Church

Today Kirstyn got signed-up to go to EFY at BYU Provo!  Turns out they are not doing the stay-at-home EFY like they did last year and in years past due to lack of participation, so we had to find another place.  She is SO excited to go (first week of June) and will be going with Ashley Smith from our old ward in Naperville!  You’ll have a BLAST Kirstyn!  🙂

On Sunday, Ben got a crayon (twist type) stuck in his ear and he wouldn’t let us get it out.  He wouldn’t even let the doctor touch his ear, so today we had to take him to the hospital to be totally put out so they could take 30 seconds and pull it out.  Crazy.  They took a pic of him in the hospital before his “surgery”…

Everything went well with him and he was in and out in about 5 minutes.  Ben will hopefully learn from this that he shouldn’t stick stuff in his ears!  🙂

Today was one busy day!  This morning, we had a Primary Ice Cream Social at the church for all the kids who had worked really hard on memorizing their Articles of Faith.  Ben and Zach got to go and they got all sugared-up for the rest of the day.  Right after that, I took them to seeThe Nut Job movie and they really liked it.  It was a fun movie and I liked it better than I thought I would.  It was nice to get out with the boys and have a fun time at the movies.  After that, the boys took advantage of the newly fallen snow overnight and went sledding.  Ben played in the snow since he’s not allowed yet to sled due to his concussion, but he still had fun anyway.  After sledding, they came back and played in the snow in the back yard.

Tonight, the girls went to go see Peter Pan (play) in Parker for Kirstyn’s birthday.  They had a great time and really enjoyed themselves.  I had a great time at home with the boys too.  We had a movie night with some snacks and they had a blast.  🙂

Happy birthday Kirstyn!  It’s hard to believe your big 15!  One more year to driving!  😐  We celebrated opening presents in the morning and then this afternoon quickly with the dinner of her choice.

The girls and Angela then had to run to the church to New Beginnings.  I stayed with the boys.

Hope your birthday was an awesome one!

Today was a busy but FUN one!  Zach had the Pinewood Derby first thing this morning and he was so excited!  We worked hard on his car and were hoping that it was faster than last year.  🙂  I really don’t like the Pinewood Derby because someone always goes away crying, etc.  This year was quite different and I was very impressed!  The cool thing was that Zach got 3rd place overall!  🙂  He was beaming but did not brag and congratulated all the other kids even those who didn’t place.  What a great sport he was.

After the Pinewood Derby, we ran over to Zach’s basketball game.  He won again!  Their team is still undefeated!

Tonight we went over and had dinner with the Pocock family!  It was a ton of fun and it’s so cool that they’re out here now.  We’re working to build up the Naperville presence here in the area!  🙂

Today I got up early and went to the church for meetings.  It was totally awesome!  It was so exciting to see everyone and catch up!  I didn’t make it to Sunday School because everyone wanted to chat and then, when the Naper 3rd ward came in they all wanted to talk as well!   🙂  I did make it to Priesthood Meeting which was great.  I stayed after the block for awhile visiting with everyone that was still there (as well as members of the 4th ward that had just come).

After church, I went back to the Oscarson’s and we had a GREAT dinner.  I was totally stuffed when I packed up and went to the hotel to get ready for my 4 days of meetings.

Thanks Dan and Stephanie for being wonderful hosts!

This morning the girls, Ben and I went to the Ward Christmas Breakfast and had a great time!  During the night, Zach woke up sick and throwing up, so Angela stayed home with him.  From the Facebook posts and everything about Ben, he was quite the celebrity this morning.  Everyone wanted to know how he was doing and gave him big hugs.

The program was wonderful and we brought home a huge breakfast plate for Angela which she was excited to get!  🙂

What an end to an absolutely CRAZY week!  Hopefully next week will be a little quieter!

Today we got up REALLY early in Salmon and left (5:30am) to drive down to Rexburg for the blessing of Mark and Jocelyn’s baby Paxton.  Leaving that early from Salmon requires everyone to keep on the lookout for deer and elk darting out in the middle of the road.  It is somewhat nerve-racking as in the pitch black, it’s like you are driving in a tunnel and can’t see off to the side very well.  Fortunately for us, we didn’t see any wildlife near the road and got down to Rexburg without incident.

The blessing was very nice. It’s hard to realize that Mark, who was born after Angela and I were married, is now blessing his own little baby boy.  Crazy!

After the blessing we started the long 10 or so hour drive home.  Everything was uneventful until we got down to I-80 at about Rawlins.  The wind really picked up and there were warning signs about 70+ mile-per-hour winds.  It was blowing so hard, the van doors were whistling which we had never experienced before.  It was a crazy drive and was somewhat difficult to keep the van on the road.  We finally made it to Cheyenne and started south, after which the wind died down and we made it home without further issue.  What a crazy evening!

We’re now home and excited to sleep in our own beds!  🙂