Field Trip Friday

Today Jordan, Trevor and I went to the Arizona state capitol building for Jordan's Citizenship in the Nation merit badge. It's his last requirement needed to pass it off. Now all he has to do is meet with his counselor. (Sidenote: Jordan has passed off 4 merit badges this summer and this will be his 5th. Three of them were required for his Eagle. He is also in the middle of 3 more. He ALSO only has two more requirements to get his First Class rank.) The capitol building has been turned into a museum of sorts with many displays and exhibits. Some of them are: a display on how a bill becomes a law, how the Arizona Constitution came to be, a memorial on the USS Arizona which is in Pearl Harbor, the Gratitude and Merci Trains, the Navajo code talkers, wildlife of Arizona and much more! They also had several rooms displaying what the first governor's office, the first House of Representatives assembly room, and other government offices from the beginning of Arizona's statehood looked like. They had a wax figure of the first governor sitting in his chair, and Trevor thought he was real for a while. So funny. Jordan sat up in the Speaker of the House's chair and proposed several bills like "Who loves mom" and such and Trevor voted on them. It was cute.

They have separate buildings where the current House of Representatives and Senate meet. We were able to go up in the gallery of both and look down. Cool stuff. We then went to the big 9 story wing that was added to the capitol building. This is where the current governor and other government offices are now. We even got to go through the metal detectors. I forget that we still have to do that in all our government offices. We also visited the park across the street which has several memorial statues for veterans of most of the wars we have been in. Among them was a mast and anchor from the USS Arizona. I had no idea an anchor could be so big. Jordan and I were both touched by the memorials and enjoyed it--even in 112 degrees. :) They had great quotes on the monuments that said things like "Freedom isn't free" and "To honor those who fought when uncommon valor was a common virtue." Isn't that beautiful? We had a nice talk about that. What a good time we had.

Then tonight the family (except Chase) went to the new Bass Pro Shop that opened up in Mesa. When I say it's huge, that's an understatement!! It was overwhelming to be in there. They sold EVERYTHING. There was a shooting arcade, every outdoor thing you can think of and more, a restaurant, a fine gun room, boats, quads, a rock climbing wall, huge aquariums, etc. I don't know if any of you have seen the Circuit City commercial where the wife is talking to the husband in the parking lot before they go in, and she's telling him that they had a plan and weren't going to get stupid in there. The man then runs in all crazy. That's how I felt when we first went in there.

I knew it was like an Sportsman Disneyland when Tanner came up and said, "For my souvenir . . ." I just had to laugh. I was like "We're not on vacation. It's not like we're at Disneyland." But when the kids (and Jerel) are uttering statements like "This is the greatest store in the world," "I wish I had brought my camera," and "This is better than Toys R Us," then it must feel like a vacation spot. :) lol

Road trip, High School Musical, Boyce and the 80's

I drove up to Flagstaff on Monday to drop off Chase and his friend, Kohl, at EFY at NAU (Northern Arizona University). Well, I was worried that I would get tired driving back by myself, so I took Tanner with me. I shouldn't have worried. I took my Ipod and jammed to music all the way back. Well, I listened to the High School Musical soundtrack two times in a row. I know, don't laugh. I just love the music--and the movie too! lol (And yes, I can't wait for the sequel to come out in August.) Anyways, the first time listening to it, all I could think of was Boyce and the duet he did for his ward talent show. I just sang along and smiled the whole time thinking of Boyce. Boyce, you're so awesome!! So, of course, since I loved it so much the first time, I listened to it AGAIN! And I still thought of Boyce's duet the whole time again. I also jammed to the two 80's cd's that Janel burned for me. Thanks so much Janel for doing that. I must have listened to "We Built This City on Rock and Roll" like 5 times! You guys rock!! (plus you made my trip go by sooo quickly)

By the way, here's some links to the original duet from High School Musical and then the one that Boyce did for his talent show. You just have to watch them to get an idea of why I had such a great road trip AND was totally smiling the whole time!!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XDjUYk7u3QE (The original High School Musical duet.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTlFIJYDeQ (Boyce's AWESOME duet.)

Everything's coming up roses

Hey all! This is the cake I made for my final cake decorating class. I made the whole thing. I couldn't believe it. I was so afraid to tackle the roses; they looked too hard to make. But the roses weren't as hard to make as I thought they would be. I think they were my favorite thing I learned how to do. The roses were still a little soft when I put them on my cake, but I think it still turned out pretty good. (Just don't look too hard at the roses close up.) I also really enjoyed making the polka dots for this cake. I finished it off by putting edible glitter on the top. I had never used it before and ended up liking the effect. The kids were so nice and complimentary. Trevor told me it was "beautiful," and Tanner said that I was a "professional." The kids sure love all the "homework" I get to do for this class. Next month I'm going to start a fondant class. (By the way, the cake was a devil's food chocolate cake with a raspberry and whipped cream filling. I also base frosted it in a whipped frosting. Just added that so you could get the complete picture and, you know, make your mouth water. lol It has to taste as good as it looks, or what's the point?!)

Top awards

I have been meaning to post this for the last month, but didn't have a picture of the boys in their nice dress clothes with their trophies. So I have been trying to remember to take a picture of the boys with their trophies every Sunday, but I keep forgetting. I give up; I just took a picture anyways. We're very proud of our boys! They work hard and deserve honors for their efforts.


Chase received a trophy for getting a 4.0 or higher for the first 3 quarters of the year. (He actually ended up getting a 4.0 or higher for all 4 quarters.) It's quite an honor that not many students get. It was given to him by the principal and faculty at a special awards assembly. Most of the students honored were 9th graders. He was dressed up very nicely and handsome in his dress clothes and went on stage to receive his award. Jordan received a trophy for being the "Outstanding Independent Reader" for his class. He feels that he probably would have got an award for math too, but they try to space out the awards among as many kids as possible. I bet he would have too, he's quite sharp in that area as well. My mom will know what this means, but he got 458.6 AR points this year. AR is a special reading program that tests kids on reading comprehension of different books they have read. The number of points they get is based on how difficult the book is and how well they answered the questions. Jordan had the highest points in the whole school. He beat the person in 2nd place by like 100 points. He didn't even take tests on all the books he read this year. Jordan was also voted the "Smartest" by his class.

Bonjour Trevor

Tanner, Jordan and Trevor were getting ready to watch a movie tonight, and then we hear Trevor getting upset in the other room. He sounded quite intense and there was even some slight jumping up and down in frustration. When we inquired about the problem, we found that it was because Trevor wanted to watch the movie, Monster House, in French. Yep, that's right, French! So I said, "Okay, just let him. He'll get bored and want to switch over. He probably just doesn't know what it means." Well, it's still going because Trevor, "Likes it that way--it's funny!" The other boys ended up putting on English subtitles for themselves. Our children are so cultural!

Clowning around

I have been taking a Wilton cake decorating course with my friend, Stephanie. We have been going every Wednesday night in June. (I wish I would have paid better attention to what my mother tried to teach me when I was at home, and then I wouldn't have to take this course.) I've been learning all sorts of new techniques. Before, I pretty much could only do stars. But now I'm learning how to make different borders and flowers. I'm loving the class! Here's the cake that I made tonight. I'm not really a clown fan, but I have to admit that I think these turned out pretty cute. I'm also going to show a picture of a monkey cake and cupcakes that I made for Trevor's birthday in February. It was a Curious George party. I think they turned out really cute, so I feel like sharing them too. The monkey cake didn't have a pattern to follow so I just made one up myself by looking at pictures online. The cupcake faces are made out of melted chocolate that I made in the shape of a monkey face; I then decorated it with icing.

I told you so

Two or three weeks ago I was messing around with the kids in the backyard. I was chasing Jordan and trying to catch him. Much to Jerel's amusement, I couldn't catch him. Well, anyways, Chase was trying to help me and head him off at the pass. Needless to say, we caught him and while he was wrestling with us and trying to get loose, he stepped on my foot pretty hard. It was an accident and so I tried to forget it. It never swelled up or bruised either. But it kept hurting. Every couple days I would tell Jerel that I thought my foot was broken, he would say, "Oh, it's fine. You'll know if it's broken." I would think, "Yeah, I think I know it and that's what I'm telling you--I KNOW I broke my foot!" But he still dismissed me. To make a long story short, I finally went to the doctor today because the pain started to shoot up to my ankle, all the time. It turns out I fractured the bone on the top of my left foot. So now I get to wear a boot for the next three weeks. When I go back, they will x-ray and check it out again. If it's not better, it will be more boot time for me. So Jerel---I told you so! :) lol

p.s. Jerel, I guess we're even from when I sent Tanner to the time-out chair when he broke his arm. :)