Festivals = Learning Opportunities

So we've been "festival hopping" like crazy these past few weeks. Here are a few of the ones we've hit so far, as well as what we learned at each one:

The Rendezvous in Fort Bridger, Wyoming
What we learned: How trappers (and other white men) and Native Americans learned to get a long with each other by meeting together and trading their wares.

The Civil War Reenactment at This is the Place State Park in Salt Lake City, Utah
What we learned: What the living quarters, weapons and battlegrounds looked like during the time period of the Civil War.


(This is us with a few of the soldiers who were doing a cannon demonstration.)


The Healing Fields in Sandy, Utah (Memorializing the people who died in the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01)
What we learned: That thousands of men and women lost their lives that day (each flag represented a life lost).


Pagan Pride Day at Murray Park, Utah
What we learned: That through celebrating the cycles of the earth, we can understand the cycles of our lives better.

And there are more festivals to come! We're going to an apple picking festival at Wasatch Mountain State Park, possibly squeezing in the State Fair, and in just a few weeks we're heading out on our 2 week vacation visiting the 4 corners states, where we'll hit the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. So much to see and so much to learn!!

Another one about me...

I know, I know... another post about me... BORING! But I just wanted to tell any of you who care, that I just completed my very first half marathon last Saturday up in Huntsville, Utah. Yup, that's right 13.1 miles!! It was awesome! It was such an amazing feeling to know that I am capable of doing such a thing. I've never considered myself a runner, I just started it because I thought it would be a convenient way for me to get into better shape. After a few months of running consistently, I finally convinced myself that I LOVE RUNNING! And since I had fallen in love with it, I decided that I wanted to do more of it... and so, long story short, I decided to try a half marathon. And I finished it! At about mile 12 I was literally saying out loud to myself "Wow! I rock! I can totally do this! I'm going to run 13.1 miles!" It was such a euphoric feeling! Then adding to the euphoria was the feeling of immense joy I felt when I saw my husband and beautiful boys on the sidelines cheering me on with homemade signs that said "Mom you Rock!" or "You did it Mom!" I was seriously crying as I crossed the finish line! What a great day it was! I am so blessed to have a healthy body and such a wonderful and supportive family. Who could ask for anything more? There, I'm done... now I'll go back to posting about the boys.

What Drew couldn't do...

He can ride a bike, swim every lap you can think of in the pool, write his name in cursive, read 2-3 chapter books a week, get himself ready for school, brush all the hard to reach spots of his teeth, make himself a sandwich, get himself to scouts, piano or art lessons on time, put all his dirty clothes in the laundry room, tell time, clean the bathroom, weed the flower beds, and oh so much more!

But there was ONE thing that Drew just couldn't do... Tie his shoes! That is, until now!!

He had his eye on a new pair of Converse sneakers, but we told him we weren't buying him shoes that tie until he learned how to tie them by himself. We made several previous feeble attempts to no avail... Until last Sunday, when Grandma & Grandpa Peterson sat him down and practiced with him over and over and over and over and over and over (get the picture).

He finally mastered it and we told him if he wore shoes that tied all week long and tied them himself every time, we'd buy him the sneakers of his dreams.

Well, he did it, and he's now the proud owner of a spanking new pair of Chucks! All night he kept saying "Hey guess what? I got my Converse!" It was too funny!

Congratulations Drew!

Family Traditions

Drew's class is learning about family traditions at school and his teacher asked all the kids to fill out a form about one of their own family traditions... We discussed it at dinner and decided that the family tradition we would tell about is our tradition of eating "crap" together in the kitchen.

Here's what we wrote on the form:

My family tradition is eating "crap" (raw chocolate chip cookie dough).

My family tradition was started by my mom and dad.

It began when they were first married in 1996.

This tradition is important to my family because we all get together with our own spoon and a big bowl of cookie dough and just hang out and eat as much "crap" as we want to while we chit-chat about our days. It's a great family time and we all look forward to it! We don't do it for any particular reason; we just do it because it's fun!

Tell anything else that would help your child write a story about the family tradition. What does it look like?
It looks like yummy, gooey chocolate chip cookie dough! (see pic above)

How did it become a tradition?
We just all like raw cookie dough so we decided it would be a fun little free-for-all that we could do together every once in a while... every couple of months, or whenever we feel like it!

Who is involved? Me, my mom, my dad and my brother Will.


That's the end of the questionnaire... Here's what the cookies look like once we've cooked them. If you'd like the recipe, it's on the package of the butter flavored Crisco sticks. We rarely end up with more than 15 cooked cookies because we've eaten all the dough.

I love class projects like these...

Taking the grandfolks to the zoo!

Sunday started off overcast and rainy and perfect weather for spending the day at the zoo! So after breakfast at Ruth's Diner with Grandma & Grandpa (our favorite place up Immigration Canyon), we decided to head over to the zoo and see all the new baby animals.

It turns out that this was Grandma's first time to the zoo in probably 10 years or more (since we took Jon, Devon & Emily- my nephews & niece). Needless to say, much has changed at the zoo since then, so it was like she was seeing everything again for the first time and it was SO MUCH FUN! Isn't it cool how it makes a place more fun when you're seeing it through someone else's eyes?
We saw the brand new giraffe who was born the day after my birthday... so he was only 2 weeks old and oh, so stinkin' cute! We also saw baby meerkats and a baby snow leopard. The baby elephant is off exhibit for a few more weeks, so unfortunately we couldn't see him/her.

The Asian Highlands area was amazing to Grandma. She was so happy they took the lions out of those terrible concrete cages they used to be in. Their new habitats are so much more natural and happy for them! Plus there's so much information and interactive exhibits there.

And look, they even added more gorilla's to the "Do you measure up?" display... now there's room for a mom, a dad and two kids. Perfect for our little family!

The new carousel was really fun too. Grandpa helped with the construction of it, so it was cool to sit and hear him talk about building it to the boys. Other highlights were the elephant and rhino exhibit, the monkey houses (again, thank goodness they got rid of the concrete and monkey bars), and the Madagascar exhibit. It was all new to mom, so it was all new to us! What a great day!

Incredible update:

I just wanted to send a quick "Thank you" to everyone who helped me find a way to deal with the "Incredible inschmedible" discussion I blogged about earlier. I even got suggestions from my wonderful Mother-in-law (who I didn't even know read my blog)! I used bits and pieces of all your advice and it went really well... actually a lot easier than I had feared (as usual I worried about it more than I needed to).

So here's how dinner went:
I repeated the question (What do you do to make yourself feel better when someone makes you sad, angry or embarrassed?), and asked if they'd given any thought about it today...

Drew - "I just pretend it didn't happen and then it doesn't bother me."

Will - "I tell Mom, she'll take care of it."

And then Jeff and I talked about our take on the issue, and then we all moved on to other items of business...

See! All that worry for nothing:~) Oh well, I'm still thankful for all of your insight- it has helped me a ton! Thanks for reading! And thanks for commenting!

Incredible inschmedible...

So I had the "great" idea to read this book together with my boys in order to help them develop a healthy self-esteem. It's a great little book about 10 ways to "let your greatness shine through". At the end of the book are 10 questions that are meant to open up discussion... so I decided that we'd take one question a day and discuss it over breakfast, then think about it during the day, and then follow up about it at dinner.

Well, this morning's question was: If someone or something makes you feel sad, embarrassed, or angry, what do you do to make yourself feel better?

The goal of this question is to teach the importance of taking care of ourselves, and learning to let go of the hurt because we can't control what others say or do. Right?

Well, here is my dilemma... I STILL HAVEN'T FIGURED OUT HOW TO DO THIS SO HOW ON EARTH AM I SUPPOSED TO HELP MY KIDS LEARN? I still get hurt by things my "friends" say or do, or don't say or don't do... I have a hard time keeping good, close friends... I'm convinced that Jeff is the only person on earth who loves me in spite of my craziness and can tolerate me no matter what mood I'm in. I have many folks who I think are friends, but then I realize these relationships are one-sided and feel like I'm imagining that I have friends (does that make sense?).

Anyway, what's the lesson I'm supposed to share with my boys tonight at dinner?