spring break: part uno

since our summer vacation is pretty much non-existant (due to the masters), we decided to ditch all of our home renovations and other worries and head south to soak up some sun.

it was probably the best decision we could have made! :)

our first stop: sunny st. george, with some of the best friends we could ask for!! zach and garret are both going through the religious education program with danny...and lucky for me, their wives are awesome!! zach & krista (st. george natives) invited us all down for a little get-away, and amazingly we were able to pull it off (even with a huge paper due!) 

we left friday afternoon, and caravanned down with everybody. besides all of the crazy traffic (and almost getting run off the road by an old lady...) the drive was fantastic! the kids were glued to charlotte's web (they couldn't believe there was a movie in the car!! the borrowed dvd player was a life-saver, but i'm glad our car isn't that high-tech...max got a little too attached during our trip) and we started listening to code name: verity (a story about world war two). the drive went super quick!

after getting unpacked, we headed to zach's parent's house, where they had a cute little dinosaur egg hunt ready for them, complete with dino hats!! it was a great warm-up exercise for the real easter egg hunt we had later on in the weekend :)

and then it was swimming time!!! max & avery were so pumped (can't you tell from the pictures?? haha) they really were excited though. between the pool, trampoline, playground, good food + friends, we all had a grand time.

she's getting so grown up!!

next up: our jam-packed saturday-before-easter in st. george :)

conference weekend 2013

i look forward to conference weekend and i hope that my children are catching on to the importance of it as well! friday night i stayed up a little later getting the semi-annual conference bags ready! they are always a big hit. 

max stayed like this with penny (the doll) for a good ten minutes straight!

in between sessions:

we also tried our first star fruit! not sure if it was totally ripe, but the kids gobbled it up. we'll have to look for them again because they were so much fun (and cute!)

photo dump

i've been sorting through the hundreds of photo's i've got lying around and found a few gems (but all of them are very disconnected!) instead of making a different post for each group, i thought i'd dump them all together. enjoy! (p.s. sorry in advance for some very poor quality photos. the iPod doesn't take the best pictures ever...)

+ max & avery love cousin milo!! he is such a cutie.

+ avery struck gold while max was at playgroup: she got the entire toy box to herself!!! she was in heaven.

+ it's always more fun when uncle aaron & aunt missy are around:

+ the kids (especially max) have a blast with graunna shaunna's doll houses. max loves to cram in every bit of furniture...

+ ...kind of like how he likes to cram everything into his lightning mcqueen backpack (if he has back problems later on in life, i'm blaming this!)

+ the kids were dying to see the ducks at the byu duck pond (we see them every thursday when we drop danny off for school, but we rarely stop to feed them) so we treated them (and the ducks) to a little visit.

+ besides being totally immersed in our family, work, the master's, and home renovations...danny has somehow made time to start up and coach the boy's high school soccer team. we've gone to most of their games so far. max & avery are some of their biggest fans!!

+ we've held playgroup at our house twice over the last few months and it is always a lot of fun (especially for avery!) in february we decorated sugar cookies & had a valentine's day party and in march the boys had a blast jumping & sliding on all of the boxes overtaking our living room.

+ we've been on the waiting list for months to get into the "van gogh to playdoh" class at the museum of art in provo. the kids had such a great time & it was so very well done. they learned all about robots & even got to make their very own! avery kept calling it her "bot." ahh she's too cute.

+ spring has sprung, and with it, the kids wanted to test out papa's new putting green. they love it!!

+ my goodness i love her. this little head wrap was darling on her.

+ my good friend kim had a favorite things party and it was a huge success!! i've always wanted to try it out, and it definitely did not disappoint. i gave out these notebooks (aren't they darling?!? so mad i didn't snag one for myself! & my favorite pen), and i received some mrs. myers cleaner, dried cherries from trader joes (i think i devoured the bag in two days!), and a magnetic notepad for the fridge. 

+ on the sporadic warm days we get, we try to spend as much time as possible outside. this particular day called for a picnic in the front yard. i think the kids enjoyed themselves :)

+ and last but not least, my dear sweet friends (and old college roomies!) came down for a little brunch since linds & her hubby were passing through. we haven't been all together in years, so it was a bunch of fun. love them!!!

phew!! life is good :)