Category: Our Family

Our zoo has been under construction this past year, and they had a whole section blocked off. They built a whole new exhibit to house a polar bear and a sea lion and some seals. They also created a new home for some bears, and another area for some otters. We decided to take the kids to go see all the new animals before the baby is born and before school starts up again.

I love Dinah’s smile as she is watching the animals swim by. 🙂

Everyone really enjoyed being so close to the animals and watching them swim by. I just love everyone’s awed faces. Maybe we will have try a pass to the aquarium next. 🙂

Kyle and I went to see “Wicked” tonight! We were actually in California when it was playing at the Pantages Theater in LA. But that trip we already had way too many plans for the time that we were going to be there and we decided not to try squeezing in a trip to the theater and said that we would just wait until it was showing in Salt Lake City.

Last week we found out that Wicked was already playing at the Capitol Theater in SLC, and since Debby had offered to watch the kids for us last Friday and Saturday night (so that we could get some things done and go on a date before the baby arrives) Kyle tried to find tickets. Finding tickets has proved to be rather difficult. Kyle couldn’t find anything for the nights that we had Debby coming to watch the kids and we ended up working in the basement one night, and going out the second night and doing other things instead. But we didn’t give up hope, and kept looking for tickets. Well, we looked online and Kyle called in to see what tickets we could find. I asked Debby when she would be available to watch the kiddos so that we could do this, and she said that she could do Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. Well in calling, Kyle found out that Thursday was COMPLETELY sold out, and Wednesday and Friday there were only a few seats left, but not two seats next to each other. Then online I found two seats next to each other for Tuesday. Debby said she could come out and so we bought the tickets! They were rather expensive, but we figured that since we had been saving up to do something big for our 10th anniversary (which was last December) and we still hadn’t done anything, that this would be our something big to celebrate 10 years.

This afternoon while I was laying down to rest, Debby sent me a text saying that she has the flu and she wanted to know if I still wanted her to come out. Well being so close to having a baby (and the fact that our carpet cleaner is still in the shop for repairs), I really didn’t want the kids to get sick and then pass it on to me, so we had to find a plan B. Kyle ended up asking Laurel if they could watch the kids for us. They had some plans but she said that Alex and Sylvia could handle it. So I woke the kids up from their naps, I changed into a dress, and got the kids loaded in the van and got Kyle’s suit and I was on my way. All the way to cousin’s house the kids kept asking me why they couldn’t go with us to see the show. I pointed out that they can’t even sit still in a movie theater, and these tickets are a lot more expensive than tickets to the movies! And besides, Mommy and Daddy don’t go on very many dates and so it’s good for us to go out once in awhile. Kyle met us at cousins house after picking up a whole bunch of tacos for them to have dinner. (Gotta love Tuesday taco night!) And then we were off!

We picked up our tickets at the box office, and then went in to find our seats.

We had awesome seats, and the show was amazing. I was so excited just to be there. I think the last show Kyle and I had been to was a ballet in LA when Ethan was just a baby. That was before we moved to Utah. Though now that I think about it, I think we have been to the Tuacahn Amphitheater a couple of times since we’ve moved to Utah.

I kind of wish we had more time to plan and prepare for our trip to the theater, so that we could have had dinner before the show. But we had to get the tickets that we could find. And we had no control over Debby getting sick (I’m sure she would have much preferred to be watching my munchkins, to being sick. I also would have loved to wear a formal, but having the big belly prevented that. 😉 But I am so happy we were able to go, and that we didn’t have to go into debt to do it, and I am very happy that I got to go with Kyle.

Each month, our cub scout pack does a Pack Meeting, of various exciting activities. All of the meetings were planned well in advance, back at the end of last year, to give plenty of time for arranging them. This month,the plan was to hold a Medieval Faire for the scouts and their families. Unfortunately, Rebecca wasn’t feeling well, and the kids were being really disobedient, so I took Ethan and everyone else stayed home.

Brother Hacking is one of the Wolf leaders, and he really shined this time. He single-handedly constructed all of the activities for the faire. We had a crossbow shoot, jousting, catapult battle, mace battle, plinko game, bean bag toss, and a castle wall attack. Of course, the different activities were safe for the younger audience, like the crossbows were only rubberband guns shooting dull wooden bolts. I was personally impressed with the plinko board, which Bro Hacking put over 600 nails in for the paths down.

Each of the scout leaders was in charge of a different event, so I was placed over the mace battle. This was a competition between two boys (or girls, as scouts’ sisters came as well), standing on a circular platform with a rounded bottom. Each competitor stands on the platform, with a ball-and-chain made from a long wooden handle with a leather strap attached to it, with a leather-wrapped ball at the end. Harmless when hit, but still could knock the hat off you. Literally: there were large cardboard hats each person would wear, and the object was to knock it off.  So, I got to monitor the kids of all ages attacking each other. It was a blast watching the different boys compete, and only somewhat unexpected to see some of the kids get more into it.

As I was on the Mace Battle the whole time, I didn’t get a chance to see the other booths and what happened with them, but assume they went well. I wish I could have seen the others in action, especially that Plinko board. I can’t imagine having spent so long doing it.