Idaho Trip

My youngest sister left on a mission this week. She is in the MTC, but in a few weeks she'll be on her way to Philadelphia. We are so proud of her decision to be a missionary for our church. Last week was her "farewell," so we headed up to Idaho to say good-bye to Brittany. My whole family was there which was crazy, but fun. There was a big party after church and I didn't take any pictures then, but we did have an adventure the day before. We went to the Museum of Idaho where they are having an exhibit about carousels. It was really neat to see the old carousels. The carving was neat and some of them were hand cranked. I was fascinated. The kids' favorite part was riding the carousel of course! They love spending time with their cousins, and staying at grandma's house (mostly because she lets them watch cartoons in the morning).

When I woke up Saturday morning, I came out and found this.
Best seat in the house for morning cartoons!

Mark and Daniel on the carousel

Dax and Abby!

Seth LOVED the carousel!

This was Dax's favorite carving--a great blue heron.

Mark liked the dragon ones!

See Josh down there? Every other picture I have of him is blurry. I wanted all the cousins to be represented! And I thought those horses were pretty.

We rode the carousel twice. Seth and Audrey shared a bench the 2nd time.

We saw trumpeter swans right by the freeway. We were so excited. Yes, we are bird nerds.

We stopped by the Idaho Falls temple and the falls. Seth was thrilled.

Bowling

One of the rare pictures of Seth and mom!

We have been working on manners at our house. We've practiced saying "please," "thank you," and "excuse me," and a few other  manners like don't hit and look at someone when they talk to you. Our boys have been doing very well, and we can see the results all the time. When we started with please and thank you, we had a jar we filled up with marbles every time someone said one of those two things.

Well, we finally filled it up and the reward was going bowling. Dax always wants to go bowling. It is his reward of choice every time. So we had a free night last week and we went bowling. It was so much fun! Mark is old enough now to really be into it, and Dax was hilarious trying to carry a 15 pound ball to roll down the lane.

Here are some pictures of our latest family adventure.

I love Dax's intense face in this picture! He really wanted to get a strike.

Mark isn't quite as intense as Dax, but he likes to win.

Dax can barely lift this ball, but about half way through he would only use this blue ball.

Mark is doing a dance because he got a strike!

Seth got to have a turn on one of Dad's frames. The only frame he got a strike! 

Seth wasn't sure he wanted to let the ball go.

As you can see none of us are good, but I'm just glad I came out on top!

Dr. Seuss's Birthday

Our copy doesn't look this nice anymore--it's Natalie's that she had as a kid. 

Hey, this is Randy . . .

Today is March 2, which is Dr. Seuss's Birthday (for nerdy school teachers). Last year we did a simple Ten Apples Up on Top game with the boys. This year we decided to do Wacky Wednesday. For some reason Dax likes this crazy book.

After the kids went to bed last night, we made a few things around the house "wacky." A few of the things we did were straight from the book. For example, we had an umbrella in a pan on on the stove and, of course, a shoe stuck to the wall (Seth's baby shoe actually stayed up with a little tape).

We had plenty of our own ideas, too. We turned furniture backward, stacked things in weird places, turned pictures upside-down, and generally made a mess. All in all, I'd say we thoroughly enjoyed this as much as the kids!

When the boys woke up they loved it. (Well, to be fair, I think Seth was unfazed-- everything we do is wacky to him.) It turned into a treasure hunt for the boys. They ran around the house saying, "What the . . .?" (I'm sure they picked that phrase up from their mom.) Dax's favorite wacky thing was the bananas hanging from the light fixture and Mark's was the chair wearing socks.

Of course, the morning ended with Green Eggs and Brown Sausages (it's still a pig, right?) I'm actually looking forward to next March 2.

Mark's favorite!

Gotta have a shoe on the wall--that's how Wacky Wednesday began.

Dax's favorite!

There is usually a plant where the paper towels are and I'm pretty sure Van Gogh didn't paint the picture like that.

Who's Karm?

Dax loved Manner #7: Stand on your head!

This was Natalie's favorite--I didn't know Randy had put this one in here until I went to unload the dishwasher! :)