Pinewood Derby

 Lane 5 - Bella's Pirate Princess car

Lane 4 - Grandpas Orange Speed

Lane 3 - Logan's Camero

 The Cub Scouts had their annual pinewood derby recently and the boys were very excited. they had designed their own cars and with the help of Grandpa they were ready to race. They did amazing Jaycob took 2nd Place over all in the Cub scouts and Logan took 5th. They had a blast. Grandpa also help Bella make a car for the open class. Due to some miscommunication she didn't officially race but when she did race she won every single race, so we say she got 1st place over all. She was so happy, dancing all around.

Draper Cycle Park

 Sunday Afternoon we head out to try out the new Cycle Park out in Draper where Erek always goes to ride. It was really cool the had a bunch of little tracks with hills and rollers and burms so you could try out and practice. They also had a Skills area where you practiced going over rocks and logs and that sort of thing. It was really fun and the kids all loved it.

 Logan

 

If you look close you can see Me, Jaycob, and Logan

 Logan and Erek

 Jaycob

 

Jaycob doing a wheely!

 Logan Loved the skills area

 Jaycob loved the trails

 Jaycob catching some air!

 

Erek flying high!

 

Draper Cycle Park Videos

Easter Morning

 {are my kids greedy???}

Happy Easter! 

This wasn't a picture that Easter morning, I took it a few days before while I was at work. I love being able to be on Temple Square working. It is always so pretty there and it is so cool to see the temple early in the morning. 

We had a good Easter this year, just the usual egg hunt in the morning and a nice Sunday to spend as a family.  Hope yours was nice as well!

Colorin' our Eggs

 

Its just about Easter so we need to get some eggs colored. My kids love this, me not so much. First off the mess it makes. Second, the there's never enough eggs. I don't want to make 4 doz hard boiled eggs. And lets be honest I need to make a few of my own, I can't just sit back and not jump in too. There are always casualties no matter how hard I try to remind them to be careful, one or three have to roll a crossed the floor at one point or the other. And last, I hate the smell of the vinegar. Yet we have to make Eggs! It is a tradition and it is still fun.

But thanks to the beauty of the internet {Mainly Pinterest} I am getting a lot smarter about how to make the eggs successful. Use Kool-Aid for the colors this was brilliant! No Vinegar smell! I got the idea here heyjenrenee.com. I couldn't find all the different colors at the store so we added food coloring to change some up a bit, but I'm already keeping my eyes open for next year. 

Also, the smartest idea ever has to be using a cupcake pan for all the colors. They are not quite deep enough to cover the whole egg so you do have to rotate it a bit. Yet I was able to fill two holes with the color which in turn makes for two kids using the same color at the same time. Well worth rotating a few eggs I would say. 

So I think our eggs turned out pretty darn good this year and we had a great time doing it.

 

 

Spring Break

Last week the boys were off for spring break they were so excited for a break. I knew it was going to be a long week if were didn't keep ourselves as busy as possible.

 Jumping Around Utah

I bought this Groupon a while back and had just saved it. The kids had a blast playing on all the bounce houses and running around. It was a good day for it too, since it was a little cold outside.

The Next day, We headed south for warmer weather., Ok just to Provo. But it was warmer. We spend the morning with Julies, Eliza and Garrett at the park. We had a blast swinging and feeding the ducks!Then went back to Julie's for some pizza.

 We also head up North to Layton to meet up with Britney and her fun kiddos at Layton City Park. {As you can tell the park is the perfect place to go for cheap good fun}. We had a great time playing on the last Merry-go-round allowed at a park anymore. The boys would run and spin that thing like crazy to where they were all so dizzy and falling off. They loved it, Bella and Brynn would just sit on the middle of it and enjoyed the ride. 

Grandma Nikki

In Loving Memory of  

Nikki Rae Soiu 

11/3/1960 - 3/15/2012

A few weeks ago we learned that Erek's mom had passed away in the night. She had been living up in Medford, Oregon and it has been exactly 3 years, since we had seen her. It was very hard news to hear that she passed way. Even though we hadn't been close to her over many years it was still a very difficult time especially for Erek and her other family. Since she didn't have any family living out in Oregon with her, Erek and I decide to drive out to her place and take care of all the funeral arrangements and get some of her personal belongings.

We left very late Thursday night, and drove all through the night. We brought Alivia along with us and luckily she did amazing and slept all night long. We drove all night, through scary dark canyons and blizzards. Finally, at about 4 am we made it to a small town called Lakeview, Oregon. We decide to stop here and spend the night. But unfortunately, at this hour the few motels in the town were all closed for the night.  So the 3 of us slept in the truck. We didn't sleep much, but come morning we got some breakfast at a cafe called Jerry's (it was very delicious!) Then headed on our way to Medford.

When we got to Medford, we went straight to the Funeral home to take care of her cremation and take care of everything for her. After, that we went to clean out her place. She lived in a trailer that she rented in town. From the minute we found her place we knew it was hers. We could see her personality there in the way she had spend so much time making her little place her home. Nikki loved plants. She had made a little garden bed with rocks all around where she had planted some flowers and placed her little ceramic turtles and frogs. Also, every where there was wind chimes! I could bet that there were 20 to 30 wind chimes hanging outside her door. She loved the sound of them and always loved the music they would make. She had put stickers on her door of pink butterflies and hearts. All this is Nikki. Her free, loving, caring spirit was so easy to see. She might not have had much but she took such loving care to make it beautiful and special. In a way, I felt such pride for her, we didn't know where she lived or what it would look like but this was her place, this was her. I could see that and that is what hurt me, to know that that loving spirit wasn't here anymore.

 

  

 

 

Then we started the long process of going through her stuff. This was such a difficult thing to do. We were all alone not knowing what was important or what things she would want us to keep to remember her. With her life style she kept everything, everything meant something to her. She has always been a very sentimental person, so there was just so much stuff. It was really overwhelming. Erek just took the lead and started going through everything. I tried to help as much as I could, but I was holding Alivia the whole time. We made sure to grab any pictures, journals, wind chimes, and small nick-nacs. Also, Nikki liked to wear colorful and unique clothing and jewelry so we tried to find as much of those things as we could. We had to leave s much behind but we hope that we got the important things. 

 

 

While we were there for long hours, many of the other residents in the trailer park stopped by to give their condolences and tell us about Nikki.  It seemed that she was loved by many and they really had a sense of community with everyone around her. This place seemed so foreign to me, such a different life style, such a different way of living then I have ever been around or experienced. But as we were there I really believed that these were good people, people that were loving and caring just like Nikki. They looked out for each other and were just trying to do the best that they could.  And I really think that she will be missed in this small little part of the world. 

We worked for a very long time. We were truly exhausted. We had finish most everything in her trailer and wanted to get on the road, so we could get home as soon as possible. It was late about 9pm. We stopped to get some dinner and made plans to maybe drive for a few hours before staying the night. But while we sat at dinner we became so exhausted that I knew I just couldn't even eat, even though I was very hungry. Also, Nikki had a small camper next to her trailer that we were unable to get into and we felt guilty leaving with out checking it out. So we decide to spend the night there in Medford, and planned that we would return in the morning to search the camper. 

The next morning after a good nights rest we were ready to go back one more time and look through the camper. It was a good thing that we did because one of the large bins in the very back of the trailer was full of pictures and letters. Erek was so happy that he was able to find and save these things. Then we finished packing up and took a few last minutes to look around and we headed on the road. Oregon is a very pretty place, I was amazed at the huge redwood trees through out the whole drive. I loved the beautiful scenery, now I know why Nikki loved it here so much. The ride home was a very long one, after the very emotional and hard couple of days. Alivia didn't sleep much this time around since it was in the day and so we made many stops along the way and didn't make it home until very early Sunday morning.  

  

This is Erek's new truck that we had just purchased 1 week before. When we bought it we had no idea that we would be needing it already. What a blessing it was to have it when we really needed it this weekend.

 

Nikki, we love you and will miss you. I really wish that we all could have been closer and that the kids had the opportunity to know you so much more. I'm glad we had the chance to have you live with us for a few months back in 2000. You taught me about love, by loving everyone around you. No matter where, no matter who, you always showed love. I will also always remember you for your young wild spirit and sense of freedom. I know that you loved gardening and the plant Morning Glory, which I always thought was a dumb weed, but you were able to find the beauty in it. You were able to find beauty in everything around you. I believe that you are here with us now as an angel. I hope you will always be with Erek and with the rest of us. We love you and look forward to reuniting with you again in Heaven.