Spring break in St. George!

A few months ago, we realized that if we were going to get a family vacation this year, we would need to do it during Spring Break, because Jordan's family would be moving in May.  We decided that St. George would be a good place to go.  I found this AMAZING house on VRBO and we booked it.

Everything in it was BEAUTIFUL!!!!  

                                          

We put some of the decorations up high so the babies couldn't reach them, and had a great time.

                                           

As soon as we got there, we went swimming.  (I forgot my phone, so no swimming pictures)

They had 2 pools and 2 hot tubs right next to each other about 2 minutes walking distance from the house.  The kids had a GREAT time!

                                          

After swimming, I went upstairs to check on the kids and found the big and middle girls playing UNO.

The little girls checking out the top bunk of one of the bunk beds.

Downstairs,  Logan was teaching the baby boys how to play with cars.

Jordan and Jamie grilled hot dogs on the  BBQ outside and then it was time to get ready for bed.  Not that they went to sleep for hours, but at least they got ready.

There was a sleepover room with two sets of bunkbeds, the bottom bunk was a double or queen size bed.  There was also a trundle under the bunks, so lots of room for cousins.

Each bedroom had a large walk in closet which we used as bedrooms for the tiny boys. A pack n play in the closet worked perfectly!!!  With the kids all tucked away, it was time for fun and games for the parents.  They played a crazy game called Quirkle.

Saturday morning we found them all watching a movie in Josh and Merijane's bedroom.  They reminded us of the puppies in the 101 Dalmation movie.

While we were in St. George, we celebrated Jack and Gabbie's birthday.  Jack turned 1 and Gabbie turned 4.  

Merijane made mustache cupcakes for Jack and pink cupcakes for Gabbie

They had cute mustache balloons and plates to match

 I gave them their Easter presents and Jamie brought her nice camera and took some fun pictures for me.  Logan did his best to help us get a cute picture of these little guys. "C'mon Jack, get back here"

"Now stay here, OK"

                                      

" Oliver, let's look at the camera."

Good job guys!

"The Boys"

These 3 were lots of fun too!

 "The Littles"

"The Perfect Middles"

"The Bigs"

 And All Twelve of our adorable grand-kids!!!!  Not all smiling or looking at the camera, but all present.

After pictures and lunch, we were off to the St. George Art Festival and the Children's Museum.

The kids all rode the carousel. 

Then we ran into the Easter Bunny and a Penguin and Chicken

They have a fun water area.  There was music playing and Logan was having fun dancing.

The day started out pretty cool, but ended up nice.

These 3 were SOAKED before the day was over.

Such fun with cousins!

The Children's Museum reminded us of the one we used to take our kids to.

There was a grocery store

with groceries and a check out counter 

A stage with costumes to try on for your performance.

A fun train table.

Hailey doing some car repairs.

Logan pushing Hailey in a wheel chair

And LOTS of other fun things to do.

When we got home, the kids went swimming again, while dinner was being made.  

The next morning was Easter.  The Easter Bunny found us in St. George and hid 200 Easter Eggs and dropped a ton of candy in the backyard.  The kids had a great time finding all the eggs and came out with quite a haul.

After breakfast, it was time to get ready for church.

Jordan's family was ready early and had time for an Easter picture.

Unfortunately, we were not the only ones on Spring Break in St. George.  The ward we went to was PACKED!  There was standing room only in the halls and foyer.  It took 45 minutes to do the sacrament, so after the sacrament, we headed back home.  Libbie had filled plastic eggs with the Easter Story in her activity days and brought that to share with us.  (We counted that for the talks)

In the afternoon, we went to Pioneer Park in St. George and walked around there.

It is amazing what a beautiful place it is.

Monday morning, it was time to pack all our stuff and get on our way.  We decided on our way home to stop at Zions. We had to take a shuttle up to Zions, since the parking up there was all filled.  

Baby Oliver

Baby Jack

It was chilly, so we were glad everyone brought sweaters or jackets.

What a beautiful place it is.

We loved being together!

One of the kids favorite parts of the hike were seeing all the squirrels.  They were so tame and all over the place.  (there is one on the fence post)

We boarded the shuttle again, and headed for our cars.

Bye, Bye, Zions, We will be back soon!  

We ended Spring Break with a trip to the temple and out to lunch with both our dads.

Fun with Kelsi and Gabbie

 Friday on my way home from school, I had this thought that I should call and invite Kelsi to come for a sleepover.  (She had been sick when we had the Littles a few weeks ago)  I called and Emily said she would LOVE to come.  She told me Molly and Abbie were going to Lani's for a sleepover and Kelsi was VERY SAD that she didn't get to go.  Later when I was talking to Kelsi about it, I told her that I think Heavenly Father knew that she was sad and wanted her to be happy so He told me to call her.  It was a great teaching moment to let her know that He knows and loves her.  We called and got Gabbie to join us.  The first thing Kelsi wanted to do was go to the Library.  They love checking out tons of books that we read and getting to choose movies.  We found a new library that had the funnest play area.

There was a little puppet stage with tons of puppets.

We stopped and picked up Mike and then went to Arctic Circle for dinner,

We came home and watched a movie and finally got them to sleep at about 10:00

At 5:00 the next morning, they were up and ready to go.  We had all 11 library books read by 6:15.

We ran to Walmart to get strawberries, and sausage, and came home and made crepes, Orange Julius and sausage. (The strawberries were huge)

They put on dress ups and played school

and then played outside until it was time to go and meet their parents.

I'm glad I listened to the prompting and got to enjoy these fun little girls. 

60 YEARS OLD!!!!

Lucky for me, Bonnie turns 60 one month before I do.  This year she had a great idea, and asked all her kids and grand kids to write her a letter with favorite memories instead of a gift. (As we are getting older, our memories are fading)  I LOVED the idea and asked my kids and grand kids to do the same thing.   I have enjoyed reading all their sweet memories.   Jordan took the letters and made this from them.  The biggest words are the ones that are used the most in their letters.

On my birthday, Krista and Sophie surprised me and brought a yummy lunch to my school, and ate lunch with me.  It was so fun to have them come.

That morning, before I left for school, Mike asked me where I would like to go to dinner.  Sizzler is one of my favorite places, so after school we headed to sizzler.  I LOVE their salad bar and filled two plates and then had an ice cream sundae!  

We got home about 6:00 and watched the news and then Mike started putting on his shoes. I asked him why he was putting on his shoes and he said,  "let's go to Leatherby's and have ice cream."   to which I said, "are you kidding me, I'm STUFFED" he kept insisting that we go and I thought he was crazy.  Finally, he said, "Krista and her family are at Leatherby's so we need to go."   When we got there, not only was Krista there, but all my kids and grand kids and Dad, Lani, Jeff, Jen, Ric, Kathy, Paul, Colleen, Paula, Bob, Jenny and Eric.  

Jamie has an amazing Cricket and made the CUTEST decorations for the party!  I think she must have been working on it since my last birthday!  Krista helped her put them together.  

Everything looked SO GREAT!

She had two jars of these darling pinwheels she made on each of the 4 tables

Krista had made a collage with a ton of old pictures from my childhood until now.

Jamie made a poster and had everyone sign it

Lani brought the cutest 60 balloons!

It was such a fun night!

Krista's family, grandma Cline, Paula, Bob, Jenny and Eric

Josh's family

Jamie's family and grandpa Cline

Me, Abbie and Oliver

Dad, Ric, Kathy, Lani Jen, (Jeff arrived a little late on his way home from work)

They had reserved the party room, so the kids had a great time playing with all the extra chairs, running around and finished off with a game of musical chairs.

What a fun night!  Thanks everyone for making turning 60 so wonderful!!