Pay It Forward

I'm participating in a Pay It Forward Exchange. Want to play? I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward Exchange. You will receive your gift within a month from leaving your comment, I promise! When you receive your gift create a post on your blog and Pay It Forward. Apparently this has been going on for over a year. It sounded like fun so I am helping to keep it going!

Hogle Zoo

I don't know who was more interested me or the kids for this one. Believe it or not but I've lived almost 30 years and never been to a zoo. To say the least I was really looking forward to our day at the zoo today. My brother and his wife were up here for a business conference so she wanted to take the kids and go to the zoo. My sister came too with 2 of her boys. It was so great to go do something fun like that with the family. I have to say I was so shocked at how my kids responded to the animals. I thought Kade would just be so thrilled with them, but he was more worried where Kylee was and he only commented on the "cool water falls" and ponds at each exhibit! Clint laughed and was pretty excited with a few of the animals, but not the level of enthusiasm I anticipated. Maybe they're just too young to get it right now. Who knows. They had fun on the little train ride.

At the entrance the thought crossed my mind of not buying a ticket. Kade was loving this waterfall. He seemed content to stay there the whole day.

Once inside he found a new piece of water entertainment that I think was his favorite part of the zoo.
All of the cousins at the zoo. Porter, Jaxon, Clint, Kade, McKylee.
At the white alligator exhibit Clint kept growling, "Rrrraaarrrrrrrrrr."

The cousins on the gold tiger. They just spotted the real tiger walking around so they all pointed.

Like I said Kade was just happy to play with Kylee.

Bobbie told us Kylee had asked that morning, "Will my best friend Kade be there?"

The train ride. Hmmm where's Kylee? Oops!

Porter was so tired at the end of the day while everyone played with the water ball one last time he grabbed his blankie and settled in for a nap.

Planting the garden!

I don't know if I can do Kade's excitement level justice with this one. He is always so excited about life but he just couldn't wait to plant the peas in the garden today. The first few peas he so carefully placed, then he scattered two handfuls of peas, and then wanted to play with the neighbor. I expected he wouldn't want to endure all of the planting so I put in the chard, onion, cilantro, and beets while he was napping. Last years harvest wasn't the best for Heber City so we're hoping for a great year this year!

A Princess

It was prom last night so some of the high school kids came to church a little more dressy than usual.
We were walking out of sacrament meeting and Kade noticed a girl down the hall. He gasped and said, "A princess!. . . Lets go get her!" He stared running but with me and Clint attached our little human train didn't go very fast. She had slipped into her classroom before we could reach her. I opened the door for him to talk to her but he was too shy and hid behind me.

Digging to China

We're going to China again-- but we're digging our way there. Actually the city is making everyone hook up to secondary water and so we've been jumping through the hoops to get our inspection passed. Darryl worked on it for a couple days and hoped he was done but the inspector told him he had to dig down about 5 feet and take off a valve and cap it. We weren't happy about it-- especially Darryl seeing as he'd be doing all the work. It ended up not being as horrible as he imagined and we got the stamp of approval today! Yea!

Playing Dr. Boss

We bought a little Dr. play set in hopes it would help settle some of Kade's fears when he has to go to the Dr. I don't know if it was when he got his stitches or just a bad experience of a nurse missing and stabbing him with his immunizations, but Kade cries constantly while we're at the Dr. office. Even if it doesn't help his fear it made for some fun pictures of silly boys-- and one hot one too!

Half truth

Well my little guys did it again; They always seem to make me smile when I need to scold them.

They love to play in the rocks in our flower beds. We don't mind as long as the rocks don't end up in the grass or down the window wells. I've gotten after Clint a million times for throwing rocks down the well grates. Kade's fairly obedient and doesn't do it.
Today they went out to play and immediately Clint throws rocks down the holes. I got after him and told him, "Don't throw rocks down there or you'll have to come in the house!"
I went back to sweeping and I hear what sounded like rocks dropping down the window again. Since I didn't see what was going I asked Kade, "Did Clint just throw rocks down there again?"
Kade responded so honestly, "No. He's just spitting 'em." I watched unnoticed and sure enough Clint would put a rock in his mouth and spit it down the grate.

modbe PAR-TAY!

Tonight I had one of those parties that everyone dreads at one point or another. You want to go because you feel obligated but you don't want to buy what they're selling necessarily. You hate leaving and not buying anything because you want to help your friend out, but . . .uurrrgggg.
Hopefully there aren't too many of you that will avoid making eye contact with me because I invited you. :)
The party was such a great time. The one thing I didn't like was that I didn't get the chance to really chat with everyone who came. There was just too much to do and I couldn't quite go chat with them while they were trying on clothes, and swimming suits. : /
PS If anyone is still interested in trying something on or ordering something I have the stuff until Saturday. To check them out online it is: www.jengabrielson.mymodbe.com

Dora Party

It was McKylee's 3rd birthday today so we drove to Aurora for the day. Kylee was so happy to see Kade. They're quite the little pair. They just love each other so much. The party was so fun. One little girl was so excited about her present she opened it and showed it to everyone near her. The birthday girl was in the other room at the time. It was so funny.
It was nice to spend some time in Aurora even if it was a super short visit.

Crazy Fun!

Today felt like 'my day.' After I put the kids down for a nap I ran to the local event center to watch a couple of my young women, and some neighbors at the state tumbling meet. It brought back fun memories of my days flipping. While there a friend called to see if I wanted to run up to the Scrapbook Expo. Darryl was home working on hooking up our secondary water so I figured it wasn't an option for me to go play. Him working so hard and having to tend the boys. Well, he said he'd make it work if I wanted to go. I've never been so I was curious. We went and had a good old time. It was crazy to see people buying 10 shadowboxes, just because it was a good deal. My great find was a cute tin 'Family' sign for my $5 Bunco prizes! They're always tough to find.
Thanks to my love for being such a great daddy and for letting me have a 'me day.'

Problem Solving

I found Kade painting today. I knew he could get out the paints, cup, and coloring book but how did he get water to paint with? Any guesses? I noticed the sippy cup but knew there was no way he shook water into the cup especially that much. I asked Kade how he got water to paint. I was in the middle of the question when I noticed the water was a little cloudy. He didn't hesitate to show me how he got the water either. Yep, suck it out of the sippy and spit it into the cup a few times and you're in business!

And another one down

Darryl was asked to cut down a big dead tree for a local business. Because they'd have to shut down Main Street for a little while the city said, "Sunday at 6:00 AM is your time to do it." Darryl wasn't happy about the day but relized why they had to do it on Sunday. Darryl use to work for a tree company but now owns his own saws and just loves the work. He said this tree was fun but I know he enjoys them more when he gets to climb them. He's such a monkey man.

11 hours later

All the Fam.

On Saturday we start the morning off with a serious egg hunt. We've got the best Easter bunny around. My mom always fills and hides hundreds of eggs with candy or money.

The kids think a gold dollar coin and a $2 bill are cool, but the eggs filled with pennies are super cool. Clint couldn't put his little jelly beans in his mouth fast enough. When they weren't eating candy they would say, "Money, money, moneyyyy!" We think the boys picked it up from Toy Story. I don't think we're like that at home.

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Next we color our Easter eggs. Kade has no patience for this. He just wanted to throw in the egg and take it out and then it was the next eggs turn.

Then we clean up and get ready for the whole Brown clan to show up. Once everyone arrives we have pot luck lunch and then it's time to roll the eggs down the giant hill! Clint was content rolling his down a little wash so we didn't bother packing him up the hill. He rolled his eggs at least a dozen times. When his carton was empty he'd beg, "Again, again, again." We'd pick them up and repeat, repeat, repeat. Kade thought hiking up the hill with Dad was pretty cool. Once his eggs were gone he was just as happy to slide down the hill. He made Mom go up with him one more time so he could re-throw some eggs that hadn't fallen apart. While we were up there my dad's brother, who is 70 or so, climbed the BIG hill and then rode the snow sled down the hill. I thought for sure this was not a good idea. He did fine though, but no one got it on film! Kade loved the sled and I'm sure in years to come he'll go up and down on it a million times with all the cousins.

After everyone has had their fun with the hill we start doing some skeet shooting. Darryl and I haven't stayed for that part since we moved to Heber. We usually start the trip home about that time. It is always so great to see my extended family and catch up with them all. I've really got a great family. Like I said, Great-Grandma Brown has a wonderful leagacy.

Easterin' 2008

What a fun weekend. Our family has an "Easterin'" tradition to celebrate Easter and my Grandma's birthday. We always go to a spot south of Capital Reef on the Saturday of Easter, but with Easter so early this year we bumped our outing back to Apr. 12th. Grandma couldn't come this year because she passed out a couple weeks ago and fell. She's home now and doing okay. She just turned 94. Wow! What a neat legacy she has. Jessi and Steph, friends of my brother, have unofficially been added to our family so they have joined us the past few years. They brought two of their grand kids with them this year.

My immediate family travels down the day before and camps. It was a cold night but we all stayed warm in the tent except Darryl-- go figure that. He just didn't wear warm clothes to bed like the boys and I. Kade never made a peep. Clint did make some noise at about 4:30 but I he was still asleep. I thought if I put him in bed with me he'd be better but not so. I should have just left him.

The boys ran straight for Kylee's Dora 4-wheeler. Clint wanted to stay on it forever. Kade enjoyed riding on back with Kylee.

Deer Valley Skiing

What a great day. The Spencers invited us to go skiing with them today. It was so much fun! The only bad part for me was feeling dumb because everyone had to wait for me to get down the hills. So I'm not sure how fun it was for them. It was just so nice to get out with adult friends and do something we enjoy.

Randomness of life in China

Here are some pictures of random things we saw in China.



Bikes, bikes, and more bikes.
















This guy was working in his wedling shop in a full 3-piece suit!





















This was a cute family eating lunch. It was very common to see the shop owners playing games, or eating while sitting waiting for customers.

















This is just a residential street. The street fronts are lined with shops and then the alleys lined with doors to homes.
















China has these cool signs. It has a map of upcomming streets. Each section of road lights up green-smooth traffic, yellow-slow traffic, or red-very conjested. We ought to get those!
















Can you guess how many northbound lanes of traffic there should be?












Answer: 2



We're actually not at a stop light or sign. They just nosed in enough that our driver decided to stop.

















They love for you to take pictures of their kids. I was taking a picture of this first little guy and then some parents(I assume) grabbed me and pointed to their little boy and my camera. They liked to look at the picture afterwards on the camera. I don't know what the second little boy was eating but it looked questionable.
















They have the coolest Birthday candels. This pretty flower is on the cake. Then you light it. Then it pops open and plays the Happy Birthday song.

Day 7 in China

What could have been a lazy uneventful traveling day turns into a nightmare.

They gave us free time to go shopping this morning but I think all of us just relaxed instead and took our time packing for home. This is a picture of the Orange group. We really had the best group of people. I wish we lived closer to them all so we could get together.















We boarded Shanghai's Maglev (magnetic levitation) train. It is one of the fastest trains in the world. It goes 287 mph and in 7 min. covers 20 miles. It was the fastest 7 min. of my life. Watching the houses go by felt like we were on some kind of amusement park ride. The train goes from Hangzhou to the airport in Shanghai. Here we boarded the plane to fly to L.A. We were pretty happy to be heading home to our boys.















Well the plane ride was a little on the. . . interesting side. I had felt sick all morning and was certain with a plane ride I would have to use the lovely bags they provide. (I must note that all the flying we did throughout this trip I never got seriously nauseous. Yea! ) Just as I had expected I felt horrible on the plane. I was so tired but I couldn't sleep because I felt like I would throw up any second. After about 3 hours I finally thought I was going to be sick and I figured if I went to the bathroom I could throw up without an audience. I quickly headed back to the bathrooms; both were occupied. I cut through the walk way to check the bathrooms on the other side of the plane. This is what was going through my mind next. . . 'Why is Terry above me? This dream is so real and so weird. That old Chinese lady that is pulling on my arm is scaring me. She's saying something in Mandarin but who knows what she's trying to tell me. Dreams are so bizarre.' I hear Terry yell, "Get Darryl. Some one get Darryl." 'What is going on?' Then I remember I'm on a plane and I was sick and going to the bathroom. Then I hear, "Attention, we have a passenger that is in need of medical attention." I immediately think they're going to take us back to China. 'Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!' I just wanted to be home. I guess I missed the rest of the announcement because Darryl said they just asked if there were any doctors that could help. He said there were a few that came to help. I don't remember seeing anyone but hearing one mans' voice asking Darryl and I questions. My hands felt like your mouth feels after going to the dentist, I kept shaking but I wasn't cold, and I was like a noodle. My body felt so rubbery and weak. Plus I was on a plane in the middle of who knows where. All of this had me pretty scared but I still felt sick so I just laid there and tried to sleep. I did get up to use the bathroom and the same thing happened to me while I was in there. I felt very sick, got really hot, and blacked out. The doctor figured it was just due to a drop in my blood pressure. After we landed in L.A. I was better than before but still felt weak and light headed. What I learned: The only way to get a whole row of seats, all the water you'll ever need, and a special wheelchair ride straight through customs is to pass out on the plane. It wasn't worth it though if you ask me. I'd much rather feel healthy and be thirsty, sardined in a seat, and waiting in line like everyone else. We immediately jumped on our bus bound for Cedar City. We arrived there at about 9:15 PM. We just wanted to get home so instead of staying over in Cedar we drove to Redmond so we could see our boys the next morning. China was fabulous but as Dorthy said, "There's no place like home."