Spring Break 2024

 Wait first I want to show how this hallway downstairs turned out. When we redid all the floors of the house during the Great Renovation I didn't have anything done with this hallway that goes out to the backyard because there was a water damage situation that I wanted solved first. Fast forward to last week: I caulked the outside of the door and threshold like crazy and then decided to do some inexpensive peel and stick tiles. This way if I haven't solved the problem (I think I have) I won't stress. You can't see in the first picture but there are some dried out worms that wiggled their way in. So fun!

It took me 8 hours and I could barely walk the next day as my hips were so tired and my knees were so sore. There are a lot of places the tiles aren't perfect so please don't look at it too closely when you come over. I am pleased with how it turned out. Honestly anything would have been an improvement over paint splattered concrete.

James set out his clothes like this the night before we were leaving on a little trip. He does this when he's excited about the next day and wants to be very prepared. That's Harry Potter as the head. He calls his clothes person Frank.

Wednesday morning we got up and drove to Capitol Reef National Park. We went 4.5 years ago so James didn't remember anything about the trip and Erica remembered very little. As I was aksing the kids if they remembered this-or-that as we drove down James said, "Wait, I thought this was new to everyone." Nope buddy, we've all been here before, including you.

The Grand Wash hike

 

Picnic lunch. I'm pretty sure eating lunch in a national park is one of my most favorite things to do ever. It's so American. This is also where we ran into our neighbors and Justin's coworker and his family. (Our neighbors are related to Justin's coworker and were all together)

The Gifford house--what's left of the pioneer settlement of Fruita before it was a national park.

We bought the last four cups of ice cream.

Sulphur Creek hike (didn't smell like sulfur)

Henry hiked up his shorts for no reason than to make us laugh.

It was only like 70 degrees but this would be a great hike on a hot summer day.

Then we left the park and drove around a mountain to visit our friends that own Signal Peak Mini Resort. The kids played mini golf while the sun went down.

We stayed in one of their amazing bungalows and the next day they took us on a tour of their alfalfa fields and let us ride their four wheelers.

I asked them loads of questions so now I know all about farming alfalfa.

The pictures don't show how windy it was this day. Just a steady wind all day long. I hate wind.

This is at the hotsprings just barely outside of town. There are a series of pools but I didn't take any pictures of that because they were full of people and I didn't want to be a creepy lady taking pictures of people while sitting in hotsprings. 

Later that afternoon we drove north an hour to the Manti Temple open house. We had heard about the long lines so we were mentally prepared to wait. We stood in line about 1.5 hours. Those without tickets it was more like a 4+  hour wait.

This is the temple where Justin and I were married so it's very special to us. We pointed out to the kids the exact sealing room. I don't think many people get to show their kids that.

The third story is an assembly hall that I didn't know existed. It looked just like the Kirtland temple. Do they use it for anything nowadays? What's really neat is you can see out those windows at the entire valley. Temple windows are usually covered or stained glass so that was a new experience for us.

18 years next month!

We got home late Thursday and then Friday morning I took James to get his stitches out. He was so flinchy until they gave him a sucker. We are so glad to be done with all of that!

Then it was conference time! We always do conference bingo but the novelty wears off after a couple of sessions.  This time I did the conference treats for the first time ever. Each treat had an apostles name. Apostle speaks, we eat the treat. The kids seemed to enjoy it. I am proud to say I found 15 unique snacks in my house and didn't have to buy anything. Or is that bad? Anyway, they listened better than they ever have. I don't know if it was the treats or they are just getting older. I never make them watch but I do get after them if they keep others from hearing. "You don't have to be in here but you do have to be quiet if you are." 99% of the time they choose to watch.

We pruned the apple trees Saturday afternoon so that meant plenty of sticks for teepee building.

And that's the end of spring break! Not the best weather or the most eventful but sandwiching it between Easter and general conference made it extra nice.

Easter 2024

 I'm Erica's primary activity leader and for our Easter activity we made empty tombs out of doughnuts and doughnut holes. They turned out so cute and the girls thought it was pretty fun.

Here are this year's wood egg painting. Justin's is the jack-o-lantern and he thinks he's so funny. It did not get displayed in a prominent spot.

I got all inspired in Relief Society by Elder Stephenson's talk from last year which was all about celebrating Easter more intentionally that I went home and made this Hosanna banner out of felt. I can't draw or paint but I can make anything out of felt. The leaves are for Palm Sunday and then each night we added a new symbol of what Christ did that day. The completed banner is at the end so keep reading.

We had our first egg hunt at Justin's parents' house on Saturday. Here are the kiddos ready to head out. Sarah has to participate. We all do!

 

 

Justin's aunt crocheted these bunnies and filled them with candy and I just love them so much. The kids do too, of course but I find them extra special because they remind me of.....

 

...these cute chicks my aunt crocheted for my sisters and I when I was just teeny tiny. I'm the little one in pigtails, maybe 2 and a half? Sadly no one still has theirs.

Emptying eggs.

It was cold and rainy Sunday so we had to take our pictures inside.

Erica is not pleased about something.

Now she's just mad.

These kids clean up pretty good. Last years colors were green and blue. This year is pink and blue. Totally unintentional as each kid picked out their own clothes but nice when it works out that way.

Justin was feeling left out so here you go.

Sarah was half amused/half embarrassed by us.

I like to sit by Erica while she sorts her candy because she will always hand me stuff she doesn't like.

That afternoon we went to my mom's. The kids helped me frost a bunny cake. He's actually a carrot cake because you are what you eat.

We had an extra layer so we made him an Easter basket.

We always take a picture of the kids participating but this year we had all the grandkids that were present included in the picture as well. I love these kids so much! Even though half of them aren't kids anymore.

And then they were off!

This is my little grand-nephew and I could just eat him up! He did a great job getting preoccupied with the first egg he found, just like all one-year-olds do.

Now I'm embarrassed for us. I don't know what we're doing here.

"Stop taking pictures of me so I can find candy," James is saying here.

Always check in the well. Always.

James was pranking everyone with this nesting doll situation. He had a jelly bean hidden in 4 levels of orange plastic eggs. Here he's tricking my dad. They both got a pretty good kick out of it.

Here's our completed banner. The symbols are just clipped on with these mini quilting clips I have. Next year I'm going to put the lettering on another color to make it stiffer and stand out more. And I'll thread the leaves through differently so they don't rotate. 

Justin and I took turns talking about what happened that day and then a child got to clip it on, day by day. Next year I'm going to have the kids take a turn teaching us what Christ did and maybe add some more symbols.