Sunday: Check out Easter Baskets, wear new dresses to church, have an easter Egg Hunt, eat some a scrumptious easter ham dinner.
Sunday Afternoon: say goodbye to Grandma and take naps!
The guide gave the kids some sage leaves to taste...
They dissected seeds and flowers,
saw some of the animal habitats
But I think the part she liked best was taking pictures of her friends on the bus ride home!
The mine is 2 3/4 miles across and 3/4 mile deep. You could stack two Sears Towers on top of each other and still not reach the top!
We loved seeing the GIGANTIC tires that they use on the trucks that haul the blasted material. The trucks are so big the drivers have to climb up a ladder to get in them.
The Visitor Center had a lot of cool things to look at; like different minerals under microscopes, toys of all the different mining vehicles. We thought it fitting that Kylie take a picture next to this "excavator tooth"...it's much bigger than the teeth she's loosing! :)
Kylie was sick last weekend. She was doing better late Monday afternoon so I thought she would be better Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning came and she complained that her head and stomach hurt, so I kept her home another day. That night as she was brushing her teeth she asked “Mom what would you do if you had a friend who kept loosing their pencil and borrowing yours?”
It dawned on me that for the last week or so she had been asking me “pencil” questions. Like when I was doing her hair and she asked me “What I would do if I had a student who kept loosing their pencil?” or when I was cooking dinner and she asked “When you were my age did you loose a lot of pencils?”
Then there was that time we were cleaning her room and she asked “What I would do if I had a friend who kept borrowing my pencils?”
Each time I wasn’t really paying attention and I would give her some answer about “sharing my pencil” and “trying to be more careful not to loose the pencil.”
I finally looked at her and asked if she kept loosing her pencil. She started crying and said she had been borrowing her teachers pencils and she was so nervous about not having a pencil and having to borrow one from her teacher that she felt sick to go to school.
Several thoughts ran through my mind. First, I was disappointed that I had not been listening to her…really listening to her! Second, I could empathasize because I was just like her when I was little; overly sensitive and easily embarrassed. Finally, I was frustrated because I am a teacher and we have tons of pencils in our house. In fact there are a hundred or so pencils in Kylie’s room. Christmas Pencils, Halloween pencils, princess pencils, birthday pencils….the list goes on and on.
So I put some pencils in for her teacher and some for her to keep in her desk…although her pencils were un-sharpened and she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to sharpen them “fast enough.”
When I picked her up today I asked her how her day went. It did not go as expected. Her teacher questioned the yellow pencils given to her and called my daughter by both her first and middle name asking “what are you doing with all those pencils?!?!”
I learned two things from this situation: one, to REALLY listen to my daughter and two, to remember that patience, love, and understanding is the best thing I can give to my students and their parents!
My third year of college I transferred from Ricks to Utah State. I met a boy named Kody who lived in my same apartment complex. We had our first date on Halloween and spent nearly day after together. A couple weeks later I told him I loved him…a couple weeks later he said it back.
In December we talked about Marriage. On Valentine’s day we looked at rings.
I told Kody that I wanted him to do something creative to ask me to marry him…didn’t want to wait in line to use the bench by the Logan Temple.
He was an Electrical Engineer Major and understanding his logical mind I knew that he would ask me to marry him during Spring Break or would wait until the summer. I was really hoping it would be Spring Break!
Spring Break came and we went up to his hometown in Oregon and spent a few lazy days together. A couple days passed and no proposal. His Dad’s birthday was the next day, March 12th, so I figured it wouldn’t be on that day. That morning we went shopping for a gift for his dad. Then we came back and played basketball at his house. His mom came home and his Dad called from his work in town and asked Kody to come fix a computer. Kody took his mom’s car and headed into town. About 15 minutes later he called and asked if I wanted to do something in town. I drove his car and was supposed to meet him in the church parking lot. I was so excited!!! Maybe we were going somewhere to get engaged!
There is a long stretch of road leading from Kody’s house. He traveled so fast along it I once asked him what the speed limit was. He said he went 55mph. I went 45mph to be safe.
I’m driving into town and I see the sheriff pulled off the road in a speed trap. I think I am fine but then I see him pull out. There is another car behind me and I pray he is going to pull that person over.
I as stressing out thinking I will be late to the “engagement” and the day will be ruined with me getting a ticket.
As the car behind pulls into the other lane the sheriff turns on his flashing lights. He is pulling me over!
I pull over to the side of the road on Main Street. I am so embarrassed thinking this is a small town and the talk is going to be about Kody Nelson’s girlfriend getting pulled over for speeding. I start to tear up and feel sick to my stomach. The sheriff asks me for my license and registration. I realize Kody still has my wallet from shopping earlier in the day and I am so nervous I cannot even think where Kody keeps his registration. He asks me for my name and birthdate to run in the computer. While he is gone I try to pull myself together.
He comes back and tells me he can’t find my name in the system. I tell him that I have a Utah Driver’s License. He says I will have to come with him to the Sheriff’s station and sort everything out.
I am freaking out! Kody is waiting. What if he finds his car abandoned on the side of Main Street? What if I ruin my engagement surprise?
So totally disheartened I climb in the sheriff’s car and we drive to the station. We asks me what I’m doing in Vale. I tell him I am visiting my boyfriend’s family. I brighten hoping he might know Kody and give me a break. He says he thinks he knows Kody and he has been in the station a couple times for partying and such. I know Kody has never been arrested…and apparently has no connections with the local law enforcement.
We walk into the station and the women at the front desk give me a look that says “we feel so sorry for you.” The sheriff tells me to go down to the interrogation room and he will be there in a minute.
I open the door to the room and I see balloons, roses, and a banner that says “WILL YOU MARRY ME?” Emotionally exhausted I slump into the chair. Kody comes in and gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him!
I think I say “you jerk,” before saying yes! His family was so worried I would say “no!” The sheriff says when he saw me crying he almost couldn’t go through with it. I had actually had a dream (maybe a premonition if you will) the first day we were up in Oregon that I had been pulled over. I told Kody about it and how stressed I was in my dream and he said he almost thought about changing his plan.
In the end I was almost as relieved to NOT be getting a ticket as I was to be engaged! I love that he was that creative with the proposal and I returned the favor in the end…but that’s a whole ‘nother post!
There's a certain little girl in our family who thinks she is old enough to hold her own food and drink. She wants to walk the second I get her out of her car seat and insists on having silverware with every meal even though she still uses her hands! We love this crazy, strong-willed, independent girl!
So if you are ever in St.George remember to give them a "golden contact" and don't swing anyone by their arms!
