Easter

Easter had a fun fun quirks this year that made it very enjoyable.  The kids started out their morning with their basket hunt like normal.  The clues took them all over the house and we enjoyed seeing the bunny prints in the street again.  When they finally found them they were filled with fun little gadgets, puzzles, and do-dads.   

While they enjoyed relaxing with their baskets Jeremy and I were hard at work make Easter brunch for the missionaries.  I've been more consistent feeding them every month and we love having them in our home.  We feasted like we never had for breakfast before and talked about our Savior.  Church was filled with music from our talented ward members and I was grateful for them for sharing their testimonies with us.  

My kiddos ready for church.

After church we had another egg hunt.  This was the high-stakes round.  Jeremy hid a $100 egg, a couple $20 eggs, and some $1 eggs.  The kids could only carry one egg at a time and only had ten minutes to find the prize.  The girls were very motivated for this egg hunt.  

At the end, no one found the grand prize so we gave the kid with the lowest amount a clue and a chance to find it.  It happened to be Daxton and the one clue was enough for him to climb the tree and look in the abandoned bird nest up there.  Cambrie was especially upset because she's always wanted to find an egg up there, and she could have used the gas money.  That's fair.  We have some kinks to work out with our high stake rules, but I think it was a blast.  

Immediately afterwards we had to split up.  Jeremy was taking the younger kids to Utah to visit their new little cousin, Rio.  And Cambrie and I were headed to the airport to catch a flight to Phoenix.  Even though Easter was a little busy, I loved it and I love my family so, so much.

Chicago

Cambrie the prop artist is at it again.  The spring musical at Legacy this year was Chicago.  At first we didn't think it was going to be a very prop intensive show, but we were wrong.  She had to make a 1920's video camera, find a still camera, typewriter, handkerchiefs, feather fans, notebooks, pencils, newspapers, and a dozen other small items that made the show shine.  She loves being a part of this community, which is a good thing since she spent more hours with them these last two weeks than with anyone else in her life.  Jeremy and I went on closing night and I was so impressed.  The cast did a phenomenal job and I loved seeing her friends on stage.  But I couldn't help but be a little biased and think that if it wasn't for Cambrie being so amazing at her job, the other kids wouldn't be able to shine like they did on stage.  After the production the kids went and had a cast party.  Cambrie came home with her poster full of signatures, kind notes, and admitted to crying at the thought of the show being done.  I'm so proud of her creative mind and mad skills!

Level 7 State

McKenzie has had a great season this spring.  She's had some best scores and podium finishes, and is loving the sport even more than she has before.  She was really nervous going into State because for the first time she could reasonably qualify for regionals.  It wasn't going to be easy, but if she just executed her routines cleanly she had a legitimate shot.  The younger girls went earlier in the day and four of them qualified.  The judges looked like they were in good moods and the girls went into their afternoon session with high hopes.  

The girls started on vault.  This has been McKenzie's strength this season and she uses it as a buffer for some of her lower scores.  She really wanted a 9.0 or more, when she came away with an 8.85 we were a little nervous.  We didn't have a lot of wiggle room.  On bars she had a 8.225.  The judges were being really picky on bars so for her to get that score today when she had teammates scores much lower was a blessing.  The girls moved to beam and this is when all of the parents really started doing the math.  McKenzie came away with an 8.325.  She didn't fall.  She lost a connection score, but she stayed on the beam.  Unfortunately Evalyn wasn't so lucky.  She was so discouraged by her bar score that her head wasn't in a good place and she fell twice.  McKenzie just needed an 8.6 on floor and she could go to regionals.  That was doable, but not guaranteed.  

I was smart this time and decided to record her waiting for her score.  When it popped up as a, 8.8 she was so excited.  She went running up to her teammates and gave them huge hugs.  Four of the older girls qualified that day too so now we have eight going to New Mexico in three weeks.  

I am so crazy proud of this girl.  Regionals has been a dream for her ever since he started optional gymnastics.  She just working consistently, never giving up, and she did it!

 

Glow Night

Meridian's PTO decided to host a different kind of spring school party this year, a glow-in-the-dark game night.  The boys wore their most neon shirts and we went to play.  The whole gym was decked out with neon, black lights, and glowing games.  We played tic-tac-toe, snakes and ladders, connect four, Jenga, and corn hole all in the dark.  It was a lot fun and not nearly as insane as I thought it could have been. 

 After we were done in the gym we went into the cafeteria for some good old fashioned board games.  This was my boys' idea of a perfect night.  We played until they kicked us out.

Just watching ducks

The snow is already gone!  It melts so quickly that our neighborhood retention pond holds onto all that water while it can slowly drain away.  This spring we've had a ton of ducks in the neighborhood.  Daxton and I decided to pretend like we were a young mom and a toddler again and went down to the pond to look at the ducks.  I love watching their little booties pop up as they're hunting for food.  Daxton was practicing skipping rocks and it was a great way to hang out during the afternoon.

Destination Imagination

McKenzie decided to try something new this year at school and joined a club called Destination Imagination.  I had no idea what they were working towards, but they met every week before school to work on a project to present this spring.  The day of presenting/competing arrived and I finally was able to see what it was all about.  The whole day was dedicated to kids with STEM interests.  There were teams competing for pinball collaborations, robotics, technical challenges, engineering challenges, science technology, and in McKenzie's case, fine arts presentations.  The whole purpose of the program is to have kids solve a challenge when given a certain set of parameters.  It's all about creativity, problem solving and collaboration.  McKenzie and her friends put on a short play that was an Alice in Wonderland spin-off.  McKenzie was the Queen of Spades and was thrilled to have a chance to wear her regal crown.  The play was fun, silly, whimsical, and they did a great job.  

They ended up placing second in their category and earned a spot to State.  Nice job girls!

One more big snow

The spring snow storms are when we get our best building snow.  Only three inches was predicted with this storm, but it more than delivered.  Look at my absolutely gorgeous drive to the gym!  

This snow was also very, very wet.  Jeremy was an awesome dad and went outside to build with the boys while I stayed inside and made cinnamon rolls.  They built opposing forts so they could have an epic snow ball fight.  They had to battle quickly though because by the next day the Colorado sun already started melted away their creations.

Anniversary ski trip

When one thinks of an anniversary ski trip, they typically think of a romantic getaway with just the two lovebirds.  We decided that we wanted to use that free day as our last family ski trip of the season instead.  Even though all six of us were on the mountain, we still had to be a little flexible. The girls drove up separately since they both had to be back that afternoon. When they pulled into the parking lot both girls were singing to their music at the top of their lungs.  They had a great time.  The weather was absolutely perfect: warm with no wind.  It was a Monday so there weren't even any crowds.  We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day.  (And why did I not get just one family picture?)  I was better with pictures in the afternoon once I realized my mistake.  I've noticed that between the ages of 8-10 my kids are fearless on the mountain.  That is great because it means the boys are so much fun to ski with right now.  They will tackle any run you through at them.  This is one of Daxton's favorite, Ripperoo's Forest. I wish I had that kid on a mic.  He was singing to himself as we skied through the freshest snow, "Fluffy, fluffy, double fluffy.  I like skiing in the fluffy," on repeat the whole way down the hill.  It was adorable.

 The boys also have a tendency to find every single side track off of the main run and follow wherever it leads.  Most of the time it leads them to a cliff they need to drop from to make it back on the main run.  Not once have they been too scared to make that drop back down.  Here they are headed onto one of their secret paths.  

For the first time this season we were able to go check out the new lift that opened this season, Bergman's Express.  It opens up at the top of the mountain in a great big bowl.  When it's windy, it can get pretty windswept.  But today there were enough coverage to keep it fun as we explored.  We found a natural half pipe, some trees and some trails.  We even found a great new black diamond run over on the far side that I would definitely ski again.  

The view from the top was gorgeous.  This gets to be our Happy 18th Anniversary photo this year.  

Back at home it was too late to go out to dinner, but I made a delicious salmon avocado salad that was just fancy enough for the occasion.  It was honestly a great way to spend our anniversary.  Love you hun.

Early egg hunt

Bruce and Leesa surprised the kids with an egg hunt while they were here.  The kids didn't quite have their heads wrapped around the fact that Easter is coming up, but they were good sports and went hunting for their goodies.  The egg hiders were relatively kind this year and didn't hide too many eggs high up in the trees, but it meant the kids had to really pay attention to the sneaky hiding spots on the ground.  We didn't even have any lost eggs this year.

Empty baskets and ready to roll

I've decided it's way too hard to take cute, flattering pictures of kids while they're actively hunting for eggs.

McKenzie wasn't willing to help me solve that problem.

Displaying their victorious findings.

Now they'll smile for me!