i scream you scream we all scream for...

AGGIE ICE CREAM!

Okay before I begin going on and on about how awesome Aggie Ice Cream is I just have to say that I am really tired of being cold. I mean trying to stay warm 24/7 is really exhausting. Its cold outside, its cold inside, its cold ice cream. I then get this bright idea to take 5 children to Aggie Ice Cream, by myself which was not one of my smartest moments. However, all the children were really great and well behaved considering I just pumped them full of sugar. Also considering what they were eating, their faces were quite clean when they finished. I think that is a testimony in and of itself of how great Aggie Ice Cream is:

kids don't waste any on their faces. 

https://aggieicecream.usu.edu/

Aggie Ice Cream is one of the BEST creameries I have ever had the opportunity to eat ice cream at. (As a side note I grew up close to a BYU creamery and its just "eh" compared) Sure there are other things that you can eat there and they serve actual food, but the ice creams are just... mmmmmm... and the flavors are all fabulous. I can honestly say that I have never eaten a flavor that I didn't like from Aggie Ice Cream. That being said and on a very sad note I can no longer eat ice cream...weep and cry... I am ice cream intolerant. So very very very sad. I will have to forever more live vicariously through my family as they consume the likes of Aggie Blue Mint, Lemon Custard, Chocolate English Toffee, Aggie Bull Tracks and Aggie Birthday Cake. 

Aggie Blue Mint
taken from: Aggie Ice Cream website

I have a silly story concerning Aggie Blue Mint, here goes: Growing up we had one prepared meal on Sundays then later for dinner we would have a bowl of ice cream. Not just a small bowl of two or three scoops but a heaping bowl of ice cream. Can you guess the flavor of our dinners? No? I will tell you it was Burnt Almond Fudge, without fail. That was my pop's favorite, so that what we bought. I kid you not this was his favorite for my whole life. I didn't think there was actually plain chocolate ice cream let alone any other flavor while I was growing up. Then my pop got a taste of Aggie Blue Mint and immediately switched flavors. Yep just like that and yep its that good. The greatest thing about Aggie Blue Mint, its a Logan only special. You have to come here or have a totally awesome, stupendous, best in the universe daughter to bring it to you. I know I am...

Aggie Ice Cream is a place that if you come to Logan you MUST go! Its just not a Logan experience without it! Does your town have anything like that?

Third times a charm...

Community Hunt

My kids had three Easter egg hunts this year, THREE! First one was a community hunt, the second was special sent from Gma T, and the third was at Gma C's house. By the third one they had a good handle on how to find the eggs.

Community Hunt: It was divided into age groups, each group section was littered with eggs. I was very surprised that even the shyest of kids got a huge haul. My kids came home with a lot of eggs and candy. They were so proud of themselves and had a candy binge. 

Gma T Hunt

Gma T Hunt: One Gma who lives far away, and we weren't going to see them on Easter, sent a care package full of Easter eggs (already loaded) and toys. We set them out in our backyard and hid their buckets inside. Spay wouldn't pick up the "girl colored" eggs. He would walk right over the pink and purples eggs to the blue, green, and yellow eggs. Too funny since the pink and purple eggs had money in them. After all the eggs were found they had a candy binge. Also both boys got a gummy candy snake in their basket, Math ate his, but Spay has kept it as a pet and has named it Archer. Its on our counter in its Ziploc home.

Gma C Hunt

Gma C Hunt: Lots of grandchildren around, so she color coded eggs that each kid would find. Spay had blue and Math had green, Spay having blue turned out to be somewhat weird since he usually picks orange everything. Each had fifteen eggs to find and I believe this is the FIRST Easter that we collected as many eggs as we hid. Not one egg was lost, unbelievable right? The cutest thing that happened, little cousin G was walking down the hill and leaving a trail of Easter eggs out of his basket. Too cute. Then my kids had a candy binge.

Little Cousin G and His Trail of Eggs

You would think they would be bored with finding eggs, but they weren't. They wanted more, well more candy. I thought my children were going to puke with the amount of candy they ate this weekend, but my kids can hold their sugar thats for sure. In the end I had to confiscate their candy buckets for safe keeping and for the "manager cut." It was delicious. I am pretty sure a lot of the candy will be thrown away, well, after all the good chocolate has been eaten. 

What is your favorite candies? What is the grossest ever?

Wet Smelly Good Times

Baby animal days at the American West Heritage Center was cold (no surprise), wet (no surprise), and smelly (no surprise). We had a great time. Basically baby animals are born in large quantities and kids of all ages get to hold them and pet them. Its a huge event where they have booths, activities, and wild baby animals, this year they had bear cubs there. We didn't go to the official Baby Animal Days since it was snowing and cold. We did go a week later to the Baby Farm Animals. Check out the AWHC website if you want to know more of what they offer rather than just what we did.

http://www.awhc.org/index.php/events-2/special-events/baby-animal-days/ 

Okay so we got there and it was raining. We paid for our tickets (regardless of what the website said if your kid is 3 you pay for them) then we went to the chicks and ducklings. My kids aren't all that happy to touch live animals and usually like to look at animals when there is a definite fence between them. I had to grip Spay's hand to get him to "hold" a duck. Math would only touch them with his finger then pull it back very quickly. Because of the weather these two animals were in the main building. Then we headed outside and it wasn't raining.

We took hoods off and uncovered the stroller and headed to the farm house with the calves, piglets, lambs, and ponies. Yeah my kids were having none of that, no touchy. I think they were very happy just to see the animals and climb on fences that I just stopped trying to get them to touch anything. Besides that meant that they were less likely to get any sort of sickness from these animals. If you haven't noticed animals are not very hygienic. Thank goodness for hand sanitizer. Oh then it started raining.

But the kids really wanted to go on train. A train in a farm, really? Yep its true, the train was really cute. It had actual tracks and a train whistle. It goes around a pond thing twice, then your done. It was fun the first round then it started really raining. Math wanted off.

So for our final act, we stood in line for pony rides. The rain had let up a bit so we thought, 'hey lets go on the pony rides and then go home.' Dumb dumb dumb. It was raining so hard by the time we were to the front of the line that I was ready to bag it and come home right then, but we all make sacrifices for our kids (sure) and we stuck it out. Spay loved it! He loved the horses and had no problem riding them, but he won't pet them. So weird.

We had our cousins with us and it was raining off and on the whole time. By the time we left it felt like we had been there over three hours. No, we were there for just over one hour. I was totally exhausted because staying warm and keeping your kids warm, dry, safe, and clean is a huge job on a farm.

This is a big event for the Logan area. We just HAD to go so that we could say we went. I really like holding duckling and chicks but the rest of the animals are just not so cute and furry even when they are babies.  I have gone in the past to the official Baby Animal Days and both of them are comparable in stress levels. However one great thing, if you want to hold and pet animals everyone gets a turn, and if you like to just look at animals its great too. For the majority of us working with animals is a spectator sport at zoos and the AWHC.  If its not raining or snowing next year I will go. I guess they can't do anything about the smell.

Total Hypocrite

Yep thats me. I am a hypocrite! Here is why. I want it to snow. Yes I hate the cold, hate hate hate! I will admit that I have been "California Dreamin" since October. But I just did something that I have personally never done in my life. I bought a season pass to a ski resort. WHAT? I have always wanted to be an all seasons, outdoor family, but we have been turning into an all seasons, couch potato family. Sigh. I mean when were we going to be outdoors? When was it supposed to happen? We have to make it happen right? RIGHT?
In my first vlog  (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8ukGVVQWeUI) I said, "The locals call it the Beav, you've got to ski the Beav." Well I missed last season, actually, I used my kiddies as a crutch for not going. Its too hard with kids, my kids don't listen, whine, they won't be warm, cry, its too much money for three hours of skiing... etc etc etc. I was pretty sure everyone would understand, and most people did, but then I met and became friends with kmfm. She is an inspiration. Her family is about the same ages and circumstances as ours and she went skiing A LOT last season. She told me a secret that I, as a local, am ashamed that I did not know. If you buy an adult season pass any child pass under 5 is FREE!!! Yep Spay and I are going skiing come December, November if we are lucky!

"Try and smile big okay?"

Worst ID picture ever, EVER!

But what about Ko and Math? Well Ko is a student at the University so he gets the "spring discount" until November. Lucky! We didn't want to lay down that much money in one setting (its awful to part with so much at one time) so he is waiting until the Beaver office opens again in October. Then we will get Math's pass too! I have gone through many emotions since bringing home my pass, oops, excitement, worry, what if, giggly, sick, hyper. Lets just say normally I am too cautious about the future. I mean a lot can happen in 8 months. But for now we are going to put these passes somewhere safe and accessible, then ski our hearts out when it snows again, later, much much later. 

pictures backward takes camera computer my
www.skithebeav.com

I started skiing when I was really young, but I am not sure how my dad did it. I mean there were at least four children with him when he went skiing. I need some advice, but I am not sure of what questions to ask. Just give me any advice that sounds good or that you wish someone had told you. Please?

 

I don't want to get out of my PJs

Exhausted doesn't even cover it

Last week was super busy of just living stuff mixed in with some super awesome stuff, see below. By the time Thursday rolled around I was like an old shovel, warn down. Sorry, normally I hate puns but I think I am still tired today. Oh and it was snowing like crazy, so much that Ko had to clean off the walks. BOO! While I was inside protesting being cold I just happened to check facebook (yeah I'm addicted, just a little though) and see a link to the Fringe Film Festival videos. Do you know what the Fringe Film Festival is? No? Well that's no surprise, it is the indie movie festival of all indie movie festivals. Its very local and very low budget, and yeah its cool. I actually wanted to "go" to the Fringe Film Festival since there were flyers all over Logan, but its more of "come to you" festival. Its all online. Cool, I get to watch new movies in my jams, eat candy, pause for the potty, and talk if I want! I am so lucky!
We watched all of the available movies at this link http://arts.usu.edu/fringe/htm/films/ and you get to vote on the movie you like the best. FYI movie voting ends tomorrow (April 12) but I think you should be able to watch the movies after that. If not I believe you can watch them all on youtube at your leisure because they were all youtube format. Yeah youtube! There were some that were great, some that were good, some that were funny and some sadly that were incredible awful. Just terrible! I won't tell you what my favorites were since I don't want you to be tainted by my opinion and because I don't want you to know my guilty pleasures moo ha ha ha! So go enjoy some movies in your jams too!
Later: after some research online I found out that I can actually "go" to the Fringe Film Festival this Friday, April 15. Its kind of... well... this is what their website https://arts.usu.edu/fringe/ said:

Get your tickets to the Fringe Film Festival now at arts.usu.edu ($10 each or 2 for $15).

Four films will be shown at the final screening on April 15 at the Logan Arthouse at 8 p.m., two as decided by the professional judging panel and two as decided by the online voting community  

So, come enjoy some delicious concessions, entertaining films, comments from the directors and of course, witness the awarding of the $2,000 grand prize!

Now you decide if you want to get out of your jams or not! Enjoy nonetheless! 

An Unexpected Super Awesome Afternoon

When my super awesome friend called me up and invited me to go to the Rail Jam at first I was totally confused. Seriously what is a rail jam? So after my super awesome friend patiently explained what a rail jam is, I was excited to go. Today was a warmer cold day. Its hard to explain but I will try; there was a storm coming in so it seemed warmer. The warm before the storm. I was totally ill prepared for how cold it got and my poor children were incredibly cold. It was just one of those moments where I knew I failed as a mom. Why didn't I take a couple more minutes to grab them gloves, hats, and snacks. Why did I think we would be okay when we were walking to the rail jam? Oh yeah, why oh why did I think I could actually push a stroller up a gigantic hill after six months of a sedentary lifestyle? BAKA!

Well whatever, it was fun! We showed up late and left early, but we saw a lot crazy people doing crazy stunts on manufactured snow. It was fun to live vicariously through people who dare do things I can only dare watch. I was a bit out of my comfort zone. I needed this. My first closed-minded reaction was that I didn't like this kind of stuff, but in reality I don't usually watch this stuff. It wasn't that I didn't like it, I just don't regularly seek out these things. I was so very happy to be out of my comfort zone. I really enjoyed myself. I loved watching everyone do their best, and I will admit watching people crash was super funny. I can say that because nobody was seriously hurt, that definitely helps the humor. Also I found out this is an annual event so I will most likely be going back next year. Thank you my super awesome friend! Also, thank you my super awesome friend's hubby for pushing my stroller up the hill. I really took a ding to my ego, but in a good way. Motivation!

So since this is considered an extreme sport what type of extreme sport would you NEVER try? What type of extreme sport would you LOVE to try? As for me, I think I would like to try paragliding.

lets have a good time everyone says

You know, I really like flying kites, I really am a kid inside, I mean flying a kite is for kids right? Well not this weekend. The "grown ups" were all about flying kites while the kids were bored and decided to play on the playground nearby. I have to admit I was totally loving it. My mum (yep I meant to spell it that way) had bought kites several years ago and nobody had flown them before, weird I know. It was time to break open the packages and put them together, it was a perfect kite flying day.

My Hair is Funny :)

moments before the fateful flight

We had a Toy Story box kite, an elephant kite, and a butterfly kite. The box kite was the first up in the air. There is quite a funny story involving Ko and the box kite, here goes. "It was a dark and windy afternoon on a Saturday, when a huge gust of wind came and ripped the kite string right out of Ko's hand. Unlike the famous kite metaphor this kite kept on flying and Ko took off running. Sprinting across the field he never reached the kite until it landed in the front yard of a house across the street. When he finally 'caught up' to the kite, the wind was picking it up off the ground again. He thought he would run it across the road and up into the air, but the tree in the front yard had another idea. It was almost a Charlie Brown moment, but Ko got it out of the tree and back up to the sky. All lived happily ever after. The End."

I think the other kites had their problems too, the elephant kite was put together wrong at first and and after it was fixed it favored falling out of the sky on its left ear. The butterfly kite didn't make it past six feet off the ground no matter how much or how strong the wind was. Oh yeah, and the super high tech string reels were dangerous to our fingers when ever the wind took them out of our control. I have two beat up thumbs and three scraped fingers to prove it. OUCH!!! 

I think thats the joy of flying kites, working out the problems, untangling the string, and getting the kites up in the air. Then you hand them over to the kids, but in our case the kids had given up waiting. So we just kept playing, super uber fun! Near the end lots of people from the neighborhood came out to fly kites with their kids, same rules applied with them. The grown ups got the kites in the air and the kids played on the playground. It was good to know we weren't the only people that happened to. With everyone out it truly felt like the closing of Mary Poppins so we decided to call it a day and headed home. 

When you send it flyin' up there
All at once you're lighter than air
You can dance on the breeze
Over houses and trees
With your fist holding tight
To the string of your kite

Thanks to everyone who played with me that day. We really made use of such an odd weather day! Lucky me, my mum left them at my house to use, so very very lucky!

To see us in action check out my vlog, its pretty much a musical montage, which sometimes thats all life needs to liven it up. 

Vlog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsaVQspgJ60