Spring Break 2012!

Sweet Kaye and Allan offered their cabin to our family to use over spring break.  So we had to take advantage of the offer. The W's were on spring break the week before us so they came up on Wednesday with Mom and Dad.  Our spring break is next week so we ended up coming to the cabin on Friday. We were going to spend Friday night with Matt but things changed and we came up Friday instead of Saturday to bring Mom some medicine.  Marilyn drove up with me.  I loved talking to her and it made the drive go by quickly.  We made it to the cabin just as it was getting dark.  Bud's family came up Friday night too.  We loved having all the cousins play together.  The Easter Bunny came during the night and left baskets out for Saturday morning.  The kids were so excited that the Easter bunny found us.  He left lots of eggs and candy for the kids to find.  He even hid some jelly beans in the rocks around the fire place.  Grandpa made his yummy french toast for breakfast!!!  It's one of my favorite things for breakfast.

 

Fun with the cousins.  Michael, Uncle Brandon, Maddy, Chase, Bridger and Karly playing iPad games.  Uncle Brandon always finds the best iPad games!

Grandma R had the kids make a bunny using a paper plate.  Bridger's bunny is very colorful.  

Kite flying quickly became one of our favorite activities.  Grandpa R. brought up his new Star Wars box kite.  The boys thought it was awesome!!!  The wind just wasn't consistent.  It was never enough to keep the kites up in the air for longer than a couple of minutes.  But we sure had a fun time trying.  

It's a happy picture of Caleb!!!!

Julie and Aliyah are best friends.  When Shantelle and Robby arrived, Julie came running up to the car yelling "Aliyah! Aliyah!!!!"  They play so sweetly together.  

We decorated Easter eggs during the afternoon.  Mom cooked 3 dozen eggs so there were plenty of eggs for everyone to decorate.  At the end of it, Dad did his tradition and taught the kids how to make speckled eggs (with oil).  We had lots of fun combinations.

We had a great Easter egg hunt.  There were lots of eggs to be found around the yard.  Some eggs were hid in tricky places.  But everyone found lots of eggs so no one was in need of candy by the end.

I love this picture of Marilyn.  During the egg hunt, I was busy taking pictures and trying to keep up with the kids.  I looked up at Marilyn standing on the porch with pure joy on her face.  It made me stop and soak up the moment.  Life is filled with little moments and we need to stop and enjoy them.  How wonderful to be in beautiful B.L. surrounded by family!!!  The picture of Mom and Dad is another one of my favorite pictures.  When Mom and Dad went to New Zealand on their trip, some of the natives would take pictures like this.  So Dad thinks that it is so funny to pose like this for pictures.  It cracks me up when they do this!  

We celebrated Maddy's 10th birthday on Easter.  She wanted chocolate cupcakes with blue icing.  We gave her the peace shirt that she is wearing.  When I saw the shirt at Target, I knew I had to get it for Maddy because it just looks like her.  It's her favorite color and she's all about the peace sign right now.  She's getting so grown up.  Her big birthday present was a ticket to go see Wicked in August.  She knew that other members of the family were going but Rob and Mylissa had told her it was too expensive.  So when she opened her card telling her she was going to Wicked, she started to scream and jump up and down.  It was priceless!

Chase brought up his mini fusball game.  We had lots of competitions playing this game.  It was so much fun! I loved watching Chase and Grandpa play.  They played the best 2 out of three games and Chase barely won!  Grandpa was a good sport.  

Saturday afternoon Bud's family went home.  We were so glad they came up even if it was for a short time.  Mylissa's family was going to go home Sunday but they decided to spend the day with us and go home first thing Monday morning.  Mom and Dad left Monday morning too so then it was just Shantelle, Aliyah, me and the boys.  We were going to go home Tuesday but we were having so much fun that we called Kaye and asked her if we could stay one more day.  Kaye was darling about it.  She said we could stay all week.  Unfortunately I had to work Thursday so we came home Wednesday afternoon.  We had so much fun hiking, playing games, watching movies, doing crafts and puzzles and just being together.  I love the quietness!  We love the memories we make when we come to Kaye's cabin.  Thanks Kaye and Allan! April 6-11, 2012