Spiral Jetty

2 Saturdays ago, Dana and Brandon held an Open House for their wedding in Ogden. Since it is a pretty long drive we decided to make a day trip out of it. A couple of years ago we visited the Golden Spike National Historic Site (where on May 10, 1869 the Union and Central Pacific Railroads joined their rails). A little further south, after driving on a very dirty dirt road, you can find the Spiral Jetty.

Trevor had been interested in visiting the Spiral Jetty for some years. It is an earthwork sculpture built in 1970 by Robert Smithson. It is made entirely out of mud, salt crystals, basalt rocks, earth, and water. The sculpture is visible and accessible depending on the level of the lake. For the first time since 2005 the jetty is fully visible and walkable. At the time of construction, the water level of the Great Salt Lake was extremely low because of a drought. Smithson started construction in April 1970 and it took him 6 days to finish it.

It is pretty to see the clouds reflected in the water.

Will walking on the Jetty.

To be honest, I expected the Jetty to be bigger. It was still nice to see, but Will was “extremely bored”. We made it only worse by driving the longer dirt road back. Of course fate struck and we blew a tire. That was a lot more fun for Will although he was worried that we would be late for the party (aka the cake). We made it to the Open House, 20 min before the end. Not bad!

Thanks Granny for coming with us!

Yellow Belt

Will has been taking Karate lessons since the beginning of this year. He really likes it and it allows him to get rid of all that energy that he has. He has 2 classes a week at Bobby Lawrence Karate.

In January he took 2 introduction classes. During the 2nd class he had to break a wooden board to get his white belt. He did and was extremely proud of himself. I would be too, after breaking that board with my bare hand.

About 3 months ago he was able to test for the yellow belt. They had to do several routines and show progress. Part of the testing is showing respect for parents, doing well in school and helping in and around the house. We have to keep track of chores he does. Will has been doing pretty good at all this.

A few pictures of his Yellow Belt Test:

He is in the back, the only kid with his arm up high.

Showing off his new belt! His friend Talon is 2 belts ahead of Will.

The boys showing their moves.

The next tip test and belt promotion is next week. Hopefully he does well enough to get the orange belt.

4 months

We took Tessa to her doctor for her 4-month check-up on Wednesday.

She has been doing really well and everything looked great. She is “practically perfect”!

Her stats:

	Weight	%	Length	%	Head circumf	%
At birth	6 lbs 13 oz		19 inches		13.5
2-weeks old	7 lbs 5 oz	20.66	20 inches	40.72	14.2	55.36
2-months old	10 lbs 7 oz	40.62	22 inches	35.33	15.2	53.79
4-months old	13 lbs 3 oz	38.08	25 inches	76.45	16.5	74.94

Fijne Moederdag!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there.

Will made this beautiful card for me.

It says:

Dear momy you allwaways have the perfet id. me and dad and tessa love you so much. love: Will

P.S. what are we going to do tomoroww

Happy mother’s day

——-

Trevor got me this puzzle (which he made himself):

The real thing is on its way.

——-

In other news:

– Tessa is 4 months old

– Will is 8 years, 9 months and 21 days old 🙂

Tummy time

Tessa hates tummy time. She’ll start to cry almost immediately after we put her on her stomach. But she has now mastered the art of rolling over. She has started to realize that the shortest way to get over with tummy time isn’t crying and screaming, but just rolling over.

So we went from this:

(Tessa at 1.5 months)

to this:

You can hear Isabelle and me in the background, cheering her on.

She is pretty close to rolling from her back to her front as well.