The Leonardo and 5 Seconds of Fame

I've worked at La Europa Academy for over 6 years now, and in

the past few years, we've tried to incorp- orate more field trips into the school year. We currently schedule one per quarter. For 1st quarter, we decided to go to the Leonardo Museum, a new museum in Salt Lake. I had never heard of it, and that's probably because it has only been open a week. This museum fuses art, science and technology, and has many

interactive exhibits. This is a teenage heaven.

Our students were there for 2 hours and when time was up, they didn't want to leave.

One exhibit was Google Earth on the floor. You controlled the

map with your feet and all of the students took turns showing everyone their house. It was fun to see where they live. Many live on the coast or in really nice areas. There was another place where you could walk into a box-like thing, and an

animation would copy your moves. Many of the

girls really liked that. I believe the favorite was the green screen. When you stood in front of the screen, a video camera would put you on the screen with a different background. You could also make yourself invisible by holding something green in front of yourself.

Not only did we get to see an amazing museum,

but many of us got to have our 5 seconds of fame. Big Budda from Fox 13 News was there. When I asked him if I could have a picture with him, he asked if a few people from our group would be willing to go on camera to make comments about the museum. Eric, the history teacher, Shery, the science teacher, and

I were all inter- viewed and on the news. Eric was on the 5:00 news and Shery and I were on the 9:00 news. It was funny to hear how many people saw me. The next morning at breakfast, Dennis and Gretchen said they saw me, people at church said they saw me, and I was even recognized at a local fast food place. It was a cool experience, but boy I look funny on camera.

The "Up" House

In Herriman, Bangerter Homes built a replica of the house from

the movie Up. This is one of Kyson's favorite movies and when it opened in the parade of homes, they were offering discounted tickets for kids to go through it. We planned to go, but when Kyson started misbehaving and actually stole something from the store, the Up house was no longer on the agenda. I thought we had missed our

chance to see it, but I was wrong. The Up house is open every weeknight evening for a couple of hours and so we raced over on a Friday night to see the house and take pictures. They did a fantastic job with the house. They recreated everything down to the pictures on the walls and the furniture in the house. Some of it, of course, they had to create the visions in their head, but it's a beautiful house. There is even a hidden room upstairs. At the top of the stairs there is a book case, but if you pull on it, it opens up into a big storage room. Unfortunately, Kyson and Kodi were misbehaving which took a lot of the fun out of it, but I'm still

glad that I was able to see the Up house. I think it was adorable that they even have a section where they have ties Mr. Fredrickson would have warn, and the bottle to save movie for Paradise Falls. And of course, there was the Scout badges from Russell. The creativity that went into creating this house is phenomenal. I know this house cost the builder a lot more than it will appraise for because they were trying to copy all the details from the film. I think they did an amazing job.

Our Little 2-Year-Old

It's hard to believe that Kodi is already two. It seems like yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital and trying to take some pictures of Kyson with his little sister. Now two years have passed and her personality has blossomed. She's still not

really talking except to tell us "no," but everything about her seems to be slightly behind because she's so small. I'm hoping that she'll just start talking one day, like you hear so many people say can happen.

She's a happy little girl, as long as she's not tired or sick. If she falls into one of the two categories - watch out. She's not pleasant. She even goes to the extreme of slapping herself, not lightly. She seems to have hit a spell of the "terrible twos," but then part of me wonders it if it's because she's fighting a cold. Either way, she's at that not-so-pleasant stage.

Now, to compare and update on her statistics:

Weight: 23.6 lbs (12%)

Length: 34.5" (70%)

Head Size: 18.5" (36%)

She's gone up a little bit in her percentile in weight, and a lot in her height. The doctor says she's very healthy and has a healthy diet. Her favorite foods are edamame, popcorn fish, and tuna fish. It's an odd diet for a two-year-old, but very good. It's looking like she's going to be a tall, thin little lady.

A Miserable Weekend

This year, for the first time ever, my work calendars overlap and when I get a day off at one, I get it off at both. I had a marvelous 5-day weekend and really wanted to take advantage of it. I talked with my parents about maybe going to Zions, but in the end, we decided to keep it simple and go to Bear Lake. Kris, my mom, and my dad all requested Friday off so we could enjoy the trip and really make it worth our while to go out of town. I don't know if we were jinxed from the beginning or what, but I don't understand how so many things can go wrong.

The Monday before we were to leave, Kyson got the flu. He was throwing up like crazy and just a miserable little kid. This continued on Tuesday. Wednesday it was time to "empty the basement" and he went through outfit after outfit, not being able to get to the bathroom in time. Wednesday evening Kodi started throwing up. Thursday all appeared to be well so I cleaned and sanitized the entire house (sheets, carpets, blankets, towels, curtains, bathrooms, etc) and we left for Bear Lake on Thursday evening. Friday morning, I started feeling sick and by midmorning I was throwing up. Then Kris, not wanting to be left out, joined the fun. All day

Friday Kris and I were miserable.

Dennis and Gretchen were supposed to come up

Friday evening, but Dennis had some problems with his diverticulitis and got so severe he was strongly encouraged by his physician to go to the hospital. He refused, and decided to nurse himself at home, and they planned to come up Saturday morning. We thought that would be best anyway.

Saturday morning Dennis wasn't improving and they decided to stay home. Kris continued to be sick, while I had some new ailments - a migraine with vertigo. I couldn't even walk. Saturday

was Kodi's second birthday and I had planned to have a little birthday party with pie and cupcakes. I pretty much threw a couple of presents at her and then went back to the couch. Fortunately, she's only two and doesn't know any better. She didn't care about the clothes anyway. Saturday came and went and our fun-filled vacation was coming to an end. We were to clean-up and go home on Sunday.

Sunday, we cleaned, packed, and drove home. And what wonderful vacation is complete without running out of gas. After all that had happened, my parents ran out of gas coming home. Fortunately, they had some fuel for the four-wheelers on hand and were able to get home safely.

Although the entire weekend was a wash, I'm so grateful that my parents were there to help. Kris and I were literally helpless and would never have been able to take care of two toddlers. perhaps it worked out the way it should have, but boy that's a crappy vacation.

BBQ #2

Seven years ago, we moved to Herriman, but before that, we lived in the Carrol Joe Apartments in Salt Lake City. Some friends from high school lived across the hall from us and neither one of us had any children at the time. David and Sara became very close friends and the time we lived across the hall from them were some of the best years Kris and I had in our married lives. It was so much fun. We got very close and would even leave our doors open on the top floor and move freely from one apartment to the other. We expected to keep in close touch when we moved, and I believe David and Sara
did too, but with distance and children, more and more time passed until seven years passed without seeing each other. A short time ago, I contacted Sara on Facebook and we set a date to see each other again. It was so needed.

David and Sara have two beautiful children now - Spencer and Rachel. We ate, let the children play, and caught up on times.

Even though a lot of time had passed, it was as if no time passed at all. I think that's how you know they're true friends - you can pick up where you left off and not miss a beat. I'm so grateful for their friendship and we can't let another seven years pass before we get together again.

Labor Day

As tradition, we went to Bear Lake this year for Labor Day weekend. Typically, I have a lot for family for the holiday, but it was only my Aunt and Uncle, Dennis and Gretchen, and my parents. It was actually really nice having a small crowd. No one really planned to go so we literally threw together meals at the last second and just had a nice relaxing weekend. More than anything,

I like to go up for Kyson. He loves to go there and play in the sand and water, ride his big wheel, and go four-wheeling. The weekend didn't disappoint for the four-year-old with such high expectations. He played in the water with my dad, played on the beach with Kodi, went on long walks on his big wheel

with Kris and I, and went four-wheeling with a big group.

This trip, Kyson decided to do something a little different with his big wheel - ride it into the lake. While I thought it was strange, he truly loved it. At one point though, he lost his balance in the water and wasn't getting it back. I had to pull a Baywatch move and run down the beach to rescue him. He'd swallowed a bit of water was all, but I think he thought it was worth it. He continued to ride the big wheel into the water.

The whole thing was great and I look forward to the next visit.

Robot

Kyson, for some unknown reason, is in love with this song called "Robot." If you're into old school rap you might have

heard of KRS-One. Well, Kris likes this particular group and played the song for Kyson just for fun one day and it has stuck. Now he requests to see the video all the time so he can act out it while it's playing. Before this can happen, however, he has to grab his hat, wear it sideways, and grab his "glasses" like the rappers. Because he lost his sunglasses, he has borrowed Mr. Potato Head's.

To top it off, he likes to wrap his blanket around himself like a cape - that is not in the video so I don't know why he does it. He likes to stand with his arms outstretched like in the beginning of the video and pretend he's a robot.

And what rap video is complete without girls in very little clothing. There are four girls in swim

suit-like garb that act like robots. He thinks I'm the girl on the far left because her hair is in a ponytail. Kris said, "Well she's the best dancer of them all." So I guess this should be taken as a compliment that my son thinks I'd prance around in a bikini. Oh little boys - the things they like and believe. One day, he'll look back on this and laugh.

He also has mastered the Homey-G look. I told him to smile for a picture and he posed like this:

He looks so dangerous with his notebook that has puppies on it right in front of him. :)