Dargans Among Us

We love having my family come visit. Even as I was editing photos for this post, Pearl was pointing at people and saying, "Grandpa and Grandma." I really hope all my kids will have great memories of when my family comes to visit.

We did a lot of stuff while they were here, some of which I already blogged about, but we'll add a few more tidbits.

We had FHE while they were here and did a lesson about honesty. For great details on the lesson, check it out here. The basic idea is that you scoop out some ice cream into a bowl. Then you talk about how sometimes we make bad choices, and you sprinkle a good amount of salt on top of the ice cream. Then perhaps we realize it wasn't a good decision, or we are embarrassed or worried about getting into trouble, so we try to cover the mistake with a lie. This is where you pour a hefty amount of chocolate syrup over the ice cream, covering up the salt. But the lie doesn't take away the original mistake. I let each of the children take a bite of the ice cream. I don't think it tasted very good.

We poured salt into an empty bowl and talked about how if you fixed a lie right away it is easier to take care of, and we wiped the salt right out. Then, I took a bowl with crusted salt and talked about how if you keep covering a lie and let it sit, it becomes even harder to fix.

(Of course, I didn't do a very good job of drying the salt, so it wiped out fairly easily. Oops. But they got the idea.)

It was a good lesson overall, and I hope the kids will remember it for a time.

The Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving point is usually a must when my fam visits. This time, Mom and Dad went to Cabelas, and I just took Tim and the littles. I have mentioned before that I have never really had a chance to walk through on my own and read stuff. And frankly by now, I don't really care. I have skimmed through that museum many a time. However, there is usually a hands-on room before the dinosaur part and I like playing in there more than anywhere else. This time the theme involved sound. There were many different things to experiment with. The girls liked these funny headphones that made you think sounds were coming from a different place than they were.

Tim tested how deer hear the world. (Or was it a donkey?)

Daisy...well, maybe she hasn't figured it out yet.

There was also this cool tunnel room you could walk through. In the middle there was a gravel patch and speakers.

You were supposed to walk through as quietly as you could and it would pick up the sound and give you a score at the end. The first time I walked through, my score was 2.5, but I never got it that quiet again. Here is my next best score.

Daisy and Pearl didn't do too badly.

Tim's score would climb too high and then he would give up and make a lot of noise until the reader said, "Too loud. Go back and try again."

Of course we zoomed through the rest of the museum with some important stops. Like the sand area. Pearl liked it right up until her hands got dirty. She is a bit of a princess.

Daisy didn't mind a bit and played as long as I would let her.

We stopped at the scale. (Hold the enthusiasm, Tim.)

And at the huge shark of course.

I skipped the sand at the end. I just wasn't in the mood to fill my van with dirt. Instead I took the kids to the gift shop and bought them dragons instead. (Only because they get the short end of the deal often being the youngest, and the dragons actually weren't too overpriced. Shocker.)

What else??

Oh, we can't forget the new addition to the family. My parents got a puppy, April, and they brought her with them. She was such a sweetie. I haven't seen too many dogs that come with such a great disposition. And she was soft and snuggly and would cuddle with anyone. But she clearly had her favorite.

Earlier in the week, we stopped by the BYU bookstore, and it was a strange coincidence that my folks ran into a young man from their home ward. They hadn't seen him for a while since he came to Utah. So he stopped in one evening (after his finals were done) to play games. We had a lot of fun. Here is our gang.

I can't believe how fast the time went. We were squished while they were here, but it didn't matter. We sure love these people.

Come visit again soon!!