Easter 2017

Last weekend we celebrated Easter!

First things first, the girls hunted for their Easter baskets as soon as they got up...Morgan being the last one up (she almost slept the morning away!).  

We had a leisurely breakfast of French toast and then relaxed (and watched a couple of their new movies) before we headed off to Grandma and Grandpa's for the Easter egg hunt and dinner.

 The girls with their cousins, Jett and Rowan.  Rowan just turned one April 1st!  

Wow, did that year go fast?!  She is such a doll and Rory is absolutely obsessed with her...she follows her around and helps her with anything she needs.  It's awfully cute!

 My mom had the house looking so festive!

And the dinner was top notch!

 And it wouldn't be Easter without the annual sibling picture on the porch!

Unfortunately, this year Andrew wasn't able to be here for the event...sad face.

But the show must go on!

 And just for kicks, Ryan and I posed for a few!

 The opening of the annual Easter balls!!

Every year my mom makes each kiddo a ball that's made of crepe paper.  As they unwind it they find all sorts of little trinkets hidden in between the wrapping.  So they must unwind it slowly so they don't miss anything!  The little ones (mostly Piper) are still working on this concept.  Everything is a race with that girl.

 It's good fun and makes a huge mess!!

They love it!

And also, this year Easter was a beautiful, warm day!

I just love it when the weather cooperates, don't you?

And that's all she wrote.

Happy Easter!

The end.

Happy May!

Actually, May would be a lot more "happy" if this darn rain would quit!  Okay, I'm being dramatic...it's not even raining today...but it's cooooold!  Where are my 70 degree spring days?!  The other day we had a massive hail storm...it was nuts!  And the wind has been crazy!!  I seriously thought the roof was going to blow off the other night.  So yeah, when we do have a warm day, we really have to make use of it because it will probably rain for the next week after it.

So anyway, to kick off May the girls passed out their annual May Day flowers to our neighbors.

 The girls and I absolutely love this tradition!

Now if I could just get them to not fight over who gets to ring the doorbell I'll be one happy mom.

 We recently had the girls' 5K.  And hallelujah, it wasn't raining!

Ryan ran it with Haley.

 Jeff ran with Morgan.

 And I ran with Piper...and Rory.

The kindergartners had a shorter loop around the school.

 And speaking of running, I've started running a bit again.  I have a 3.5 mile loop that I do and it has a killer climb (that I usually end up walking up) that hurts like a son of a gun!  It hurts so good, right?!

And then of course we had Mother's Day last Sunday.

It was lovely!

Haley and Morgan got up early and made eggs, hot chocolate, plated the cinnamon rolls, and set my place so nicely, complete with all their little gifts.  It was really sweet!  I'm so proud of these kids of mine!  I'm pretty darn lucky to be their mom!!

Unfortunately, it rained ALL day...but, whatcha going to do?

It made for really good napping weather though...which I did partake.  What's a Sunday without a nap anyway??

Tomorrow we kick off the Mountain Bike Series...and by the way, my first race will mark my first day on my mountain bike this season.  Probably not the best way to go into it!

Wish me luck!

Spring Break: Zion Part II

After a solid breakfast at the hotel we packed up and drove into Zion again for another full day.

The first thing the girls wanted to do was get their Jr. Ranger pins.  They had finished their booklets the day before and were itching to turn them in.

 Taking the Jr. Ranger Oath.

 Showing off their new earned pins!

 Of course, the day wouldn't be complete without Rory napping at some point.

 We decided to hike to the Emerald pools...another great hike for little kids!

There are three pools: lower, middle and upper.  We knocked out all three!

 Just a side note: Piper forgot her tennis shoes for this trip...hence the reason she's hiking in sandals.

Luckily, they held up great and she hiked like a champ!

 After finishing the hike we relaxed at the Zion Lodge where they have enormous tree surrounded by a huge grassy area for the kids to run around in and play.

And that was that.

I absolutely love Zion!  These picture don't do it justice with how beautiful the scenery is...honest, it's amazing!

The next morning we ate a leisurely breakfast and then headed to the local splash pad for one last swim (and carousel ride) before we started the trip back home.

This trip couldn't have gone any better...we all just had so much fun!

I'm anxious to hit up another National Park this summer!

We've got to the entire Mighty Five: Zion, Arches, (we've done these two) Canyonlands, Bryce and Capital Reef.

Spring Break: Zion Part I

 Our Spring Break was last week and we decided do a St. George/Zion trip.

So after being down south the week before, we were craving more, so we hopped in the Burban and headed back down there again!  You just can't beat the weather this time of year...it was absolutely beautiful!

We originally had planned to camp...but with everything booked we nixed that idea and decided to stay in a hotel in St. George for a few nights and drive into Zion.

We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and basically swam in the hotel pool for the rest of the day...with a quick trip to grab dinner and hit up the grocery.

Monday morning we loaded up for a day in Zion...and we weren't the only ones...Spring is a very busy time of year for that park...I knew that going in, but wow, there were a lot of people!

But luckily we found some awesome parking (the early bird catches the worm!!) and went straight to the visitor center and then took a short hike to the museum.

We took the shuttle to the Riverwalk hike, which leads to the Narrows.  Unfortunately the Narrows had to be closed due to flash flood warnings and with it being Spring the water levels were quite high.  Not that we would have done it...the little ones would have had a hard time!  But the Riverwalk hike was perfect for the them...they did super!!  

The squirrels were everywhere!!

And they weren't scared of anything...all they cared about was food and they would go to extreme measures to try to get it!

The girls loved it...and you bet they named every squirrel they saw.

 Of course...Rory napping is pretty much a guarantee!

By the time we drove back into St. George it was dinner time, so we grabbed something to eat and then back to the hotel where the kids would swim in the pool well past their bedtime.

And then they would crash.

The ski life.

A couple of weeks ago Ryan and I had a little ski date at Sundance.

It was glorious!  We had been meaning to do since my birthday and finally got around to it.

And of course a ski date isn't complete without nachos at the Bearclaw!

And then, just this last week while my brother, Andrew, was in town we hit up Snowbird!

This was my first time skiing there!

 I was a bit out of my comfort zone on the tram up...can we say crowded?

As you may already know...I hate tight crowds...especially in small places.

I know I'm smiling...but really, not a fan of the tram.

But the tunnel...

 ...that was pretty cool!

I mean, come on!  We went through an entire mountain...in a tunnel...crazy!

So yeah, the Bird is pretty cool...however, some of those runs were pretty intense!

And to top it off we skied on a day that was super foggy and snowy, I didn't know which way was up or down!  I was pretty much skiing blind on some of those runs!

Andrew, Ryan, Me and Jeff on the lift.

We had such a good time!

And that leaves me to today...which marks my last work day at Sundance.

Kinda bittersweet.

We had a good season.

Until next year!

Now bring on Summer!