Grammy's Visit

My Mom and I talked several times about when a good time would be for her to come visit.  We talked about the possibility of her coming during her Spring Break (she's a college professor) or later after the semester ended.  But when Ben told me about his 2-week trip to the South Pacific I knew it would make my life much easier for Mom to come then.  So she made it happen, and we had a wonderful week together.  It so happened that it was also just a few weeks before our move, so I was even able to enlist her to help me start getting things ready.  Thanks for everything, Mom!

Provo Library Children's Festival

A few days after Mom arrived, the Provo Library had a big children's festival.  I knew there would be some activities and games for the kids, but this was much bigger than I expected.  They had several authors and illustrators there speaking to the kids, doing illustrating demonstrations, and signing books.  There were also tons of things for the kids to do, and many characters to meet.  Of course, the activity my kids were most interested in was pretty passive - waiting in line for an hour to get a balloon animal.  We didn't get to do much else because of the amount of time we had, but if we're here next May, we will definitely go back!

We saw Clifford walking around while we were waiting in line.
They were a little nervous about the Big Red Dog at first... then they warmed up to him.

This table was right beside us as we waited in line.  You could tell the lady your birth date and she would give you a slip of paper with notable events that happened on that date.  I think Jack was more interested in the airplane though...

Cat meets Olivia.

After a very long and patient wait, Jack got what he'd been begging for: a balloon sword.
Cat requested a sword as well, and Eliza received a puppy dog.
See Oma and Opa sitting in the background?  They were in town for the weekend and came along with us.  I love that they live so close!

The biggest name out of all of the authors who came that day was Judy Schachner, who writes the Skippyjon Jones books.  Mom bought a few books and waited in a very short line (who would have thought it would take 5 times longer to get a balloon animal than to have Judy Schachner sign a book?  Maybe we just missed the crowds...) and Ms. Schachner was a gracious and patient autographer.

This is the book Mom bought for Jack and Eliza, with the autograph on the inside cover.  (She bought a book by a different author and had it autographed for Cat - each grandchild received one.)  Thank you Grammy!

Mother's Day

It was a special treat to have not only my Mom in town on Mother's Day, but my grandmother as well.  I made breakfast of cinnamon rolls, eggs, sausage, and fruit for everyone, then we went to church as usual.  After church all of my cousins who live within an hour of us came over, with their families, and the men prepared dinner for the women.  It was great!  I know Ben was sad that he missed out on the fun.  ;-)

Treats from church: cupcakes Cat decorated for me using obscene amounts of candy.
The candy Jack had been coveting for 4 months, then didn't get to receive on his birthday because his sister was sick, he FINALLY got to have on Mother's Day.
A Mother's Day handprint bag with cookies inside.  I'm pretty sure Eliza at least helped with the handprint part in nursery.

Target

Okay, not that there's anything special about going to Target.  But being with Grammy, sometimes I let things slide that I otherwise might not let my children get away with.  Such as...

BYU Museum of Paleontology

I can't believe it's taken me so long to go here.  This is a free museum on the outskirts of campus, near the stadium, and they have some really cool stuff there!   And one of the great things about it is that it's small - so we were able to go after school one day, walk around for 20 minutes, and leave.  Of course, the kids still loved it.

I LOVE museums where you actually get to see real scientists at work.
And did you know that Pteranodons were so big??

Another dinosaur that I had no idea of its potential size: Triceratops.
This skull is 9 feet long and if the horns weren't deteriorated they would be 3 feet long each.
Whoa mama!  Can you imagine meeting one of those??

Thanks for a fun visit, BYU Museum of Paleontology!

Trafalga
We decided to take Grammy to our new favorite family fun center.  This was our second time going since we bought our (cheap!) passes less than a month earlier.  This time Cat climbed the rock climbing wall and Jack did... almost nothing.  He finally decided he liked the Pirate Ship ride and since nobody else was interested in it, the kids rode it several times before we left.  I did it once and that was enough for me...

The BYU Creamery

In all of the trips my Mom has made to Utah over the years, she hasn't spent time in Provo.  So we were excited that we were able to accompany her on her first trip to the Creamery.  Of course, it didn't disappoint.

 Grammy, we LOVED having you here.

Come back again soon!!!

And everyone else reading this - consider this your open invitation to come visit us.  We'd love to have you!