President's Day Weekend

The kids had a four day weekend and Matthew moved his schedule around so he could take one of those days off with them. After a big pancake breakfast and some work mudding the great room side wall, we threw our rods in the truck and spent Monday morning fishing at Tingley Beach. A local hunting and angling group sponsored a little event and provided hot dogs and chips and were around to help teach kids to fish. Mercy got into it a bit more this time and showed some aptitude for casting, though she still lacks the attention span that serious fishing requires. Cassie and Beto joined us for a while and Hyrum enjoyed the idea of his new fishing buddy. Just as we were packing up, Hyrum reeled in Lucas' line, catching a trout, and Beto helped net it. They considered the catch a team effort.

After fishing, we stopped by Music Go Round to check out a synthesizer. We were sad to learn the one we had our eye on had been sold, but Abraham found his happy place among the keyboards. He was playing a selection of the songs he knows and another costumer thought Abraham had pushed the sample button and was pretending to play along. The man was very impressed with Abraham's skill.

Hyrum went over to the Jolley's in the afternoon, and I helped Abraham and Mercy make sugar cookies. We ended our day with a movie.

Since we did a lot of playing yesterday, this morning was dedicated to getting some work done. Everyone practiced music and helped with some housekeeping, then Abraham worked on a report about Abraham Lincoln for school. After lunch, Hyrum went back over to the Jolley's while Abraham, Mercy, and I met Dad at Piano Werkes. Abraham's face was awash with glee as he experienced what it's like to play a real, quality piano. We loved the Yamaha YUS5, but decided $16,000 was a bit over our current budget. 

After the piano store, Matthew went back to work, Mercy went to Kinzlee's house, Abraham joined the Jensen's for a trip to Park Above, and I went to Walmart. We had a quick and easy dinner, then it was on to our usual Tuesday evening youth activities. Matthew had an Aaronic Priesthood/Young Women meeting down at the stake center, and kids were sick at Olivia's house, so Mercy got to come to primary activities. We had a lesson on building a firm foundation on Christ, then made structures out of marshmallows and toothpicks.

Beautiful long weekends like this make me long for the warmth and freedom of summer. Only 14 more weeks of school...