Grandma Sue's house

Jared: I wish we had a house like Grandma Sue's
Me:  Why do you like her house so much?
Jared: She has lots of trains, and golf balls and it's fancy.

Jared loves going to Grandma Sue's house.  He thinks that any house with a bigger backyard then ours (not too hard to do) and a garage (also something we lack) is a fancy house. We are so glad we could go visit Grandma Sue.  I wish his other Grandparents lived closer so we could visit them more. It was so nice to get to visit with Sue.  I am so fortunate to have such a nice, comfortable relationship with her. We also got to attend Mark's nephew's baptism which was great.  It seems like we missed so many events in the past so I am super happy we could go to this one. While we were there we went down to the Heated Pool in her neighborhood (its heated by some hot springs and feels just like a nice warm bath, definitely not a summer thing for me) and both Jared and Lydia loved it!

Sue was nice enough to hang out with our kids so Mark and I could go shopping and also watch them all day while we were at the Temple/reception. Mark was determined that I would not leave Utah without getting at least one new dress. They are so hard to find. So we headed to Orem and hit the jackpot! I found so many cute, stylish, modest dresses.  Go check out this website MikARose.  That polka dot dress on the homepage I own it and love it! I found three on clearance for like 18 dollars (each) it was awesome.  It was super fun to go shopping with Mark and just hang out with him. I do not love going to malls but loved University Mall.  We also stopped by the Sister Missionary store to look for dresses but were not very successful.  They just didn't seem to have anything in my size.  That store better start ordering more inventory with all the new sisters going out on missions. But it did have cute things so go look there too if you have as hard a time as me finding dresses.
We loved being in Utah and are so glad we could go visit.

Utah

Besides visiting Grandma Sue there was one other reason I wanted to go to Utah for Spring Break this year. My sweet friend Kim would be getting married in the Salt Lake Temple.  Kim is pretty much the sweetest girl who always makes me feel like I am the coolest most amazing person in the world. I don't know how she does it but she always makes me feel so good about myself. We have known each other since the 6th grade and she even came to visit when we were living in Egypt. When I found out she was getting married during spring break I knew we had to be there even if it was just outside the temple. Luckily for us we got to be part of her actual sealing and it was wonderful.  I loved being there with Mark and thinking of our marriage and seeing how happy Kim and Nate were.  I also got to visit with some old friends which was so nice.

 

 

 

We are so happy we got to be part of Kim's special day.  After her sealing we wandered around Temple Square and enjoye a nice day outside together. Just Me and Mark.

The Grand Canyon

also known as the really big hole. I felt that if we were going all the way to Arizona it would be silly to not stop by and visit the Grand Canyon.  Unfortunately I forgot to pack sunscreen, had a cold hangover and a sick husband. But we made the best of it. It was a beautiful day there.

 

 

 

 

Jared loved running around and climbing on the rocks.  I took one Geology class in college and despised it but it sure would have come in handy this day. I think it is definitely a better trip for older kids and am pretty sure our kids won't remember going but I just had to go.  Who knows when I will go to Arizona again?

 

Jared was showing us his muscles:

 

 

 

Arizona

is hot and far away but still a fun place to visit and visit only.  We spent about a week there visiting Mark's sister Kristi and my dear friend Becca and Mark's good friend Brandon, stopping by this big hole and learning the difference between Cactus and Cacti. Jared mastered it pretty quick. We are happy we could go down there but unfortunately Jared and I both got really bad colds the first night we were there. (Then Mark got sick the day before we left.) Mark's sister Kristi has a cute 19 month old little girl and I was so worried about getting her sick. Nobody wants to be the parent who brings their sick kid places, I promise we were perfectly healthy before we left. We did manage to have some fun though but didn't take many pictures because I was using all my energy to just feel alive.  It was nice to get to visit with Kristi and Ben because I feel like we never get to so that was great. We drove down to Tuscon to visit Becca who I hadn't seen in years.  I love that even though I hadn't seen Becca in so long we picked up like we had just seen each other. It was such a nice visit. She is such a great example to me. I love being around her.
The day before we left we went and visited a little farm in town.  We rode a train, fed some animals, played on the playgrounds and had a special snack.

 

We stopped by the little store/snack place and were debating about whether to get a muffin or cinnamon roll. We asked Jared which he wanted and he kept saying he wanted a cookie.  Again and again. We finally decided on a cinnamon roll and when we told the lady she said there was  special that day for people who bought cinnamon rolls.  They would get a free cookie with it.  It was so sweet of her. Jared was thrilled.  It's so nice when people are nice to your kids like that.

 

I hope if I ever visit Arizona again we can go in like November. I am just not a hot weather kind of girl and it was only like 85! But really 85 in March is a little weird coming from Colorado. It was so good to see so many fun people.  



Easter celebrations

We spent Easter at Mark's Mom's house in Utah. I made sure we took some of our traditions with us.  We dyed eggs, ate bunny buns, and had multiple egg hunts.  Lydia loved hunting Easter Eggs but wasn't too keen on her Bunny ears.

 

 It was a little stressful dyeing eggs with Lydia so we did one then improvised.

 

 

"Official Egg Hunt" Easter morning. 

 

 

Mark's Mom's backyard faces a golf course so she often has a  collection of golf balls in her yard. Jared loves picking them up. So we had a couple of golf ball hunts. On day Jared collected them all and kept wanting to go out to see if the golfers hit any more balls into the yard.  Grandma Sue has a tupperware container full of golf balls so she threw them out in the grass for Jared to pick up.  He may have liked it more then the egg hunt.

 

 

I also made sure we had some Easter fun before we left on our trip:
 Matching uppercase and lowercase letter eggs

 

Finding surprises in eggs and practicing opening and closing them

Play Doh Jewelled Eggs

 

 The favorite: Finger Painting with chocolate pudding. We made our own chocolate bunnies. It smelled so good and was such messy fun.

 

I recently read that ARTICLE floating around Facebook about people scaling down Holidays and had so many emotions.  Her reaction made TOTAL sense but I absolutely LOVE doing these fun activities.  I personally am not into the over the top birthday parties and I try to keep all our activities in our home (the advantage of having no kids in school yet).  So only people who read my blog really know what we do but there is no way I am doing less activities. (Well at least not until it drives Mark or I crazy) I love them.  They make me feel creative and like I am helping my kids see that learning can be fun too. Also as a stay at home Mom I don't have the luxury of going out many places (and we don't have the budget to support that) so doing these things helps shake up the routine of our daily lives. I definitely have the advantage of not having kids in school and I really do understand her point yet reading her article sort of made me feel bad which I really didn't like. Anywho, we had a super fun Easter and I don't think it was that over the top.