Drew's Grad trip

In April we drove down to Utah to watch my brother Drew graduate from BYU.  Way to go Drew!  Ironically I don't have any pictures of that event, but I do have lots of other pictures from the trip.
We caught up with our friends, the Middlemiss family.  It was great to see them again!  We met at a park, although I didn't get any pictures with them:

This thing spun around so we were trying to brace Conner in it so that we could spin him all the way around:

Success!:

Then we went to Scheels with Drew and Brittany and Grandma and Grandpa P. 

Alan posing with the bear:

Brittany and Alan having fun on the ferris wheel:

Grandma and Grandpa and Micah.  Micah had a knuckle-white grip on that bar:

Love this picture!:

 

Micah let go long enough to give a small wave:

 

One of the mornings when we came down for breakfast there was a man there making balloon animals for the kids.  He made some really incredible things:

Alan got a sword and sword holder:

Conner got a Santa hat and a dragon (I have never seen such detailed balloon animals):

It started as a crocodile and then, because there were no other kids, and my kids were absolutely enthralled, he took it back and added to it to make the dragon:

Micah didn't request anything in particular so the guy first made him a cool hat.  Then he told Micah he had something else for him and just started to make it without telling Micah what it was going to be.  Well, Micah watched very intently until suddenly he yelled in amazement "It's a dragonfly!"  The guy got a big smile on his face, when Micah recognized it.

Side view:

Brooklyn requested a pink and purple butterfly and then the guy added a cute little penguin:

 

A few other tidbits about the trip:

- we enjoyed the hotel pool at lot and went swimming a few times

- we went to eat at an Indian Restaurant and it was delicious!

- after we went swimming one time I brought Micah and Brooklyn back to our hotel room to get showered.  I got Brooklyn's swimming suit off and then she got really mad at me (can't remember why).  I walked into the bathroom to start the water and I heard Micah yell "Mom, Brooklyn ran outside!"  Yup, she sprinted up the hallway in her birthday suit and I went chasing after her, yelling at her to come back.  That just made her run faster and she made it around the corner and almost all the way to the end of the hall before I caught her.  Luckily there was only one guy in the hall and he looked pretty amused. 

- Reed and Conner met us down there the next day.  Actually they drove through the night and made it to the hotel around 4 am.  I think Reed was trying to match my crazy stunt from a month earlier.  When I went to my Grandma's funeral on Easter weekend we looked up flights and found a cheap flight but the catch was it didn't tell you the times of your flights.  So my return trip flight landed me in Billings at 1 in the morning.  I had to make it home that night so that Reed could go to work so I drove home that night and made it home by 5 am.  Then I slept for a couple of hours and got up for the day.

- the morning after Reed got there we both woke up around 7 and when I looked over at the bed next to me I realized Brooklyn was gone.  Wow, talk about a way to get your heart pumping in the morning!  I jumped out of bed but she wasn't anywhere in our hotel room.  So I ran into the hall and luckily I saw her down the hall, talking to a lady.  Aaahh, so scary!  So after that we made sure we talked to her about staying in our hotel room and put the safety lock on the door at night (I think she could still open it but at least it would slow her down).  So that was our fun, crazy weekend! 

Hair cutting incident #2

At the beginning of April I gave the boys haircuts.  After I was done I didn't put the bag of scissors and clippers away.  Instead I showered the kids and put them to bed, and then I put the stuff away.  Well the next day I was doing something and I found a chunk of very blond hair in Brooklyn's room.  I went and looked closely at her and realized that she was missing a pretty good sized chunk of hair.  I asked her about it and she denied that it belonged to her.  After some more talking she admitted that she cut her hair.  She showed me how she took the scissors out of the bag, hid in Alan's closet and cut her hair.  Then she quietly returned the scissors to the bag.  I found quite a bit of hair in Alan's closet.

The first strand that I found in her closet: 

Now her hair is a lot thinner on one side - silly girl!

Easter 2016

We started Easter off with Micah's preschool going to visit a nursing home.  The kids sang some songs for the residents and then put on a fashion show.  The younger siblings were allowed to participate.  They are a good looking group!:

L-R: Peyton, Sam, Xander, Brooklyn, Ruth, Emmi, Micah

front row: Kai, ?



Micah being presented:

Brooklyn being presented:

Singing one of the songs:

 This Easter was different than all of the others.  My Grandpa Elzea passed away in January and my Grandma Elzea passed away shortly before Easter and they decided to have her funeral on Easter Monday.  Reed and I decided that I would fly to California for the funeral and Reed would take the kids to his parents and spend Easter with them.

Here is one of my planes:

I missed the kids but I am so glad I was able to go to both of the funerals.  I got to meet some of my relatives on my mom's side of the family that I haven't seen in a really long time and I was able to reconnect with my Aunt and Uncle and some of my cousins.  We were figuring that before this trip, the last time I had seen them was when I was about 16, which was a long time ago!  I stayed at my Aunt and Uncle's house while I was there and it was nice to just visit.  I also heard some fun stories about both of my grandparents that I had never heard before. 

One of the display tables at my Grandpa's funeral:

Having Grandma's funeral so close to Easter made me really think about why we have Easter.  I am grateful for the gospel and the promise of forever families and especially for my Savior who made it all possible!

It sounds like Reed and the kids had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa Bassett's.  Reed made sure to take pictures so that I could still see what Easter was like for them. 

Conner found his Easter basket:

Looks like Conner is cheering Micah on:

Found it!:

Brooklyn found her basket:

Hunting for eggs:

 

Ready for church on Sunday:

Family Snowshoeing Trip

 In March we rented snowshoes from the forest service office and took the kids up into the mountains to go snowshoeing.  The experience was met with mixed reactions:

Here we are at the beginning of the trail, ready to go:

Brooklyn lasted for about 100 feet.  Then she sat down and wouldn't go any further.  Heading up the trail:

She spent the rest of the trip on Reed's shoulders:

Alan loved it and begged to go further up the trail.  Here he is taking a break while we wait for everyone else to catch up:

Micah was not a fan.  After we first strapped his feet into the snowshoes he tried to take a step and promptly fell over.  After I helped him up he looked down at his snowshoes and said with great emotion "This is the WORST".  We convinced him to give it a chance and he did okay for a while but he was definitely the first one to ask to go back:

Conner enjoyed it for a while but he was ready to go back by the time we made it to the lookout.  Here he is throwing a snowball off the look out:

Cute Brooklyn on the bench at the look out:

Nice to see Micah's happy smile:

Conner:

 Alan:

Proof that I was there!:

Reed, kneeling so I can see the view behind him:

 Overall it was a fun trip and we will probably try it again next year!