My Friend Marla

On the first day of second grade I went to school and saw a cute red-headed girl sitting there with an empty desk next to her. My mom had encouraged me that morning to try and sit next to someone new and make a new friend; I thought I would like to be friends with that cute red-head, so I asked her if I could sit next to her and she said that I could. It's all history from there!

Well, last week that same cute red-head left her four children in the competent care of her husband, boarded a plane and flew all the way out to Chicago, just to see me! I feel so loved! I cannot tell you what a riot it was to have Marla here! I haven't laughed that hard for quite some time!
I figured we had to give Marla a taste of Chicago, so we started out with Chicago-style pizza. Load on the cheese baby!!

Yummy, yummy! Here's a closer view. I really should have taken a picture of it cut with the cheese oozing out the sides, if that doesn't make you want to come out to Chicago, I don't know what will!

On Wednesday Marla showed me how to make a "Pretty Princess Dancing Skirt" for Sydney. I will post the actually dancing later, but here is a glimpse. Marla also put Sydney's hair in spongy curlers, more of that to come too. Did I mention that Marla has three girls? She knows all about these girly things that are all new to me.

Steve stayed home on Thursday so Marla and I could hit the town. We started out at the Hancock building with this view...

We walked down the "Magnificent Mile" and enjoyed the Buckingham Fountain that never did it's show like it was supposed to, but it was pretty anyway...

The Silver Bean (did you know that it's real name is The Cloud Gate? I didn't know that before)...

We also enjoyed some of the little quirks of the city...

It was so fun to have Marla visit! I wasn't the only one who was sad that she had to leave, the kids loved having her here as well! Thanks Mar!!

As I have been using this blog as a way to remember things that are happening in our family (I must say I am not a very good journal keeper, so I am grateful for this way of recording some memories) I am including today a moment that I don't want to forget...
Today we had the opportunity to go to an open house for a young man in our ward who is leaving on a mission. This brought up a discussion with Spencer about how he will someday go on a mission too. The thought of leaving home for two years and eating strange food had him pretty worried. I could tell he was worried and tried to assure him that he had plenty of time before he would go and that he would be ready when the time came. He was still unsure, so I encouraged him to pray about it and told him that Heavenly Father would help him feel at peace and would help him to be ready when the time came.
When we were reading scriptures tonight, Steve was talking to the boys about Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem and all that was familiar to them and how difficult that would have been. Steve talked about how sometimes the Lord might ask us to do things that are hard, but that He also gives us great blessings for being obedient. Spencer looked up and said, "Like a mission." I was really touched by the connection he made. He then looked up at me and said, "It's an answer." What a blessing the scriptures are in teaching our children! They were able to bring him peace that I was unable to bring. I am so grateful for the little miracles I see on behalf of my children, it makes me grateful to recognize that I am not alone as I try to teach and raise them.
I write this down in hopes that someday in the future when Spencer might need a little reminder of how he felt, he can look back and remember his "answer". I should really do that more often for myself, I think it is too easy to forget moments of peace and faith and return to the doubts. So thank you Spencer, for sharing your little miracle with me today.

Happy Easter!

Thought I would share some pictures from our Easter this year. The kids enjoyed dying eggs (and their hands) and then wondered what we would do with the eggs after. I suggested that they try eating one. They all looked at me like I was crazy. (Grandpa, we need you to come and eat all of our hard-boiled eggs!)

After that excitement I had the boys try on their new blazers. They were, surprisingly, pretty excited by this (I thought I would get some moaning at best). Sydney could not be left out of this fun...

Since the Easter Bunny came during the night, the kids had some hunting to do, and as you can see from their game faces this is serious business...

No time to stop for a basket...

Spencer has the game-face down, check out the intensity, watch out Easter eggs... (Can you find the hidden egg in this picture?)

Let's check that out a little closer up...

Sydney let the boys do the work while she ate breakfast, and then charmed them into sharing the eggs with her.

Then it came time to get all ready for church. As soon as I said the word "dress" Sydney ran up the stairs and could wait no longer. She has been playing dress rehearsal for a week and begging for her "princess gown." This is not a phrase I taught her, and I am actually not sure if she is saying gown or crown, nor has she learned it from her brothers, obviously. She begs for her "princess gown" every day, and has even perfected the twirling around. I am a little worried about this...
But, I did have fun dressing her up!

What a sweet little lady...

Picture-taking on Easter morning went just about as well as picture-taking in St. Louis (see post St. Louis Arch and Uncooperative Children). Any suggestions on taking pictures of four children all together?

Gotta love Tyler's expression here. He was doing his best to try and be happy that he was dressed in a shirt and tie, and a suit coat! "Whatever Mom, can we just get this over with please?" or was it "My Mom is crazy, why does she inflict such torture on me?"

You should have seen these boys in person! Watch out ladies!

As Promised... Fitz's Root Beer Floats...

When we were researching places to visit in St. Louis, Steve found this place and was very interested...

Those of you who know Steve know that he loves good root beer.  His siblings would attest to that with one of their favorite stories about Steve..."I wike woot beew too!"   So, Fitz's became a "must-stop" on our agenda.  Those of you who watch Rachel Ray's Tasty Travels may have seen Fitz's on her show.  One of the cool things about Fitz's is watching them bottle their root beer on their bottling line.  The kids thought that was pretty cool.  (Oops, didn't think to take any pictures of that.)

So, before we headed out of town we stopped at Fitz's for some root beer floats of our own.

Fitz's doesn't only have traditional Root Beer Floats, they mix it up a bit.  You can choose a Mississippi Float (chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla) which is what Spencer chose.  If only they were a bit bigger though...

Sam opted for the Mt. Everest float (a combo of vanilla and chocolate).  But the options didn't stop there.  They had orange floats (vanilla ice cream with orange soda) and Cream Soda Floats as well.  Are you drooling yet?

Happy faces all around!

We figured since the Root Beer Floats were bigger than Sydney that she would probably do better with a dish of ice cream...

She was pretty happy with that as you can see...

Look at that empty mug!  Pretty impressive, huh?  Sugar high here we come!!!

Thus ends our St. Louis Saga!  What fun!  There's nothing like getting away from life for awhile and relaxing together!

The Arch and Uncooperative Children

I promised that I would post more about our St. Louis trip.  I know that you have all been waiting anxiously.  It's your classic cliff-hanger, so here is your next installment...

We decided we couldn't go to St. Louis without visiting the arch.  The kids were very excited about this, but once we got there they couldn't figure out how we could actually go up inside the thing.

It was beautiful in St. Louis!  Somehow the Spring Fairy has touched St. Louis though it hasn't visited us yet.  The trees were in bloom and the grass was green, so we enjoyed playing on the grass outside the arch for awhile.  We weren't sure that we wanted to go back to Chicago.

Then it was time to go up in the arch.  We waited in line outside the doors to the tram cars.  When the door opened I couldn't help thinking, "You wanted me to get in there and have you close the door on me and ride up 600 feet?"  The tram cars are tiny, for those of you who haven't experienced the St. Louis Arch.  I never really thought of myself as claustrophobic, but I was feeling a little nervous as we got in those tiny cars.

I was relieved that we made it to the top!  Here are some pictures of us at the top of the arch.  It isn't a very large area, but the view was terrific.

You kind of have to lean against the sides of the Arch in order to look out the windows.  I couldn't help thinking,"Let's not all lean the same direction at once shall we?"  I guess I am more of a wimp than I had thought.

We didn't end up staying at the top very long, as the kids became a little nervous.  And then as we were waiting to get on a car to go down, the car in front of us tilted so the people could barely get out.  We decided to go down on the other side instead, and in the end I was grateful to be down on the ground again!

We tried getting some pictures of our kids all together, but they were not in a cooperative picture taking mode.  Here are a few of our attempts.  Don't expect to see any of these on the Christmas cards this year...

We loved the gorgeous trees near the Arch.  I am beginning to wonder if we will see any blossoms here this year, but we thoroughly enjoyed these.
Spencer, who has been trained well by his father, is offering me some flowers...

Don't worry, the St. Louis Saga isn't over yet.  Look forward to one last installment, where four children tackle mile-high root beer floats...