Neighborhood Egg Hunt

Here is a beautiful sunset from our backyard.  The sun lit up the snow-capped mountains.  To the right you can see Mount Timpanogos.  It's really something and the pictures don't quite do it justice. 

Each year Cassi Steiner and her circle (including Shanel) puts on a neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. It's a lot of fun for children of all ages.... under 12.  Poor Logan just found out that he was now "too old" to be able to participate in the neighborhood hunt.  It was a sad reality of growing up.  He told Jill, "I only get candy three times a year: Christmas, Halloween, and Easter!"  He was disappointed to miss out on one of those times, but soon decided it was fine.

Alyssa had a great hunt and loved searching for eggs.

Landon found a lot of eggs, but I couldn't get a picture of him in the act of searching. Here are his spoils.

The entire hunt lasts only a few minutes, but it's a blast for all of the children.  It's also fun for the adults.  We enjoyed visiting with so many neighbors.  

On April 5, just prior to leaving to the Planetarium for a field trip, Logan attended a "Leader Chat" at school.  Each class has a leader of the month, and Logan was selected for his class.  Because Logan is in 6th grade and is a leader in his class he was picked to direct the meeting.  I can't remember if I have mentioned this in another post, but every Wednesday Logan does school announcements on the intercom for the entire school to hear.  He's had a lot of opportunities to be involved at the school this year.

Because he had the leader chat breakfast he was a bit late getting on the bus.  Sadly he wasn't able to sit by his friends and instead sat by a boy who hogged the whole seat. 

Jill got to go with him and watched eight children as part of her duty.  They toured the Clark Planetarium and saw two films.  Logan loved the planetarium, but did feel sick in the Dome Theater as the screen was moving around.  He got a bit of motion sickness, and so did Jill!  Afterward, they went to Liberty Park to eat lunch.  Here is Logan with his friends Craigen, Will, and Mason.

The picture doesn't show it, but he was able to wear his NASA shirt to the planetarium.  As school is beginning to wind down, the children will be taking more and more field trips.  It's a fun time of year. 

Speaking in Church and General Conference

Sunday March 19th, Logan was asked to speak in church for his very first time.  He spoke about how reading the Book of Mormon increases our faith.  He did a very good job.  He wrote most of his talk on his own, with just a bit of help from Jill.  He did great with his delivery, too.  It was a terrific Sunday for our family because Jill got to be one of the other speakers.  She nailed it, speaking about how reading the words of apostles and prophets increases our faith.  Jill really enjoyed speaking with Logan.  She said that trying to downplay her own nervousness, to show Logan that speaking wasn't so bad, actually helped her!  Both did an excellent job and were complimented by many members of our ward. 

We keep getting more and more rain this Spring.  Landon had a football practice in the rain and he came home drenched!

Logan had a scout campout on March 31st, but because of the rain and some other factors, it turned into a "late night" instead of a campout.  I went along to help supervise and the boys had a lot of fun.  They worked on the Oceanography merit badge so we went to the Living Planet Aquarium.  The original plan was to camp up in the Ogden area and go to the aquarium there, but we settled on the Draper aquarium instead.  As we looked at the exhibits, I had to first prompt Logan, but then he finally asked some of the employees the questions he needed for the merit badge.  Some of the employees were really great and gave the boys pretty detailed answers.  One worker looked kind of like Napoleon Dynamite and gave passionate answers to what causes waves and how are they measured.

I didn't take too many pictures, but the boys all had fun. Mylee Yeager came along with her dad, the scout master.  She is a lot of fun and likes to tag along with the Boy Scouts.

The next day was April and General Conference.  Logan is now 12 years old so he got to go to his first Priesthood session of Conference.  He is a really good sport and enjoyed coming.  First, we went to the Bunkall's for dinner and a bit of visiting.  I like the generation picture with Grandpa Mel Bunkall, Grandpa Corwin Bunkall, father, and son.

Then we drove over to the church I attended as a boy and met up with my dad.  Brandon Gren came along too, but since he took the picture he couldn't be in the picture.

After the session we went back to the Bunkall's and had some dessert.  It was a very nice night seeing this son of mine grow up.

Sunday morning we went to Grandma and Grandpa Bryant's where we ate an amazing breakfast and watched the morning session of Conference.

After the morning session we walked over to Arcadia Elementary and played on the playground.  The Jake Bryant family is headed to Spain this next week so we are excited for them. We heard about their itinerary and can't wait to hear them report back on their exciting adventures.

Here is a random picture of Logan's teeth coming in on top of the baby tooth.  Braces may be in his future.

Smart Children

Our children are doing really well in school!  In our elementary there is a gifted and talented program called ALPS.  Our school is a magnet school for the program, so children are bussed from around the district to our school.  Our children aren't in this gifted program, but this year, both Logan and Landon were selected to join the ALPS kids for a program called Math Olympiad.  Each Friday, for most of the school year, they attended this class and practiced math.  It was pretty hard and some of their friends even dropped out.  In Logan's class, only he and Curen Cole stayed with the program all year.  In Landon's class, he was one of four that stayed with he program.  The math was really challenging, and our boys had to make up work that their own class was doing while they went away every week to Math Olympiad.  We are very proud of them for their hard work and their willingness to stick with something that was so challenging.  The program ended and, on March 6th, the school recognized all the students that participated.

Alyssa is also really smart in her 1st grade class.  Every child was assessed for their reading skills and Alyssa was in the top five in the whole 1st grade, and that includes the entire ALPS class.

In 6th grade, students take a math placement test to determine what math class they will take in Junior High.  Logan worried about this test and how he scored.  He really hoped that he had done well.  We just learned that he placed at the highest level and will be enrolled in 8th grade honors math (as a 7th grader).  He is really excited to be placed so high, even though he will have to take a week long summer school course to get up to speed on the 7th grade math he will be missing.

Our family had tickets to a Jazz game on March 6th.  Jill and the kids and I met up at the Vivint Smart Home Arena and our family watched the Jazz beat New Orleans.  The Jazz are playing some good basketball right now. They are headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2012.  It's been fun to watch them this year.

Friday March 10th, the children were out of school for a teacher work day so Jill took them to Delton Lanes for Laser Tag and Bowling.  They had a blast.  It was surprisingly empty considering school was out.  They had a lot of fun playing together.

Monday March 13th, I checked something off of my bucket list!  I saw the river in Chicago dyed green for Saint Patrick's Day!  When I was a boy a great movie came out called "The Fugitive."  Harrison Ford escapes from prison and tries to find the person who murdered his wife.  In one scene, as he is being chased through Chicago, he loses the police in the Saint Patrick's Day parade.  Since seeing that movie, I thought it would be cool to see the river green. This year I scheduled some client visits around Saint Patrick's Day hoping to see the green river.  Bucket list checked!

Logan attended a Merit Badge Powwow at Brigham Young University with his friend Harris Neilson.  They attended on two different Saturdays in March and were able to complete three different merit badges:  Emergency Preparedness, Game Design, and Photography.  Harris' dad took the boys the first Saturday and then Jill took them the last.  She enjoyed being on campus again and showing Logan where she attended classes.

One of his assignments was to tell a story using photography.  He used his camera to tell a story about his passion right now, finger skateboards.  He calls them Tech Decks, but they are really just finger skateboards.  

Sadly for Saint Patrick's Day, Jill opted to take a break from our annual tradition of making Reuben sandwiches for the neighbors.  We've hosted a party for quite a few years, but she was ready for a change.  We still had a fun Saint Patrick's Day holiday, though, and ate grilled ham and cheese on green bread.  She also made some green jello mousse.

That evening, we continued our celebration by attending the school play at Deerfield Elementary.  Our beautiful nieces were acting in "Peter Pan."  Brooklyn is in 6th grade and played Wendy, one of the leads.  Brinlyn, is 4th grade, was a mermaid.  She was the cutest and sassiest mermaid of the bunch.  Brooklyn did a fantastic job as Wendy, too.  The show was terrific and we had a great time.  Our boys always come away from the school play wanting to become actors.

Yes that mustache is legit.  Brandon loves to show off his facial hair during Mustache March.  The handlebars were looking good!

Biltmore Estate

For our year end basketball party we hosted the boys for food and a nice highlight video.  We bought a large sub sandwich and reminisced about the season and some of our best memories.  Jill also went to Costco and got a nice cake with a basketball on it.  

Then I showed the boys a really neat highlight video of some of their games.  This year, I posted it on youtube so the boys could share it with their parents.  After watching the video, the boys played football in the backyard.  It was a fun party for the boys to get together and play. 

Friday was "Minutes with Mom" at the school.  That's the new phrase that took over "Moms and Muffins."  Apparently, muffins were costing too much so the PTA switched to donuts.  This year, there was a miscommunication with the grocery store and the order of glazed donuts wasn't ready.  The store sent an assortment of donuts, instead, and sent as many as they had.  PTA members were even racing to other stores to buy any and all donuts they could.  It was a problem for the women in charge, but worked out pretty great for our family.  Alyssa scored a fritter!  The boys had great donuts, too.  

Jill and the kids ate breakfast together and the kids were able to pick out a new book.  Now that they are older, they aren't as interested in reading their books with their mom.  They'd rather go out to the playground to play with their friends!  It was still a nice morning at the school for all of them, though.

Landon completed his 4th grade wax museum project.  We tried and tried to get him to study a historically significant Utahn, but he was determined to do his project on Karl Malone.  He loved reading a book on Karl Malone and would share random Karl Malone quotes with us.  He learned about his early years playing with his mom, playing football and basketball in Louisiana, and career highlights in the NBA.  Landon finished a written report and then memorized important facts that he could share as people came to visit his display.  His display was nice, thanks to Jill, and it included a Nerf basketball hoop.  Landon was so proud.  

The first week in March I spent the week in North Carolina for work.  I worked for the week with my team, who all work in Mooresville.  I go there about once a year but this year was nice because Jill flew out on Thursday to meet me.  I've always thought it would be pretty great to move to North Carolina and have an adventure with our little family on the East coast.  Getting Jill to come check out the area was a fun weekend getaway for her, and I got to show her how nice North Carolina is.  

Jill left the children with Mom and Dad and flew into Charlotte on Thursday afternoon.  I was still at work in Mooresville (about 30 minutes away) so she rented a car at the airport and drove to meet me.  This was a big deal for Jill, because it was the first time she'd ever rented a car.  She was a bit nervous about figuring that out and then driving in an unfamiliar city.  She found out, though, that it's not that hard!  After picking up the car, she was able to figure out her navigation app and made it to Mooresville with no problems.  

We went to dinner on Thursday evening and walked around a shopping area.  Our hotel night was kind of crazy, because in the middle of the night a man was banging on a door down the hall and yelling to his wife or girlfriend to open the door.  Finally I called the lobby to report it and they told me that the police were on their way.  I opened our door and yelled down the hallway for the man to keep it down.  He didn't, but eventually the police came and took him away.  I stay in a lot of hotels, but had never experienced that before. 

Friday morning I took Jill into the office and introduced her to the people I work with.  She was impressed with the office and liked meeting my coworkers.  Then we drove over to my boss' new house that she just bought right on Lake Norman.  It's a beautiful home and we loved how it's right on the water.  Now I just need to convince Jill to move here!

Later Friday morning we drove out to Asheville, North Carolina to tour "America's Castle," the Biltmore Estate.  When Jill was young, she used to see commercials for the Biltmore and decided that someday, she wanted to visit.  We've toured quite a few castles in Europe now and it sounded fun to tour the Biltmore Estate.  

The original Cornelius Vanderbilt dropped out of school at 11 years old and turned a $100 loan into a $100 million enterprise in the early 1800's.  He made his fortune with steamboat transportation in New York (around Staten Island) and then grew his business to include railroads.  He died at an early age and turned his business over to his son, William Henry, who built the business up to $200 million.  They were the wealthiest family in America, by a lot.  His children were able to build huge mansions,  travel the world, and live an aristocratic lifestyle similar to that of Europe's royalty.  George Vanderbilt, one of the sons, built his legacy in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina with the Biltmore Estate.  

A three mile railroad track was built to deliver men and supplies to the house as it was being built (it was finished in 1895).  The home has four acres of rooftop and covers 178,000 square feet of house!  The entire property is almost 7,000 acres (10 square miles) of land. 

The grounds were beautiful, but weren't quite as full as they would have been if we had come later in the spring.    In my mind I hear Jenn Buxton saying "Look at that tiny fountain."  Living in Europe, she and her family get to see amazing fountains. 

We upgraded our tickets so we could have an audio tour of the home.  It was fascinating to hear about many of the rooms and the family that lived here.  When we walked into the house, there was a beautiful atrium called the Winter Garden.  In the center was a statue of a boy holding a goose.  There were many other pieces of art throughout the home.  Also, there were tons of plants that thrive on the sun that comes through the glass rooftop.  It was a regal way to enter the home. 

The library was Vanderbilt's prized room. He read thousands and thousands of books.  He even kept track of every book that he read in a journal.  While we were there, there was also an exhibit of costumes throughout the house.  Each costume came from a movie that was based on a book and each was a book that Vanderbilt had read.  Jill was excited to see these costumes from one of her favorite movies, "Pride and Prejudice."

The house was full of antiques and valuables that had been purchased by Vanderbilt.  In the library, the ceiling was covered by a mural that originally was in a palace in Venice.

The banquet hall has an enormous table that could seat 38 people.  Next to the table are these three fireplaces.  At the other end of the room was an organ loft.  The room was really grand (it had a seven-story high ceiling)!

This room is a smaller dining room.  When you have this much house you have multiple places to eat.

Here is Vanderbilt's bedroom.  It's down the hall from his wife's bedroom.  They needed separate places to dress.  The bed seems so small; we were assured it's a king-sized bed, but it looks small because the room is so big.

This living hall was on the second floor.  It was a gathering area for the many guests that visited the house.

Here is one of the stairwells, along with a chandelier. 

They even have a bowling alley in the basement of the home.  We were told that it was one of the first to be built in a residential home.  One of the servants would stand at the end of the lane to restock the pins and send the ball back along the track.

The indoor pool was epic.  It is no longer full of water, because it has developed a leak.

The basement was the domain of the servants.  The cooks had a huge area in which to prepare the meals.  They would then send the food up on a dumbwaiter to the dining room.

A billiard room to retire to after dinner.

They had guns, of course, in the gun room.

We didn't see all of the rooms, of course, but we really enjoyed our tour through the house.  It's hard to imagine living in such finery today, let alone over 100 years ago.  Next, we walked around the grounds.  The greenhouse was really cool.  Even though it was winter, the plants were thriving inside.

We had a wonderful time at the Biltmore House.  It's a beautiful place with a fascinating history.  Since our trip, we have watched a couple of shows that were filmed in the home.  One show detailed how the PBS series "Downton Abbey" was set in the same time period as the heyday of the Biltmore House.  It compared Biltmore to the home in Downton Abbey.  Then we watched an old film called "Being There."  It was a strange movie about a gardener who gained influence with a wealthy family.  It wasn't Jill's favorite movie, but it was really fun to see the Biltmore and all of the scenes that we had seen in person.

After our visit we drove into town to check into our hotel.  We drove around Asheville for a bit and then had dinner.  The next morning we tried to find breakfast.  The first three restaurants we drove to had lines out the door.  The people of Asheville must love their breakfasts!  Finally we found something to eat and although it was in greasy diner, it was good enough to get us on our way.

We took our time driving back to Charlotte and opted to take the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It's an amazing drive though the Blue Ridge Mountains.  We stopped at a visitor center to learn a bit more about the parkway and found some places to get out and hike.

We opted for two short hikes to waterfalls.  This is a neat looking bridge at the trailhead of one of the hikes we did.

Another waterfall was just off the side of the road.

We left the parkway and drove on an interstate back towards Charlotte.  We decided to take a route that dipped into South Carolina so Jill could cross off that state.  She also wanted to see King's Mountain National Park, a Revolutionary War battlefield.  We stopped at the visitor center and watched a video about this battle.  The Americans surprisingly beat the British forces and were able to help turn the tide of the war.

We finished our drive to Charlotte and checked into our hotel downtown.  It was really fun to be in the heart of the city.  Jill saw a store she went to with Jenn when she was in Europe, called Vapianos.  We saw the stadium where the Panthers play and also some of the bank buildings that Charlotte is famous for.  The downtown was nice and our Courtyard hotel was in a great location to walk to things.  We walked to a nice restaurant and had a good dinner.  We had wanted to find a play or a concert or a game to watch but we couldn't really find anything happening that particular night in Charlotte.  We still had a lot of fun exploring the city.  

Sunday morning we slept in a  bit and then walked to a nice breakfast restaurant downtown in an area that had a ton of restaurants and a movie theater.  I'm sure the nightlife is pretty exciting.  Here is Jill drinking her hot chocolate. 

We had a nice flight home and then were able to unpack before Mom and Dad brought the children home.  They had been to Kandis' place for family dinner.  We had a great reunion with our children when they arrived.  It was fun to catch up on all that had happened while we were gone.  Our trip wouldn't have been possible without Mom and Dad watching our children.  Thank you so much!  Jill and I had a wonderful trip and it was so great to get away together.