Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

Spring has finally come to Rexburg.






































































I also have to add my experience I had this morning. Last week I saw advertised in the newspaper that there would be swimming lessons put on by the city this summer. Now that might not sound all that cool to some of you but to people in Rexburg it is a cool thing. We don't have a city pool and the fitness center that used to offer swimming lessons sold out to a security company a couple of years ago. The college has offered some lessons in the past but that building is under construction so they haven't been offered there, either. So anyone who wanted swimming lessons had to go to another city to get them. This year the city contracted with the security company to use their pool for lessons. Sign ups were today from 9 - 5, Friday evening and Saturday morning. I told Darren I was going to get our kids signed up right at 9 on Thursday morning so I could get first pick of the times and be sure my kids got a spot. Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one thinking that way. I guess people started lining up way before 9 am so when I got there at 9:20 am there were probably over 100 people ahead of me. And most of them weren't just signing up one kid, either. We waited for two hours and there were still a lot of people ahead of us. I had to keep bribing Ethan and Jacob with McDonald's so they would be patient. (And they were pretty good.) Finally the mayor and a couple of other city workers decided to make up a form we could fill out and just leave. They kept the forms in the order we were in line so it was like our paper was taking our place in line. If they hadn't have done that we would have been in line for probably 1 1/2- 2 more hours. I'm not sure if my kids will get in. I hope it was worth the wait. But I guess we'll see. Hopefully this emphasized to the city how much we really do need and want a city pool. And we did have lunch at McDonald's.

Trip to Utah

We decided to go to Salt Lake this weekend at the last minute for Carrie and Nalani's baby blessings. Here are some photos from the trip:


















Actually, this was before we left. It's just a shot of the boys watching TV in my room. I think it's funny that they like to lay on the bare hardwood floor and watch. Doesn't sound very comfy to me.


















This is Ethan and Kevin at Wheeler Farm in Salt Lake. We had never been there but the boys, especially Jacob, loved it.



















Another photo at Wheeler Farm. Kevin and Jake throwing rocks in the water. We had to keep telling them to throw away from the birds. There was a pair of Canada geese on this stream and two little babies.



















Carrie's baby's blessing was at 9 am. We stayed for the entire Sacrament Meeting and then went to Orem/Lindon to Nalani's baby's blessing at 1:00 pm. We made it through the sacrament on that one and the boys just couldn't sit through another sacrament meeting. So I suggested we just take them outside and wait. We found some lawn outside the church to sit on and after we had been there a short while I saw a snake on the cement. Apparently there are a bunch of garter snakes that live in the crack of the cement by this railing. So, Jed and Nalani, you have snakes that live at your church. Darren thinks they spent the winter there. Above is a picture of the boys looking in the crack at the snakes. There were quite a few in there. Once the snakes realized we were there they stayed in the crack. So for those of you that don't like snakes, don't worry, they were inside most of the time.



















Here you can kind of see a part of a snake sticking out.



















Darren, of course, had to play with one of them. He put it on the grass and it quickly slithered under a fence. There was a dog on the other side of the fence and I could kind of see between the boards of the fence that dog was interested in the snake that just came into his territory. I don't know the final verdict of the snake vs dog.



















Carl had a tree that needed to be planted and he had problems with his eye this weekend. He put Darren and Sam to work planting it. They did a great job!