Let's Play Music Showcase

Jonas has been participating in a Let's Play Music class for several years. We started four years ago with their Sound Beginnings curriculum and this is his second year with Let's Play Music. This is an awesome program that focuses on creating a wholistic musician rather than just a piano player. He has learned skills such as perfect pitch, audiation, chord theory, classical music study, note reading, solfege, composition, and more. And the best part is he LOVES it! He gets so excited that he can read music and play the notes on the piano. Because of COVID, last year's end-of-the-year showcase was a virtual one so this was his first Let's Play Music showcase (or recital). He was thrilled to have Jeff join us to see all that he has learned. He got to sing with his class and play two pieces (also with the class). He was super happy to earn a medal too (although he's more excited about composing his own piece of music for next year's showcase and earning a trophy). He has worked hard and we were excited to celebrate him!

Happy Easter

Spring is here (which, in Utah, means coats and gloves one day and short and sunglasses the next)! My flowers are blooming and the trees are filled with blossoms. I love the hope this season brings. The hope of sunnier, warmer days; the hope of fun-filled summer days with the family; the hope of light - the light of the sun and the light of His son. This week we celebrated Easter. In years past, we have celebrated the traditions of Spring (egg coloring and hiding) on Saturday and our Savior's resurrection on Sunday. Sometimes, I feel like the fun of the spring traditions overshadows what this holiday is really about. So, instead of just spending one day on our Savior, I decided we would celebrate Him during all of Holy Week. Starting on Palm Sunday, we would take some time each morning to read about what our Savior was doing that day leading up to his death and resurrection. Most days that was it. We'd read, I'd pose some questions, and our day would ensue. However, there were a couple of days that we took more time to ponder His life and the events of that day. On Palm Sunday, I set out a palm leaf center piece then I made pan-fried hearts of palm to accompany our dinner that evening. The kids weren't overly excited about the hearts of palm so I may have to find a different recipe for next year, but they LOVED the palm "sundaes" we had for dessert. (I made the little palm trees out of pirouette cookies and mint leaves.)

Thursday was Passover. In the morning, we read about the last supper and Christ's suffering in the garden of Gethsemane. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I never really pieced together that Christ was celebrating the feast of the passover when He had the last supper. I guess I knew it because I had read it in the scriptures, but I think I glossed over it and didn't really register that His last supper was the Jewish feast of the passover. As I studied the traditions, rituals, and meaning behind the passover meal, I grew more excited to share this with my family, especially since we are studying the Old Testament in Sunday School this year. Moreover, we just finished studying about the Exodus and the institution of the Passover. Unfortunately, Danny had other obligations and wasn't able to join us for dinner, but Jeff, Jonas, and I sat down for a semi-traditional Passover feast. I decided to try to keep it as simple as possible. The Passover feast is a dinner event. There are at least 15 different steps and at least 7-8 of those happen before the actual meal. There are 4 glasses of wine (or sparkling cider in our case), ritual hand washing, tearing and hiding pieces of the unleavened bread, and more. Instead of going through each step, I summarized the whole dinner process and talked about how Christ probably used the moment of breaking bread and one of the glasses of wine to teach his apostles about the sacrament. We talked about the meaning behind the foods on the Seder plate and described how those foods taught the children of Israel about the coming of the Savior. For dinner, we had some tilapia, lentils, olives, grapes, charoset (the apple sauce type mixture from the Seder plate), and naan bread. 

Friday we read of Christ's crucifixion and pondered his death. On Saturday, Christ laid in the tomb...and we celebrated Spring. Jonas woke up super excited to finally color and hide eggs. All the other kids weren't going to be available to participate until that evening, but Jonas and I started the party early. I got several different coloring options for Jonas to decorate eggs (none of the older kids are interested in coloring eggs and Carter is still too young to understand, although he still "colored" with my help a couple of eggs when he arrived). He loved the speckled eggs that he created using dye markers and a little balloon sprayer. He took his time with all the eggs. He was patient enough to leave the eggs in the dyes longer than normal to get those deep, vibrant colors. I think I'm going to have to start stepping up my coloring options so we keep it fun and interesting as he gets more involved with the process.

He finished coloring the eggs and I finished all the food prep but the rest of the family still wasn't there. Jonas couldn't wait any longer so we decided to just hide his candy-filled, plastic eggs too. I hid them twice and he found them all twice. He even found one of the golden eggs! He got to have a head start on looking for those eggs (and Jeff even re-hid the egg Jonas found so the older kids could have the same amount of opportunities). Finally, everyone else showed up and the egg hunt continued. I think Jeff enjoys this more than the kids do. He does the golden eggs each year. He loves watching the kids agonize over finding those eggs. I fill 6 plastic eggs with candy for each of the kids (even our adult, married kids), but I'm pretty sure they never find all 6 of those eggs because they are too consumed looking for the golden eggs. There are 4 golden eggs. Casey, Dallin, and Danny found one each but as the night grew on, there was still one egg missing. The rule was that you could only claim one egg until everyone else gave up, then the missing eggs were free game. Well Dallin wanted to make sure he was in a position to get that missing egg if and when his other siblings gave up. He searched well into the dark hours for that egg. I was worried that perhaps the egg had moved since we'd had a pretty good windstorm whip through our area a few hours before, but Sunday morning, Jeff checked and the egg was still in its hiding place. (Yes...it was finally located. One of Dallin's friends actually found it...and got to keep the cash inside.)

Some of the fun Easter foods we ate.

Sunday morning, everyone woke up to their fun Easter baskets. Jonas loved his new military toys and, of course, all the candy. After diving into their Easter baskets, our focus shifted from the celebrations of Spring to the celebration of our Savior. The rest of the day we really tried to focus on our Savior and His resurrection. Since Laurin and Casey are moving into Gma Penny's house when Gma and Grumpy move into the little house we're building on our property, they wanted to visit that ward. Jeff decided to take the opportunity to allow his mom to go to church while he volunteered to stay with Gma Thompson. Thus said, Jonas and I decided to go with Gma Penny, Grumpy, Laurin, Casey, and Carter to that ward. Jonas was even excited to stay for singing time since Gma Penny is the primary chorister. Dallin and Danny attended a mission homecoming for one of Dallin's friends (and Amber and Jacob spent the day celebrating with Jacob's family). Later that afternoon, we gathered all the kids (minus Jacob and Amber) for a little Easter lesson and to make resurrection rolls (or empty tomb rolls). We discussed all the prophecies of Christ in the Old Testament and read of their fulfillment in the New Testament. We talked about what our Savior means to each of us and how the hope of His life, death, and resurrection has affected us. I was grateful for those moments of discussion. I felt like it was the perfect ending to our Easter week. I am grateful to have and to feel the hope of the season that comes from my Savior, Jesus Christ. I am grateful for a beautiful family that chooses love. I couldn't have asked for a better week/weekend.

Spring Break

Spring Break already?! I can't believe April is here! The boys were more than ready for Spring Break (although I think they secretly and not-so-secretly wished it was really summer break). Unfortunately for Danny, his break was spent being sick and dealing with a concussion. The Thursday before break, Danny got hit during his lacrosse game. He blacked out for a few seconds and has dealt with a headache on and off since then. On top of that, he came down with a pretty bad cold. When he wasn't sick, he spent his week helping Jeff and Grumpy with construction on the little house. Needless to say, he didn't have a memorable pen-ultimate Spring Break. Jonas, on the other hand, lived it up! He started Spring Break by cashing in his Christmas present from Dallin. Dallin gifted Jonas a date with him. They rolled it into a sleepover. I dropped Jonas off with Dallin on Friday, April 1st, after school. From there, they got dinner at Chick-fil-A then met up with Dallin's friend and her little sister. All of them went swimming at the Provo Rec Center until it closed at 10:00. I was sure Jonas would have crashed after that, but they decided to watch the animated movie, Mulan, and enjoy some treats. Jonas stayed up past 1:00 a.m.! Good thing he was with Dallin; he knows I would have never lasted that long!

On Monday, Jonas and I flew to AZ to spend a few days with Gma and Papa (and Nichole, Kate, Ryan, Michael, and Jackie). The main reason for the trip (other than to visit my family) was to see the Easter pageant. This is a musical production put on by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the temple grounds. It chronicles the life of Christ (obviously in summary form) and has played every year at Easter since 1938. It originally started as an Easter sunrise service, but has since grown to a 70 minute theatrical production with over 400 cast members.  For the last four years, the Easter pageant has been put on hold while the Church renovated and fully remodeled the temple and its grounds. I was excited to go back to see it and to share it with Jonas. I grew up seeing the pageant every year; now I got to introduce it to my son. In any case, we flew in to AZ around 2:30 p.m. Jonas was sooooo excited to go! He could barely wait until it was time to go. In fact, he was so excited that we ended up being the first ones at the airport and through the security line. After we arrived, we hung out with Papa until we met up with everyone to have dinner at Pita Jungle that evening. After dinner, we went to see Kate's musical performance group perform at a local retirement community. Jonas then went to spend the night at Nichole's house.

On Tuesday, Gma and Nichole took work off so we packed in as much as we could! We started the day heading south to Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Farm. Now if the name doesn't sound fun enough, the activities definitely were! It was just a big farm with a variety of animals that we got to feed. There were birds, goats, deer, donkeys, turtles, ducks, stingrays and more. Jonas especially loved the stingrays and the lorikeets. He was even brave enough to kiss a goat! Ok...not really but he held a piece of food in his mouth and the goat came out to snag it from him. I was more than willing to let Jonas take my piece of food too. He was pretty brave with the stingrays too. He had no problem letting them glide over his hand and suck up the squid. I, on the other hand, pretty much freaked out when I felt it suck up the food. The lorikeets were really fun though because they would come up and land on you while they ate the nectar you had. The only fear I had there was whether or not they would poop on me.

After feeding all the animals, we drove over to Picacho Peak to look around for a moment. Papa told Jonas all about the Civil War "battle" (more like a small skirmish) that was fought here and the Mormon Battalion that marched through here. Jonas loved hearing the stories. He really enjoys history, especially anything about wars.

Finally, we headed back to Nichole's house so that Jonas could swim. The water was still a little too chilly for me to want to hop in, but Jonas didn't mind. He is a little fish! While he jumped, flipped, and swam, I soaked in the smell of the citrus blossoms and enjoyed the final juicy oranges off the tree.

Nichole had other evening plans so we headed back to Gma and Papa's house to have dinner with Michael and Jackie. Mikey then turned on the Nintendo Switch for an hour or more of video game fun with Jonas before we called it a day.

Gma took Wednesday off of work too! We started our morning with a nice stroll around the Gilbert Riparian Preserve. It's this little desert oasis in the middle of the city. It's like a desert version of Central Park. There are several ponds with different wildlife throughout. We saw geese, turtles, rabbits and a few birds. 

After the preserve, Gma and Papa treated Jonas to some arcades at Fat Cats then a donut at Bosa's for an Easter gift. Lucky for us, the arcades were half-off on Wednesdays so we got to play twice as much! And who can go wrong with a donut?!

Later that afternoon, we returned to Nichole's so that Jonas could swim a little more before Nichole, Kate, Jonas, and I went to the pageant. (Gma and Papa decided it was a little too warm for them to attend that evening.) We showed up early enough to grab some good seats. Just like when I was younger, we brought dinner with us to eat while we waited for the production. Thankfully, Kate was there so she and Jonas were able to wander the temple grounds and keep themselves occupied while we waited for it to start. About an hour before it starts, several cast members start wandering through the crowds. Jonas appreciated all the costumes but was most excited about the Roman Soldiers. What little boy wouldn't be?! Finally, the pageant started. Jonas decided to sit on my lap so he could see better. I didn't mind. I got to share this incredibly nostalgic pageant with my son. All those years that I attended as a child, youth, and young adult couldn't compare to sharing it with him. The pageant was drastically different this year. I guess they thought they would change things up since they had a 4-year hiatus, but it was still just as poignant as in years past. It still testified of our Savior. It highlighted his miracles and his ministry. It portrayed his excruciating death and unfailing love. It delivered hope in the face of death and grace in the darkness of sin. Tears streamed down my face as I contemplated His life, His love, His mercy, and His grace. 

Thursday (April 7th) was our last day. We said goodbye to Nichole and Kate Wednesday night. Gma returned to work on Thursday so Papa hung out with us. He took Jonas to an army surplus store. Jonas has loved all things army lately! He is often fighting imaginary battles at home. He found some patches and an army jacket that he got. 

We then headed to the Mesa City Cemetery to visit my grandmother's and aunt's gravesite. We also located Papa's grandparents' headstones too. (I am still on my quest. The majority of graves I have left to visit are in AZ...just not in the valley. I'll have to do a solo trip to see those.)

Afterward, we took Jonas to a trampoline park before getting Joe's BBQ for lunch.

It was finally time for us to return home. We had a couple hours to just chill at Gma and Papa's before we needed to go to the airport. Jonas and I played air hockey and Chinese checkers and built things with K'nex until Gma got home from work and we all went to the airport. It was a quick trip, but Jonas and I were both glad we got to go.

Just because we got back to Utah didn't mean that Spring Break was over. We still had at least one more day of fun! Friday morning, Jonas and I went to the Tulip Festival at Ashton Gardens. This is one of my most favorite times to visit the gardens. I love the tulips! It was opening day so there were lots of people, but we didn't mind. We searched for the klompen (the little wooden shoes) throughout the gardens as we admired the flowers. We enjoyed a picnic in the secret garden, played yard games by the fragrance garden, and shed tears in the Light of the World garden. It was as we were admiring the statues of Christ's resurrection that we received word that Gma Thompson (who was admitted to the hospital last Sunday) has chosen to no longer seek treatment for damage to her heart and some internal bleeding and instead go on hospice. Jonas could see that I was visibly sad as I looked at the statue of the resurrected Christ. I explained what hospice meant and while I tried to reassure him that Gma could have much more time than we think, he started to cry. We found a quite bench to sit on as Jonas let his tears flow. I simply stared at the statues and felt an overwhelming sense of peace and gratitude. I will be sad when Gma T returns home, but as I looked at the prints in Christ's palms, I felt hope knowing that this life is not the end. I simply let Jonas cry until he had no more tears then we finished walking around the gardens.

We decided that we weren't ready to go home so we went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity for another couple of hours. This is such a fun museum, but I realized that Jonas is less and less excited about the activities there. Still, there are a few things that can hold his attention. I think we have another couple years to enjoy it until it becomes too juvenile to him. Finally, we ended our date with a trip to Handel's Ice Cream. It was a first for both of us and we'll be back! 

I can't believe Spring Break is over. I can't believe the boys only have 7 more weeks of school. I can't believe that next year at this time Danny could have his mission call! We are entering the final year before he serves. It's crazy how quickly time flies. I guess that's why we have to embrace the moments when they come and just live in the present.