Tulip Festival

Every year we go to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point Garden. It's my favorite. I love the tulips. I love that it's Spring. We went for family home evening last week. It was a pretty nice evening for it. Warm and breezy. The kids had a blast running around and rolling down every hill we passed. Poor Talia couldn't quite get the hang of rolling down the hills. She also was wearing a dress with no shorts underneath. It was actually hilarious to watch her try. I got it on video.

Highlights of the trip were playing by the waterfall, the fountain in the secret garden, watching the hundreds of koi fish (with much whining because we didn't have any quarters to buy fish food), and being "bullets" while we walked back to the car. Beckett was in heaven just getting to walk most of the time. He loves wandering on his own. It was a very fun family outing. I'm planning on going back with the kids and their quarters soon.

Beck enjoying the warm weatherwith his wheelbarrow

Running through the butterfly garden

Talia's favorite blue flowers

Easter

Easter weekend was a wonderful! We had beautiful warm weather on Saturday for our annual Bowles/Bayles Easter Lunch and Egg Hunt. It was fun to celebrate with the Bayles' again this year! We had a yummy lunch of egg salad (or PBJ) sandwiches, chips and fruit. Then the kids all played together in the basement for a bit while the men did their hiding work. 

The kids all were pretty good at egg hunting this year. Talia kept wanting to stop and open every egg when she found it. She also freaked out and cried the first time she saw someone else pick up a blue egg and put it in their basket. She was sure all the blue eggs belonged to her. She got over it pretty quickly though. Weston was her egg hunting buddy since he filled his basket in the first 10 minutes. Beckett wanted nothing to do with finding eggs. I pointed one out and handed it to him and he looked at it for a second then threw it at me. Oh well. He was really happy to get to wander around outside! :) I did save him one egg and opened it for him to show him the candy and he was very excited about that part.

After the kids found all of the eggs (we hope!) they opened them up and checked out their haul. Then they got busy playing outside until it was time to go. It was a little bit of a short party since we had to leave to take Weston to his first soccer game, but we had a great time catching up with our friends.

That night before bed Weston was unloading the dishwasher and suddenly said "I caught you Mom! You're the one who hides our Easter baskets huh?!? Am I right?" I kind of just gave him a look and ignored him. Then I sent Davin upstairs to brush his teeth and had a quiet conversation with Weston. I told him that yes, Dad and I hide the Easter baskets. He asked if it was the same with Santa. If we put out the presents. I told him yes. I also explained that believing in Santa and the Easter bunny is magical and since his brothers and sister still believed I needed him to keep it to himself and act like he still believed too. He understood that and agreed.

Later, while he was brushing his teeth I reminded him that some of his friends still believed too and that he shouldn't talk about what he knew with his friends either. Weston commented that I was right and that it was more fun to believe. I asked him if he was sad that he knew the truth. He said he wasn't sad, that it made him feel grown up. I let him know it made me sad because it meant he was all grown up! Then he told me "no way Mom! Maybe when I'm like ten I'll be all grown up." It kind of broke my heart that he's old enough to know the truth and that we've had our last Christmas with all of our kids believing in Santa. Sigh. At the same time it's kind of liberating to have him know. I really hope he can keep his mouth shut so that Davin can believe for a few more years!

Saturday night I put together Easter baskets, which I felt really unprepared for. Luckily between the stuff I had and stuff grandparents and Auntie Joy had given me for their baskets they turned out perfect. Ian and I had fun hiding them too. We thought we had found the hardest spot ever for Weston's basket. It was under the red Kitchen Aid cover and I didn't think he would find it without significant hints, but he found it pretty quickly! Davin took forever finding his in the cupboard under the sink in the half bathroom. Talia's was on top of the hutch and she found it after about 10 minutes. I think Davin might have seen it first and told her. Beckett's was in plain sight.

Easter morning the kids had a lot of fun exploring their baskets and eating candy for breakfast. I made them have some toast and milk too. :) Beckett was the most excited about his bag of M&M's. He was pretty sad when I cut him off, but I think he would have been sick if he ate the whole bag in one sitting! Talia liked her Frozen coloring book and her new princesses for her castle. She was also really happy about the Minnie notebook from Grandma Denny and Papa. She took it with her to church. The boys probably liked their Poke balls the best (Thanks Auntie Joy! You're so fun!), but they also had fun with their Chima books and minifigures. It was a nice, relaxing morning. After we played for awhile and ate breakfast it was time to get ready for church.

I wanted to take a picture before church of the kids in their cute Easter things. The boys had matching ties and Tal had a new dress. Beckett was having none of it though. He screamed and writhed all through pictures and in the car and down the hall into church. I was pretty bummed thinking there was no way we were going to make it through the full block with him. About halfway through Sacrament meeting though he settled in on my lap and I was scratching his legs. I was just enjoying the five minutes of peace and snuggle time with him when he went limp and fell asleep on my lap. He never does that! It was an Easter miracle! He slept through the rest of the meeting and was happy to go to nursery. Hooray! So church was very nice.

When we got home from church Beckett really wanted to play with his wheelbarrow outside, so Ian stayed out with him while I went inside to help Talia change. Ian ended up taking Beckett on a little walk. He pushed his wheelbarrow the whole time. Ian said he every hauled it up on the playground with him at the little park by our house. That Beckett is so funny. He loved his Easter afternoon walk. When he came home he happily ate lunch and went to bed for a nap.

Mel came over for Easter dinner. It was so fun to have her here. We cooked up a delicious Easter feast and enjoyed a low key dinner together. We had ham, cheesy potatoes, shredded carrots (thanks Mel!), and deviled eggs. So yummy!

We just chilled and let our food digest after dinner. It was still sunny outside (but the wind was cold) so Mel and I went out on the front porch and watched the kids play in the front yard until she headed home to see Bradley. He had to work so he couldn't come to dinner. We missed him! It was a really nice holiday though. I enjoyed spending the weekend playing with my family and thinking of my Savior and the hope He offers each of us.

Good Friday

The Friday before Easter was a fun one. Weston had a Spring hat parade and he was supposed to decorate a Spring hat to wear. He came up with a clever concept that Ian helped engineer. He was so excited about it and told me his hat was voted the best Spring hat in his class but not in the whole 2nd grade. :)

That morning I took Talia and Beckett with me to Crossfit. They had fun playing with toys as usual and I got my butt kicked as usual. Talia looked extra cute in another new summer top. I tried to take a picture of her, but this is what I got instead. She's such a goober.

Friday night we decided we'd better get ready for Easter! I gave the kids their chocolate bunny treats from Grandma B and Grandpa Bob. They tore into them and then had fun dying some eggs. Talia would only color her eggs blue and wouldn't let anyone else use the blue dye. She can be a stinker about that kind of stuff and she's definitely obsessed with the color blue. I thought the eggs turned out really pretty and bright (especially for using a dollar store egg dying kit)!

Such good lookin' guys right?!?

The New Aquarium

The week after we got back from our trip we got to take a trip to the new Loveland Living Planet Aquarium courtesy of Ian's work. They paid for the field trip and invited families as well. So nice! 

The new aquarium has been under construction for awhile now and just opened in March. It has a lot of the same exhibits that were at our old aquarium in Sandy (which we went to often when we had passes to it) plus lots more. All of the habitats are a little bigger now too. The penguins and otters especially benefited from the bigger space. It also has a cool shark tunnel and a 4D theater. They will be adding a lot more to it over the next couple of years, but it was fun to go and see what is there. The other nice thing is that our tickets are good for a bounce back visit before August 31st so we can go back when more of the animals have been moved into their new homes. Yay!

I think the kids' favorites were the penguins and the shark tunnel. The penguins were so fun to watch. Beckett was fascinated by them and probably could have stayed and watched them for an hour. He made all kinds of excited noises when they swam by him too. So cute. Davin liked the shark tunnel the best. He liked seeing the big sting ray in the shark tunnel too.

Beckett checking out the ducks in the Utah exhibit.

Ian got this shot of me with the kids watching the sharks and I just love it. It captures my joy of being a mom and watching my kids experience something new and interesting about the world. You may notice that we are missing a kid in that picture. Weston wasn't with us for this field trip. He was in school still. I didn't feel too bad about not bringing him though because he had already been to the new aquarium for a birthday party. :)

Other highlights of the aquarium were the seahorses, toucans, poison arrow frogs, otters, and tropical fish tanks. I'm excited to get to go back in a few months and see even more of the animals and maybe go when the newness has worn off a bit and it's less crowded.

The Daily Grind

It was nice to have the weekend to recover from our trip. It was a busy, productive Saturday while Ian got the tire fixed and I did laundry and unpacked and cleaned up the house. That night Ian and I got a sitter and went out on a date. We needed a break from family time. :) We had fun going out to dinner and doing a little shopping. We went to Home Depot and bought all the stuff for our first ever gardening attempt. We are planting a container garden. We're planting a tomato plant, broccoli, spinach, zucchini, onion, green onion, and some herbs (cilantro, parsley, dill, cayenne red pepper, and basil). I'm really nervous because I'm completely clueless when it comes to gardening, but several of my neighbors know what they are doing so I will be asking lots of questions. We also hit up Kohl's to do some Spring clothes shopping for Ian. 

Sunday was pretty low key. We had some friends over for dinner and to play Settlers. We also played Guillotine, which we hadn't played in a long time. It was very fun.

Monday was back to school and work. I got back to my exercise routine and keeping Talia and Beckett entertained. Unfortunately Beckett is much too curious about how my elliptical machine works and I had to put up a roadblock so he wouldn't get hurt while I was exercising. He was NOT happy about it. Poor baby. Luckily I only work out at home on the elliptical 1-2 days a week. You know what does make Beckett happy? Watching Little Einsteins. He gets so excited every time we turn it on. It's so cute that he watches way too much Little Einsteins.

I took Tal and Beck to the dinosaur museum Monday before Davin got home from school. They had fun running around and playing in the sand. On the way out I realized a couple of my friends were there, but we had to get home to get Davin off the bus, but luckily they were available to come over for lunch. It was such a fun, impromptu lunch playdate! We will have to do it again soon!

Tuesday Davin had gymnastics and the weather was nice enough to play outside during his class.  Beckett loves this long sidewalk he can run up and down and playing in the rocks. It definitely helps the time pass quicker when we can wander outside. I'm having fun dressing Talia up in her cute new Spring clothes. I feel like I'm finally figuring out how to buy clothes for her. I'm also getting better at picking out things she likes. :) Those blue hair clips were the best $3 I've ever spent on her!

Palmdale and a Looong Drive

Thursday morning we packed up and said goodbye to Grandma B and Grandpa Bob (Happy 60th Birthday Dad!). Jules had come over Wednesday night to say goodbye. When we stopped to get gas on our way out of town guess who was there gassing up right next to us? Auntie Jules! Haha it was fun to get last hugs from her. We drove out to Palmdale to visit Aunt Teri and Uncle Mike and cousins. We got there a little after lunch time. It was a really nice day out and we spent most of the afternoon visiting and watching the kids playing out in the backyard. Ian's cousin Todd and his kids, Preston and Brooke, were there. 

Aunt Teri is so fun and put together a little Easter egg hunt for the kids. She is smart too and color coordinated it so each kid only found their color of eggs. They loved it and helped Talia and Beckett find their eggs. The kids all played together really well.  They set up a car track and had fun playing cars. Weston taught Preston how to play chess. Weston and Davin introduced their cousins to Pokemon too.

Jenni got there after work in time for dinner. Uncle Mike grilled us hot dogs and Teri made delicious homemade mac and cheese. Talia and Brooke were so cute and SO similar. They were cracking us up.  They played this game trying to get the jump rope away from Ian over and over.

Finally it was time for bed. Cousins headed home and we put our kiddos to bed. Ian and I stayed up a little bit visiting with Aunt Teri. The next morning we got up with the kids, gathered our things and headed out to drive home. We didn't get going until about 7:30am. It was a different route coming from Palmdale. It should have taken almost exactly the same amount of time as coming home from my parents. It ended up taking quite a bit longer because about 45 miles before Beaver, UT we got a flat tire. Luckily a really nice guy stopped right after it happened and he had a tool we needed to get to our spare. The whole process only took about 20 minutes.

Unfortunately we were too far away from Beaver to make it to the tire shop before it closed, so we decided to just drive slow (like 55 mph with the hazard lights on) on the spare the rest of the way home and get a new tire the next morning in Lehi. It's amazing how slow 55 feels when the speed limit is 80. It took us an extra 2+ hours to get home. Luckily the kids were really good the whole drive. There were a few fussy moments from us all, but overall our kids did really awesome! We made an extra stop in Nephi to grab a little bit of dinner and put some air in the spare tire. We were all glad to be home that night! We had such a wonderful, fun trip and we are so glad we went!

Beckett thought the stop in Nephi was awesome! I did not.