That makes 5

We have had to deal with kids who get car sick ever since Lizzie and Rebecca were babies.  I got car sick as a kid but it was only nausea.  Not my kids.  When they get car sick they go all out...literally, well at least there lunch does.  We thought we would take my grandma up the Nebo Loop because it is one of the most beautiful drives in the state and it starts right here in Payson.  We didn't get far because the roads higher up the mountain still have snow on them so they are closed but we went far enough to see the beautiful mountains.  It was on the way down that we added the 5th member of the family to the list of kids who get car sick.  Xander had never gotten sick before on any of the drives so this was a bit of a surprise.  I feel really bad too because it wasn't my car that he got sick in, it was my moms nice new car.  We pulled over to get things cleaned up and take his yucky clothes off of him for the rest of the drive home which thankfully was only about 10 more minutes anyway.

Great- Grandma sitting in the back.  She insisted on sitting there to give the kids a more comfortable ride.  You can see how the love, kindness, and sacrifice my kids have for others runs very deep in my family.

Xander sitting on the side of the road while we clean out his car seat.

Rebecca is not amused at the thought of the rest of the ride being a little more smelly.  Lizzie just stares at her pants that were a victim of Xander's "gift", wishing that she could take her pants off too.

Best 4 Generation picture EVER!!!

This whole visit with my mom and grandma has been WONDERFUL but today has to be right there at the very top of my favorite activities.  I let Rebecca and Dakota stay home from school today (Lizzie was not able to join us) and we took a morning trip to the Provo temple to do baptisms for the dead.  My grandmother had never done baptisms before and she was excited (yet a bit nervous) to have this experience with us.  The Provo temple is the busiest temple for baptisms so we were only allowed to be baptized for one name each but that was all we needed to do to have the most wonderful, spiritual time together in the temple.  The temple workers were so happy to see that we had four generations there together.  It is something they had not experienced before.

Dakota and Rebecca.  They couldn't be more excited.

Grandma and Mom.  I don't know if my mom could have been more excited either.

Four generations doing the Lord's work today.

Game Time

One thing we look forward to doing when grandma comes to visit is to sit and play games.  We had a game frenzy tonight with grandma and great-grandma.

Many games going on at the same time.

We love card games.

Rebecca loves to play games but truly her favorite thing to do with grandma is to bake.

Wonderful Weekend

   I had such a wonderful last few days with my mother and grandmother.  I really enjoy each and every moment I get to spend with them and this weekend was no exception.

We started by attending BYU's annual Women's Conference on Thursday and Friday.  My mom and I have attended as many of these two day conferences together as we are able to.  To have my grandmother be able to join us just makes the conference even more special.

The Three Amigos.

   One of my most favorite things that happened at the conference was getting to meet one of my most favorite music artists.  Hillary Weeks is a song writer/singer that I have loved to listen to and watch perform since I first saw her about 3 years ago.  She is a headliner here at the conference for the Thursday night performances every year.  On Thursday we were sitting in the floor seats instead of the bleachers and who would be on the front row?  None other than Hillary.  I went and introduced myself and she took a picture with me.  I have it on my cell phone.  Or, at least I did.  Now I don't know where it is BUT, I swear, I did meet Hillary and have my picture taken with her!

   Saturday morning CJ and I took my mom, grandma, and all the kids to the Crandall Museum in Provo.  Some of our friends have been urging us to go to the museum for a long time and we thought this was the perfect time to go.  It is a hidden gem and I am so glad that we went.  I hope so many more people visit the museum.

                                       

Rebecca and Dakota trying their hands at one of the original printing presses.

Upper and Lower case letters...literally.

The stories that we heard in the museum were so fun and educational.  I wish all history classes could be so  fun.

Alex and Megan still have a hard time sitting still let alone being quiet so we spent most of our time
looking at the displays in the other rooms and running up and down the ramp outside where no one could hear them.

After we took the kids home from the museum my mother, grandmother, and I went to Salt Lake City and met my mom's best friend Martha there for a trip to the Salt Lake temple.  We got a hotel room so that we could stay over night and enjoy Music and the Spoken Word in the Conference Center the next morning.

Myself, Martha, Grandma Salzmann, and my Mom, all enjoying the day together attending the Salt Lake temple session.

Who can resist taking fun pictures of the temple.

The next morning there was a beautiful sun ring around the temple as the sun was rising.  It never turns out in pictures as amazing as it is in real life.

Earlier in the week there was a fire inside the Conference Center that had cause a lot of water damage.  We had forgotten this as we rushed to the Conference Center for Music and the Spoken word and were turned away as soon as we got there.  Not to worry though, we just went to the Tabernacle building instead to see the performance.  I really do like to see and hear the Tabernacle Choir in the Tabernacle building versus the Conference Center.  You are so much closer and almost feel as if your a part of the choir in that building.

Sneaking a picture of the choir and orchestra as soon as they were finished.

 After the performance we took my grandmother around the north visitor center on Temple Square since she had never been there before.  I really loved watching the sister missionaries great everyone in all the different languages.  I could just picture my daughters there and it made me realize just how soon they really could be standing there.

So many beautiful daughters of God.

My grandmother and mother looking at all the beautiful artwork.

Mom and Grandma with the Cristus.

 We had a wonderful time together.  It truly was a wonderful weekend.

Monster Orchestra

   Dakota has been working so hard at learning the cello.  She is even trying to teach Lizzie and I to play as well.  She has been so excited for this concert and it finally happened.  This is the Monster Orchestra which consists of all the 6th grade students in the entire school district combining efforts to play in one concert together.  This is actually only the second year that the school district has allowed 6th graders to learn orchestral instruments and it is an extra curricular club that they do before school starts.  The teachers wanted to put on a concert for the district heads to show them how much interest there is in orchestra.  We hope it leads to more support from the district.  The kids did a really good job and I can't wait for more orchestra concerts in the future.

You can barely see Dakota's head in the sea of cellos (and cheesy cellists.)

The entire Monster orchestra.

Very intense music.

Dakota LOVES to play the cello and hopes to continue to be able to play.

Face Painting

   Face painting isn't just for the kids.  My mom and Grandma have come out to visit and spend a week with us.  Today we went to a Women's Festival held at my school, UVU, and had fun just walking around and looking at the different displays and getting ideas for whatever we might like to start doing. There was a really cool face painter there and the kids really wanted to get their faces painted so I thought I would get mine done too.  My mom liked it so much she got her face painted too and we had lots of fun watching everyone's heads turn as if we had done something totally crazy.

For the Birds

   Tis the first Saturday of the month and once again you will find us at The Home Depot with the kids building another awesome project.  This month the kids made bird feeders.  They have so much fun using the tools and CJ and I have so much fun watching and helping them.  We LOVE the project days each month.

Dakota, Megan, and Xander getting started.

How cute is he?!

Megan loving the attention from Dad.

Busy Builder.

Such hard work.

All done.  Dakota and Rebecca also made feeders but they didn't want to get in the picture.
This is our friend Calvin Kitchen.  He is a really fun guy and he loves to tease the kids as often
as he can.  He just happened to be working today when we were there so he stopped in to say
hi.  This is my FAVORITE photo bomb ever.  CJ snuck right in and made this pic priceless.