John Williams

Mark has a deep appreciation for music.  I remember smiling to myself after getting in his car on our first date and he was playing music from the soundtrack of Star Wars and wondering what I had gotten myself into.  It still makes me smile just to think of it.  As Mark and I's relationship progressed so did my knowledge of another man, John Williams.  I must admit, I had never heard of John Williams before, but I definitely had heard his music before.  As I am sure pretty much every other person on the planet has...truly.  This man is a creative genius and although I don't have quite the love affair that Mark has with him, I admire him for what he does.  He's composed the music for Star Wars, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, E.T., the Indiana Jones series, Home Alone, Jurassic Park, and the first three Harry Potter movies - and so many others.  

Mark had gone to a John Williams concert previously in California but has talked about going to another one pretty much ever since we got married.  Seeing as John is 86 years old, we knew he could "retire" anytime and so when Mark approached me last fall about going to this concert I knew we had to go.  This is what brought us to Chicago!

Sunday morning we got up and going early and walked over to The Field Museum.  This museum was incredible and probably the most amazing museum I've ever been too.  It became immediately apparent that we could spend days here and we only had about two to three hours.  

Isn't the building amazing?!

We spent a good chunk of our time looking at The Ancient Americas exhibit.  It was so interesting to see that area from the time of the Ice Ago to present day.  We learned about the Aztec empire and the city of Tenochtitlan.  It was fascinating.  

We also spent some time looking at the Cyrus Tang Hall of China which was really interesting.  They had lots of rubbings, bronzes and ceramics and it was neat to learn more about their culture.  

Mark was pretty bummed because "Sue" was not up.  Sue is the largest, most extensive and best preserved tyrannosaurus rex ever found and lives at The Field.  But they are building a new area for her and so are still putting her back together.  We were able to see them working on her but that was it.  I guess we will just have to go back!

The highlight here was probably seeing the mummy exhibit.  This is a special exhibit they have right now and it was so fascinating.  They had fourteen mummies and I don't think I have ever seen one before.  And oddly, or maybe not oddly, it made me feel a little weird or insensitive.  It felt strange looking at someone that had lived thousands of years ago.  I also had no idea that people in Peru have been mummifying people long before Egyptians.  It was interesting to learn the different ways they did it and why.  

In Egypt, most mummies were embalmed and their organs removed.  They were layed flat on their backs with their legs extended outward and were encased in wood coffins and stone sarcophaguses.  And were usually buried in secure tombs.  In Egypt, they mummified people to help their spirits live on in the next world.  In Peru though, they weren't embalmed and their organs were left inside.  They sat in a crouched position with their legs drawn up against their chests.  They were buried in fabric, clothed and given a false head.  And they were buried in accessible underground pits.  In Peru, they mummified people to allow the living to remain connected with the dead.  Interesting.  

Peruvian Mummies

On the right, is a mother and child.  

Replica of the pits they were buried in

Egyptian Mummy

They created these miniature servants to be buried with them to serve them in the after life

I love learning. 

We then grabbed some lunch at the museum and then walked over to the Shedd Aquarium.  This was a-mazing!  Again, we felt like we were so rushed but it was amazing to see what we saw.  We both loved how they organized their aquarium, which seems silly but it was just awesome.  Everything was in these large floor to ceiling tanks so you could see everything.  It was so cool.  

They had dolphins which we saw from a distance but didn't have time to watch the show.  But my favorite was watching the belugas!  They had five (maybe six - I can't remember) and they were so much fun to watch.  I loved them.  

We then made the walk over to the Chicago Symphony Hall.  We were able to attend a Q&A before and hear from the other conductor (who would be conducting the first half of the concert) and one of the individuals playing the trumpet.  It was fun to hear what they had to say.  

The concert was incredible.  The venue was beautiful.  The players were amazing and definitely artists in their own right.  But there was something incredible though about John Williams.  I teased Mark that I just wanted to watch HIM watch the concert but promised that I wouldn't (I contained myself to just a few glances).  It is amazing to watch someone you love, love something so much.  

Here is what they played...I thought it was a little Star Wars heavy...but I was in the minority I think. ;)  Either way, it was amazing.  

Richard Kaufman conducted the first half:

- Overture to The Cowboys

- Suite from Jane Eyre

- The Adventures of Mutt from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

- A New Beginning from Minority Report

- Adventures on Earth from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

Intermission

John Williams conducted the second half and the encore:

- Flight to Neverland from Hook

- A Child's Tale: Suite from The BFG

- Out to Sea and Shark Cage Fugue from Jaws

- With Malice Towards None from Lincoln

- The Rebellion is Reborn from Star Wars: The Last Jedi

- Rey's Theme from Star Wars: The Force Awakens

- The Throne Room and End Title from  Star Wars: A New Hope

Encore

- Marion's Theme from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark

- March from Superman

- The Imperial March from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

After the concert we headed to dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe and it was so yummy.  

It was a great day.  

Chicago

Last fall, Mark asked me what I thought about us going to Chicago to see his favorite composer of all time, John Williams.  We have talked about going to see him for a long time, pretty much our whole marriage, and seeing as John Williams is 86 we knew we needed to take the opportunity if we could.  This last weekend, was THE weekend!

My parents came up Friday night to watch the kiddos and Mark and I drove down to North Ogden to stay with his parents.  Saturday morning we flew out to Chicago.  This was both of our first times in Chicago and we hit the ground running!

We took the train into the city, left our luggage at our hotel and walked over to the Willis Tower.  Mark and I had bought a pass to get into various touristy destinations at a greatly reduced price - which also included some perks.  The line to go up to the top of Willis Tower was over an hour and a half wait when we got there, but with our pass we were able to go to the front and maybe waited ten minutes to go to the top.  That, by itself, almost made the pass worth it!  The view was incredible and even though it was a really cold day, it was very clear and you could see a lot. 

I am NOT a fan of heights at all.  They really freak me out.  This was an excursion done out of love.  But I mostly just focused on the horizon and chose to not look down so much.  But, Willis Tower, has created these glass encasement that hang off the edge of the tower so you feel like you are hovering (...or falling to your death, whichever you prefer).  As we stood in line I became nauseous just thinking about it and really didn't want to do it but they pretty much just through you in there.  I am actually shocked and somewhat impressed at how cool I was about it.  I just didn't look down and definitely didn't care to linger but I did it!

We then walked over to Millennium Park to see "The Bean".  It was actually a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be.

Next up was some deep-dish pizza at Lou Malnati's!  This was so good but WAY filling!  Mark and I shared a small pizza and we still couldn't finish it.  But it was awesome!

It was bitterly cold on our walk back to the hotel.  We hopped into our pajamas and settled in after a long day!

HS: April

The biggest update in our school life is our location!  Our system was just not working before and things have improved a lot and I think looks more like what our long term plan will be.  We moved all of our school stuff up into our loft area above the family room.  It's nice because we are separated but I can also just look over the side and see what Benjamin and Sarah are up too!  Plus, they aren't confined to such a small space so it's a win for everyone.  

We are definitely wrapping up our language arts stuff and it feels a-maz-ing.  When I think of all of Jacob's growth over the last year it is incredible.  He went from only knowing the sounds for some of the letters to reading full sentences.  It's amazing.  We review his sight words and phonics cards every Friday and continue to work on spelling.  

We slowed down a lot with poetry.  He actually memorizes really well and he was really enjoying it and then one day was NOT enjoying it anymore.  So now we just work on poetry twice a week and even though it's still a bit of a struggle, it's been a good compromise.  

Jacob started to read out of the third and last section of his reader.  We did a lot of art appreciation types lessons, talked about categories, and antonyms.  He also did an impressionist art project which turned out awesome.  

He's also continued to work on his handwriting practice and has almost finished that up.  

The SUPER exciting part of this month was that we finished our meteorology unit.  I felt like we were on this unit for a LONG time!  I am not really sure why it took so long because I think we both really enjoyed it but it is also exciting to think of starting something new.  

This month was mostly talking about severe weather.  We discussed snow, hail and blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes, and forecasting weather.  Our new vocabulary word was forecast.  

We read a fun book about a regular farmer who was just fascinated with snow.  He ended up taking the first pictures of what individual snowflakes looked like.  Then we studied more the different forms of ice crystals.  We also did a fun activity that talked about how hail is made.  

Jacob LOVED learning about tornadoes - he has become really fascinated with them.  We also talked about hurricanes and the different names they are known as throughout the world and labeled a globe with the different names.  

Every day we have worked on this unit, Jacob has filled out a weather page documenting different things regarding the weather that day.  So on our last day he graphed the different kind of weather we had and that was fun to go over together.  

We kind of dumped our history program.  Jacob and I both were just no "feeling" it and Jacob was starting to dread it...and me too a little bit.  Now, I LOVE history and definitely didn't want Jacob having that perception about it so I just thought it better to bag it.  We can definitely use the books and I think those will be great still (so I don't feel too bad for abandoning it since we will still use them) just in a different way.  We will start out new program in the fall.  

Instead of starting a new state this month, we just kept working on California.  We didn't start it until the last couple days in March and I didn't feel the need to rush it.  We made a fun Redwoods Tree craft that sat on our table pretty much the entire month.  

For art we have been working on creating a tree for each season.  So far, Jacob has done spring and summer.  

This month we read James Herriot's Treasury for Children, Mary on Horseback by Rosemary Wells, and Here's a Penny by Carolyn Haywood.  

It is nice to see things start to wrap up and see our progress.  As I mentioned before, assuming anyone actually reads this, we are planning to do schooling year round but more relaxed in the summer.  So I have made up our plan for the rest of this "year" until mid August and I think it's going to be great for both of us.  Plus, I am planning/hoping to prep everything for next year so that I don't have to constantly feel like I need to be prepping stuff.  That's my goal!

Homecoming

The day after the aquarium, we headed up to Kaysville to see our niece, Elise, who just returned from her mission in Mexico.  I loved her emails every week and she is a great example to my kiddos.  They are *still* praying for her on her mission.  ;)  

Elise did such a great job and it was exciting to see her family all back together again.

Aquarium

A couple weeks ago we went to the Living Planet Aquarium with my parents.  The kiddos were so excited to go and we had a blast.  It was really fun to be able to go with my parents too.  Our kids love my parents and loved having that time with them.  

Benjamin was so chill the whole time.  YES!  He is really good to just go with the flow most of the time.  He just hung out in his stroller and was really content just to look around. 

Sarah was running around at lightning speed.  I tell you, I always thought those leashes for kids were crazy (and I still don't think I could actually do it), but I GET it!  She keeps us on our toes!  She loved the butterflies (just as long as they didn't touch her), crossing the rope bridge, and DID love touching the starfish and sting rays. 

Jacob just took it all in and had a good time.  It's exciting to watch him make more connections with things and ask questions.  He was a little bummed that there were no whales but did love looking at the huge {pretend} one in the lobby.  I was proud of him for crossing the rope bridge even though he was scared.  And, when he didn't want to put his hand in the water, one of the staff let him touch a real stinger that she had from one of the sting rays. 

The kids are already asking when we can go back!