Ben and Shannon Thurlow Family

Myles's Itty Bitty Basketball

2012-02-15T17:00:00.001-07:00

Since Myles is three years old, he is old enough for Itty Bitty ball at the Legacy Center. We signed him up for Itty Bitty Basketball. It was on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for three weeks in January. Myles had fun playing basketball. He didn't always like doing the warm-ups and stretches at the beginning of class though.

Myles was on a team with seven other boys. Myles learned and practiced some basketball skills such as passing, dribbling, and shooting. Dribbling was the hardest for him. He would rather just walk holding onto the ball, which was much easier for him.

Noah and Leroy both came to Myles's basketball classes with Shannon. Noah didn't have his kindergarten class until in the afternoon. He didn't like going to Itty Bitty, because he thought it was boring watching Myles.

Leroy's 1st Birthday

2012-02-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

Leroy's first birthday was on January 4th. We had a birthday party for him on Sunday, January 8th, so we could invite relatives to his party. Ben's parents, Shannon's father, and a few other relatives came to the party.

First Leroy got to open his birthday presents. He couldn't open his Christmas presents and he hadn't figured out how to open presents by his birthday, so the kids helped him. Leroy really didn't understand what was going on. He seemed more interested in playing with the wrapping paper and one of the bows from the presents.

After presents, we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. We had to put the cupcake out of his reach, so he wouldn't touch the candle. Ben blew out the candle for him. None of our children have been able to blow out the candle on their first birthday.

Leroy ate his first cupcake at his party. It was a yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting. We weren't sure how he would like it, because he is kind of a picky eater. He doesn't eat and enjoy food as much as our other children. But as you can see from his picture, he ate his cupcake and made a big mess with it too.

Leroy has been crawling since October and he is the closest to walking by himself by his first birthday. He actually started to walk a week after his birthday party on January 15th. Ever since that day he just keeps on walking all around and getting into more things too.

Shawn's Reception

2012-02-08T16:00:00.003-07:00

Ben's brother Shawn got married on December 30th in the Salt Lake Temple. Sarah is our children's newest aunt. We went to the temple for the marriage and then later we went to a wedding dinner and reception.

All the boys wore yellow ties for the reception. It was Leroy's first time wearing a tie. He kept it on most of the time. He really likes to wave at people. He is waving in this picture at the reception.

Oriana and her cousin wore matching purple dresses with black jackets. Oriana caught one of the five flowers that Sarah threw for her bouquet. A paper attached to the flower said that she would marry a millionaire. Well, that won't be happening any time soon, because she is only eight years old.

We had pictures taken before the reception and we stayed until the reception was over (past the kids' bedtime). The kids got to eat some desserts and even candy at the reception. Noah thought the food was the best part.

The kids had fun taking pictures of people with the disposable cameras that were at the reception tables. Even Myles wanted to take pictures.

The part the kids enjoyed the most was toward the end of the reception when everyone could dance. Myles did his "funny dance." You couldn't help smiling or even laughing watching him dance. Not only did he dance "crazy" and it was fun watching him dance, but also his new pants for the reception were too big around the waist. We didn't have a belt for him and his pants kept sliding down. We would have to watch him and pull up his pants while he was dancing. After a while he tried pulling up his pants himself. But overall, he didn't care that his pants kept starting to fall down. He just enjoyed dancing and having fun.

Christmas Day 2011

2012-02-05T10:00:00.001-07:00

We drove back to our house on Christmas Day, so the kids could see what Santa brought them and also open the presents that we had left under our tree. We didn't want to bring those presents to Shannon's parents' house. Oriana was thrilled to get a new, bigger bike from Santa. Noah got a Mario Kart Wii game, and Myles got a talking Mater toy from Santa. Leroy didn't care what he got from Santa or from Christmas. He did get some stuffed animals, board books, and even new church clothes to wear at his uncle's wedding reception.

Afterwards we went over to Ben's parents' house, so we could open up presents from his parents. We spent that evening visiting his family.

Overall, we had a good Christmas. There wasn't snow this year, but the weather and roads were good for driving to Shannon's parents' house and back. Ben wanted to stay in our new house for Christmas, but we can do that next year.

Christmas Eve 2011

2012-02-02T15:00:00.005-07:00

This year we went to Shannon's parents' house to celebrate Christmas. We have gone there every other year. On Christmas Eve, the kids decorated a gingerbread house with their cousin Rachel. Rachel's mom, Brittany, put on the frosting so the kids could put on the candies. The gingerbread house didn't last very long though. When the kids started to eat the candy, the house started to fall apart. The kids had fun decorating the gingerbread house, but they enjoyed eating the candy and even gingerbread more.

We ate an early Christmas Eve dinner and then it was time to open presents. Most of the presents were from Shannon's parents, but Brittany did most of the shopping for them. The kids all got a couple of presents from their grandparents. They got to see what others received as well. Shannon's family usually always opens up all their presents on Christmas Eve.

It was Leroy's first Christmas and his first time opening presents. He needed help with opening his presents.

Temple Square Lights

2012-01-30T14:50:00.001-07:00

We went to Salt Lake City to see the lights at Temple Square on December 22nd. It was the last day of work for Ben before Christmas. Shannon drove the kids to Salt Lake to pick up Ben from work. We went out to eat pizza for dinner at a place near Ben's work.

Next we found a free parking spot downtown and then rode the Trax train to Temple Square. It was the kids' first time riding Trax.

It was a really cold evening. We dressed warmly, but it was still freezing outside. We probably would have stayed longer at Temple Square if the kids hadn't complained about being cold. We walked around and saw some of the lights and we saw the nativity that was set up. We hadn't seen the lights at Temple Square since Oriana was a baby, so it was a new experience for our children.

Finishing Our Basement

2012-01-27T13:35:00.005-07:00

We wanted to work on finishing our basement soon after moving into our new house. We finally started to work on the basement during the second week of November. We got bids from three general contractors and then we decided that we could finish the basement by hiring people ourselves. We hired an HVAC company and then framers. Those were both done by the middle of November. Next we got the electrical work done around Thanksgiving and then the plumbing rough-in shortly after that. Then we had to wait until Ben could finish the wiring for our home theater room.

This is the basement bathroom after the rough-in plumbing was finished. We plan on getting a tile surround for the tub and also tile floor.

This is one view of our large family room in the basement before drywall was hung.

We were ready for drywall by the middle of December. We hired a drywall company and it took them a little over a week to get the drywall finished. Drywall was the messiest part of the project. We couldn't have our Internet hooked up during that phase as well. We had the drywall finished before Christmas.

This is the hallway in the basement after drywall was hung and before taping and texturing. The utility room and the biggest bedroom (Oriana's future bedroom) are on the right, the bathroom is straight ahead, and then there are two more bedrooms around the corner on the left.

This is the other side of the basement family room after the drywall was hung.

Oriana's Winter Dance Recital 2011

2012-01-24T13:20:00.001-07:00

Oriana's winter dance recital was on December 12th. She is in the Junior Xpress dance class this year and she learned a jazz routine to a Christmas song called "The Greatest Time of Year." There are ten girls in her dance class and Oriana is the shortest. At one part in the dance, they all line up from shortest to tallest and she is in the very front. The class is for girls ages 8 to 10, so she is probably one of the youngest girls in the class as well.

Oriana got a new costume for her dance class this year. Also Shannon is thankful that Oriana doesn't have a difficult hairdo this time. It is a side ponytail and not a complicated bun.

Oriana danced well at the recital. Our family and Ben's parents came to the recital to watch her dance.

Festival of Trees 2011

2011-12-31T13:30:00.002-07:00

We went to the Festival of Trees on Saturday, December 3rd. Last year we went to the festival when it opened in the morning, so it wasn't too crowded. This year though we weren't able to go until later during the day.

Oriana and the other second graders at her school decorated a tree for the festival. Oriana even went on a field trip the day before to sing some songs at the festival with her class and the other second grade classes. She got to see some of the trees and gingerbread houses before we did.

The kids really wanted to visit Santa Claus at the festival. The line was long and slow. We waited in line for nearly an hour so the kids could see Santa. Shannon didn't think it was worth waiting that long, but it was worth it to the kids. Oriana, Noah, and Myles each got a turn to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted. Santa gave them a candy cane after they talked to him. Myles keeps changing his mind about what he wants from Santa. We didn't even try to put L.J. on Santa's lap. He would probably cry like so many other babies do.

Oriana's Baptism

2011-12-27T15:00:00.001-07:00

Ben baptized Oriana on November 12th. Two other children from our ward were baptized on the same day. Oriana turned eight years old in September, so she could have been baptized in October. We decided to wait one more month, because of moving to a new house and a new ward. After we found out the baptism date, we discovered that Oriana had a dance performance that same day. We decided that she would miss the performance. It wasn't worth having her baptism in the morning and then getting ready to leave right afterwards for the performance. We had family come to her baptism and we wanted her baptism day to be special.

Noah's 6th Birthday

2011-12-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

Noah had his sixth birthday on November 1st. He got a birthday crown from his kindergarten class and he wore it during part of his birthday celebration. We went to a pizza place for Noah's birthday dinner. Afterwards the kids played a few arcade games. They had fun.

Noah opened his presents when we got home. He really likes Star Wars Legos, so he got a few sets for his birthday along with new clothes. Afterwards we ate cake for dessert.

Noah had his first friend party on November 5th. He had a Cars-themed party and four of his friends came. He had a lot of fun. Oriana and Myles got to participate in the party activities too.

Halloween 2011

2011-12-21T14:00:00.002-07:00

We got four pumpkins for the kids to paint for our Halloween decorations. A week before Halloween, Oriana, Noah, and Myles each painted a pumpkin. They had fun painting their pumpkins. Shannon painted a mini pumpkin for L.J.

For Halloween this year, Oriana dressed up as Alice in Wonderland, Noah was Bumblebee from Transformers, and Myles was Buzz Lightyear. Our ward had a Halloween party and a Trunk-or-Treat that we went to on the Friday before Halloween. The kids had a lot of fun at the party and they came home with lots of candy.

On Halloween, Oriana and Noah both wore their costumes to school and participated in a costume parade around the school. Noah brought his mask to school for the parade and his friends thought his costume was cool.

That night Ben took the kids trick-or-treating. Shannon stayed home with L.J. to pass out candy. Then we all went over to Ben's parents' house so the kids could show off their costumes.

Moving to Our New House

2011-12-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

We bought our new house on September 28th and got the keys the next day (on Shannon's birthday). We moved out of the apartment and into our new house on Saturday, October 1st. Seven years ago we had moved into our first house. We lived in that house for a little over six and a half years. It was time to upgrade to a new and bigger house.

Moving day was a long day for us. Ben's older sister babysat Oriana, Noah, and Myles in the morning. Shannon watched L.J. Ben hired four movers to move our stuff out of the apartment and into the house. The movers also moved our things out of our two storage units. Shannon cleaned the apartment and checked out. It was nice to finally move into our new house. We won't be missing the apartment at all.

Here is a view of the family room.

Here is the kids' bathroom. There are tile floors in all the bathrooms. This bathroom has a shower/tub combo, but the master bathroom has a separate shower and tub.

Oriana's 8th Birthday

2011-12-15T09:00:00.002-07:00

Oriana turned eight years old on September 18th. Since we were still living in an apartment, we decided that she wouldn't have a friend party this year, so we tried to make her birthday extra special.

On September 17th, we celebrated her birthday as a family. First we went to Kangaroo Zoo, which is a children's active play place with bounce houses and big inflatable slides and obstacle courses. Kangaroo Zoo was near our apartment building and we finally decided to take the kids there. They had a blast playing there for a couple of hours.

Afterwards we went out to eat lunch. We even stopped at Toys 'R Us for Oriana to get a birthday crown and balloon and to get a couple more presents.

The following day, Oriana got to open her presents. Afterwards we ate cupcakes and ice cream. Oriana wanted chocolate cupcakes with purple frosting.

Noah's Soccer 2011

2011-12-11T13:30:00.004-07:00

Noah took fall outdoor soccer in August and September 2011. It was his first time being on a soccer team other than playing Itty Bitty soccer when he was four years old. Ben was Noah's soccer coach. There were five other boys and two girls on Noah's team. They had games on Wednesday evenings and practices on Saturday mornings.

They don't have goalies for the kindergarten games and they don't keep score. They play four against four for the kindergarten games. Noah had a good team and they always got more goals than any of the other teams they played against. Noah was able to score some goals during the season. Sometimes he scored two or three goals in a game. Noah had a lot of fun playing soccer.

Noah wore a reversible white/purple soccer jersey for his games. In both pictures he is wearing purple. The weather was pretty good for most of his games.

September House Pictures

2011-12-07T14:30:00.002-07:00

Here are some pictures of our new house during September.

The brown stucco outside was finished.

They put in our knotty alder cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms. View of front door and entry from the family room. Two-tone paint in our new house: beige for the walls and ceiling and an off-white for the doors and trim.
Granite counter tops in the kitchen and black appliances.

First Day of School 2011

2011-12-04T10:30:00.001-07:00

Oriana and Noah both started to go to the elementary school in Lehi where our new house is being built. Shannon had to drive them to school from our apartment in Pleasant Grove every school day. Our new house was supposed to be completed by September 1st, but they started building it late, so it wouldn't be finished until almost a month later. Shannon had more weeks of driving the kids to and from school with two children (Myles and Leroy) along for the ride. It was ten miles each way and Shannon had to take three trips to school each day (drop off Oriana, drop off Noah, and then pick them up).

Oriana started second grade on August 23rd. She likes her class and has made several new friends. There are two time schedules for second grade and Oriana is on the one that starts later at 9:15 instead of 8:00 in the morning, so she and Noah will get out of school at the same time.

Noah started afternoon kindergarten on August 30th. He was excited for his first day. Myles came in the classroom and he wanted to stay with Noah. Myles cried all the way back to the apartment saying that he wanted to go to school.

August House Pictures

2011-12-01T09:30:00.009-07:00

Our new house is a rambler with an unfinished basement. The main floor is around 1700 square feet and has three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. We plan on finishing our basement soon, so then the total square footage would be around 3500. Our house is on a 1/3 acre lot. Here are some pictures of the progress of our new house in August.

Framing our new house during the first part of August.

Putting up the scaffolding to begin the stucco work.

Drywall put up inside the house. This is a view of the family room and the stairs that lead to the basement.
Starting to work on the stucco.

Bear Lake 2011

2011-11-29T10:50:00.010-07:00

We went to Bear Lake for our summer vacation on July 28-31. It was Leroy's first time going to Bear Lake. He didn't enjoy it as much as his siblings. We stayed at Shannon's parents' cabin for the weekend.

On July 29th, the kids got to hit a Sponge Bob pinata at their great-grandparents' cabin. They had fun and got a lot of candy. We also went on a boat ride during Leroy's nap. The kids went on a tube ride behind the boat. Myles loved that. He wanted it to go faster. Ben even did a little water skiing.

The next day we went to the beach at the resort where Ben's parents were staying. Ben's family rented a wave runner. We went on a wave runner a couple of times. The kids had fun playing in the sand too. After playing at the beach, Ben took the kids to the swimming pool at the resort and they had fun there.

Starting Our New House

2011-09-28T09:45:00.000-06:00

They finally started working on building our new house in Lehi on July 19th. Shannon went out there on the 19th to make sure they had dug the hole that day. Later we took pictures of the foundation. This picture was taken on July 23rd. We will post more house pictures later.

Water Balloon Volleyball

2011-09-22T14:00:00.001-06:00

On July 23rd, we went to Ben's parents' house for a barbeque dinner. After dinner the kids got to play water balloon volleyball in the backyard. Noah was partners with Steve, Myles was with Melissa, and Oriana was partners with Ben. The kids had fun playing volleyball. They were able to catch some of the water balloons.

Swimming

2011-09-17T09:45:00.001-06:00

On July 20th, Oriana, Noah, and Myles went to the swimming pool at our apartment complex with their Aunt Melissa and Uncle Steve. Noah and Myles both wore life jackets in the pool.

Shannon stayed to watch them play in the pool for a little while and then she went back to the apartment with Leroy. The kids played in the pool with their aunt and uncle. They had a lot of fun with them.

Family Pictures 2011

2011-09-12T14:00:00.004-06:00

We had our family pictures taken on July 17th in American Fork. We had some family pictures with Ben's family. We also got pictures of our children and our own family.

Trampolines and a BBQ

2011-09-05T10:00:00.002-06:00

On July 15th, Shannon took the kids to a trampoline place called Jump On It. The kids wanted to go there with their aunt and uncle while they were visiting from Hawaii. Shannon had taken Oriana and Noah a few years ago, but she didn't have a good experience with them then. Shannon was pregnant at that time with Myles. Oriana was too scared to jump on the trampolines herself and Shannon had to hold Noah.

This time though the kids were excited and ready to have fun there. They went on the trampolines, bounce houses, and down a big blow-up slide many times. The trampolines are put right next to each other, so you can jump on different ones. They even have a few trampolines slanted against the wall.

Leroy slept part of the time in the stroller and the rest of the time Shannon or his aunt held him. We were at Jump On It for an hour. The kids got plenty of "exercise" and had lots of fun. Maybe next time Ben will come to. He hasn't been there yet.

The fun didn't stop there. Later that evening we went up the canyon to have a barbeque dinner with Ben's family. We roasted hot dogs for dinner.

The kids played soccer and baseball in the park area after dinner with their cousins. Myles wanted to play baseball first. He tried hitting the ball. Then the kids played some soccer. Oriana didn't play that for very long. She wanted to do a little rock climbing instead on some big rocks they had in a different part of the park.

Afterwards we roasted marshmallows for a smores dessert. Ben helped Noah roast a marshmallow for his smore.

Hiking the "Y"

2011-08-30T11:15:00.003-06:00

On July 11th, Ben took Oriana, Noah, and Myles to hike up to the "Y" near BYU. They went with some of Ben's family. Shannon stayed home with Leroy. It was the kids' first time going on a hike. They were excited. They went in the evening after dinner. The weather was hot, but at least it didn't rain. There were some dark clouds for a thunderstorm that night. They hiked for about 1 1/2 hours.

Myles walked during the first part of the hike, but then he needed to be carried on Ben's back for the rest of the way. Oriana walked by herself. Noah walked most of the time, but even he got tired and one of his uncles carried him.

No one got hurt on the hike except when it was over. Oriana fell down on the pavement in the parking lot at the base of the hike. She scraped her knee, so she limped for a couple of days after that.

Leroy's Summer Pictures

2011-08-24T09:30:00.007-06:00

Here are some pictures of Leroy this past June and July.

One of his favorite things is to suck on his toes. In this picture he is actually trying to suck on his toes and his thumb at the same time.

Here he is smiling while sitting in his bouncer. He used this bouncer for part of the summer until he started sitting up on his own.

Here he is on his tummy. He isn't crawling yet, but he likes to have tummy time.

In this picture, Leroy is working on sitting up by himself.

Face Painting

2011-08-18T10:30:00.000-06:00

On June 25th, we went to a kids' carnival. The kids rode on a mini train, played carnival games, got balloons, and ate corn dogs and ice cream. Most of the lines weren't too long, but the longest line was for face painting. There were two professional face painters and it probably took about five minutes to paint each child's face. Myles decided not to get his face painted, but both Oriana and Noah wanted to get their faces painted even though we had to wait in line for about 1 1/2 hours. If someone would have told us that we would have to wait that long, then maybe we wouldn't have even gotten in line. Oriana picked a butterfly and Noah picked a cougar. They got their faces painted at the same time by the two face painters. Oriana and Noah both even had a lot of glitter over the paint too. They kept the paint on for a few hours and then they had to wash it off before dinner. It was a really hot day and some of the paint started to smear anyway.

Oriana's First Swimming Lessons

2011-08-11T09:50:00.002-06:00

Oriana took beginning swimming lessons from the Lehi Legacy Center during the first half of June. Her classes were in the morning for thirty minutes for nine days. There were five other children in her class.

We still lived in Lehi during the first week of her swimming lessons. Ben was home that week doing an online training for his work, so Shannon was able to leave Noah and Myles at home with him during the lessons. For the last week of swimming lessons, the boys got to watch Oriana swim. Sometimes Myles wouldn't stay in his seat and wanted to get closer to the water. He isn't as afraid of being in the water like Noah is.

Oriana liked swimming lessons. She learned how to do a back float and learned about kicks and arm movements. She tried to bob her head all the way under the water, but she never did during her lessons. She did not pass level 1. She will have to repeat that level before she can go to a level 2 class. We have a swimming pool at our apartment complex, so the kids can go swimming with Ben.

Selling and Moving

2011-08-01T16:20:00.000-06:00

We put our house up for sale at the end of March. We had lived in our house for six and a half years and we wanted to get a bigger house. We wanted to see if we could sell our house by ourselves. We paid a fee to list our house online for six months. If it didn't sell by September, then we would stay at our house.

We had seven couples/families come see our house. Shannon spent hours cleaning the house before we would show it. By the beginning of May, we got an offer on our house. After going through a few counteroffers, we agreed on a price with the buyers.

Now we needed a place to live. We had been looking at houses online for a while, but Shannon was picky. We wanted to find another house in Lehi, because we like living in Lehi. We decided to build a new house in the north part of Lehi. Once we decided which builder and which lot we would build on, we needed a place to live while our house would be built. Our choices were limited in that we needed a place for about four months and most places wanted one-year leases. We found an apartment in Sandy that offered three- or four-month leases. We reserved their last three-bedroom apartment, but we didn't sign the lease. Instead we found a different three-bedroom apartment in Pleasant Grove, which is south of Lehi and closer to Ben's parents' house. We were able to get a four-month lease for that apartment.

We signed the papers for selling our house on June 8th and we moved out of our house on the 11th. We got two storage units to store some of our things and then the rest we moved to the apartment. Moving day was really long for us. Ben's mother babysat our children nearly all day, so we could move our things and then clean our old house. Shannon spent hours cleaning the house. Even after moving, we spent a lot of time unpacking boxes. The hard part is knowing that in a few more months we will be moving a second time. But at least we would be moving into something bigger and nicer than the apartment.

Noah's Preschool Graduation

2011-07-22T10:00:00.003-06:00

Noah graduated from preschool on May 25th. He went to the same preschool that Oriana went to. The graduation was held outside at a park in Lehi. We attended his graduation that night. Ben's parents and one of his brothers also came to the graduation. There were two classes that graduated from that preschool. Noah was in the morning preschool class. He had a few friends in his class.

Noah was excited for his graduation. He wore a white trash bag for his gown over his clothes and he wore a blue and white paper graduation cap on his head. He sang a lot of songs with his class at the graduation. He also received his preschool diploma. He is looking forward to kindergarten in the fall.

Easter 2011

2011-07-15T10:30:00.003-06:00

On April 23rd, we went to the Easter egg hunt at the park by our house. The kids look forward to it every year. This year the HOA board had more eggs for the kids and they even provided some breakfast. They had glazed doughnuts, juice, and milk. Our children got a lot of plastic eggs with candy and little toys inside them. They had fun at the Easter egg hunt. This year the weather was cool. We were glad that it didn't rain.

Later that day, we dyed Easter eggs with Shannon's help. The kids had fun dying eggs and decorating them with stickers. Myles tried eating a few small pieces of hard-boiled egg. It had been two years since he broke out in hives after eating scrambled eggs. Ben wanted to see if he was still allergic. Myles didn't have a reaction this time.

On Easter Sunday, the Easter Bunny filled the kids' baskets. They got even more eggs with candy in them. The kids got chocolate bunnies and some little toys too.

Oriana's Dance 2011

2011-07-08T09:30:00.004-06:00

On April 22nd, Oriana danced at the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. It was her first time performing the new dance she had learned this year. She danced a jazz routine to "Someday My Prince Will Come." There was a big waterfall in the background. Oriana was on the right side on the back row for this dance performance. She got to move up to the front row for her spring dance recital.

Oriana had her spring dance recital on May 23rd at the junior high. This time Ben's parents and some of his siblings came to watch her dance. We didn't take any pictures during the recital, but Ben recorded her dance with the camcorder. Also Shannon took some pictures of Oriana in her costume at home. Oriana likes to pose for pictures.

Pirate Party

2011-07-01T09:50:00.006-06:00

On April 21st, Shannon took the boys to a pirate party at the Lehi library. First they listened to a pirate book. Then all the kids separated into three groups. Noah and Myles ate pirate food, which consisted of a cookie, strawberries, and juice. They got a pirate tattoo on their hand. Noah picked a pirate ship and Myles got a pirate flag tattoo. They even got a mini pirate toy.

Next they decorated pirate hats. Shannon helped Myles decorate his hat with stickers. Afterwards they put their hats on and played with a giant parachute. At the end of the party, they listened to another pirate story and played a game. They had a lot of fun. Leroy also came to the party. He slept in the stroller though.

Spring Break 2011

2011-06-22T16:41:00.022-06:00

For spring break this year, we decided to go to the Hogle Zoo, since we hadn't been there for more than three years. We went to the zoo on April 14th in the morning. We hadn't planned on it being a cold and rainy day. We were hoping that it wouldn't rain while we were at the zoo, but it did. It was a good thing we brought jackets and umbrellas with us. The weather was not very good, but the kids still had fun. We saw a lot of kids in school groups. Oriana actually went to the zoo with all the first graders at her school at the end of April, so she got to go twice.

It was Myles's and Leroy's first time going to the zoo. Myles was really excited. He hadn't seen that many animals before. His favorite animal was the elephant. He stood there staring at the big elephant and the baby elephant. He didn't want to walk away, but we still had other animals to see. Noah liked the cougar and big horned sheep the best. Leroy slept in the stroller the whole time. He will have to wait until next time to see the animals.

After going to the zoo, we drove to Shannon's parents' house for the weekend. We stayed there for a few nights. The kids had fun. While we were there, Myles ran into the edge of the ping pong table and hurt his left eye. It didn't look too bad at first, but a couple of days later, Shannon decided to take Myles to his pediatrician to have her look at his eye. Myles had blood in the outer corner of his eye. The doctor suggested that he see an eye doctor. So that same day, Myles went to see an eye doctor. The eye doctor said that his vision wasn't affected by the injury and that his eye would heal on its own. Myles had a colorful bruise by his eye. Even now he still has a scar above his eye where he got a cut.

Myles's 3rd Birthday

2011-03-31T15:00:00.001-06:00

We went to Pirate Island for Myles's birthday dinner on March 12th. Myles got his own hamburger and fries kids' meal. He wore his pirate hat and he got a yellow balloon sword. Noah also got a sword, so they had fun fighting each other. The kids had fun playing some games and winning tickets. They used their tickets to get candy.

We also went to Toys 'R Us to get Myles's birthday crown and balloon. We bought him a Cat in the Hat coloring book for one of his birthday gifts. Myles likes watching "The Cat in the Hat" cartoon on TV.

Myles turned three on March 13th. We had a small party for him that evening at our house. Ben's parents and one of his sisters came to the party. We have been potty training Myles. He got some new underwear, so he can be a big boy like his older brother. Myles's favorite present though was a Toy Story Mr. Potato Head toy. He really wanted a potato head toy, because Noah has one and he always wants to play with it. After he opened his presents, we ate cupcakes and ice cream.

Leroy's Baby Blessing

2011-03-25T08:35:00.001-06:00

Ben blessed Leroy on March 6th at our church. Our parents and some of our siblings came to the blessing. Afterwards we had family come over to our house for lunch. We took this opportunity to take some pictures of Leroy with our family.

New Baby Boy

2011-02-09T16:35:00.001-07:00

Our new baby boy was born on January 4th at 7:25 A.M. We named him Leroy James Thurlow. He was 7 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 inches long. Leroy's hospital picture is online at http://www.utahportraits.com/hospital/index.php?action=view&BabyID=010411ljt t. Leroy started to get jaundice while he was at the hospital. He didn't have to go under the lights like Oriana though. He looked yellow when it was time for him to go home. He even had to have another bilirubin test done after he came home.

Shannon had a C-section once again, so she was in the hospital for four days. She has had C-sections with all her babies. Shannon and Leroy came home on January 8th. Ben took off work while Shannon was in the hospital, so he got the kids ready for school and even took Oriana to her dance class.

Shannon's mother came to help out with the kids when Ben went back to work. It was nice to have her help.

Bowling

2011-02-05T15:30:00.000-07:00

We went bowling with Ben's family on December 27th. We hadn't been bowling for over a year and the last time we went was with Ben's family. This time we went to a new bowling alley in Lehi. We had three bowling lanes. All six cousins got to bowl against each other. They used the gutter guards. Noah and Myles pushed the ball off of a ramp, but Oriana actually tried to bowl without the ramp. Myles ended up getting the highest score. The kids had a fun time.

Shannon wasn't thrilled about bowling a week before having her baby. Her balance was off and she kept on getting gutter balls. She only bowled one game. She wasn't interested in playing a second game, so the kids took turns bowling for her during the second game. Ben played two bowling games. He was one of the highest scorers.

It was a fun family activity. We should go more often--just not when Shannon is pregnant.

Christmas 2010

2011-02-02T09:30:00.007-07:00

Shannon made a lot of Christmas cookies to give to our neighbors. On December 19th, the kids got to decorate their own sugar cookies. Shannon frosted the cookies and the kids got to put sprinkles and M&M's on them. The best part though was eating the cookies.

This year we went over to Ben's parents' house on Christmas Eve. Oriana, Noah, and Myles acted out the nativity story. Oriana played Mary and held a baby doll. Noah was Joseph. Myles played a wiseman and a shepherd. The kids had fun dressing up.

On Christmas morning, the kids were excited to see what Santa brought them. Oriana got a musical ballerina jewelry box. She has so much jewelry that she needed a second jewelry box. She likes that it plays music every time she opens it. Noah got a scooter, so now he can ride his own scooter and not have to borrow Oriana's. Myles got a box of Duplo Legos. After seeing all the Legos that Noah got for his birthday, Myles wanted to get some of his own. The Legos that he got from Santa are the bigger kind, so they are easier for him to build with.

After breakfast, we opened up presents that we had bought for our family. Then the kids played with their new toys.

In the afternoon, we went over to Ben's parents' house. We opened up presents from his parents and from some of his siblings. We also ate dinner there. We had a good Christmas.

A Wedding and a Snowman

2011-01-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

On December 21st, Ben's sister Melissa got married. We went to the temple in the morning for the wedding ceremony. Afterwards it was cold and snowing outside, so we weren't in very many outside pictures at the temple. We went to the luncheon after the wedding and then later that night we went to the reception. Oriana tried to catch the bouquet, but Melissa's roommate caught it. She gave the bouquet to Oriana. Oriana was excited to get the bouquet.

It snowed on the wedding day. Ben and the kids went outside in our front yard to build a snowman in the afternoon. Ben made a really big snowman. He almost couldn't get the middle part of the snowman on top of the base, because he made it too big. The kids tried to help him lift it, but he ended up making it smaller and lighter. The snowman was taller than Ben. Oriana started to make the snowman's head and Ben helped her. They had fun.

Oriana's Winter Dance Recital 2010

2011-01-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

Oriana had her winter dance recital on December 15th at Lehi Junior High School. Once again, Shannon did Oriana's hair in a "messy bun," but at least this time she knew what she was doing so it didn't take as long. Shannon took the kids early to the school to look at getting professional pictures taken of Oriana in her dance costume, but the package prices were more than she thought they would be. Shannon decided to just take some pictures of Oriana posing in her costume instead. Oriana did several different poses at the school and at home.

Shannon got to the school and realized that she had forgotten Oriana's black ballet shoes. Ben came later and brought the shoes with him. Shannon couldn't believe that she had forgotten the shoes.

We watched Oriana perform her dance to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." Even Ben's mother came to watch the dance recital with us. Oriana danced well. She said she was a little nervous this time.

Pictures of Oriana's dancing turned out too blurry. It's a good thing that Ben used the camcorder to record Oriana's dance instead.

Festival of Trees 2010

2010-12-31T13:50:00.002-07:00

We have a family tradition of going to the Festival of Trees every year. This year we decided to go on Saturday, December 4th, in the morning when it opened, so it wouldn't be too crowded. First we went over to see Santa Claus. We were one of the first people in line. Usually the line is really long to see Santa there. Our children each got a turn to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Myles sat on Santa's lap for the first time, but he was too scared to say anything to him.

We looked at the gingerbread houses and then the rows of decorated Christmas trees. We bought some fudge and cookies at the Sweet Shoppe to take home and then bought scones and cinnamon rolls to eat at the festival. Oriana saw the dancers at the festival and wondered if she would get to dance at the festival sometime.

The kids always like going to the Kids' Korner where they can make a craft. Oriana wanted to make a wacky wallet. She decorated it and put her name on it. It has a handle, so it looks more like a mini purse. Noah made a reindeer ornament out of a light bulb and Myles made a snowman puppet with Ben's help. We had a good time there.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-27T10:30:00.001-07:00

This year we spent Thanksgiving at Shannon's parents' house in Paradise. There was a blizzard the day before, and Shannon's parents got several inches of snow whereas we barely got an inch from the storm at our house. The drive to Paradise wasn't too bad, but some of the roads were still covered in snow. We stayed in Paradise for three nights.

Besides eating a lot of food, watching movies, playing ping pong, and playing with their cousin, the kids got to play in the snow at their grandparents' house twice--a highlight of their Thanksgiving break. There was plenty of snow to play in at Grandma's. They liked playing in the snow even though it was freezing cold outside.

Oriana, Noah, and Myles all had a blast playing in the snow. Ben found some big icicles for the kids. They threw snowballs and made tracks in the snow. Oriana even made a snow chair. They didn't make a snowman, but maybe next time they will when there is enough snow at our house. They had a lot of fun.

Oriana's Dance

2010-12-21T13:00:00.001-07:00

Oriana danced at the Christmas Gift Show in Sandy on November 13th. It was her first dance performance with the Dance Academy. Oriana started taking a combo jazz/ballet dance class at the Dance Academy in September. Oriana goes to dance once a week for one hour.

For Oriana's dance performance, Shannon had to do Oriana's hair and makeup. It took Shannon about 50 minutes to do Oriana's hair. She had to do a "messy bun," which is complicated with all the curls and bobby pins she had to put in Oriana's hair--not to mention all the gel and hairspray too. Shannon was frustrated with the curls, because they didn't look as perfect as she wanted them to be. Oriana's hair turned out really nice.

Oriana's dance class performed a jazz dance to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." We watched her dance on stage and she danced well. She said she wasn't nervous dancing in front of all those people. This was her second time performing a dance. Last year she performed a Christmas dance at her dance recital at the Legacy Center. Oriana really liked her dance costume this time. It sparkles a lot with all the fushia sequence that covers it.

Swimming at the Legacy Center

2010-12-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

Ben won a family day pass for the Legacy Center from Oriana's elementary school 5K race. We used the pass on November 6th. We went to the indoor pool. Ben went in the pool with Oriana and Noah, while Shannon and Myles watched them play in the water. There was a big bucket of water that would fill up and then dump into the pool. The water scared Oriana and Noah. They didn't want to play on that side of the leisure pool even though there was a playset with shallow water around it. Instead they liked going in the other side of the pool with their dad. Both Oriana and Noah don't know how to swim, so they moved in the "deep" part of the water by holding onto Ben. Oriana got a ride on Ben's back and Ben carried Noah. They had a fun time. It was nice that the pool wasn't crowded that morning.

Noah's 5th Birthday

2010-12-10T10:30:00.001-07:00

Noah turned 5 years old on November 1st. For his birthday dinner, we went to IHOP. Both Noah and Oriana ate a big chocolate chip pancake with whipped cream and chocolate chips on top. It seemed more like a dessert than a dinner. Noah also got a big piece of chocolate cake with whipped cream on top, since it was his birthday. He shared some of his cake, but not the whipped cream. He got to eat all the whipped cream himself.

Afterwards we went home and Noah opened his presents from us. The day before his birthday, Noah opened presents from his grandparents and a couple of other relatives. He got Legos from them. He really wanted Legos this year and that is what he got for his toys. Noah got a lot of clothes and even some books from us.

Then we ate ice cream and chocolate cake for dessert. Shannon thought Noah would be too full for cake, but he couldn't resist eating his birthday cake.

Halloween 2010

2010-12-07T12:50:00.000-07:00

Noah went to a pumpkin patch with his preschool class. He had a fun time there. He went on a hayride, saw some animals, and even picked out a pumpkin.

Before Halloween, Noah and Oriana both painted two pumpkins, and Myles got to paint one pumpkin for his first time. The kids enjoyed painting their pumpkins. Ben didn't carve a pumpkin this year.

For Halloween this year, Oriana dressed up as a cheerleader, Noah was a firefighter, and Myles was Batman. Both Oriana and Noah had school Halloween parties. Even Oriana went to a party for her dance class.

We participated in a trunk-or-treat at the park in our neighborhood on October 30th. It was our first time going to something like this. It rained during part of the time. The kids got a lot of candy--more than regular trick-or-treating. Later that evening, Ben took the kids trick-or-treating after it stopped raining. It was Myles's first time going trick-or-treating. He had fun and liked getting candy.

Oriana's 7th Birthday

2010-11-19T16:00:00.000-07:00

Oriana turned 7 years old on September 18th. That morning she ran in a 1K race at her elementary school. Ben ran in the 5K race. The races were to raise money for the school. Ben got 15th place overall. He got 3rd place for his age group, so he won a prize for that.

Oriana had her friend birthday party that afternoon. Ben took the boys to his parents' house, so it was just Shannon running the party with Oriana and five of her friends. The girls had a good time playing some games. Oriana had a Tinkerbell theme for her party this year.

That evening we went to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. We had never been there before as a family. Noah and Oriana had a lot of fun playing games and going on rides.

That night Oriana opened her presents from us. Then we ate cupcakes and ice cream. She had a good birthday.

Ben's Half Marathon

2010-11-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

Ben ran in the Spanish Fork Half Marathon race on September 11th. This was his first time running 13.1 miles at one time. He finished the race in under 2 hours. Shannon and the kids went to see him finish the race.

He followed a 10-week training schedule to get ready for the race. He ran in the mornings before he went to work. He listened to music while he ran to help past the time. Some days he was tired and didn't want to get up and run, but he stuck with it and in the end, he was able to finish the race without walking.

He finished 92nd out of 197 people and was able to run a 9-minute per mile pace. He said the last mile was the hardest mile!

Official race results for Ben.

School Starts

2010-11-03T14:30:00.000-06:00

Oriana started first grade on August 25th and Noah started preschool on September 8th. They were both excited to start school.

Oriana starts school at 8:00 A.M. and she gets to ride the early bus to school. She likes eating lunch at school and playing at recess with her friends.

Noah likes going to preschool. He is in a morning preschool class, which is for three days a week from 9:00 to 11:00 A.M. He has some friends in his class and he enjoys learning. Noah likes show and tell and also going on fieldtrips.

Baby's Gender

2010-10-27T08:35:00.000-06:00

Shannon had her ultrasound appointment on August 17th. This time we decided to find out the baby's gender. With Myles, we wanted to be surprised when he was born. This time though, with having two boys and one girl, we wanted to know sooner if we would be having another boy or girl.

We will be having another boy this time, which means Oriana would have three brothers and still no sisters. Oriana was upset about that, but for now she will still be spoiled because she is the only girl in our family.

Shannon's baby is due on January 10th.

Bear Lake Trip 2010

2010-10-21T09:45:00.001-06:00

We went to Bear Lake for our summer vacation with our children. Shannon went to Bear Lake with the kids on July 28th and then Ben came up the following afternoon. We stayed in Shannon's parents' cabin until August 1st.

We went to the beach for three days. The kids had a lot of fun. Ben went water skiing. Oriana and Noah went on tube rides being pulled by a boat. Myles even went on the boat ride with us. He fell asleep for most of the boat ride. We even went on a waverunner for two of those days. Oriana and Noah got to go on waverunner rides too.

We were at Bear Lake with Ben's family and his mother's relatives for their annual family reunion. We had a good time. Our children got to have two pinatas this year. One was with Ben's extended family and then we had another pinata with Ben's immediate family. The kids had a lot of fun hitting the pinatas and especially getting candy and prizes from inside them.

Family Campout 2010

2010-10-18T09:54:00.003-06:00

We went camping as a family for the first time on July 16th. Last year Ben took Oriana and Noah camping while Shannon stayed home with Myles. Well, Myles should have stayed home another year.

We went camping with some members of our ward. First we ate dinner and afterwards the kids played for a while. We put up our new family tent for the first time.

It wasn't a pleasant experience trying to get Myles to fall asleep in the tent with us. We tried to put Myles to bed around 9:15. By midnight though, Myles was still awake and wouldn't fall asleep, even though he must have been so tired. By that time, Ben had had enough. Neither one of us could sleep with Myles still awake. Ben took Myles home so he could sleep in his crib.

The next morning we ate pancakes and eggs for breakfast. Ben came back with Myles. Shannon wished she would have gone home instead, because she couldn't sleep very well in the tent. It had been a windy night.

We packed up our things and our tent and went back home. From now on, we think our children should be at least three years old before sleeping in a tent. Being two years old apparently wasn't old enough for Myles to experience camping.

Europe Trip: Traveling Back Home

2010-07-31T09:23:00.001-06:00

On June 12th, we ate a wonderful breakfast. There were lots of different breads, meats, cheeses, and yogurts to choose from. It was one of the best breakfast selections we had on our vacation. Our host even said we could make sandwiches to take for lunch too, which was nice because we would be traveling all day in the car.

We left early in the morning after breakfast to go on our long drive back to Paris. We drove in Germany for quite a while. We hit a lot of toll roads in France though. We had to pay 5 tolls. The most expensive was 13.20 Euros and the cheapest was 2 Euros. We actually ran out of Euros on the last two toll, so we had to use credit.

We checked in at the B&B Hotel near the airport in Paris. Then we drove over to the airport to drop our car off. When we came back to the hotel, we noticed just how dirty our room was. There was hair in the bathroom sink and on the floor. The towels were dirty and there was garbage on the desk. We went to the front desk and complained in English. The two French women acted as if they couldn't understand us. They understand some English, because we talked to them in English when we checked in. They eventually gave us a new room, which was clean how we expected it to be.

We stayed one night in Paris. The following morning we went to the airport early and waited for our flight to Dallas, Texas. That flight was our longest one. It was about 10 hours. Both of us felt nausea toward the end of the flight. Shannon thinks it was the dinner we ate. We had a layover in Dallas for a few hours until our flight to Salt Lake. Our second flight was about 2 hours 40 minutes long. We were really tired by the time we got to Salt Lake. It was about 8:00 P.M. in Utah, but it was 4:00 A.M. in Paris. We made it home safely.

It is so nice to be back home and to see our children again. That was the longest we had been away from our children and we probably won't do another big trip like that for a long time.

Europe Trip: Reutte, Austria

2010-07-28T11:30:00.001-06:00

On June 11th, we traveled from Salzburg to Reutte. We went to Fussen to see the Neuschwanstein Castle that afternoon. We went on a 30-minute live tour in English. We couldn't take pictures inside the castle. Shannon really wanted to see this castle out of all the castles and palaces that we saw on our vacation. The castle was never finished. It is really elaborate inside.

Afterwards we drove to Reutte. We found a small restaurant that had kebab. Ben and I both got a kebab sandwich for an early dinner. Then we went to an ice cream cafe. Ben had been to that cafe before, but they didn't have what he remembered getting with his parents. Shannon got the chocolate becher, which is a large glass filled with vanilla and chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, chocolate pieces, whipped cream, and a heart-shaped waffle cone piece on top. Ben got the caramel becher, which was just as big, but of course didn't have chocolate likes Shannon's. The ice cream was delicious but it took a long time to eat, because we were still full from dinner. We spent more on dessert than dinner that night.

Afterwards we drove to a bed and breakfast just outside of Reutte. Shannon thought that the bed was cute because the blankets were folded in the shape of hearts. We stayed there for one night.

Europe Trip: Salzburg, Austria

2010-07-24T09:57:00.001-06:00

Traveling to Salzburg: On June 9th, we traveled to Salzburg but it took us a lot longer to get there than we had planned. After about an hour of traveling, we got stuck in traffic. We didn't know what was going on. We turned on the radio, so Ben could try to listen in German to hear if there were any traffic reports. Eventually, he heard that the freeway was being closed down near St. Pollten because of a 9-car accident between that city and the next freeway exit. The exits are far apart. Eventually the 3-lane freeway merged into one and everyone was diverted off at the exit for St. Pollten. St. Pollten isn't a big town and wasn't prepared for all the traffic on its main road. There weren't any detour signs. Ben took a wrong turn and it took us a long time to get back on the main road and even longer to get out of that town with the traffic barely moving. The police in that city just stood and watched the traffic. They didn't try to control it or direct people where to go. We didn't get back on the freeway until about 1 hour and 45 minutes later. The freeway was supposed to be closed for only 1 hour, but it took us that long just to go through all that traffic and get back onto the freeway at the next on-ramp. Even when we were back on the freeway, there was still traffic.

Because of our long delay with traffic and the detour, we decided to not stop at Gmunden. Instead we skipped stopping at that city and just went on to Hallstatt. We stopped at that beautiful city for a little while. It was hot, so we got some ice cream, but it wasn't as good especially after eating the ice cream in Vienna. When it was time for us to leave the parking lot, Ben paid the parking fee and then put the ticket in the machine, so we could get out of lot. The bar didn't raise and his ticket didn't come out. Even other people tried to use their ticket and the bar still wouldn't work. After nearly 25 minutes of waiting to get out of the parking lot, we finally got out and were able to continue our journey to Salzburg.

Ben had told the woman who owns the bed and breakfast in Salzburg that we would arrive around 3:00, but we didn't get there until 4:45. We made it to Salzburg by 4:00, but it took us a long time to find the street where the bed and breakfast was on. The bed and breakfast was on a farm and the woman was out back milking cows when we came. We had a big room and bathroom, but our bathroom was actually down the hall and not connected to our room.

We drove around outside of Salzburg that evening. We stopped at Obendorf first to see the Stille Nacht Chapel. Then we went to Mondsee to see the wedding chapel from "The Sound of Music" movie.

Full Day in Salzburg: We traveled on buses in Salzburg. We took the bus to downtown and saw lots of sights there. We went to Mozart's birthplace and residence. The residence had an audio guide, but we didn't finish the last part of it. It was a long audio tour. We went to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. We walked up to the fortress, but it took Shannon a while to walk down that path, because it was steep. We went inside the fortress on an audio guide tour and went up to the top of a tower. We also went in a museum there. We also went inside the Salzburg Dome, which was cool inside. It was very hot outside.

We saw several "Sound of Music" sights in Salzburg: horse fountains, the front part of the abbey, the gazebo, the yellow wall and the front of the house, the bridge, and the tunnel and stairs which are in Mirabell Gardens. Ben had been on a Sound of Music Tour before, so he remembered where the places were at.

We ate dinner at the Saran Essbar Restaurant. Ben and I both got beef goulash with knoedel. The knoedel was huge. Ben has made knoedel before, but his aren't even half the size of the one we got at the restaurant. Ben ate apple strudel for dessert at the restaurant.

The next morning we ate breakfast before leaving to go to Reutte.

Europe Trip: Vienna, Austria

2010-07-21T09:27:00.001-06:00

We arrived in Vienna on June 6th around 4:00 in the afternoon. We checked into Hotel Hadrigan. We ate pizza for dinner at a nearby pizzaria restaurant. They didn't have pepperoni pizza, which is Shannon's favorite. Instead Shannon got a ham pizza and Ben got a pizza with ham, bacon, corn, and peppers on it. The pizzas were bigger than we expected. We thought that they were going to be personal-sized ones, but we were wrong. We could have easily just split one pizza between the two of us. That is just what happens when they list their pizzas in centimeters instead of inches. We were both really full after dinner. Shannon wasn't impressed with the pizza. She would rather eat a pepperoni pizza that she makes at home. That evening we went on a walk around part of downtown Vienna.

Day 1: The breakfast at this hotel was better in that they had apple juice. Shannon was glad that they had apple juice, because all the other places only had orange juice (and of course tea and coffee too). We ended up paying extra money when we checked in, so we could get breakfast for all the mornings we would be in Vienna. After breakfast we went over to the Hofburg. First we saw the Imperial Apartments, which included the sliverware/dish collection, Sisi Museum, and the apartments. We listened to an audio guide. Afterwards we went to the the Hofburg Treasury, which was more expensive than we thought it would be. The treasury really wasn't worth the money. We didn't spend very much time there. Next we went over to St. Stephen's Cathedral and just looked inside for a little while. We decided to not go to the top of the tower for that cathedral. Later we went to Belvedere and bought tickets for the Upper Palace tour, which didn't include an audio guide. Belvedere is an art museum. Afterwards we went to Schnitzelwirt restaurant for dinner. Shannon just ordered the wienerschnitzel and she got two huge pieces of schnitzel--the pieces were bigger than the ones in Linz. Ben got the Wachauerschnitzl, which is a natural schnitzel (not breaded) with ham and cheese on top.

Day 2: Shannon started to feel sick on this day with cold symptoms. Ben was still sick with a combination of a cold and allergies. We took a streetcar in the morning to Schoenbrunn Palace. We went on the Grand Tour. Afterwards we went into the garden and hiked up the hill to the Glorietta. We took some pictures from up there. After the palace, we went to the Kunsthisoriches Museum, which didn't even provide a free map with the admission fee. We looked at Italian and northern European paintings. Ben was really tired at that museum and not feeling well. Afterwards we went and got ice cream at a place called Zanoni and Zanoni. That was the best ice cream we ate on our trip and probably the best ice cream we have ever eaten. The ice cream was so smooth and creamy. The problem was that it was so hot outside and the ice cream started to melt quickly even when we were standing in the shade. We walked around some different souvenir shops before we ate our dinner. We got Doner kabab sandwiches, which had kebab (chicken kind, not lamb), lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and a white sauce. The sandwiches were kind of spicy, but there were too many onions for Shannon. That night we went to a grocery store near our hotel. Shannon wanted chocolate milk. We started to drink it and noticed that it tasted strange. She looked at the ingredients and noticed that it had buttermilk in it. Shannon didn't drink chocolate milk again in Europe. The only time we had milk was in our cereal for breakfast and even then the milk was never cold. Shannon didn't even finish eating her cereal one time because the milk was too warm.

The next morning we checked out and traveled to Salzburg.

Europe Trip: Linz, Austria

2010-07-17T12:03:00.000-06:00

Ben went on an LDS mission to Austria about ten years ago, so that is one of the reasons why we visited Austria on our vacation. Linz is a big city in Austria, not as big as Vienna, but larger than Salzburg. Ben spent 17 months of his mission living in Linz.

We arrived in Linz in the evening on June 5th and checked into the Youthotel. Then we traveled around the city on streetcars. We first went to eat dinner at a schnitzel fast food restaurant. We both got a huge piece of wienerschnitzel with lots of fries. Afterwards we went over to the apartment building where Ben used to live before we headed downtown. We ended up buying some ice cream. It was actually the first time we got ice cream on our vacation. It ended up being hot when we were in Austria. The weather was windy, cold, and rainy a lot of the time when we were in London and Paris.

We stayed in Linz for one night. We ate breakfast at the hotel. They had chocolate cake and apple strudel along with the regular breakfast items. We checked out of the hotel and then drove over to the LDS church in Linz. When Ben was on his mission, there were two wards in Linz. Now those wards are combined with a branch, so there were quite a lot of people at church that Sunday morning. Ben talked with several people at church, whom he knew when he lived in Linz. Some of them spoke English, but they all speak German. Ben knows German a lot better than Shannon. Sacrament meeting was in German and Shannon got bored, because it was too hard for her to try to figure out what they were saying in English.

Afterwards we left Linz and drove over to Mauthausen, which is a former concentration camp during WWII. It was Shannon's first time being at a concentration camp. Ben had been to that one a few times before. We listened to most of the audio guide. It was really hot outside and we just wanted to get back into our air-conditioned car.

We continued our drive to Vienna.

Europe Trip: Switzerland

2010-07-14T11:31:00.000-06:00

On June 3rd, we drove to Interlaken, Switzerland. It took us about 10 hours to get there from the time we left the hotel. Paris traffic is crazy. There was a big roundabout right by the hotel and we had to get in that to get onto a main road to take us south and eventually onto the freeway. There are no lines painted for lanes in the roundabout, but there were probably four or five cars side-by-side in this roundabout. Shannon kept thinking that Ben was going to hit a car or someone would hit us. It was a relief to get out of that roundabout, but then that main road was crowded with slow traffic. It wasn't even rush hour or anything. That must just be how bad Paris traffic always is.

We rented a manual French car and Ben had to drive it the whole time, because Shannon only drives automatic cars. We didn't have a GPS in the car, so we relied on the driving atlas we had with us. We ended up taking some wrong turns and were in traffic for a while. We had to pay a couple of tolls in France. One toll was 16 Euros! That ended up being our most expensive toll. We had to purchase a driving permit sticker for Switzerland once we crossed the border. We drove through a lot of long tunnels in Switzerland. We took one little detour to stop at the LDS Switzerland Temple. After we took a few pictures of the temple, we continued onto Interlaken.

We stayed at Arnold's Bed and Breakfast for two nights in Interlaken. It was a nice place. The breakfasts were good. Interlaken is a small touristy town. We mainly just walked around to the different places.

One Full Day in Interlaken: We thought about taking a tram to the top of one of the mountains, but we didn't. This was the half-way point of our trip and we needed a break. We also had a lot of laundry to do. We went to a laundry place that is run by an old woman. The washers were small. The dryers were big, but they didn't dry very well. We spent 26 Francs on our laundry. It was good that we only had to laundry once on our trip. Later we went to a pharmacy and Ben talked to the woman in German. She recommended a nasal spray and a decongestion medicine, which we bought. Later we found a grocery store where we bought some Swiss chocolate and snacks. Of course we bought bottled water too. We drank a lot of bottled water on our trip. That night we went to Restaurant Baren for dinner. We got Swiss cheese fondue for two. We dipped bread in the fondue and got full from all that bread and cheese. The fondue tasted excellent. It was a nice restaurant with good food.

The next morning we ate breakfast and checked out. We drove to Austria where we would spend most of the rest of our vacation.

Europe Trip: Paris

2010-07-10T09:45:00.002-06:00

We arrived in Paris around 4:00 in the afternoon on May 30th. We took the Metro to a stop close to the B&B Hotel, where we would stay for four nights. We didn't do any sightseeing that evening. Instead we just walked around near our hotel, bought some snacks at a grocery store, and went to an Internet cafe, which had very slow Internet.

Breakfasts: The B&B Hotel had cereal, croissants, baguette pieces, bread, yogurt, scrambled eggs, and bacon to eat. The bacon didn't even look cooked though. We tried it the first day, but then we didn't eat it again. The scrambled eggs were sometimes a little runny and not cooked long enough. The only thing they had that we drank for breakfast was orange juice or a mixed juice. A lot of people drank coffee instead.

Day 1: We went to the Louvre in the morning for about 2 1/2 hours. The Louvre is so huge that you can get lost in it. We had a map of the museum, but it was difficult to understand. We saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and many other paintings and sculptures. Next we walked over to the Eiffel Tower. It was windy that day, so they weren't letting people go to the very top. We went to the second level, which was the highest we could go. Later we took a walk around historic Paris and we stopped at a take-away cafe to get sugar crepes for dessert. Those were good.

Day 2: We went to the Orsay Museum in the morning. That museum has lots of paintings. We first looked at the Impressionist paintings and then some other paintings. One of the more realist paintings was shocking to Shannon. She couldn't believe someone would paint that picture. Next we visited the Army Museum and Napoleon's Tomb. We walked up the Champs-Elysees street to the Arc of Triomphe. We went to the top of the arc. Aferwards we took the Metro over to Notre Dame. We went inside the cathedral, but we decided to not go to the top of the tower. Instead we went over to Saint-Chapelle, which is two cathedrals built on top of each other. The one on top is more impressive with its huge stain-glassed windows filled with biblical scenes. For dinner we went to a French bakery/cafe. We both ate baguette sandwiches for dinner and even got chocolate eclairs for dessert. The eclairs were delicous.

Day 3: Ben started to feel sick with cold symptoms, but we still went sightseeing. We took the RER over to Versailles in the morning. When we got there, we went inside the Chateau first. Shorty after we went through all the security and got our map, an alarm went off. Everyone had to evacuate the building. We didn't know what was going on. We just followed the crowd out to the gardens. We waited there for about 30 minutes and then we had to get back in line and go through security once again. This time the line was longer though. We didn't know when they started allowing people to enter the Chateau, because they never made any announcement. We went through the estate apartments in the Chateau and then we walked back out to the gardens. We wanted to walk over to the Domaine de Marie Antoninette, but they had construction going on in the garden area and they closed off part of the sidewalk that leads to the Domaine. We eventually found our way over to the Domaine, but it would have been nice if they had signs pointing which way to go instead. We visited the Grand Trianon Palace, the Petit Trianon, and several places outside. Afterwards we took the RER back to downtown Paris. We went to Notre Dame and climbed up the 400 steps to the top of the tower. There were some great views from the top.

The next morning we checked out of our Paris hotel and rented a car to drive to Switzerland.

Europe Trip: London

2010-07-07T09:05:00.000-06:00

Traveling: We left on May 25th to go to on our Europe vacation for 20 days without our children. We left in the morning to go to the airport. We first flew to Chicago on a small airplane, which didn't have much space for carry-on luggage. We actually had to valet check our two small suitcases when we got on the plane, because we were told they wouldn't fit in the overhead bins. Our flight was about three hours long. The plane arrived late in Chicago, so our layover actually wasn't very long. We got on a huge international plane for our flight to London. That flight was about 7 hours and 40 minutes long. We tried to sleep on the flight, because it was scheduled to land in London around 7:00 in the morning on the 26th.

Day 1: On our first day in London, we went on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour around the city. The tour lasted several hours. Afterwards we checked into the EasyHotel in Paddington. We had a tiny room, which made us feel like we were in a closet. The bed could barely fit in that small room. Some rooms didn't even have windows, but ours did. Later that day, Shannon rode a subway for the first time. We went on the London Eye, which is a giant observational ferris wheel. We saw some great views of London while on the London Eye.

Breakfasts: They didn't serve breakfast at our hotel in London. All the other places we stayed at served breakfast. Instead we ate breakfast at McDonald's a couple of times, and then we bought some food from a grocery store for the other two mornings.

Day 2: In the morning, we went to the Tower of London where we went on a 30-minute live tour. Then we walked around to the different buildings on our own. Afterwards we went over to St. Paul's Cathedral. We walked up all the staircases to the very top. We were both exhausted from walking up so many stairs. After that experience, Shannon kept referring to St. Paul's stairs and comparing other stairs to St. Paul's stairs. She didn't want to go up that many stairs again. That evening we walked over to Buckingham Palace and took some pictures there. Then we walked through Hyde Park, which is probably the biggest park we have ever been to. That night we ate at Micky's Fish and Chips, which was close to our hotel. Ben ate fish and chips. Shannon doesn't like fish, so she got a hamburger and chips.

Day 3: In the morning we went to Westminster Abbey. We had an audio guide tour there. Afterwards we walked around London. We finished our walk at Trafalgar Square and ate lunch there. Then we went over to the British Museum. Later we found the Chelsea FC Stadium. It wasn't on our map, so we wandered around until we found it. Ben wanted to see that soccer stadium.

Day 4: This was our tour day. We bought tickets online for a day tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford. It was a rainy day. We went to Windsor Castle, but we didn't go inside. Most of the other people on the tour went inside, but they didn't give people enough time to be inside the castle. The tour guide had a schedule to keep and we thought that it wasn't worth all that money to go inside for just a short while. Instead we took pictures from outside and bought a mini castle souvenir. Next we went to Stonehenge and listened to the audio guide. That was an amazing place to see. Afterwards we headed over to Oxford and went on a 30-minute walk with our tour guide.

On May 30th, we left in the morning to go to the train station, so we could travel to Paris.

Itty Bitty Baseball

2010-07-05T21:40:00.000-06:00

Noah took Itty Bitty Baseball during the first three weeks of May. His class was twice a week. He was on the Cubs team with all boys. Noah liked his baseball class. He practiced batting, throwing, and catching. He has tried four sports now (soccer, football, basketball, and baseball) and he says he likes all of them.

Easter 2010

2010-05-13T11:40:00.002-06:00

This year our children participated in three Easter egg hunts. On March 27th, our neighborhood had one hunt at the park, but there weren't enough eggs for all the children. So they decided to do a second hunt the following Saturday morning. The second hunt was better, and our children were able to get a lot of eggs.

Afterwards we went to Shannon's parents' house to celebrate Easter with her family. On Easter our children participated in an Easter egg hunt at Grandma's house with their cousins. That was fun for them. They got a lot of candy from all their hunts.

Also the Easter Bunny brought Easter baskets to Grandma's house for our children. Oriana and Noah were excited about that. Even Myles was excited. He likes candy just as much as his older siblings.

Shannon bought Oriana a new Easter dress. Noah and Myles have matching green ties, which they wore for an aunt's wedding. Shannon took several pictures of the kids in their new clothes. The best pictures were the ones with Oriana standing between the boys, because Myles kept on hitting Noah and wanting him to move over and get out of his way.

Myles's 2nd Birthday

2010-05-04T19:05:00.004-06:00

Myles had his second birthday on March 13th. We had a party at our house to celebrate with both sides of our family. We didn't plan on the electricity going out though. The electricity in our neighborhood went out about 15-20 minutes before the party was supposed to start. We thought about canceling the party, but we decided not to. Instead we used candles and flashlights as we celebrated Myles's birthday in the dark. It was an interesting experience. We were glad Myles wasn't scared being in the dark. The children thought it was fun having flashlights and playing around with them. The lights came back on before the party was over, so we were grateful for that.

Myles opened his presents with flashlights focused on him. He was excited to open his presents and get all the attention. Afterwards we ate cupcakes and ice cream. Myles ate his whole cupcake and wanted another one.

The next day we had a party for just our family, so not all our pictures would be in the dark. Myles opened the presents we bought for him. Myles got a toddler T-ball set. He likes to swing the bat, but we have to be careful that he doesn't swing the bat at one of his siblings.

Oriana's Basketball

2010-03-15T11:00:00.001-06:00

Oriana was on a Jr. Flash basketball team in January and February. The team had first graders and kindergartners on it. There were two other girls and seven boys on Oriana's team. Ben volunteered to be the coach for Oriana's team. Oriana played in eight games, one game each week. Her team practiced during the first 20 minutes and then they played against another team for 32 minutes (8 minutes each quarter).

Oriana said she had fun playing basketball. She struggled with dribbling and shooting the basketball. She was better at passing the ball and playing defense. Oriana seems to have liked dancing better though.

Itty Bitty Basketball

2010-03-09T20:00:00.001-07:00

Noah took a basketball class twice a week for three weeks in January. He was sick the first week and ended up getting an ear infection. Once he was taking an antibiotic, he felt much better. Noah was on a team with six other boys and one girl. The girl used to be on Noah's football team last fall. There were very few girls in the basketball class.

Noah learned how to dribble and shoot. When they played games against the other teams, the children would take turns with the ball. They would walk the ball down the court and then try to shoot a basket while the other team guarded the basket. The children didn't have to dribble the ball to the basket, but sometimes one of them would. Noah tried dribbling the ball down the court on his last day of basketball.

Noah had fun in his basketball class. He has tried three different sports. Next he will probably try Itty Bitty Baseball in the spring. After that the Itty Bitty classes start over again with soccer in the summer.

Pet Fish

2010-02-06T15:05:00.002-07:00

We finally decided to get pets. Our children are scared of dogs, so we decided to start out small with getting a few goldfish. We bought a fish tank and other supplies for our family Christmas present. The children each got to pick out and name a fish. Oriana named her fish Princess Sparkles, Noah named his Don, and Myles named his fish Go. We bought the fish on January 2nd at a pet store and by January 11th Don had already died. Noah was sad, so that same day we bought another goldfish to replace Don. Noah named the new fish Nemo. By the next morning though, Princess Sparkles had died. We didn't replace Oriana's fish. We told her that she and Noah could share Nemo. Myles's fish died on January 28th. So now Nemo is the only fish left.

Christmas 2009

2010-02-01T14:25:00.000-07:00

For Christmas this year, we visited both our families. First we celebrated Christmas Eve with Shannon's family. That morning Ben helped Oriana and Noah go sledding in the backyard at Grandma's house. The kids had fun sledding even without a real sled. They used a big plastic lid for a sled.

Later than evening, we celebrated Christmas Eve with opening presents. Shannon's sister Brittany made some homemade gifts. Oriana is wearing her new purple tutu with matching princess wand and Noah is wearing a cape with an "N" on the back of it.

We went back home on Christmas Day to see what Santa had brought us. Oriana got a scooter, Noah got a Transformers bicycle with training wheels, and Myles got a Tickle Me Elmo. Myles just loves Elmo.

That night we went to Ben's parents' house to celebrate Christmas. The kids exchanged presents with their cousins and received presents from their grandparents and other relatives.

Christmas Activities

2010-01-29T15:12:00.001-07:00

Our family went to the Festival of Trees at the beginning of December. This time Oriana and Noah got a Christmas tattoo on their cheeks. Oriana got an angel and Noah got a rocking horse one. Oriana and Noah made a couple of crafts at the Kids' Korner. Later we took our children to the mall to see Santa Claus. Shannon was upset about their new policy of not letting people use their own cameras to take pictures. So we didn't get pictures with Santa this year.

Shannon likes baking cookies. She baked Christmas cookies and treats for our neighbors for Christmas. The year before, Ben was on his "diet" so Shannon wasn't able to make all her goodies at Christmastime. Oriana and Noah like to decorate the sugar cookies

Oriana's Dance Class

2010-01-25T18:00:00.001-07:00

Oriana's dance class was called Kindergarten Combo at the Lehi Legacy Center. The class was once a week for three months, and she learned some ballet, jazz, and modern dance. At one point, there were ten girls in the class, but some dropped out. There were supposed to be seven girls from her class in the recital, but one didn't come. Oriana's dance recital was on December 3rd. Her class danced a jazz routine to "Run, Run Rudolph." They wore white leotards with red tutus and wore reindeer antlers on their heads.

Oriana did a good job dancing in the recital. She wasn't scared being on stage, because she wore her "magic" ring that her teacher gave to her and all the other girls in her class. Oriana had fun dancing. She is going to take a break from dancing until next fall though, when Shannon can sign her up at a dance studio. Shannon wasn't impressed with the dance program at the Legacy Center, so Oriana isn't going to take dance next semester there. Instead we signed Oriana up for a basketball class that starts in January. Noah will also be in Itty Bitty Basketball.

Noah's 4th Birthday

2009-12-15T13:05:00.001-07:00

Noah turned four on Sunday, November 1st. We celebrated his birthday at our house that night. Noah opened his presents, and we ate cake and ice cream.

The next day we went to Pirate Island Pizza for Noah's birthday dinner. Ben's family joined us for dinner that night. Oriana and Noah had fun playing games. They got balloons from the balloon man. This time Noah got a sword and Oriana got a purple cat. Noah also ate an ice cream sundae for his dessert.

Halloween 2009

2009-12-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

The Monday before Halloween, Ben carved a pumpkin and Oriana and Noah painted pumpkins. They all had fun. Oriana painted two pumpkins, because she got a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch at her school field trip.

This year for Halloween, Oriana dressed up as a witch, Noah was a clown, and Myles was Batman. In the afternoon, we went over to Ben's parents' house to visit with them. Then after dinner Ben took Oriana and Noah trick-or-treating. They got a lot of candy.

Myles will have to wait until next year to go trick-or-treating. The Batman costume was a size too big for Myles, but we had him wear it for a little while. He didn't like wearing the mask over his face, but we go a picture of him with it on.

Itty Bitty Football

2009-12-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

Noah took six classes of Itty Bitty Football in October. All the Itty Bitty sports are for children ages three and four. Noah was on the Cowboys team, which consisted of three boys and three girls. His team was the only one with girls on it.

Noah liked his football class just as much as his soccer class. Noah learned different skills and also played some games against the other teams. They don't keep score. The children each get a turn playing the quarterback and trying to run with the football before getting their flags pulled off. Noah had a lot of fun.

Circus Fun

2009-11-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

On September 26th, our family went to Salt Lake City to watch the circus. We had never been to a circus before. Oriana and Noah had a good time. First there were preshow activities and performances. Oriana and Noah dressed up in clown costumes. Then we watched a clown entertain us. We even watched an elephant paint a picture and shoot a basketball.

During the circus show, there was a lot of dancing, singing, and performing. Some people performed magic tricks while others performed stunts on a tightrope. Of course, there were animals in the circus too. The elephants and the tigers were the most interesting to watch.

Oriana's 6th Birthday

2009-11-13T09:30:00.001-07:00

Oriana turned six on September 18th. To celebrate her birthday, our family went to a new restaurant called Pirate Island Pizza. Oriana and Noah didn't even eat pizza there. They wanted to get grilled cheese sandwiches and fries for their kids' meals. They played some arcade games while we were there. Oriana and Noah liked the restaurant a lot.

On September 19th, Oriana had her first birthday party with friends. The theme for the party was Disney Princesses. Oriana wore her Snow White dress during part of the party. She played princess games with her friends and then opened presents. Afterwards we ate cupcakes and ice cream. Oriana had a fun birthday.

Oriana's Kindergarten

2009-11-09T20:20:00.005-07:00

Oriana was excited and ready to start kindergarten. She started kindergarten on August 27th. She is in Mrs. Harding's morning Kindergarten class. She gets to ride the bus to and from school.

Oriana is one of the oldest students in her class. She likes her class and her teacher. Oriana is a smart girl. She started reading before kindergarten. At the end of September, her school picked a student from each grade to be a student of the month. Oriana got to be the first kindergarten student picked for the school year. She received a certificate, a pencil, and a free meal from Cafe Rio. Ben took her out to lunch in October to Cafe Rio.

Itty Bitty Soccer

2009-09-14T09:00:00.000-06:00

Noah participated in a soccer class at the Lehi Legacy Center during the last week of July and the first two weeks of August. The soccer class is for children ages three and four. The class was on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for an hour. There were six teams (all country names). Noah was on Team Mexico. There were seven other boys on his team and no girls. Three of the teams had some girls on them.

Noah learned some different skills, such as dribbling, trapping, kicking, and goalkeeping. Noah liked being the goalie. Noah said that he liked everything about his soccer class except the part when he fell down. He fell down during one of the soccer games and he cried. It took him a few minutes to feel better and join his team again.

The last day of soccer was their fun day. Besides playing a couple of soccer games, they played "Duck, Duck, Goose" and even played with a huge parachute. Noah had a lot of fun and was excited for the balloon and sucker he got at the end of class. Oriana was jealous because she couldn't get a sucker. She cried all the way home.

Shannon, Oriana, and Myles got to watch Noah learn and play soccer. Noah enjoyed his soccer experience and now wants to try the Itty Bitty Football classes in October. Also Oriana wanted to take classes, so we signed her up for the Kindergarten Combo dance class at the Legacy Center. She will learn ballet, jazz, and modern dance in that class.

Cache County Fair

2009-09-04T10:55:00.004-06:00

On August 8th, we went to the Cache County Fair. It was cold and rainy that day. We were glad it didn't rain on us while we were there. First we saw the farm animals. Myles hadn't seen some of those animals before. Then Oriana and Noah went on some kiddie rides. Noah liked going on the rides. The last time we went to the fair (two years ago), Noah was too short to go on the rides. He was excited to go on them with Oriana this year. Afterwards we ate lunch at the fair. Ben and Shannon like going to the fair for the food. Ben got a funnel cake and Shannon and the kids ate scones for their dessert.

Bear Lake Vacation

2009-08-14T08:48:00.000-06:00

On July 7th, we went to Bear Lake for our family vacation. Ben's family goes there every July for a family reunion on his mom's side of the family. We stayed at Shannon's parents' cabin for a few nights.

We went to the beach three days while we were there. The weather was hot, but it was also windy especially the second day we were at the beach. One day we rented a jet ski with Ben's family. Noah and Oriana got to ride on the jet ski with Ben. The next day we went on a boat ride. Ben sat on a tube being pulled by the boat. One of his cousins was also on the tube and it was fun to watch them. After about ten minutes, Ben fell off the tube and landed in the cold water. Shannon was holding Myles during the boat ride and he fell asleep.

The first evening we were there, Ben's relatives had a pinata and all the little cousins got to have a turn hitting it. They always start with the youngest and Noah was the youngest one there that wanted a turn. (Myles is too young.)

Oriana and Noah liked building sandcastles and playing in the sand. Ben helped Noah make several sandcastles.

Myles got his feet wet in the lake and liked it. He also liked walking on the sand.

On July 9th, we took the kids to the swimming pool at the resort where Ben's relatives were staying. The kids went in the little kiddie pool for a few minutes after we had gone to the beach.

Chocolate Fondue

2009-07-31T11:10:00.000-06:00

On July 5th, Shannon made chocolate fondue in her new fondue pot. It was her first time making fondue and it turned out well. Oriana and Noah liked the chocolate a lot. We dipped bananas, strawberries, marshmallows, cookies, pretzels, and graham crackers in the fondue. It was really good.

Oriana and Noah liked dipping their food in the chocolate. We had to explain to them what double dipping meant. Noah still didn't understand even after we told him several times.

Bicycle Parade

2009-07-23T09:15:00.002-06:00

On July 2nd, Shannon and the kids participated in a bicycle parade in our neighborhood at 10:45 in the morning. She helped Oriana and Noah decorate their bikes. The parade route went on some streets around our neighborhood. There were a lot of kids in the parade and Oriana stayed with the crowd. Noah couldn't peddle fast enough and he ended up just riding down one street. Noah was frustrated and crying because he couldn't stay up with the rest of the kids.

Oriana had fun riding in the parade, but Shannon and Noah didn't. Shannon pushed Myles in the stroller and had to repeatedly stop to help Noah. He just kept getting more frustrated by the whole thing.

After the parade there were Otter Pops for the kids to eat. At least the Otter Pop cheered up Noah.

Lehi Round-Up Celebration

2009-07-15T13:14:00.005-06:00

On June 27th, Ben ran in the Lehi 5K Run at 7:00 in the morning. Later we went to the Lehi Parade at 10:00. Some of Ben's family members also came to watch the parade with us. Ben had put our two oversized camping chairs out before he ran in the race to save a good spot to watch the parade. He noticed that several other people already had their chairs out too. After the race, Ben discovered that our chairs were missing. We had gotten those chairs as a wedding gift and it is ironic that they were stolen on our 7th anniversary. We won't be leaving our chairs unattended again, even if we just live in a small, safe town like Lehi.

Oriana and Noah got a lot of candy at the parade. Noah ate a green taffy while we were there and he got it stuck all along the bottom of his teeth.

After the parade, Ben took Oriana and Noah to a park where there were other activities. Both Oriana and Noah got to ride a pony. Oriana also had fun in a bounce house.

Preschool Graduation

2009-06-02T13:06:00.003-06:00

Oriana graduated from preschool on May 26th. We went to the graduation program that night at a park in Lehi. There were two graduating classes at Candy Cane Lane Preschool. Oriana was in the afternoon class, which had fourteen boys and only five girls in it. Oriana became friends with the other four girls in her class.

For graduation, the kids all wore white trash bags for their gowns and little red caps with headbands attached to them. The kids sang all the songs they learned during the past school year before they received their preschool diplomas. Oriana loved going to preschool and she is excited to start kindergarten.

Mother's Day Weekend

2009-05-14T13:44:00.003-06:00

On Saturday, May 9th, we left the kids with a babysitter so we could go to the Harvest Restaurant at Thanksgiving Point. We made reservations for the Mother's Day brunch. It was expensive, but we used Shannon's gift card. The brunch was a buffet with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, meats, salads, artisan breads, breakfast items, and desserts. We ate a lot--probably too much. By the time we were ready for dessert, we were almost full so we weren't able to finish our dessert. Shannon loved the chocolate-dipped strawberries the best. The strawberries were so big and juicy and the chocolate just made them even better.

For Mother's Day, Shannon got a fondue pot so now she needs to try to make fondue from all those recipes she got from the fondue class. Also she got drawings and cards from Oriana and Noah. Noah gave her a paper flower decorated with glitter that he made in Primary at church. Shannon hates glitter, because it gets everywhere.

Easter Fun

2009-04-28T16:39:00.002-06:00

On April 11th, our HOA had an Easter egg hunt at the park by our house. We went to it with the kids, even though it had just rained. It was cold outside, but we were lucky that it didn't rain during the hunt. Noah and Oriana liked the Easter egg hunt. Noah got frustrated with trying to hold his bag and put eggs in it, so Shannon helped him out. Oriana seemed like a pro this year and just ran off with all the other kids to pick up as many eggs as she could. The hunt lasted a few minutes. There were a lot of children there and the eggs were gathered up quickly.

On Easter morning, Shannon helped Oriana and Noah dye hard-boiled eggs. They had fun. Oriana had the red dye, which really turned out to be pink, and Noah got to dye his eggs in blue.

Shannon dressed the children in their church clothes. Oriana got a new Easter dress and was pround to show it off.

After church the children got to see what the Easter Bunny brought them. Oriana couldn't figure out where her Easter basket was and she began to doubt that the Easter Bunny had come. She started to cry, but her tears vanished quickly once she saw her basket. Even Myles got a little stuffed bunny and an Easter book. Myles probably would have liked to get candy like Oriana and Noah, but he doesn't need it.

"Studio 5" Winner

2009-04-27T10:00:00.000-06:00

On March 12th, Shannon was chosen to play a game on a local TV show called "Studio 5." She played the game over the phone and won a prize worth $235. The prize included a Thanksgiving Point cooking class for four people, a $50 gift card to the Harvest Restaurant, and a gift basket. She was excited to find out that she was chosen to play the game, because everyone who plays it ends up winning a prize.

On April 7th, Shannon went to a fondue cooking class at Thanksgiving Point with her two younger sisters and her best friend. They learned how to make different cheese fondues, entree/dinner fondues, and even chocolate fondues. They got to try the different fondues. Of course, Shannon liked the chocolate ones the best. She had fun at the class and learned a lot about fondue.

Myles's 1st Birthday

2009-04-24T15:03:00.000-06:00

Myles had his first birthday on March 13th. We invited family to come over to celebrate his birthday. Shannon and the kids helped Myles opened his presents. Myles wasn't too interested in opening them. He would rather play with the wrapping paper.

Shannon baked a cake for Myles's party. Myles got to eat a piece of cake for his first time. He liked it a lot and even got upset when it was all gone. He wanted to eat more cake. He is just like our other two children. They are all good eaters. We haven't had a child that doesn't like to eat.

Hawaii Trip: Snorkeling and Hiking

2009-04-17T10:48:00.002-06:00

On March 7th, we went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, which is a popular snorkeling place on Oahu. We went snorkeling for about an hour and a half. It took us a while to get used to the snorkeling mask. It was Shannon's first time snorkeling. We had fun and saw a lot of fish. It was raining a little while we were there. We probably would have snorkeled longer if the weather was better.

Next we went to Diamond Head and hiked to the top of it. It took us a little over an hour to hike up and down Diamond Head. There were a couple of staircases on the hike toward the top. One set of stairs was really steep and the steps were narrow. Shannon was a little scared going down that staircase. We took some pictures from the top of Diamond Head.

On March 8th, we walked along Waikiki Beach in the morning. Later we checked out of our hotel around noon. We went to the U.S. Army Museum, which was intesting. Afterwards we walked around the International Marketplace. It was our last day in Hawaii, and the weather was sunny and warm. We wished we had one more day to spend there.

Our plane left around 9:00 at night. We slept on the plane as much as we could and arrived back in Utah at 6:15 A.M. (Utah time). There was a four-hour time difference on our way back home, because of Daylight Savings Time. Hawaii's time doesn't change.

We had a lot of fun in Hawaii. It was nice to spend some time together without our children.

Hawaii Trip: Polynesian Cultural Center

2009-04-08T09:50:00.001-06:00

On March 6th, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center, which is by BYU-Hawaii. A lot of students from the university work at the center as tour guides or performers. There are six islands represented at the cultural center: Hawaii, Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji, and Aotearoa (New Zealand). We bought the Super Ambassador package, so we had our own personal tour guide and got reserved seats at the different shows. At first there was a mistake and we were put in a tour group with a dozen other people, but we got things fixed. First we went to the Aotearoa village, where we learned how to play a stick game and swing poi balls. We also watched the cultural presentation.

Next we went to Fiji and watched another cultural presentation, which had a lot of dancing. Shannon got her picture taken with one of the performers. Next we learned how to make music with bamboo drums. After that our guide took us to Tonga where he told us about some of their cultural traditions.

Next we watched the Rainbow of Paradise Canoe Pageant. Each island had their own canoe and they performed dances and played music. That was interesting to watch.

Afterwards we watched the Samoan cultural presentation. One man made fire by rubbing sticks together, and he opened a coconut and squeezed the milk from it. Another man climbed up a coconut tree barefoot.

Then we went over to Hawaii, where we got our own personal hula lesson. We both learned a hula dance with arm movements that matched the words to the story/dance. We also tried raw poi, which is made from a taro plant. Both of us didn't like the poi.

We went back to Tonga to watch the Tongan presentation, which was about instruments. They had a good drummer and he showed a few audience members how to play the drum.

After that presentation, our guide showed us how to weave a fish using two leaves. We both weaved a fish and then our guide put them together for us.

We went on a canoe ride with two other couples. We got to view the different villages from the water.

Then it was time for the luau dinner. Everyone received a fresh flower lei when they came to the luau. There was entertainment during our dinner, which consisted of foods such as kulua pork, chicken long noodles, taro rolls, salad, rice, pineapple, and even chocolate cake. We both liked the pork, but Shannon didn't like the taro rolls. Eating a purple roll made with taro (same thing poi is made from) didn't appeal to her.

From 7:30 to 9:00 we watched the "Horizons" night show, which has performances from all the islands. It was the highlight of the night. We weren't able to take any pictures during the live performance, so we bought the DVD of it afterwards.

Hawaii Trip: Circle Tour of Oahu

2009-03-27T15:40:00.000-06:00

On March 5th, we went on a tour of the island, which lasted most of the day. We got on the tour bus around 7:40 in the morning. We started the tour in Waikiki (south part of the island) and traveled east and then went up to the north shore and back down to Honolulu. We drove past Diamond Head (we went there on a different day) and then stopped at Hanauma Bay for a little while (we didn't have time to go snorkeling on the tour though).

Other places that we stopped at were the Halona Blowhole Lookout, Sandy Beach, and Pali Lookout. Pali Lookout was extremely windy. Shannon's hair was blowing all over and Ben decided to keep his hat on the bus.

We went to the Valley of the Temples and got to see the Byodo-In Temple, which is a Buddhist temple there. Then we went to a macadamia nut farm, where Ben bought a couple of bags of macadamia nuts (Shannon tried one and didn't really like it).

After stopping at the Crouching Lion Restaurant for lunch, we continued our tour with Kahana Bay where we saw a lot of crabs. Then we went to La'ie Point and even stopped at the LDS Hawaii Temple (the temple wasn't a scheduled stop for our tour, but our tour guide stopped there for us).

Next we stopped at a fruit stand where we could buy fresh fruits grown in Hawaii. Ben bought a bag of coconut pieces. Shannon once again didn't really like the fresh coconut--it isn't like the shredded kind you can buy in stores. Ben liked the coconut a lot.

We drove past beaches along the North Shore before we stopped at Waimea Valley. We walked along the trail to get to the Waimea Waterfall, which is the same waterfall in the TV series "Lost." Also in Waimea, we saw a set for "Lost," which is the one with the upside-down airplane in the jungle. We were excited to see those sites, because we are fans of "Lost." (We also saw them filming "Lost" on a mountainside as we were riding on the tour bus.)

Our last stop was the Dole Plantation, where we bought pineapple ice cream. It tasted good. Then we drove through Honolulu and back to Waikiki. By the time we got back it was about 5:30. We enjoyed eating Haagen-Dazs ice cream that evening (although we already ate ice cream that day). We also went shopping at the International Marketplace in Waikiki, which has a lot of souvenir shops. One store you see a lot of in Hawaii is the ABC Stores. They are all over in Waikiki. It is a convenience and souvenir store. There is also a 123 Outlet store.

Hawaii Trip: Pearl Harbor

2009-03-19T10:04:00.015-06:00

We left for our trip to Hawaii on March 3rd. Our children stayed home and Ben's mother babysat them while we were gone. Our plane left around noon and we got to Honolulu around 3:45 P.M. (Hawaii time). There was a three hour time difference, so it felt like 6:45 to us. We went to the Halekulani Hotel, where we would stay for five nights. The Halekulani is a five-star hotel and resort and it was a very nice place to stay. We felt like we didn't fit in some of the time. We stayed in a junior ocean-view suite, which was really nice with two balconies that had great views. The hotel is right next to the beach at Waikiki. We got a buffet breakfast every morning at one of the restaurants at the hotel as part of our hotel package. The breakfast was wonderful.

On March 4th, our first full day in Hawaii, we took a taxi to Pearl Harbor. Because of security reasons, we couldn't bring bags with us to the Pearl Harbor sites, so Ben had to get a locker for his backpack. We couldn't even take a camera case, so we had to carry our camera without its case.

First we went to the USS Arizona Memorial. We got tickets for the memorial for 9:30 A.M., so we had nearly an hour to wait. We walked around the museum and the souvenir shop. When it was 9:30 we went into the theater and watched a short film about Pearl Harbor before we went on the boat ride over to the memorial. It was humbling to be there. A lot of people had died on that ship and their bodies are still in the ship underwater.

Next we went to buy tickets for the USS Bowfin and USS Missouri. We first went on the USS Bowfin Submarine. It was interesting to be inside a submarine. We took a guided tour of the submarine using headphones. Afterwards we went in the Bowfin Museum and also took a tour of that.

Then we had to wait for a shuttle to take us to the USS Missouri Memorial. We walked around the battleship and saw several rooms inside of it. It was a lot bigger than the submarine.

Afterwards we experienced riding The Bus back to Waikiki (the bus system on Oahu is called The Bus). We got on The Bus before it became full. A lot of people had to stand up. We rode The Bus for over an hour before we got to our stop.

Less than a week...

2009-02-25T15:32:00.005-07:00

until our Hawaii vacation. We are excited and can't wait to go. Ben has already started to pack for the trip. We have most of our days planned out with activities while we are in Hawaii so we should have lots of fun. We leave on Tuesday March 3rd and get back early morning on Monday March 9th.
We are still trying to work out some babysitting details, but Ben's mom will mostly be watching our kids here at our house. Hopefully the familiar settings of our house will help them adjust while we are gone. We are taking a calling card with us so we can call home often and speak with the kids to see how they are doing and make sure that they are not causing Ben's mom to go crazy.

We had a fun Valentine's Day with lots of treats and cookies. Shannon made sugar cookies with frosting. They were good. She also made Ben a cheesecake which he really enjoyed. We went bowling with Ben's extended family on President's Day. Shannon hurt her thumb on her very first bowl attempt, but she still had fun. Oriana and Noah got to bowl as well. The bowling alley had this little metal tracks for little kids to use. Basically Ben helped the kids put their bowling ball on the metal stand and then the kids could push it by themselves. Ben ended up winning with a score of 155.

Being sick is the pits

2009-02-02T11:14:00.004-07:00

So pretty much everyone in our family has had some kind of cold these past few weeks. It seemed to have started with Myles and then worked its way up the age ladder, ending with Shannon and Ben. The kids are pretty much over it, so hopefully they will not get it again. Shannon is getting better, but still has the sniffles. Ben is still feeling the affects, and he hardly ever gets sick. He even has pink eye! It must have been that some of the bacteria from his cold ended up getting in his eye and causing an infection. He gets to put antiboitic eyedrops in twice a day now, until it goes away. The cold seems to linger in the chest.

Yesterday, Ben's older brother blessed his third baby, a girl, in church. It was nice to visit family and eat some good food after the blessing. His brother has two boys and a girl now, like we do. We have a girl, boy, boy. Ben's brother has boy, boy, girl.

On Saturday, Ben took Noah and Oriana to a BYU men's basketball game. The tickets were free :) Shannon got to stay home with Myles. Ben enjoyed the game more than Noah and Oriana did. They were mainly interested in eating the snacks they brought with them. Oriana did like the girl cheerleaders and dancers and Noah liked Cosmo the Cougar mascot. They all had fun. BYU won the game so Ben was in a good mood when he got home.

Hawaii here we come!

2009-01-23T10:14:00.004-07:00

We are going to Hawaii! (well at least Ben and Shannon are) We are both very excited and we can't wait to go.
For the past year (2008), Ben's employer had a Health and Wellness competition for the whole company. The point of the competition was to help the employees become more involved in their health so they provided prizes as a motivation to get employees involved. The grand prize was a 5-night/6-day trip to Hawaii, plus $1,000 cash. The company would pay for airfare and the hotel stay.
At the beginning of 2008, those employees who wanted to compete for the Hawaii trip had to have their weight, BMI(Body Mass Index) and body fat percentage measured and recorded. They also needed a "Before" photo taken. Ben almost didn't weigh in because he thought there were other employees who would win, but he borrowed some shorts and did the weigh in. He started at 182.5 pounds, with 20.6% body fat and a BMI of 25.5. He also had his "Before" picture taken.
Ben changed a few habits right away. The main things he changed were his portion sizes when eating, and he added a strength training workout(3 times a week). This helped him lose 20 pounds in about 3 months. He was excited about losing the weight, but he knew that it was not enough to win the Hawaii trip. Ben kind of plateaued and didn't really lose any more weight for the next three months.
Ben knew he had to work hard and lose more weight the last 6 months of the contest if he wanted a chance to win the grand prize. He went on a strict diet and added more excerise. He did the P90X workout 2 times in those six months. P90X includes workout dvds and a laid out exercise plan for 90 days. It was an easy plan to follow and he borrowed the dvds from a coworker. He averaged about 2 hours of exercise a day, 6 days a week. He mainly focused on burning more calories than he ate, turning his body into a fat burning machine!
The hard part was sticking to his diet for that long, especially during the holidays. He kept with it and kept working hard. Finally, the day of the final weigh in to choose the winner arrived.
Ben weighed in at 139.5 pounds with 5% body fat and a BMI of 19.5. He lost 43 pounds! If you do the math (which we did), he only has 6.8 pounds of fat on his body. An "After" photo was taken as well.
This kind of improvement was good enough, that Ben won the grand prize trip to Hawaii! There was a meeting at Ben's work to the announce the winner and he was nervouse the whole time. Once he knew he was the winner, he called Shannon and she was way excited to here that he had won the trip. We will be going the first week of March and will be staying on Oahu. (Thanks a million to Ben's mom for babysitting our kids while we are gone.)
Please click on the images to go to a bigger picture.

Christmas 2008

2009-01-11T21:12:00.003-07:00

Sorry this post is late. We have been busy. For Christmas this year, we visited Ben's parents and siblings. On Christmas Eve, Oriana and Noah played with some nativity puppets that belonged to Grandma. Oriana decided she wanted to act out the Christmas story with the puppets, so she assigned the puppets to everyone she wanted to participate in the puppet show. Grandma and Grandpa got to be in the audience.

Oriana and Noah left sugar cookies for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. They were excited to see what Santa would bring them in the morning. Oriana woke up early and peeked at the gifts from Santa before anyone could stop her. Santa had left a little piece of a cookie, and that piece was gone by the time everyone went into the living room. Oriana eventually admitted that she had eaten the cookie and had seen her gift from Santa. Santa brought Oriana a Disney princess bike with training wheels. Noah got a Thomas the Train toy laptop, and Myles got a turtle toy from Santa.

We opened presents for our family on Christmas morning and then went over to Ben's parents' house to open up more presents and to eat lunch. After we came home, the kids wanted play with their new toys.

Shannon's parents and a couple of her siblings came to visit on the Sunday after Christmas to bring presents. It was nice to visit with them around the holiday season.

Trees, Trees, Trees

2008-12-15T19:29:00.005-07:00

We went to the Festival of Trees again this year. We went last year and enjoyed it so we decided to go again this year. We all liked it this year as well, so who knows, maybe it will turn into a family tradition. There were sooooo many trees to look at. Oriana really like a Princess tree and Noah liked the "blue" trees (since blue is his favorite color). Dad's favorite were all of the BYU trees. The kids got tired of all the walking, but they still had fun. We also went to the Kids Korner where the kids made a few crafts for Christmas. They both colored a Santa face and then they put cotton balls on for his beard to count down the days until Christmas.

We met with one of Mom's old college roommates that volunteers at the festival so they could catch up and talk for a few minutes. We bought a scone for everyone and also some fudge to take home. The fudge was mint and it was really good.

All of the money the festival raises, goes to benefit the Primary Children's hospital in Salt Lake City. It was a fun time and we get to help others out at the same time.

Christmas is coming up fast, but we are ready for it! We have done 95% of our shopping and most of the presents are wrapped and under the tree. Mom and Dad decided to get each other a "surprise" gift so those presents still need to be bought and wrapped.

The kids are getting excited for Santa to come and visit us and hopefully leave us presents. Oriana says that she and Noah are both on Santa's nice list so they both will be getting presents from him this year. I guess we will find out on Christmas morning!

It's Turkey Time

2008-12-01T10:44:00.003-07:00

Thanksgiving was great this year!
This year we went to Grandma Wallentine's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Well, it was actually at 1:30 in the afternoon, so I guess it was a Thanksgiving lunch. Either way, there was plenty of food and family and fun.

The kids ate until they were stuffed and then we all tried to take a nap. Dad was the only successful one. He fell asleep watching football. The kids were too busy playing with cousins to take a nap.

Lots of yummy pies were had by all and then we decided to call it a day and drove back home. Thanksgiving was a nice break from work and it was fun to spend time with family.

Since Dad graduated from college, he has been lucky enough to have his employer give him a turkey each year for Thanksgiving. It has always been a nice gift! Mom usually saves the turkey for later, since we usually eat at family's for Thanksgiving. She likes to cook at least one turkey a year.

We are really grateful for each other and the extended family that we have. We are also thankful for the many blessings that we have and enjoy, especially in these hard economic times. At Grandma Wallentine's house, we were asked to write down a few things we were thankful for this year and Dad wrote that he was thankful for his stable job. We do our best and try to give to those who do not have so much as us, when we can.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, the kids are counting down the days until Christmas! (25 days as Oriana reminded us.)

"Sleepover" Fun

2008-11-25T14:31:00.003-07:00

The "sleepover" was fun. We played Scene It Disney with the kids and we all had fun. Mommy ended up winning the game. We also watched Little Mermaid 3: Ariel's Beginning before we went to the "sleepover". It was a pretty good movie (not as good as the original).
The "sleepover" consisted of Daddy pulling out a mattress and putting it in the kids room. He also used his sleeping bag (because it was easier than getting sheets out). After a little fun, we finally fell asleep and got some rest.

Upcoming "sleepover"

2008-11-12T21:30:00.003-07:00

For a while now the kids have wanted Dad to "sleepover", meaning they want Dad to sleep in their room for the night.
This Friday night will be the night of the "sleepover". The kids are excited and ask every day "Is today Friday?" Dad is not as excited, but it should be fun.

We will probably play a game or watch a movie that evening and then Dad will sleep in the kid's room. Hooray!
We will report on how it goes.

Eventful week

2008-11-03T21:02:00.012-07:00

We had quite the week. We are lucky to have Halloween and then Noah's birthday the day after. We carved and painted pumpkins for Family Home Evening.

And then of course we had the big day for candy. The kids were so excited to wear their costumes and go trick-or-treating. It sprinkled rain a few times while we were out, but not enough to deter the kids from wanting to get more candy.

On Saturday, Noah had his birthday and turned 3 years old. He was excited to open his presents and eat some ice cream and cupcakes. We had a little get-together at our house with family.