Ballet Observation Day

Jovie and Miss Kim, who we all adore. We planted a dwarf Korean lilac called a "Miss Kim"  in our yard this week. We hope it's as lovely as its namesake.

Jovie's ballet class doesn't have recitals, which is okey dokey with me. Instead, the last class of each session is observation day which is the only time you can come in the class to watch the little dancers. TB and Grandma Faucheux and I observed while Ikey sat peacefully in the waiting room with the iPad. It was a treat for all of us.

Jovie showed a great deal of concentration and she's such an expressive dancer. She could do a few things I'd never heard of, but that's not saying much because my dance repertoire is limited to slam dancing to grunge bands in the '90s. My favorite was the "pas de chat" (paw d'shaw) which is "the step of the cat", which they all do with a meow.

I need to figure out how to keep her shoes tied. I tried superglue.

Soccer Trophy

The soccer season ended with a hot game and a trophy. It was great fun, but Ikey made more progress during the off-season then during the games. It's made me a firm believer in visualizing instead of practicing.

Mother's Day

Laraine and Shane, Shauna, Stormy, and Sierra came over for brunch on a beautiful Mother's Day morning.

 

The Faucheuxes came over for a BBQ on a beautiful Mother's Day afternoon.

Karney Party

It's the social event of the year! The Karneys host a big dinner party where the fun begins early and the food arrives at 10 pm and doesn't stop. I believe that there was 20 pounds of live lobster delivered to the Karneys earlier that day. It's a truly incredible spread.  This is our third year, so we knew the drill and had the kids sleep over at Grandma and Grandpa Joe's house.

 

 I only realized later that I had invaded Grandma Pat's Mother's Day so instead of breakfast in bed, she was awakened three hours earlier than usual with the usual..."I need breakfast RIGHT NOW." speech from the kids. The Burrows are very good sports, so they didn't complain and of course the kids had a wonderful time.

The kids and Grandpa made a little wooden stool for me and I just love it. Jovie carried it down the stairs and parked herself by the car when it was time to leave in the morning. 

Golden Spike Anniversary Day

The Golden Spike was driven on May 10, 1869. We just HAD to go to the 144th Anniversary so we took along our adventurous Grandma Rainey and Ross (a REAL railroad man!) We left home at the crack of dawn to get there before the trains did.

Those trains are loud!

The kids met the master of ceremonies

Ross dressed up for the period photo where they recreate the champagne photo from 1869. Can you see us in the official reenactment photo? Here's a hint:

The kids said they had champagne in their water bottles for the rest of the day. Laraine and I resolved to track down some hoop skirts for next year.

Only Jovie would pose for the family photo by the park sign. We didn't stay for much of the reenactment and traditional ceremony because we are movers and not sitters. The rangers told us they had 1000 visitors on our way out of the park just before 11 am. The other times we've been there with about 20 people. It was crazy!

This is the first time we did the auto tour and it is not to be missed. We walked over to the last cut and couldn't believe the amount of human labor that was invested in making a smooth railroad grade.

We took a little pause at the Chinese Arch. Ross had just spotted a big lizard and was showing Jovie his best tracking techniques. Ross is quite a hunter and can get just about anything.

We had a picnic lunch and we were bugged by bugs and an ex-con introduced himself to us. It was very exciting.

Then we took Ross to a place he'd never been - not easy to do! - the ATK rocket display.  

 

Ikey's new bike

It's awesome. He loves it. I realized that TB had picked a bike for Ikey that very nearly matched his.

We did an art project with markers on the sliding glass doors. Jovie wrote all over herself.

 Ikey made a sculpture with letters.

About five minutes after I put her to bed, Jovie started yelling, "I didn't tell you my last thing!" I let her sob and bang on her door for about five minutes before I came back. She immediately stopped crying and said, "I wish you would respond when I cry for you."

Bike training

This may be the most frustrating day of my life. In our quest to get TB to approve the purchase of a shiny new bike, I needed to motivate Ikey to master the little toddler bike. We went to swimming lessons first.

Video of Jovie's tricks: http://youtu.be/uC76g28BztA

Then a picnic lunch on the bench outside swimming lessons. These kids are friendly and they say hey to everyone walking by.

We took my bike, the bike trailer for Jovie, and Ikey's little toddler bike to Jordan River Parkway. The little bike has a weird geometry that makes it hard for Ikey to start pedaling forward, so he kept yelling, "Mom! Mom! Help me!" 
I would push him to start and then he'd be going faster than he wanted to, so he'd yell, "That was a really bad push! Don't help me!"
So I'd yell, "Good job! Pedal forward! Don't forget to steer where you want to go. Don't brake or you'll have to start again!"
He screamed, "Help me! Right now! Stop doing that! Momomomom!" 
I yelled, "Talk nicely to me!"
He'd yell, "You're not talking nicely to me! You keep bossing me around!"

Eventually I quit coaching him. He went off the trail and over the handlebars one time and I slammed the back of my ankle with the pedal of my bike more than once. Jovie was messing with my phone and the camera. She kept sticking her hands and feet out of the bike trailer and into the wheel of my bike.

Apparently, this is Jovie's view during the ride.

 

 

She may have called you during the ride. She called someone, so if it was you, I apologize for all the yelling.

Since I was no longer yelling biking tips at Isaac, he was just yelling for HELP and "You're distracting me!" Did I mention it was raining?
It was awful. So I'm never taking him on this little bike to Jordan River Parkway again. I'm just going to buy a shiny used (girl's) bike off KSL.com and he's going to love it. Or not. Whatever.

Me: Stop squirting sunblock everywhere.
Jovie: In my defense, I was just doing silliness.

Me: It's dangerous for you to stick things in my wheel.
Jovie: Well, you're not certain about that.