Spring Broke

As always in our lovely state of Utah, spring has brought sunshine and flowers, snow and rain, blossoms and hail - you know, the usual. There are always ups and downs here; I don't know why I'm ever surprised when we get completely manic weather patterns.  This year it just so happened that as I was looking at the calendar and comparing the dates of our spring break to the weather forecast, it became clear that leaving the valley and heading for warmer climes would be extremely beneficial to our general happiness and well being.

Fessing up: it was actually Sheri who pointed out to me that our weather was going to be extremely sucky.  She recommended that we come visit her.  I wasn't even thinking of going really because it wasn't their spring break, but she talked me into it.  We decided to not tell her girls that we were coming because surprises are the best.  Sheri even decided to let her girls stay home for one day of school so we could be together.  I was really really excited to go.

Before we could start having fun in St. George, we had to actually make it to St. George.  This proved much more challenging than usual - we had snow, sleet, heavy rain and wind in various combinations  for the entire drive down, which ended up taking a good 5 and a half hours instead of the usual four.  I was not sorry to take it slow however, due to the fact that while we we driving we passed multiple wrecks on the side of the road, including more than one roll-over, and we watched cars fishtailing ahead of us and just decided to crawl along in happiness.

Here we are taking a pit stop in Filmore, both to grab grub and de-slush the car

We had been hoping to make it to the valley of the sun before Siena was done at school so she would come home to find us, but that did not happen.  Instead, when we got there we rang the doorbell and Sheri had Siena answer the door. My one regret is that I wasn't filming her when she answered.  The look on her face was awesome.

We proceeded to have an awesome three days.  Actually we didn't do a ton besides go to the park and sit in the sun for absolutely hours on end.  Sunburns all around.  We loved it. Swig, sunburns and shows.  I took all the kids to see the latest Disney Cartoon - Zootopia.  It was really very good and fun to be out with a crew of cousins. Yay for $1 cups of popcorn.

We also spent some very productive time on a face-switching ap and laughed a LOT

The kids were confident that it was warm enough for suits....until they actually got wet.  Then it officially wasn't warm enough

After we returned to Salt Lake we prepared for Easter, which included a trip out to "Oma's Village" on Saturday morning for an egg hunt.  It was basically total and complete chaos, complete with a very brave woman dressed as an Easter Bunny who delighted all the other children and terrified mine. (Mostly Skippidy - I actually can't believe I got her to be in a picture with the dread rabbit.)  Despite the chaos it was a great time and the kids hauled in an absolutely massive amount of candy.  Sadly, about 50% of it was tootsie rolls....the lowest of all candies.  I take that back.  Necco wafers are worse.

In the afternoon the kids had a great time coloring eggs.  I set them free with sharpies and sparkly dye and they came up with some great eggs.  Cap especially had fun creating Marvel-themed eggs such as Iron Man, Hulk and an egg that appeared to have had some bad dealings with Wolverine.  Bitty went for the cuter side with eggs decorated like chicks and toll-paintings.  Skippidy?  Anything shiny made her happy.

Easter baskets are always tricky for me - I don't want to make Easter feel like Christmas, but it's always fun for the kids to get a little something that morning.  I'm sure I over-did it... (who ME?) but so be it.  Bitty got her long-longed-for Ugurt refillable cup and the whole family has made fairly good  use of it ever since.  The gift that keeps on giving?

We spent Easter dinner with Troy's parents and his oldest brother and his wife.  We had a lovely meal together and really enjoyed each others' company.  I love Troy's family. It was a sweet and wonderful way to end our Spring Break...



....and a horrible way to start up back to school since Skippidy spiked an impressive fever in the middle of Easter Dinner.  She stayed home for two days.  Mommy was really ready for a break by the time everyone was all the way better and all the way back to school, by which time I was also sick.

Sigh. She's better now of course....I'm mostly better. But not quite. That was a busy week!