At the beginning of the year, Grandpa Rick (and me...but mostly him) invited our older grandchildren to read the Book of Mormon throughout the year. He bought them each a new Book of Mormon and a new 2025 calendar to use and keep track of their days of reading. He invited them to read a little each day. They were not expected to complete the book (it would have been nice) but to read as much as they could each day. With this challenge he promised each of them that we would have a special "trip" at the end of the year. Well, the end of the year is here and time to have some fun. I'm not sure that the kids read each day, but they all learned something from the challenge.
We reserved a couple of rooms downtown at the Courtyard and planned to stay there for the night. We picked the kids up around 1:00 in the afternoon and headed to Classic Skating in Sandy. Henry and Charles brought their scooters and skates and the rest of us rented them. We got there and got "suited up" and off we all went. Of course, Henry and Charles have had skates and are pretty good at it... the rest of us had to get used to them. Rafe opted for a scooter, and he did great! Haivyn and Scout got skates and fell a bit but by the end were getting pretty good. I started with roller skates and they were so heavy, and I was worried about falling. Rick suggested that I get inline skates, and that helped a bit. I still worried about falling but with Rick's (and Henry's) help...one on each arm... I was able to get around the rink a number of times. 👏👏 I also loved just sitting around watching the kids have fun. Henry was skating backwards by the time we left. They ALL were just so cute!
THE KIDS HAD SO MUCH FUN!! Classic skating was a hit with everyone, and we may go back some time soon:)
Our next stop was RODIZIO GRILL! Rick had some gift cards for the restaurant, and we thought the kids would have a great time there. They sure did! They loved the buffet and getting all the fun meats as they came around. One sad incident, though was when Charlie saw the bacon wrapped jalapeños he got excited and asked for one. He took a huge bite and then the heat hit. Oh, I felt so bad for him. He was crying and we were all giving him food to try to get the heat out of his mouth. Finally the waiter brought him some milk and that seemed to help but it was a full five minutes of trying to figure out how to help the poor kid! My heart went out to him because I do not like hot stuff. It's not fun!
We all enjoyed our meal.
After dinner we went to the hotel. We all enjoyed an hour or so playing in the pool.
The kids were so cute playing Marco Polo and splashing and having a good time.
After swimming and everyone getting ready for bed we had a little fireside with all of us sharing what we have learned from our BOM reading this past year. It was a really sweet time together. Charles started us out with the story of the Brother of Jared. He did a great job of explaining the story and how it impressed him. Henry went next. He spoke of Abinidi and how his testimony (the testimony of one person) touched Alma (one person), and how from Alma (one person) so many other people heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and their lives were changed. He used the term "ripple effect" to explain how one person can affect the lives of so many others. Such a good insight from an 11 year old! Rafe talked about...
Scout went next and talked of Nephi and how he followed what Jesus wanted him to do. It was cute. Scout had taken the time to write down everything she wanted to say, kind of like a book report. I loved it. Next was Haivyn. She told us about how the book of Ether is her favorite book and she read a verse that she liked.
It was a really wonderful experience talking about the Book of Mormon with each of these kids. We are both so hopeful that they will continue to read throughout their growing up years and gain a strong testimony of it to be a foundation of truth throughout their lives.
After our fireside we played the game 'Do You Really Know Me', and we all had fun learning more about each other!
The next morning we slept in and all woke up around NINE O'clock! Breakfast was ending at nine so I quickly roused the kids and we ran down to get a bite of breakfast. We made it just in time, and we all got some food! Henry forgot his retainers on his breakfast plate, and they got thrown in the garbage. He and Grandpa had to go fishing thru garbage bags in the kitchen trying to find them...and at last they were successful. Mama was happy when she found out about the end result!
After breakfast the kids got to swim again and then we got all ready and left for the day.
Our first stop was to the nickel arcade. We each got 200 tokens to play all the fun games. They lasted right about an hour...just as we were hoping.
We then had a fun lunch at Zupas. Everyone loves Zupas, and the kids all had fun sitting at a table to themselves and being goofy!
Last, but not least, we went to the theater and saw the movie, "David". It is a new animated film about David and Goliath and King Saul. It was pretty well done, and we all liked it. A few of the kids had already seen it and had been talking about how they loved the music. It was a pretty touching film.
Great times with these kiddos that we love so much! We hope to do something like this in the future with them, and in the meantime...we hope they each keep studying the Book of Mormon and that it gets into their hearts!
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