Sunday, February 28th, we headed to IF. Nick was heading out of town, and Steph was less than 3 weeks out of surgery, so help was a good thing. Hopefully we were of some help, but I also totally enjoyed being there with Steph, Emma, Brennan and Brayden. I know Steph was ready for Nick to get home though. Here are some pictures I took of Emma.

On Wednesday we headed to Provo for our semi-annual PLC meetings. They are always so good and inspiring. The food is pretty good as well. The first day we went with the Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communications. We saw the international ballroom dance competition team perform the dance they will compete with at the International Competition in England this summer. They have a pretty impressive win record. Next we headed to the lab for the advertising/PR students. ALL MAC! They too have some pretty impressive competition wins under their belt. Our last stop on the tour was at the lab for students in the illustrator program. This lab was filled with junior and senior students and some fabulous art work. Our dinner that evening was held in the MOA (Museum of Art) where we took tours through the vault. If you have some time, go to the link and check out some of their past/present/future displays. And if you’re ever in Provo you really should go check it out. We saw how they meticulously handle every piece of art (and there are thousands) that comes through their door, including the thousands they own thanks to generous donations. Dinner was GREAT and then came more tours and the dessert bar! My favorite was the sipping chocolate. It was pure warm liquid chocolate in little cups. It was heaven in a cup!

The next morning I had a terrible headache but we only missed a little bit as I tried to recover enough to get to the last events. We had presentations from students and professors from several colleges. Again–VERY IMPRESSIVE. We concluded with lunch and Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve addressing us. This is embarrassing but Lynn and I were deciding where to sit when a man approached us. I’m thinking “he looks familiar” when he said, “Hi, I’m Neil Andersen.” I felt a bit sheepish and I was glad I hadn’t been thinking out loud. My senior moments have really kicked into high gear. In my defense that room was filled with men who look like general authorities. OK–no excuse. His address was inspiring too and it’s always fun to listen to a general authority in a little less formal setting. Their talks aren’t timed and he opened it up for questions as well.
All in all, we always come away from these meetings inspired and wishing there was more we could do. Of course Lynn’s the one who DOES do more–giving of his time, talents and resources to help in ways that I can’t. I’m just the tag-a-long, but I’m so grateful for that! It was a great week!

We haven’t done a lot of really fun things while the boys were here, but today Brittney, her sister Rochelle (who is expecting twins anytime) and Rochelle’s daughter, Berkley, met up with us at Monkey Bizness. It’s an indoor play place for kids. We got there about 10:00 am and the boys loved it immediately. They were a little timid at first but Berkley has been there before and was happy to show them around. She wasn’t afraid of anything. There were several play areas–some with the plastic playhouses and some inflatables. There was also a huge jungle gym. I had to force them to leave a little after noon. They both cried and just wanted to play all day. Next time I would definitely pack a lunch (they have a lunch room) and just play. Here are a few pictures. A lot of this is for Steph and NIck, who haven’t seen their boys in several days.

So Steph, or should I say Emma, threw a kink in everyone’s plans by coming a bit early. When Steph went to the Dr. Monday Feb. 8th the Dr. felt like Steph was really progressing and wanted her to come back Wednesday. She had dilated another centimeter in just a couple of days and was very ready to deliver. The Dr. thinks that if Steph hadn’t had the C-section when she did, it would have been an emergency one that night or the next day. We thought it was going to happen at noon Wednesday but they found a spot for her at 10:00 am. Lynn and I were only to Burley about the time we heard and Lynn tried really hard to get me there as quickly as he could. Paige was a total sweetie and watched the boys that morning. We got to the hospital about an hour after Emma was born. We took a few pictures and hurried off to rescue Paige and let her and the boys get a chance to come to the hospital. Everything went great. She was born at 10:20 on 2-10-2010. Wow! She could be a little “Monkish”. Here are the first of the pictures. She was 21″ and 6 lbs 5 oz.

This week we divided our time between Provo and the cabin in Donnelly.  I love the road-trip time with my companion (and XM-radio too).   Not much to comment on in the first part of the week at Provo, just a few BYU meetings.  The Springhill Suites should just assign us a memorial room.  While there, however, we had a friend comment to us that after years of writing in his journal with S.W.Kimball-type diligence, he had quit the traditional and was now logging his life via blogs only.  The public/private aspect difference of blog/paper journals is enough to keep blogs from being a total replacement, in my opinion.  But, in the absence of a normal journal anyways, this is certainly an improvement.  At least it will remain legible.

We spent the end of the week at at the cabin.  Doug & Kevin Wallace joined us for a bit.  Jeff & Brittney came up to celebrate his 25th birthday.  A bit foggy and a little snow, it was just nice to get away.  We caught up on a couple of older movies (“Tootsie“, “Mr. Mom“,  ”The Firm (cleanflix)“) read a bit, and ate too well.

I’m reasonably sure the McCall Ice Festival will never qualify as a destination event, but it serves well as a getaway excuse.

No captions really necessary below.  I liked the ice bathroom.  Reminded me of Korea.  We had to include the Forest Service one for Blaine & Mary Ann — we missed them this year.

We couldn’t determine a theme for this year, as in previous ones, but it was fun.

We are SOOO slow. But in our defense Doug had surgery right as everyone was leaving town. Things have calmed down a bit now.

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun (as you saw from the video Lynn put up). We started out with dinner at Bob and Barbara’s. There was a TON of great food and no one went hungry. Here are the pictures from dinner.

Then we headed back to our house. Shortly after we got home Santa made a visit. Brennan wasn’t shy at all and after giving him a hug he showed him to his seat and was anxious to see what was in his bag. Each child got a pair of Christmas jammies and a book (I LOVE children’s books). Then we watched “Polar Express” and the kids headed to bed.