paper boats

Quite a few weeks ago, Spud asked me to look online and find the directions on how to make paper boats, as he'd seen on the Curious George cartoon. I did, and we each made one together so he could see how it was done, and by two days later, he had made at least 50, of various shapes and sizes.  We had a stack of pink boats made from some scratch paper just sitting on a shelf for quite a while.

While on a date a few weeks ago, David and I went to BYU and played Bocce on the lawn and then walked along the path south of campus.  They've made a lot of improvements to it over the past couple of years and it is beautiful!  There is a stream (I guess) running along it and it struck me that it would be the perfect place to race the boats that Spud made.  So the following Sunday evening we gathered up enough boats for us to each have two and we raced them.  It was fun to watch and "despair" as our individual boats took on water and became soggy masses of paper (which we responsibly fished out and threw away).   I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure that one of Spud's boats (we labeled them with our first initials) actually made it the farthest, which seems only fair since he was the one who did all the work!

Prior to boat racing, we spent some time admiring the couple of dozen or so ducklings in the pond.  It was fun to remember our duckling adventure of last year as we watched these little cuties swim and cheep around the pond.  

all that and a bag of chips

I've decided that if I blog at least monthly, my blog is not dead. Aim high, right?

Last week for Earth Day the family and I headed over to the River Trail to pick up trash. It was a bit chilly, but the sun was shining and it was nice to get out and enjoy the trees in blossom and see just how crazy high and fast the river is flowing right now.

We had a nice time, picked up a garbage bag filled with garbage, including a number of soda cans for Spud's can recycling efforts (he and his Pop Pop make pretty good money...for a six year old, anyways). As we were finishing up by the new bridge over the river, the kids were exploring and Spud found an unopened medium sized bag of barbecue potato chips. It was probably somebody's stash or forgotten snack, but we claimed it as our own and enjoyed it as our reward for our good deed!

at the zoo

The last Wednesdays of the month, November through February, are free at Hogle Zoo. Normally the end of November would not be ideal for a zoo visit, but we've had such nice weather that last Wednesday actually was pretty nice. Chilly but not terrible. We were all okay with jackets on and occasionally warming up inside buildings. I'd originally tried to see if any of my in-laws wanted to come with us, but they had plans already. I then thought about calling a friend with kids to join us, but in the end decided the kids and I could use some relaxing, "quality time" together without the distraction of other people. I'm really glad we went alone. It was nice to just go where they chose and not feel constrained by what other kids wanted to see. We meandered through the zoo happily for about three hours and the kids did great. A new addition since our last visit was the Conservation Carousel. It was $2/kid, but since we hadn't paid admission, I figured we could splurge. (I even got to ride free because I was accompanying a kid!) Seriously the most BEAUTIFUL carousel I've ever seen. What a fabulous addition. They were playing Christmas music and it seemed that all we needed was a light snow falling to make it movie-worthy. I had a wonderful time with my two little kids.

(There are many more pictures of Noodle than Spud because she was in a more cooperative mood. The weird blue picture turned out oddly anyways, so I thought adding a blue cast to it was appropriate.)

because david is busy...

and I'm bored but not ready to go to bed and my brain is too tired to work, i'm blogging. Does that happen to you, too?

Tonight we went to the Pioneer Village as I'd heard from Mary that they were having a Family Dance. I confirmed it in the newspaper (I love the newspaper!) and we decided that it fit our criteria for Friday night fun being, (1) out of the house, and (2) FREE! So we went. We got there and we were the ONLY people who weren't a part of the production/music. Undeterred, we got the kids to dance with us (they had a nice little fiddle/guitar/banjo/etc band playing) and had fun. After a couple of songs, we went and explored the buildings, as we'd never been there before. They really have quite a lot of neat stuff in that tiny space. The owner of the place came and talked to us about a number of things, which was really fun. I've decided that it's hard for me to not like people who are passionate about something. It seems the more unusual or obscure the object of their passion, the more I like them. So, this fellow, with his immense passion for pioneer shtuff, was quite likable. I think there is a lot of value in learning in depth about pretty much anything. (Pop culture and TV shows and the like excluded. I have yet to be swayed on that..) Most things, when studied in depth, teach a lot of profound lessons and open a person's eyes to the vast knowledge that is out there that they could never hope to learn. It's humbling.

Anyways, after touring the buildings & seeing the artifacts, we danced some more. The head guy also gave Spud a whirligig, which was fun. We are studying pioneers for Liberty Girls this fall, so I'm hoping we can arrange an evening field trip with the families to the Village. It was really neat to see the items and realize how much stinkin' WORK everything they did back then was. Our lives are so different than theirs were. Our work is so different. You have to wonder how it has affected our psyches, being so disconnected from working the land and being so often dependent upon the mercies of nature.

Oh, eventually some more people did come, but they all sat on their duffs and just enjoyed the music, or toured the buildings. Not a single other person danced. We stayed until the end, though. I hope we were able to convey our joy & appreciation to those who put it on. It's hard to do something that doesn't get fully appreciated.