State Science Fair!!!!

Busy, busy kid and smart and awesome!

I counted it up. This week Caleb should have attended 27 periods/classes.  I think he only made it to 12 of those 27.  WHY?  Well, he participated in a math competition at school, where they placed 2nd!  Go Caleb, he was one of the captains!

Then, State Science Fair!!!  Long and awesome day!

 This was the new and improved board.

 Bright and early at school to catch the bus to BYU, 7:15am.  Notice something missing?  Yeah, his glasses.  Had to run those over, quick quick.  Oops

 Made it! He had a great time!  He was judged by 5 different people.  He was able to do the ropes course 3 different times.  They would have had pizza for 2 different meals that day.  However, the pizza place at BYU ran out of dough for the dinner crowd.  So, Señor Bertoch bought them Chick-fil-A for dinner.  22 hungry teenagers devoured their dinner.  They also were able to go bowling and then attend the award ceremony that evening in Provo.  Bertoch said that West Jordan Middle was the 2 most awarded school at the ceremony!  They have amazing teachers and kids!

Where Caleb came home (at 9pm) with this award!!   Yeah buddy!  He had a terrific experience!  His voice was gone because of all the talking and fun, he is much more sick today with a cough and so tired.  But he was so happy with the time he had at science fair!  Now, for all that make up work to do during Spring Break. ;)

Temple Open House

The Jordan River Temple is so close to opening!  The boys have been busy with the stake activities of preparing for the temple to open, it has been crazy busy but cool.  Our family took some friends to the temple open house and we enjoyed it so much!  It is beautiful inside!  Loved the baptismal area, sealing rooms and especially the Celestial Room!  The spirit was wonderful that evening!

 A good kid right there!

We even got to ride the bus to the temple, from a different parking lot close by.  

Gray Easter Egg Hunt

Gotta get caught up before Spring Break starts!

We had the Gray Egg Hunt a little early this year, because of other's vacation schedules.  The weather cooperated, the snow melted for us, and the sun was out. It was great!

 One of Diedre's views in hiding a Golden Egg.  Yeah, I climbed those trees.

 8 Gray cousins ~ 800 Easter eggs, give or take.  I may have lost count a little bit, but there are around 800 eggs in that hunt. :)

 Waiting to be turned loose.

 These kids went to town!  Jonah stole Caleb's reign and got the most eggs this year.  He was on fire! Caleb was heartbroken, but as Jonah put it, "Hey, he's beat me for the last 7 years, he can give me this one." :)

 Golden Egg in tree, #1

Golden Egg in tree, #2

Happy Easter, everyone!

A few greats to remember

 These two boys.  Gotta remember how tiny and cute they were for a moment.  Look at them, so freaking sweet!

Those sweet, innocent little boys!  I could stare at those tiny little faces all day.

Now, Peter and William have never had the smoothest of relationships.  They can bother each other, get mad with each other, yeah - family stuff.  But look at them, they love each other, deep down.

 Fast forward lots of years and I take you back to last week.  William and Peter are currently sharing a room.  One night, William woke up from a scary dream.  Before I could go in there to check things out, Peter had heard William crying up on the top bunk.  William asked Peter if he could lay by him.  Peter did it, he got up there and took care of his little brother.  I have some amazing kids.

Back tracking several years again.  Haley, this beautiful little girl.  Born into a world of boys and soccer and blue.  She has grown up watching soccer.  In this picture she was like 3, and this was her birthday and she began it by snuggling up under a blanket on a very cold Saturday, while her brothers were playing soccer.

Again, always coming to the soccer games and practices. Not always watching 100%, but always there to hear me cheer, and watch those boys run around.  Haley has sat at the computer while Caleb watches goal keeper videos and learned how truly amazing Manuel Neuer is.  She knows that when one of the boys scores, that means an ice cream cone - for everyone.  That one time when Caleb scored 3 goals, on his 2nd Haley asked, "does this mean we get two ice creams?"  She has heard us all cheer each other on, learning the ropes of soccer practice and soccer Saturday and even watching Real Salt Lake on TV and live.  We cannot let Haley know Real is playing on TV unless we are willing to stay up late and watch the whole game.  Haley finds out, and we are watching.

Fast forward to this evening.  Look that that cutie!  Real played a game tonight.  Turned it on.  Haley was into the game.  Watching it, about 75% of the time.  There were moments of lag there.  Anyway, towards the end we all kept commenting on how good Glad was doing at defense.  He really was, saved Rimando quite a few times.  At the end of the game, when we were all so excited with the win Haley piped up and gave us the quote of the night.  She said, "Glad deserves an ice cream cone."  OH my, I love this little family of mine!

The Zoo is Cool

Ever since last November when Rob got me a zoo pass for my birthday we have had several trips to the zoo.  Fortunately, they have had some new things that we have never experienced which has kept things exciting.

 Of course, every trip to the zoo has a carousel ride requested.  And Haley 95% of the time will ride the tiger.

 OTTERS!  Sometimes they are out, sometimes not.  But the few times they have been out they have been very active.  Playing in the water, going into their den then carrying fish back out to eat, right in front of us.  Super fun to see them being active.

 One of the special days we went to was Cats and Cocoa.  The kids got to do a small craft, free hot chocolate for the families, then we all crowded into this tiny space to watch the keepers show off the tigers.  They talked about tigers, which I only caught about 10% of what they said because we were just trying to watch everything the tiger did.  They would feed the tiger through that fence barrier.  The coolest was when the tiger would stand right up and show off it's size!  Really neat!

 The tigers especially loved the warm milk they were giving.  And Haley loved it all!

 Another special day was the Polar Bear White Out.  Caleb and I missed the polar bear part, because of a choir practice.  But I guess one of the things they gave the polar bear was a box, with some food inside, that also had this blue dye in it.  Hence, the blue polar bear.

Caleb and I did make it in time for the pinniped show.  This seal was really fun to watch.  He did all sorts of cool moves like this and even some very splashy flips in the water.  What is not pictured were the really cute sea lions that were also part of the show.  They were so fun to watch as they did their own tricks and moves through the water.

We have been having some fun times at the zoo!  Thank you, Rob, for letting us experience it all together!

A happy experience

First off, do not worry.  This was not taken during the actual stake conference.  Totally taken before, while they were practicing.

Now, about 2 months, or so, ago when the opportunity came up to sing in the youth choir for stake conference Caleb was not too excited about it.  Yet, after talking to him about it, then Caleb going to the first practice, he was sold.  He had so much fun each and every Sunday when he went to choir practice!  The conductor made it super fun.  Caleb knew some of the kids sitting by him, which helped him feel comfortable. And the spirit, he felt so great each and every time.  What a wonderful experience!  They did a terrific job in stake conference, the spirit was very strong.  They are even able to sing one of their numbers for a temple fireside coming up in March.  There will definitely be a void felt in Caleb's Sunday without choir practice to attend, he had a terrific time participating.