Easter Weekend

Miles was really excited for Easter this year. Mostly because he has been really into sidewalk chalk and found out that the Easter Bunny always brings new sidewalk chalk in their Easter baskets. So for a couple weeks, he would always check with me: "Easter Bunny bring me chalk?" "Yep! The Easter Bunny is going to bring you lots of chalk!" So all this other Easter tradition stuff he just dealt with, just because he knew that one morning he was going to wake up to a brand new box of sidewalk chalk.

Saturday, we drove to Orem to do an Easter egg hunt and eat lunch at the Ybarra's. Mom was in Idaho helping Dave's sister Katie, so unfortunately we didn't get to see her, but it was fun seeing everyone who could come.

On Sunday, Jett walked into my room bright and early and asked if they could dig into their Easter baskets. The kids each got a chocolate bunny, bubbles, Bunny crackers, sidewalk chalk, a water gun, eggs with candy, an egg with a Lego Batman lego guy, and a little toy chick that peeps when you hold it in your hand. Those were actually a big hit.

Miles went straight for the chalk. He could've cared less about the rest of the stuff in his basket. All he saw was the chalk. 

 As far as church went, it was a little more stressful to get the boys all ready and to church on time. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get different sizes of ties, they only had size 4-7 left, so Miles' is too big and Cruise's is too small. At least one kid had a tie that fit! We couldn't get a very good picture beforehand, but we did get a few better ones after church, even though everyone's hair was a little messed up.

 I made a huge meal that of course, I didn't get any pictures of. I made a slow-roasted rosemary and garlic leg of lamb, garlic mashed potatoes and gravy, oven roasted asparagus, and herb-roasted carrots. I bought pound cakes and whipped cream, and sliced up strawberries for dessert. Abby brought rolls, drinks, and made an amazing vegan carrot cake. It was all so good. Abby, Casey and Liev, Dave's Dad and brother Joe, all joined us for dinner and it was just enough. We didn't have any leftovers except dessert. Which is never a problem.

It was a really nice Easter and I was grateful to have shared it with so many people I love.

Spring Break

This Spring Break (April 3-7), my parents flew up from SoCal and spent the week hanging out and doing fun things with the kids every day. We got to go see Boss Baby at the Megaplex and we actually really enjoyed it. I have to admit I laughed a lot. Dave, apparently, fell asleep though. The next day we actually ended up moving Jett to his own room, which meant Dave had to move his office into our bedroom. Poor guy. So we spent most of the day doing that, and then my parents showed up and brought a bunch of bats, balls and a baseball tee, and played with the boys in the front yard.

The next day we met my parents and Abby and her family at Malawi's pizza in the Riverwoods for lunch. Afterwards, walked next door to the Provo Beach Resort where my parents spent an obscene amount of money for the kids to do the ropes course and play gateway gambling games (aka the arcade). They had a lot of fun.

 The next day, we met at the Thanksgiving Point gardens where we first had lunch at the Trellis Cafe (thank you to my good friend Kay who introduced me to this amazing eatery!), and then attended the first day of The Tulip Festival. Believe it or not, we have never attended the Tulip Festival despite having lived here the past 5 years. The flowers were so pretty and I finally got to see the new Light of the World statues. Everything was beautiful but the kids were ready to go about half way through. Flowers are just not as exciting as an arcade I guess. I had fun though. "Much too good for children."

Jett trying his best not to smile.

My parents stopped by the house on their way to the airport on Saturday to say goodbye to the boys. They sure did a lot while they were here! And as much fun as Spring Break was, I was definitely excited for the boys to go back to school on Monday.

Dave's 32nd Birthday

We stretched Dave's birthday over quite a few days this year, which was really fun. On the 27th, Dave took the day off because of the weather, so we all drove to the Riverwoods and used the Tucano's birthday coupon. The boys loved eating until they were sick, and Miles' favorite part was using the tongs to get the meat. He didn't actually eat the meat, but he loved the tongs!

On the 28th, Dave's actual birthday, the boys and I made him a German chocolate cake and gave him sunglasses and a gift card to Joann's to buy vinyl for his boat seats.

Then on Friday the 3rd, we picked the kids up from school with Lucy in the car, drove to the Ybarra's and dropped off Lucy (Miles was pretty upset to leave his doggy), and then took the kids to Abby & Casey's to spend the night. They ate pizza, walked to 7-11 for dessert, and watched a movie. In the morning, Abby made them banana pancakes and scrambled eggs. Jett told me that I need to start putting salt and pepper in the eggs because "it brings out the flavor."

After dropping the kids off at Abby's, Dave and I drove just across the city to The Holiday Inn Express and checked in. Honestly, I had reserved at that hotel because it was the least expensive decent hotel, and I was really surprised at how nice it was when we entered. Our room was on the 1st floor, so we had a vaulted ceiling; we loved having a king size bed and a fridge and microwave as well.

After check-in, we drove to downtown Provo where we ate at Black Sheep Cafe and I cannot tell you how amazing it was. It was like, Sundance Foundry Grill good. And, as it turns out, just as expensive. But we figured, it was our "vacation" so we were okay spending that much on ourselves, and my parents had given Dave some money for his birthday, so that definitely helped with our little getaway.

Dave got the Green Chile Pork Navajo Taco and I got an off-menu entree which was a filet mignon on top of a bed of braised red cabbage, with a side of asparagus with a spicy carrot sauce, and parmesan mashed potatoes. It look amazing and tasted like heaven. We also got cactus pear lemonade, which was delicious, and for dessert, we got a chile creme brûlée that was just a little spicy and incredible, and a chocolate strawberry mousse which was pretty good but nothing special.

After dinner we went back to the hotel until check-out the next morning. We slept in so we missed the free breakfast, but it was just nice to not deal with kids first thing in the morning. We actually hadn't been away from the kids in 5 years, and had never been away from Miles, so it was a much needed getaway and it let us recharge our batteries in a sense.

Then on the 5th of March, the Ybarras had us over to celebrate Dave's birthday with a taco salad dinner and pumpkin pie for dessert. They gave Dave some $ for his birthday, so he was pretty excited about that. I think he had a pretty good birthday.

Cruise's Robot: Zim

Last month, Cruise built his first working robot and named him Zim. He had gotten a book from the library about building your own robot, so he told me the stuff he needed me to buy and built a robot! He got some help from dad to hook up a remote so he could turn it on and off.

He is now working on his second robot and wants to get sensors for it, so we'll see how that one goes.