Synchronized Skating, International Gardens, Overnighter

Through a series of events I realize now are too boring to recount, we got some free tickets to the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships at the Maverik Center. Did you know there was such a thing? We did not. I'd never even heard of the sport. But we do, of course, love to watch figure skating and thought it would be fun to see what synchronized skating was!

There were college teams and professional teams skating on the night we went. We sat right in the front row and had a great view! It is really fun to watch. Each team has about 14 or 16 people (most that we saw were girls, but a few boys scattered in too) and they make the prettiest patterns together on the ice! I can't believe they can skate in and out of each other so fast without crashing! (Though…we did see a couple crashes. Ouch!) They do beautiful spins and jumps, maybe not quite as complicated as the ones solo figure skaters do, but still obviously difficult. They even do lifts like cheer teams or dance teams! How could you do all that while ice skating? We were amazed.

Super fun to watch!

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We stopped to play a while at the International Peace Gardens park in Salt Lake on our way home from somewhere else. Each section of the garden represents a different country, and not all of them are maintained very well, but it is fun to see what each place chose to symbolize their culture and people. It's a fun place to wander around.

So many violets! They smelled heavenly.

It was such a pretty, sunny day, with everything just barely starting to get green

The kids found some swings and everyone got on at once, and it was a weird moment for me. I was thinking about how not one child needed a push from me or to be lifted onto the swing. Everyone was able to pump independently. That has never yet been the case in all my years of parenting and it felt strange to be able to just sit there and watch without someone clamoring "Push me, push me!"

So many big kids!

This is our family most of the time now. Three big girls, three little boys, and of course Clementine. For so long it was reversed: three big boys, three little girls, and some babies tagging along. I can't quite adjust. And I definitely can't adjust to the idea that next year, these school excursions will mostly take place without Daisy. She's already at work a lot, and next year she'll be at BYU. And by then Junie will probably be working too. Too soon, too soon!

All my kids, plus one random kid who came to join them and seemed quite awed by their sheer number

Biggest girl, littlest girl

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Daisy and Junie took it into their heads one night to plan out and wear an entire week of matching outfits. They figured it all out right down to the jewelry they would wear. It was so cute! They included Goldie when possible, but since she always likes wearing dresses, they just don't have very many clothes that match her!

My mom succumbed to peer pressure the day they went to visit her, and joined the red-shirt-blue-jeans club

On Thursday, when they go to the temple together, they did get to match all three together. Pinkies!

I already wrote about the Valentine's Day chocolates we sold. The kids voted on what to do with our little earnings, and the consensus was to stay a night at a hotel in our city. There was a free breakfast and a swimming pool, so it seemed like a fun excursion! And it was so different to have an overnight trip with just these four (the four who helped make the chocolates) and no one else!

This was still during Matching Week for Daisy and Junie

Sam and the younger kids had fun at a playground while we were gone

Our nice little cozy room

Junie does the best George Washington hair

Daisy's is also great

Three colonial generals

And a leaping ghoul behind them!

We ate dinner at Brick Oven and ran into Goldie's Oakcrest counselor from last summer!

So fun. Maybe we can sell enough chocolates to do it again next year!

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And a few other miscellaneous things:

Malachi and Daisy went to a writing convention, "StoryCon," in Salt Lake. A few weeks later someone sent Daisy this picture they'd seen published on StoryCon's Instagram. Look! Diligent note-taking Daisy is famous! That's Ky's hand and arm behind her.