Sickness and Celebrations

OK, we'll try to make this short yet sweet. This has definitely been and up & down week for us. Amy, Jacob & I have all been sick at various stages during the week. Amy got it the worst, poor girl. Jacob had a bad ear infection and I got stomach cramps and chills bad enough to send me home from work. All was not lost however...at least it gave me some time to relax and read the latest Harry Potter book.

On Monday Amy spent some time in the studio recording a few songs that she and her friend Tera Sweat are putting together to submit for next year's EFY album. She had a good time (see the pictures below) and the songs sound great! We'll have to put them online as MP3's later for you all to hear.

The other exciting news this week was that we got to go down to Salt Lake on Friday for President Hinckley's birthday bash. The Sweats were sweethearts and watched our boys for us so we met Cecelia, Vaughn, Jordan, Nate (and his date, Megan), and Megan (and her date, Paul), along with our good friends, the Dixons (an elderly couple who live across the street from Bensons who attended President Hinckley's 90th birthday party with us). We had a little picnic across from the capitol right before the concert, then headed down the hill to the conference center. What an amazing show! You'll have to watch it online if you missed it. A good time was had by all.

Amy in the studio. What a babe!

Aaron's news

Aaron's biggest news this past week was his new bike. Last Saturday we looked over and saw that the neighbor kids were having a garage sale fund raiser. They had a really nice kids bike with training wheels for only $5. We were going to wait until Christmas or his birthday but man, you can't beat that kind of deal! He has been so excited about it though. We've since trekked around the neighborhood many times, stopping at every person we meet so Aaron can tell them the good news about his new bike. He was also happy to give his old trike to Jacob, who is very content to just push and pull it across the driveway.

Aaron has also found a new fascination with oragami. Amy downloaded some instructions from the Internet on how to create a paper butterfly. The instructions weren't the greatest so Amy handed the project over to me to try to figure out. After trying to second-guess the illustrator of the instructions I finally came up with something that loosely resembled a butterfly. Aaron cracked up when Amy called me the "oragami master." Aaron now chuckles as he calls me the "Ormy Garmi Master." He also has a paper mouse he calls "Machiko," named after a girl in one of his books who brings some oragami to her class.

Aaronzilla!

Aaron's new (actually used-greatest-five-dollar-find-at-a-garage-sale-ever) bike!

Living a bug's life...

Trip to SLC

Last week I (Paul) had to go to Salt Lake for a training session for work. The school was covering the hotel and said I could take the family along. We had received some free passes for Raging Waters so Amy took the boys and Jordan swimming while I suffered through a head cold during my meeting. Some of the pictures below are from the trip.

The next day they went to Hogle Zoo and had a fun time seeing the animals there. Aaron was especially excited to see the giraffes throught the tall doors. He got a kick out of watching them "relieve themselves" and couldn't believe that the crocodiles were real.

We missed seeing Grandma Lacey while we were in town becauseI didn't want to get her sick. We'll be sure to visit her next time we're down there.

Jacob at our Hotel

At Hogle Zoo

Aaron in the elevator at our hotel in Salt Lake.

Yo dude!

Jacob having a moment with a mud puddle.

The caption on the one with the fork in his mouth was meant for this one!

Jacob with his "hat." He has had a fascination with people and their hats this past month. Whenever he's reading a book and sees a person with a hat he says "Het! Het!"