Happy Easter!

The following images are things that make me VERY happy!:






We thoroughly enjoyed our Easter/Spring Break/Conference weekend in Sunny, Warm, and Beautiful St. George. Before I tell you about our trip, let me back track to before we left.

We colored eggs for FHE last Monday night. The kids thought it was pretty awesome. I don’t think my mom ever let me color eggs as a kid, so even though it is messy, it is something I will always let my kids do. Thank goodness it was very nice outside, so we did it on our deck, then went for a family walk to finish off the evening.:



I decided to let the kids have a friend over for Spring Break on Thursday....it was fun for them, but a little bit of bad timing on my part. Taking care of 5 kids, packing, cleaning, doing laundry, delivering dinner for my dinner group and trying to get on the road by 3...did not mix well! Thank goodness I hid those eggs we had colored and had enough food from my dinner group to keep the kids busy. The little girl with Hallie is her friend Gabby Meyer. Gavin's buddy Sam Skoy is so cute, they are becoming great friends. And Kayler was just along for the ride...making sure he got in on the fun.:





We headed out that afternoon, and had decided to break the trip up so we got a room on priceline for super cheap at the Provo Marriot. While there I was able to meet up with a friend of mine from Washington. She was in town on vacation. She was so nice and bought me dinner. Thanks Kelli!:



We had a nice night and woke up to cold weather, but the kids did SO good on the drive down. G.J. had to get after me and my lead foot, but I was so excited to get to the warmth! It was 37 degrees pretty much the whole trip. Then once we hit Cedar City it started to warm up with every mile closer we got to St. George. I would tell the kids each time the temperature got 1 degree warmer, and we did a little cheer. They thought that was great...even if it was a little cheesy!

When we got there G.J.'s parents met with us and showed us their new house which they are fixing up, got us settled in our hotel room, and then we went to the Art Festival. It was SO neat, and the kids had lots of fun....yet I am a retard and forgot my camera at the hotel. :( But trust me, it was fun!

We did lots of things, and it is all kind of a blur which day was which, so I am using the pictures I did take as a reminder. The next day we colored eggs at G.J.'s parents trailer (they aren't living in the house quite yet) Then we had a few eggs hunts around there. Kayler was so cute....the other kids were so fast, and he could hardly keep up...but he got the hang of it eventually!:







After that we met up with G.J.'s aunt and her family at a picnic at the park. Of course we had to do another egg hunt. Kayler got a little tired right in the middle and had to roll down the grassy hills. Our kids were on a permanent candy high from all the egg hunts!:









We went to the coolest furniture store that night and it was Ladies Night Out. I am guessing that they did it at that time because it was during the priesthood session of conference. Speaking of Conference, we were able to listen or watch to lots of talks on both days, and I LOVED them all. It is amazing that no matter where you are or what you are doing, just hearing/seeing the sounds of conference automatically brings tears to my eyes and gives me chills...I just love it, and can't wait to get the Conference Ensign to recap. At the furniture store there were TONS of booths offering free stuff, services, things to buy, and we had a great time-even the boys did! ;) They have a Paul Mitchell hair school, and they were doing free hairdos, so Hallie and I left with pretty wild hair, and we went to the Brick Oven for a yummy dinner:



The kids were very worried that the Easter Bunny was not going to find them in the hotel, but luckily our Easter Bunny is very tricky! ;) They were thrilled with what he brought them:




We had an Easter Dinner at G.J.'s parents place, and stopped at the coolest park:







And of course, I had to throw in a few pictures of them swimming...outside....while our poor family and friends in Vernal dealt with snow :( :




I had myself convinced that G.J. should look for a job down there and I would seriously move in a heartbeat. I absolutely hate every aspect of winter and bad weather. The drive home was LONG to say the least, but then I pulled in to Vernal and realized that we do live in a truly beautiful place...it really is, and I am grateful to be here. Spring time and warmer weather is on the way, and I just need to be patient. In the meantime, I can just look forward to the next time I go to St. George...which will probably be around late fall.

Hallie and Gavin went to stay the last night of their spring break at my parents. We have been having a ball with Kayler. He is so different when it is just him. He is so dang funny, and just getting so big. I had to take a picture of the MASSIVE mess we had after unloading the car. This is about 3/4 of the stuff we had. I can NOT believe how we had it smashed into our car!:



So tomorrow means back to real life. Cleaning, errands, church stuff....you get the drift. Vacations are always nice...but there is no place like home-winter weather and all!