No pictures this week!  Sorry!  I guess after all those Easter pictures, nothing else seemed quite as picture-worthy.

Let's see.  Savannah kept herself going to school and doing homework for at least another week.  She is getting rather tired of high school especially when it is hard.  Shouldn't the rest just be an easy downhill glide?  We're proud of her that she is still keeping up with everything.  We got a visit from Anna and Erin Gazdik cousins before they went home to California after their freshman year at BYU.  They got Savannah excited about living in Helaman Halls and gave her tips on picking teachers.  It's always fun to see the Gazdiks!

Sarah has been offered a job at Funfinity!  Yay!  We are all excited for her.  Especially Savannah.  Sarah is still a bit unsure.  She said that during her interview they asked her what was the scariest thing she'd ever done, and she had wanted to say, "This interview!". We know she'll get in there and get comfortable and do a great job.  Sarah also played her first match in a USTA tournament this Saturday in SLC.  It was a doubles match that she played with Allyson.  That was a pretty scary thing to do, too!  They played great, though!  They lost the first match in a tie-breaker.  It was really close!  Then they lost the second match 6-3.  It was best 2 out of 3, playing to 6 points.  Kevin and I had a great time watching.  They'll both play singles matches next week.

Megan ran track again this week.  At the meet on Friday she placed 4th in the 400, 5th in the 800, and 1st in the 4x400.  Their dad went and watched them again!  Meg also went to her fiddle lesson on Saturday.  She continues to beg me to cancel lessons all the way to the lesson and then chat happily about how great her lesson was all the way home.  One can dare to hope that this won't always be the case, can't one?  It is a serious emotional roller coaster!  She did a great job taking care of the little ones and getting the house cleaned up while Kevin and I went to SLC Saturday night with Sarah.

Mariah ran track all this week, too.  At the meet on Friday she placed 4th in the mile with a 6:19, 4th in the 800, and 1st in the 4x400 (she and Meg are on the same team, of course!).  Mariah had a crisis with her fish this weekend.  Sarah was sewing in Mariah's room where we have the sewing machine set up (since there is the most room there!) and Ben had come down to chat with Sarah.  After that, he dumped a whole canister of fish food into the tank.  Crimanee.  Mariah had to get all the fish out and change all the water and it was a two hour job that Mariah did not want to do and she was worried for the life of her fish and absolutely enraged with her brother.  But it is over now and all seems to be well again.

Chey and Cali have had a good week caring for their rabbits, playing piano and tennis, and playing with friends.  They got to go on a field trip to This is the Place Monument and Pioneer Park.  They had a great time doing that.  They had Activity Days on Tuesday where they "made pumpkins!". Actually, they planted pumpkin seeds which is about as close as you can get, right?

Bethany played with friends and went to kindergarten and gave great hugs and was just generally adorable.

Benjamin hung out with me while I tried to make a new creation out of my old bike, built terrific creations out of his Duplo blocks, gave great hugs and was generally adorable -- even when he accidentally destroyed months of habitat building in a much-cherished fish tank!

We hope you are all well, too!

Bethany asked me last Sunday if we could go to the temple.  As Sundays are always very full already, I told her that I'd take her on Monday after her sisters went to school.  Monday morning was beautiful but very chilly!  Still, Beth, Ben, and I had a great time.  What a beautiful pla. ce it is!  What a fun thing to do with my two littlest.  What a sweet impulse of Bethany's to ask!


Savannah got to use her birthday present this weekend as it was Salt Lake City's 2nd Annual Comic Con!  She went with her friend, Jessica, and they both made mist cloaks to wear (from Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn).  She had a great time seeing all the people in costume, seeing celebrities, and buying fan memorabilia (you'll see her new Hogwarts t-shirt in the Easter pictures!) She had a super fun day!  How nice of her parents to buy her tickets!

Sarah had her last two tennis group days.  We decided to not sign up for the next session because softball season will be starting and Sarah will be scorekeeping in the evenings.  Sarah was sad, though, because she has so much fun at those!  Still, she will be taking semi-private lessons on Saturday.  She started yesterday and she is going to really like those, too!  She and Megan had a Youth City Council meeting on Thursday.  That is another new thing they are doing!

Megan and Mariah had track practice all week.  They both have the same math teacher, too, who seriously stresses them out.  Track is going much better than math.  They had a meet on Friday.  Megan placed first in the 400.  Mariah placed fifth in the mile and bettered her time by four seconds!  She also placed fifth in the 800.  Megan and Mariah ran together on the same team for the 4x400.  They placed second there!  It was fun to watch them!

 

On Saturday we colored eggs.  Then the older girls hid the eggs for the youngest four and we had an Easter egg hunt.  After which, the youngest hid for the oldest.  We almost found all of them again!  Maybe Rusty (our resident squirrel) will find them and have a good meal!

 

On Sunday morning they woke up to some simple gifts and some new church clothes for some of them!  We took pretty pictures:

Aren't you loving Ben's new suit?

These three loved being "triplets!"

Mariah and I sang in the choir for the special Easter program.  We did pretty awesome!  Then after church we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik's for a shared ham dinner.  It was yummy and we had a great time.

Happy Easter!  The tomb is empty!  It's true!  He lives!
http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694

This week was Spring Break and Benjamin's birthday!  So, to start off our vacation week, we did something we thought Ben would enjoy.  We went on a train ride!  There's an old train that just does scenic rides from Heber and we decided to try it out!

Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik came, too!  It was lots of fun.  Our passenger car has been in service since 1930.  It was old!  (And, oh, so cool!). We had a great ride driving into the canyon and back.  Our conductor had us singing songs and dancing.  We even had a visit from a fiddler who played Orange Blossom Special while we went down the tracks.  We made some great memories!

On Tuesday we went to Grandma's house.  She fed us lunch and we all watched The Saratov Approach while the little kids played down stairs.  It was a great movie and everyone had a good time.  Grandma also did balloons and cake for Ben's upcoming birthday!

Wednesday was Ben's official birthday!  He turned four years old!  He's getting so big!  To celebrate, we went to the zoo!

We finished up with a picnic at This is the Place monument!

That night we had hamburgers and "strawmelon" which is what Ben calls watermelon.  He's been asking for it all winter.  He loves it!!  Then we had cupcakes and opened presents.  He was a very happy boy!  We love him to pieces.

Friday night we had a picnic up the canyon and played a Skinner softball game!!!  Those are the best I gotta tell you. Ben thought it was hysterical when Dad would chase him to the base.  Dad tutored Cheye and Cali a bit before the game and they were doing great.  We had fun! 

Saturday we laid sod in our backyard -- again!  We hope it lasts this time.  It was a lot of work!  Everybody helped although Dad was the main worker, of course.  Benjamin helped the longest and the most enthusiastically.  He thought it was great.  Our backyard sure looks pretty now!

Kevin and Mariah had their last Bantam game this Monday.  They didn't win but Kevin said they all played great.  Mariah said she had tons of fun!  They didn't have practice Friday for the first time since . . . September?  No worries, though.  Kevin is already talking about entering them in a summer tournament!  There will always be basketball around here!

Track continued for Megan and Mariah this week.  They had their first meet on Friday!  Megan took 2nd place in the 400 and 7th in the 800.  Mariah took 2nd place in the mile, 3rd in the 800, and her team took 1st in the 4x400.  Kevin went and watched.  They are super speedy girls!  They were sure exhausted afterward, too.

Our team is in red!

Savannah's turn came to reserve a space in on-campus housing this week for the fall-winter semesters at BYU.  The only spots left were at Helaman Halls.  So she will be on the third floor (she wanted her exercise!) of Taylor Hall.  She'll have her meals at the Cannon Center.  I sure had a great time when I stayed there.  I hope she will have a great time, too!  It's pretty exciting.

Sarah continued her schedule of school, some tennis, and almost daily study groups.  She's been having movie nights with her friends most Fridays and Saturdays.  I love it when she sits down to the piano.  She is getting so good!

Chey and Cali had their last craft club meeting and have continued with tennis.  We are making a rabbit land at the side of our house and they have been out playing with the rabbits when it is warm enough.  Cheyenne got a surprise when she got awarded Tiger of the Month at her school!  One award goes to a student in each class at the school for excellent behavior!  We are so proud of her.  We went and got her free kids meal at Sonic on Saturday.  It was pretty great.

Bethany is still enjoying kindergarten!  I got to help in class on Friday and be there when a friend visited with her pet rabbit for pet week.  Everybody got to pet the rabbit -- even Ben!  She came home with a great rabbit hat!

Ben is watching a lot more TV now that Mason moved away.  It makes me sad!  His other friends are rarely available.  He sure loves it when other boys come over, though!  He still loves to build things and play with his pirate ship.  He is really looking forward to his birthday next week!