The poppies are in bloom. It’s fun to live ten minutes away from this beautiful display. I went up there with my sisters and mom for some fun.
Peter had basketball camp, so the other two boys and I had time to kill in Logan. We went to first and second dam and the Zoo. Our favorite animal at the zoo was a sheep. A boring animal, but it had just been sheared and was so soft and fluffy.
The road trip seemed fun, but also a little insane. Las Vegas, Sequoia, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, all in one big loop in just six days. (It’s over 30 hours of driving.) I wanted a good mix of fun, nature, new places and places I wanted to return to.
We went. There were some downsides. An expensive speeding ticket, taking the wrong shuttle and having to wait around for 20 minutes, and throwing up in the car a couple of times. But overall, the kids didn’t mind driving so much, and everyone loved about everywhere we went. (Except amusement parks are really boring when you are pregnant.)
The first day, we stopped at St. George. It was hot, so after spending a small amount of time at Thunder Junction, we went to the Temple visitors center and watched a movie. The next day in Vegas, we mostly went to Circus Circus where we rode rides, swam, and spent too much on food.
We made a side trip to the dunes in the Mojave desert. It sounded fun, and in reality, it was hot and a bit boring….that whole day was pretty boring.
But the next day was amazing. We went and hiked around the sequoias. Peter ranked the hikes we did a 10/10, which was a first. I remember going here as a little girl, and it was one of the most memorable places I’ve been to.
More camping, and then we visited the waterfalls at Yosemite. The kids might have liked riding the shuttle as much as anything else.
Our final stop was Lake Tahoe, where we did laundry, slept, and did spend an hour or so at the beach during sunset. (It was also rather cold that night.)
I hear a lot of mom’s talk about how they are glad that their children go to school. They need a break. It’s hard to be with your children all the time. I’ve said very similar things.
And then one day I met a mom at the library, talking about how sad she was to send her kids to school, and that she was very excited that they would be home for summer. She liked being with her children and sent them to school because she knew it was necessary for them, not because she wanted a break.
It was this totally different viewpoint that I’ve never forgotten and always wanted to achieve. I’m not there yet. It’s hard to be with my children all the time. Just today I snapped a bit at one of them for talking, and talking, and talking to me about Digimon (or Pokemon, I’m not sure which). Now that school is out and my children will be with me 24/7, I do want to be able to treasure and enjoy my time with them. They are great children and it’s a privilege to be able to see them grow up.
Last Day of School:
Visiting the splash pad the day it opened:
I’m not sure who drew this or what it is, but I like it:
Curtis’s performance for school:
I’m going to indulge a bit a share lots of pictures of the garden. After years of work, it’s finally grown into something I’m quite happy about. There are always children playing, and lots of fruits and vegetables coming up as well.
Things will often take longer than we want. Life is slow. I plant an apple tree, and I won’t get fruit for a few years. I make plans that only exist on paper for a long time, but eventually with gradual work. they start to take shape. Life is slow in a very good way that teaches us patience and teaches us to appreciate what we have.
We took a short camping trip to Capitol Reef. The camping was cold, but it made the hiking the next day rather nice.
We went on one long hike, The Capitol Gorge trail. Everyone had a great time, it was rated an 8/10…and that’s the only hike we did. My children don’t always like hiking, so one good hike was enough.
One of my bucket list items is to raise bees. I’ve learned a bit about bees, and one of my strange desires was to see a bee swarm. This year, we had one come and nest in our tree. It was awesome.
But a bee swarm in my tree is pretty useless, so a few hours later, we had a beekeeper come by, and the next day, the bees were gone.
Here are a few more pictures enjoying all the spring flowers.
We finished up another season of soccer. Peter excelled and was a star player. Curtis did quite well for being the youngest person on his team, and Henry….he got better at running after the ball and not just looking at the dogs on the sideline.
Also a few pictures of Henry doing a giant, foamy volcano.
First up is the pinewood derby.
Peter took third place. I would say I was proud of him for working so hard on his car, but his dad made it and Peter had to be coerced to help. They had a lot of fun at the actual race though. 
This is Curtis doing one of the things he likes most. He loves video games, which is sometimes a challenge. He also loves playing outside with friends and reading, so it’s okay.
And this is Henry’s favorite thing in the whole world. “Flower” (his flower blanket) ranks above Mommy sometimes.
We went to the park on the first of May. It was great fun, but I did not expect to be having a snowball fight.
In other weather-related news, we had our nearly annual hail storm and got to test out the new drain by the garage. It prevented some, but not all of the flooding. The kids loved watching the storm roll in. The weather has been perfectly normal in spring: wildly unpredictable.
On a good weather day, we got the canoe out. I drive by the lake when I go up to school and I had been itching to get out on the water.
Finally a little belated Valentine from Henry. He comes up with the cutest things. 
The last few weeks have gone quickly or slowly. I’m not sure which. It’s been a whirlwind of model building, photoshop, research articles, and listening to final presentations. I turned in my last assignment for the semester today. Now I can breathe. And get caught up on the weeds in the garden that have taken over while I was busy.
My one regret is I don’t have any work I’m proud of. I completed projects and received decent grades, but a lot of what I did was in a rush or in a group project. I didn’t refine it to a point that I knew I did as good as I could. I might take the summer to build more portfolio pieces where I have more time and autonomy do what I know I can do.
For now, I’m transferring much of my efforts into the garden. It’s beautiful in spite of the weeds.
I would say this is the first harvest of the season, but we’ve actually been cutting lettuce for weeks. I’ve also had asparagus, but it doesn’t make it into the house. 
Joe and I have been to Twin Falls twice without our children. We had false memories of bringing our children there: mostly we were thinking about how much fun they would have to when we were there without them. For spring break, we packed up and took them on a mini-vacation.
I love mini-vacations. We leisurely left when we wanted to and didn’t have far to drive. We spent the day exploring cool waterfalls and went out for dinner. The kids love staying at hotels with pools. We were home the next day, still had plenty of time to do chores and catch up on homework. Short vacations are just so much less stress than long ones.
Liz Braithwaite 