Cora's Eigth Birthday!

A couple of weeks ago Cora turned eight years old!  And that means...she is finally old enough to get her ears pierced!  Dax came along for moral support...or because I didn't want to leave him home alone.  Here is Cora, waiting her turn with the teddy bear the keep at the store for the kids to hold.  She was a little nervous, but not nervous enough to back out.

She had them do both ears at once, so 1-2-3...she has earrings!  She was very brave and no tears were shed.  She looks older already, doesn't she?

On Cora's birthday, I always make her take pictures with her lamb so we can see how much bigger she is.  This time Olive wanted to photo bomb.

 Aren't they cute?

Here is one of Olive singing a song for us...she is such a funny dog sometimes.  Cora looks big too, doesn't she?

For her birthday party, Cora decided she really, really wanted to bring all her friends to the movies to see the new "Beauty and the Beast."  Yes, she had already seen it.  But, oh well...easy to plan, easy to clean up.

Cora loved it when she walked through the door of the movies and the friends who were there before us ran up to her and swarmed her.  Here is Cora, happily in the middle of unwrapping her presents in the lobby of the theater.  This girl does not mind being the center of attention.  This present was a stuffed unicorn that also turns into a couple of other animals.  She got lots of fun stuff!

We also had cake!  Cora was on cloud nine as all her friends sang "Happy Birthday to You" to her.  Arden and Dax also tagged along for the party and were happy to share the cake also..

Arden was excited to see the Beauty and the Beast movie, because she hadn't seen it yet...she was at a friend's birthday party when I took the other kids last time.  She didn't mind hanging with the little girls, and was a good helper:

After presents and cake, we got all loaded up with our goodies. I think Dax was the most excited about this part of the party.  He was a little less excited to be so outnumbered by the females, but he was still was excited to see the movie again since he still loves all things Beauty and Beast.

And here we are, waiting for the show to start!  Notice how small the soda cups are and how much popcorn everyone has?  Hmmm...

The girls all had a great time.  I will admit that I didn't see much of the movie after the first half hour or so because I spent a good portion of the movie getting refills for everyone.  I had to cut some girls off.  :)  Overall it was a success and I hope everyone had fun.  

Here are a few things about eight-year-old Cora:

Favorite Color:  Blue, Green and Purple (still very changeable)
Favorite Show:  Teen Titans or maybe the new Rapunzel series
Favorite Food:  Pizza (still)
Favorite Treat:  Cupcakes.  The fancier the better.
Favorite Song:  Not sure...she loves Meghan Trainor songs still, probably one of those?  
Favorite things to do:  Score goals at soccer, play with friends, read books, fight with Daxton.
Least favorite things to do:  Go to sleep, put her shoes where they go.
Favorite thing about school:  Her teacher and her friends!  
Least favorite thing about school:  Homework...well, she doesn't actually mind it so much.  

Happy Birthday Corbiecakes!  

Spring Break Down South

Last year, we had plans to go to St. George for spring break, but Arden got the flu and derailed our plans.  This year, we made sure we all got a proper flu SHOT (no more of that silly mist stuff), and made southern Utah plans again.  This time we made it!  We left on a Saturday (after my long run, of course), and drove down to the land of sunshine.  Even though it was only in the high-60s, the kids couldn't wait to jump in the pool next to the palm trees.  Don't worry, it was heated to near hot-tub levels.

We spent Saturday night and Sunday morning (streaming conference, of course) at the pool.

The kids would have all liked to do nothing but swim in the pool the entire time we were there, but I am mean and eventually drug them out of the water and made them go to Zions with me.  It was a beautiful day!

 It had been quite a few years since I had been to Zion, and it was good to be back!  Here we are starting our first hike out to the Watchman:

 Are those my kids or mountain goats?

Whenever we hike, Dax feels a great need to be the first one in line.  Cora, of course, feels the need to challenge his position.  Lucky for me, Arden usually doesn't engage in the race to the front, so I can get some pictures with at least one kid in them.  Beautiful Arden, beautiful view!

 Dax and Cora did slow down when the found a rock that they thought was in the perfect shape of a chair.  Here is Dax, posing for a rare picture, while the girls (im)patiently wait their turn to sit in the amazing rock-chair:

 We made it to the top!  Stunning!

We walked along the river for a while, but then got hungry and headed back for dinner and sleep. 

The next day didn't dawn so sunny.  In fact, it was raining pretty hard as we drove back to Zions.  Luckily, it stopped while we were riding the shuttle over to the Emerald Pools trail head...which was closed due to falling rocks.  We headed to the next shuttle stop to take the long way up to the pools.  It was still pretty cloudy, but we thought we'd give it a try.

UN-fortunately, it started up again when we were about halfway up a VERY muddy trail.  

By the time we got to the waterfall at the top, it was raining so hard it felt like we were standing under the waterfall even when we weren't.  Luckily we had cheap ponchos in our backpacks!  Cheese!

 After a long, wet, muddy trek back down to the car, we were all soaking wet and freezing!!  It was still raining, so we called it a day and headed back to the hotel, where we all took turns taking hot showers and putting our jammies on.  We declared it a movie night, and were all culturally enriched by the very high-brow "Nacho Libre."

 The next morning, the clouds had gone, and I got up early for quick run outside (there was only one treadmill in the workout room!).  I ran up a little hill, and got to see this...there are a bunch of hawks flying around int he sky, but you can't really see them in the picture, but it was cool!

 We headed to Snow Canyon.  Cora liked to play in the sand:

 We did some really fun hikes, scrambling over rocks and down into lava tubes.

 There go those mountain goats again!

 We found our way into a slot canyon we had heard about, which had petroglyphs on the wall.  It was kind of hard to find, but pretty cool!!

 Goats and stuff on the wall:

 Dax had been trying to catch lizards the whole trip, and luckily we came upon a group who had caught one and were done with him.  They let Dax hold him, and showed him how to put the lizard to sleep by rubbing his belly.   He thought it was kinda cool:

 The lizard was so pretty with his blue spots, Cora even held him:

Arden thought she wanted to hold him, but when the lizard moved she promptly dropped him on the ground.  Oh well.  We headed back to the hotel for...more swimming!

The next day was our last....so we swam:

 We stopped at Kolob Canyon on the way home.  Dax chose a hawk for his souvenir and brought him along on a hike:

 Here is another shot of my pretty Arden and a pretty view:

 Okay, one more!

We eventually made it home, a little sunburned and tired of being in the car.  It was a fun trip!  We will definitely be back!

Beauty and Dax and the Beast

A few months back, the kids brought home a flyer from school telling about how their elementary was going to do a play this year.  It was going to be "Beauty and the Beast."  Unfortunately for Cora, it was only open to kids in 3rd-6th grade.  I asked Arden and Dax if they might be interested.  Arden decided she was pretty busy already with gymnastics, but Dax said he wanted to give it a try.  

All the kids had to do an "audition," which I thought might change Dax's mind, but he went for it.  He was kind of hoping he might get to be Gaston or Le Fou, but I told him that those parts would probably go to 5th or 6th graders, and since he was in 3rd grade, he would probably end up being a villager or something like that.  

I was kind of right.  In the end, Dax ended up being a Hunter AND a wolf AND an enchanted spoon. He was so excited!

Then the practices began.  They were mostly in the mornings, before school started.  At the first practice, the people in charge of the play mentioned that if any of the kids usually ate breakfast at school, they should be sure to grab it between play practice and when class started.  Now, Dax was blissfully unaware of the existence of "school breakfast."  He knew about school lunch, but due to the fact that I can barely get the kids to school before the tardy bell rings, he had no idea they offered such a thing.  He, of course, had already had breakfast at home, but as you know my boy is not one to turn down food when offered.  They were serving apple cinnamon french toast, and Dax was all over it and couldn't wait to see what they served the next day.  He came home and told me all about the "free" breakfast he had discovered.  I explained it wasn't free, but would come out of his account just like lunch.  He was so excited that I gave him permission to have second breakfast after morning practices if he had time.

The next morning's practice was about halfway over, when Dax decided he was hungry.  They were practicing in the cafeteria, and he noticed that there was no food yet.  He decided to take it upon himself to find out how much longer it would be.  He walked upstairs and found the assistant principal and asked her when breakfast started...haha.  She pointed him back to where he was supposed to be, but I heard the story later.  Preston and I reminded the boy that play practice had to be all the way OVER before he could start breakfast.  He said he'd try his best.

They only had a month for rehearsals, and so it was a pretty intense month.  Soon the novelty wore off, and Dax got pretty bored sometimes, especially when the directors were working with other actors.  Occasionally Dax and his friend A would start goofing off a little.  Luckily, Dax and A. were not in the same cast (they had two separate casts because so many kids wanted to be in the play), so once dress rehearsals started, Dax lost his goof-off buddy and did much better.  

Soon, the big opening night was here!  Dax said he wasn't nervous at all, but I will admit to a few butterflies.

Cora and I took in opening night (Friday), and then the whole family came Saturday night.  Here is Dax in the opening number.  Couldn't you just DIE?  He looked so adorable as a little hunter walking around the town singing about what a funny girl that Belle is.

After he was a hunter in this scene, Dax quickly changed into his wolf costume to chase Maurice around in the woods.  (On the Saturday, my dad was sitting on the aisle.  As Dax ran by in his wolf costume, he gave a special loud wolfy growl to Grandpa!) Unfortunately, it was too dark during this scene to get a good picture.

Quick as lighting, Dax was a hunter again, for the big "Gaston" song.  Later, once Belle was at the castle, Dax pulled off another costume change and became a giant fork.  Here he is singing "Be Our Guest!"

The enchanted forks and knives and spoons even came down the aisle and did a fancy "kick line" during that song.  I think Dax kind of liked that part too.

After the dancing fork part was over, Dax changed quickly back into a wolf and chased Belle and the Beast around the woods.  Unfortunately, all the wolf parts seemed to be all dark and scary and VERY hard to take pictures of.  I asked Dax later, and he said he liked being a wolf best.  He had a great time howling and swiping at people and being scary.

Soon, Dax (who is obviously an expert costume-changer) was back as a hunter for one of his favorite musical numbers, "Kill the Beast!"

Everyone seemed to think this was a great idea:

However, as you know, the Beast does not get killed.  Lo and behold, he turns into a prince!  Then it is time for everyone to come out and sing the finale, "Beauty and the Beast."  Here is my handsome hunter again:

 And then at the very end his little head ended up right because Belle and the prince.

 After the show, Dax was more than happy to put his wolf costume on to pose for a picture.  He was very method, and at first he would only pose while looking mean and wolfish:

 After some bribery, I finally got him to break character and give me a smile:

Dax really loved the actual performances, and decided that the rehearsals were worth it after all.  The play overall was pretty impressive, and I thought all the little actors and actresses were amazing.  Dax did awesome and didn't miss a step or a line. (I did have to laugh a little during the big romantic dance scene, where Belle and the Beast both looked like they would rather be dead than dancing together.  I am guessing the actors for Belle and the Beast either (1) hated each other's guts or (2) really liked each other),  

I was wondering if Dax would be sick of all of the songs by the time the play was over.  However, the opposite seems to have happened.  Dax and Cora both listen to the "Beauty and the Beast" Broadway CD that I got when I saw the play in high school each and every night as they go to sleep (yes, I made a copy).  Dax can often be found wandering around the house singing about how when he was a lad he ate four dozen eggs every morning to help him get large, or maybe about how life is so unnerving for a servant who's not serving.

I will admit...even if Dax isn't tired of the songs....I kind of am. :)