Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2010 May

Mon May 03 2010 19:58 Utah Museum of Natural History: The first Monday of the month is a free day at the Utah Museum of Natural History, so I took the kids today. When we got there, Maggie insisted on seeing "ladybugs and bees". Lucky for me, they had a live insect exhibit. After that, she warmed up to the idea of digging for dinosaur bones, and we spent an hour in the hands-on dinosaur exhibit. She enjoyed digging, doing puzzles and climbing on a faux femur, which she insisted was a slide, but the horizontal position led me to believe was a bench.

By the way, you can park at any metered parking in the President's Circle, and get a pass from the museum.

After a snack-picnic on the grass, we picked John up at work (we sold his car to Jamie and now we are sharing!) and took him to the airport. A sad, but busy, 3 days till we see him again.

Fri May 07 2010 10:01: A while ago I posted some pictures of Maggie, Colette, and Madeline, all wearing basically the same thing. Today I found the picture of Me, Jill, and Rachel I was reminded of. Here it is.

Wed May 12 2010 19:12 On the Move: My little boy is growing up. He has learned to get around, at least enough to get what he wants. He can scoot on the hardwood floor by grabbing on to something and pulling himself. He can rotate himself on his stomach in all directions. He can roll. And he can pull himself to sitting from his stomach. I put up a video of him babbling (and Maggie trying to steal the spotlight) and one of him working on crawling.

Also, Leonard is visiting. Pictures of related fun coming soon.

Fri May 14 2010 15:54 Leonard's Visit: Our short visit with Uncle Leonard has come and gone. We had a great time, Maggie especially. Leonard made delicious food for us and we did some fun activities. We drove down to Provo and met Jill at the Bean Life Science (ie. taxidermy) Museum. Then we walked over to the BYU Creamery and had ice cream. Afterward, we visited the Provo Cemetery and went to Zupas. We also went to The Living Planet Aquarium.

Maggie really enjoyed doing puzzles with Leonard. He taught her the names of the dinosaurs on her dinosaur puzzle. Also, he brought her some postcards from New York, and she wanted them on her bulletin board. Dalton enjoyed the extra attention, and especially liked being lifted in the air.

Thanks for visiting, Uncle Leonard!

Tue May 18 2010 07:07 Big Sister: This morning Dalton woke up just after 7. Since that is too early, I usually let him babble in his crib until Maggie wakes up. A little while later I heard Maggie talking. Then I could hear her say, "We're going to Grandma Papa's cabin and I-a run! I love to go to the cabin!" over and over. Maggie doesn't usually talk to herself quite so loud and Dalton stopped fussing, so I wondered if John wasn't leaving for work until 7:30. I got up, washed my face and got dressed, then I went to get see what was up. Maggie had climbed into Dalton's crib and was telling him all about the cabin and he was quite enthralled with her description.

(1) Sun May 23 2010 07:43 Camp In: We went to the cabin and stayed the night with some friends. It snowed (!) but we still had a great time. Maggie fell asleep in the car on the way home. When I tried to get her out of her seat, she pushed me away and said, "No, Colette!"

She calls me "Mommy Sue" now.

John posted this on his blog, but it bears repeating:
Maggie: Who's at the door?
John: It's nobody.
Maggie: It's yes-body.

(1) Tue May 25 2010 19:46 Temple Square: The kids and I met Jill at Temple Square today. Even though we've been there many times, today we did stuff we'd never done before. We went on a tour of the gardens, ate at the Lion House Pantry, and went up to the 26th floor observation deck in the Church office building. Then we peeked into the Tabernacle, saw the Christus, and went on a tour of the Conference Center. We didn't quite do everything we wanted to, but Jill offered to take the kids to the Church History/Art Museum during Brynn's sealing next week.

We had 2 inches of snow on the ground yesterday morning, but today was 70 and my arms got sunburned.

Thu May 27 2010 20:37 Getting Ready: Yesterday I went to the ward playgroup. Someone asked me if I'd started packing yet and I said, "..." Visas or no visas, we are moving out of our house 3 weeks from tomorrow. So, we started packing today. John packed our books and rearranged the storage areas we'll be using. I packed our crystal and sorted through lots of stuff. We have a big DI pile, and listed some things on KSL as well.

I am also going to get rid of a lot of my scrapbooking stuff. During previous purges I've gotten rid of things I would never use. Now I will only be keeping things I will definitely use. But first I have to scrapbook the 75 pictures I got in the mail today. Heh.

Mon May 31 2010 19:52 M on the Mountain: We hiked the Y this weekend. Maggie is obsessed with the letters on the mountain, so we thought this would be a fun activity. However, we got up there and she kept wanting to go see the Y! The pile of white-washed cement hardly looks Y-shaped up close, I guess. It's very big, and it's a very hard and steep hike.

Afterward we went to the Provo Cemetary to visit my parents' and grandparent's graves. We also took Grandma June to the Lehi and American Fork cemeteries on Saturday. She kept raving about how wonderful John was because he brought a cushioned folding chair for her to sit on, and fountain grass to plant, and I think it helped that she had a baby snuggled in a big warm blanket on her lap (it was windy and cold).

Sunday after church we went up to the cabin. Today was our clean-up day. Ember, Maggie, Dalton and I swept the road, and I picked up a lot of wood. John did his usual scavenger hunt for the kids. Good to know those scarecrow owls are good for something. (Sorry, I'm on the birds' side.)