A Close Call-- Vegas Style

Brigham had an oral boards review course in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago, and I decided to go with him to turn it into a mini-vacation of sorts.  We were excited to see a show, and a friend told us about these kiosks where you can buy discount tickets.  As soon as we arrived in Vegas-- before going to our hotel or anything else-- Brigham dropped me off at one such kiosk to scope out the tickets left for that evening.  We'd seen a Cirque du Soleil show in Baltimore and really enjoyed it, and we were hoping to see a different one in Vegas.  As I checked the board displaying which discount tickets were still available, I was relieved to see that one of the four Cirque du Soleil shows still had tickets-- a show called Zumanity.  I asked one of the employees about the tickets, and he told me that they only had a few tickets left for that evening-- and all were in the "audience participation section."  I imagined us being called up to help the performers with their acrobatics and wasn't particularly excited by the image.  Brigham arrived shortly thereafter, and I explained the situation.  He said, "What?  Are you afraid of being called out of the audience to participate?"  I said, "Well, yes!"  He said, "I'm not!  I think it would be awesome!"  The employee was listening to our conversation and stepped in to offer a solution by saying, "Well, we have tickets to other shows like Zumanity if you don't want to participate."  He handed Brigham a pamphlet for some kind of "peep show", and we were both  horrified.  I said, "Oh!  We don't want to see THAT!" and he said, "Well, it's the same kind of show as Zumanity!"  Brigham has always teased me a little for my naivete, but not even he saw that one coming!  Talk about a close call!  Without the "audience participation section"(I don't even want to know!) clause tacked on to the Zumanity tickets, we probably would have innocently bought the $100 non-refundable tickets and only realized our mistake once seated in the show!  We had no idea that Cirque du Soleil did anything but clean acrobatic shows!  After driving around in Vegas for awhile we saw enough Zumanity billboards to KNOW that we didn't want to see it!

We ended up seeing  Cirque du Soleil "Viva Elvis".  It wasn't our first choice, but it was a really fun show and a lot more up our alley!

Keeping it Clean

Yesterday I was doing my hair when Benjamin came in and informed me, "Mom, Jacob is putting his iPad under the water in the bathroom!" (It is amazing just how much trouble can be gotten into in the time it takes me to do my hair!)  I went running to the bathroom and found Jacob just as excited as can be to be watching his show in the sink with water streaming across it.  I quickly snatched it and hurried to dry it off, but alas-- the damage had been done and it wouldn't turn back on.  I'd heard about the uncooked rice trick, so we quickly put it in a bag of rice, crossed our fingers, and said our prayers.  Today we took it out, and much to our joy, it turned on!  It still has some quirks (brain damage from being underwater too long?), but we are thrilled to have it working at all.  Perhaps Jacob was just trying to give us a nice Easter allegory... if so, it was pretty effective!

Speaking of Easter, the boys have had some great times the last couple of days.  Yesterday morning they had an egg hunt in our house, enjoyed a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Dastrup, and later in the afternoon they had a treasure hunt that led them to some soccer goals for the back yard.  Today we had Easter dinner at Grandma and Gramps' house, another Easter egg hunt with cousins, and dyed eggs.  We love Easter and all that it stands for!

Fact!

Today I was a little disturbed to see a 60% on one of Benjamin's worksheets that he brought home.  As I looked more closely, I saw that he only missed one out of four total questions.  Then I read the question:

Which of these is a fact?
A. Ice cream is delicious.
B. Carrots are satisfying.
C. Everyone loves french fries.
D. Beets have vitamins.

Benjamin marked "A".  I'd say he's one smart kid! :)

How I Know

Serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints some 12 years ago, I found that different parts of our message really resonated with different people.  For many it was the plan of salvation-- knowing where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going.  For many others it was the idea of eternal families-- the possibility of being with our families not just in this life but in the life to come if we do our part.  For some it was the fact that we have a living prophet and apostles to guide our church-- just like Christ's church anciently.  For others it was the fact that the Book of Mormon testifies of God's love for all of his children and not just those in the Jerusalem area.  The list goes on and on.  Each person's life experience shaped which part of our message would speak to them the most.

For me, after growing up as a member of the Church my entire life, all the different parts of our message just felt right and it was a joy to share them with the people of Bolivia.  I knew and I know that the gospel that is found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is right, and that the Church is Christ's restored from it's original form.  I've known it basically my whole life, but from time to time something comes along that makes it's truthfulness resonate in my heart even more powerfully.  One of those things happened a few months ago and has continued to fill my heart so full that here it is just spilling across my blog!

Obviously, my whole life has been completely reshaped with the arrival of Jacob Dax-- my sweet "special needs" boy-- six years ago.  This school year he started attending Jordan Valley School-- a school just for children with special needs.  The kids attend there from kindergarten until they turn 22, so it is an elementary, junior high, and high school all rolled into one.  From previous posts you may know how much I love the school itself.  The thing that started to fill my heart was when I noticed a tiny Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints seminary building adjacent to the school.  At first I was surprised.  A seminary building at a special needs school??  How much of the Church's doctrine could these kids really be expected to understand?  And then it hit me hard:  It didn't matter.  What mattered was that they had the chance!  Through inspired Church leaders, Christ was once again leaving the ninety and nine and going after the one-- the one that so many might think wasn't worth going after.   Seeing the Church's efforts to make the gospel accessible to every living person no matter what the obstacle, amount of time, or resources makes my heart burn with the knowledge that this is Christ's true church!  Translations of the Bible and Book of Mormon into hundreds of languages including American Sign Language and Braille speak of His love for each person and a desire that each one of us, regardless of ability or disability, return to Him one day.  I love that, and I love knowing it!

How grateful I am to have Christ's gospel in my life!  It really is my anchor in this crazy world.

Ty-phoon Turns Three!

Recently Ty said good-bye to the terrible twos and slipped on the mantle of responsibility that falls upon the shoulders of all three-year-olds.  Gone are the days of it being socially acceptable to wet one's pants.  One is expected to drink from big boy cups, sleep in big boy beds, stop tantruming, and wipe one's own bottom.

As Ty learned on his birthday, there are also some upsides to being an older man-- namely, going out with girls.  Ty spent the day while his brothers were at school with his best friend, Maddie.  We went to the Bean Museum at BYU...

...out to lunch at McDonalds...

 ...and to the Paleontology Museum at BYU. 

 Ty and Maddie had a riot together.

 Not long after he said good-bye to Maddie, both sets of grandparents came up for a dinner of mac 'n cheese.  (Nuggets AND mac 'n cheese in one day.  Does it get any better than that?)  Then came the presents.  He was so thrilled with each one that he didn't want to open the next!

How I love my little wild boy!



Californiahhhhh

In what we are hoping will become an annual event, the Dastrups once again sought refuge from the cruel Utah cold in sunny California.  Grandma and Grandpa Dastrup were crazy er... kind enough to accept our invitation to come along, and the result was our best family vacation ever!

I have to admit to being pretty disheartened last year after taking the kids to Disneyland and having Jacob hate it so much.  It's silly, but I felt like if we couldn't even go to Disneyland as a family we had no chance of ever being a kind of "normal" family.  We were faced with a choice:  deny Ty and Benjamin yet another great life experience or torture Jacob to give it to them.

This year gave me hope.  We decided to skip Disneyland and to do Sea World, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and Legoland instead.  I was very hopeful that Jacob might like the first two since he enjoys the zoo, but I was still nervous. 

The first park we went to was Sea World, and Jacob didn't just like it, he LOVED it!  All through the animal shows  he clapped, jumped and laughed like a maniac!  It was so fun!  The other boys really enjoyed it too, but I honestly felt bad for everyone else there because they didn't have a Jacob to experience that unbridled joy!  What a wonderful day!

The next day we went to the Safari Park.  It was neat, but I have to say that I felt like it wasn't much more than a glorified zoo and definitely not worth the price we would have had to pay if we hadn't gotten some great passes through Costco.  Maybe I just felt that way because the kids were pretty worn out from the Sea World and crabbier.  It was still a fun day, though, and watching the cheetah run (full speed toward us chasing a decoy) was pretty cool.

The last day was Legoland.  I didn't have very high expectations of it due to a couple of reviews we'd heard from people, but we really enjoyed it!  I loved experiencing the rides with my boys!  Jacob tolerated the tamer ones but sat the faster ones out with Grandma or Grandpa.  Benjamin loved the roller coasters, and we went on his favorite several times.  Ty was very brave and loved most of the rides we went on and begged for more.  It was so fun to have him laughing and screeching next to me!  He went on his first roller coaster ride and wasn't such a big fan of it, though.  He said it was scary.

Some beach time and the BYU vs. San Diego game (for Benjamin, Brigham, Grandma, and Grandpa) completed our fantastic trip.  Coming home was a necessary evil.

Many thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for helping to make our trip so wonderful!

At the beach we could walk to from our condo.  We had fun digging in the sand and looking for shells even if it was too cold to swim.

Jacob knows that Grandma always carries jelly beans in her purse!

Holding the star fish at Sea World.

Jacob didn't love the pet show quite as much as the dolphin and whale shows, but it was close!

At the Safari Park.

I knew there was a reason that Benjamin and Ty often make me feel batty!

Ty was hilarious in this little petting zoo.  He kept charging all of the goats trying to brush them.  They'd run from him, but he would chase one until he got closer to another goat, then he'd chase that one, etc.

Grandpa hitting on one of the Legoland regulars.

Ty fighting off Lego crocodiles with his water blaster.

There were many amazing Lego structures!

Just Another Day in Paradise

With the beginning of a new year, our church schedule has changed to 11 am to 2 pm.  I am infinitely grateful to no longer have a napping child that such a schedule inevitably transforms into a raging demon that takes days to subdue.  The only minor challenge this schedule presents to me now is that of lunch.  After moseying through the morning (how did we ever make it to 9:00 church on time?  Oh wait-- we rarely did), I found myself without enough time to feed the kids before church, so I put some of those heavy-duty granola bars and some cheese sticks in my bag to tide the kids over.  I passed out the snackage about halfway through Sacrament Meeting, and I helped Jacob take bites of his granola bar to avoid him overfilling his mouth as he loves to do.  When the end of the granola bar came out of the wrapper, Jacob grabbed it, and although it was big I let him keep it because Ty needed my attention for something.  My attention quickly reverted to Jacob when he started to cough.  I tried to pry some of the granola bar out of his mouth, but it was too late-- he started gagging.  Brigham was at home sleeping after a night shift, so I was on my own.  I picked Jacob up and ran as fast as I could for the door.  For anyone who has not had the opportunity to hear Jacob gag, let me just tell you that it is not subtle.  It is this horrible, loud hocking sound that I'm sure could be heard from one end of the chapel to the other.  So there I was, dashing for the door, trusting that someone would step in and take care of Ty in my absence, and praying that we would at least make it to the foyer before Jacob exploded.  Thankfully, we did make it to the foyer, but we didn't make it much further before he threw up-- all over himself, me, and a little on the floor.  I continued to the bathroom, and within seconds three angel sisters had come in to help.  One grabbed some paper towels and went to clean up the foyer.  Another helped me clean up Jacob and the floor of the bathroom.  The third went to make sure that my other two kids were okay.  Jacob's shirt was not salvageable, so I had to take it off.  He was supposed to stay in the foyer with one of the sisters while I tried to creep invisibly (if you don't look anyone in the eye, they can't see you, right?)  back in to Sacrament Meeting to get the keys so I could take him home and change.  Unfortunately, he didn't want to stay with her-- he wanted to come with me, so I turned around to find a half-naked Jacob trotting down the isle after me.  So much for my invisibility.

I just have to say how grateful I am for those ladies who came to my rescue in the bathroom.   Words can't describe just how grateful I am for their help! I am also grateful to the sweet sister in the library that I talked to when church was over.  After asking if Jacob was okay, she said something to the effect of, "I've watched you, and you do such a good job with him."  On days that make me want to cry, words like that mean a lot.