Spring Break Utah Bound

On our venture to Utah traffic there and back was perfect going our direction and terrible the other way. ha.

I actually think it's easier driving alone-if I'm driving the kids have to take care of things I would normally do and they are generally more responsible and content.

But, we wish Ben could have come. work shmirk. (It's a good thing!)

Thanks to my sister-in-law's gracious in-laws we got to split up our trip. They have a beautiful home in St. George

The room we stayed in was adjacent to the living room.

That night I walked straight into the living room screen door like a bug on a windshield

and even bounced off like a cartoon. awesome.

Sooo, since I took way more pictures than is normal for one post, but I'm too lazy to make multiple posts, here's a brief explanation of our week and then a bazillion pictures.

We were able to spend the day with Ben's family before Bonnie headed out to Palm Springs.

We saw Jessi's new house, played handball, and went to "the farm" and brushed the horses. My favorite part is always just sitting and catching up.

Cody could not wait the next day to get to play with Clayton so we walked to school to get him (my elementary school:))

We dyed easter eggs, played chess, went to a fish farm, went to the zoo, rode papa Jeff's horses, had an easter egg hunt, roasted marshmallows in the backyard and the kids had a sleepover in a tent.

Grandpa beat us.

Egg dyeing prep

Macey was very meticulous and her eggs turned out beautiful.

Trout farm in North Ogden--so fun!!

So the best explanation of this is they go camping A LOT!

She was so excited to catch a fish and pick it up! Until she did!

Hogle Zoo

Success

Discovered Cody's new talent

Do you ever throw your head back when you laugh? It's really not that attractive:)

Something was hil-arious

Thanks go to Papa Jeff and Amy for carving out some time to take us horseback riding.

It's pretty much all Mackayla wanted to do when she got to Utah and it made her day.

Egg Hunt

 

My dad makes the best smoked salmon, and he made our burgers, in his green egg. This huge thing is fascinating to me. 

My parents just added this cute room to the back of their house and the floor's not in yet so there was plenty of room for a tent.

 On our way home we had a little excitement just outside of Mesquite. We drove around a hill to an empty highway and hundreds of cars pulled off to the side of the road, hundreds of people out and about 40 cop cars in the middle. Apparently this was the exchange of cattle from what one woman called the "BLM War." Luckily we got there before traffic came to a complete stand still and watched for a second then drove through. Crazy day on I-15.

I'm so glad we decided to go, kinda last minute! It's always so good to see our families.

Steph and Ryan are moving soon and I'm so glad we got to see them.

A Couple of Week Highlights

We had a cricket in our hallway wall, right by our bedroom.

It chirped endlessly every night for over a week.

I was ready to get a shotgun and start shootin down some walls.

But I read that they love molasses so we got some in a bowl with water and put it up in the attic.

I didn't hear anything last night...maybe we got him?!

We went to Disneyland to meet up with Carly!

Except...our passes weren't good that day. duh.

Pretty much our passes are only good on days that nobody else wants to go:)

Really, that's the best time to go so it's not swarming with people, but it's just on school days.

We still had fun (especially Cody) building and watching cars race at the Lego store

and eating ice cream in downtown disney!

So good to see Carly!

...who is not in these pictures. sigh.

[on bottom, second from right]

Eyeball is funny around our house because Mackayla used to say it so much. When she asked for her "eyeball" chair I knew I had to take a picture, in honor of our favorite word.

Went to a beautiful park with friends, drove around in an electric car a bit, putted on the little kid putting green and played at the playground. Fun day.

Having a phone in my pocket makes me take pictures of things I normally wouldn't.

But this is fun...Macey made me a grocery list of some things she wanted me to buy at the grocery store

including, but not limited to, GrapeNuts (her favorite cereal) and swiss cheese, her favorite cheese.

And the other pictures are from the babysitter.

We found the best babysitter in the world!

She cleaned our house -none of our other babysitters have ever done that before! It needed it since I was at the women's broadcast (loved it!) and brought her straight home with me (yikes).

She played with the kids a ton and brought activities and then made them a treasure hunt for the next morning!

They wanted to go to bed early so they could get the prize sooner:)

For our date, Ben and I went to a tiny little cafe

but I am telling you

Buy a plane ticket to San Clemente right now

and go eat there.

The Rider's Club Cafe

In a tiny converted house with like 8 tiny tables

The best part: they grind their own beef, make their own buns, make their own pickles, make their own chips and everything else is garden fresh!

After that we went to Target:)

Then we went hot tubbing.

Dating is fun.