Activity Days

Things have been a little busy...in a good way.  I'm up to 3 callings in the ward, which they try to discourage, but if they asked me to give one up, I don't know which one it would be.  I'm in the RS activity board, which I love because it keeps my foot in the door with "grown ups" since my other two callings are in Primary.  I teach the 8 soon to be 9 yr olds in Primary, and love it!  Especially since those girls will be in my Activity Days class as they turn 9.  (Three Activity Day groups 8, 9 and 10-11 yr olds) Seriously, I'm having so much fun learning right along with them.  Activity Days is brand new to me, so I'm up for the challenge to learn and be creative.  For a long time I never really knew what Activity Days was or what was really going on, so I took that and decided to be more organized.  (Of course I knew what it is for, but felt in the dark)  The girls are doing reminder calls, and taking turns with the treat.  I also made up a 6-9 mo calendar, so moms and kids know what is coming up.  Love pinterest for all the blogs and ideas!

These last few week, we have been working on serving others.  The requirement is make your own idea for serving others, so my first activity (2 weeks ago) we did service checks.  They had to "write" a check for the service they were doing.  This week we did something for the nursery. we cleaned all the toys.  Germs have been extreme this winter, so I thought this would be awesome.  We started with this poster as girls came in the church building.  "What would you want someone to do for you?"  I used an article given by Thomas S. Monson about Warm Fuzzies of service.  We talked about what other kids had done for service and the poster of what they would like to be done for them.  They each had fuzzies to take home and leave behind as they did services.  Then we broke into two groups and cleaned both nursery toys (other group finished before I could get a picture of them cleaning).

My girls worked hard and did a great job.  There were a lot more toys then I imagined, so they were awesome to accomplish all they did in a short amount of time.

Finally, to finish out the activity, we did "All About Me" bags.  They brought things from home about them and shared with the group.  Some are less active and really... this was for me to know them better.  Noelle brought amazing chocolate chip cookies in the treat basket to share...I thought it went really well.

Early Spring??

Giving Blood

I love doing this when I can. Giving blood isn't fun, but I enjoy doing the service for others.  Raegan wanted to come along and "watch" or get snacks, which ever it was, I think she learned something.  Although, I felt a little light headed that night, I still think it was worth it.

Valentine's Date

 I'm very simple so I'm glad Trent is better at this stuff then I am.  He put together the Valentine goody bags and flowers for the girls.  So this is what the kids saw V-day morning.  Lunches made, goodies, flowers and  bag of candy for the boys...chocolates and flowers for me.

 Yes, Leona wanted in on the action too...

For the grown ups Valentine's, we waited til the weekend to celebrate.  When Trent and I were dating 15 yrs ago, he taught me to snowboard up at Brighton during night skiing.  Cheaper at night for us poor college kids...  Anyway, with Sundance Resort closer and even cheaper (rentals and lift ticket--I don't have a board yet) we went there.  These were the slopes Trent blew his savings on and would ditch econ class for...oh the memories. 

Yep, I know I'm not looking and Trent thinks he looks funny too...that's what you get when you ask some guy to take a picture...

Since it had been 4 yrs since Snowbowl in AZ when I boarded last, then another 8 or so years before that...I decided to hit the bunny hill to make sure I remember my balance.  One time was all I needed then it was up the lift to better hills.

We felt young again.

 

Looking down from the lift...our boards dangling from our feet.

I think Trent would agree that I did pretty good.  I fell a few times and have a few bruises to show, but overall, I was able to keep up and carve up the mountain.  Sadly I had a basketball injury on my knee that was revisited on the mountain a few times, but otherwise nothing major...

Afterwards, we hit a Thai restaurant.  Oh it was so good.  A great night that brought us back to the good 'ol days.

Passing On The Tradition

Trent has been excited to be back in snow country!!  He found a great deal on snowboarding equipment and decided it would be a perfect investment to staying young. :o)  Sundance was the mountain that enticed him initially to skip college classes, so naturally he wanted to revisit his glory days (and I guess it being the closest resort helps too).  

Naturally, you want your kids to like or try things we as parents like.  So Rian had her first try at snowboarding.  Overall it was pretty rough, but I think she enjoyed daddy time and the new experience.  Season is coming to a close, but hopefully there will be a few more opportunities.