Park City

Some of our favorite friends are visiting us this weekend.  We were neighbors in Redmond, Washington when the girls were tiny and somehow we manage to see each other about once a year.  Ashley came with just her older girls, Sela and Nina.

Saturday we went to Park City for some alpine fun.  It was a perfect day.

Dollhouses and Orphans

Adele bought an unfinished dollhouse last fall and has been wanting to paint and finish it since.  After sporadic painting sessions she finally had her uncle Jacob come help her put it together.  I told her I could help her but she emphatically informed me she wanted "someone who knows how to build things".  That would be uncle Jacob.  And Jacob has just the right calm and patient temperament that works well with Adele.

Meanwhile Ceci and cousin Bailey came out looking like little old French ladies.  When I commented on what cute old ladies they were they said, "We're orphans dressed like old ladies...running away..." and off the hobbled to the apartment hallway.

Law Day Race

Geoff's sister Nikki is a lawyer and her law firm sponsored all their employees and their friends to run in the Law Day 5K Race.  We're a pretty sorry lot when it comes to being in good shape but we all gathered early yesterday morning to walk the 5K.  It was a wet and soggy morning, but nothing a few Seattle veterans couldn't handle.  The kids rode their scooters, and aside from three crashes and two refusals to move-on, they had a lot of fun.  The rest of us thought we were moving along quite nicely until we noticed the van which follows the last "runners" right behind us.  For a group of athletes in their prime, we weren't about to come in last place!  So we picked up our pace and kept our dignity!

Way to go us!

Big Cottonwood Canyon

This past Saturday we spent the morning on a community service project cleaning up the nearby canyon park, then began the process of getting our bikes ready for summer, and squeezed in a little explore up Big Cottonwood Canyon with Geoff's sister Nikki.  We're hoping to do a lot of exploring this summer - or at least getting outdoors.  This was only a little tease...

That is cold water from snow run-off!

La Madeleine

A few blocks away is Salt Lake's La Madeleine Cathedral.  I love cathedrals in general because of their solid stone structure, and the architecture used as an expression of devotion.  But by far I love the bells.  We hear La Madeleine every hour, and on Sundays or special occasions the bells ring for several minutes.

The nearby Utah capitol plays bells too, but they are modern and have a chime-sound to them.  While nice and appreciated, they don't have the grounded, solid sound of an old church bell.

So last week we took our sketch books and sat on the city sidewalk to draw some of the details of La Madeleine.

We took along our little book How to Read Buildings to try to figure out what architectural era the details were from.  (I love that most of the learning in our homeschool is for all of us...unless Geoff is around...he seems to know something about everything.)  We've dreamed up a trip to take a few years from now.  We'll study architecture and art history all year, as well as take some photography classes, and then head to Rome and Florence and a few places in between.  Wanna go?

The Leonardo

There is a museum near our home called The Leonardo that is amazing.  Not only do they have cool exhibits come through (like the Da Vinci inventions) but they have an Art Lab where supplies are left out to create a variety of art projects.  A few days ago when we went to the latest Mummies exhibit we ventured beyond the Art Lab (usually we get caught up in the fun of that section) and discovered the Tinkering Garage where they have all sorts of random objects and projects and building supplies laying around where visitors are encouraged to invent, create and design.  And they store the stuff and clean up the mess!

Tennie at the Marble Wall creating a system for a marble run

Adele working on a project designed to teach visitors how things work

Next we happened upon an area where they have several miniature sets and cameras to make animated movies, and other camera fun stations.  The girls begged to stay all night.  We have a membership so we'll definitely spend lots of time there.

Davis Family Weekend

Last weekend most of the Davis family was in Salt Lake where we squeezed in a birthday party for Geoff's mom, a baby shower for Geoff's sister Erica who is due with twins this summer (just after she moves to Virginia!), Bailey's baptism, Em's twins' baby blessing, a Cinco de Mayo party, a cousin hike, a downtown lunch and walk through the beautiful gardens of temple square, and a lot of visiting and catching up.  It was a whirlwind and very fun.  I only snapped a few poor quality pics but here is a little glimpse of the happy hullabaloo.

Look at Adele on the right...a little too much dog pile for her!

A pinata on a garden hose with a hat pulled low for a blindfold, and a croquet mallet for the stick...that is ingenuity!

By the time it was Ceci's turn the pinata was headless

Ceci looks as though she is distressed she won't get her share...

Temple Square in the Spring is spectacular

Those are Em's cute twins, Zoey & Tate