*a much needed vaca*

We had been looking forward to Easter weekend for weeks. Nick had a baseball tournament in Vegas again this year and we were able to finagle schedules to make the trip down. Nick went down with his coach the night before we left because he had a game early Thursday morning and we would not be there until the afternoon.

I worked the three nights before we left and wasn't able to sleep well in the car on the way down. I think somehow my body knew that I wasn't going to get much sleep so it begrudgingly allowed me to remain awake and even stay in a good mood. I was in an even better mood when we had to stop for gas in St. George and we visited a little shack called Swig I had seen on my friend's instagram the night before. She mentioned something about a dirty diet coke. I am a devout diet coke drinker and I have never in my life heard of anything of the sort. I immediately consulted google and it sounded amazing. I mean, what is not to love about diet coke infused with lime and coconut? I mentioned this delicious concoction to Justin on the way down without any intention of making a visit to the shack. Justin is a very focused car trip driver. There is no stopping or veering off the course unless it is an emergency. So imagine my surprise when he asked me what the address was once we got off the freeway and we ended up in the drivethru lane. The boys got shaved ice and I indulged in the largest dirty diet coke they had. It was just what I thought it would be. Life changing.



We arrived at our hotel, checked in quickly, and rushed over to the field to watch Nick play in his second game versus the Las Vegas Titans. He is now playing for the Utah Prospects, a team that is a good mix of boys from teams that lost players due to becoming older and moving to high school ball. He still plays for the same amazing coach and a few players from the Scrappers are also playing this last year of super league with him. He is playing different positions this year...last year he mainly played first base, left field, and pitched. Sometimes he would play third, but not very often. This year he is mainly on third base and shortstop. Sometimes left field. Sometimes pitching. It is fun seeing him performing in all these different roles. It was definitely a different feel watching the games with new faces and people still trying to get to know each other rather than feeling like we were a family but it was a still a good atmosphere and a fun time. They had won their first game against the Vegas Heat 9-0. We were hoping we would be as lucky at the end of the second game, but we lost 3-0. Nick was super bummed but the Prospects played a great game of baseball and he himself played well.


Thank goodness for the DS!


We went back to the hotel to eat dinner and my body finally let me know it was time to go to bed. Luke and Justin went down to watch the laser show in the lobby and as I was drifting off to sleep I promised Luke I would go and see it with him the next night.

Luke was adamant that we stay at Sam's Town. He says he wants to live there. He told me multiple times while we were there that he loves Sam's Town. When I asked him why he loved it so much, he answered me in all seriousness that "he loves the smell, he loves the scenery...everything." He is obsessed with their laser show in the lobby. I never got around to going last year and he was so excited that I would be going this year and kept reassuring me that I would love it. He even recorded it and had me record it a second time. During one part of the presentation, they play the song "I'm Proud to be An American" and he sang along. When he replayed the video, he commented: "That's weird. I sang along in my most beautiful voice and it doesn't sound that great on my DS. My video must not be working very well."

Man, I love that kid.

The next morning was more baseball.

We played at the Big Dreams park which is an amazing place with replicas of many of the different MLB fields. We played at Wrigley. It is also a nice set up because there are individual seats, they have shade canopies to sit under, and it is turf so you don't have dust blowing in your face every time someone slides into home. We played the Mustangs and beat them 8-6. Nick pitched 2 innings and had a single that brought in an RBI.



I absolutely love watching him play ball.





I was trying to take candid pictures of him after the game. He caught me and refused to look at the camera after that. So I let him relax a bit and let down his guard and got some great pictures of him dancing. He recently was looking through my camera and exclaimed: "What was I doing?" He never knew I took these pictures and absolutely has no idea that one made it on the blog.



The second game was against the Mile High Scrappers. Luke and Liam were totally bugged that this team "stole" our old team name and "they weren't even the right colors." We creamed this team 16-1. I was so excited because I thought that the game would end early because of the mercy rule. In reality, it would have, but one inning we were at bat for over an hour so by the time the mercy rule was put into effect, it was game time anyway. It felt good to end the day on such a good note and a great record. We ended up being the fourth seed for tournament play which we were happy about.



Justin dropped us off at the hotel and took one of the players to the airport so he could get to his brother's baptism the next morning. It is a pretty funny story but too complicated and kind of an inside joke because of how this kid is but all I can say is that I am happy that I was not in the car because I would been so frustrated with what was going on. I took Luke and Liam swimming until Justin returned while Nick and Andrew stayed in the hotel room. The pool at Sam's Town was under renovation which was a total bummer because I love their pool but we had access to the pool across the parking lot in the Sam's Town RV park. It wasn't the greatest but it was a pool and the boys had fun. When we arrived, there was a dad and his two kids there. They had tons of pool toys that they shared and they didn't speak much English. Luke and Liam were grateful to be using the toys but they were being a little rough between themselves and a couple times they seemed to be bothering the other kids. I was trying to keep them somewhat separated and kept telling them to tone it down. Finally, the dad looked over at me and said: "Relax." Really? I know that I was maybe overreacting a little bit but I didn't want his kids to get hurt and I am used to the boys playing with each other and they know what they can handle but his kids may not understand why they are getting squirted in the face with a huge water gun at point blank range. But hey, if you want your kids to get hurt and cry and hate us forever, whatever. I conceded at that point but luckily the boys went into the hot tub and the family ended up leaving so it all worked out in the end. These two boys play so well together and have so much fun. They did cannonballs into the pool one by one and then decided to do it together--holding hands.



We went to dinner and then I finally was able to see Luke's beloved laser show. He kept telling me over and over that I was just going to love it and even though it was the cheesiest thing ever I was happy that I was able to share in his joy of something he holds so dear. He didn't even catch on to my sarcastic remarks when I was talking about how awesome it was to Justin when we got back into the room because he was so pleased that I seemed to love it as much as he thought I would.

The next morning we played another game of baseball and didn't play so hot. We were up against a team from South Jordan called Clutch Performance. We had a few errors in the first inning that cost us the game but Nick overall played well. He was in left field and caught three foul balls and did well at third. Since we lost the first game, we were out of the tournament which was sad but the silver lining was that we had the rest of the day free to explore Vegas.



Luke has been wanting to see the Titanic exhibit since our last visit down here. I don't know if I need to worry about him or not but he is intrigued with all things tragedy. When we visited New York he was fascinated with the events on 9/11 and for a while he has wanted to know more about the Titanic. He has checked out books from the library, we have watched a few documentaries, and ever since he has known about this exhibit he has wanted to visit. Today was the day.



I wasn't sure what to expect. I hadn't heard much about it but there were rave reviews on the Internet. I thought it would just be a room filled with artifacts and that would be it. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it exceeded my expectations to the millionth degree. I loved it. Loved, loved, loved it. It was fascinating. As you walk through there is a tangible reverence and you feel like you need to whisper. I am so happy that the boys picked up on the feeling there and they were complete angels the entire time. We received a card with a name on it that we could see if we survived or not at the end to begin our journey. Nick was actually a prominent member aboard the ship--a perfume maker. They even found his perfume making kit with different vials of various scents that still retained their smell when they recovered them from the site. There were so many pristine artifacts recovered from the disaster site, stories about the passengers, there were times when it sounded like you were actually on the ship, there were replicas of different rooms and the grand staircase. My most favorite part was when you went out a door and it was like you were outside on the Promenade. It was dark, and cold, and a little eerie. But so peaceful listening to the waves crash against the ship and looking at the millions of stars. It was amazing. There was a replica of an iceberg that you could touch. As Luke was feeling it I mentioned to him that this was how cold the water was when the people sank into the water. I think it really hit home for him. The piece de resistance was an actual piece of the side of the ship. I don't know why it was so powerful to see it but I could have stared at it forever. Half of our family lived, half perished. Luke couldn't find his name for a while and was completely devastated that he did not survive. I almost wanted to trade cards with him because he was so visibly upset. We made it up to him by buying a poster of the blueprint to hang up in his room.




We then headed over to Caesar's Palace and got a treat at Serendipity. I had never tried a frozen hot chocolate and they are delicious. We ordered an original and a mint one and the mint one was my favorite. We had fun people watching and the boys giggled at the naked statue of David outside the hotel. While we were waiting in line for our treats, I told Luke to take pictures of things that looked interesting to pass the time. My favorite one is his self portrait. As he was snapping it, he stated: "Well, I'm interesting!"



Andrew hates the strip (for good reason!) so he wanted to eat dinner off the strip. We met some friends at the pawn shop that I guess is it's own reality TV show. Nick went off with his friend and the rest of us went to dinner at good old Olive Garden.



Thanks Vegas for showing us such a good time!

*mundane, but important, moments*

I feel like there is not much going on in our lives right now so I haven't been too diligent about blogging. But as I started looking through my pictures on my phone, I began thinking I better start recording even the seemingly mundane aspects of the day to day because one day when I am old and gray (well, gray-er), I will want to remember everything I can about these precious moments because lets be honest. I have the worst memory of anyone I know and if I don't write things down, I forget them almost instantly. Supposedly there is an article that states that because my memory is poor now it does not necessarily mean I will have Alzheimer's later on...let's cross our fingers. (Kate, have you found that article?)

So here goes.

Luke and Andrew participated in their school science fair. I was a bit overwhelmed at the thought of doing two science fair projects because if history repeats itself, I would have been doing the brunt of the work. But Luke and his friend worked on their project all by themselves--to see which kind of mentos make the biggest geyser in diet coke-- and even put the poster together without any assistance from a parent. Andrew in true form, waited until the very last minute and Justin and he put together a very nice project in a short amount of time. In fact, it was so nice it won the best in his class and he received a distinguished "Best in school" ribbon which he is very proud of. Even though it is technically Justin's.



We were watching an episode of one of our favorite t.v. shows--The Big Bang Theory--and there was a scene where Penny says something to Leonard while she is crying. I had to rewind it and I still could not figure out what she was saying and I voiced that out loud. Luke looked at me and repeated verbatim what she had just said. I asked him how he could understand what she was saying and he just gave me a little smirk and pointed at me. At least I am giving my boys good practice on how to understand their wives better.

There was a note left on Liam's door saying he needed some alone time. He was having a hard time figuring out how to finagle one of his transformers back and forth. It says: "Please don't come in. I am frustrated because Ironhide is hard."


I came home from work one morning and Liam looked a little weird. I was tired so I brushed it off until I went into the bathroom. I noticed that there was gel everywhere in the sink and there were black marks all over the counter. I went back out to talk to him and noticed his hair looked wet-I am not exaggerating when I say he had used a quarter of a large bottle of gel in his hair-- and his eyes and temples had black smudges on them. He said he did his own hair in a mohawk and despite his emphatic denials that he had not dabbled in my mascara, the evidence proved otherwise. I actually have dreamed about putting mascara on those long lashes of his, he looked lovely. And yes, I had him go to school like that.





Baseball started. We are already knee deep in it after two tournaments and heading down this morning for a third. I will be sad when this chapter of our lives is over. I hope one of the other boys wants to be this involved in baseball so we can keep it going.



Poor Andrew watched his beloved 49ers lose the Superbowl.

Liam got a new, albeit a worse, eye prescription. He got some pretty sweet new glasses out of it though. When we went to go pick them out, he chose this pair almost immediately, grabbed them, and yelled: "These. are. AWESOME!" I wasn't sold on them when I first saw them but my feelings were quickly swayed in the other direction because of his enthusiasm. And I have to admit, they look pretty darn cute on him.



I tried yoga for the first time.

Saw a few movies--thumbs up for Rise of the Guardians, thumbs down for "Oz."

Luke had a fun basketball season. He is also taking ski lessons through the rec center up at Brighton. He rides a sweet bus that picks him up from school and drops him off on Friday afternoons. He has loved it. I am kicking myself that I didn't just sign Andrew up even though he said he didn't want to do it. I think it would have been good for him. Oh well, next year.



We had fun snuggle moments.




Valentines day was low-key and nice. The younger two made boxes. Andrew said he was too old to make one. We had a nice dinner of chicken parmigiana and had delicious fondue for dessert with the good chocolate from Orson Gygis.



Liam calls Hawkeye from "The Avengers" hot guy. In his defense, Jeremy Renner is pretty easy on the eyes.

Liam and I went to the park to celebrate the first warm day we had experienced in weeks. It was so refreshing!


Luke finished phase 1 of his orthodontic treatment. He just has two more baby teeth to lose and then he can get started on phase 2.





Liam is getting pretty strong. He beat my dad in an arm wrestle.


I have started Les Miserables. It is worth every single one of it's 1228 pages. I love it.


Nick has officially passed me up in height. He is super proud of it too.


So many selfies on my phone from this guy. Every single one of them make me smile.

*books*

"Nothing ensures the success of the child more in society than being read to from infancy to young adulthood. Reading books to and with children is the single most important thing a parent, grandparent, or significant adult can do." --Anna Silvey


I absolutely loved to read as I was growing up. I had a generous sized walk in closet with a large skylight that I would hole up in and pass away the hours devouring books. Some of my favorites were The Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and Little Women. I can't remember how many times I read and reread those lovely stories.

I wanted to pass that love of reading onto my children. I read to them when they were little but I never really had it be part of their bedtime routine due to excuses I would make due to my crazy night schedule. I would try here and there to implement some sort of time during the day that we could sit and snuggle and delight in the wonders only a book can convey but life seeped in and robbed us of our time.

So, I have started now. Part of me feels guilty that I have not done this sooner and part of me is extremely sad that I haven't been sharing this precious moments with my boys all these years. Especially my older ones. Right now I am reading to Luke and Liam on the nights I am not working and occasionally Andrew will listen in. Hopefully I can make it so the older two will be regular listeners but I think those magical years have passed. Although I mentioned I was feeling sad and guilty, I am overjoyed with the memories I am now creating and I am happy that I have finally found a system that works for us.

I will never forget when we were finishing up Charlotte's Web and Luke gasped putting his hands over his mouth when Charlotte died. How the boys laughed their way through James' adventures on his beloved peach. And now, we are in the middle of reading the BFG. Luke comments every day that he wonders what will happen next and is sorely disappointed when I have to work because we miss a day to follow the exploits of the BFG and his heroine.

There are so many other adventures to be had and I love finally sharing them with my boys. There is something magical about these quiet moments right before bedtime because they look forward to it so much and their little minds are being filled with wonder and their imaginations stretched. I hope they continue the tradition with their future children and make it a regular part of their nighttime routine.