Easter Trip, Day 1

We had planned to go to Memphis over Easter to make full use of a three day weekend since both Don and Rebekah were off on Good Friday, however the Sunday before I started feeling a sense of foreboding. As I continued to look into our planned trip I questioned our decision with Don. We decided to cancel Memphis and shoot for something a little closer and more familiar. After doing some searching we landed on Cincinnati. We've been there before and I loved the River Walk. This time we planned a trip to a Planetarium for Rebekah as well as a trip down to Lexington for me. What did we plan for Don? He assured me that it was a pleasure just being with us. We booked the hotel and Friday morning we were off.

We got to the hotel and had time for a quick swim.

Rebekah hasn't been in the water since December.

But she seemed to pick it up right where she left off. 

I have this thing with pools. I swam with Rebekah for years and I just got tired of being wet and cold. Now Don does the pools in the hotel, however, they do try to include me.

Love to watch them together. 

Also got this gem. *No, I haven't shown this to Don on account of being sure he would freak out about his hair - or lack there of....*

After swim we had a quick dinner and headed out through massive Noah type rain to get to the Planetarium. The rain was insane but on the bright side every color looked so vivid! It was so beautiful! 

We go to the planetarium where we were one of two families in attendance. 

Since it was a small crowd they gave each child the chance to navigate their way through some planets. Rebekah chose Jupiter and Saturn. She was actually able to maneuver the planet in such a way that she stopped in the middle of the rings and we got to see all the debris that make up the rings. Very cool. 

We also got to see a black hole. The bottom corner is an artist's rendition. The one on the top is an actual black hole. 

Turns out that having a tendency towards vertigo makes it hard for one to fully enjoy the planetarium experience. I had to look away several times and even with that the world was still unstable after it was over. I didn't have one of my full on attacks but wow that was intense. 

By the time we were done the rain had stopped. It was a beautiful drive back to the hotel. Once in our room we got popcorn, watched a show, and then headed to bed.  

One Afternoon

You ever had one of those weeks where it's just packed with things to do and you end up letting some things slide so you can take a few minutes each day to yourself to walk outside in the fresh air before hitting the grind again? And then one day you come home and your daughter wants to watch a show so you decide to tackle the kitchen sink only to find a big pink stain on your fancy granite counter? No? Just me? Okay then.

After completely loosing my mind I called my friend and asked for advice on how to get stains out of granite. She suggested alcohol wipes or baking soda and peroxide paste. Knowing Rebekah would pitch a fit if I took her to the store and not wanting to go through that I texted my neighbor who was happy to help out.

I started to see the pink soak up into the wipes and felt somewhat better, enough that I was able to continue on my cleaning in the which I found the offending pink note that left said stain.

It needed to sit for 15 minutes or so, so I decided to enjoy the rain with Rebekah. At this point she was attempting to fill the bucket up with rain. 

It really wasn't raining hard enough so she decide to take a walk and distract herself from the waiting in the hopes that it would magically fill up sooner. 

It did not work so she decided to do a rain dance.

Meanwhile, I took the alcohol wipes off and it was still pink.

So I tried the baking soda / peroxide paste (although my peroxide expired in 2012...) and waited some more.

At this point Don came home to view my angst. He decided the best thing to do would be get me out of the sight of the problem and took us to dinner.

We came home to this:

I made another soda / peroxide paste, this time with the new peroxide I picked up while we were out (I also got myself a big chocolate bar, in the hopes that perhaps one would help the situation) and let it sit overnight. In the morning it looked like this. 

So, compared to the original stain, much better. However still pink. Hopefully it will fade with time, more soda / peroxide, and more chocolate. 

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Rebekah's school had a kite day. In anticipation sent Don and Rebekah to the store to get an appropriate kite (I think I was sick or something...). As the day approached there was much drama about the weather; would we be able to fly said kite with the massive rain storm approaching? Was this going to be Benjamin Franklin type of kite flying? However the day turned out only cloudy and windy; the rain held until the evening so the kite day was on!

We started out with a picnic. After the food was gone the kites were easily up with the perfect amount of wind. Rebekah did pretty well! Notice the kite (much loved Cinderella) was flying upside-down. That seemed to be it's preferred flying position.

It's hard to get the kite up and in air and then run away while unlocking the phone, reach the photo app, and take the perfect picture. I tried many times.

Here's one right before the kite got stuck on the roof. Not to worry though: Rebekah got it down with ease. 

After we were sufficiently tired, we went inside were it was time to design our own paper airplanes. Rebekah was less about the flying capability and more about the design on the airplane.

Our finished project:

Test flight:

A New Young

Kayla had mentioned she was going to be induced a few days early on Wednesday the 17th. A day later she called to say they moved her up to Tuesday the 16th. We were waiting with great anticipation until Don finally got the call. Mom and little baby boy were doing fine.

Much later we found out the name. We knew they were thinking about a few options, but they landed on Cole Tolliver Young. Josh wanted to name him Cole Tolliver Rex Young so they could continue to call him baby T-Rex, but Kayla said no. Rebekah was quite distraught when I told her. She was hoping Hyrum would be the name and asked if she could still call the baby Hyrum. When I told her probably not she was sad but said she'd get over it.

More importantly, she wanted to see her new nephew and asked her dad if they could FaceTime Kayla in the hospital. I so love the family love.

Kayla sent us this as well:

A few days later we get an email. I have to admit I'm amazed Kayla was able to accomplish this! She looks fabulous and the kids look fabulous and it hasn't even been a week!

Welcome to the world little Cole! Can't wait to see the whole family in June!!!

BIrthday Cake Rice Crispies

So Rebekah loves Birthday Cake Rice Crispy Treats. I can usually find it at the store but lately they have it combined in a box with an Oreo Cookie Rice Crispy Treat, which she does not like. So, instead of buying the combination package I went for the "let's make our own" which is entirely traumatic for me considering my lack of baking skills.  

Rebekah helped out a bunch. 

Wouldn't be "birthday cake" without the sprinkles.

The final product:

They turned out pretty good, however after I made them my mother suggested they may last as long as I desired them to last. I was hoping to put them in little baggies and send them in her lunch for the next month or so. But Don helped out and ate them too so none of them went bad and they were gone in a week or so. 

April, the First Half, Brings....

Playing with the moveable sandbox. 

Conference and sweet rolls.

Rebekah highly approves.

Dinner out with dad.

More ice skating lessons

Tumbling lessons

Extreme cuteness.

A crown big enough for two.

More tumbling (she's in the black).

Tacos

And a musical performance for grandma via FaceTime.

Take Your Parent to Music Class Day

Rebekah school had a "Take Your Parent to Music Class Day" and Rebekah wanted me to come. I promised myself I would be open minded (always hard to have someone else teaching your child your career subject) and put it on my calendar. 

The day finally came. 

Her teacher greets the students:

Looking around the room I was basically okay with everything I saw. Mostly everything was Kodaly based which is exactly as it should be, however it was "so" not "sol" - ugh - and "ta-di-ta-di" not "ti-ka-ti-ka" - double ugh. The former is much less precise. Ah well. Rebekah knows the correct way and we can both roll our eyes at home. 

This (except for the pop slur up to the notes) I liked:

At the end the teacher read a book and the students got to play along to the song. 

All in all a highly successful visit. I know I'm hard to please musically and she did quite well. Bravo!

End of March

Ice skating is coming along. 

The class pet Clyde the Sloth came home with us on Wednesday and we were able to take him to tumbling with us. 

Don got the flu so I was on deck to Friday night party with Rebe, complete with a Dairy Queen Run. 

Saturday we made a trip to the library and played with their toys.

We've started a tradition of having a Sunday treat. Rebekah wanted some type of bars. I quickly went to Mel's website and found a recipe for Mississippi Mud Bars. The following ensued:

And just to prove we ate something besides the chocolate sauce.... Rebekah prepared a little picnic in the living room for us to eat the bars. It was quite the experience. 

To end I present the following Rebekah joke:

Why do people get really excited for April? Because they just got done with a long March!