Birthday #29

My birthday actually turned out to be not too bad! I didn't think I was getting a gift because Brian got us tickets to see "Wicked" next weekend, but he got some money together from family and him and got me a really nice gift. You are looking at the brand new Garmin Forerunner 405CX watch.
This watch totally rocks! I am so exstatic about it. It has GPS so it tracks my distance, heart rate (though I don't use this feature), calories burned, and my pace. It also tracks my pace from the last time I ran the particular run and tells me how far behind or in front of my pace I am. It also has a feature called "back to start." If you get lost you can push this button and arrows will show you back the same way that you got there. Pretty sweet huh! It keeps track of my workouts and then wirelessly transfers them to the computer and uploads them to the internet where I can track my progress. Needless to say it is the latest and greatest. It's funny because I spend a great deal of money on nice shoes and then this, yet the clothes I wear I have bought on clearance and don't match. This drives Brian nuts! I tell him that I working out not trying to win a beauty contest at the gym!
Brian did a pretty good job of taking care of the kids by himself all day. He made breakfast, did dishes, and even managed some laundry. We're breaking him in slowly!
We went out to dinner with the kids and my parents to Tepanyaki.
It was really good. Then we had strawberry shortcake and banana cream pie for dessert back at the house. Overall, a pretty good birthday!

Spring Break '09

This last week was spring break. I had Brian take the week off so we could spend some time together as a family. The week was busy and really fun! We started the week off by going to Kangaroo Zoo,
the Bean Museum, and PF Changs and then Classic Skating rink

. The next day we went to The Living Planet Aquarium. This was really cool. They have a South American Exhibit right now with anacondas and piranhas. You can even pet a real sting ray!
Then we went to the mall and road on the carousel and played at the park there.
We went to dinner at The Mayan. Maya and Kaitlyn totally love that place. It is fun if you like the whole dark rainforesty thing. The divers are pretty cool. It is Maya's dream job! On Wednesday we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. This was really cool! The kids loved this. They got to play in the water with sand,
and they got to work in a quarry to uncover dinosaur bones!
Well worth the time to go there. We even got a family pass so we could go back a lot! Then we saw "Race to Witch Mountain." This was fun. The kids love to go to the movie theater. We finished out the night by going to the gym so we could work off all that fat we have taken in the last few days :)! On Thursday we were supposed to go to the zoo, but it snowed, so we just hung out at home. Friday we went to the Discovery Museum at the Gateway mall.
That place was mayhem! There are all kinds of fun things for the kids to do. They definitely did not have anything like this when we were growing up. Maya is a pretty good rock climber!
Even Gavin had a blast playing with all the toys.
The girls especially liked being on TV.
We stayed in Salt Lake that night at a hotel so we could go swimming.
Gavin was surprisingly not happy about the swimming. He kept his feet tight up to his bum. He probably had leg cramps when we were done! He did enjoy dipping in the hot tub though, so maybe the pool was a little to cold for him. We had pizza and watched movies, and then nobody slept! (We probably won't do that again for awhile!) We finished out the week at the Clark Planetarium. Very cool. We got to learn about the planets and space. We also got to feel what it is like to walk on the moon.

Yes that is me walking on the moon! We saw the Under the Sea 3-D Imax. It was really cool! The kids loved the fish coming right out at them. WHEW!!! I am ready for my vacation after the vacation!

Garden Pics

I am just posting a few pics of the garden for Brian to show some people! Looks pretty good!

Successful Conference

I decided to try and get the kids more involved in conference this time around. We stuck up pictures of the First Presidency and the apostles, and then some pictures that represent things that are typically mentioned in talks such as temple, prayer, tithing, church, etc. If the kids recognize the speaker or hear one of the words they get a treat from the bowl. Kaitlyn surprisingly could name all of the apostles as well as recognize them on tv. I was pretty impressed. Needless to say, it went really well. They watched all four sessions with us, and what was even better was that Brian and I got to listen to all the sessions without the typical interruptions from the kids! The one drawback came when several people in a row talked about the temple and said temple every other word! The kids got a little sick from the candy and just started saving it instead of eating it! You live and learn I guess!