Saturday excursion

Since we've been pounded with about 2+ feet of snow over the past several weeks here, today was the day we succumbed to our cabin fever and got outside. It was around 40 degrees today, so not too uncomfortable.

Aaron cleared all of the snow off of our patio, which took close to 2 hours. Heather spent a couple of hours at work, and Aaron made brownies. Once Heather got home, we got the kids ready and all piled into the car and headed north to Salt Lake City. We attended the "Soup's On!" geocaching event at the Utah State Fairgrounds, where about 40 people showed up. After an hour or so, we departed and headed east up to the State Capitol, and then down into the Aveneues towards the Salt Lake City cemetary.

Our main purposes for going to the City cemetary today was to try and find President Hinckley's gravesite, as he was buried there 1 week ago today. As we drove into the cemetary, we saw many large headstones and monuments. We stopped to look at one in particular, and found it was that of Wilford Woodruff, the 4th President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Aaron marked the coordinates on his GPS and took a photo of the headstone.

As we continued north through the cemetary, we came across the graves of Heber J. Grant (7th President of the LDS Church); J. Golden Kimball (aka "The Swearing Apostle"); David O. McKay (9th President of the LDS Church); Joseph F. Smith (6th President of the LDS Church) and last, but not least, Gordon B. Hinckley (15th President of the LDS Church). We also saw a large monument dedicated to Hyrum Smith, older brother of Joseph Smith. Aaron made sure to get GPS coordinates for each site, and photos too. It was neat to see the graves and stand next to the markers, enjoying the silence and reverence that a cemetary commands.

Unfortunately, we ran out of daylight and were not able to locate any other graves of past Church presidents, so we hit the road and enjoyed a dinner out at Sonic Drive-In. We'll go back soon and continue our search.

We wanted to share with you photos of our day. Enjoy!

Sledding

Aaron took Kaya sledding today. This was only the 2nd time that she has been sledding. The first time she was probably only 19 months old and didn't know what to make of it. This time, she REALLY enjoyed herself as you can see in the video below:

Flashback Friday - Happy Birthday Joshua!!

Today is Joshua's 19th birthday. So in honor of Uncle Joshy, we dedicate this Flashback Friday to you. Joshua is Heather's youngest brother. Kaya & Logan loved having Uncle Josh in Utah for a semester going to school. Logan often sees young men Joshua's age/size and he thinks it's Josh. Joshua is the musical one in the family and has been blessed with lots of talents. We all think he's spoiled but he's grown up from a squeaky little kid to a handsome young man. We hope you have a great birthday!!

Did you know???

Do you know about green M&M's? A women came into the grocery store the other day and purchased a Mylar balloon that said "I Love You", 3 green helium balloons (That didn't even match the mylar balloon) and a bag of green M&M's. (Yes - They sell bags of only green M&M's for Valentine's Day) As it turns out, she was on her way to pick up her husband at the airport who was returning from serving 11 months in Afghanistan. Apparently, she was going to pick him up and head straight to a hotel for the night. (They have 10 kids at home!!! - We're they hoping for #11?) Anyhow - some of the clerks were a little confused about the green balloons and green M&M's. I vaguely remembered something about green M&M's from high school. I thought it would be interesting to see what I could find on the legend and share it with you. Here's a quick history:

"Green M&M's have long been the subject of myth as they are considered, by some, to have magical aphrodisiac powers. As to whether or not this is true is, of course, subject to interpretation. Curious as to how this myth may have occurred, we did a little research and learned the following fun facts about the color Green. According to Celtic myths, the Green Man was the God of Fertility. Green has long been considered a metaphor and symbol for fertility and this was evident in the fifteenth (15th) century as Green was the preferred color for wedding attire. The symbolism attached to the color Green continues today even though it has taken on a more modern meaning. The myth per Green M&M's was fueled in the late seventies and early eighties, as rock and roll performers , such as Van Halen, requested bowls of Green M&M's backstage. Adding to this myth, Masterfoods, in 1996, released a commercial asking "Is it true what they say about green ones?" There is no empirical evidence as to whether or not these fabled candies have magical powers but we do know that they taste great and are part of Americana candy lore."

Flashback Friday & Guilt

This week's Flashback Friday picture was taken the day after Logan was born - not quite 17 months ago. It seems like just yesterday. Here's the guilt part: I have yet to scrapbook any of my pictures since Logan has been born. I actually stopped shortly after Kaya was about 6 months old. I just got busy. In my defense, since then I have scrapbooked 50+ years worth of pictures for my Mom & Dad and scanned over 700 slides for Aaron's parents. So I have been productively preserving history, just not in my own family. For Christmas I got a Cricut (2 of them actually). I have only managed to open the box so far. It's sitting in the Laundry room waiting for me to use it each time I walk by with a load of laundry. Since we found out that we're pregnant, I have been mentally making a check list of things to be done before the baby comes. One of them is to get Logan's scrapbook going. I also need to get Kaya's current. At least I have been good about keeping the baby books current. Now that I'm starting to get past the feeling sick part of being pregnant, it's time to get started on getting things done. Wish me luck!!

It's Official...We're Having a Baby!!

For those that don’t already know….we are expecting an addition to our family around August 7th. Heather went to the doctor today and everything is right on track. We were able to hear the heartbeat and see baby on the ultrasound. Baby isn’t much to look at yet….but it was still fun to see. We are thankful there is only one little one in there. Kaya is pretty insistent that she’s getting a baby sister. We just tell her she’ll have to wait and see. We might actually let ourselves be surprised with the sex of the baby this time. We haven't decided yet. We’ll keep you posted as “production” progresses.

Futuristic Friday

We usually like to do a "Flashback Friday" and yet today we actually have a "Futuristic Friday". Aaron's brother, Nick, took a picture of Aaron & Nick and did his magic to make it look like they have aged about 40 years. This is pretty funny and quite realistic looking. I have included the original picture for you to compare. Aaron's nose got bigger. Is that something that happens with old age? Enjoy the pictures: