2023 :: week 8

February 19

One of the perks of your dad being a high councilor is that you may be called upon to speak with him on semi-short notice. The ward they spoke in was my parents ward that is filled with many of our friends from our old ward so they boys had a friendly audience. All three John men did a great job.

February 20

Monday the kids had the day off school, but Anthony had to work and I had a late morning PT appointment so we were limited in what we could do. Lauren got invited to go swimming with a friend, so the boys and I went to the zoo. To say it was crowded would be an understatement, I have never had to park so far away from the entrance. Elliott predicted he would see three people he knew and we did in fact see three people he knows and a few others as well. We got to see the crocodile, which both Miles and Elliott were excited to see because they have been enjoying the new Lyle Lyle Crocodile movie on Netflix. 

February 21

The gorgeous weather continued and the boys played for over an hour at the park after school on Tuesday. While we were there someone from the city showed up and went into the pool office. He told us they are planning to open Bluejacket this summer--yay!

February 22

I went to a water aerobics class at Matt Ross on Wednesday and the instructor took a picture and posted it on social media. Not the most flattering photo of me, but water aerobics has been a big part of my life over the past ten years and it is fun to have a picture of me in the water. My kids and grandkids or whoever looks at these photobooks I make can see where I spent many hours of my life exercising. 

February 23

Thursday night we went to OPC for the Kindergarten and 1st grade music performance. Each class sang one song, Elliott's class sang "Teddy Bear." After the performance Anthony took the big kids to a multi-stake youth devotional about religious freedom and I walked home with the little guys. The moon and Jupiter and Venus were so bright! The school sits on a bit of a hill and we could see them very well from that vantage point. It was a bit of an adventure because even though we've walked this route many times before, they've never walked home when it was so dark. Miles especially was nervous.  

February 24

Calvin hasn't been sleeping well. Friday afternoon we watched Calvin for a few hours so Emily could take a totally uninterrupted nap. In keeping with our theory that kids are usually worse behaved for their parents than other adults, Calvin was pretty easy for us. Calvin enjoyed watching Miles play basketball and laughed when Uncle Tony tickled him.

February 25

Another busy Saturday. Elliott played his best basketball game of the season in the morning, scoring 12 of his team's 24 points. Lauren went to her friend Ethnie's Harry Potter themed birthday party. When I picked her up from the party we stopped at Hy-Vee where she inadvertently ingested hazelnut that was in a sample. I gave her Benadryl right away and watched her like a hawk, but aside from a stomach ache and tingly lips she had no other symptoms. In the afternoon Anthony took the kids plus cousin Tyler a Lego exhibit at the Central Library, the Baseball Card Store and Collectors Cache. I went to my parents are prepared my mom's pill minders for the next two weeks. In the late afternoon we drove to Kaw Point Park, a park in KCK where the Kansas River joins the Missouri River. If you look closely at the photo you can see the converging currents. It is also one of the places where the Lewis and Clark expedition camped on their 1804 expedition. The kids have had elevated interest in learning about Lewis and Clark because many of the clues in the National Treasure tv show centered around the expedition. I thought we would spend most of our time walking along the trails, but the kids really liked skipping rocks. Miles liked throwing rocks in the water so much he threw a bit tantrum when I made him move on.