6/8/15

April in Review


 Took a little day trip to our friends property near Tahoe.   
Noah collected all the bullet shells he could find. 
 
The kids were disgustingly dirty, so we stopped by the little creek to rash their hands, feet and faces.

 Found this fun cement slide park near our church (had NO IDEA this place even existed).  The kids ran up and down that thing for over an hour, and could have continued.  I tried it 2 or 3 times and was tired!! 

 They tested out all sorts of items to find the fastest medium to get down the slide.  Towards the end we found a small piece of wax paper that made them fly down the slides - almost too fast. 
 The slides are next to a creek, so we went exploring for a little bit. Of course Noah found some trash and turned into something that had to come home.


Easter
I was such a dud mom this year.  I didn't pull out any decorations, not even their baskets, for Easter.  Easter sort of showed up on the calendar before I even realized it was coming. :) 
As I was contemplating what the Easter bunny should bring, I couldn't get over the fact that Easter has become like a mini (sometimes not even mini) Christmas.  I realized how stupid that is.  I decided to tell the Easter bunny that he has to scale it WAY back (not that we were too excessive to begin with, but seriously I can see how out of control it can become).  
Anyway, every year the kids get new books on Easter and Christmas Eve, so they each got a new book (Noah got a few chapter books because they came in a set).  They also got some new Legos to share - smart bunny must have known it was general conference the same day and Legos is the toy of choice on conference Sundays.  
 
 It was raining Easter morning, so the wimpy bunny hid their eggs in the house. 


Ava tested out each piece of candy/chocolate before breakfast.

 Unca Eli (what the kids call him) came for Easter/General Conference.  The kids love having him around.  He's pretty good at Legos, so he was useful too.
 Eli hadn't heard of blown out eggs, so Ava was demonstrating how to blow out the egg.
 During the conference break we experimented with egg decorating.

 We tried fingernail polish, crayons, silk ties and markers.  The markers ended up being the most utilized form of decorating. 
 The marbled fingernail polish egg.  Didn't quite work like we thought.
 The silk tie one turned out cool.  We cut up Adams old ties and found out one of his ties was NOT silk (like he was told). Ha!! 



 The kids 'found' or picked some flowers from our neighbors house and decided to make a happy birthday creation for their dad.  I didn't know what was going on out front until I came out and saw this.   They were so cute putting things just how they wanted it.  They picked the grass to make sprinkles and make a smiley face out of the bark.  The funniest thing was when I looked out the window and they had Doug and Linda by the hand dragging them over (they made them close their eyes) to check out their masterpiece.
 'Hape Brthda Dad'
We celebrated daddies 37th birthday in April and he got a fancy new bike that he loves.
 Whenever I take Grant shopping it's like a blast from the past.  He loves to organize the cart just like I used to when I was little.  He makes me hand him the items and then he arranges them very neatly in the cart.
 The kids finding their inner Rachelle during Cosmic Yoga.
 
During Grant's T-ball games I take a few girls on nature walks to the creek.  
 Some pretty flowers Ava picked on one of our nature walks.  Those purple flowers are all on 1 stem - so pretty.
 Springtime in California.  Wildflowers galore.

 De=junking a little in the garage and found this gem - Adam's old clogging shirt. 
  
Adam and I got to go to Scottsdale Arizona for a work retreat.  My mom came to our house to watch the kids (thanks again mom).  They LOVED it and had a blast with her!  
This was our hotel.  To be honest I don't see the draw to Scottsdale, but the hotel was super fancy and had lots of swimming pools, so nothing else really mattered.   We got to see cousin Becca and her cute family for a few hours.  She made us a yummy lunch and we got to visit with her and Caleb.  It's so fun to see her as a mom.  We always love hanging out with her.  Move to California Clarksons!!! It's way better than Arizona.  We want to be neighbors with you. :)
 While Adam attended seminars in the mornings, I went explored the property.  They have a cactus nature walk that helped me see that cactus can be beautiful (in it's own way).

 Saguaro Cactus.  Didn't realize that this type of cactus can ONLY grow in Arizona.  We learned a lot about this cactus on some of our excursions.


 Looks like baby pineapples.

Our first excursion was a river rafting trip.  It was more of a float. Completely flat water, not a single rapid to speak of. HA!! :)  Our boat decided to liven things up a bit and started a water fighting war with all the other boats.  We ended up being the target to many water fights and got drenched by the end.  It was fun.   We saw some wild horses and learned a bit of history about the area. 
My favorite part about these trips is obviously being pampered and given gifts, but mostly I love to see what type of food they serve.  I appreciate good food!   It's nice to have every  meal prepared wonderfully for you, and not have to worry about cleaning or any responsibilities for a few days.  One night is the awards ceremony, so everyone gets all fancy and we eat fancy food.  The decorations are always over the top and the food is amazing (the Tiffany necklace was a nice touch too).  Actually, probably my absolute favorite part of these trips is talking to the other guests about where they live.  They come from all over the country, so at almost every meal or excursion, you meet people from somewhere else.  We always talk about what they like about where they live, what they don't, what their life is like there, etc.  I LOVE that part.   I am so proud of my hubby and how good he is at doing his job.  I can't remember the exact numbers, but to earn these trips you have to be the top 1% (I think, might be 2%).  Again, I could be getting the numbers wrong, but I think they said there are 15,000 employees in this department and 180 invitees to this trip.  
The awards dinner is the night for the fancy feast.  It always amazes me how many utensils, plates and goblets are set for each person.  I learned from the wine drinkers on the table what each goblet is used for.  Luckily I remembered my etiquette night from young womens, so I knew which utensils and plates were mine and when to use them.
 Adam shaking hands with all the big wigs from corporate during the awards dinner (he's on the far right with the little bald spot :)). 
 At breakfast every morning, they brought out falcons and owls to keep the pesky crows away.  They just walked around and the crows would fly away and stop trying to eat the food. 
  
 Our second excursion was horse back riding.  It was pretty slow and boring, but a couple of our guides were return missionaries from northern Utah, so we had fun talking to them about their life and future plans.  Really nice young cowboys. 
It was a nice break from reality, and fun to spend a couple days with just Adam. 
 Some sculptures in the hotel I thought Noah would find humorous.

Adam took the kids on a bike ride one evening and Ava decided she was tired in the middle of it.  Adam said she got off her bike and just laid on the ground, because she "needed to rest for a bit".  Crazy girl.
 The kids started sleeping outside.  Usually 2 of the 3 end up inside before midnight, but 1 of them usually lasts the night (Ava or Noah usually).  Well, that's April for you.  Seems like it was yesterday.  How is it JUNE already?!?!?!? 




3 comments:

Mary said...

All these pictures make me giddy just to see your family again. I can't wait to smooch your faces! Your monthly updates also make me realize that we do nothing in comparison to your family. You guys have so many picture-worthy moments. I'll try to take my camera with me to the pool once this summer because that's about all we do here.

mammasweet said...

The lego Conference Sunday brings back lots of memories. Let's keep that one going in this next generation! Glad you caught up with Becca. I saw her mom and dad a few weeks ago at Tamzon and Ross's homecoming. They're an amazing family. It was good to have you here for the baptism and to meet little Lucy. I know I shouldn't say it, but it was a nice time for Nellie to leave us. Love you!

mammasweet said...

It was remarkably good timing to have you here last week. Nellie must have been in on it somehow. You meet Lucy, you helped with Kate's baptism!

Your April was beautiful. We're glad you had a vacation with Adam - your kids are so active, it's awesome to see that you had a little rest!

It was nice that you caught up with Clarksons also.