Parentheticals

The kids just discovered stop motion animation and are making videos of their modeling clay dinosaurs. They're having fun. We have a wasp nest in our big tree in the front yard that Mike is really, really trying to figure out how to deal with before the weather warms up. It's much too high for any of the normal methods. He's thinking of shooting balls of clay at it with a slingshot to try to knock it down. This week we had CC and the kids are making friends with a new family, Will and Grace. They're nine year old twins and Timmy and Sara are having fun talking about Wings of Fire and Spirit Animals and other books with them. Tuesday the Rogers were off school, so we went with them and Grandma Julie to Thanksgiving Point all day. We did the dinosaur museum in the morning and butterflies in the afternoon. The kids got to see some new butterflies being released into the Biosphere, which was very exciting. Timmy and Gideon got separated from the rest of us in the Dinosaur M...

We had a family reunion this week! Monday we drove up to Flaming Gorge to meet Grandma Sheila and Papa Mike, the Plastows, the Strombergs, and the Andersons and spend a few days on the river. On the way, we stopped at the Dinosaur Quarry in Vernal and saw the dinosaur bones still embedded in the wall. It was very exciting for all the kids, especially Boo. It was hard for the kids to believe that this was exactly what it looks like when paleontologists dig up fossils, and that these were REAL FOSSILS. It was fun! We got to the motel fairly late Monday, so Tuesday morning we headed out to raft the river. The water was really low, so the rapids were very mild. Mike and I were in the "calm boat" with the Andersons, and we brought in any other kids who needed a break from the excitement (mostly Boo and Gideon). Everyone had a great time on the river! Wednesday we took the rafts and inner tubes to the lake and swam and floated and wandered the shore. Papa Mike and several of the ol...

Last Sunday we had a game day at Caitlin and Sal's house. We played a game that Jay brought (which we enjoyed, but whose name we can't seem to recall), as well as multiple games of Resistance. It ended very late in the evening, but it was very fun. Since Sunday night it was really cold, we decided on Monday that we would pick the grapes that are at the park near our house. When we went over to pick the grapes on Monday, then we discovered that the grapevines were all dried out. It looked as if the previous owners of the grapevines decided that they were done taking care of the grape vines. Sad. On Tuesday Allison and the kids went to the natural history museum because Timmy wanted to go really really really really bad. Rea did some research into the Native tribes of this area and now wants to learn beading as her next handicraft. Timmy liked looking at dinosaur bones and digging in the play quarry. We managed to leave on time to get to nature group, which was extra fun beca...

We started milking Olive this week. Mike goes out and gets about a quart of milk every morning before work. We think that's pretty good for not separating the mom and baby at all. Usually when the baby is about two weeks old, you can separate them at night and get more milk in the morning, but a quart a day is a good start. We haven't figured out a good way to separate them in our shed yet. Monday we went to the new Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Point. It was lots of fun. The girls took pictures of butterflies for their photography class. Everyone enjoyed finding Blue Morpho butterflies. Everyone also liked the climbing play area. It was a good field trip.    We stayed home and did normal school on Tuesday to let Alison recover, and on Wednesday we went to the Museum of Ancient Life. The kids love the sand and water table where you can use the water to bury and uncover toy dinosaurs, and the quarry where you can dig for dinosaur bones. Sara made some awesome sketch...

On Monday, Mike started his new job. He is now working at DealerTrack - a company that offers services to car dealers. So far he has helped plan for the next iteration, set up his computer, and written a small website using Angular 4 and Firebase. Dealertrack is only 3 miles from the our house, and Mike found out on Friday that they have a place to charge his car, so he is pretty happy with the new job so far. On Tuesday Mike went to BGDG, and played an Oregon trail game. It had a cool core mechanic, but too too long, and was too complex and random for what it was. Next week Mike is going to bring his own game, which should hopefully be fun. On Wednesday, Alison went to writers group, and heard a lecture on creating magic systems. It was a little bit interesting, but the info was very basic. Hopefully the next time that she goes, it s more fun. Friday we went to the Little Miamaid at the OBT. It was a play about a little mermaid that wanted to marry a human. Eric Jensen played ...