Living Planet Aquarium

For Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa Gee gave us a trip to the Living Planet Aquarium.  We went on January 23rd.  It was so much fun!  All five kids were excited, in awe, and obedient the whole time!  We made some great family memories and are so grateful that we were able to go!  Here are about a million pictures, from both Nicki's camera and mine, of our fun adventure:

Checking out the local underwater wildlife in the Utah exhibit.

Alison and a lot of fish. Yes, I know my captions leave something to be desired,but what am I supposed to say here???

Nicki took this one.  Her camera takes better pics through the glass.  This picture makes me kind of hungry...

We brought a stroller, but Quin never used it once.  He was too excited to sit.

The otter exhibit was amazing.

They even have a part where you can stick your head up into the exhibit at get close to the little critters.

Josh and Bron riding an Orca.

Ali getting hugged by one.

Quin and Nick on an Orca.  

The jellyfish room was one of my favorites!  You can't tell in this picture because the flash went off, but the lighting makes it look like you're underwater. 

A bunch of tiny jellyfish.  They were fascinating!  More than once on this trip, David and I wished that we could come alone some time and take our time in the exhibits.

Ah - there's the cool underwater lighting.  

The girlies in a deep sea diver.   

This Spider Crab kind of freaked me out.  

The penguin encounter is one of the big draws to the aquarium.  It is pretty great.

Again, Nicki's camera.

We saw a short 4-D underwater adventure video.  4-D means that it's 3-D plus vibrating chairs, squirting water and puffing air blown on you, etc.

All three of our boys were NOT fans of the water and air blowing on them.  Quinton in particular was terrified.  The rest of us thought it was pretty awesome!

There was a rope bridge in the Amazon section.  Nicki and Quin went together.  He made it all of two steps before she had to pick him up and carry him over.  What a great sister.  

As you can see, there is no possible way of falling.

But it is still a little frightening.  

Just walking through the pretty amazon jungle.

One or two of the fish in this tank were bigger than a car!  HUGE!!!

Here is an electric eel.  They had a button you could push to receive an electric shock equivalent to a baby eel.  I didn't do it - I know what a shock feels like, thank you very much.  But most of the rest of the family did it and they said it was pretty intense.

This little croc (or gator, I can't remember) was looking at us from above the water. but we could see his whole body under water at the same time. Cool!

ANACONDA!!  Not even a full grown one, but terrifying just the same.  He was in the same tank as the piranhas. 

Two of the cutest boys ever enjoying the turtles.

They have a couple of petting zoo-type pools.  You can touch sting rays (stingers removed), starfish, and sea urchins.  It was the kind of thing you could do for hours.  

There is Nicki helping either Quin or Bron (can't tell) and Josh, who was the most brave of us all in terms of what he would touch.

The best part of the day was going through the glass tunnel with sharks swimming all around and over you.  WOW!!!

You don't think Bronson liked it, do you?  

There were dozen of sharks, several different species, swimming around.  Also, some rays and sea turtles.  We stayed for quite a while.  It was beautiful!

And I end with my favorite picture of them all.  My five faves all sitting still at the same time.  A rare moment indeed!

Cute And Heartbreaking At The Same Time

Here's a little story that I need to save for my posterity:

The other evening, Bronson was being super rowdy. When that happens, David's "punishment" is to make the kids run around our cul-de-sac to burn off some energy.  It's a great, win-win situation because the boys love to run, plus they are removed from the situation that got them in trouble in the first place, and they tire themselves out so they're not so crazy when they come back inside.  So, when Bronson was in "monster mode" and repeatedly making his little brother cry, Dave said, "Let's go.  You need to run some laps."  They went outside.

After a few minutes, David and Bronson came back in the house.  Both of them were steaming mad.  David told me, "Bronson is grounded from his tablet tomorrow because he wouldn't run."  That seemed strange to me because Bronson usually likes to run.  Dave said, "He just laid down on the ground!  I told him if he didn't do it, I was going to take away his tablet tomorrow, and he just said, 'Then take it away!'."

Meanwhile, Bronson came in my room, every bit as frustrated and angry as his dad.  He started yelling at his dad (and part of the problem here is that David doesn't always understand what Bronny's saying because of his impaired speech) "Dad!  How do I do it?  Do you want me to run on your lap?!?!  Where is my lap!?!?!"  Suddenly, it became very clear to me (and also to David, once I translated Bronson's questions) that Bronson simply didn't understand what he was supposed to do.  David told him to run a couple of laps.  Bronson thinks a lap is something you sit on.  He was lying on the ground because he was trying to run on his lap!

Bronson wanted you to see how he tried to run on his lap.

I explained that a lap is one time around our circle.  Bronson said, "Oh!  Yeah, I can do that!"  He and his dad went back outside where he happily ran a couple of laps and came back in.  Of course, he wasn't grounded from his tablet the next day and everyone was happy.

Thinking about Bronson and David's communication frustration makes me cry a little bit!  David was thinking, "Why doesn't he just do what I asked?" and Bronson was thinking, "I'm doing what he asked!"  How many times do I get angry with my children because they aren't doing what I want them to do, not knowing that they would gladly do whatever I wanted if they only understood what it was!  And how many times do I over-complicate, misunderstand, and therefore get frustrated with the tasks of my life.  Oh how much I need to learn!  How far I have to go!  How patient Heavenly Father has to be with me!  I'm probably lying on the ground trying to run on my lap while He watches and thinks, "Not THAT kind of lap, Kell!"

The Big Change

In 2015, Quinton's hair looked like this:

In 2016, David and I buzzed him.  It was a two person job.  Quinton screamed like he was being tortured.  David said, "He'll survive.  Especially since we only cut his hair once or twice per year."  :)

It so bizarre to live with a stranger!  I don't even recognize my own child!  I miss his curls, but the short hair does have its advantages:  he looks older and it accentuates his chubby cheeks.  David swears that the haircut changed Quin's personality - he's become cranky and independent (I'm sure it has nothing to do with his age or the fact that he has been acting that way towards me for months).  Dave keeps saying, "I can't wait until his hair grows back!"  Maybe he's right - Quinton is Samson the second and he needs his long hair!  We'll see, because I'm not cutting it again any time soon!

New Year 2016!

For the second year in a row, we woke up early on New Year's Day and drove to Idaho to spend it with family.  It's such a great time to visit - maybe it will become a tradition!

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house in the early afternoon.  Shawn and Kristi both brought their families over and we had a great day. We visited, the kids rode Terry's 4-wheeler pulling a sled (in below-freezing temps), we ate a ton of food, and even played a game!  Gee's don't play games so this was a big deal!  It's so comfortable and easy with David's family.  Time flew by and suddenly everyone was going home.

Shame on me for not taking any pictures of all the fun!  In my defense, I still wasn't perfectly healthy.  There were so many times that I thought to myself, "That would make a darling picture," but I was too tired to get up and find my camera.

In the evening, once the boys were in bed, Alison and Nicole put on a little concert for Grandma and Grandpa.  They each played a song on the piano and sang a tune or two.  It was fun for them to be in the spotlight for a minute.  Then, they went downstairs and David and I spent the evening quietly chatting with his parents.  It was wonderful.  Except that one of the things we chatted about was how horrible our van was sounding.  David and his dad didn't think it would make it home to Utah.

The next morning, David and his dad took the van into a shop.  Then we all went to Isaac's baptism.  That's right, I said ISAAC!!!  You know, my little nephew who was like, three years old the other day! Man!  I'm getting old!  Or at least the people around me are.

Isaac's baptism was so great.  He was beaming with excitement.  His primary teacher got up and gave the sweetest most personal talk about how wonderful he is and how proud she was of him.  Then his bishop got up and did the same thing.  They really made him feel special.  It was nice to be there with so many family members and to be able to take part in that sacred event.  Afterwards, we all went to Kristi's house, where she treated us to a huge, delicious meal.

Cute picture of Isaac and his dad from Kristi's Facebook post.

By then, we had heard from the auto shop.  Things weren't looking good for our van.  There was no way it was going to be road-ready for a day or two, and the bill would be just shy of $1500.  Happy new year to us!!!  We were so blessed that David's parents bailed us out!  They happened to be driving to Utah for a wedding reception right then, so they drove our three oldest children with them and dropped them off at our home.  David, the little boys, and I borrowed Grandpa Gee's pick up truck.  We loaded it up with all our luggage and came home about an hour behind the first group.  I drove the pick up for a whole week, until David and his dad met up in McCammon the following Saturday and exchanged vehicles.  It's pretty fun to drive a big ol' truck - until you have to park in a tight space.  I think I looked pretty cool and the kids certainly loved it!

Doesn't Grandpa's truck make David look manly?!?!

What a beginning to 2016!  When our dishwasher broke a week later, I was starting to get worried.  Oh well - who needs money anyways, right?  In essentials, we are very rich!





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New Year's Eve 2015

By the end of the year, I was starting to feel better - not fabulous, but better.  The week between Christmas and the new year was catch-up week.  I bought groceries, did laundry, tried to do fun things with the kids, and let them play with their friends as much as possible.

Oh look!  I can get dressed and do my hair!  This is the first time I had gotten ready in about 10 days.  And I felt super sick afterwards!  The good thing about being so miserable for so long was that it was the only holiday I can remember when I actually lost weight.

On New Year's Eve, the minute David walked in the door from work, I said, "Load up the van!  It's time to go!" and we went out for Chinese food.  Our regular neighborhood restaurant looked really busy, so we tried a new place.  It ended up being really good!

Ha ha!  Nice picture Ali! 

Love these ragamuffin boys!  Bronson doesn't actually have a 5 o'clock shadow.   Nicki and her friend had dressed him up as a pirate earlier that day and the marker facial hair/earring only semi-washed off.

This might be my only photo of Quin after I cut his curls off, but before David got to him with the clippers.  

Dave looks like a ghost, and the girls both crack me up.

We came home from dinner around 7:30 pm.  Thank heaven for Netflix.  They have a few little 3-minute New Year's Count Down videos that you can play any time you want.  So we rang in the new year at about 7:45 pm!  We blew our noisemakers, popped some confetti poppers, toasted the upcoming year with sparkling apple juice, and sent the boys to bed!  That's my kind of party!

Look at Quinton's cheeks!!!

David knew he would be driving to Idaho the next day, so he went to bed before midnight.  The girls and I stayed up. I REALLY didn't want to.  I was still semi-sick, remember?  But I felt too guilty to leave the girls alone.  So we played a game or two, watched a movie, and ate left over treats from Christmas.  We paused our movie long enough to watch the ball drop on TV.  That's about it for our New Year party.  Pretty pathetic, even by my standards!

What a year 2015 was!  We had some really great memories made this year, as well as a couple of really rotten ones.  The best part of the year for me was watching each of my children grow, learn, try hard things, think more deeply, work hard at things, and love each other.  In that regard, I'm really looking forward to 2016!

Christmas 2015

Ohhhhh, Christmas was rough this year!  I was sick - and I mean SICK!  For a few days, I took medicine and tried to get the most important things accomplished.  Most of the time, though, I just laid around and moaned.  The night before Christmas Eve, I started throwing up.  Luckily for all of us, David had the day off of work.  He SAVED us!

David spent the entire day of Christmas Eve working.  He did a million loads of laundry, wrapped the last dozen gifts, cooked the lasagna for Christmas dinner, ran errands, and kept all the kids happy, healthy, and clean.  He was amazing!  That night, he took all the kids to my Grandma's house for the family party while I stayed home.  That is no small thing!  I was told that it was a wonderful party and all the kids were very well behaved. When they got home, we watched the church's video on the nativity, opened PJ presents from Grandma and Grandpa Gee, and scooted off to bed.

David cooking lasagna.  Seriously!  I feel sorry for everyone who is not married to that man!

 Everyone was bright eyed and bushy tailed by 6:00 in the morning on Christmas (except me - I'd thrown up twice in the night and hadn't slept for more than a couple of hours).  When the kids teeth were brushed, their beds made, and their prayer said, they lined up and went upstairs to see what Santa  had brought.

Here they come!

Boy! Santa did not disappoint this year!  He gave every single person in this family a Kindle Fire tablet! (Quinton actually got a Fisher Price toy that looks like a tablet).  Obviously, we had to have a family meeting later on to set some rules regarding the tablets, but they sure are fun to have!  Everyone also got one or two other small things from the man in red.  We spent the rest of the morning opening presents from under the tree.  I think everyone was happy with their gifts. Honestly, it's all just a blur to me.  Someone else should be reporting on our holiday.

David made the traditional cheese-on-bread and V8 Christmas brunch.  I went to bed.  My parents came to visit in the late morning - we had fun exchanging gifts with them and showing off all our cool new stuff.  Scott dropped by shortly after they left.  Again, there was some exchanging of gifts and showing off.  Other than that, I never left my bed except when I was running to the bathroom.  I have to say, if there was ever a day that was made for moms to be out of commission, it's Christmas!  The kids were so happy with their new stuff and with all the bowls of treats around the house, they hardly noticed my absence.  Every once in a while they'd find me and ask for help with something, or show me something "awesome" but for the most part, I was left alone.

Quinton opening his present from Grandma and Grandpa Smith,

Both boys have been wanting these robotic dinosaurs for a while.  They were THRILLED when they opened them.

Oh look, I guess I did get out of bed once or twice.

As dinner time rolled around, I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to be able to smell lasagna.  So I wrote out a list of everyone's typical orders and sent David to McDonald's.  Nothing says "Merry Christmas" quite like a cheeseburger, does it? Again, I don't think the kids felt too bad about it.  It was pretty cool to them.  We ended up eating our lasagna a couple days later.

And that is the story of the Gee Family Christmas 2015.  May we never speak of it again...