Catching Up... a.k.a. This Weekend (by: Dan)

Wow, has it really been just two days?

This weekend was a bit of insanity! We had a full dish and kept piling everything on top of that as well.

Thursday after work, I got home in time to get ready for Toby's Parent Teacher Conference, you know the one, that place where Toby's teachers tell us how awesome he is and what a great kid we have, as if we didn't already know! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So, I get home, and Pam and the kids are out hanging out in the yard (it is in the 70's here now after all), and Pam says that Toby has been trying to ride his bike but having some trouble. I instantly think of something standard, like he wants his training wheels tightened, or the chain fell off, but to my surprise he wants the training wheels OUTTA HERE!

Being the easily excited sort, I got really excited, grabbed his bike and my tools and ripped those puppies right on off of there, I've got time before PTC right? Shure 'nuf! I topped off the tires and Toby came running over and we walked out on the sidewalk, boy I wish I had my camera on me, but the shape of Dan doesn't allow for crouched running, balancing the bike, shouting encouragement, breathing AND taking pictures!

We went up to the stop sign and back a couple times and he was wobbling pretty good. I was ready to call it a night, we were supposed to head out for PTC in a few minutes, but I decided to try out getting him started then letting go. I let go and FIRST TRY he keeps up for about 20 feet, loses his confidence and puts his legs out. WOW! I couldn't believe it. To make a long story short on the longest post I've ever posted, Today, Saturday, he is riding his bike up and down the street with almost no trouble at all! He has yet to crash and I am so proud of him on this bike thing that I could write about it all night!

BUT, then we head to PTC and as I said, Toby is doing awesome! And for those of you who don't realize what Toby has been through, this is no small feat. Toby has progressed far beyond our wildest dreams in school this year, mostly thanks to the love of his Mom and the excellent Mrs Pallica in resource teaching at our school.

All is well, we celebrate the good news with ice cream and hit the sack.

Friday morning we wake up a bit early and head out to the Hogle Zoo! We have been wanting to get there as a family, and Friday was the first day of SPRING! A holiday bested only by Christmas and perhaps Halloween in our house. We just had to celebrate so we spent the whole day outdoors at the Zoo. Toby and Sadie had an awesome time, even if the punks didn't have a Lion, sorry Toby!

Apart from the normal zoo sights, we saw a few out of the ordinary things. We saw a Black Bear and it was peeing! Not so great you think? Well this particular bear was peeing for something like 2 minutes NON-STOP! Seriously, think Austin Powers emerging from deep freeze was long? He's got nothing on this bear!

Then, about 20 feet from that, we saw this little meercat/weasle/rodent thing running around between everyones legs! I didn't recognize it at all as an animal I have seen, but it was zippin here and there all around the crowd, it had no fear! I wish I had time to snap a picture and figure out what it was, but I really thought that was neat.

A bit later, we were walking into the reptile house, which brings you past the Wolf exhibit, and I had the usual frustration, wolves are so timid and good at staying out of sight you just never really get to see them. But our luck was with us and a big ol' wolf came trotting down the hillside and walked back and forth right in front of us, right on the other side of the fence! It was a beautiful big wolf that dwarfed Buddy and was just the coolest thing I saw while I was there.

While on the way home from the Zoo, Pam and I are talking and we decide to go ahead and try to put the sheetrock up on the ceiling in our basement room this weekend. We get to the rental place for the sheetrock jack about 5 minutes before they close, and I get that home and head to Home Depot, the recipient of all our spare moolah these days, where I pick up 20 sheets of sheetrock. That is a lot of sheetrock to get down the stairs to the basement, oi! my back! Thankfully my friend Joe came over and helped make that happen.

So I wake up early on Saturday, returning the sheetrock jack at the front of my mind. Joe needs help picking up a tree for his yard with my truck so we head out for that (15 minutes tops!) and return an hour and a half later. I head down to start hanging the sheetrock and Pam calls me up, she found a dryer that she wants on the KSL website, and it's right here in Spanish Fork! Well Palmyra, which I've never heard of before, but is close to Spanish Fork, goodbye another hour!

Anyway, I am rambling on and on, but long story short, the sheetrock is up! We have a ceiling! And I even had time to fertilize the lawn after our trip to Provo to get our Costco shopping list checked off.

Recap:

Remove Training Wheels and Teach Toby Bike Riding

Parent Teacher Conference

Book Fair

Ice Cream

Sleep

Zoo

Ace Rents

Home Depot

Adjust Toby's Bike

Sheetrock Juggling

Hang Sheetrock