Easter

For the past couple of Easters, we have been out of town, traveling for spring break. This year, we had a pretty quiet one here at home. Both ways are nice, for different reasons. It was obviously more relaxing and easier to get everything ready here at home. But I missed spending time with Christian and Mandi's family (which we've done for the past couple of years). And now they're moving back out west. We'll miss them! And might have to add an extra leg on to our road trips.

It was raining on the day before Easter, so we had our Easter egg hunt inside. We were a little disappointed...until we thought of all the great hiding places inside the house. We made it extra challenging for the kids, which was fun...for us.

Does this candy look familiar? 

Birthday party leftovers.

It was great to be in our own ward for Easter Sunday, too.

And we got to sing a song we loved with the choir.

And after church, the kids got to play with these...

super cuddly baby bunnies.
What a fun Easter treat.

We took some pics in the backyard in our Easter finery.

(minus Brandon's tie...he apparently can't wear it for an extra ten minutes)

We colored Easter eggs.

Paas let me down this year.

I used vinegar like I always do, but the colors were not very vivid.

Boo.

We spontaneously invited Michael and Shelley and their kids to join us for Easter dinner.

So fun.

What April Looks Like

I got to spend a beautiful Saturday morning with this cutie pie

while her parents were in the temple.

And her mom made me THIS in appreciation.

Wow. 

These dirty hands mean...

 it was time to plant the garden!

While Andrew is waiting for his back to be in tennis-playing shape,

our latest favorite date has been going on nature walks.

 We saw lots of reminders of the brutal winter.

 And tiny signs that spring was on its way.

It's not every day you see a boy just chillin

on top of a 10 foot wall. 

 

 Whit's friend was baptized and she asked Whitney to speak at the service.

So happy for her.

Linville Falls

And...our last spring break day trip: Linville Falls. We met Destinee and her kids up in the mountains for an awesome hike. We had never been there, but had a great time and would love to take Andrew back.

We had a picnic and visited. The big kids came up with tribes and were trying to recruit each other. The three little girls walked around singing songs from Frozen.

 Our hiking crew.

Both trails are short and very manageable for kids.

They were off! 

And after a quick .4 mile hike,

  a beautiful payoff.

Mason and Brandon are brotherless cousins

who always look forward to having another boy around. 

Poor Whitney assumed that since we were meeting up with Avery,

we would be doing a kid swap. Unfortunately, we were not.

They had to make the best of their half day together.

You can take a different trail and catch this view:

Gorgeous. 

But these little two-foot stone walls are the only things

keeping you from plunging to your death! Yikes!

After we were done hiking, Destinee showed us two fun places to stop on the way home.

The first was this cute cheese store where we were introduced

to the deliciousness of cheese curds. Yum.

 The girls tested out the rockers on the front porch.

The second was "Dots Dario" a very random and yummy ice cream shop.

After finishing off our yummy treats, we gave hugs and headed home.

It was not our usual big-trip spring break, but we still managed to create fun memories together.