Our New Room!

While there is still work to be done in the basement, we are now able to use it and enjoy having that extra space in our home. Since Christmas, we've had our new TV sitting in the box in our living room, along with the air hockey table, and various toys the kids had brought up from the basement to play with. The easel was often in there as well after I taught preschool to Erik and his friends. I think the ironing board ended up being in there with un-ironed shirts for longer than I would have tolerated, just because there were so many other things in there and I didn't care anymore!

Now, all those things are back in the basement where they belong! (Minus some of the toys that are still in the living room because the shelves aren't finished yet to put them on, but I don't mind a few toys when all those big items are out!)

I didn't take any pictures of the messy living room, but I have vivid memories of it! Now, I can appreciate all the extra space and my new wall arrangement that I got in November in anticipation of this time. I got the family tree arrangement at Bed Bath and Beyond while shopping for a wedding gift. It was marked 50% off because of a crack in the "Y'. Nothing a little glue couldn't fix!

Erik's favorite show adds a nice touch, huh?!

We moved the couch into the main room and set up the TV. It's nice having the wii down there and an optional place for kids to go while others are on the main floor doing homework. It also worked for Karissa's playdate on Saturday. She had twins and her bff over. Erik needed some down time and could be down there without everyone being drawn to the TV. It also worked well for Jason's and my movie night when he had shirts to iron and I had laundry to fold. When the ironing wasn't done, he could leave it there and it wasn't in the middle of my living room!

One day we will get a little couch from IKEA to replace this one, but Grandma Carrie's couch works for now!

Indoor/outdoor rugs from Costco for a steal. I can do my workouts down here too. 

Here's the other side, waiting for the shelves to be done. Baseboards too, but we're happy with what we have for now! With warmer weather and yard work, soccer, and all the trillion other things going on, it will be slow again, but we'll be patient!

Fit Family

If you know me, you'll know I'm always trying to find a deal. Some of my favorite deals are meaningful activities for our family to do together, especially if it involves a pool, since my kids love the water. (Kind of ironic, since I grew up with a pool and probably took it for granted.) At the end of December I discovered the Family Fit program at the Summit. It had actually been going on since September, but somehow I missed the advertisements then (how did I do that?!) This program has a free family activity each month. All you do is sign up at the start of the semester, then sign up each month for that month's activity. If you track each individuals' activities and/or steps each month from your family, you can enter to win prizes. I can't believe more people don't do this around here!

In January, it was the kick-off to a new semester, so they advertised well, maybe why I discovered it then. We met at the Summit for wii bowling tournaments (which our kids won second place for and won a bag) and giant Jenga. Then they had a Yoga class and open swim (the real reason we signed up, so we could swim at the nice pool for free!) I was excited for the Yoga and intended on the kids doing it with me, but when they said we could start the open swim early, Yoga was definitely a thumbs-down for them!

Our second place medal. 

 February we got to go snowshoeing. We met at the Summit for a short history of the Native Americans that lived around here and how they used snowshoes, then we got to snowshoe around the lake and have hot chocolate.

Erik, the white blur blending in with the snow...

Victoria brought her friend Sabrina with us.

Austin's friend Dallin was there.

They loved exploring with those snowshoes on!

March was ice skating. That was when we went the night before my birthday. So fun!!!

You've seen all these pics before, but I had to repost for good memories!

Last Saturday it was a bike parade for April. We met at the park to decorate our bikes, play with bubbles and sidewalk chalk, and learn some bike safety. We did a short ride around the lake for the littles, then won a bunch of prizes for our names we'd entered in the raffle. There weren't many people there that day, so we took home 5 prizes! Two bikes bells, a bubble machine you can attach to your bike, a strand of lights for a bike, and a set that includes a water bottle holder and light for a bike. They also gave out little lights to put on the air valves. After we collected our goods, Jason took home Karissa and Erik. Victoria, Austin, and I went on the trail ride with some of the other more "seasoned" riders. It was great because the trail had to cross some streets and those crossing areas  were blocked by police cars when we went by so we could stay together, our band of 8.

Bartlett the Beaver, the Summit's mascot, was there.

The bikes are all spiffed up!

This bike is now Karissa's and Victoria has a big red one.

I really hope they continue this program, but I'm afraid they won't since most events aren't that well-attended. There was more staff at this bike event than cyclists! The weather couldn't have been better either!

The sad and happy news for Karissa: little Karissa, the same size as 6 and 7 year-olds, has had a hard time trying the learn to ride her two-wheeler. At the end of last summer, we gave up. She didn't have the confidence nor the desire. I realized this bike event was coming up, so I had her try the bike on our first nice day last week. She did finally have the desire. She rode down the driveway and for a moment I remembered 4-year-old Austin just taking off and I thought that was going to be her, but she freaked out and the end and crashed into the island. Well, we tried again and again after that, but she had lost confidence and each time was worse. Luckily, she still had the desire, which was the only reason she kept going for about 15 min. We were both very discouraged. The next day at the bike event. Jason decided not to bring his bike and just run with her around the lake. He said he pretty much supported her the whole time, which is why she didn't ride the trail with us. Later that day, she decided to try Austin's much smaller bike, which is something I had forgotten we were going to try last summer, since it's so much smaller. She did it!!! Her bike is just like an inch bigger than Victoria's, so we tried her on Victoria's next, and she did it! So, we made a bike swap. Victoria now has a full size bike that we got from some friends and Karissa has Victoria's old bike. We can't get her off the bike now! She's constantly riding and going off curbs and waving and everything! She just needed a smaller bike to get going and the confidence after that. Hooray!

There she goes!!

Erik has decided to ride his training wheel bike, finally!

Finishing Up

Believe it or not, but we have painted the whole basement and are ready to move things in. We did move the old couch back in, but I wanted to take pictures of the beautiful room before we put a bunch of stuff back in there.

I can't do a lot of the stuff Jason did, but I can paint!

These windows took the cake for the most time consuming. 

 Here's with the floor finally cleaned up. There are some spots that got ruined, so maybe we should have done the floor last, but at least this way we don't have to worry about the kids ruining the floor!

The windows are taped because Jason is going to paint the inside still.

This week: mount the tv, move in furniture, and start building the shelves!

Family Reunion in NYC!

We usually plan big vacations about a year in advance, sometimes a little less. In January, when my brother said he was going to meet my mom and Jim in NYC over spring break, I was all over that! Then, my sister was on board with most of her kids for a grand reunion of 20 (thanks mom!)The only thing was that their spring break is going on now and ours was last week, but it worked out for us to make the day's drive last Wednesday and see a few sites Thursday. My mom and Jim met us in the city after their short drive from Philly, and the Utah crew flew in that night. That gave us Friday and Saturday to tour the city and enjoy visiting with family. Saturday evening we made a start on our drive back so we could make it home for part of General Conference at least. The rest rode in my mom's car or took a bus to Philly for a short visit there.

Here's a picture journey through our trip.

West Point Tour

It's right on the Hudson River.

We went for a fun hike, minus Jason who had to park the car closer since the kids were tired of walking from the car to the trail head (we did walk about 15 minutes on boring sidewalks before getting there!) So Jason got a really good tour of that side of campus!

Grandma's view from her room at the Marriott where we stayed in NYC.

A little color at the front of our hotel. 

First subway ride, but it never looked different than my mom's pose here, "Come here, Erik!" Amazingly, we never lost a kid the entire trip! Pretty good for traveling the biggest city in the US with 13 kids!

Brooklyn Bridge

Empire State Building- down the street from where we stayed.

Great breakfasts at our hotel.

This was before Calvin got sick, so he and Karina had to stay behind for a little while :(

Subway with cousins is even more fun!

Ground 0

New World Trade Center

On Wall street.

Waiting to get on the ferry.

Luckily, it didn't rain as much as it was supposed to!

Derek's youngest, Izaak. I didn't get many pictures of this cutie on his dad's back most of the trip!

The Fab Four (oldest McDonald kids)

The best we could do for a family shot...

Ellis Island. The kids were being sworn in as Jr. Park Rangers. The guy said they were the "family of the year"! Victoria and Natalie earned theirs at Liberty Island. 

China Town for dinner.

Grand Central Station

Times Square

Stupid characters... They were the first we saw. We were so excited to see them and take a picture, then they whip out their "I work for tips", badges... We saw a ton more after that and avoided them! Some of the same characters too, like five Mickeys in one group...

We hit the M &M store for a pit stop. Someone was excited to be there...

Rockefeller

Balto Statue in Central Park. The one thing Victoria wanted to see besides the Statue of Liberty

I wanted to spend more time in Central Park, but it was on the second day and we were all worn out by then! Especially since earlier that day we tried to see all the midtown sites and spent half the time taking kids to the bathroom so they could rid their bodies of all the hot chocolate they drank that morning! Luckily for me, I got to run with Karina and Mariah in Central Park that morning. My phone had a charging problem that night, so I couldn't bring it on our run that morning for pictures. Karina texted me some, but I couldn't get them on my blog from my phone. It was fun and there was a race going on when we were there, so tons of runners! We didn't run long, but now we can say that we ran in Central Park!

We got home in time for some General Conference and look forward to watching more of it each night this week.