What we've been up to.

I have taken quite a hiatus from blogging and am feeling the need to catch up.
Winter was long for all of us. I think is was Jeff being gone but the inversion made it worse. We all took a lot of Omega oil vitamins to help us.

The annual Mountain bike race in March in St. George was a welcome break from the cold. Jeff and the boys did well. Mason took 5th place and Jonah took 7th place.




We enjoyed a fun spring break to my sisters in Arizona. She moved to Tucson last year and we have been wanting to visit for a while and spring break was the perfect time. The kids and I traveled to St. George were we stayed the night, picked up my mom and then headed south. It as a longe 12+ hour drive. We stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam, the south side of the Grand Canyon and endured many potty stops on the way. We went to Saguaro National Park, to the Sonora Desert Museum and the Zoo. We enjoyed spending time with cousins and getting to no them better. I took the boys to base ball game during spring training, D'backs vs. Rockies. Mason encountered a rattle snake close up at the community pool. Luckily he looked down before he stepped on it and calmly backed away.

The Grand Canyon

Saguaro National Park with cousin Camden

Jonah and Mason at the D'Back vs. Rockies game. We hung out by the dugouts and have autographs from both teams.

The car ride back was much shorter, stopping only for potty breaks and for lunch with a longer break at Montezuma's Castle, south of Flagstaff.

We returned to St. George on late on Thursday night, April 1st. We enjoyed a leisurely 3 more days in St. George. Jeff came down and met us and we celebrated Jonah, Mason and Jessica's birthdays on Sat. the 3rd and Easter the next day. We returned grateful to be back home but bummed out to come back to snow.

We had a swimming birthday party at Grandma and Grandpa Hays clubhouse. We were grateful there were no rattle snakes at this pool.

The kids had a fun Easter hunt in Grandma and Grandpa's small yard. Due to relentless teasing from Mason about my age, Mason received only Rabbit droppings in his Easter basket. I warned him I had connections with the Easter bunny but he continued teasing. He thought it was funny initially but the tears started to brim in his eyes when he still only had droppings in his basket after 20 minutes and the other kids were eating their treats. Luckily the Easter bunny left the content of Mason's basket outside hidden in the backyard. Mason has been very complimentary about my youthfulness.



This was the day after we came home. You gotta love April in Salt Lake. "Spring is just a war between winter and Summer." ( Quote from an elementary student from Canyon Rim Academy)

Lessons learned on this vacation:

• A side jot to the Grand Canyon is never quick.
• When Grandpa says to eat a small amount of sugar free candy he means a very small amount. Montezuma visited Jonah in the middle of a look out at the Grand Canyon. He kept visiting the rest of the way but only after we had stopped at nice bathrooms and we were forced to pull of on ranch exits in the dark and befriend the sagebrush.
• Small children have small bladders and don't give much warning.
• The Wii is sometimes more fun than sight seeing. Especially when a 3 yr old cousin beats everyone.
• Most pools are not heated in Arizona and are still very cold in April @ 80 degrees.
• We like real Indian Fry Bread and Prickly Pear Cactus jelly.
• My children are safer around Cacti than the other adults in my family. (My sister and her hubby went the week after us and were all speared by cacti needles.)
• I'm scared of Rattle Snakes. (If I lived in AZ I wouldn't let my children play outside.I know, I'm paranoid.)
• Aaron makes scrambled eggs that my kids are still talking about.
• We miss our family not being close.
  

Thanks Mom and Dad for you help in driving and thanks Julie for entertaining all five of us. Maybe next time Camden will figure out which twin is which and he won't have to call him "boy".