Waiting for the train to come.
Frontrunner finally arrives.
Sitting on the train, the only seat we could find.
Look how crowded it was!

We decided a fun thing to do for Family Home Evening would be to ride the Frontrunner, the new commuter train, down to Salt Lake for dinner. They are letting anyone ride it for free until Wednesday to try it out. Well, we got to the station and talked to a friend that had just taken a long hour and a half ride home from Salt Lake and decided that we would just ride it the five or so miles to Ogden and back instead. We got to the train stop at 4:30, rode it to Ogden, ate at Subway in the train station, and got back to the Roy station at 6:45. It was crazy! The kids had a really fun time but we were so glad we decided not to go to Salt Lake after all. We would probably STILL be on the train if we had. :)

Jason and Allison in front of a fountain on the "Strip".

The hotel we stayed at, the Stratosphere.

Allison and Nicholas Cage, a wax one anyways.

Allison and Jason getting Henna Tattoos.



Kaydence and Cassidy at Fiesta Fun Center.

Zack on the tube slide.

Allison and her lil' sister Kim.

Jason and Kim playing the air hockey game of the century.


Scott and David Grygla at the reunion.

Jolley Pierce and Bethany Bracken.

Jason and his friend Blair (they went on their mission to Pennslyvannia togther and Blair is married to my friend Bethany from Page).

The kids going CRAZY!

My cousin Tony and Brad Ross.

What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas, isn't that what they say. Well, I'll tell you what we did in Vegas to keep your dirty minds out of the gutter. :)

We left on Wednesday morning and met my parents in Cedar City, which was weird because we haven't been there since we moved nine years ago. After lunch at Sizzler, yes Ronna Sizzler, we left for the "City of Sin" and the kids headed to Page with my folks. We got to Vegas at about 4:00 their time and the fun immediately began.

After checking into our hotel we decided to walk up to Freemont Street, the street that they covered a few years back and they have light shows on the ceiling. Anyways, our map definately wasn't to scale so it ended up being at least a two mile walk with not much to see but tattoo shops and wedding chapels, not the interesting part of Las Vegas Blvd. that is for sure. When we finally got up there we had dinner and came out of the casino just in time for a Queen tribute light show, very cool. We decided to buy bus passes, $5.00 for 24 hours, so we wouldn't have to walk back. After we boarded the bus, we decided we would ride it all the way down the strip so Jason could see it at night and we could plan what we wanted to see the next day. Bad idea! I guess there are like 46 stops on the strip and we made all of them, twice. It took us two hours to get up and back, by the time we got back to our hotel it was 11:00, 12:00 at home, so we were beat.

The next day we got up and put our walking shoes back on. We rode the bus to our first stop then walked a bit as well. We were able to see plenty of sights. The mall, Planet Hollywood (delicious lunch there), Ceasar's Palace, a comedian/magic show (Mac King, he is supposed to be on Letterman on May 6th), M&M and Coke World, and various other things as we wandered around, they still hand out various pictures of naked women as you walk by so that is always nice, GROSS! We ate dinner at a huge buffet then headed back to the hotel a bit earlier than the night before. Neither of us being a fan of cigarette smoke we both took a shower each night and tied all of our dirty clothes in a trash bag before we left town.

We headed to the factory stores on our way out of town then it was to St. Gerorge to meet up with my parents, our kids and my sister there. We were able to hang out with them Friday afternoon, went to lunch, swam in the pool, played at Fiesta Fun Center, then went to dinner. They left for Page first thing saturday morning and we headed home after that, with my mom's old Yukon to try to sell it for her up here. On the way home we stopped in Provo for a mini high school reunion for me. A good friend of mine, Shanna Grygla, organized a get together at her home so I was able to see a bunch of my old friends, the kids ran around and had a great time and Jason got a free meal (seriously though, Jason knew a few people even one guy from his mission). It was so great to walk down memory lane. Hopefully we can make it an annual thing.

It is back to the old grind. Loads and loads of laundry, back to school and work, a house to clean and meals to cook, etc. It sure was fun while it lasted though!

Some more candid shots in Vegas:
Here is a picture of the famous Vegas cowboy on Freemont Street.

Jason at a statue of show girls in front of Harrah's hotel.

The comedian we saw, Mac King, after his show.

Jason's dream car, a Ferrari, was everywhere.

We actually saw ONE celebrity, here is Pete Rose.

A close-up of us on the bus.

This the the new double decker bus system in Vegas, the Deuce. I would have saved a fortune on cab fare in college if Vegas would have started this like thirteen years ago.

Jason by the M&M's Nascar car in M&M World (four floors of M&M goodness and stuff).

A picture of New York New York.

I wanted to include this picture in my blog because these guys are so hansome. This is Ty, Jeff, and Jason all dressed up and ready to go to the general priesthood meeting. The men go to priesthood and the woman and kids stay behind at Uncle Dale and Aunt Jill's place. When the men come back we all have banana splits. It is great time.

These are the six kids I was in charge of at the zoo, I counted them about 100 times during the day. That is the reason I only take my students on indoor fieldtrips.



Our zoo is one of the only ones that has a white croc, pretty cool.

This gorilla made us laugh because he looked like he ws in time out.

I went on a field trip with Cassidy's class to the zoo in Salt Lake last Friday and had a great time, aside from the fact that we froze our butts off. We walked around for over two hours looking at the animals and trying to find a patch of sunlighht to stand in. It was a lot of fun and I was so glad that Cassidy wanted me to come and that it was on one of my days off so I could.

Here are a couple of pictures of Cassidy's second soccer game of the spring season. She scored a goal at her first game but my fingers were too cold to work my camera so I waited until a 68 degree game to pull it out. In the second picture she is the goalie getting ready to stop a goal.


If you don't like the weather wait ten minutes has been the phrase to live by for the last few weeks here. One day it is 76 then the very next day it is 35 and snowing, it is crazy. Today is supposed to be one of the nicer days but the wind is blowing so hard I don't know if we will enjoy it or not. We have had a lot of stuff going on at our house the last little while. From sick kids to a broken fridge that was luckily fixable; from a car that needs new tires to a babysitter that needed time off to deal with her kid with croup. I have been scrambling to find someone different to watch Zack everyday and get him to and from preschool or just plain taking a sick day. Hopefully we are at the end of it and life calms down soon.

I found a really cool website http://www.playlist.com/ where I created a soundtrack for my blog. You can look at the tracks at the top of my blog page if you want to. I just chose a couple of songs that I like. If you don't like the song you are hearing right now, Micheal Buble, Everything (but I don't know why you wouldn't), you can double click on a different tune to groove to. ENJOY!

Easter in Montana was a blast! We got to Helena on Friday evening with just enough daylight left to go and take a look at Jason's mom's new house. The construction is coming along well and it has a whole first floor all framed in with stairs to the second floor done as well. Ted and Ronna are so excited for the house to be done and showed us all of the carpet, tile, and paint samples while we were there as well. I hope this house has a window that everyone can look out of to watch for people to drive up, as you can see from the picture of Scott and his cute boys, that this one does. We stayed with Jason's brother and his awesome family while we were in town. Amy is the best, treats on our pillows and all when we arrived, it was better than staying at the Hilton!

We were able to spend time with everyone while we were there. Dinner at mom's, church with dad, Easter Sunday lunch with Rex and Linda, it was awesome. It seems like the majority of what we do when we are in Montana is sit around and visit while we wait for the next meal, eat, and then sit around and visit some more. The boys had a great time hanging out and Amy made them Kaleb's favoite snack one evening, Triscuits with melted cheese. Kaden is so cute and talks so well, he follows Zack and Kaleb wherever they go. Cassidy had a slumber party with Grandma Ronna and the girls the first night we were there. Without Madelynn there she gets pretty lonely so we try to make it as fun for her as we can, she missed you Maddy!

Like I said in an earlier blog, Jason's grandma and grandpa were there form Roundup and we had so much fun with them. Grandpa is like a teenager these days and so fun to watch go for walks and play with the kiddos and grandma is up to no good in the kitchen, as always!

Santa Claus was supposed to bring my kids a Wii but he ran out so he asked the Easter bunny to bring one, which he did. I am just hoping that my kids don't get used to being this spoiled on Easter and don't expect a big present like that every year, the Easter Bunny isn't made of money you know (Santa either for that matter). They are having a great time playing it though, it is the first game system we have owned and the only reason I wanted it for the family is because you have to get off your butt to play it. My kids spend too much time on their butts as it is!

We had a fabulous time decorating and hiding/hunting eggs at Grandma Ronna's house as well. Grandpa got pretty excited about the finding part and was racing the kids to the eggs, too funny!

I hope everyone had as great of an easter as we did. We really tried to make sure the kids remembered what Easter is really for this year and to "remember the empty tomb" so we hope that the message got through with all of the excitement.

I am finally back to work on the 31st of March, crazy long spring break for me, and not looking too forward to it. Only one term left! I am trying to decide what to do next year so if anyone has advice for me, please help. My job share partner got a job teaching full time so her and her husband could afford a house, this leaves me without a job share partner yet again. So, I am thinking this would be a good year for a grade change, 2nd grade is wearing me out a bit. Unfortunately my prinicipal doesn't want a job share in 4th grade, the opening I want. So, long story short, my options are to stay in 2nd grade full time or find a new partner or get a grade change and teach 4th grade full time. Zack will be in all day Kindergarten next year but I was hoping to have time for me this year, to shop, clean, relax, volunteer in the kids' classrooms, etc. Any advice anyone has would be greatly apprecaited.

We are really anticipating warm spring days here, it keeps switching back and forth between cold and warm. I have been running a lot again this spring and trying to decide if I want to run the 5K or half marathon in Ogden City in May. I know I can do a 5K, but 13 miles scares the heck outta me, I ran about 5 1/2-6 miles on Tuesday and that kicked my butt. We'll just have to see what happens. We are signing Zack up for T-ball for the spring/summer and Cassidy is trying to decide if she wants to do coach pitch. She is for sure done dancing and doesn't want to do that next year but she still wants to play soccer and so does Zack, he will finally be old enough this fall. So, getting busy here.

Wow, that is a lot of info. Hope everyone is doing well and Spring has Sprung where you are.

Well, it is the first day of Spring but colder than it was yesterday. Oh well, that is the weather in Utah for you. Spring Break for the kiddos is Friday through Tuesday so we are headed up to Montana to see Jason's family for Easter weekend, we are all very excited for that. We will leave on Friday after I get done with report cards, it is a teacher work day, and head home on Monday. We are excited to stay with Jason's brother Scott and his cute family. Zack and Kaleb have a great time playing when we are there so he has been asking almost everyday when he gets to go see Kaleb. Jason's grandma and grandpa will also be in town from Roundup, Montana. I love Jason's grandpa so much, he is like my adopted grandpa since I don't have any living, he calls me "woman" and is so funny. His grandma makes sure NO ONE goes hungry and is a little firecracker of energy. We haven't been up to see Jason's family since Thanksgiving so it should be lots of fun.
Tomorrow will be my last day of work until March 31st, that makes me GIDDY! I switched the schedule around with my job share partner so I wouldn't have to go in next Wednesday so I have a over a week off. I have lots to do around the house and I'm sure loads of laundry after the trip so I won't be bored by any means.
I am sure we will take lots of pictures over the Easter Break so I will try to get some posted next week, don't hold me to that though!

Zack had his Kindergarten check up today, can you belive it! Registration is on April 9th so I figured I would take him to the doctor BEFORE the mad rush of kids were all there. I didn't even tell him where we were going, even after we got there I just played dumb with him. The doctor came in and did the ol' nose, ear, and throat check then he sent the nurses in. He had to pee in a cup and do a short vision test then the real fun began. He had two picks, one for a TB skin test the other for a blood test, then four shots. The poor kid! He cried so hard! We have the coolest nurse, she totally babied him and got him stickers, a sucker, and plenty of hugs and kisses. After the doctor Zack and mom headed to McDonald's for a Happy Meal and to play in the playground then home to watch his favorite movie Spiderman. The sad thing is that he is still one vaccine shy of being complete so that will be fun.