Visit to Utah

Once again, a prime example of Packer planning for the win.  Nate was on Spring Break and I decided to drive out to Utah on a Sunday and left on a Monday.  And it was an awesome week!

Such a pretty drive

Grandma and Grandpa's house is pretty awesome.  First, they had baby chicks which the kids were in awe of.  They wanted to watch them all the time.  Also, there were so many people who wanted to play with the kids.  They just soaked in all the attention.

Wanting to be like Uncle Byron 

And there was really, really good food.  We have to eat at Mi Ranchito every time we go to Utah.  Evy danced all night to the music.

We went to my grandparent's one afternoon and met Hank the llama.  He just wanted to give everyone kisses.

We also got a one day pass to Thanksgiving Point and hit all the attractions.  Children's museum, tulip festival, dinosaur museum, and farm country.

Another day we went to the aquarium.  We touched starfish and stingrays, watched the penguins, and walked along with sharks.  It was really loud so Nate didn't care for it too much, but Evy was loving it!

This bird was totally showing off!  It was so funny to watch!

Don't mind the photobomber.  He stood there in all of our photos looking at the camera.

Oh, it wasn't all fun and games.  They made Nate work in the yard for our keep.  That's ok. We'd do it again for a fantastic week with family!

 Nate actually loved racking up the leaves and jumping in them.

What a crazy busy and fun week!  We can't wait to go out again!

Easter 2016

Easter this year did not go to plan.  I was so excited for the kids to do their Easter hunt outside.  And then it snowed.  So there goes that plan.  Then on Easter morning, Evy woke up with a fever of 103.  Luckily after some Advil, Evy's fever came down a bit and she was a mostly happy baby.  The nice thing was that they didn't care that the Easter egg hunt was inside or that Evy was sick, they just enjoyed finding eggs and playing with their Easter goodies.  Nate loved that we put popcorn in the eggs.  He doesn't really like sweets, except sometimes chocolate, but he absolutely devours popcorn.  And Evy got some teddy grahams in hers.  The big hit from the Easter baskets was the bubble machine.  Nathan loves holding it and Evy loves trying to get the bubbles.  So at the end of day, we still had a great Easter together.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

We tried something new this year with our Easter eggs.  We used food dye instead of buying a kit and the colors were so much more vibrant.  Nate loved pulling out the eggs and seeing them change color.    I was a little worried about Nate making a big mess or knocking something over, but he was actually very careful.  Nate's favorite part was using qtips to make polka dots on the eggs.

Malinda Visits

Malinda asked if she could come visit us over her spring break and we were so excited for her to come.  The kids loved seeing Auntie Lou!

We took a trip up to Hammond's Candy Factory for a tour.  They make everything from homemade lollipops to caramels to marshmallows to chocolates and more.  The day we went through they were making candy canes.  It was amazing to see how big the block starts and then it gets worked down to candy cane size.  We came home with way to much candy!

After that all of our plans pretty much went out the door.  Evy got sick and our pediatrician had us bring her into the ER.  Really she wasn't that sick to necessitate a ER visit, but it was a better safe than sorry situation.  Malinda was so awesome to watch Nate the whole day and be his buddy.  She really was a lifesaver!  And then we had another snow storm so we hunkered down.  We did make some cool forts and Malinda was awesome enough to do my hair for me.  And we had some good olde girl time.

I had all these cool plans, but I'll save them for next time Malinda comes to visit.  See you soon hopefully!