Our Trip to Burger King

Last Wednesday, Ali had a flute concert. Life was a bit crazy that day, so I decided that fast-food would be the best for dinner. We don't often actually wonder into a fast food place. If we have it, daddy usually picks it up on his way home from work.


As we were leaving, I heard Luke ask if they could play on the toys. Kat told him not to bother asking because of the "flesh-eating-bacteria" on the toys. The question at this point is not IF my kids are going to need counceling, it is only HOW MUCH.

We actually won a free Whopper and breakfast sandwich. Luke, of coarse, wanted to redeem the free Whopper right then as he is always hungry.

Ali doing ketchup shots :)

The best part of Luke's evening was that he got to sit by his crush, Sydney, at Ali's concert. Hopefully, on a real date he won't sit there and pick at his toes!!!! He likes her so much, he has even invited her to watch him play baseball!

Kennacott Utah Copper Mine

Yesterday was my BIG day. I was finally going to see what the big was about "that" copper mine I have driven past all my life! I got my steel-toed boots and hard hat ready, but then Kat burst my bubble by telling me we didn't actually get to do any mining on her field trip. Blast!!!

When I was about 5, we moved to Rexburg, Idaho. For holidays, we would drive from Rexburg to Provo to see our Grandmas and Grandpas. Well, back then, before people started traveling 80-90 MPH, it took about 21 hours to make that trip. The only highlight for me would be to drive past the copper mine. Not only did I dream about getting a lot of pennies from it, but it also signalled that we were almost to Grandma's house.

Boy, was I sad to learn yesterday that they don't actually take pennies out of the ground. But, it was all pretty darn amazing. Sadly, I think I was the only one out of 65 students and 8 adults, to be having a great time.

Look, they welomed, ME, personally!!! The copper mine has been around since the 1800's.

You can see Kennacott from space. Isn't that mind-blowing?

Ok, I must admit, I didn't realize that Kennacott was an "open" mine. Since I lived in Price, Utah growing up, I assumed all mining was done undergrown! Kennacott is 2.5 miles across at the top and .75 miles deep, and going deeper.

If you stretched out all the roads in the open pit mine, you'd have 500 miles of roadway - enough to reach from Salt Lake City to Denver.

Humongous trucks, 255 to 360 ton, haul the ore out of the mine. If you look closely it the picture above, you can see the huge trucks, being followed by a "normal" vehicle. Each wheel on the mammoth trucks cost $18,000-26,000 and only last 9 months. Below is a picture of one of the tires with a 4th grader standing beside it.

I must admit, I had a great time, but the kiddos were bored. I asked them if they would have rather been back at school doing work and they all resonded, "YES." Go figure!!!

A Sad Farewell

Duchess
Today we say a sad and fond farwell to our Kitty, Duchess "Dutch" Olson.

Duchess joined our family in August of 2003. Katelyn mentioned to Aunt Mani that we "needed" a kitty. 2 hours later, Uncle Denny and Aunt Mani brought us a kitty. (We have some pretty darn cute pictures of her as a baby, but they are stuck on our old computer.) We all fell in love with her right away, including Shu Fu. She was a perfect addition to our family.

About a week ago, Duchess started acting very lethargic and the kids told me she wasn't eating or drinking. Finally, I broke down and took her to the vet. I was afraid of the worst and didn't want those fears confirmed. I was crying by the time I walked through the vet's front door. She did some basic tests and surmised that she most likely had Leukemia. We decided the most humane thing to do was to put her to sleep.

Afterwards, she let me bring her home. I was going to bury her at our rental house. But, I didn't really want to have to leave her there when we moved. When Dana called and asked if Duchess really was sick, they offered to come and get her and bury her at Nana and Papa's house. It was the kindest thing anyone could have done for me that day. Thank you!

Kitty loved to be outside. Not so sure about snow, however!

Kitty loved to drink out of anything that wasn't her water bowl. Here, she is drinking out of a 7-up bottle. In Texas, Daddy spoiled her and got her in the habit of drinking ice water out of a glass on the table.

Here she is "hanging" out with Kat.

Here is a little memorial we created for Duchess on our mantle.

Ali created this video for Duchess.

We love you Duchess and will miss you!!!

laker fan in jazz territory

so, as you all know, we are deep in the NBA playoffs. i married into a lakers loving family. the olsons lived in LA until chris was around 12. so, they are LA teams all the way. even when they move to st. louis :)

friday luke had a baseball game. so, of coarse, i wore the Malone lakers jersey (i was trying to be a little sensitive by including a former jazz player!!). boy, did i get some teasing. actually, most of the time NO ONE would sit by me. our team's parents chose to sit, facing the sun, with the other team's fans. at one point, luke hollered from the dug-out, "hey mom, no one is sitting by you!!" yes, it was a moment of pride. kat begged me the whole time to, "take that thing off." she wouldn't even sit by me.

later that night....lakers beat the jazz, which put the jazz out of the playoffs.

saturday. i wear the malone jersey again and chris wears his lakers three-pete tshirt. people at the library, of coarse, felt the need to make comments like, "you have a lot of nerve." one guy told us that at least we had on "old" lakers stuff so he knows we didn't turncoat this year. he was wearing a cubbies hat, so it was all good.

now, for luke's baseball game. talk about a bunch of sore loosers!! ha ha. after giving me crap for 15 minutes, one guy whispered to me that he picked the lakers to win in is office pool. i told him at least he wasn't totally stupid, or something like that. why would you vote in favor of the jazz of the lakers? kat stopped asking me to take the jersey off. good girl.

this is kat's summary of being a lakers fan in jazz territory. a theory that she was sharing at school. "technically the lakers are better than the jazz. technically i like the lakers and you like the jazz. so, technically, i am better than you." i told her she might want to keep that whole process to herself!!!

the best hometeacher ever

on sunday, our hometeacher, brother bateman, came to visit. he had a large envelope full of things. of coarse, luke zeroed right in on the goods. brother bateman said he had heard we were lakers fans...GO LAKERS!!!...but that he wanted to try to get us to come over the the jazz side. he brought a picture of thurl bailey. he actually had thurl sign it FOR luke. it says, "to luke, you rock! thurl bailey" pretty cool, huh? good try, but, GO LAKERS!!!!!
he also brought a CD of jenny oaks baker for the girls. she is elder oaks daughter. she is an amazing violinist.

how was my morning, you ask?

this morning i planned to get up about 6 am so i could get ready and go to the temple. well, ali's alarmed blared me out of bed at 5:45 am, ugg. after getting myself ready, vacuuming the house, scripture time, finding kat's shoe (it is a pain now she has her foot out of the boot and she needs TWO shoes!!!) and jr high car pooling it was time to get the younger ones to school. as we were getting their bags together, luke remembered he needed bubbles for school today. so, i rushed us out the door to so we could stop at Ream's on the way to school.

as i was leaving the house, headed to the van i heard kat say, "mom."

i was like, "i know, got to get bubbles."

kat, "mom."

"i know, get you to school on time."

"MOM!"

"what, kat?"

"you don't have any shoes on!"

i wonder how far into my day i would have gotten if she hadn't told me?!?!?!

Spring Soccer

Now that it is actually warm...spring soccer is over.