President's Day and so on

 This week started out with a holiday.  President's Day is a benign holiday and usually passes by unnoticed.  It would have been the same this time, but Roy had the day off.  I know he loves me when he volunteers to join me in one of my favorite activities--ice skating.  Caitlyn joined us as well.  We paid the $6.00 each for the free style session in order to avoid the public session (public sessions are free to me because I teach water aerobics there).  Monday was also Thomas' birthday.  We have been trying to find a date to celebrate with the family, but it's hard to get everyone together.  We're going to aim for a day in March.  Roy and I stopped at the grave but it was so cold we only stayed a minute.  It was also my mother's birthday yesterday.  I miss her, she was a wonderful mom.  I don't mention birthdays outside of our immediate family very often, because I'm sure I'd miss someone, but it's Becky Cook's birthday today--so, Happy Birthday Becky.  

The past few weeks have been quiet, but this week we had a chance to interact with our children and grandchildren a little bit more.  Matt received an award for being a 2022 40 Under 40 honoree.  "Each year, we celebrate 40 professionals--all under 40 years of age--who are working to evolve the state of Utah's business landscape..."  They had a luncheon at the Grand America to present the awards, and the four children stayed with us for a few hours.  

Matt and Crista.  We're proud of Matt and all his accomplishments

I only got one picture of the girls (I didn't get a picture of Todd, but he was a delight to have for a few hours).  

Crista told the girls (Ruby, Greta and Bridget) they could watch a show if they were
good for grandpa until grandma got home.  They were
all completely zoned in to the TV.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Hyeji won her school Science fair.  

That gave her the opportunity to go the the district competition.  She 

didn't win, but we are proud of her accomplishment.  

I mentioned last week that I had finished two quilts but was binding the 2nd one.  I also finished a third smaller quilt.  I made a lot more mistakes on the jungle quilt than the other ones, but I've learned to hide them to some extent.  You think it would have been an easier quilt, but I just kept making bloopers.  




Caitlyn is still teaching Ori skating, even though she had to
give up coaching in general.  This must be after one of Ori's lessons. 
Cam seems pretty happy to be on the ice with her.

The week continued to be eventful.  Thursday afternoon Roy and I picked up the Green children (Ila from home and the boys from school) and headed to St. George.  As I mentioned before, Adrienne had been in Florida with AJ who was there on business.  After she arrived in SLC, she boarded another plane and flew down to join us.  Roy and Charlotte picked her up from the airport.  We stayed in Phil and Charlotte's home, and Charlotte was there for the first little while.  It was fun to catch up with her.  She was very gracious to let us use her home.  We were so grateful, because it would have been very stressful to be in two small hotel rooms for two days with 4 kids.  

We were there for Ollie's soccer tournament, of course.  He played three games.  They won the first game 3 to 2.  Ollie made two of the three goals.  They lost the 2nd game, but it was played at 9:00 p.m. Utah time (the other one was played that morning at 9:00 am).  The team was exhausted, not to mention they were down 4 or 5 players for various reasons.  You can see he takes his sports very seriously.

They tied the 3rd game, with Oli making the goal for his team.  

 

 Ollie is 3rd from left.  The 2nd from left is a girl.

 Ila kicked the ball around during half time.  She's pretty coordinated.  Gunnar's a good sport to attend Ollie's games, even though he gets bored sometimes.  Here he is with Grandpa Roy.

During our free time, we accompanied the kids to the Fiesta Fun Center.  It has expanded since our children were young.  We always made a visit here when we were in St. George with our kids, so it was fun to revisit some memories and watch the Green kids enjoy it.  

Left: Ollie, with Gunnar driving.  Right: Ila and Finn.  The Fiesta Fun Center

needs to do some work on the kiddie cars.  There were only two working and they looked 

about ready to fall apart.  The kids had fun on them anyway.

I have fun in my own way, too.

Ollie and Gunnar can eat quite a bit.  Finn and Ila--not so much. They're possessive of their food anyway.

Ila slept for a short time on our return trip.  The minute we stopped the car

for a potty break, she woke up, we hadn't even turned off the engine.  As you can see, she was pretty exhausted from the trip.

On our way home, we stopped at the Big Red Barn for ice cream.  Warning: if you ever do this remember that a small is huge!  Afterward, we drove across the street to visit grandpa and took him a serving of the strawberry ice cream.  He seemed to love it.  He's very frail.  I asked him if he was able to go to dinner in the wheel chair.  He answered that he wasn't strong enough to get into the wheel chair by himself, and the facility didn't have enough workers to help him get into it, so he spends all his time in bed.  He was happy to a couple of loving hugs from the kids, even though it was probably a little uncomfortable for him.  

We ended up coming home on Saturday night instead of Sunday because Gunnar had a 6:30 am fireside in his ward.  I was glad because I was pretty tired and I have a busy Sunday ahead of me:  Church, a 4:00 pm fireside with the Stake Presidency giving the first three lessons for the Tabernacle Experience coming up in April; and my orchestra practice for "Joseph Smith, the Prophet."