Angry Birds

When Derek likes something, he usually becomes obsessed. The latest source of entertainment for him has been Angry Birds. He talks, sleeps, watches, plays Youtubes and breathes Angry Birds. Recently when Mark came home from one of his business trips, we took Derek to the store to pick something out. Of course he headed straight for the latest Angry Birds game. So I came down the stairs one afternoon to find him deep in the middle of an intense game. (Of course no rules are followed and there is no multi-player option)

I now have to keep a safe watch on the eggs in the fridge so they aren't mysteriously taken by a little thief...

Emma's Baptism

Last month Emma turned the "great 8" on March 3rd. Her birthday happened to fall on the first Saturday which is the same day as the stake baptisms. It was a neat thing to have her birthday and her baptism on the same day.

Mark's parents, Paul and Rita, came up for the event and stayed for a few days. We love having them come and they are a great support to our family. They happened to "conveniently" arrive after Emma's friend party Friday night :)

Saturday morning I took Emma out to take some pictures. She was so fun and happily posed for any kind shot I was trying to get. Here are some fun takes.

We had lots of family and friends come and support Emma including my parents, Rick and Tamie, my grandma, Rhea, my brothers, Richard and Justin and their families, Justin's in-laws and great friends of ours, the Mortensens, Jen and Julia Butikofer our besties, and several other wonderful people in the ward. Jen and I were able to play the musical number for the program and the talks were wonderful.

Gma and Gpa

GGma

The group with a lovely row of chairs in front

Emma and Julia

Emma is such a wonderful girl and I am so proud of the girl she is becoming. She loves her family, the gospel and always tries to do what is right. I hope she continues on the path she is taking and I know she will turn into a lovely young woman some day. (really far down the road...)

Back in the saddle again!

I'm jumping back on the Blog-wagon again. We've done so many fun things and had fun experiences that I need to start blogging again.....wait, there's the phone...

stupid telemarketers...

anyway, we just got home from spending spring break in St. George and Provo Utah and I wanted to put up some pictures and tell some tales of adventure.

We left Saturday morning and took a detour to Twin Falls. We always pass by and never stop so we gave our good friends, the Perry's, a call and they met up with us to take us by the temple and have lunch at the falls. For the past few months I have been craving sunshine and we soaked up every ray. It was perfect!

Shoshone Falls

Emma & Lily were as if they were never apart

Derek + a creek + lots of sticks = paradise!

Walking around the park with Sarah.

We miss them!!

We spent Saturday night and Sunday in Provo with Mark's parents and then took off Monday morning for St. George. It was only 3.5 hours so we were there by late afternoon. Mark's aunt Rilla has a condo that she graciously allowed us to stay in. It has 3 bedrooms and lots of open space to lounge around and relax in. After unloading we met up with Mark's old high school buddy, Aaron, and his wife Hailey. They had dinner for us and the kids hit it off right away. We spent the evening catching up and the guys loved reminiscing about high school.

The next morning we slept in and finally got out the door around noon to go to Zion's national park. Mark was the only one that has been there so we drove all the way to the end and started there. It was a surprisingly short drive but it has such amazing scenery all around. I had to strain my neck to look all the way up to the top of some of the mountain walls beside us.

The weather was beautiful as we walked the Temple of Sinawava trail. There was a group of deer just off the path that weren't even fazed by us. Makayla and I loved all the squirrels that were everywhere and Mark about popped a vein when I told him we were petting one. We played in the river when we reached the end and Makayla built a pyramid statue out of rocks. To her great delight, several people stopped to take pictures of her art! It was hilarious! 

We then hiked the short, but steep trail to Weeping Rocks and enjoyed a light shower from the overhang. When it's that steep, that's about all I can take. Yup, I'm a wimp and not afraid to say it!

We stopped at the lodge for ice cream and a break and took in the beautiful surroundings.

For our last adventure, we went through the tunnel that is about 1.1 miles. We honked and yelled and rolled down the windows all the way. At the end I turned around and found Derek with his head in his ends saying "I don't want to go through the tunnel!" I was shocked! He loves trains and building bridges and tunnels at home so I thought he would love it. He hated it! The bad news for him was that we had to turn around and go back through to get back to the road to go home. He was not happy...

After racing back to the condo to get cleaned up, we went to another one of Mark's old high school buddies, Mark Bowie, and his wife Jessamay's house for dinner. Aaron met us there with his kids and we had a fun time. Of course we had to have some sort of mishap which took place with Jared getting 3 bloody noses. That kid...

On Wednesday, we went swimming at the condo. They have an indoor pool for all the condo owners to use that is heated. It also has a hot tub.

Aaron and Hailey pulled their kids out of school a little early and took us to Snow Canyon to the sand dunes. We played for a long time and relaxed in the soft, silky sand. Again the weather was great and it felt so good to have the sun on my back.

                  

We let the kids play at a really fun park back in St. George and then the adults went to dinner at a yummy Thai place.

Thursday Hailey was nice enough to babysit our kids while we went to the St. George temple. It is gorgeous! It is the oldest working temple in this dispensation and it was great to walk around and hear the floors creaking. I think it is so amazing that the pioneers can build something so majestic and beautiful in the middle of a desert!

We packed up our bags, cleaned the condo and were on the road at about 2:30. Thursday was also my birthday so we called up our friends, Shane and Rochelle Allred, and went out to dinner with them. The kids played at their house and Makayla and Lynlee babysat. We went to one of my favorite places Texas Roadhouse. I love catching up with the Allreds whenever we visit. They are such wonderful friends!

Friday we were able to spend some time with David, Mark's brother, who flew in from Tennessee. He brought his son Michael and the two of them came for Michael's 12 year old trip. We went with Mark's sister, Laura and her 2 kids and took Makayla and Derek to walk around BYU and go to the bookstore. Makayla was acting way to old for her age and asking all kinds of questions about where she should live and what kinds of classes she should take when she goes to BYU. We were so not having that conversation yet!

Later on we went to visit Mark's youngest sister, Athena, who just had her first baby. She was born the 28th and her name is Nayeli. She is so tiny and adorable! The girls loved taking turns holding her and it brought back so many memories of newborns. It's so hard to believe they were ever that little! And then I went home and slept through the night...

We went to Brick Oven later that night with Christina, David, Laura and Gordon, Julia and Terry, Mark and me and Mark's mom, Rita. It was so fun to be cramped around a 6 person booth with Mark's siblings. We sure missed Emily and Athena though!

Saturday morning we listened to a wonderful session of General Conferences. As we packed the car to drive home, David, Michael and Paul were just leaving to go to the afternoon session at the Conference Center. David had 3 extra tickets so Mark told me to take Makayla and go with them. We both changed clothes really fast and jumped in the car with them. After waiting nervously in a really long line outside the conference center, we finally got in and actually got seats in our section about 2 minutes before the session started. Makayla was so excited to be there and took a lot of notes in her journal. I was so happy watching her and loved seeing her excited about being there.

After the session, Paul treated us to gourmet sandwiches at a neat little shop and then we went over to Deseret Book. The guys headed back to the conference center for the Priesthood session and Makayla and I headed over to the new shopping center that just got finished. We tried on sunglasses at Tiffanys and walked around at some of the neat shops. My feat were killing me in my nylons and church shoes :). We then walked over and toured the Brigham Young home and went into the Joseph Smith building.

Mark came and picked us up with the other kids and we went home from there. We had such a fun week with so many wonderful memories made. It was great to catch up with friends and spend time with them and with Mark's family. Now the bar is set really high for next spring break!