Easter Eggs and Sunday cuteness

A bunch of friends of ours got together to do our own Easter Egg Hunt yesterday at the park. It's honestly the first time I've taken the kids to one....isn't that pathetic?

 

Ready....set....go! The toddlers got a minute's head start.

He got the idea pretty fast.

Zenock running for some eggs. I got one of Ammon running too....but managed to just barely catch his rear end in the photo and that's it. The next camera we get will have a sports shutter option for those lightning speed kids of mine!

All done!

 

Checking out their loot with a friend.

 

 

Dying eggs...so messy!

Putting stickers on the eggs after they were all dry.

Look, it's Uranus!

The Easter Bunny loot. I have to say that the Easter Bunny was about 2 seconds from getting caught last night. I heard someone open their door and quickly went into the hall to see what they needed...it was just Zenock asking for a drink. Normally I tell him to hurry quick and get back to bed, but last night I told him he needed to get back in bed and I'd bring him one. It was soooo close! Everyone got some of their favorite snacks, a matching tie or dress for church, and a book...or in my case, three. We hit up Seagull Book while in Utah two weeks ago!

I figured out earlier last week how to get Ayla still enough to put her hair in a pony tail. I just put her in the high chair with some snacks...it works every time! I couldn't do it without a small-toothed comb and some water though! She's got very fine hair, just like me.

With her hair all done and ready for church in her new Easter dress that I made a few weeks ago.

All the troops after church today. Aren't we so cute being all matchy matchy? I know, it seems really dorky, but this is something I've wanted to do since we got married. I wonder how many more years they'll all let me get away with doing this?

Spring Break in Valley of Fire

The first Monday of spring break we took a drive to Valley of Fire State Park. We took the back road to get there, around Lake Mead. It took a very long time, but it was intresting to watch the foliage change every hundred yards or so. There are small red rock mountains mixed with meadows of sage brush, multi-colored hillsides, and lots of space. It was so open and relaxing...very nice to be out of the city for a while.

 

On the way we stopped to eat a picnic lunch at Echo Bay, on Lake Mead. We saw some road construction there, and Gideon was freaking out with excitement. There's a video of that at the end.

Ayla isn't wearing any pants because she had a blowout and I was unprepared with extra clothes.

Our first small hike was to this place, Elephant Rock.

The next stop was the Cabins. A group of three cabins built in 1935 so people coming and going to Hoover Dam would have a place to sleep.

Each cabin is one room with a fireplace in the corner. There's not much space for more than a few people.

At the visitors center we found some rocks to climb.

Holes to look in

Holes to get in

And bushes to touch.

There was even sand on the floor of some holes to play with.

Sandstone mountains were all over the place.

Petroglyphs on the Mouse Tank hike. It was about a mile round trip with lots of drawings and small caves to see.

I can't remember how old the drawings are, but I do remember how Mouse Tank was named. An Indian named Little Mouse went on a killing spree in a village and then ran from the law. He also killed two prospectors and after about six months of searching he was finally found here by a farmer.

This is the tank part. It's a little canyon-type thing that fills up with water when it rains. Because of all the holes and caverns in the sandstone mountains it acts like a water tank for a while after rainstorms. Animals come to drink here.

White Dome

I forgot what this one was called. They went up the huge staircase below to look at some petroglyphs. I was with Ayla who was sleeping.

Arch Rock

A face in the mountain we found on our way out of the park. Can you see it?

Video of the tractors.

On the wat home there where lots of dips and turns in the road. The kids thought it was hilarious.

Christmas in March?

For Christmas our "big" present for the boys were tickets to Monster Jam World Finals 2013! We FINALLY got to use them last weekend. Oh my goodness....it was so very awesome. I'm soooo glad we had the opportunity to go to this event. Having attended previous, much smaller, monster truck races in Idaho and Utah, I knew it would be very rough on me and the littler ones if they came. So we got a babysitter for them so they could keep their schedules and have fun not being scared of all the noise and having to hold still on a parent's lap for 3 hours. It was so relaxing to just be with the older boys doing something we all loved. I got seats in the middle section, in the corner of the stadium. We were on the top row, so we could see everything! The big air was the best part! Some of the wheelies were totally up in the air and amazing! Because we live only two miles from this stadium, it was a short ride home too!

Ready for the races...okay, the crashes, let's be honest.

Ammon's a good photographer, no?

Race against Monster Energy and Grave Digger the Legend.

When Monster Mutt Dalmation turned the corner her truck stopped and then caught fire. Candace, the driver was okay...but the truck wasn't! She came back for freestyle...but the truck was running really poor.

Grave Digger and Son uva Digger racing...father and son driving against each other. It was really fun to watch!

MaxD won by a nose hair...I'm not kidding. They showed the replay on the big screen.

Captain America freestyle. One of the best wrecks...in my opinion.

MaxD freestyle....so cool!!

Grave Digger the Legend. He did awesome...okay, they ALL did awesome.

Crusader freestyle

This isn't my video because our camera battery died. This was the finale for the show. MaxD won the event....again!! Apparently this truck is very good, and very popular.

Ayla and Wyatt

Wyatt is Ayla's cousin. He's three and a half months younger than her, and he is about the same size but so much chunkier than she is. Ayla loved trying to grab his face and hair.

Thanksgiving Point Dino Museum

The Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, UT was really fun for everyone. We went there Monday afternoon with Brady's brother and his family. Zenock is our dino loving kid, so he was in heaven the whole time....except when he saw the actual dino skeletons. The T-Rex's and Supersaurus below scared him the most.

Izabella and Ammon re-decorated a dino. It had two sets of body parts to arrange however you wanted to.

I took this dino bird picture for Zenock. He loves the flying dino's. He was surprized how small they were because he thought they were huge like a T-Rex.

A dino toy sand-building area was the highlight for most of the kids. Gideon went back there twice. The second time I was just following him as he roamed the halls and he went directly back to this room. I had to get in the middle of the area where littler kids can reach the sand to get him out. He and I were both frustrated at each other because he wanted to stay and I was having serious trouble getting him out of there. Above is Gabby...she's five and Zenock's best cousin/friend.

Gid was scared at first...so was Zenock

And then there's Ammon.....

The dino bone digging was at the end. Who doesn't love dirt and rocks? Brady and the older boys watched a 3D movie called the Flying Monsters after in their theater. They loved it.