Merit Badge Field Tripping: Utah Capital Building

Austin is doing a merit badge pow-wow and needed to visit the state capital building and a federal monument. 

Lunch at Kurt's office- 

After lunch we went to Fort Douglas for the federal monument, but didn't end up with any pictures. 

Vroom-vroom

Austin is working on some merit badges. He needed to go to an international event and while he was watching the news for a different merit badge, he saw a segment on the Utah International Car Expo. Kurt took him and they had a great time! 

Catching Up: Going to the theater

Utah Children's Theater - The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe

Catching Up: Family Shakespeare Banquet

We spent the whole day trying to figure out costumes - visiting thrift stores, cutting & sewing- but they were happy with the results. 

Kurt was out of town so it was me & the monsters :)

Performing a skit of Romeo & Juliet - Austin played the priest & Nyah was Lady Capulet

My little girls entertaining themselves between courses

Catching Up: Georgie

Catching Up: Happy Birthday Olivia!

8 years old!!

Catching Up: Christmas

Family Christmas Eve program - Nyah did a Shakespeare monologue

Kurt & the girls sang The 12 Days of Christmas

Austin played a couple piano pieces - I played the piano too, sorry no picture

New Christmas pj's

Christmas morning

Snow for Christmas - let's go sledding!!

I have been informed I need give a family update.

So here you go.

Sophie: This happened today.

She was playing with Olivia in our exercise room in the basement- one of the rooms they aren't supposed to play in, of course. Olivia tied one end of an exercise resistance band to a closet door, stretched it out, and then she let go. Later, Jolie asked me, "Was Sophie in the way?" Um, yeah. The end of the handle hit her in the chin- 4 stitches and she's doing well- lots of loving care by her traumatized sisters (lots of blood and lots of worry).  

Otherwise, Sophie is doing great. She is in the CTR4 class at church (for all 4 to 5 year olds) and can sometimes be convinced to attend the Little Learners class at commonwealth (3-5 year olds) or she goes into the nursery to play with the babies. I'm one of her CTR4 teachers, which is the only reason she's willing to go. She spends her days playing with her sisters, playing on her own, racing around with George, and is annoyed she'll miss out on swimming this week.

Jolie: 6.5 years old and all fire. Jolie recently lost a tooth. She is in the CTR6 class at church (all 6-7 year olds) and loves going to Liberty Girls (girls 6-9) at commonwealth. She spends much of her time playing with her sisters and helping her mom. She loves cooking with mom, swim lessons, and wants to ride horses again.  

Olivia: Recently had her 8th birthday and is so excited to get baptized on February 7th. She attends the CTR7 class at church (all kids 7-8 years). She has weekly speech and PT appointments, and swim lessons and gymnastics to help strengthen her core and improve coordination. She had a bunch of tests and doctor visits in December and early January, but I haven't had a chance to talk with her genetics doctor about it all yet. She loves Liberty Girls at commonwealth. 

Nyah: 12.5 years old. She's been attending the Young Women's class at church (girls 12-18) and enjoying it. She loves Young Stateswoman (girls 9-14) and Shakespeare Conquest at commonwealth. She is thrilled to have the part of Puck in the spring performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. She did an outstanding job auditioning! She also loves her art classes and learning about being a veterinarian.

Austin: 13.5 years old and he stays busy with his programming classes, air soft guns, video games, and friends. He attends Young Mens at church (boys 12-18), and at commonwealth he's taking a history class, America: 1865-1914, and Shakespeare Conquest. He also got the part he wanted in the play- Oberon the fairy king. They both have major roles and would love to see family and friends in the audience - performances are May 7-9th.

George: 6 months old and a wonderful (& obnoxious) puppy. He's doing obedience classes and I'm looking into having him trained to be a therapy dog, maybe a service dog. He chews everything and everyone, jumps on us, trips us, slobbers all over us, clobbers us, has accidents in the house, but we love and adore him anyways. 

Kurt is busy with work and traveling. When he has time, he can be found playing video games or his guitar or figuring out how to play his new mandolin. 

And me? I'm busy with all of the above!!! 

I love seeing Sophie, Jolie, & Olivia excited about learning everyday- sometimes they pull out their workbooks, sometimes they pull out games, and sometimes they play hard from before the sun comes up to long after it goes down. 

I love seeing Austin & Nyah transforming into their marvelous selves - passionate about what they are learning and doing in their lives. I'm excited they got the parts they wanted in their play and I'm excited I got the part I wanted - Stage Manager - woot! woot! 

I love mentoring my history class at commonwealth- America: 1865-1914. I know I'm much more excited about it than the kids in my class, but we have fun and are exploring new things. I'm not as excited about being the secretary for our commonwealth, but I like being involved and getting to know everyone. 

I love working with the CTR4 class at church. Sophie climbs all over me, but it's fun to be with her and spend my time with all the other charming 4 year olds. 

I've talked Austin and Nyah into training for a Dirty Dash race in June. So far they haven't done much training, but we have time for the torture! Mwah-ha-ha!

I love spending time with Kurt- mostly just those 10 minutes we're getting ready for the day at the same time every morning, but we get to say "hello" and "what's going on?" We get to go on another trip in February and I'm trying not to count down the seconds. 

So that's us. Wild & Crazy & loving it!!