Several days later, we went down to Spring Lake Trout Farm in Payson so that Connor could catch a fish. This place was perfect for a 4-year-old, since his attention span wasn't too long. Basically, they charge you per pound for trout, and give you fishing poles and bait to fish in the generously stocked pond (average wait time per fish: 2 minutes). When you've caught all you want, they clean and fillet the trout at their fabulously low-tech workstation, and you take home edible fish. 
Elise wasn't interested, so she took a walk down the country road with Grandma. They fed grass to some sheep and petted the horses. It was great. 
Oh, and when we got home I went to all the work of frying up Connor's catch. He tasted one bite and declared he was full. I guess it was about the experience rather than the meal, right?
Our last Tuesday in Utah, I was able to take my Grandma to the Salt Lake Temple to do an endowment session. It was really special because she hadn't been there in 60 years. Not since the day she was married. She attends the temple at least twice a week nowadays, and has visited tons of them, but for some reason she had never made it back to Salt Lake. We had an awesome day. 
When we got back, my mom was helping the kids make sugar cookies. Just the kind of thing grandmas are great for, because moms are too lazy to tackle the mess involved in such a project. 
We had a really nice visit. Thanks to everybody who entertained us and kept us company! Oh, and Ryan still doesn't know how he did on the CFA - I think they post results around the end of August. We'll let everyone know, though, as soon as we find out.
Our first Sunday there, we had a birthday party to celebrate Kevin and Kyle's birthdays. Grandma Cloe brought cake and ice cream, which you can see was enjoyed by all. 
The following Monday was Memorial Day, and we were able to accompany Grandma Cloe up to Logan to put flowers on Grandpa Dean's and Kirk's graves. This was Elise's first time to the cemetary, and (I think) Connor's first trip since he was aware of what stuff means. It was actually very pleasant and sweet. Elise loved the engraved picture of Grandpa Dean on a horse, and Connor loved playing with Kyle. The kids were even good on the ride home (relatively), which was a nice surprise. 
On this trip we got to see Kyle and Kelli's new house! It's so cute! I can't express how jealous I am. We were able to spend a day helping them paint their living and dining rooms, which had been a dinged-up whitish color. Now, I'll admit, I wasn't very enthusiastic about helping at first. I was convinced that my presence there with the kids would just be a waste of everyone's time, and end quickly. Kelli was prepared, though, with a room for them to watch DVD's, and we obtained copies of The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Mist (an awesome sheepdog movie that my kids love). Those sweeties sat there and watched movies for the ENTIRE day! It was amazing. I had alot of fun, and learned a ton about paint. Oh, and the hand you can see on the piano keys is from Kelli's attempt to give a piano lesson in the middle of a paint zone. It was pretty funny, but the little girl didn't seem to mind.
We spent one beautiful morning down at that East Bay place full of ducks (I've never been able to figure out what its real purpose is, other than duck collecting.) We scored big-time, in that there was a mama with tiny ducklings, including one fuzzy yellow one. 
Guess who got the most bread? I suspect that duckling will grow up to be some kind of duck Jabba the Hut. Oh, and it was fresh "Honey and Grains" bakery bread, too. (That's all we had.) No stale hot-dog buns for them.
After that, you're supposed to move them into the actual "pavillion" part of the kit, which is a big popup-mesh cage, and wait 10 days. Then one morning, we started seeing little black and orange butterflies appearing as if by magic. As hard as I tried, I never timed it well enough for us to actually see one hatching, but it was still amazing. Now, I'll admit that although the kids really did enjoy this project, I was way more into it than they were. I'm sure they thought I was having a heart attack the first time I ran screaming into the room, telling them to come look at a new butterfly. Anyway, after a couple days, it was time to let them go. I was pretty proud of Connor, because this was the part he had been (loudly) dreading from the beginning, but he ended up being really cool about it. Notice him trying to give them some flowers in picture #2. (It's hard to see because of Elise's shirt.)
Connor had an absolute blast. He came back the next morning totally dirty and hyper, telling me how cool it had been. This weekend is the father-daughter campout, but Ryan's taking the CFA, and Elise is still too little, so that will have to wait a year or two.
Oh, and Al was kind enough to take about twenty pictures of us Sunday morning before church, in a doomed attempt to get a family portrait of some sort. (Connor's idea of a smile is closing your eyes, baring your teeth, and looking at the sky.) This picture was the winner!
While they were here, we also got to celebrate Mother's Day and Elise's second birthday! Although she was sick (or teething, we never quite figured out what was wrong) for most of the weekend, Elise had a great birthday celebration. We got her a red velvet cake from our beloved Portos, which she was very impressed with. I love her look of, "No, way! This is all for me?" 
She also received way too many presents, including her own tricycle. 
Now she doesn't have to keep stealing Connor's. Unfortunately, Connor now steals hers, so the disagreements continue, but at least this trike has an extra feature. I bought an insert that easily splits it into a tandem trike! It's pretty cool, but Elise always wants to sit in front, which is the pedalling seat, so they don't really go anywhere. Maybe when they're older. 
For Mother's Day, the kids got me this awesome "Edible Arrangement", which everyone helped eat. 
Ryan's gift I was not too sure about. He presented me with an iPod Touch, despite the fact that only a year ago I got a new Nano. I was sceptical for about three minutes, then I fell in LOVE! 
Ryan is actually a little disappointed that I like my new toy so much -- I think he was hoping to monopolize it. I told him he might as well have engraved "Homer" across the back. Seriously, though, I love it. It does everything the iPhone does except for the camera and phone. Yeah, I thought that too, "What's left, then?" Turns out, a lot. It basically functions as a mini-laptop as long as I'm near a wireless connection, and it has a ton of really cool apps that don't require a wifi at all. So props to Ryan!