A weekend in Utah

 As Dustin and I sat through tithing settlement this past December we realized our kids hadn't paid any tithing all year.  They hadn't earned any money so how could they?  It was a sharp reminder to us that it was yet another thing we were slacking on in our home since things had gotten so "busy".

So probably the beginning of January we started our family chore chart and every Saturday morning we have pulled out our family money box and paid the kids for the chores they had done that week.  We also gave them all a raise and have been paying them $.25 a chore instead of $.10 a chore which seems to be quite a bit more motivating.  It's been a good thing for us.

We also started a "warm fuzzy jar" to motivate the kids to do service and increase independence.  When they get themselves dressed or do other things to be helpful they get to put a fuzzy in the jar.  Once the fuzzy jar got filled we gave them a reward.  This particular time we had Disney on Ice in mind so we were focused on that.  

Thankfully we started the beginning of January so that by March we had the jar filled and the kids had saved around $12 to have an option to buy something at Disney on Ice.

The weekend came and all the money was put in their own ziploc bags and the fuzzy jar was emptied.  We headed to Salt Lake and met my brother and his family at Olive Garden in Layton.

There is nothing quite like cousins.  It's like Christmas every time we see them.  Even though it's commonly on a weekly basis. :) 

They even got to ride together from Layton to SLC.  They made mustaches with their licorice. 

And Alissa made some styling eye brows.

My heart was so happy as I watched Ella scanning the super expensive Disney toys and settling on a $12 snow cone that she was able to pay for all by herself.  Alissa and Molly did the same.  Handing their hard earned and saved money over to the cashier.  So glad they could have a souvenir and so happy we didn't have to pay for it.

The kids loved the show!  They saw 4 different princesses and their snow cones lasted about the whole 2 hours so they were pretty well entertained. 

And surprisingly Jeremy and Lisa were only about 4 rows exactly behind us so the girls got to visit during intermission.  

That night we headed to Logan to stay with our good friends the Hughes.  They recently moved into a beautiful house in North Logan.  We stayed up plenty late visiting and playing Pictionary.    The next morning we headed out to visit the campus and let the kids run.  It was fun to pile all 7 kids up on the big A.

We may have changed a little since the last time we stood on the A. :)

 Dustin proudly spotted his rocket hanging from the ceiling in the Engineering Building.  

Brought back a lot of fun memories of that project.

Then we headed to a SUPER fun park where we were able to soak in some 55 degree spring weather and watch the kids run around the play. 

It's so much fun to visit Logan and notice all the MANY changes that happen there every time we go back.  It's nice to have the Hughes back there too so we get to hang out with them while we were there.  They are what made the last two years we lived there so great!  So thankful we can get together and still be great friends.

And what would a trip to Logan be without CHARLIE'S ice cream?  Even though we had dessert for lunch about 2 hours earlier we still had to stop for our 2nd dose of dessert which ended up being dinner. :)  So delicious!