The Spring Break Report: Part 2, days 2-4

DAY 2:
St. George has a really cool park high up on the hill above town. I'm not sure why we've never been there before. It was obviously a well-known hiking spot judging from the number of people who were there, and on a Sunday, when you would think that most of St. George would be in church. The boys enjoyed climbing on all the rocks, but we couldn't stay as long as we might have liked due to being over-dressed. The weather report said the temp was 56, so we dressed a little on the warm side. When we got there, it was clearly over 70, maybe around 80 and, of course, we didn't bring water. Simon was quickly over-heating, so our stay was short. We can always go back another day.


The boys saw a couple of lizards out there, which was followed by lizard chasing. I'm not sure what they thought they would do with the lizard if they actually caught it. I know they were able to keep some backyard frogs alive in the house for a long time, but I'm not sure if the lizard would have survived the trip home.



There were some big rocks to climb that didn't require any real rock climbing skills. That was fun!



DAY 3: Day 3 was apparently so uneventful, I can't remember what we did. I'm sure it included swimming and shopping at stores like Target. This may have also been the day that we took the boys to one of those bouncy places. I sat on a couch and read Stolen Innocence and paid no attention to the boys and what they were doing. Afterwards, I was chastised for not taking any pictures. Stolen Innocence, by the way, is a very interesting story of a young FLDS girl who was forced to get married at 14 to some guy she didn't like, who then abused her. Since I spend most of my days and weeks with 14 year olds, I am quite aware of how immature they are and how they are still children and should not be getting married and having babies. Also disturbing was the 18 year olds being married to some guy in his 80s.

DAY 4: We were up early and off to visit the Best Friends animal sanctuary in Kanab, UT. Kanab is in the middle of nowhere, but it is a cool place to visit and they really take care of a lot of animals. I wish we had had a chance to visit with more animals, but I guess you need to take the time to volunteer to do that. Some people make a vacation out of volunteering at Best Friends. That might be fun to do sometime when the kids are a bit older.


We sat all the way in the back of this big van:

Torsten in one of the cat houses.
A very friendly dog:
A donkey?
A mean pot-bellied pig:
A lonely dog named Chico:
Another strange creature:

After Best Friends we had a five plus hour drive to Peoria, Arizona. The drive was long, and only sometimes scenic. We stopped at a dam, and got out to see the dam view.




Shortly after that last photo was taken, Simon attempted to kill himself by running across the highway in front of an RV. Steve's scream scared me and apparently scared Simon enough to get him out of the street. Simon is just one crazy kid. I hope soon he gets enough common sense to keep himself alive for a few more years.

After finally arriving in Phoenix, we went out for some dinner. And do you even need to ask where? There was a Mexican place just a block from the hotel, so of course we ate there.


On the walk back to the hotel I spotted a Trader Joe's just across the parking lot. I can't believe we are so lucky to have picked a spot right next to Trader Joe's. I went in for some after-dinner snacks and also got some yogurt to have for breakfast. Steve noticed that on the other side of the hotel is a Costco. I think I know at least one place we'll be going tomorrow!

The Spring Break Report: Day 1

We were very tired on our first day of Spring Break. Our plane got us in to Vegas a little bit late and by the time we picked up the rental car and drove to St. George (with a brief stop at Smiths in Mesquite for some stay-awake snacks), it was 2:30 AM SG time. The boys were up early the next morning and ready for some breakfast and swimming. I skipped the pool (thank you swimming lessons for making my boys independent swimmers) and took the role of documenting the experience.



We then went out to run some errands. After a stop at Target, we hit Bajio for some lunch. Torsten got my favorite, shrimp tacos. I ate one of his tacos; they were good. Steve got a burrito classico with chicken, which I had some of, but it wasn't as good as the tacos. The chicken was a little dry.


It was nice just to be out in the sun. The temp was under 70, but it was warm enough for us to be out in shorts and t-shirts. Notice our rental car, a mini-van, so that we can blend in with the locals.


And who can resist a stop at Costco? We had to make sure that St. George didn't have something ours was missing. I think they had most of the same stuff, but the biggest problem was that I was exhausted from our lack of sleep the night before. I sat down at a patio set while Steve and Torsten were looking at books, and I fell asleep. After a quick nap it was time to check out the food section and, of course, the samples. But there was something strange about sampling here. They just stick the food on a tray for you to pick up with your hands--no cups, no napkins, no eating utensils. One particularly disturbing sight was the lady with plastic gloves covered in mango goo placing small cubes of mango on the tray for people to pick up with their bare hands. I mean, have they not heard of toothpicks in St. George? And the ironic thing about it is that at every sample station there was a sign that said, "Due to health code, please wait for food to be placed on the tray before touching." So weird. What about all the germs hitting the tray from people's hands as they pick it up? And I saw several people taking more than one serving. I skipped the samples altogether as did the rest of the family despite Torsten's protests.

After a post-Costco nap it was time for dinner. We decided to try Samarai 21, which everyone but me had been to before. It is one of those Asian restaurants where they cook the meal at the table. I was tired and cranky and didn't like how the hostess wanted to seat us so that we were squeezed in at the corner of the table. It wasn't the best set-up for conversation and kind of awkward since we were seated with a group of people we didn't know. But the cooking part was kind of fun and the boys enjoyed it.





Later in the evening we played some Yahtzee and Uno, and even got Steve to break away from the computer to join us.
There is not much planned for today. We are going to head out to a park in St. George for some rock climbing and exploring. Then, who knows?

Lacrosse in the rain

Torsten had a lacrosse game this weekend in Auburn. It was nice and sunny all day until about 10 minutes prior to the game start. Then we had rain. We love sports in the rain!


The sun did come out a few times during the game to give us a little reprieve.


Torsten's team was crushed by the Lake Tapps team. They were older, bigger, and had about twice the number of players as Kitsap. Torsten stepped in at the end of the game to play goalie and did a great job. He played defense for most of the game and seemed to handle the long stick pretty well.

After the game, we picked up some new Vans for Simon at the Tacoma Mall and then went for some dinner at Chevy's. We thought the whole meal was good and seemed to be about an average wait for the size of the crowd in the restaurant. But at the end of the meal, the waitress said she took $5 off because of the long wait. Bonus!

Too Busy!

I have been too busy to post anything lately until this guy got sick and needed me to stay home with him. I really should stay home from work more often because I really got a lot done including laundry, grading, prep work for the CBA (don't ask) and shampooing the carpet on the stairs. All of this was easily accomplished while Torsten and his buddy spent the day on the couch. I'm sure he'll be back to his usual self tomorrow.Our busy Saturday included working on Simon's science project. I'll let him explain his project a little later, but it included lots of cookie baking and some measurement.


And then cookie eating, which obviously was the whole point of choosing a science project related to chocolate chip cookies.
Sunday included a pointless trip to Seattle for a very boring clinic that should have been skipped. Let's just say that the presenter was not an experienced teacher and he had definitely never heard of powerful teaching and learning. Maybe you have not heard about it either, but it's basically what makes learning active, engaging, and relevant (and keeps you from falling asleep). Afterwards we took a ferry to Bremerton. Steve did this:
I did this:

In case you are wondering, this is an essay on why TV is educational. Why do I assign such boring assignments? Because it's one of the prompts that the computer can grade for me. Then I just go through and read and leave a few comments so the students know that I read what they wrote.

And now we are in for another busy week full of lacrosse practices, swimming lessons, dentist appointments, meetings, and other un-fun stuff (by the way, stuff is a word that my students are not allowed to use in their writing). Can't wait for Spring Break!