Italian Gelato

I always have an hour or so in between picking Grayson up from preschool and picking Lydia up from her preschool. I try to fill this time with errands because it seams pointless to go home unload start doing something for a few minutes then reload and head out again. Well today we finished our errands early and I was trying to figure out what I was going to do to kill the next half hour when we drove by Dolcetti Gelato, an little store that makes fresh gelato daily. For those that don't know I spent a summer in Italy with my aunt and uncle during high school. Ever since then I get these cravings for gelato that have never been satisfied, I had to stop. It wasn't hard to convince Grayson either.

It was so fun to sit in the little store with Grayson and Kate and eat the closest thing to gelato since visiting Italy. I was sad that they didn't have banana, it was always my favorite, but the pistachio was still very satisfying.

Well, our little visit got me thinking about Italy and what great memories I have of that summer and other visits. This picture was taken during a day trip to Florence. My uncle B.T. went to get some gelato and ordered the biggest cone he could. Well the owner knew B.T. was a tourist and decided to charge him 15 dollars for the cone. B.T. knew he couldn't do anything about it, especially because he didn't know the language that well, so he paid the man and gave me and Tami the cone because he was to mad to eat it. It was the best gelato I've ever had.

This is a picture of me in my favorite city in Italy, Verona. It's the city where Romeo and Juliet lived. I loved visiting Juliet's home and standing on her balcony.

Visiting Venice was always a neat experience I loved that you got off the train and walk through a maze of shops on really narrow streets for what seems like forever. Then all of a sudden you turn a corner and there you are in the middle of St. Marco Square.

I can't believe it's been like twelve years since we were there. I miss it.

Discovery Gateway

We've had a membership to the Children's Museum for the last three years. It's a real life saver during the winter when we have to get out of the house to play. We actually use it a lot in the summer too when we need something to do in the afternoon and it's just too hot to play at a park. Our pass expired last month and I was debating on weather to renew it,. Well we got bored and after looking at My friend Embers cute pictures of her kids enjoying the new Sesame Street Exhibit I decided to do it. The kids loved all the new stuff as well as all the old stuff. I will feel a lot better about renewing our membership if I can take people with me. So, if anyone wants to go please call me. I can get up to 3 people in for free. Plus I enjoy it so much more when there is another mom to talk to. The invitation is open to anyone, anytime in the next year.

HillBilly Fever

Last night Jared and I went to HillBilly Fever's last concert. We loved every minute of it. My cuter than cute cousin Heather Iverson is their fiddle player. Hillbilly Fever is a four piece band focusing primarily on old time Honky Tonk style country music of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Unfortunately the bands singer Micheal has moved back to Oklahoma. We were very sad that this was the last time we would hear them play. Jared especially enjoyed being taken back to fond memories of his time in Arkansas.

Snow Canyon

Grayson and Lydia loved hiking at Snow Canyon with PaPa Jerry so much that they started begging to go again the minute they saw the red rocks of Dixie Valley. We had a great hike, there is nothing like hiking in Southern Utah. Unfortunately I gave into Lydia and let her wear the wrong shoes and had to carry her the most of the way back since she had developed two major blisters. She was crying and in an effort to get her to stop I started singing some of her favorite songs to her. I would only do this in isolation since not only can I not sing I was out of breath and am also recovering from a cold. So let just say it wasn't very pretty but it was working. Well, as we get to the top of a little hill and look over we see a group of people gathered. With further investigation I discovered some people were randomly getting married along the path. Lets just hope that they couldn't hear me and that I didn't ruin there ceremony. Next time we will be better prepared for hiking.

Kailey Country

We spent a night on our way to St. George in Kailey Country aka Ceder City. Grayson came up with the name Kailey Country. I guess is makes sense, it is where Kailey his cousin lives and as far as he knows Ceder is the Country. Kailey Country is also the home of Abby, Jeremy and Kassidy. Grayson and Lydia love visiting the Cox's especially because they usually get a horse back ride. My favorite moment is when Lydia got chased down by one of the Chickens. Kailey taught one of her the chickens to her for fun. Well while we were all out front Lydia wondered to the back were that chicken started chasing Lydia, she didn't think it was so funny and was scared for her life and started screaming. I shouldn't think it was so funny, she was really scared, but secretly I did. Hopefully they will let us come again soon. Grayson is starting to think he is a real Cowboy.

Our little Troy

We gave the kids the High School Musical soundtrack for Christmas, they had only seen the movie once but I knew they would like the songs. Since then High School Musical has become a very important part of our lives. It's right up there with Superheros and Princesses.

One of my favorite things that has come about because of the HSM absession is Grayson is more open to wearing the clothes I want him too. Grayson used to get dressed in what ever I gave him no questions asked. It was great, I could dress him all up in things most boys wouldn't wear. Well then Porter came along and showed Grayson that he had a choice. Porter doesn't like sweaters or collared shirts which happen to be my favorite. Soon Grayson demanded he would only wear T-shirts and jeans. Then one day Grayson made the mistake of telling me he wanted to wear a brown cordiroy sports jacket he usually thew a fit about wearing because he wanted to look like Troy ( Troy wears collared shirts and jackets in HSM2). So now if I want to Grayson to wear basically anything but a t-shirt, I just have to tell him he's going to look like Troy. I've done this many times with Lydia telling her she'll look like a princess, but I never thought I would be doing it with Grayson.

We recored this performance right after Christmas, since then Grayson has developed many more "cool" moves. He takes his dancing very seriously he is rarely smiling while dancing. If you want to hear what he is dancing to you'll need to pause the music at the bottom of the blog.

Cinderella

Yesturday Lydia and I went to Ballet West's performance of Cinderella. We both loved it. I've been wanting to take Lydia to the ballet for years but have always worried about her being too little. I figured Cinderella was a good show to test her on since she would be excited to see Cinderella in addition to the ballerinas. She did so well and loved almost every minute of it. During the intermissions she wanted to get back to her seat so the show wouldn't start without her. The hardest part was keeping her from raising her arms above her head (she wanted to dance along with the ballerinas). She also yelled out a few times. Like when they were trying the slipper on the step-sisters she yelled out "No it's Cinderella's". Luckily those around us found it to be as cute as I did. I am already looking forward to our next performance

Congratulations Uncle BoBo

This is just one of many funny photos of my brother Jon or Uncle BoBo. Jon just won an election for Education Senator at Utah State. Jon has always been very active in USU activities and is one of the co-founders of the Finals Week HOWL. He was planning on running for Senate for a while now and just found out that he is uncontested. I'm sure he would have won anyways. We love ya tons Jon and are so glad that you're making all you wildest dreams come true.

Saying Goodbye!

Before leaving to go home thursday, Tami and I took our kids down to the Conference Center to see President Hinckley one last time. We got their just as the viewing was starting so we didn't have to wait in line. I hope that my kids will remember the sweet spirit that was there. I still remember going with my dad to see President Kimball. It was a special experience to say goodbye again as the processional went down South Temple. We will miss Prisident Hinckley so much and apprienciate all that he did for us and the church.