My brother Reagan came and spent about
2 weeks with us. It was a great two weeks, and I was so surprised with
how many of my kids' performance-type stuff he got to see. Not living
close to family, this is a rarity for my kids to have someone besides
Todd and I there to watch them be awesome.
The boys had a soccer game, though the
weather was terribly cold.
The older three boys presented at a
science fair.
Michael's project was feeding a plant
milk, orange juice, or water and seeing which is best. He spent three
weeks feeding these plants their designated liquid and measuring their
growth. In the end the milk and orange juice fed plants died. When he
gave his presentation to the judges, I was impressed. It was
difficult for him in the fact that he was asked a lot of questions
(he's use to always being the one asking the questions), but he kept
calm and a maintained a cheerful disposition.
Roger's project was seeing if people
could identify objects without seeing them but only feeling them. He
surveyed people that came around the house, and with all the traffic
with nurses and everyone, he got his 20 people in no time.
Unfortunately I missed Roger's presentation for Michael was presenting
in a different room at the same time. But according to Todd, he was
amazing. Roger is a real people person and knows how to talk to
people in a pleasant way, how to be understood by them, and knows how
to answer any questions. He answered all the questions confidently
and presented his project clearly. We later found out that Roger won
First Place.
William wanted to know why ice cracks.
For his project, we researched and discovered why ice cracks. We had
such a good time doing this that we started
asking more questions and doing more experiments such as: What weighs
more, ice or water? William was probably the youngest presenter at
the Science Fair and did an excellent job explaining his project.
Todd, Reagan, Michael and I went to a
Brian Regan show. Todd and I had gotten tickets from my mom for my
birthday. Reagan absolutely loves him, so we were lucky enough to get
tickets for him and Michael. I wasn't sure if Michael would like the
show, but knew he would enjoy going out with us. To say he enjoyed
the show is an understatement. Though I didn't get to experience it
since he and Reagan were sitting at a different section, I heard
that Michael giggled the entire time. Afterwards he giggled all the
way home.
Reagan was also here for Michael's
birthday, which included watching the boys' Olmsted Performing Arts
end of the year performance. The boys sang some songs, acted out a
couple of scenes from plays, and danced a dance. It was so cute. I
loved seeing them perform and have a good time.
The three older boys have been taking
piano lessons for a year. Their teacher is an awesome homeschooling
mom who motivates my boys so much. My boys love it and will bang on
the piano quite often throughout the day.
Reagan was able to watch them at the
semi-annual recital.
Michael kept looking up towards Evee
while he played his pieces. I couldn't blame him for Evee was dancing
away. Who knew that going to a piano recital would be the most
thrilling thing of the year. Evee loved the music, danced to it, and
clapped her hands with the applause.
Roger was confident and played well.
William looked very sharp at the piano,
and played well too.
Grant started lessons a month ago and
was able to perform as well. He was super cute playing "Mary Had a
Little Lamb".
After the recital, we went with our friends to our favorite ice cream place, a Gelato shop. It is amazing. Our friends have 4 kids, and with my kids, it seemed like there was a huge army.
While Reagan was here, we went down to
Columbus. We went to White Castle - everyone's first time going there, except for Todd who use to pound the little sliders while he worked Road Crew during the summer in college.
While I went to the temple, everyone else went to Ohio
State campus.
They even went into the Horseshoe
While they were there they learned that
one of the university's past presidents was involved with the
Underground Railroad.
A couple of days later, Grant drew
this:
The top individuals, standing on grass, are (Left to
Right): Grant, me, Todd, and Reagan (he's really tall). We are at
Ohio State. On the bottom is the Underground Railroad beneath us,
with a “servant” (as Grant called him) running away. I loved
seeing his depiction of what he had heard and loved that he had
remembered it.
Todd and Reagan tore down our old play set and put together the new one we had ordered. It was a lot of work, and they did a good job. The boys are excited about the new play set, and I am thankful to not worry about the play set falling on them.
We went bike riding with Reagan. We like to do this Bike-aboard, which entails riding your bikes on the towpath one way, and riding the train the other way.
William was having a hard time riding, so he and Todd were behind the rest of us. When we came to the train stop, we looked at the time and distance, and decided that if we hurried, we could meet the train at the next stop instead, and meet up with Todd and William on the train.
When we were coming to the next stop, I heard the train whistle and realized that we had missed the train. So, we turned around and biked back. It ended up being great for I was able to have a nice conversation with Mikey and Roger. Roger is such a connecting person, he creates the best conversations.
Evee fell asleep, and since she was sitting up, I had to reach my arm back to hold up her head. I have to say, it is a heavy head. No wonder it took her so long to get strong enough to hold it up.
Reagan likes to find races to do. So he found a scavenger hunt 5K, that he thought he would enjoy. Todd did it with him.
The funny thing is that living in Utah and living outside of Utah are very different. Todd and Reagan soon found that this entire race was pretty much a drinking race where you went from one bar to the next. They were the only ones going into the bars requesting their sheets to be marked off while refusing a drink. But they did get some great Race Garb.
Reagan was with us for almost two weeks, but the time just flew. It is so much fun having him visit. He is fun to have around.
