Easterish Fun at Wheeler Farm

We went to Wheeler Farm the day before Easter.  We were going to meet a cousin there, but it ended up just being us.  First thing was pictures with the scary looking Easter bunny.  I put 4 pictures in because of how funny Molly is.  She wasn't too sure, but I think when she decided that if her brothers were okay with creepy bunny, then she was too.

We looked at all the animals and Molly was adorable, making all the animal noises she's been practicing.

We stopped for a snack before checking out the "carnival."  I made them do all the free stuff first.

I love this kid's face!

This was Mike's jacket when he was little!  

I let the kids pick one inflatable.  Molly didn't last long, but I think the boys got my money's worth!

Cute Babies

Sam and Will were outside on one of the days that it actually wasn't raining or snowing, and Sam came in and started poking around the kitchen.  Will came in a minute later and Sam rushed over to him saying, "Just go back outside, I'll bring it to you!"  Apparently Will ordered a drink, so Sam got the Spiderman cups and a bottle of powerade, and they went back out to enjoy it together.  :)

Molly brought a rock in from outside, named it Baby Rock, and pushed it all around the house in her doll stroller!  She was so happy with herself!  And the reason she's wearing a dress over her shirt is because she woke up from her nap and demanded "a dress, a dress!"

More Easteriness

Sam was so excited about his new Spy Gear walkie talkies (that only work if they're in the same room) that we had to get a picture with one.

 And then all of our other attempts at a picture were kind of...well, the kids were done.

 I just love this!

 Okay, I love this too!  She was done with brother kisses before they were, so she let her elbow do the talking.  She can hold definitely her own!

When we were leaving, Molly spotted some ducks and chased them through Uncle Russ & Aunt Chris's yard.  

Some Fuzzy Easter Fun!

Since the only camera I have (that works) is my ipod, our Easter morning pictures are fuzzy.  But at least I have them!

The kids woke up to a fun new toy in their basket, and a pillow pet!  The boys love theirs.  Molly hates hers.  A lot.

 Molly actually got a new pack of cute hair clips instead of a toy, but she was just as happy!  She insisted on wearing these in her hair to look for eggs.

 The kids found all the eggs really fast, and then ate their candy really fast.  Which is why we made them eat breakfast first.

 Molly relaxed on her pillow pet to enjoy some jelly beans.  But she throws it out of her bed every night. Tonight as I was walking out of her room after putting her in bed, I heard her quietly say, "I hate it."  I think she likes it as a toy, but just doesn't like to sleep on it.  I can't quite figure it out, the boys love theirs!

 My goofy Will!  This kid is a character.  And may possibly be the death of us.  But we love him!!

Happy Easter!!

We went to church with Mike's parents because Papa Lon spoke.  He gave a wonderful talk, most of which I actually got to listen to!  Then we had a preliminary dinner with the Claytons before dinner with my family.  Two Easter dinners, it doesn't get much better!

Moab Half Marathon!!!

It was Emily's fault, really.  She got Jane excited about running the Moab Half.  Then she got me excited about running it.  Then I told my sisters they should run it.  Then BAM, we had our team!  We were Running Scared!  (That was our team name)  I was kind of nervous about it since the most I had ever run in my life was 5 miles.  Once.  And it was awful.  A little girl passed me, I mean seriously!  So I actually trained for this race...and it was AWESOME!!!  My goal was to run 10 minutes miles, which I did!  (ok, it was just over 10 minute miles, but we had a strong headwind for most of the race, so I'm counting it!). I finished in 2 hours 16 minutes!  Which sounds like forever.  And it kind of is.  But for my first half marathon, plus hauling around the bun in my oven, I'm so proud of myself!  Running for two is definitely different than running for one.

And since I somehow managed to lose my camera the day before (so sad), I had to steal these pictures off Emily's blog.  Thanks Em!

Jane, Megan (Em's runner friend), Emily, Melissa, me, Jennifer.  It was so fun to run with my sisters!!  And I include Emily and Jane when I say that.  Emily and Jennifer ran the 5 miler because they were recovering from injuries, and the rest of us ran the half!  We had such a fun weekend!  We stuffed ourselves with carbs at Pasta Jay's, explored downtown Moab, got ice cream, ate Subway, and stayed at a much cheaper motel in a town called Green River.  Anywhere in Moab was charging double and requiring a two night stay.  In retrospect, I would recommend staying another night.  Maybe next year!

After the run we went to Jennifer's brother-in-law's friend's house to shower and relax for a minute, then we headed off on an ETERNAL drive to a really cool place called Island in the Sky.  It was a mile in, mile out, which was probably really good for our legs after running 13.1 miles!  My knees were screaming at me (not used to running downhill...murder on the joints!), but other than that I felt great.

The only word that came to mind when we got there was VAST.  It was incredible.  Pictures never quite do reality justice.  Behind us is a crazy drop-off (we were on the "island in the sky") and beyond that was just...expanse.  As far as you could see.  It was really cool.

After our little hike (and LONG drive) we headed home.  We stopped in Price for dinner around 8:00, which was our first real meal of the day.  Not a good idea.  For the pregnant girl anyway.  I felt okay on the ride home, but probably because I was so stressed out because of the weather.  Melissa was taking a turn driving, and while we were in some super long canyon it turned to snow, which turned to driving snow, which was nearly impossible to see through in the dark on the slick road with oncoming traffic.  It was awful!  She was concentrating so hard on staying in our lane, that my job was to tell her when to turn her brights on and off.  I've never been so glad to get to Provo!  When Melissa got home she was sore in her shoulders from being so tense from driving, not sore from the race.  It was crazy!

It was such a great weekend, we had so much fun!  Can't wait to do it again!

Last One...Promise!

What vacation is complete without a trip to Disneyland?  Actually, based on past experience, a very good one!  Kids throwing up, being pregnant (every time), kids with hand-foot-mouth disease, kids who refuse to eat meals and think crackers are good enough...we've had some interesting experiences!  They love it though, and we always let them talk us into it!

We got there before the park opened.  The lines were unbelievable!  We went on a Wednesday (Tuesday?) with forecasted rain, not a holiday week.  It was packed!  Luckily the weather held out, but it was crazy to see how many people were there in the middle of winter on such a random day.

Pretend it's not sideways.  The kids were actually pretty good waiting in line.  Mostly.

Papa was nice enough to stay with the kiddos while Mike and I rode the Tower of Terror!  And then even take a picture of us when we were done.  Disneyland with three kids isn't possible (or at least any fun) without at least three adults.  Thanks Papa!

She snuck upstairs into Grandma's room.  She climbed something.  She emerged victorious!  All of Grandma's bracelets and a necklace.  She loves her pretties!!  

She even decorated herself instead of her sticker book.  This girl kills me!

This just makes me smile!

HB Valentines

When Sam found out we'd be leaving for California a few days before his school Valentine party, he asked if we could leave a few days later...so as not to miss the party.  I felt really bad he was going to miss it, so we had our own little party at Papa's beach house (because I didn't feel bad enough to postpone the trip).  We went to dinner (as a whole family!) at IHOP.  Literally the only restaurant where all 5 of us will eat at least one thing on the menu.  Needless to say, we almost NEVER take our kids out to eat.  It's just too hard!  Pay for misery?  No thanks.

So...we had our Valentine party when we got home, hence the dark pictures.

 We made Valentine envelopes, which I then filled with Valentines from their friends from home.  (Big thanks to all the moms who accommodated my early valentine request!)

 My babies!  

 We also decorated special cookies (graham crackers) with frosting and valentine sprinkles!

 Fortunately they loved it, and didn't realize that it was a copout for a lazy mom who didn't want to make sugar cookies on vacation.  

 I think their envelopes turned out so cute!  Pretty easy to tell who they belong to (Sam is obsessed with drawing robots, and Will is obsessed with Batman).

Sam wrote a very sweet valentine for Grandma and Papa:

"Thank you for all the nice things you've done.

You are great people, we're glad you exist.

And you're nice."