Whew! It's been quite a while since I've posted. I've been in Utah on vacation for the last two weeks. Our family had a fantastic time in Midway. We have a WorldMark timeshare and stayed in one of the condos there. The weather was supposed to be cold and snowy, but turned out to be absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed the indoor pool, played lots of family board games, and watched the Hot Wheels World Race movie more times than I can remember.
We traveled down to Orem several times to visit with friends—all our friends at church, our old neighbors The Gockley's, The Fronk Family, and The Banta Family. I was even invited to attend Enrichment at my old ward. It was fantastic to chat and catch up with everyone.
One day we went to the aquarium with our friends, the Fronk Family. Anna totally loved the huge shark tank. She stood on the ledge with her hands and nose pressed against the glass. Each time a shark swam by, she'd just laugh and giggle! Her favorite shark was the Leopard Shark.
The older kids enjoyed the manta ray tank where you could put your hand into the water and pet the rays.
Can I just say that I'm a chicken? It took me a good five minutes or so to get brave enough to put my hand in the water and touch the rays. Not MJ or Rob though. They rolled up their sleeves as fast as they could, then dove right in. Isaac was a bit more on the cautious side. It's good to see at least one of my kids inherited my common sense!
At the end of our week in Midway, we drove to Sandy and dropped off the kids to our friends Robin and Randy, who were totally brave and volunteered to watch ALL four of my kids while John and I attended the LDS Storymakers conference (more about that in another post).
After getting the kiddos settled, we checked into our hotel then were off again to Orem. I had the opportunity to meet with the GIANT Steps Autism preschool parents and present about stress relief strategies. It was a great workshop. I started out with some facts about stress. Then as a group we talked about how stress affects us and shared ideas of how to overcome the stress of raising kids with special needs. The parents were fantastic and so much fun to talk to. We had so much fun sharing, we went over our meeting time! After the parent support group meeting, John and I attended our monthly Friends of GIANT Steps board meeting. It was nice to attend in person rather than over the phone! This school year is the first time in many years that John and I have stepped back and had other parents step forward to head up the board. I have been super impressed with all the wonderful things this group has put together to benefit the GIANT Steps Autism preschool. They have accomplished so much and each of them deserves a huge pat on the back (along with lots and lots of chocolate!)
After the LDS Storymakers Conference, we stayed with Robin and Randy. Together, our two families had a totally fun Easter. We attended church with them, where some super funny stuff happened. I'll write about it in another post. But let's just say that Rob thinks he found his first true love—less than five minutes after being introduced as a visitor to the Sunbeam class. After church, our friend Kim came to participate in all the fun Easter festivities. The kids (all seven of them—ours and theirs) enjoyed the easter egg hunt. I'm sure that if we hadn't waited until after dinner to start the hunt, the adults would have been re-hiding the eggs a few more times!
Monday, we started our two-day journey back to Kansas City. Now here we are! The kids are back in school with lots of exciting stories about what they did during their spring break. Be sure to check back for pics from our vacation. I should get them up sometime before the end of the week.
