Peter Update

Peter continues to grow and learn more everyday.   He's a lego master and he's become such a good swimmer that he's graduated out of the program so no more swim lessons for Peter.   He was also accepted into Webster - the same academically accelerated program that the other three attended.  We're very that he'll get to be there too.

We bought him two lego sets to work on during General Conference hoping it would keep him occupied.  Well, the joke's on us - he did all 3 cars and two motorcycles in one session.  Not even half of General Conference had passed.  After that he broke them all down to individual pieces and rebuilt them from scratch two more times.

On St. Patrick's day I made leprechaun rocks and then had him hunt.  He found every single one and then got to dissolve them to find the money hidden inside.  He loved to watch them fizz.

Where you'll find Peter every day:

Christian wants to make an athlete out of cerebral little Peter.  This is his attempt to teach him basketball.  It went ok until he took a ball to the face.  Then it was all tears and over in a flash.

Ice skating lessons are slowly getting better.  He's picking up some speed on the ice and actually seems to be having some fun out there.

I find pictures like this on my phone nearly every day.  This one highlights his other constant - eczema, especially around the mouth.  Some lotions help but the only sure fix I've found is a prescription steroid cream which I only use when it gets really bad.

More lego creations.

He went to the dentist a few weeks ago and I had to take a picture.  His depressed stoicism was going strong as he sat like a convicted felon in the chair waiting for his execution.  Those sunglasses they give the kids were the best part.

This was after he graduated from swim lessons.  All that's left is the swim team but after training with them once, he decided he didn't like it.  He kept up beautifully for the first 30 minutes and was every bit as good as the other kids, all of which were multiple years older and much taller than him, but he just wasn't used to swimming laps for 60 minutes!  He's never swum more than a few laps at a time and his lessons are only 30 minutes with lots of breaks.  So after 30 min, he tired out and started hating it.  I assured him that he just needed to build up stamina but he wasn't having it.  "When I'm much older, like 7, maybe I'll do it again," he told me.  I guess we'll just swim on our own this summer.  I'm still so proud of this guy - in 14 months he went from hating water to swimming all four strokes fluidly.  I really hope he does choose to go back some day because he's a natural.

One of his favorite places is sky zone.  This past time he dared to go on the big slide that's always scared him in the past.  He rocked it.  It was so fun to hear his laugh as he shot into the air!

Spring Break '25

 I feel bad how long its been since I've written.  Seminary is an absolutely killer calling.  I feel like every free minute is spent prepping, either reading scriptures or planning lessons or researching in some other way.  Usually about 25 hrs/week.  My blog has taken a back seat.  But we had a wonderful spring break and I couldn't let those pictures go un-shared.

One of the main things we wanted to do on our trip was bike along the KATY trail.  This is a former rail line that went from Missouri to Texas.  (Formerly MKT line - Missouri, Kansas, Texas)  Say M K T fast and it sounds a little like Katy.  When they pulled out the rail lines and replaced it with a hiking/biking trail, they kept the name Katy.  It's 250 miles from St Louis to Kansas City and it's awesome.  It passes through all sorts of adorable little towns and some really scenic spots.  We biked two days and it was a ton of fun.

Can you spot Christian on that little over hang?

We also had a great time exploring St Louis. It's very similar to Detroit in a lot of ways - its struggle to bounce back from civil rights strife, it's crime rate, it's struggle to bounce back from COVID lifestyle and economic style changes, etc.  Lots of vacant or repurposed buildings and less appealing neighborhoods but also some really fun spots like the Arch and the City Museum.  We also took a walking tour with a man from the Missouri History museum that was wonderful and showed us a ton that we would never have been able to notice on our own.

The arch is incredible - just contemplating the engineering and design of the arch and the carts going up and down is of itself already remarkable, but then to experience it for oneself is a must.  Beware if you're claustrophobic, but it's worth it.  

The city museum defies description.  Its part Willy Wonka factory (minus the eating) and part stress dream escape challenge.  You're never quite sure where you are inside the building or what's ahead and you could spend days there and never explore all the tunnels and crevices and secret passageways.  It's amazing.  It was so fun to meet Julia there and hang out with her for a bit too.

While in St. Louis, the older kids also got to do an escape room followed by FroYo at a place called Bella's.  It was meant to be.  I took Peter to a nearby playground and had just as much fun while we waited.

We also visited the church history sites in Independence, MO and Nauvoo, IL.  Such wonderful missionaries led us around in each of those places and we got to see the Independence temple site, Liberty Jail, the monuments to the 3 and to the 8 witnesses, the Red Brick Store, the Mansion House, and the Smith home (where the Smiths lived when they first came to Nauvoo).  We loved visiting just as we're studying these things in seminary and everyone was so friendly and interesting.  Visiting these sites reaffirms my testimony every time of the truthfulness of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The KATY trail goes past the capital city of Missouri, Jefferson City, so we spent a few hours there.  The most GORGEOUS capitol building I've ever seen.  I've been on capitol building tours in many states and in Washington DC, but Jefferson's is my favorite.  It doesn't have the notoriety and history of DC, obviously, but it is stunning.  And with the beautiful trees just in bloom, I couldn't take enough pictures.  Up on the hill, by the river, gorgeous shining white and with beautiful art work inside - I could have hung out there much longer.  It is so obvious how hard Missourians wanted to establish themselves as a state on the level of the more populous, older, more prestigious ones on the east coast and not to be seen as a bumpkin frontier settlement.  They pulled out all the stops with this building.

No one loves Lewis and Clark like the Missourians.  They are EVERYWHERE.  I mean, I know the voyage started there, but wow, the love is intense.  I never learned so much about those two as I did the week I was in Missouri.

Miscellaneous photos from the trip:

Peter loves ketchup like the Missourians love Lewis and Clark.   He uses 4-5 packets for every small serving of fries and he's a real connoisseur of fries as well.  DQ Grill and Chill has a special place in his heart.  He was very happy on this trip with all the food stops we made.  The difference when you travel with Kelly vs. me.  I make you eat sandwiches I packed! :)

Our AirBnB was fantastic.  An 1800s farm house on 170 acres.  This little rock outcrop was on the property and was a lot of fun to hike to and play around on.  It was so fun to have a huge area to play baseball during down times and tons of room to roam around and explore.  Other than the outdated lighting which left me and Kelly and our 45+ year old eyes constantly saying "I can't see anything, why is it SOOO dark in here?!?" it was a charming place perfectly half way between Independence and St Louis and almost right on the KATY trail.

We saw all sorts of fun places on our walking tour of St. Louis.  Kelly had to take a picture in front of the Bull&Bear statue.  Alas, the market plummeted not long after.

We also saw the stadium were the St Louis Cardinals play.  And unfortunately/fortunately it was opening day.  So the energy was awesome, the traffic...not so much.  My kids are not big baseball fans, though, so we didn't try to get tickets.

A few other trip highlights - Christian, Bella, and I playing a pick-up basketball game in Rocheport, MO when we discovered the town had placed a basketball court and basketballs right by the trail.  That was a lot of fun and a nice break from the bikes.

Nightly games of Yahtzee and Go Fish.  Bella has mojo with dice that is hard to beat but I actually won once!

Going to Columbia for church on Sunday and meeting Natani, the Elders' Quorum pres, who invited us over for lunch within minutes of meeting us.  He has 8 kids and his wife and in-laws were all home so it was quite a large group.  Bless his wife for just rolling with 5 total strangers showing up with 45 minutes notice.  They were a great family and a lot of un.  He's Navajo and military so we had a lot to talk about.

I'm so glad we got to go on this trip as a family.  Our remaining vacations with Bella are few and it was a great time together.