Visting the Farm with Shan and the girls

I had to come down to AF for my one month post surgery appointment with my doctor.  She was so helpful!  The last couple of weeks I have been really miserable.  She thinks that I have a bladder infection that's turned into a kidney infection.  It's making my muscles be in a constant spasm.  She's given me some meds that will hopefully make me feel better.  While I was down there, Shantelle and I planned to do something fun.  I loaded up on pain medication and we went to T P farm for a couple of hours.  Shan pulled Aliyah out of school so she could be a part of the fun.  Tanner was so excited to hang out with his cousins.  We went on the wagon ride.  

I love spending time with Shan.  I have missed living by her.  It was so refreshing to spending some time with Shantelle.  She's therapy for the soul.  It was one of our first warm days of spring so the heat was really getting to us. That's why the kids have such red cheeks.

The kids' favorite thing to do at the farm was feed the goats and ride the horses.

Tanner Riding a Bike!!

Tanner has been begging me to teach him how to ride a bike.  I finally put the training wheels on Chase's old red bike.  Tanner picked up riding a bike really easily. He loves going for bike rides especially with Bridger.  

Matchy Matchy

Matt and Chase were running some errands in town.  They didn't realize they were matching until a guy working at one of the stores pointed out their matching shirts.  Of course Chase was mortified.  Matt had a good laugh over it.  I had to get a picture of them in their matchy shirts.  

Nap Times

I love taking pictures of sleeping kids.  It seems to be mostly of Tanner because he's the one that still takes naps.  We were driving and I looked back and saw Tanner asleep with his head resting on his hand.

Sophie is such a spoiled dog.  I took this picture of her sleeping on our bed.  She likes to lay on my minky blanket.  What a lucky dog!

I was getting ready and when I came out, I found Tanner asleep on the bed with Matt and Sophie.  He and Matt were holding hands.  It was so sweet!  

J Temple Open House

I felt like it was really important to go to the J River Temple Open House.  Luckily, I was able to get tickets on a Saturday during the time that we needed.  We were able to squeeze it in before we had to be back in Logan by 5:00.  We left our house by 9:30 so we could be to the temple at 11:00.  I got enough tickets for Mom, Dad, and Marilyn to come with us.  I'm so glad they did.  We enjoyed being together.  Mom saved us lots of time because we pushed her around in a wheelchair.  Her back is so bad that it's hard for her to stand for more than a few minutes.  The temple was beautiful!  I'm so glad the boys were able to see it.  Afterwards, we went out to a late lunch at JCW's.  Then we hurried back to get Bridger to his soccer game.  

Matt's New Tractor

Matt asked Layne if he could borrow his Dad's loader and move some of the dirt around in our yard.  At first we thought that we could get by without buying a tractor and try renting one.  But then we realized how many ways that we would use it.  It would really come in handy with putting in our yard and taking care of the 5 acres.  Matt was able to move a lot of dirt with the loader.  

Matt did a lot of research and hunted around for a good deal.  He decided upon a John Deere tractor.  He got one with a decent amount of horse power so he'll have more options to do more things with the tractor.  John Deere threw in a "free hat" for buying a tractor.  Robby said that "that's one expensive hat."  Ha, Ha.  Matt is super happy with his tractor!

Tanner liked tractor shopping with Matt.  He liked sitting on the different tractors.  He also likes riding on the tractor with Matt.  

Once I realized how much work was involved with the yard, I decided it wasn't worth the fight.  I realized that I'm not the one doing all the hard work putting in the yard.  I realized that having a tractor would make putting in our yard a lot easier.  

Spring Break in BL

We didn't have any sports commitments or any plans over spring break.  So I asked Kaye and Allan if we could use their cabin.  They are so generous and said "yes!"  Mylissa and Shantelle had spring break the week before us so they didn't come.  Marilyn had plans and Mom wasn't feeling well.  So it was just our family.  We went up Wednesday afternoon after Bridger's piano lesson.  (Plus Matt and Chase had a Jazz game the night before).   Matt came up Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday with us.  We were worried that it would be boring but we had a great time! It was nice to have it so quiet.  The boys definitely missed their cousins to play with.  But we still found lots to do and had lots of family bonding time.  I made this puzzle on Shutterfly a couple of years ago.  We've never put it together so I brought it up and was determined to complete a puzzle.  We did it!!1

Bridger has wanted to make "slime" for a long time.  I promised him that we would make it at the cabin.  So I found a recipe on line and brought all of the ingredients.  As you can see from the picture, my slime did not work out.  It was disgusting!  But Bridger kept working on his and eventually turned out a little better.  But it wasn't the super gooey kind.

It was so nice to have some down time and not be running around like crazy.  The weather turned cold Thursday afternoon and into Friday.  Luckily I was able to get a bike ride in on Thursday before the storm rolled in.  It was cold enough to get some snow.  We woke up Friday morning to a few inches on the deck.  It didn't stay for long.  It was beautiful to watch the lake turn different colors depending on the weather.  We love how quiet it is during the off season.  

Almost every night we went out animal watching.  We never saw any moose, but we saw lots of deer! Chase got a little bored with all the deer.  But the other boys and I loved it!!!  

We played lots of games and the boys played an embarrassingly amount of time of their electronics. But everyone was happy.  

Saturday morning, Matt told the boys that everyone was coming for a drive.  Luckily the weather cleared up and it ended up being a beautiful day!  We drove to Paris and saw the tabernacle.  Matt told the boys "when you think that I don't do anything for you, just remember that I took you to Paris."  Ha, ha!   The tabernacle was closed because it was still considered the off season.  But there was a park right by it so the boys played at the park.  It was so nice to feel the sun out and enjoy being out side.

We even let Sophie come.  She was the happiest dog running around on the grass.  I think she's missed not having a yard.

We stopped and got drinks after the park.  Bridger asked if we could stop by the lake because he was so hot from running around.  We stopped by the north shore.  We were the only ones there.  (Maybe because it was only 48 degrees).  We got out and let the boys stick their feet in the water.  I was trying to copy what Shantelle did last year for spring break.  She wrote in the sand "Spring Break."  Chase was watching me and started to laugh because I spelled spring "sping."  We had a really good laugh over it.  I sent a picture to Shantelle.  

Bridger was crazy.  He rolled his pants up and got in the water.  Tanner and Chase only stuck their toes in the water.  The water was freezing cold but Bridger enjoyed splashing around in it.

Saturday night, we went out to dinner at Cafe S.  It was nice not to cook and the food tasted really good.  Tanner could live on chips and salsa.  The cute waitress brought out creamy popsicles for the boys after their dinner.

On the way home from dinner, there were dozens and dozens of deer all over the place.  Most of them were in the fields at the bottom of the cabin road right where you turn off from the main road.  

Once we got home, Matt and I asked the boys what they wanted to do.  They voted no on a movie and asked if we could play games.  We spent the next two hours playing Candy Land, Uno, Tenzie, Apples to Apples, and dominos.  It was so much fun!  We've had a wonderful time at the cabin.  We're so grateful for Kaye and Allan's generosity.  We try to clean the cabin really well so they'll let us come back.