Early Easter Egg Hunt

Oops! I guess I was in too big of a hurry yesterday! I forgot to include photos of the Granny Paula Easter Egg Hunt the day we left St. George. We timed the kids, from youngest to oldest, letting them out into the yard 30 seconds apart. It was hysterical watching Spencer and Noah eagerly awaiting their turn to hunt for eggs. Everyone got tons of loot, but Ethan beat them all and had twice as much as anyone else. Luckily, everyone shared and we had treats for the drive home. Thanks, Easter bunny (bok, bok)!

Boy's Day Out (or Girls Day Out)

Spring Break Day Five and Six and Seven (Day Four was not documented so well...we went swimming twice at the Washington City Recreation Center, which is awesome!): Jeremy was able to get Friday off of work and decided to fly up and join us for a few days. Hooray! So, the moms got the day off to go shopping and to lunch while Dad and Grandpa Tom took all the boys bowling and to McDonalds. Yay for them! Isaac and I had started getting sick and by Saturday I was miserable. We decided to drive home by way of Flagstaff and got a room at a hotel with a nice pool and complimentary yummy waffle breakfast. I went right to bed and my wonderful husband took the boys swimming and put them to bed, too. We arrived home in Mesa barely in time for church, exhausted but grateful to be home. There's no place like home!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Sweet Ethan turned four today! He had a Star Wars birthday party at Granny and Grandpa's house, complete with balloon lightsabers and a hot-dog roast in the backyard firepit. (By the way, Emily, I put him up to the Cheeto-chewing picture above. Sorry.)

Anasazi Valley Trail

Spring Break Day Three: I take full responsibility for the miserable-ness of this family hike. We left too late in the day and I was following directions on a letterbox posted in 2003. So, the original directions took us down a road that was no longer available due to housing being built, and the new trail built last year wound way out around the hills, through the desert, and finally down to the Santa Clara River. Yeah, my mom was so not happy with me. And Isaac fell asleep so I got to carry him UP the hill back to the cars. Did I mention it was hot? Really, though, the boys enjoyed themselves chasing lizards and watching fire ants and finding the petroglyphs that adorn the walls of rock along the river. And, don't you know, the letterbox wasn't even there!

St. Paddy's Day

Second Day of Spring Break: The leprechauns visited during the night and scattered their gold (chocolate coins and butterscotch discs) all over the house! Some of us got lots of pinches because we forgot to pack green clothes, but we still enjoyed the magic green milk and Lucky Charms cereal the leprechauns left. Later that afternoon we went to a new rock-climbing park and met Aunt Barbara and cousins Patti, Riley and Ron there. The kids climbed, explored, pretended, waded in the creek, and had a great time over all! (Isaac commandeered the camera; that explains the "up the nose" photos of me and my mom above!)

Pirate's Island

First Day of Spring Break: After a day of driving through the deserts of Arizona, Nevada and Utah, we arrived at Granny Paula and Grandpa Tom's house in Washington, Utah. We were welcomed by Aunt Emily and cousins Calvin, Ethan and Austin, too! We went out to dinner at a fun new place in St. George called Pirate's Island. Wow! What a cool place. EVERYTHING was pirate-themed, from the giant Kraken pizza to the shooting gallery to the prizes the boys earned. It is decorated to the hilt like a pirate ship and port town and we had a riot!

Hieroglyphics Trail

I've been helping a ton with our ward Webelos lately because we have no leaders in place. So, I had the great privilege to go with Noah and accompany our pack on a hike up the Hieroglyphics Trail on March 14th. We left at 7 am with 10 bleary-eyed boys but were so glad we started early as the sun beat down on us on the way home. At the top of the trail is a beautiful spring surrounded by rocks engraved with hundreds of petroglyphs. The scouts spent an hour exploring the rocks and chasing frogs (while the leaders rested!) before we left. What a great day!

Pie Eating Contest

As part of our "American ABC's" theme at Pack Meeting, we had a pie-eating contest with some of the dads. Jeremy was such a good sport!

Bridging

Last month at Pack Meeting, Noah had his "bridging" ceremony as he received his Webelos badge. This symbolizes the steps he has made through Cub Scouting and that the Webelos badge is the bridge to Boy Scouts. Brother Rencher, the 11-year-old Scout leader, welcomed him at the other side of the bridge with the Scout handshake. Now, Noah has a goal to earn the rest of the Webelos activity badges and his Arrow of Light before he turns 11. You are awesome, Noah!

Suns Game

Jeremy, ever the brilliant one, made a winning guess in a contest at work and won four Suns tickets to last night's game against the Mavericks. They were nice seats, too ($125 each) plus free parking passes! So, the lucky ducks who got to go were Jeremy, Spencer, Noah and Jacob. I took Isaac to the nursery at our Relief Society birthday party ("Fiesta" complete with pinata...use your imagination...it was just like that!). Anyway, the big boys had a "ball" with their dad. Noah got to see his favorite player, Steve Nash, and Jacob got his pizza, nachos and hot dog. Spencer would rather have stayed home and played video games. Love that kid, but it was good for him to get out into the real world! He did enjoy being the designated photographer and took some good pictures of Shaq. Even though the Suns lost and everyone was soooo tired this morning, it turned out to be a great time for all of them!

Cavalcade of Rhythm

After months of preparation and HARD WORK, the big night was last night. The 2009 Cavalcade of Rhythm sponsored by the Desert Valley Music Teachers' Association (of which I am a member) was last night. Oh my, what a show! Spencer and Noah both performed as well as another of my students, Sarah. Basically, the Cavalcade is twenty-five pianos on stage, with fifty pianists playing duets at the same time! Amazing! We have rehearsed for weeks and it all came together in a phenomenal way. Spencer and his friend Jacob played "Super Mario Brothers" and "Legend of Zelda" with their group, and Noah and Sarah played "Star Wars" and "Batman." The whole performance was staged as a skit involving the evil "Madame Treble," with Batman and Robin showing up to save the day. (I am SO sad that the videos we took are too huge to send, but trust me, it was awe-inspiring!)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

March, hands down, is my most favorite time of the year in Arizona. Beautiful weather, great temperatures, everything blooming (thank goodness I'm not one with bad allergies). I just savor every breath of cool air because I know what's lurking around the corner. I've been gardening and loving watching what re-seeded from last year. It's so fun to peek every day at what is coming up and trying to guess what it is! (You never know, we ended up with a HUGE mulberry tree in our backyard just by waiting to see what grew.) So, in the flower garden I've planted big multi-colored pansies and "little purple pansies", but also have lots of sunflowers and snapdragons coming back from last year, as well as hyacinth bulbs that my dad planted when we first moved in. And a bunch of seeds that I can't remember what they were but I scattered them about a month ago. In the vegetable garden, the chard is still holding strong, as is the broccoli. I finally pulled all the different lettuces. We're still getting a few peas every day but they will soon be gone. The artichoke plant has gone crazy again and we even have a few starts from last year when we let it go to seed. I'm loving the carrots, they've never done so well, but the radishes are gone. I planted onions and cilantro about a month ago and tomatoes, tomatillos, squash, watermelon (Jacob's idea), and beans last week. And some seed I didn't recognize that my dad left for me. We'll be surprised with whatever comes up! Also, the heavenly blossoms on the orange tree are in bloom. You've never experienced such an intoxicating smell. I savor it every year. We've got to get eating the oranges and grapefruits before it gets hot. So, sorry for the ramblings, it's just been so fun and relaxing for me this year to be outside. Thanks, honey, for fixing the sprinklers because our lawn is gorgeous, too. Just loving life...