May 1, 2022
We had an amazing week at Disneyland! We drove down on Monday and checked into our hotel with Kassie's parents. Hinckley had eaten so much junk food that he ended up throwing up his fiery Cheetos around midnight that night...but luckily was feeling better the next day. It was a magical trip and everyone had a wonderful time on the variety of rides and such. Addie was in heaven getting autographs from princesses and the boys enjoyed the thrill rides. There are some new Star Wars rides that are quite incredible. They also had a ton of fun swimming in the hotel pool and all thought the shuttle to the park was a pretty great "ride" as well. We drove home Friday and got back to regular life this weekend with Saturday chores, Addie’s soccer game, Hinckley’s tennis, and ....Greyson peeing on the floor behind the couch. I also spent a good amount of time moving Greyson’s bed into the office and taking down my office so now it is his room. Sort of sad as I really loved that space. I hope this will be good for all the kids moving forward and that they can get along and have more peace in our home with room situations. I'll be working at the Weave office most of the time moving forward.
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| Day 1 in the Park |
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| Splash mountain with H |
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| Matterhorn with H, Mom, G, and Grandad |
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| Storybook ride |
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| Ice Cream on Main Street USA |
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| Princess castle splendor |
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| Its a Small World After All |
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| Storybook ride - Elsa's castle |
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| King Arthur Carasoul |
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| Autotopia with Greyson's crazy driving |
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| First ride of the day on Space Mountain |
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| Entering the Haunted Mansion |
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| Relaxing at the Hotel Pool |
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| Arriving in time for the parade |
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| Rest time at the hotel |
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| Cars ride after brutal wait in line |
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| Greyson and Grandma on Cars ride |
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| Incredicoaster for the 3rd time |
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| Grizzly Falls post wet ride shot |
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| Ready to go home |
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| California Adventure |
There were many highlights and memorable things, I’ll provide a few bullets here:
- First rides on day 1 with Hinckley - Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain and the Haunted House. He was jumping for joy at it all, enthralled by the sheer wonder and magic of each ride. He was able to ride in the “driver's seat” for Indiana Jones and screamed/laughed the whole time.
- Greyson, Addie, Kas, and her parents had a blast with other rides that morning but for Greyson, the highlight was the haunted house and for Addie, it was seeing princesses with Grandma (after waiting for over an hour). She was in heaven.
- On day 2, Greyson and Kas came with me and Hinckley to Space Mountain and we got on the first coaster of the entire day! Greyson was quite amazed by it all and was shaking with emotion by the end. We all went on the Matterhorn as well which was super fun though G was pretty afraid of the Yeti guy.
- I had some time with Addie and took her on “It’s a Small World” and she was amazed by it and loved it so much. I had taken H on that earlier in the day and it was fun to see how different that ride was for both of them. Addie kept commenting on how cute everything was and it was pure magic for her.
- On day 2 we tried coming home earlier to give the kids time to rest. After playing in the pool for a very long time (they played “Gravity Falls”) I convinced them to lay down for a podcast and Addie and Greyson slept for a very long time! I ended up bringing them to the Park after Kas and H and the Burnsides had already gone there. We sat and watched some classic Mickey Mouse cartoons for a while and then split up so I could go with Hinckley on the Rise of the Resistance ride while Addie waited for the parade with Greyson. That was incredible! Hinckley was in such a bad mood though about wanting a lightsaber, that when we came back to Main street and we saw the parade going by in the dark, he pined that even the Fairy Godmother had a lightsaber! Haha. Greyson ignored the parade and spent most the evening “sploring” a tree and some large leaves. Addie was obsessed with the magic of the parade.
- After some confusing traffic jams of people post parade, we caught about 1.5 minutes of the Encanto light show and I put Greyson on my shoulders and hefted up Hinckley who was singing at the top of his lungs. That one moment made the day “the best day ever”. We did the Tea Cups before making our way out of the park as the Mickey and Friends light show started on the main street. Addie exclaimed, “I love all this music! It makes me want to just get in my cozy bed!”
- Our final day started out rough for Addie, Greyson, Naomi, and I as we went to Cars Land along with a massive group of other people. We finally did the ride which was fun, but they were so exhausted from that line. Hinckley, Kassie, and John did 11 rides in about 2 hours! We recovered though and I took Addie on the Ferris wheel and then Soarin’ over the World which she LOVED. We saw Mickey Mouse and got his autograph.
- I got to go with Hinckley on the Incredicoaster a couple of times which we both loved, he was over the moon about that and couldn’t stop talking about it. We had a blast. Then I took him and Greyson on the Grizzly Falls run and we all got pretty wet. Greyson was holding on for dear life and then began shouting words in his “mignons” language (gibberish) as we went down the huge falls. The people on the ride with us were laughing so hard, the teenage girl seemed to almost lose her breath. The three of us also waited in a very long line for the Web Slingers ride and Greyson was so excited to see Spiderman. Right as we came out of the ride, Spiderman walked by us and gave the boys a high five - much like Chewbacca did for Hinckley when we came out of the incredible Rise of Resistance the night before.
There was so much in all of it that can’t be captured. Even the hotel (and breakfasts with cartoons) and the shuttle bus were highlights to the kids. Greyson proclaimed that the shuttle was one of his favorite rides. It was so nice to have Grandma and Grandad there which facilitated us splitting up and doing things that each kid was most interested in.
April 24, 2022
Spring is in full bloom here in Lehi. We went to the Tulip Festival for a very fast visit as there was a strong wind. I got to go to “Books and Buddies” at Hinckley’s classroom which meant we read together for about 30 minutes. It was really fun to see his class and read with him and his Blobbies. Also this week Addie and I went to Baskin Robbins so she could use her coupon that she got in one of her Easter eggs. She was pretty happy about that! And Greyson turned in early, Kassie said, because he was “bored”. Earlier in the day he got into some Kool-Aid powder and apparently made a huge mess.
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| Tulip Festival smiles |
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| Tulip posing |
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| Post bath cuddling |
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| Books and Buddies |
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| Baskin Robbins |
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| Caught Kool-aid handed |
Kassie's parents and sister came into town this week as Naomi graduated from BYU after many years of dedicated work. I met the family and Kassie and Greyson for lunch at a Thai place in Lehi to celebrate on Friday. Greyson did pretty well for his first sit-down restaurant experience! On Saturday I played with Greyson on some playgrounds and on a soccer field during Addie’s soccer game while the rest of the family watched Addie play. Hinckley went to a friend’s birthday party where they all brought nerf guns and the party hosts supplied the ammo. He had a blast. The kids had fun making cakes and activities and are super excited to go to Disneyland tomorrow. Hopefully, they get some sleep!
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| Cheese cake creation |
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| Thai food with the Burnsides and Dallys |
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| Greyson's soccer dreams |
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| Making cakes with Grandma |
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| Frosting cake with Grandma |
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| Frosting with Grandma and Liana |
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| Greyson's party cake |
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| Hinckley's lava cake |
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| Addie's unicorn cake |
I’ve started reading The Second Mountain by David Brooks and it is amazing. He begins by describing our individualistic society and the impossibilities we've pushed one another into and I find myself feeling deeply connected to the ideas he is talking about. I'm excited to finish it on our trip this week.
April 17, 2022
Earlier this week I went to Zupas after work to get a slice of cheesecake for a guy I minister to (birthday). I decided to get some treats for our family too. Well, the next morning Kassie sent me a picture with the caption that Greyson had something to tell me. It was a slice of mangled cheesecake on a plate, under the table. He had asked Kassie if he could “eat something from the fridge” and when she had agreed he raided the cheesecake! So he used some of his money to buy another and it all worked out. He clearly knew it was wrong given he ate it under the table. We woke up to snow on the ground later in the week, and it has been quite cold and icy. I’m glad we waited till this weekend to turn on the water and prep the garden. Greyson went out to play in the snow which he was pretty excited about. He has been increasingly difficult to monitor and is always getting into things.
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| Mangled cheesecake evidence |
Hinckley had a hard time this week since he has a sub at school the whole week. It is a reminder of how amazing his teacher has been for him this year with things like letting him stand at his desk rather than sit the whole time and so forth. One evening he asked me, “I just want something to think about.” He complained about being so bored at school and at home. I don’t know what that means or how to help! He did like the idea of doing a book report about a book he has been reading called The Greenglass House which was recommended by a member of my team at work. So maybe he'll do that.
I got to go with Addie to music class and she got it in her head that she wants to be an actress and was getting very excited about that idea as we drove to music. She was really cute in class and kept giving me small hugs and smiles throughout. Addie started soccer this week and I took her to her first game where she met her teammates and had lots of fun running after the ball. In one instance the other team scored and a girl on that team cheered and accidentally caught Addie’s face with her hand when doing so - which created a bit of a moment. But other than that it was great and she was raving about it as we drove home. She and Greyson played really well together on Saturday playing an imaginary game where they picked dandelions and "roasted marshmallows". When kids get along it truly is like heaven on earth.
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| Easter eggs! |
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| Rock painting kit |
The kids dyed some Easter eggs with Kassie on Friday which they seemed to enjoy along a specture of pure delight (Hinckley) to boredom and making messes (Greyson). I checked out the sprinklers and all looks to be ok this year…! Which I am very grateful for. Also, I finished re-reading all the Harry Potter books, and that feels good. Those books are incredible.
April 10, 2022
This week was Spring Break for the kids. Because we will be going out of town in a couple weeks we stayed home and Kassie worked hard to keep the kids busy throughout the week. They went to the library, swam at the Provo Rec Center, Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point, and more. On Monday we watched the live-action Aladdin which we all really enjoyed. Addie kept asking me questions about whether certain things were real or not as well as logistical questions such as “How did they get to the desert?” and “How did they get back to the city?” She was very curious and also excited that she wasn’t too scared. During the cave of wonders scene, Greyson exclaimed “This is the kind of scary movies I like!”
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| Sunbathing with Dollie |
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| Magic |
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| Germ kids |
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| Holding a butterfly |
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| Holding a butterfly |
One morning while I was at the temple doing initiatories, Kassie said that Greyson came downstairs around 6:30 a.m. and opened the back door. Later when he came for breakfast we asked him about it and he said he peed….! And sure enough, when we opened the curtains there on the wood steps was the evidence. What the heck? Apparently, Kassie was in the downstairs bathroom and he didn’t want to go back upstairs. Ugh. I led my team at work in our quarterly planning session this week. Kassie and the kids came to visit and were able to meet the team in person which was fun for everyone I think. The kids were excited about getting some treats from Weave.
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| Conference crafts |
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| Throwing sticks in the Jordan River |
On Friday I had my date with Hinckley. We watched Indiana Jones (the first one) and I realized it was much more violent and void of substance than I recalled. Dang. Well you win some and you lose some and I wish I’d have been more sensitive to that after the opening scene and just changed the movie on the spot. Now we get to recall Nazi faces melting :/
We had a full Saturday. After chores and media, I took the kids down to Provo to watch the BYU wind symphony do a family concert. It was incredible! They had a variety of pieces and ways to engage the kids throughout and all three kids sat quietly and watched throughout the program which was nothing short of a miracle. The sheer beauty of it all seemed to just fill my soul. It was remarkable.
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