Spring Break in St. George

Mom worked Easter weekend into the first part of Spring Break, so the family left for our vacation on Weds with Janette while Ryan drove down that night to join us for the rest of the week! This kids have fun Monday and Tuesday getting to just play with friends and not having mom telling them what to do all the time. Tuesday we meet up with Julie, Marthea and kids to play at the park and skate park along with the boys getting some baseball in! That night Tyler was busy with two baseball practices while mom and the rest of the kids enjoyed the good weather and worked out in the yard Tues night. Weds came and after we were all ready the kids and I along with Janette piled in the van off we went to St. George. After getting everything in the condo, since I swear I over pack every trip, we took the kids out to dinner at the Golden Corral and met up with Brad and Lezlee. We Don't take our kids out to eat very often so the kids were in heaven! Tyler was pounding the popcorn shrimp away while Treven was in seventh heaven since the dessert bar included cotton candy. I still can't believe Treven didn't get a sick stomach since he kept going back to the dessert bar for cotton candy and ice cream. I do believe he had one bite of his real dinner! Halle and Luke loved the cotton candy too, while Cole and Emery had fun running around and waving at all the other diners! Ryan made it down around 9 so we let the kids go down and watch a movie while the adults watch Warrior.

Thursday the kids were up early and begging to go hiking. So we took all the Strong family while Janette kept Elsie and went up to the Red Rock Canyon for a fun little hike. After hiking we took off to Brad and Lezlee's condo to swim at their pool. The wind was the only problem so the hot tub was busy with adults while the kids didn't care and kept on swimming. The kids kept asking to go back to our condo's pool since it is in the nearly dead community and most the time we are the only one's swimming so the kids love having a pool and hot tub to themselves. We swam another two hours and finally got the kids to go in so we could have dinner! After dinner we settled down again to watch a movie Extremely loud Incredibely close. I couldn't tell you anything about the movie since I fell asleep in the first 10 minutes! It has been a long time since we have had nights were we can all just sit down as a family or even Ryan and I and watch movies. It was sooo nice to be lazy at night!

Friday the weather was still good so we took the kids out to breakfast and Ryan and I's favorite place the Egg and I. The service was so slow that Emery got hungry and bored and started eating jelly packets! Tyler loved the place and even ate most of his "adult" meal! I guess since he is turning 12 this week he will finally be off the kids menu! After breakfast we were off to the narrows and rock climbing by what Treven kept tellings us was the D-I-X-I-E hike. Since the dixie is written on the side of the rock we climb. Since it was only midday we did a little shopping and then met up with the Strong's to go to Feista Fun for some go cart racing, golfing, arcade games, and bumper boats! We did a little bit more shopping and then got an ice cream and headed back to the condo for dinner and more movies. We watched the Princess Bride and Halle now tells me that this is her favorite movie!

Saturday was a wet and rainy day so we tried to sleep in, I went to the temple and then we met up again with the Strong family to go to the indoor pool at the Washington Rec Center. It was awesome! The kids swam for over three hours having a blast going down the slides, playing tag, Luke and Halle were mermaids/mermens, and a lot of swimming, swimming, swimming! Afte swimming we went back to get to change to go out to dinner at the Pizza Factory with the Strong family and then back to the condo so we could get the kids all settled so Ryan and I could go out to see The Hunger Games. Thank you Tyler and Janette for babysitting.

Sunday came to fast and so while Ryan took the kids to breakfast and to visit a bunch of parks, mom got the condo all cleaned up and then it was back to Springville we went and back to real life! It was a great family trip and we all had a blast getting to just be together as a family.

What happens when mom is at work......

For some reason Emery was having a hard time going to the bathroom and I couldn't figure out why she was so constipated until I saw a picture that Ryan posted. This is how Ryan does dinner when mom is working. Emery is truly her dads girl and loves meat and cheese just like daddy. No matter what Ryan is eating emery crawls up on the table and has to make dad share with her.

The Averett Easter egg hunt

After church it was time for grandma and grandpa averetts Easter egg hunt. The kids love the money eggs and all the candy the want. With grandma and grandpa's Easter money emery got Thomas the tank engine toy, Halle got a Barbie, while the boys pooled their money to get some Legos. The kids loved finding their eggs and all emery kept asking was for mor eggs!

Easter morning

Our silly Easter rabbit likes to play tricks at our house. He doesn't like to leave the kids baskets but hides them and leaves eggs with clues to the baskets location. the kids live the treasure hunt every year, and this year the baskets were hidden under neath the stairs. The kids then got ready in their new Easter clothes and it was off to church except for the moody soon to be 12 year old who wasn't happy about his shirt and didn't let me get a picture of him in his Easter clothes!

Treven and his wolf badge

I was every hesitant to take my calling as wolf den mother last year since I am not a big scouter but it has turned out to be one of my favorite callings! Having Treven and all his friends in the den have made it even more fun to get to have activities with this great group of boys each week. Treven got his wolf badge at the end of march and was very excited, now mon just has to remember to put it on his shirt since his bobcat badge took me over a month to finally put on his shirt.

Averett cousins in town!

The averett cousins had spring break this last week so they came down to Utah to vacation in springville, the kids that is while Kim and ryan had a little alone time in st. George for a couple of days, and then it was off to Zion's and the grand canyon with grandma and grandpa in tow. My kids were in heaven and counted down the days for when they would get here. They came in last Saturday and jackie, Megan, and kenadi got to play for just a little bit since they were up here for the day. Earlier Jackie , Megan, kenadi grandma, and I went and saw beauty and the beast at the capital theater. Jackie is a sweetheart and has become a season ticket holder so we have been really lucky to go and have girls outings to some awesome plays. Thank you jackie! After the play we went back down to springville to sit around and talk together while the kids played until it was time for jackie to go. I really hate that part of having my brother and sister not live around here it makes all the times you get to see each other mean that much more. Kim and Ryan left early Sunday morning and that was when the marathon cousin playing began. They played all Sunday either outside on the plasma cars, pretending to be orphans, baseball, my favorite game when the averetts are in town greed, and then ended the day with a sleepover at grandmas. Ryan was sick all weekend so it was a good thing I lived at my moms for the next few days. Monday I let my kids miss school and we went down to jumping jacks were the kids played for over 3 hours. Then we left the littler ones while my mom and dad, Rachel, Matthew, Tyler, and I went and saw the movie the hunger games which I loved the books and loved the movie. Tues the kids had to go to school but I took Rachel and Matthew over to the temple to do baptism for the dead while emery, Andrew, josh, and I went to the mall to ride the train and play at the playground for a little bit. After that it was back to grandmas and when school was out the rest of my kids joined the fun until it was time to go home and time for them to leave the next day to join Kim and Ryan.. It was a blast having them here for a couple of days.