The Tangrens

As is our tradition the Easter Bunny comes on Saturday morning. The boys were ALL kinds of excited. Especially Hyrum who was up and dressed by 7:00am.  Also a tradition is the trail of jellybeans leading to their basket. Eli of course had a yougurt melt trail instead.


Although he did try for the good stuff.


The boys hurried along their trails and made it to their baskets and then off to find the eggs hidden around the living room and kitchen. Eli tried to eat his "grass" and s l o w l y moved along his trail eating as he went. As they were searching Noah found a "special egg".


Something new that the Easter Bunny is doing this year. It's an egg that is left empty representing the empty tomb. When Noah found it Dad explained it to them. they were mildly attentive but then went on searching for filled eggs.  Derek and I looked at each other and shrugged.  But as Noah found his eggs he emptied them into his basket and left the empty eggs beside it.  Periodically he would pick up one of the emptied eggs open it up and shout "It's a special egg!!!" over and over and over again.  Seeing this Hyrum started to think that Noah was getting more special things and started to "find" his own special eggs. This might have to be a tradition after all.

After all of the candying ended we got ready and headed off to the Provo to the Frontrunner station. The Utah high speed commuter train.


Noah was in HEAVEN!! As we walked beside it he kept screaming "That train is AWESOME!"  We sat down in our seats on the second floor and got ready for our adventure.


We linked in to the onboard wifi and streaked toward Salt Lake City while we posted pictures to facebook. We also read books and conference talks.

They were so excited for the trip. Derek gets free rides on front runner with his Adobe ID card  and Noah and Hyrum and Eli were free which just left me to be paid for. It was fun. We transfered to city transportation when we got to SLC because Frontrunner continues on to Ogden.


On tracks the boys were introduced to a little color. Which was interesting and a bit scary for the boys but before long we had reached our destination. Temple square and the Christus.


Always a mandatory stop whenever we are in Salt Lake. While we were there Noah kept pointing to the different planets on the ceiling and shouting "there's Jupiter. There's Pluto!" Horrified! It was an incredibly peaceful and spiritual moment despite the outbursts though. Perfect for a Easter Weekend. As soon as we'd been there Hyrum was done. He was ready to go home. At length we reminded him about the primary section of the Church History and Art Museum. He changed his mind.  But first we stopped for snacks in a place with an incredible view.



Then off we went to the museum. He LOVED making temples with the big foam "bricks"


And of course knocking them down.


Then fishing from Nephi's ship


Or eating the fish (Yum!)


They also enjoyed taking care of the chickens ( that clucked) and checking for eggs


And sorting the vegetables


But they always came back to temple building. Which was a bit more respected when Dad helped them build.

Eli even got in on the action. And he was happier than peach pie.



We ended our tour with visiting an old friend


After the Church History and Art museum we headed to grab something to eat and play in the play area of City Creek Center.




After that we swung by the flagship Deseret Book store to see our good friend Cristall who was signing  art and chatting with collectors there.  I also saw one of my YW, Mared. It was a bit of an American Fork Young Women reunion (both Cristall and I served together in Young Women-the church organization for girls between 12-18- when Mared was there)


So fun! I never found out who the other girls were.

Before we headed back to the train we stopped quick to take pictures on the stairs of the temple.


Noah was not in the mood

It was right after we took the pictures that we realized that he had a random bloody nose!!

Poor little guy. He also didn't want to take pictures with Hyrum for a different angle of the temple


He was much more interested in strolling Elijah


Before long we were back on the train speeding towards home as the boys read stories


and the little boy slept


It was a long fun day.

On Easter Sunday we took quick family pictures as has been our tradition.  It's getting harder and harder.


I don't know what possessed me to wear a shorter dress with three inch heels with three boys in the wrestling match that is most often sacrament meeting. I was a bit stressed by the end. But all in all it was a wonderful Easter weekend.

A few weeks ago they sent home a flier saying that the Kindergarten egg drop was up coming.  I had no idea what this was but I soon learned. The object was to create or find a place for an egg to rest while it was dropped from the school roof so that it would land without breaking. They encouraged us to look online or talk to others who had done it before.

One night previous to the drop both Dad and Mom came up with prototypes for an egg drop cushion. And then came the "Drop off"

I decided to wrap the egg in bubble wrap and then place it in a box of packing peanuts


Derek's design was an egg wrapped in newspaper and placed in a plastic ziplock bag then that was put in a paper bag filled with loosely crumpled newspaper.


Then came the moment of truth! Derek put the ladder against the house and climbed up with the box first.


The landing

Then he climbed up again with his paper bag


Watching them land we weren't as confident as when we started of the success of either idea.


It was a nervous few moments as we opened them up to find...


Dad's egg was broken. Mom's was INTACT!!  So naturally that was the design chosen for the big day. It wasn't until we got to the school the day of the official drop that we realized how vanilla our design really was.

It was around freezing the day of the drop. We figured a colder day would help the eggs to not break. I went in earlier in the day to help in Hyrum's classroom and one of my responsibilities was to help the kids write the story of their egg drop designs. There was one little boy who's father HAS to be an engineer, or architect or something. He'd made a tiny little house made of foam board complete with little windows and doors for the egg and attached to the house was helium balloons(a la "Up")! It ended up flying away before it could even be dropped. But others put their egg in a foam football or a pinata


Or had parachutes attached to it. One boy put his egg in a jar full of peanut butter and another put his egg wrapped in bubble wrap and in a nest.


Our next door neighbor put his egg in a loaf of bread.  He didn't seem to know it though. When he got to school he told the teacher "I don't have an egg. My mom just gave me this loaf of bread!"


And I'm happy to announce that it survived the drop. As did Hyrum's, of course.


Successful egg drop!  We're torn between being sure we'll have success and being a bit more creative next time.  We'll see what happens when Noah gets to this point.