Easter

The night before Easter Andrea and I left the eggs we had all dyed on the back porch so the Easter Bunny could hide them during the night.

Andrea woke up Sunday morning to find a note from the Easter Bunny on Mommy and Daddy's bedroom door. The note told her to look in the fridge. The fridge note told her to look on the front door. The front door note told her to look in the laundry room, and that note told her to look in the office. When she looked in the office chair she found her Easter basket.

In her basket the Easter bunny left a digital camera, a monkey nightgown, pez, chocolate bunnies, and some light up gummies.

We enjoyed some Easter Bunny pancakes, an idea I got of pinterest.

Then Andrea went outside to hunt for her eggs.

We both put on our coordinating Easter dresses and headed to church. This one was a special Sunday in more than one way, my Mom was visiting, and I was sustained as Primary President with Amy B and Michela F as my counselors. I am pretty terrified of my new calling. I love working in the Primary, but now I will have to delegate to adults, and I don't like conflicts, which I'm sure are inevitable. It was a pretty special moment though having my husband and brother in the circle to set me apart.

After chuch I started preparing for Easter dinner. I had invited all of our local family over for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. Luckily, my mother in law and sister in law helped with food, or I would have been very overwhelmed. We had the traditional Easter meal, Ham, potatoes, jello, and deviled eggs.
The kids really enjoyed the Easter egg hunt, it was pretty funny watching them run around in a big hurry, when there are only three kids there wasn't much reason to rush, but instinct kicks in I guess.

It was nice my Mom was able to visit. She had traveled to Phoenix with my brother Brent to attend her sister Colleen's funeral and then drove back with him to spend a few days with us. She also got sick along the way and ended up with Broncitis and an eye infection. So it wasn't as much fun for her as it could have been. This week Andrea has been sick too, but it's tough to say if she got it from Grandma or not, at least the doctor said it wasn't Broncitis.

I always regretting not getting a picture of Grandma when she visits, so at least I got one this time!

Cedar City

Taking trips to Cedar City during General Conference has recently become a tradition. It's a good weekend to go since we don't have any Sunday obligations. This time it worked out even better since Ryan's cousin would also be visiting from North Carolina. The last time we saw Stephanie and her family was at Andrea's blessing in 2009.

Friday night we arrived in Cedar City and Matt and Sara had a nice home cooked meal waiting for us. We had a pretty relaxing Friday night just watching the kids ride bikes in the driveway til it got dark. Meryn had outgrown her old bike with training wheels and passed it onto Andrea. Andrea did really well, but looked a little too grown up for me!

The kids all snuggled down for a movie after riding bikes.

Saturday we had a very fun-filled day starting with a visit to Discovery Park up on the hill of Cedar City, it was really windy (it was all over the state) but the kids didn't mind and it was still fairly warm. We got so many great pictures, this was the coolest park I've ever seen!

We were all a little worried Ryan would get stuck in the slide but he made it!

The three cousins

Andrea and Meryn put a show on for us at the ampitheatre

This one portrays the kids pretty well!

I love this one with Matt and Ryan in the back of the cop car.

After the park we went back to Matt and Sara's for lunch and then decided to walk down to Grandpa Ray's care center for a visit. Grandpa has been at the care center for about a week because of his heart and it's only a couple of blocks from Matt and Sara so since the weather was nice we thought it would be a good walk for all of us. Grandpa seemed in good spirits and loved us all visiting the girls even sang him a few songs which he loved.

This was the walk back from the care center, the girls needed a break.

 

By this time Saturday Gary and Linda had made the trip down, so the grown-ups took advantage of some free babysitting and headed out for a day together. Ryan wanted some photos of old buildings in the small towns dotting the southern part of the state and luckily Matt and Sara knew exactly what he was looking for. Here are a couple of the photos with some editing.

A service station in Kanarra

An old barn in Toquerville (I think)

Then we headed to a ghost town outside of Rockville called Grafton. This was where the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed but before that it was an actual town for cotton farmers. They have started a restoration process but I enjoyed walking through the unrestored buildings best. Warning, photo overload ahead:

This was the scary bridge you cross to get to Grafton. On our way there someone was filming some runners on the bridge, but the boys got some photos on the return trip.

This was the old school house which had been restored, so you could only look in the window.

This home was right next to the school and was also locked.

This house was across the way from the previous house, and we walked through this one.

Down the road a bit was this house, and in my opinion, the neatest one. It was quite large, and even had an open cellar.

An old barn next to the last house, it even had an old wagon still locked inside.

It was really fun to see the brothers bond through photography. Sara and I were often left in the car while the boys hopped out to take pictures of something they spotted. After our small towns adventure we stopped in St. George for dinner and then headed back to Cedar.

Sunday morning was pretty relaxing until it came time for Grandpa's birthday party and Easter Egg hunt. Grandpa got a field trip from the care center and the rest of Linda's side of the family came over. Matt and Sara took a tally and 24 people total were at their house. The original plan was to have the egg hunt outside but the weather didn't cooperate.



Andrea hugging her Grandpa Ray, I always regretted not getting more pictures of her with Grandma Helen, so I'm glad she is so friendly with her great Grandpa!

Another fun trip to Cedar! Can't wait for the next one, Ryan says summer but I'm thinking next General Conference :)