Nearing the End

Taylor's high school graduation is fast approaching.  I took her out one Saturday morning in an attempt to take some pictures for her still-yet-to-be-ordered graduation announcements  (I really need to get that done!).  I am not good at photographing people, and now she's out of town on Choir Tour, so I'm thinking these will just have to do.  Time is quickly running out (insert muffled sobbing sounds here).

 

 

Easter came and went with some lovely clothes from the Grandparents Funk.  Getting the 3 to all look mostly good and less silly in a single picture proved to be more of a difficulty than I had imagined.

Taylor worked most of spring break, but with careful scheduling we found time to take a day and half break.  We went up to SLC and stayed at a hotel (because staying in a hotel apparently makes it a "real" vacation).  I chose the Red Lion because I thought that it would make a nice walk for us down to the City Creek Center for dinner, of course, at the Cheesecake Factory.   And since Mother Nature always likes to poke me with a sharp stick whenever possible, it rained - nay, poured - as we walked those 6 blocks north and 2 blocks east to the Cheesecake Factory.  And it rained on the way back too.   Next time we'll skip the "nice walk" and stay at the Marriott.


The next day we visited the new (and by new, I mean10 years old) Planetarium at the Gateway.  I don't recall the name of the show, but it was a good old fashioned dome show and it was really fun.  I think I haven't been to a planetarium since I was in elementary school.  It was a little pricy - $7 per person for a 30 minute show - but it was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed it.

Jack and Addie on "Mars" at the Clark Planetarium

We finished up the day with a trip to the Living Planet Aquarium and a movie at Taylor's theater.  We saw The Croods, which was cute but not worth full-price admission, in my opinion.


Speaking of movies, Lane and I have set a new record for movies in a year:  We have been to 3 movies this year and its only April!  We never go to the movie so this is a pretty huge deal.  We saw, of course, The Croods, and also Lincoln and 42.  I highly recommend the 2 latter.  Skip the first until its out on video or Netflix.



We also have a new puppy.  His name is Rex.  He's 75% black lab and 25% chow.  We got him at a Petsmart Pet adoption event.  He's been a really good puppy, although he's very social and doesn't like to be alone.  Transitioning to outside has been challenging because he wants to be with the family all the time.  He's doing better all the time, but we've still been allowing quite a bit of inside time and he's been good to not piddle on the carpet.  Well, mostly good.  Taylor has proved herself to be quite a good dog whisperer and is assigned the task of putting Rex to bed at night (not fun for a dog with severe separation anxiety).   But since Taylor is gone on Choir Tour, Rex freaked out last night when it was time to go to bed and Taylor wasn't the one doing it.  So in frustration I tossed him outside in the backyard to fend for himself.  I didn't hear him whining in the night (hopefully, neither did the neighbors), but he was VERY happy to come in the house this morning.    He's very playful and really cute.  Addie thinks he needs to be carried all the time.


With Taylor gone off to Choir Tour the house always seems a little quieter.  But as luck would have it this year, Jack is also gone for his FCCLA State Conference, making the house really quiet.  With just 3 of us rambling around the house, everything seems just a little bit off.


So I guess it's good that we have a new dog to try to maintain the status quo with Taylor heading off to school in a few months.  She can hardly be replaced with a little dog, but I guess that's just my sad attempt to keep 3 kids around who need me.