Vacation -- Part 1

Before we left on vacation Abbie made this cute flower on the front steps for us out of peach pits she and the neighbor boy collected. The beginning of every story has to grab you and make you beg for more right? Well the beginning of our our story at the time didn't grab me in at all....it was quite frustrating...but in hind sight, it makes for a good story. (And I am SO glad this story doesn't include my sweet little Spencer because if it had I may be locked up in a little padded cell.) And for anyone who didn't know Ken had meetings in Washington DC and since that paid for a hotel we decided that I would bring Mark and Jessie and join him for the week. And so it begins...

We dropped Abbie and Spencer off for a week of sleepovers at Grandma's house. Spencer almost didn't even say good bye to me because he was playing hide-and-go-seek with Grandma and was hiding in her laundry basket and didn't want me to give his hiding spot away.

The trip to the SLC airport was uneventful except we couldn't find a good place to put the apple cores from the apples we ate on the way up. (I better go check Ken's car for those before he heads to work on Monday.)

As we boarded our first plane Mark and Jessie were SO excited to be flying. We found our seats, put our packs under the seats in front of us and tugged at Mark's seat belt because he wanted it really snug and waited....and waited....and waited....and waited and waited for over two hours....just sitting there. We were informed they were fixing the air conditioning unit and since we were all going to miss our connections we could either be rerouted to a different airport, or we could wait until tomorrow to go! This is where a little bit of panic set in. Ken was going to pick us up at the airport so I hadn't even bothered to get the name of our hotel or the address. A very nice guy let me borrow his phone to call Ken...but no answer! Ahhh...so I pack the kids up and we truck to the front of the plane to see when the flight for tomorrow would land in DC. It would have us in at 4:00 the next afternoon (a whole day of vacation wasted). So we try phoning again and thank goodness Ken answers and we get the details of the hotel and let him know we'll see him about 1:00 am.

When we walked off the plane at the Dulles airport (instead of the Regan airport) this fun light board greeted us and the kids were totally impressed. Mom, get a picture of this was the cry and so with a few chuckles from the people getting off behind us I ran to catch up and take their picture. After getting our suitcase we wondered around a bit trying to figure out what to do since none of the city buses did midnight runs and I had no idea were we really were. Some helpful gentlemen pointed us to the line to get a taxi, but warned us it'd probably be $65 to $80 to get to DC. Not seeing much other choice we got in line for another first: a taxi ride.
The drive was very nice and when it only ended up costing about $53 I felt I was getting a great bargain. We knocked on Ken's room and woke him up right about 1:00 am. The kids were so excited to tell him everything that it was even later when we finally got to sleep. I don't have a clue how Ken got up for meetings at 7:00 the next morning because the kids and I slept until 10:00.

We missed breakfast...got a little turned around walking around the block our hotel was on...but eventually ended up at McDonald's, ate and went to our first Smithsonian. It had works of art by women in it and the first two levels were quite interesting. The other levels were a little weird. Jessie really loved this picture. They had pictures here from the 1500's! Since educating women was highly unpopular back then then most of the women painters were either married to a painter or were the daughters of painters. There works were quite impressive. I think my favorite was one of Mary with Jesus as a toddler sitting on her lap. Mary's expression conveyed so much love.
This is a beautiful chandelier on the second floor.

Our second stop was the National Aquarium. This flag was on the building next to it, but it was so beautiful.

The sea turtles and the alligators were the kids favorites. We also got to watch the paranas being fed and although it wasn't quite as spectacular as one might imagine it was very interesting to learn about them from the lady who fed them.

The February Holidays

For Valentines we had our traditional dinner with Ken's family. Ramona and I usually plan a mystery dinner. We come up with fun names for the food, make a menu and decorations.

One year everyone got to order their food from the menu (with made up names) and some had quite the silly dinner with dessert for their main course and veggie for dessert. Last year Jessie and her cousin helped us make the decorations. We also had a "love tree" everyone got to trace their hand, to add it as a leaf, and then sign it.

This year after dinner, which was just buffet style with little name tags by the dishes, we passed around papers and wrote what we loved about each person. It was fun to get your paper back and read through it.

This year for part of the meal we had "twisted valentines." Jessie and Abbie helped me make heart shaped bread sticks. But before we shaped them we took two long pieces of dough and twisted them together. They turned out pretty stinking cool!


A dear friend in the ward made these cute wands and capes for my kids for Valentines Day! They are just too much fun. Today Abbie and Spencer's wands accompanied us shopping. President's Day marks the beginning of the BBQ season in the Payne family. I was in charge of dessert and made these fun corn on the cob cupcakes. I thought they were perfect for the occasion and they were SO easy!!

This morning in the freezing cold Abbie and Spencer decided they would go outside and draw with sidewalk chalk. They actually stayed out longer than I thought they would. Then they came in and played with dice. This is Spencer's snake. It has a tongue (the blue one), a head (the white one), a neck (the black one) and a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, a back, and a tail. He was quite entertaining.

Silly Kids and a few more Hair Dos

We had Family Home Evening on Tuesday this week because we just couldn't get it together on Monday. For the opening song, Children Singing Around the World, Mark "accompanied" us with his harmonica he got for his birthday. After the prayer we got to sing the same song yet again and Abbie and Spencer couldn't resist helping Ken out with some bunny ears while he sang. Ahhh...the memories from FHE.

Abbie, Spencer and I made a few Valentines for their friends to deliver around the block. Well, actually Abbie helped make Valentines and Spencer sang silly made up songs to us while he used two of Mark's arrows for a violin. After his concert he spied the Halloween costumes in the closet in the craft room... Not wanting to be a party pooper we delivered our Valentines all dressed up.

This is getting to be too much fun. Here are a few more dos.In case you're wondering which of my kids this is....it isn't.....it's Jessie's friend. She came over a little early before school so she could have a few hearts too.

Random Things

Jessie got to participate in the science fair this year. Her project was finding out what helps apples slices stay the whitest. She has this thing with the slightly browned apples in her lunch and they almost always come back home with her.

She tried: lemon juice, salt, pineapple juice, sugar, oil, butter, peanut butter, ground oatmeal and milk. The first three on the list were about the same for the first couple of hours, and then the lemon juice won out. So next time you give you kids apples slices for lunch put a little lemon juice on them so they don't come back home with them. Saturday morning we had a breakfast for everyone serving in primary. Then Grandma Jennie came over for lunch. Abbie enjoyed reading a new favorite book we picked up at the library called Romeo and Lou Blast Off by Derek Anderson. You can always spot a good book when the adult reading it is chuckling and this is one of those books.

After lunch we celebrated Grandpa's birthday. Abbie insisted on sitting on Grandpa's lap while he opened presents. It was an enjoyable afternoon.

Spencer being the ham that he is kept teasing Grandma trying to get in all the pictures and then getting way to close when she tried to get a picture of him.

Sunday morning Ken and the kids made chocolate chip cookies while I finished preparing my sharing time for primary. After church we had a friend whose wife was out of town over for dinner and then another family joined us for cookies and milk. We played Apples to Apples with the whole group and had quite a fun evening.

Abbie reading to Spencer -- how sweet!

I discovered a new way to celebrate Valentines Day with hearts in your hair. Check out the hair blogs in my sidebar and you to can add a whole new dimension to your celebration. Who would've thought???

Abbie and Spencer helping me test out the Shutter Speed Priority on my camera. Boy did they have fun jumping around!

More Sledding

Grandma invited Jessie and Abbie over to make jewelry. Needless to say they were SO excited. They showed off their handiwork when they got home. Thanks Grandma!!

We went sledding again this past weekend. This time we went down to Big O and got some intertubes that go in tires for mom to ride on. (The sleds just kill my knees and backside!) Jessie, Mark and I really had fun making a train.

Megan thought the snow was sand and buried Mark and Abbie. That sounded a little cold for me.

I would not recommend going over this jump at the golf course!

Birthday and Baptism

This morning Abbie and Spencer made a pillow fort in my room. It looked pretty cozy and they had fun playing together. Abbie is trying to give her balloon bunny ears in this picture.

That evening we had a friends party for Mark. No offense, but I'm so glad I don't have all boys! (Not like I have much control over what I have, but I'm so thankful that Heavenly Father gave me a few girls too.) We had homemade bread sticks and spaghetti for dinner, played pictionary and then had a treasure hunt. Trying to figure out the code for the first clue was about the only time the WHOLE evening there was quiet.

After cracking the code, putting together a puzzle and reading a book the boys came to my favorite clue. They each got part of a poem stuck to their forehead and had to put themselves in order. Once they were in order they laid the poem face down and the backs spelled out where there last clue was. With each clue there was "prize."

The prizes were ingredients to make owl cupcakes: banana runts, oreos, junior mints and cupcakes.

We had one cyclops owl. Isn't it great!

It was pretty fun and easy enough that all the boys got them put together.

One boy brought Mark a baptism towel. Mark was thrilled! (He later told me he really loved the flames on the football because he can throw one so fast. Orange is Mark's favorite color right now....)

About 2 or 3 o'clock Saturday morning Mark woke up with the stomach flu. He was so sad because he didn't want to miss his baptism. He asked Ken for a blessing and by 7 that morning he had beat Ken and I out of bed and was his happy bouncy self.
Mark got to be dunked twice. He was a little disappointed about that, but Jessie kept telling him how lucky he was. Afterwards he told me that really he was only baptized once, because "if you don't go all the way under that's not being baptized." Thank you to all our family for such a special day.

Spencer is always himself -- can you tell?!