Field Trip, GNO, Zoo, and Easter stuff April 9-15

Sunday was fast Sunday because of Conference.  The big news was that our Primary Presidency was reorganized.  So the president, secretary, and myself were released.  The first counselor stayed.  It was a bit sad to sit in primary knowing that it would be my last time as the 2nd counselor, but not too sad. :)  I don't really feel released because I still am helping with day camp.  So I have a lot of stuff to do with that.  I still went to the committee meeting that evening too.  But I wonder what my next calling will be.  Doug also got released and was called to be the Ward Clerk.  So now he is kind of a member of the bishopric and has to go to the early meetings. 

 Monday the girls had a field trip with preschool.  We went to Old MacDonald's Farm.  We have been a couple of times now, but of course it is still fun.  The kids were bummed that the train was not working, but we went on the pony ride three times, so that made up for it.  We didn't even get too sandy this trip, so that was a plus. 

 

 This is their teacher Miss Alisha, they love her so much!

 Tuesday I can't remember what we did, just stayed home and got some house stuff done I think.

Wednesday I did some errands and made it back just in time to help with the Easter Egg hunt for preschool.  They needed to find two eggs of each color.  They had great bunny masks to help them find the eggs.

Thursday was a normal day and the boys had scouts in the evening.

Friday was a holiday so no school.  We worked hard in the morning getting our chores done and then went over to the church to play poison ball.  The boys love playing.  Not too many friends joined us, but it got us out of the house.  I was grateful that I had something in the oven ready for us when we got home at dinner time.  (Too bad it was a casserole that nobody really liked)  

Saturday was a cray busy day!  I got up early to get ready and make lunches.  We left the house at 7:50 to go clean the church.  The kids all did a pretty good job of helping and I think they noticed the building more at church the next day.  After cleaning we left around 9:15 to go to the zoo. We met a family there and they were so nice to get us into the zoo on their family passes (they had two).  We had a great time at the zoo.   The kids got a little whiny and tired at times, but over all everyone was good.  We saw a couple of new things this time.  I had never been in the small aquarium section, the tropical bird house, and we saw the lions getting fed.  They squirted milk from a spray bottle into their mouths.   It was fun to watch them lap it up.  Chris loves his animals, so it was fun to go to the zoo with him. 

  

They had a tunnel in the fish tank. 

 We packed our lunch and ate it at the zoo.  We ended the trip with the sea lion show.  It was fun to see what tricks they had been taught.  We left around 2:00 to go to a Easter get together with some families from the ward.  It was at the Bishop's property in a town about an hour from home.  We were all pretty tired and hot from the zoo.  I let the kids watch a movie on the way - which was good, but it also meant that nobody napped - they would all rather watch than sleep.

The bishop shares this property with another family in the ward and they just keep four wheelers and other outdoor toys in a big barn and then just have a couple of house trailers onsite as well.  It was very 'red-neck' but the kids had a lot of fun.  Chris loved driving this little buggy around.

 Doug took the girls for a quick ride, the mud was there before we got it, we stayed clean.

Jenna and Kaylee loved the power wheel version. 

 We had an Easter egg hunt and everyone got tons of eggs and candy.

The bishop grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, everyone else brought food to share.  I brought a pasta salad and put it together right before dinner.  The food was yummy and I have to say that everyone should try putting a little bit of mayo, season-all salt, ranch seasoning, and chili lime seasoning on your corn.  It was SO good.  

The exciting story of this afternoon revolves around Tyler.  So before dinner when the kids were all riding their different vehicles Tyler went out on the blue buggy that Chris was driving in the picture above.  After awhile most of the kids were back and we were getting ready to do the egg hunt.  I noticed that Tyler hadn't come back and I started asking around.  Some of the adults had just come back and I asked if they had seen him.  They hadn't and so we asked the bishop if he wouldn't mind driving Doug out on his property to go look for him.  Doug said that the bishop drove a bit crazy, but I guess he knows the trails well.    The conversation that I had with one of the adults while we were waiting was this:
Me: "I hope he's not lost, or gone too far somewhere."
"Oh, he won't get past the mud pit."
Me: "Oh, you don't' know Tyler, he will try anything."
"Well, then that's where you'll find him, stuck in the mud."
And that is where they found him, stuck in the mud at the very back of the property.  He had gotten past a pretty big hill to get there which surprised the bishop and others.  Tyler had tried to get out himself but couldn't do it and he started walking back  Then another girl found Tyler and she drove back to the buggy to see if she could help get him out.  They couldn't do it and so they were about to head back when Doug and the bishop found them.  They were able to get it out and Tyler drove it back.  He was a bit in shock at first, but then got upset when we got back to the house.  I don't know if it was embarrassment or afraid of being lost or stuck.  Tyler was pretty muddy so Doug cleaned him off with the hose as best he could.  He was in tears as he joined the group for the egg hunt.

But wait - there's more excitement.  After the egg hunt Tyler went off on the 4-wheeler.  This time he tried to go up a steep hill near a culvert and lost control of the back wheel, fishtailed 90 degrees, and dived head first off the 4-wheeler into the ditch.  Then the 4-wheeler fell on top of him.  Tyler was in the water with his head sticking out, stuck again underneath the 4-wheeler.  Luckily this time a dad from the ward was right there and was able to uncover him and help him out.  Tyler was really upset this time, banged up, and soaked.  We had brought a spare change of clothes so Doug hosed Tyler off again and we helped him get changed.  I talked to him for a bit in the van and helped him to calm down.  It's a little bit different holding an almost 10 year old in your lap, but he needed some love. :)  Doug was just frustrated at Tyler for not having much common sense and Tyler was scared from the whole ordeal.  He only got a few scrapes on his side, we of course were grateful that it hadn't been a lot worse.  Now I just hope that it scared some sense into Tyler so that he will be more cautious in the future.

Needless to say, we were pretty much done with the day.  After dinner we loaded up and headed home to baths and bed.  Everyone was tired.  But the night didn't end for Doug and I.  I had neglected to get Easter stuff ready during the week so I needed to go to the store, fill Easter baskets, fix the girls' skirts for church, finish their hair bows, make a scavenger hunt, and hide the baskets.  Gratefully Doug did all of the dishes and cleaned up so I didn't have to do that, and he hid the baskets.  I also had been asked to sub in primary earlier in the day so I started working on the Easter lesson at 11:00 PM.  We didn't get to bed until after 12:30.  It had been a very long day.