Hart Happenings

What a glorious week!
  It started out with an indoor picnic with our homeschool co-op, Compass.  Jack and I scoped out the kitchen where we will be teaming up to teach a Chemistry in the Kitchen class.  Ruth has said she would help too if Millie will allow it.  It was fun to see our homeschool peeps again and got us really excited for Compass to start TOMORROW!
  Tuesday we enjoyed a Great Brains presentation day with Ruth's family, the Martins, and the Kleins.  There were presentations about money, sign language, the Titanic, Pokemon, Louisa May Alcott, weather, dinosaurs, and eyes.  I felt so much smarter afterward!  Alex was supposed to be in Boise that day to train some new affiliates in his brokering business but went to bed feeling lousy and woke up feeling worse so he stayed home, which never hurts my feelings.  Jack and Ian love going to their youth activities together and Peter really enjoys having his parents all to himself on Tuesday nights.
  Wednesday we had Ruth's family over to do some Idaho history/geography and talked about state parks and national monuments (it was rather confusing).  We also practiced our counties song that Ruth wrote.  It is a hard one because Idaho has 44 counties!  A little excessive we've decided.
  Thursday the Banff Film festival rolled into town which is something Alex and I look forward to every year.  There are always some really inspiring stories, some films that make my heart race and my palms sweat, and the filmography is superb.  Alex bought tickets for shows all weekend and so Dad joined us for the Friday night showing.  We were exhausted and panting by the end as if we were the ones bouldering with no ropes or kayaking down the Colorado River blind, or slack lining across the Rio Grand.  So fun!  Dad also helped immensely with building the fort and cheered the boys on at the Parkour practice.
  Saturday morning found us out in the snow yet again.  I don't think you can imagine how behemoth this fort is.  We also attended Jack's basketball game, I hosted a book club, Ian went to a party with friends, and Jack had a friend over to work on the fort in the dark.  Alex lit up the yard with some spotlights and they went at it.  Such a fun day.  Plus we got the laundry room cleaned out.  Bonus!
  Today was spent at church, we brought some investigator kids home from church with us to have lunch a hang out a bit and then Alex dashed up to Rexburg to do a teacher training while I rushed off to the Stake Center for our ward's Great to be 8 presentation which turned out so well!  We have 16 kiddos up for baptism this year so there were a lot of people present.
  I came home and collapsed on the couch and have only moved to get a drink of water.  I think I will probably stay here for the next little while.  It's so cozy with the fireplace going and my blanket and the younger boys playing ping pong, Ian Face-timing his cousin in Oregon and Alex talking to his dad who is in Thailand complaining that he couldn't get his air conditioner to work.  We're not feeling a lot of sympathy for them.  It's all great background noise.  I love Sabbath evenings.
  Well, that's about it from the frozen north country.  Hope all is well with my favorite people on earth.  That's you guys.