Easter Sunday

With conference being on Easter, Wendell was home all day and we got to sleep in a little. The kids thought it was awful we made them wait until 8:00 am. The anticipation is always the best. Tyler got up right away and got dressed before he even looked for 1 egg.

The Easter Bunny came and Emily was happy to see he found Zhu Zhu pets for her. I must say they are very annoying, but don't smell like the real things---a good trade off for this house.

The Easter Bunny found a great sale at the Weber bookstore and bought everyone sweatshirts.

Tyler looks ready for anything.

Emily forgot about finding eggs for a while and just chased her "hamsters" all over the house. That really was a hunt---except for the fact that they make really weird noises. I had no idea they sound like cows and horses.

Tyler was all about getting all the eggs and making sure everyone had all they had dyed. We did lose 2 and found them a week later. You would think the smell would have gotten to us before then? After they rummaged through their baskets, we had Grandma and Grandpa Rich over for breakfast and to watch the morning conference. The kids do sit a little better when other people are over.

In between conference sessions we headed to a park for Mammy's Easter egg hunt. This year Emily, Megan and Tyler got to hunt with the adults.

Wendell planning his hunting strategy. There is a golden egg for whoever finds all their eggs first.

Hunting for eggs in the huge grassy area. Wendell was the winner this year. After the hunt we headed to watch more conference and then have dinner at Mammy's. We had a great day!

Ladies Night + Tyler!

With Easter being on Conference weekend, we celebrated the night before with Ladies' Night at Deseret Book. Mammy, Grandma Grace, and I were so excited for Ladies' Night that we were some of the first 100 people in the door of the store and won stationery sets. They then had drawings throughout the night for other prizes. We ate at the Pizza Factory next door and ran back and forth during the drawing times. I actually got drawn and won a book and gift certificate. Margaret's name was drawn for a book also.








After winning, the kids went to Fat Cats for a few minutes before the grand prizes.

I love this picture of Megan and Tyler awaiting the next name to be called. Unfortunately we didn't win the grand prizes, but we sure had fun.














Grandma Grace's name was finally called at the end of the night. We were excited she won Fablehaven, but she wasn't as thrilled since she hasn't read them. Now we can't wait for October.

Worn Out!

Tyler rarely takes a nap. But, on Saturday afternoon after dying eggs he crashed! It must have been the sleep-overs and the playing and the movies and the climbing and the skating and the.... Good thing school starts again on Monday!

Colored Eggs!

We knew Spring Break was almost over when it finally came time to dye Easter eggs. Emily had bought the dye kit when they first appeared in stores and couldn't wait to do the "glitter" eggs.

Emily and Megan were careful and made sure they had at least one of every color. They colored their eggs with crayons and really went to town.

Megan was finally half way done. This was a very long project.

Tyler didn't want any decorations or extra things on his eggs. He just wanted them nice and dark which takes a long time.

The eggs turned out great! Too bad no one in our family likes hard-boiled eggs. We always throw them all out. It does make it nice for the Easter bunny who doesn't care how long they have been out of the fridge. Side Note: Don't buy the glitter egg kit. Just use glitter from home. It wasn't worth the extra $1.

Girls' Day Out!

During Spring Break, Megan and Emily wanted to go an get pedicures. And so with Mammy, we all headed to the salon to be pampered. (Thanks to Cade who entertained Tyler for the entire day and night so we could have our day out). This is the before picture taken of all our toes. The winter was hard on our tootsies.

Megan posing in the giant massage chair.

Emily had a hard time picking a color for her toes. There were just too many to choose from. She and Megan ended up with 2 colors and Mammy and I went bold with a dark burgundy.

All lined up and ready to go. The chair was gigantic for Emily and the massage action bounced her head most of the time. Nothing is better than a back massage and foot massage at the same time.

Good thing Emily wasn't any shorter. Her legs barely reached across the water.

And the final results. Our feet were nice and soft and perfectly polished. Too bad it was practically snowing that day. After our pampering it was off to lunch and shopping. A great girls' day out!

Megan wanted to show a close-up of her flower on her big toe. Emily's and Mammy's flowers look just like it. I didn't go with a flower. The bright color was enough change for me.

Spring Break 2010!

On day 2 of Springbreak, the wind was blowing so hard we had to think of something to do indoors. We started off thinking we would head to the children's museum, but Megan and Tyler got side-tracked at the climbing wall nearby. We weren't sure how well they would all do, especially Emily, but they insisted that was what they wanted to do. Here are the 3 with their climbing gear on ready to attack the walls.

Wendell and I were the belayers at the bottom and had to keep the tension strong as each one climbed a little higher.

Tyler was a little hesitant at first, but got a little higher each turn.

Megan, of course, went at the walls full force. She reached the top of the "easy" wall and set her sights on the walls with outcroppings.

Emily's first try only got her about 4 feet off the ground.

Tyler's favorite part was the descent and dangling above our heads.

After much determination, Emily actually made it to the top of the wall. She just wouldn't give up. We were all pretty impressed considering we didn't even think she would make it half way.

Megan tried and tried to get over some of the harder routes, but just couldn't make it. Mostly Wendell and I were just so tired of holding the ropes. It actually was a workout for our arms. After over 2 hours, we told the kids their climbing time was over. I think they could have gone on for the rest of the afternoon. It really was a fun afternoon.

During a break in the weather during the week, our ward also had its annual Easter egg hunt and soup dinner. There were a lot of people who turned out for free candy and dinner.

This is the line-up before the o.k. was given to hunt out the eggs.

Emily waited patiently and then had to join with the older kids for the hunt.

Emily was happy with 5 eggs.

Megan and Tyler scoured the yards looking for all they could. This is the last year Megan gets to hunt. Next year, she will be in Young Women's and has to hide the eggs.

Tyler showing off his finds.

On the 3rd day of Spring break, snow hit the ground. With snow, the kids decided it was the perfect day to ice skate. We were 4 of about 10 people on the ice. It really was the perfect day to skate without worrying about getting run over by really fast skaters.

Megan is getting to be quite the iceskater and Emily did manage to leave the wall by the end of the session. Maybe one year the weather will actually be warm during a springbreak in Utah!

Day at the Farm and Salt Lake

Knowing that we only had 1 good day of weather during our spring break, the kids decided to visit Wheeler Farm and Temple Square last Monday. None of us had ever been to Wheeler Farm and we had no idea what was even there. We started by looking at the small (small is the operative word) museum about pioneer life at the farm.

Megan tried her hand at playing this old, old piano in the museum. We made it through the exhibits in about 10 minutes and then went out to see the animals. That was the real reason Emily wanted to go to the farm.

Tyler isn't as excited about the animals. He mostly just stood back and watched them.

Emily and Megan tried to pet and touch all of them.

Feeding the ducks and geese was the highlight.

Tyler just loved climbing on all the old equipment and cool trees.

We took a wagon ride around the farm. It is actually about 2 miles wide and deep. Who would have guessed that much land was still in downtown Salt Lake.

Emily and Megan were fascinated by the pigs.

It was a fun place to visit. Emily was a little disappointed she couldn't milk the cow. We just didn't want to wait 5 hours to let her do it. I guess we'll have to go back.

After the farm we headed in to downtown to visit the church history museum.

The kid section is always a favorite at this museum. This is Emily pretending to be worn out from holding onto the iron rod. She does love to be dramatic and have an audience.

This bean bag game was a highlight.

All the flowers were out in force around the temple for conference. We had a fun time together as a family and enjoyed having no crowds on our day off.