General Conference Trip

We started our Spring Break a little early by taking a road trip to Utah for General Conference. Jason's parents joined us for our adventures. We left Wed. and drove to Las Vegas for the night. We had an amazing breakfast buffet at the Bellagio, hit a couple tourist spots for the kids.



Our next stop was Zion. We spent Thur. night there and part of Friday, touring the canyon. We headed on to Provo where we met up with Jason's brother and his son who flew in from Iowa. Here is cousin Joshua with the kids.


After dinner we parted until Saturday morning. We spent the day together and then the guys went to Priesthood session. It was Darren's first time to Priesthood session, and it was extra special to be there for the live conference, along with his Dad, Papa, Uncle & cousin.





Sunday morning we woke to 3" of snow all over our motorhome and campground. What a treat! The Easter bunny left a few small treats, but nothing to get in the way of our Sunday morning attendance at Conference.



It was a first time for me and the boys to attend conference live. Aside from Ryan's non-stop cough through the entire conference, it was perfect! Nana stayed behind in the motorhome to watch Conference on TV.



What I should have taken pictures of are some of the activities we did while driving. We spent many hours playing games at the table. Nana and Alli colored, played My Little Pony, any many other fun things. It was so great to spend some quality time with Nana and Papa. It was a great trip! Here are some random moments:

FREEDOM!

When your 3-year old finally learns how to pump a swing by herself, it means FREEDOM for mom! Woo-hoo!!! I am soooo excited that Allison finally did this! She's been on the verge for a while, but I could tell she was holding back. But left to her own devices in the back yard today, I glanced out the window and saw her doing it! Hallelujah!

Braces!

Darren has entered the world of braces! Daddy has entered the world of orthodontic bills!

BEFORE:


AFTER:

Fruit

I brought home a dwarf orange tree from Costco the other day and told Jason I wanted to plant it. He isn't a fan of the dwarf trees so he returned it and went to the local nursery to get a different tree. We ended up with a little more than I had originally anticipated, but I'm certainly not complaining! I now own 2 orange trees, a lemon tree, and a peach tree!! Wow! I'm so excited! Jason spent 2 full days digging out bushes to make room for our new additions. I need to read up on how to take care of them, and hope we eventually reap some fruit! Yum!

Pack Night @ Fire Station

A trip to the fire station is always a treat... but even more so when your daddy is the firefighter on duty!
Blake & Ryan loved having Pack Night at their dad's station. Jason did a great job, as always, giving the tour to the kids.

DADDY & KIDS:




SCOUTS:

Question of the Day

Allison asked me today, "Mommy, what happens if we keep in our yawns?"
Hmmm... interesting thought process she has.

School Carnival

Blake & Ryan's school put on a carnival for a PTA fundraiser. They had a lot of the classics like a cake walk, fishing, ring toss, etc. But the big hit of the night was a new thing the school tried this year. A place called GAMES2U brought their mobile game van and sold tickets for each event. They had video games, lazer tag and the hamster ball. The kids favorite was the hamster ball.

BLAKE:


RYAN:


ALLISON:

This was so funny because they rolled it down a big grassy hill on the playground.



Lazer Tag:



Another highlight was the Jump Rope Team performance. Blake is on the team this year and it was his first big performance. Go Blake!

Look at that determination on his face:

Tumblebees

The Tumblebees bus came to Alli's preschool today. It's a travelling gym of sorts for preschoolers. The inside of an old school bus has been gutted out (painted w/ black & yellow stripes) and "Coach Ryan" brings it place to place for some tumbling fun! It's filled with cushions and he's made an obstacle course inside. Alli loved it!


They did a balance beam, rings, hand stands, monkey bars & somer saults in the rainbow cushion. Clever idea!

Pump It Up!

One day during Spring Break, a group of us friends took our kids to this place for some indoor play. It was so fun! We had the whole place reserved for our group. It was our first time there and we had a blast!



We started out in one giant room with slides, basketball, boxing, climbing walls, etc., all in big blow up bouncers.


Ryan & Blake tried out the boxing. It was hysterical!!


Then Tracy and Blake went head to head. Is this child abuse at the hand of my friend? Probably not since I was right there photographing the entire thing and couldn't stop laughing!


Next I was challenged to take on my son's attacker! (I'm the 2 pics on the left w/ the orange shirt on) Tracy was so funny! She laughed the entire time which made it even more entertaining. After she and I had a round, Jill jumped in the ring. What a riot!!


After 1/2 hour, they switched us to a new room with more fun! There was a giant maze, another giant slide, a bounce house and a jousting ring set up like king of the hill!

Here are Blake & Ryan on top, battling to be the last man standing.




After an hour of play, we had pizza and soda in the party room which was all part of the package.
We will definitely go here again!

Happy Easter!!

 

Happy Easter 2010!

Snake Bite?!

We think Jason may have been bitten by a rattlesnake this weekend. He took the scouts rock climbing on Saturday, to prepare them for a week long rock climbing trip in Joshua Tree over Spring Break. While he was tying a rope around a rock, he started moving the tall grass around with his hand. Doing so unveiled a rattlesnake coiled up in what he THOUGHT was hibernation. He was practically standing on top of it while working with the ropes, before he ever noticed it. It wasn't until the next day he realized he had a tender spot on his calf. A little inflamed and sore, he realized it was right above where his boots come to. And the two little marks there sure look suspiciously like fang marks. In all the excitement of "hey... there's a snake!" and using a stick to pick up and relocate the snake, he may have been bitten and not known it! What else could these marks be? It was an adult rattler who knows how to control its venom and probably just gave him a warning w/out venom. Lucky him. What do you think?

Like Mother Like Daughter?

People always tell me how much Alli looks like me. Although that's a huge compliment because my unbiased opinion is that my daughter is absolutely beautiful, I don't see what everyone else sees. Here's a pic of us side by side - both 3 years old. But still... do you see it?

Mommy-Daughter Day

For a while now I've been wanting to take Allison to Disneyland, just she and I. A girls day, you know? So we can do all the girly Princess things without any pressure from boys! Well, my niece Hannah was turning 3 and since that's where she wanted to go along with her mom, we joined them. And we had the ultimate girls day at Disneyland!! I had such an amazing day with my daughter. It was fun from start to finish. The best part is that she didn't know where we were headed that day. Even when we pulled in the parking structure and met up with her cousin, she still wasn't sure. When we got to the trams she finally said, "We're at Disneyland!!" And it was all smiles from there.

We met so many characters! This was so fun and something we never stop to do as a family. The boys (including Daddy) have outgrown that and don't want to waste ride time. This day we were able to enjoy it all! Happy Birthday cousin Hannah! teacups rockets Heaven help me when she turns 16!

One of the BEST parts of my day was the street parade. Hannah & Courtney headed home right before dinner. I wanted to stick around with Alli for the parade, since this is another thing we don't ever do with the boys. I knew she would LOVE it! We grabbed dinner and a front row seat and waited for the parade. Little did we know she'd get picked out of the crowd 3 times!! She got to dance with Tigger, and later participate in a train around the parade! Then they gave her a drum to bang on toward the end. What fun!! Here's a sketchy video. I guess my little camera couldn't handle the dark so well. There are 2 spots where I move the camera to the left. There's an asian girl dancing that I was trying to get a good pic of. She had an asian paparazzi surrounding her in a VIP area roped off next to us. I was thinking she may be one of the Olympic skaters since this was just days after the Olympics ended. Does anyone else recognize her?


On this day, we truly were at the Happiest Place on Earth! And we were the Happiest Mommy & Daughter!