Scott's Skills

 After posting about my trip last week, I realized I left out some important pictures...the ones about coming home.  In anticipation of my arrival home to gray and cold Utah, after almost two weeks in lush, summer weather, Scott very thoughtfully set the scene for my easy transition back into reality.  He bought flowers and put them by my bed and in my bathroom.  He wrote me notes (nice ones, but I'm not telling you what they say!), he and the girls cleaned the whole house, and I mean REALLY cleaned it.  It looked great!

They also made this cute sign (which I still haven't taken down).

When I walked in the door, Scott took my luggage up to my room and had me sit while the girls were ordered to give me foot and shoulder massages. Meanwhile, Scott made a dinner he'd planned - and dessert. I'd only eaten breakfast and airplane snacks that day so it was delicious...not that that's why it tasted good! It would've been delicious on any day! He did a fabulous job welcoming me home. It was beyond what I deserved.

Scott's got skills.
 

Example:  Our Michigan house BEFORE

and AFTER:

Nothing on this house was done by anyone but Scott (okay and I helped a little).  Until we got to the landscaping, he never hired anyone out to do any of the work.  We dug the foundation for the addition, poured the foundation, tore off and re-laid brick, tore off and re-roofed, painted, tore out old UGLY windows and replaced.  It was a lot of work.  And a lot of learning!  Scott had basic building skills, but didn't know how to do a lot of these things when he started.  One of my favorite pictures is of Scott sitting up on the tarped roof, shingles stripped off,  there's stacks of new shingles on the ground, ready to go on, and he's up there reading a book titled, "How to Roof."  Pablo Picasso said, "I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it." I'm glad Scott is not afraid to acquire new skills.

Here was my Christmas present a year ago:

A new mudroom.

Before, it was just a wall with hooks.  Scott tore down the old beadboarding and hooks and as it is tradition, we all colored and decorated the wall before he built...

...THIS!  I love my new organized mudroom!

I should probably end this before you think I'm bragging too much about my super-skilled hubby.  I just wanted to add one more picture, since it was from this week.  I was in charge of a big activity for all the youth in our ward that was supposed to be the "highlight of ward missionary week."  No pressure.  Scott asked constantly what he could do to help.  So I asked him to make tags for all 75 kids to wear the night of the activity.  They turned out perfect and all the kids loved them.  I was afraid some might not want to wear theirs, but they were all grabbing for their tags to put them on as soon as they saw them. 

So that's my post on Scott.  Usually I just post about the kids, so I wanted to give him the spotlight for a week.  Next week I'll go back to the kids...

Defrosting in San Diego

The first two weeks of March I got to take Clara and Benjamin and go to San Diego and enjoy warm, perfect weather, and beautiful scenery.  I've always wished I lived in San Diego.  It's beautiful, has the world's 2nd best weather (don't know where the 1st place weather is) and is close to the ocean.

The kids and I went with my mom and Grandma Patty.  We stayed in St. George the first night and visited Grandma's friends for dinner.  They were so nice to the kids and got out all their toys for them.  The kids had fun playing legos.

We visited the Mormon Battalion Museum in San Diego.  It was one of the best church visitor sights I've been to.  They take you on a tour through the life of a battalion member and set the scene for each part of the story.  Here, we sat on logs that were part of a camp scene and watched the first part of the movie played on the sides of white canvas tents.

After the tour, they have an area outside for the kids to practice their pioneer skills.

Benjamin was of course drawn to the big gun.

Beautiful!

Sea World...

Clara made us sick on the twirly-ride.  It was a good thing it was a relatively short ride.

Clara trying to stand like the flamingos.

Sea World also had a cool shark exhibit were you could walk thru a glass tunnel with sharks swimming over you.  Ben loved it and wanted his picture taken with the jaws afterwards.

We went to all the shows.  Shamu wasn't my favorite show, but watching those huge whales jump through the air was pretty incredible.

The San Diego Zoo.  Finally!  After being too sick to go when I first went to San Diego when I was 12, I've wanted to go ever since.  It was definitely worth the trip.  Owen (with Nathan and Shiara) joined us mid-week) and the boys had fun together...mostly being crazy. 

At the orangutang exhibit, one of them came up to the window, right up to Benjamin and just stared at him.  It lasted quite a while and drew a crowd.  Benjamin and the orangutang were nose to nose with just the glass between them at one point.  It was so cool!

We took the tram above the zoo...Benjamin's favorite part.  For days afterward, he kept asking if we could ride "the green things" again.

I thought these giraffes were cute...

Some of our best days were spent just hanging out at the pools at the resort.

Clara was obsessed with the water slide and went hundreds of times.

Another fun day, just staying "home" at the resort...fishing.  Didn't catch a thing, but the kids thought it was fun .

I love this picture of Benjamin pondering the scene before him.

 On a Sunday drive up in the mountains above where we stayed...huge rocks everywhere.  Houses just built around them like this house.  Their yard is just one ginormous rock.

This flower grows all over and was just starting to bloom while we were there.  It's called Ice Plant and it's actually more vivid than the picture looks. 

One last excursion - Legoland.  It was as crowded as Disneyland but with more crying, younger kids.  Clara thought it was so awesome that they got to meet the "REAL Bob-the-builder."

We waited forever for this ride - Benjamin got stuck against the curb within 5 seconds and spent most of the ride causing traffic-jams and accidents.  Hopefully his skills improve before he turns 16.

We got all the way to almost the front of the line (after 45 mins of waiting) for the horse ride and saw a small sign saying you had to be 4 to ride.  We prepped Benjamin for the rest of the wait to say he was 4 when the ride assistant asked him his age.  He did say 4, but it was very confusing for him later.  He kept asking how old he was wondering if he was 3 again and not 4.  

Lots of animals made out of Legos like these alligators you could spray with water.

I liked the bathroom signs...

There was a miniland area where they had famous landmarks and cities built from...you guessed it - legos!  Can you tell which is the real one?

Ok, maybe the billboard gives it away.  Took this picture on the trip as we were passing through Vegas.

Mom playing cards with the kids at night.

Benjamin got good at napping in the car during our trip, with all the driving we did.

Going home...Benjamin (and I - because I was so excited for him) was thrilled to be on an airplane.  My other kids flew so much because we did more flying when we lived in Michigan.  But Benjamin had no memory of ever flying.  As soon as we took off he said, "This is SO COOL!"  and then the entire trip he constantly asked, "What are we doing now?  What's the plane doing now?"  This picture captures his excitement (and his chocolate-covered face) pretty well...