Spring Break 2009

For Spring break we decided to go to Niagara Falls. I know, you'd think we would of headed South rather than North in April - but you know the crazy Brooksbys do the unexpected.

When we first arrived in Niagara Falls we headed down to the falls themselves. Along the way the kids wanted to look in gift shops (don't they always?) and we got this sweet picture!

The weather was sunny and bright, but freezing. Glen and I wore our parkas the whole time (we're not as "cool" as the kids who wouldn't be caught dead in a parka). This picture is taken from a walkway above the falls.

We took the Journey Behind the Falls tour and before we entered the tunnel they snapped a picture of our family and superimposed it on a falls background. We didn't really want to pay $15 for a picture and as it turns out this one below looks almost exactly like the one they wanted to sell us.

On Easter Sunday we left Niagara Falls and headed to Kirtland, OH. We went to visit the LDS Church historical sites there. In the picture below Glen and Lauren are in the ashery. Lauren is holding a very heavy metal spoon that they used to stir the potash.

Unfortunately we weren't able to go inside the Kirtland temple. It wasn't open that day, but we took pictures.

After seeing the sites in Kirtland we went on to Dayton, OH. Home of the United States Air Force Museum. Glen has been wanting to go here for a long time. There are three big hangers full of every kind of airplane you can imagine. The Wright brothers are from Dayton. We toured the museum on Monday, but weren't able to go onto the base to see the Presidential planes and experimental planes until Tuesday. The picture below is in the hanger with the different presidential planes. They had Eisenhower's, Roosevelt's, Kennedy's and Truman's presidential planes there. We got to go inside four of them.

After going on the Wright-Patterson Air Base we headed back towards home. On the way we passed the Columbus Temple. Unfortunately it wasn't open until later that evening, so we had to be content with pictures.

As we were driving through PA we got off the interstate so Jared could buy some fireworks. When we were turning back onto the freeway we saw all of these Amish buggies stopped. It was raining, but I'm not sure why they were all congregated there and what they were waiting for.

On our way back to NY we went to the John Johnson Farm - also an LDS historical church site. That's where we are in the picture below.

We spent our last night in Corning, NY. We went to the Corning Glass Museum. It was fascinating! (Good thing, since I think Jared was just about done with museums - but even he thought the glass museum was good.) The picture below is of one of the favorite things they had there. You could watch someone actually working with the glass. The demo was so interesting that we watched it twice. Each time someone different made something different.

There were also exhibits of other's glass works. Jared and Lauren had a fun time looking at all of the different glass sculptures.

It was a fun Spring break. I'm glad we went!

Yesterday morning before conference Glen and I went to the Albany Rural Cemetery to look for headstones of some Brooksbys that we'd heard were there. This is a picture of Glen (whose middle name is William) standing by the headstone of William Brooksby. There were four different sections that had Brooksbys in them. We took pictures and got information for family history. We're not exactly sure how the Brooksbys we found are related, but they must be somehow.

I took a picture of this headstone because I though it was so beautiful. There were three together that all looked the same.

I took this picture because the headstone was so unusual. This is the headstone of a 22 year-old young man who died in battle at Gettysburg. It is a tree trunk with a sword and shield resting against it. Around the bottom are carved stones with different places engraved into them. Some of the places I recognized as places that battles had been fought.

We got home just in time to make it for the first session of conference.

April Fools' Day

The morning started off with the kids waking up to this sign on their bedroom doors.

Glen went in and told Lauren that we had a two hour delay for school. She was a little sad when she realized that it wasn't true. When they came downstairs I gave Glen, Jared, and Lauren a bag of these:

I also gave each of them a card that was impossible to open, no matter which side you tried to open it from.

Before I left to go to the gym I put this parking citation on Glen's car in the garage. He got a kick out of it, but didn't for a minute think it was real. Jared, on the other hand was another matter. Jared was working at the library and so Glen and I both drove over there in two cars so we could leave Jared the Focus to go to Jazz Band and then come home. When he got in the car he started to freak out thinking that somehow he'd really gotten a ticket. It wasn't until he got out and read the ticket that he got the joke.

Here's Lauren eating out yummy dinner.

We had apple juice (lemon jello with a drop of red food coloring in it).

We had grilled cheese sandwiches (pound cake with american cheese colored yellow frosting).


And a berry pie (shepherd's pie with red potatoes).

It was a fun filled day full of jokes of all kinds!

While Erin was here visiting we took Lauren to Fantastic Sams to get her hair cut. This is the second time she's donated her hair to Locks of Love. I was glad that Erin was there encouraging her because when they showed Lauren how short her hair would be after cutting off the requisite 10" I wasn't sure Lauren would go through with it. But Erin assured her her hair would look cute shorter. Here's the before picture.
And below is the after picture. I think her haircut makes Lauren look older. It also made her hair look darker because the sunbleached part had gotten cut off.

Here's a picture of all of us together. It was so fun to have Erin come and visit. She was here March 9-16. We did all kinds of fun things. It was a busy, but fun time. We hated to see her go.

On Monday, February 2nd (Groundhog Day) Glen celebrated his 49th birthday. The morning started with breakfast in bed - bacon, 2 egg veggie omlet, toast with jam, and milk. Then he was off to work. When he arrived home we had his birthday dinner - T-bone steaks, scallops wrapped in bacon, baked potatoes, and broccoli. And his birthday wouldn't be complete if he didn't have cheesecake with strawberry topping. Happy Birthday Glen!

2009 BH-BL Follies

The 2009 Burnt Hills - Ballston Lake School Distric Follies were held on January 30-31. Lauren and Jared both participated. Lauren performed "Hungarian Dance #4 in G minor" on the flute. Jared sang "Sway" by Michael Buble. Jared's partner for the dance interlude was Marie Andrew. Watch the video and enjoy!

Can it really be two years since Erin & Justin got married?

I remember getting a phone call in September of 2006 at Lauren's 5th grade Back to School night. Erin was calling to say that Justin had proposed. We'd met him when he'd come out to visit during that summer and both Glen and I were pretty sure that was where it was headed. We couldn't have been happier!

January 25, 2007 turned out to be a beautiful, mild day for January in Utah.

Happy Second Anniversary Erin and Justin. We love you both!