adopted into the Parents' Night Out activity downstairs, with coloring, movie, and pizza, a tender mercy which may well be the best Christmas present I'll get this year. It's allowed me to watch and rewatch the gelation section of Harvard Food Science Lecture #8 (2010), even taking notes on big words like cross-linking, as I prepare to write the scientific explanation for a gummi worm blog post for my January blog tour, and while I really, really wish that my headache and I were home on the couch with my brand-new library copy of Freakling, written by a terrific writer I once met in an online critique group, I know that right now (since blog post deadlines are pending!) there's no better place for any of us to be. Except, for me, possibly in a seat with a back.

Loralee's Christmas List

(AKA my have-been-meaning-to-buy-these-all-years list)
The new Shannon Hale book
a necklace organizer
new doormats for upstairs doors (inside doormats)
an umbrella to keep in my car
kitchen towels
comfy yoga/fleece pants for wearing at home
cool chunky necklaces to wear with the colorful sweaters my sisters helped me buy
new cap sleeve shirts that conceal what they ought to (but that may be impossible to find!)
A reference to a trustworthy electrician who does house calls--or even better, an appointment! because if I get the wiring done I can get
More Insulation!

Snip, snip

A year's worth of bangs gone because I didn't react fast enough when my 4-year-old called from the bathroom, "Mommy, I want a haircut. Right now!"

Spelling lessons

You read about Book of Mormon battles in the morning and by the afternoon your four-year-old wants to know how to spell:

"Take persession!"

A cloudy Seattle sky

Becca gazes out the car window at the streaky white clouds breaking to show slivers of blue. "It looks like someone painted the sky!"

And then, staring directly up, "It looks like there is snow on top of us!"

Alex designs a paper Christmas box

Me: How'd you know how to do that?
Alex: My brain told me how to do it!

The tooth brushing record

Me: I'll do a puzzle with you after you brush your teeth.
R: I did!
Me (suspicious): Well, go do it again.
R: I did! I did it two times.
Me: Go do it again. Do it three times.
R: I did! I did it twenty times.
Me: Go do it again!
R: I did! I did it thirteen times. I did it twenty times.


If you weren't counting, that's 59 recounted instances of toothbrushing.

The prodigy

Just found my four-year-old cutting her nails. Even more surprising? No blood!

On the real reason she was snuggled in bed this afternoon

"I was just napping. I wasn't falling asleep."

Pizza and Movie Night at the Leavitts

meant homemade pizza with Netflix documentaries about the library of Alexandria, followed by the history of the number one.  Such fun!

Begging

I'm so indulgent, I bought the grocery store treat my 4 year old was begging for--celery.

Katherine says

Guess what I've had stuck in my head for a long time?  My brain! Over nine years.

You're suddenly grateful for cobwebs in the bathroom

when you have a fruit fly invasion.

On numbers

Becca knows the digits of our phone number, but doesn't really know what it is.  I told her that if she gets lost, somebody can call that number, because that's the number for our house.

"Why?" she asked.  "Can our house talk?"

Why the Book of Mormon contains all those battle scenes

So that 7-year-old war historians beg to read more!

Yum, Cookies...

It's time for cookies again.

Conference Weekend

Made precious memories today snuggling with Katherine as we listened to church conference--we were having so much fun we didn't want to move and ended up reading to each other out of a novel as we sat under my music blanket (until Katherine tossed it aside, saying she was afraid it would remind me to make her practice.)

During the second session I got out kids' sewing projects to keep them from going crazy.  Alex finished a mountain he'd started years ago, complete with yellow sun and yellow tent.  Becca added more stitches to her project, a swath of fabric that got so crumpled by large, pulled stitches it has turned into a ball ("It's for my doll, Peach!"), and Katherine added to her cross-stitch flowers.  Much education all around in the threading of needles and tying of knots.

Sewing, cooking (Lar on chocolate cookies and pumpkin rolls, me on a brown rice risotto), and listening to the prophet's message on the power of prayer...good quiet times.  Especially after yesterday's camping trip/lake swim/grocery shopping/backpack unpacking and commensurate  battle/night out to watch fake ninjas, complete with post-show barbecue and post-event ice cream.

**Though there's no room for it here, I also shouldn't forget dinner at my folks' house: fresh-caught Alaska salmon, sliced tomatoes and buttered parsnips from their garden, baked potatoes, sweet purple grapes, my lack-of-salad-lettuce veggie tray, risotto, plum cobbler, and frosted pumpkin cinnamon rolls.  Amazing what happens when you get three households together, complete with everything they felt like bringing.

The boy who doesn't like dogs says...

When I grow up I want to be a pet sitter.

Heavenly musings by Rebecca

Jesus lives on top of the clouds, so how can you see Jesus if you're in an airplane on top of the clouds?

Where's N?

Rebecca was singing the alphabet song as she pointed at the letters in the alphabet book.  Suddenly she stopped between Y and Z and asked me:

"Where's n?"

Scout Lake

Camping at Scout Lake, again.

On the trail to Talapus Lake

Glacier Trip

• Listened to "Out of Sight, Out of Time" and compared it to a previous Gallagher girls book. Verdict: even sillier (because there's amnesia), but more plot.
• Terrified children with warnings we were camping in bear country (Mommy).  Scoffed at inciting children's fears (Daddy).
• Drove along the "Going To The Sun" road, with amazing mountain views and heart-stopping overhangs.  Saw two bears, one black and one brown?/cinnamon?/grizzly? as well as lots of tourists climbing out of their cars with cameras. Not me!
• Spotted license plates from 38 states, including Rhode Island (which makes it hard to leave the park and end the game when you've got a chance at a really good score).  It's difficult because each state has so many variations, so you think you've got something really cool from Louisiana when really it's just Montana. And why so many New Jersey license plates? Is New Jersey so dreadful everybody has to escape?
• Studied lyrics to "Rolling In the Deep,"  "Turning Tables," and "The Camping Song."* 
• Saw smoke from one fire in Glacier and flames from another driving out of Montana
• Counted tobacco shops and admired wheat fields by moonlight on our drive to Pullman
• Stopped in the middle of nowhere to take Becca to the bathroom and discovered a sign marking an early pioneer wagon road
• Drowned out raucous backseat squabbling by blasting "Rolling In the Deep" and getting them to sing along.  If you can't beat them, join them!  Tried singing "The Camping Song" with "Someone Like You" for accompaniment, but decided it was easier to sing without.

*By the time we hauled kids up the Kamiak Butte hike, Katherine could sing "Turning Tables" all the way through.  Alex instead passed the time discussing the merits of the V1 and V2 rockets.

Palouse on Monday

Quick, Glacier

What My Children Liked Best at their First Real Concert

Guess Stephen Ambrose and E. L. Konigsberg were more interesting than Roseanne Cash.
(Oh, and they liked the colored spotlights too.)

Rhubarb and Blackberry Pie

Alex, Great-Grandma Bassett, and the aforementioned pie. For breakfast.

Why I Never Called You

Dear friend,
I was going to call you today and catch up.  I really meant to.  But instead...

1) Alex and I stopped to talk to a neighbor holding a garage sale, and he offered us some rhubarb.  Though I demurred, saying my dad had some in his garden (an understatement), Alex jumped on it.  The neighbor advised us to make blackberry rhubarb pie, with this guidance: "Well, you take some blackberries, and you take some rhubarb, and you add some sugar.  And you should put in some flour to thicken it."
2) We went to my parents' house for a family dinner and cooked chicken for the tortilla soup pot.  Mmm, tortilla soup!
3) I reauditioned for the Ave Renaissance choir.
4) I talked to Alex and my grandma (who'd been visiting for our beach trip) about making aforementioned blackberry rhubarb pie.  We agreed to meet up the following morning before they started driving east, but then grandma thought she would make the crust right away, and Alex seemed interested, so I suggested he help her while I pick blackberries.
5) I roped my dad into the project, and he and I went picking berries along the side of the street.  Ever try to stop two Bassetts berry picking?
5) By the time we got back, Grandma had mixed crust and cut rhubarb, and so we decided to put the whole thing together, let it bake, and have tomorrow's meeting be for pie-eating instead of pie-making.  That meant washing fruit, calculating fractions to triple the recipe, and practicing rolling out the pie dough under Grandma's strict supervision.  "Gently, gently, gently!"  For all I know, she's over there still, assembling our leftovers into one last dish.
And there went the day.
But I'm thinking of you, honest!
And I'll be missing you especially as I enjoy tomorrow's pie.

Measuring time

Alex: There was a decade between World War I and World War II.
Me: It was more than that.
Alex: A decade and a year.
Me: 1918 to 1939, right? That's two decades and a year.
Alex: No, a decade is twenty years.
Me: A decade is ten years. 'Dec' means ten.
Alex: Then a decdec is a century.

How a mile jog ends up taking an hour and a half

Plan: go for a quick jog before we spend the morning doing laundry and packing.

What happens:
-Decide to throw in a load of laundry before I leave, so that I can come back and put it in the dryer (since we have the world's smallest washer/dryer combo, we really have to maximize drying time.)
-Must stain-treat all the stained laundry first. This includes the slow process of coaching Alex through hair-spraying the pen marks off of his Sunday clothes, as well as boiling water for berry stains
-Start load of laundry
-Ask if any children would like to go out with me on bikes. All children volunteer. All children must then get dressed and find shoes.
-Ask for route ideas. Children beg to go to park. Children beg to go play at school. Agree to five minutes at each.
-Bike/jog to school at good speed. Finally have left the house, heart rate up, things are looking good!
-Kids park bikes at school. I lead children around our last driving trip route across the US map painted on the playground. Alex then decides to visit every state. Must pull up a Google map to remember which state is Kansas. Five minutes passes, but how can we leave when he's learning geography?
-Finally visit and name all fifty states. Veto another cross-country trip and summon children. Bike helmets get buckled on. On to our next destination!
-Sidewalk leads uphill. Must push Rebecca, must remind the dramatically flagging Alex that he'll be faster than me even if he walks. Point out to Rebecca that her machine (the bike) is more efficient than mine (my feet). Rebecca soon starts complaining that her machine has run out of fuel.
-Reach park. Alex promptly decrees that I must follow him along his climbing route through the play equipment. Touching the ground is forbidden.
-At four minutes, I give the kids a warning. Katherine complains that I haven't followed her around the play equipment. We try her route, which includes swinging feet upwards to land on curved monkey bars, which I must then wiggle between feet-first.
-At six minutes, I decree it's time to leave. Katherine whines that I haven't followed her as long as I followed Alex. I relent and swing to the rotating circles (slipping and stepping on ground on my way. But it turns out that then you can't swing the things without touching the ground anyway.)
-Head towards home. As we turn onto our street, Katherine spies blackberry vines poking out of a laurel hedge. Must stop to pick the ones within reach.
-Finally re-enter house. Still have to shower and eat breakfast, while kids are supposed to pack but mostly don't.
And that's the morning!

Bedtime reading

When Lar checks the bedroom, half an hour after kids have been put to bed, here's the status:
Alex: reading to Rebecca from Citizen Soldier by Stephen Ambrose (he's read five pages)
Rebecca: asleep

The new family accessory

Hand-carried shoes. The kids don't want to wear them at our house, or in the car, or in grandma's house, or at the park, but we make them bring shoes "just in case." So they carry them back and forth.

Our new family sport

Competitive praying. You have to refuse to pray when you're asked, wait as the next person refuses their turn, then start praying really fast and loud just when they're starting. Minus points for restarting repeatedly, extra points for volume.

A Song for Scout Lake

Inspired by, if not based on, actual events:*

I hear that you've settled down
That you've found a site
That you're camping now
I hear that your dreams came true
That your tent's set up under the starry blue

Old friend, why can't you just share
Both our tents would fit in if you'd scoot over there

I hate to turn up along your trail uninvited
But you said you knew the way, and I was tired
I hoped you'd use your light
To get us safely to a camping spot
Before we dropped...

Never mind, I'll find someplace like you
I'll be looking for a flat spot too
While I'm searching ahead
I'll remember you said
Sometimes it's flat at night
But mostly there's rocks instead**

You know how the time flies
Only hours ago we were starting our hike
We've climbed rocks and trees
Tripped and scraped our knees
Had bugs blown down our throats by the summer breeze***

I hate to turn up along your trail uninvited
But you said you knew the way, and I was tired
I hoped you'd use your light
To get us safely to a camping spot
Before we dropped...

Never mind, I'll find someplace like you
I'll be looking for a flat spot too
While I'm searching ahead
I'll remember you said
Sometimes it's flat at night
But mostly there's rocks instead


*fictional campsite hog added for dramatic tension
**changed at my daughter's insistence from "sometimes there's rocks instead" because she told me: "There are always rocks."
***both me and Lar

A Photo From Scout Lake

Ah, Issaquah!

Boehm's tour, with taste testing and ladies who hand-temper chocolate (living thermometers, says the guide) and stained glass and glockenspiel music and a replicated 12th century Swiss chapel

Mom introduces me to Champion Grocery, the end of the line for all sorts of ethnic and gourmet foods at cut-rate prices

Searching for the Issaquah historic train museum, with old train cars and telegraph equipment, which would have only slightly better if it was open (hint: you turn at Mills Music, not the retirement home, although the retirement home's volunteer gardener gave lovely directions)

Library visit (where once again I failed to remember Rebecca's reading program sheet that she needs to pick up her blinking barred glasses--and why do kids like those, again?)

and a park where I could read my library book while kids played (Rebecca and another boy of equal diminutive stature teamed up to push each other back to high ground so they wouldn't get stuck dangling from the sliding handle at the end of the line)

Low tide

Taking the kids to a low tide at the beach has been on my summer list for ages. Today, we finally made it out. And what a day!

This, though you almost certainly can't see it, is a sea pen. It is also the first sea pen I've seen at Golden Gardens in more than a decade (with visits spaced every few years.) We used to see tons of them when we explored the sandbar off of the beach, as fat as carrots and maybe a foot long. This one was more like an inch tall. I hope it survived Rebecca's digging it up. (Hint: it is the orange blob in the center.)

I don't remember seeing all these tiny snails before, but they were everywhere today. They even come in stripey!

I don't remember hermit crabs either, but we found several tiny ones. This one had a shell smaller than a corn kernel.

After searching through seaweed for sea stars and crabs, we picked up rocks to find limpets, mussels, baby clams and crabs, and chitons like this one:

Here are the girls, who, even though they'd been complaining they were cold and tired and ready to leave, fell in love with this anenome-covered rock:

and, aside from poking anenomes, this was Alex's favorite part:

Rebecca coaches Mommy at soccer practice

"Stand on that line. OK, I'll kick the ball to you."
I kick it back.
She backs up. "Now take two steps forward."
I do, and she kicks it again.
"Now go one step that way."
I do, positioning myself once again in front of her.
"Now we roll the ball."
She rolls it to me and I roll it back.
"OK, now we're going to pass the ball."
"You mean kick it to each other? like this?"
"No, with our hands."
"But you don't use your hands in soccer."
"This is hands soccer. Chest pass!"
We toss the ball back and forth a few times.
"OK. Now do a cartwheel."
I have to clear out my pockets for this one, but I tuck in my shirt and make the attempt.
"OK, now do this" (a handstand).
Once again I try. She congratulates me on my effort.
"OK, now do this!" She does a handstand, falling forward into a clumsy backbend, and almost certainly filling her hair with black rubber bits from the astroturf.
I've been outperformed. So much for Mommy soccer practice!

On Spitting

"She spitted on me!"
"She spat on you?"
"No, she SPITTED."

The Broken Bow

Two kids, two sticks, one "bow and arrow" game
took a bad turn when brother broke sister's "bow"
and she was so upset. "He broke my bow! He broke it!"
practically inconsolable
(and here's me thinking, "It was a stick! How hard is it to find a new stick?")
and then I remembered
the story of Nephi
and told her. "Nephi had a bow. He needed a bow to feed his family. But one day
his bow broke. What do you think he did?"
and I told her he made a new bow
and she could too
and I started looking for sticks
and she calmed down so I could leave
to lecture her brother
and she was so much recovered
she found a really big stick
so she could hit him.

They've decoded double negatives

Me: "Alex, if you don't stop begging for ice cream, you're not getting ice cream, you're not getting dinner, you're not getting nuthin'!"

Alex, with a big grin: "Then that means I get some of everything!"

Driving fun

--analyzing chords of popular songs
--playing by ear on the Smartphone piano
--discovering Rumpole
--practicing reading music notes (good thing we drove to Denver to meet a piano teacher who suggested the aps!)
--touchpad Scrabble with Grandma
--listening to lectures about Beethoven
--Grandma improving the ending of the Three Little Bears for Rebecca because the last page had ripped out. "Maybe she stays and helps them clean up. Maybe one of the bears shows her the way home. Maybe they become friends."
--Alex reading D-Day by Stephen Ambrose
--singing to my clogging music
--singing the Star Spangled Banner (Katherine can harmonize!!!)
--Katherine using accordion tubes to invent a speaking tube. Suddenly Alex's whisper from the back seat is loud enough to hurt our ears!
--taking turns taking pictures out the window
--scoring 47 on the license plate game, INCLUDING Hawaii and Rhode Island! I was so tempted to swing through Yellowstone on the way home to complete the set with New Hampshire, Delaware, and West Virginia
--quizzing each other on states and capitols, since the license game board has them listed

Yet another gift from my mother

the way the hair behind my ears always sticks out.

(It's an even longer-lasting gift than my birthday vacuum which still thrills me every time I have to vacuum the car.)

Why on earth

is Rebecca licking the soles of her shoes?

Hooray for...

--the burst of energy that inspired me to weedwack the front and pull weeds for hours in back
--Alex coming out to pull weeds with me
--Rebecca figuring out how to put weeds in the bin and pull weeds up by the roots
--discovering a buried weeding fork abandoned during last year's battle against the weeds
--coming inside to scrub up and hearing that Alex had started his piano
--and SUNSHINE!

Rebecca thinks I'm such a cool mom

because I can jump and touch the ceiling.

Wait until she finds out Daddy can reach it standing flatfooted!

Rebecca sets the record straight

"Why the bandaid?" the pharmacist asks.

"She has some sores on her chin, and she was picking at them," I explain.

"No," Rebecca corrects, "I was just picking at ONE of them."

In the garden

Rebecca: "There's a bumblebee bumbling our flowers!"

Stain remover

Rebecca's instructions for washing off lip gloss: Use soap, water, nail polish, and hair spray.

Transit of Venus

Since it was silly to sit at home in the rainstorm and miss the transit of Venus after we'd driven 1000 miles and back again to see the solar eclipse, we hopped in the car last Tuesday evening in search of sunshine. Luckily we found clear skies at Dash Point State Park (a Puget Sound beach facing west in Tacoma) about 10 minutes before sunset, complete with more Bellevue residents who'd fled the clouds and brought their 5-inch projecting telescope.

Incidentally, the ratio of the distances we traveled to each viewing site (35 miles to Tacoma, vs about 1050 miles to Central Utah) was almost the same as the ratio of sun covered by each heavenly body (measured by diameter: Venus 0.031% vs Moon 0.931%):0.033. We were meant to go!

Rebecca teaches me Adele

That part of Someone Like You that talks about "the scars of our love?"

Rebecca assures me it's actually "The stars are yellow."

Mysterious racket at 4:30 am

That's just Rebecca rattling her newly rediscovered magnifying glass against the rods of her crib bed.

Palouse Falls State Park

After setting up camp, it rained all night. The rain stopped soon after taking down the tents.

An Airplane Ride Away

Rebecca: "Mom, do we go on an airplane to see Jesus?"

Unbroken

Solar Reports

Spelling With Rebecca

Because she would not be persuaded that "S" can also make the "z" sound.

She thinks she's outgrowing her bed because...

When I was one, I was a baby. When I was two, I was still a baby. Then I was three, and now I'm four-- next year I'll be TEN! and then five. Oh, no!

Working

Eclipse

I had already planned the trip to hike Paria Canyon, but 36 hours before my flight we had a crazy idea--drive everyone to Utah to catch the Annular Eclipse. Success.

Success!

Everybody keeps asking me if the DC trip was a success. After a week of thoughtful consideration (and recovery time), I now know how to answer:

--We taught experiments to thousands of people and
--encouraged parents and children alike to consider sugar content when choosing drinks as we
--handed out over a thousand handouts promoting the website and the book, and therefore
--got so tired we almost regretted our success!

The Post Soccer Song

(think jet planes)

All my snacks collected, I'm ready to go
I'm standing outside the car door
Can't wait to go on home so I can eat


I can guzzle Gogurts, and Capri Suns
There's cookies here for everyone
And I'm unrolling my fruit by the feet


So tear all those wraps away
These snacks won't wait one more day
I just cannot wait to eat my treats


'Cause I'm leaving in my minivan
To eat all the snacks that I can
Junk food, it tastes so swee-ee-eet

A Romantic Mid-Day Date

Tetanus/pertussis boosters for two, followed by a lunch of curried chicken at a sunny picnic table with dangerously ramshackle benches. Everybody should try it!

On the Plane

What a rush of relief you feel when you realize the agonized crying is NOT your baby!

Rebecca-isms from DC

At Sundevich sandwich shop (highly recommended, by the way!), admiring a jar of pickled carrots and cauliflower:
"Carrots and trees!"

On discussing cous cous:
"Cous cous kemperoos!"

At the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, looking at airplanes:
"Those are angels. I remember."

Under the dome in the Capitol, staring at the paintings on the wall:
"Is this when Jesus died?"

On the airplane heading home, after watching the safety demonstrations:
"You don't say 'buckle', you say 'fasten', Mommy!"

On Sugar Cereal

The only time I feed my kids sugar cereal is when we have leftovers from demonstrating how too much sugar is bad for you.

Say one thing for sugar cereal--it takes a lot longer to eat one airy O at a time than a pack of candy.

Rebecca's Birthday Dinner

Rebecca was so tired that she greeted everything she was served at dinner with some complaint. "I don't like beans! I don't like rice! I didn't want you to cut that!" Finally she was put down for a nap, while her food sat untouched on the beautiful red "I Am Special" plate. Katie tried to wake her up at cake time, but she slept on as she was passed from lap to lap and put back to bed, so there was much rejoicing when she finally emerged, blinking, and everybody could eat dessert. She never did eat her dinner.

Happy birthday, little girl!

Substitution

Alex comes out of his bedroom. "I need my clock!"
"I don't have it in here," I tell him. "You'll have to look for it tomorrow."
"But I want to know what time it is!" Alex says. He turns around, grabs up the dead (and replaced) phone from the table, and heads back to bed with him. No batteries, no lights, no beeps--hope he enjoys it!

Whose better deal?

Kids beg for extra candy for dessert. I tell them sure, but they have to help me clean the whole kitchen first. They did, and they ate, and everybody's happy.

When we felt the Spirit

Last Saturday we attended the baptism of a young friend. That is, we sort of attended. In fact, pulling the kids away from their sunny outdoor play to dress for the baptism had taken so long that we missed the baptism part entirely. Instead we come in after the baptisms had taken place, heard the final talk about the Holy Ghost, and then got to hear the blessing in which our friend was confirmed with the Holy Ghost. I'd felt so awkward, slipping in late, that I wondered, had the whole effort been worth it?

A few days later, I read with Katherine and Alex the scripture in Alma 5 in which he asks the people if they have experienced a might change in heart? and if so, have they felt that recently? I asked Katherine if she had felt the Spirit before, and if she had felt it within the last week. At this point Alex jumped into the conversation. "I did," he said. "At Roxy's baptism."

Guess it was worth it after all!

What Rebecca Wants for her Birthday

Princess nail clippers
A princess gun
And a princess football

London bridge

also works when you join hands with your 6-year-old and let your 3-year-old ride her bike under your arched arms.

History Fans

It turns out Alex's enthusiasm for World War II, airplanes in particular, has spread. Tonight Rebecca looked out the van window, saw a passenger jet, and shouted,

"Alex, I saw a bomber plane! It shoots! It's from World War II!"

Visiting Pullman

WSU's natural history museum, where we saw a snowshoe hare like Ralph, as well as (maybe) the bird's nest Dad mailed back from his mission in Argentina

Ice cream at Ferdinand's (watching the movie of how cheese is made).

Apple Cup ice cream rocks!

One of what must be one of the last remaining merry-go-rounds in a public park. Boy, did they work of a lot of energy jumping on and off to take turns pushing it around, until Alex slipped, hung on, and got dragged through a mud puddle.

And enjoying hands-on science at the recently built Palouse Discovery Center, with amazing science displays, including booths for telegraphing each other, which inspired kids to start learning Morse Code on the drive home!

Christ the Lord Is Risen Today!

On this Easter Sabbath, we are grateful for our Savior's sacrifice and love. We have enjoyed today's beautiful music and lessons at church which helped us feel His spirit, and we were able to read with our children a few scriptures about the sacrament and Jesus's resurrection. Even Rebecca came home from church today able to say that Jesus was resurrected.

Christus resurrexit. Alleluia!

Skiing

After two ski lessons, Katherine can wind her way down even a medium slope, Alex gets down just fine, and Rebecca zooms straight down the bunny hill, now able to stop at the bottom without crashing into anything.