Mother's Day 2025

Mother's Day is not a favorite day of mine, but I've grown to be okay with it by realizing it's a chance to thank my own mother for all she's done for me. Lowered expectations that my children will suddenly be super kind and not fight the entire day in honor of me has also helped. However, they did try. And of course, all their sweet gifts and cards made me feel loved. Michael let me have the entire afternoon to myself while he took the boys out on visits to ministering families delivering flowers.

The yearly display. The items have grown so much that I can only put out a sampling each year.

Clayton had a special program to share with moms--he sang with his class and was such a cutie.

Mmm-mm, eating peanut butter pie together at Jimmy Madison's the night before mother's day was definitely a highlight.

I feel so honored that Benjy feels I am really good at driving. 

Beautiful tulips from Michael along with a yummy omelet.

Henry's sweet bouquet.

Robbie informed me I was a true member of the Church... (maybe my teaching seminary brought that up?)

He also made me a heart . . . 

. . . of gold.

And watching Michael play with the boys on the trampoline while I wrote in my bullet journal finished the day off well.

What a blessing my own mother (and mother-in-law) is to me--I hope I can be the same for my children. Because it sure is a hard job, one that I'm completely inadequate and over my head to fulfill. Definitely feeling overwhelmed these days. But I'm trying to focus on the Savior's ability to help me and trying to forgive myself. It's easy to correct my kids when they demean themselves and try to help them re-frame negative thoughts, but within my own mind it's super tough for me to convince myself that my negative thoughts aren't necessarily truth. Definitely the quest of a lifetime for me.

Spring break and more

 Due to the floors being redone, we needed to leave during spring break. Since Robbie wasn't old enough to attend youth conference this summer on their trip to upstate New York, we decided we'd go there as a family instead. It had been six years since our last visit.

Of course, we had to stop at Hershey Chocolate World on our way up. The kids got to design their own candy bar!

Clara was very distressed about the requirement to wear a hair net (which was completely for show because we didn't even touch the food and it was all behind glass, but whatever), and mercifully a kind worker let her go in without it as long as she was holding it.

We chose the three inside toppings (pretzel bits, cookie bits, mini chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, or toffee bits) as well as the base, and then it was coated in milk chocolate.

They designed their own covers--Henry's was called Billy Bob, and Robbie's was Thingamabob. Clara's was based on a K-pop artist she likes.

We headed up to Palmyra, and our first stop the next day was the Peter Whitmer farm. 

Here we are six years ago in 2018--Benjy was asleep in his car seat on the side, I believe. 

A couple more of these handsome boys were added in the mean time. It's been neat reading and learning more in the Doctrine and Covenants in seminary and then re-visiting these places with more meaning.

One of my favorite parts of these church history sites is seeing the Book of Mormon manuscript page that Oliver Cowdery transcribed without punctuation.

We stayed in an older home in Palmyra during part of our visit. It wasn't amazing, but a golden moment was the fun evening we had watching National Treasure as a family during a stormy night.

More of the printing press--truly amazing how much work it was for any book to be printed, much less one as long as the Book of Mormon. I am just humbled by how much work it was to do anything then. And I complain when my printer runs out of ink . . . 

Love seeing an original.

After an evening of icy hail and rain, the next morning was clear and we were able to visit the Sacred Grove. As often happens, what we hoped would be a quiet, contemplative spiritual experience sharing testimony in the forest was in reality one where the boys were running around, playing with sticks, "avoiding" wet spots. I am hopeful that they'll remember these experiences, but honestly, it's the private personal moments with the Spirit that are more meaningful. I truly pray they'll have those.

We love this crew.

After the Sacred Grove, we traveled up to Ontario to see Niagara Falls. What an amazing sight! It was also fun that the kids could say they've been to another country. I was so thankful that the weather cleared for us, as the day before it was forecasted to have 4-5 inches of snow there.

We even saw a rainbow!

We splurged and stayed in a Marriott hotel that overlooked the falls, on the 30th out of 31 floors. The view was phenomenal, and we didn't realize until our tour guide informed us that the falls were lit up at night. So magical.

The next morning the view was incredible as well.

After cleaning up in the morning, we stopped at a fun, old diner back in Rochester for breakfast. Giant pancakes and omelettes where lots of the locals visited regularly, as evidenced by the friendly conversations they had with the server. Then we headed to the Strong Museum of Play, an amazing children's museum we've visited twice before. It had been six years, and the workers informed us that in that time, 99,000 additional square feet had been added. We have yet to see the entire thing, even though this time we spent about four hours there.

Six years ago, Michael was hanging off of Henry.

Six years later, he's still holding on, albeit to someone who seems to be barely hanging on herself . . . 

The car ride was better than some we've had as a family. I admit that sitting in the back is not my favorite, but it's the best way we've found to promote a peaceful traveling environment.

In other news, this is an idea of what we've been eating while the main floor has been remodeled:

Yum.

Thank goodness for the sanity of date night. #kohrsbrothers 

Harry Potter World!

Last month I took Robbie and Henry to Harry Potter World as one of their Christmas gifts. We traveled with the Mathusek family, who are just wonderful people. Monica is a great example to me of a kind, patient mother. I have never heard her raise her voice to her children. Derek and Josh are great kids and Henry and Robbie get along well with them. Lots of giggling, esp between Henry and Josh. It made it a lot more fun traveling with friends!

At the Richmond airport, ready for takeoff!

Waiting in line for Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. It was a long line, but the theming was fantastic. I don't like roller coaster rides, and this one made me pretty nauseated, but I'm glad I rode it. The other kids rode it again the next day, and Josh even rode it a third time while Henry, Robbie, and Derek went and rode the Hulk and the Velocicoaster, two giant coasters that Josh wasn't interested in riding. 

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

After a ride or two, we ventured through Hogsmeade and enjoyed some of the fun shops and ambiance. You really did feel like you were transported to another world!

There were so many fun treats in Honeydukes! I was very tempted to buy Felix Felicis, but at $20 a bottle it wasn't worth it for me.

Treats!

Of course we had to try butterbeer--cold, frozen, and hot. It tasted like a butterscotch cream soda. The frozen was the best in my opinion, but all of them were super sweet.

The boys each got to pick a wand from Ollivander's--Robbie chose McGonagall's wand and Henry chose Dumbledore's childhood (different from the Elder wand he had as an adult). They also had generic wands you could choose. Throughout the park, you could do spells at different spots to make things move in shop windows. So fun!

Making a call to the Ministry of Magic.

We ate lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. No wonder it was leaky--check out that huge crack!

Classic pub food--I enjoyed a shepherd's pie.

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes!

The joke shop was full of fun stuff, although some of it was just for looks, which was a bummer. But Henry bought a distractor toy, and we bought a Skiving Snack Box with Nosebleed Nougat, Puking Pastilles, Fever Fudge, and Fainting Fancies. 

                  
The puking pastille--one end to start throwing up, the other end to stop. The texture was like a Jolly Rancher.

Ice cream from Florean Fortescue's.

At the end of a long day in the park, the boys were happy to hang out at the motel's water park. Super fun!

This elevator sign made me laugh on the ride Escape from Gringotts.

I think the Hogwarts Express was my favorite ride. Just needed someone walking by to ask, "Anything from the trolley, dears?"

Borgin and Burkes--appropriately creepy.

The chocolate frogs were pricey but honestly pretty cool--I loved the hologram hexagonal cards inside.

What a magical weekend we had!