Flashback Friday

Elsie age 3 1/2

Sarah age 5

Some days you just have to play in the rain

The Fish Tank

It has always been my childhood dream to have a fish tank with cool fish in it. If you would have asked me in 3rd grade what I wanted to be when I grew up I would have told you a marine biologist (or someone who works at Pizza Hut). Apparently it was Alan's dream too, because when we came across a fish tank at a garage sale last week Alan turned to me and said "we need to get that".

It was a pretty sweet deal. We basically got everything (filter, decorations, water treatment, etc) but the fish for $20. We took it home, cleaned it up, and rearranged a corner of the house. It didn't come with a stand and the ones we found online were pretty expensive, at least compared to what we paid for the actual tank. Alan, being the handy man he is, decided just to build a stand himself.

 Here's Alan testing the strength of his design. The full fish tank would weigh around 350lbs, so we both got on it and jumped around a little to be sure it would hold it.

 Installing it in a little corner behind the reading couch.

 Elsie was very supportive of the whole fish tank idea. Before we got it set up we went to the pet store to talk to someone about setting up a fish tank and look at fish. She picked out her favorite fish that we desperately needed in the tank. After we got everything set up with the tank and let it run for the appropriate amount of time, we went back to the store and brought home three Black Mollies.

Sadly, two days after we brought the fish home, we found them all dead. The girls took the news surprisingly well. Elsie just said "it's okay if the fish are dead. We will just go to the pet store and get new ones." Alice walked around saying "oh no, fishy dead." Alan and Elsie took the fish back to the store yesterday and brought home three new Black Mollies. These fish are already looking and acting better than the last batch, so hopefully they'll stick around a little longer. If they survive, we will be adding more fish to the tank later this week.

Trip to Utah

We took an extended weekend trip to Alan's parents house. A lot of things happened in a short amount of time... Eagle court of honor for two brothers, 90th birthday celebration/Swenson reunion in the park, quick jaunt to BYU, and a new nephew was born. It was a lot crammed into 5 days, but we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I only have pictures that I took on my cell phone... I forgot to grab any that were on Jeanine's camera.

We had a very early flight to get to Utah. We had to wake the girls up at 5am and get them out the door and to the airport. It made for two very sleepy girls on the airplanes.

Alice loved lounging around in her little cousin's bouncer.

Grandma and Grandpa put Elsie to work.

Three girls giggling during cousin Amara's tummy time.

Elsie always asked to hold Amara.

Quick trip down to BYU. Alan stopped in to talk to one of his former professor's and we picked up new game day shirts for the start of football season.

On the way home we had a longish layover in Denver. In an effort to let the kids run and tire them out before our final flight, we let them run on the moving sidewalks. Alan stood at one end and I stood at the other and we let them cycle around and around and around.

It was a short trip, but I'm glad we went. Elsie cried the whole way home "but I don't want to go home! I want to stay at Grandma's house!" Good thing we are headed back in a few months.