All these things I've done

On the Friday before Easter we had the cousin's Easter party and egg hunt at my Mom's house. First they had lunch and craft time. It turned into Hunter making Frankie have a crazy face time:

And what's a party at Grandma's without also jumping on Laurie's trampoline?

We have everyone bring eggs to contribute, and they are told how many to find so that they each get an equal amount. We ended up needing quite the set of instructions:

Imagine trying to explain all of that to this crew:

Frankie loved the hunting, especially finding eggs with his name on them.

We split the egg hunt up into two groups, so that the older kids could help the younger kids instead of battle them. This picture of my sisters and sister in law taking photos before the older kids could start makes me giggle. These poor children and all the picture torture we put them through. 

Usually the bunny visits our house on Saturday. But Jeremy had a night shift clinical on Friday night, and so we asked the bunny if he would wait until Sunday this year so that Jeremy could be coherent for the festivities. After Jerm got a little rest we headed to our ward party. We're not the best at attending ward parties, but I'm glad we went, since this was the last activity in our ward which was split that evening at Stake Conference. The party was held at one of the member's ranches. There was an egg hunt, animals to see, and much running around. The only pictures I took were of Frankie's first time on a horse. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time:

After the party we went to the desert for our Easter picnic and egg roll. There was much egg rolling. And egg exploding, since I couldn't get plastic wrappers on most of our eggs. (See post below.) Plus it's just fun to explode them.

We brought along our sugar cookies, and Frankie picked one out to eat for dessert. He had a few bites and then he dropped it face down in the sand. He had a melt down that was a little more dramatic the necessary, and it was funny enough that I took some pictures:

He could not be consoled or convinced that he should just pick out a different cookie. Chrissy snapped this lovely picture of me trying to brush the sand off.

 And he ate it. Sand and all. I asked him, "how's that tasting?" and I he just looked at me like this:

Before we left my Dad made the 2 little boys happy by taking them on a little ride.

That night I got to see my Daddy sing 3 solos at the Messiah sing along in the Tabernacle. It was beautiful, one of the best times I've ever heard him do it. And I have fun pretending I know how to sing the choruses. It is a neat tradition that I hope our community continues to do. Handel intended the Messiah to be performed at Easter, after all.

On Sunday morning a very excited (6:00 am excited!) Frankie came downstairs to see what the Easter Bunny had left him:

Next year we are going to request no Peeps. They look cute, but no one wants to eat them. And they shouldn't. So they just rot on the counter. We make plans to expand them in the microwave but it never happens, and eventually they go in the garbage.

Frankie collecting the bunny poop trail of jelly beans. Knightley being Knightley:

We had a delicious Easter Sunday brunch with Jeremy's family. Karen informed us that Frankie had chastised her the night before for not coming to the ward party. Funny kid.

......

This year as we went through our festivities, I thought a lot about last year. Last Easter was the turning point, it was the day I knew that I wasn't going to "just get better."  I've thought a lot about the resurrection, and what it means to me on so many different levels. It means a body that doesn't need medications to be healthy. It means being with loved ones forever and understanding all that's happened in this life. It's all due to Jesus Christ. He lived, died, and rose again. He did all of it for us - for me- and because of that, I can always have hope. I can always be happy.

Frankie in his Easter best, ready for stake conference.

Rose Colored Times

Easter projects:

We colored eggs at my Mom's, in the back yard, with Chrissy, Tayden, Jarek, Kate, my Mom, and Mayzie. Frankie is in one of Kate's old shirts, because being the brilliant Mother that I am, I brought my child to this event in good clothes.

Egg dying is an art form with my family. It's all about the electric tape. This is the first year Frankie got into it a bit more. But he still is more interested in quantity then quality. He ended up dying a lot of eggs, which I figured would be fine, because we would put the plastic wrapper things on them later and use them for rolling at our picnic. But the wrappers wouldn't fit! What is that about? Did I buy freakishly large eggs this year?

Final pictures of our work. Frankie was being difficult about being in the pictures, but I love the blue eyes, anyway. We also made sugar cookies, of course. We are getting our money's worth out of the big set of cookie cutters that I found last year.

Frankie also got an awesome package from one of his Great Grandmas. He loves getting things in the mail and she is so awesome to send him packages when she can. It had LOTS of treats in it. We used some on the cookies, and shared with cousins. The Easter grass and the box were very entertaining to him in and of themselves.

Look how it shines for you

Around here this month:

Volleyball-ing

(Jeremy and his partner took 4th place at the Spring Opener Tournament in the highest division.)

Jake and the Neverland Pirates

We sing the songs. We live the dream. Kennadi is a much better Izzy then me.

Frankie has been doing some serious painting in my our studio. 

His very own easel (or weasel as he says) is going to be arriving soon.

This years patio garden is planted and blossoming:

Frankie loves the garden too, and took these pictures. He is brilliant. Have I mentioned that?

p.s. Happy Easter!

Even if I could travel back

I'm finally getting around to blogging our trip to Salt Lake City at the end of March.

We didn't leave until pretty late Tuesday night, because we had to wait for Jeremy to finish class. Frankie was so excited to go, and the whole evening was running around wearing his little backpack with the few things he had packed into it. It was a long drive, I drove the last leg so Jerm could get a little rest. The construction in Utah Valley was very scary in the wee hours of the morning with no one to follow. Eventually a semi truck passed me and I followed him the rest of the way. Otherwise I'm not sure I would have made it.

On Wednesday morning, Jeremy had a clinical at the U of U burn unit. He had to do this clinical regardless, so that's why we had decided to make a trip of it. Jerm left for his clinical very early. When we got up Frankie and I first had continental breakfast. This is going to sound silly, but one of my favorite parts of this trip was going to the little lobby in our jammies and having breakfast with Frankie. He got such a kick out of picking what he wanted and choosing a place to sit. That first day we made friends with a man name Binny because Frankie insisted we sit by him. Frankie talked his ears off, and he was kind to oblige.

After breakfast we got ready and went adventuring. The weather said it was supposed to be pleasant all the days we were there, but this first day was cold. I wished I had brought us slightly warmer layers. Nonetheless, we went and waited for Trax.

After a bit of confusion (so I admit, I forgot you have to push the button to get your doors to open at your stop. It's been a long time) we got off at our stop and headed to the LDS art and history museum. It was fun to see some of the history. Frankie is quite fascinated by the diorama models. And there was some cool art, especially a new painting by one of my favorite artists: Walter Rane.  Eventually we headed to the children's exhibits.

First there was a quilt display area where you could make your own quilt on the wall. Frankie made a city and a tanker truck pumping gas to a gas station. He's been fascinated by those lately. The truck is at the very top above his head.

In the Book of Mormon exhibit, the first thing you saw was "Nephi's Boat." We spent the majority of our time here, because there was fishing with a magnetic pole involved.

I was really impressed with this exhibit, plus it was free! I think it was also good to be there on a weekday morning because it wasn't very busy. Here is Frankie in front of his building made from giant, soft building blocks and finding eggs under the chickens.

Jeremy came and picked us up at lunch time, and we went to the Macaroni Grill. (We pretty much can't resist eating here if we are near one. And the downtown Salt Lake location is the best.) It was a lovely lunch, except that I spilled a full cup of water on myself and all over. The waiter asked if I needed a kids cup. Perhaps I do.

We had group nap time that afternoon, but my boys out slept me. We had made it to SLC with no memory card for our SLR, so I decided to venture out and find one. As I drove down 300 West towards the Wal Mart I used to frequent, what did I come upon but a shiny new Target. I was quite content to just wander the place for an hour or so. It was huge and so empty. It made me pine for a better Target in St. George.

Jeremy called me when they woke up and I headed back. We had some snacks we had brought for dinner, and then we got in the car not totally sure where we would go. We decided to try the Museum of Natural History at the U. After finding parking, paying the meter, and walking quite a ways to the museum, we discovered it is closed and moving to a new location. Nice. We decided to go to temple square instead, even though it was chilly.

I love the Salt Lake temple. I take lots of pictures of it. I can't help it.

The Visitors centers were fun. Frankie really, really liked all the escalators in Salt Lake. He would probably be content to take an escalator tour of the country.

The next morning we decided to give the Living Planet Aquarium a go. We got there a few minutes before it opened, and there was a line of 30 people waiting at the doors. I'm still a little baffled by this, apparently it's a happening place. Overall it was well done and there was a good variety of animals; but for the price of the ticket it was really small, crowded, and loud. We were in and out of there in an hour and 15 minutes.

Frankie had some spending money, and just like in California one of his favorite things was spending it. He purchased 2 more sets of little plastic sea animals. We have many, many little plastic animals and insects at our house. He plays with them every day.

We decided on P.F. Changs for lunch. Our waiter and waitress were really accommodating to Frankie. I was impressed. (Embarrassing moment of lunch: someone busing a table nearby dropped some dishes, and Frankie says very loudly, "he's clumsy like you, Mommy!" referencing my water spill the day before.) After lunch we had thought about the zoo, but Jerm was really tired and didn't want to brave it. Plus it's off season so they weren't doing any shows. So we went to the gateway (escalators!) and the planetarium. The highlights were seeing the camping and fishing stuff at Dick's Sporting Goods, and the Newton Motion machine at the planetarium.

 

Me and Frankie being Martians on Mars.

Frankie and Jerm walking the moon. 

That night we went up to see Jessica, Jon, Lucas and Akaylia. We got to visit, eat the yummy dinner they kindly made us, and go play while Lucas had soccer practice. It was very good to see them, their giant dog, and all the work they've done on their house.

On our last day we decided to splurge and have Breakfast at the cafe in the Little America. This was an expensive meal and it wasn't worth it, I don't think we'll do that again. I wish I would have had one more little breakfast in the lobby with Frankie, instead.

We drove down to Lehi, where we first checked out Cabelas. We got to see them feed the Trout goldfish. The poor goldfish live for about 1 second once they hit the water. Then we went to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. We were at the museum at a good time, it wasn't very crowded. It is definitely a worthwhile stop in Northern Utah. The full size skeletons are amazing, the displays and interactive activities are well done.

We could have played at this sand/water table all day.

We had lunch at Thanksgiving Point, and started our trek home. It was such a fun trip. Frankie is at a fun age for traveling. He's low maintenance, and so excited to see and do everything.