The Gardens at Thanksgiving Point

 For the past year, we have had passes to a place here called Thanksgiving point.  It has a pretty cool dinosaur museum, a farm, and some gardens that are beautiful.  Well, I noticed that they were going to expire soon so I decided to take the kids to the gardens one Friday after Sadie got out of school.  So we packed up and headed out.  It is about a twenty minute drive and it was 1:30...so I figured Emery would fall asleep.

When we got there, I realized that the children's gardens were closed (they have fun caves and a playground and stuff for the kids to climb on) so we had to go to the regular gardens.  Darn.  Oh well.  We drove over and parked and I carefully took Emery out of the car and tried to transfer her to the stroller very carefully so I didn't wake her up.  I was unsuccessful.  She started screaming and wanted me to carry her.  I told her I couldn't carry her (I have been having bad sciatic pain) so she would have to choose to walk or ride in the stroller.  She proceeded to SCREAM for the next ten minutes while I waited for her to choose.  I wasn't going to give in.  Poor Sadie and Zac, they waited so patiently.  Finally I decided it wasn't fair to them, so Sadie helped me strap her in the stroller while she was screaming and thrashing about so we could try walking around to calm her down.  I tried everything.  Offering her cookies, crackers, her water bottle, candy, but she was still screaming.  By now it had been 20 minutes since we had gotten there so I decided to just go in and wait in line to get it.  I felt bad because she was screaming loudly, and everyone around me kept looking at me and her.  I'm sure I looked awesome with a pregnant belly, and two older kids and a screaming 2 year old.  ha ha.

Finally we made it through the line and got outside and started down the path.  There is basically one path that you follow for a while downhill until you can choose between a few different paths.  We were walking behind an older couple.  The lady looked back at me about a dozen times because Emery was still screaming so I pulled off to the side to let them have some space.  Just at that moment, she turned around and walked toward me.  Great.  She came up and said "It sounds like she needs a drink of water."  I kindly told her I had offered it tons of times, but she was just throwing a fit.  Then I thanked her and she left.  I was so embarrassed.  Finally, Emery calmed down and we could keep going down the path.  Then once we were to the bottom of the hill, Sadie looked at me and said "Mom, I'm so sorry, but we have to go back up...I have to go do the bathroom."  I was annoyed, but I also appreciated the fact that she knew it was an inconvenience and apologized.  So we went back up to the top, went to the bathroom, and then we could finally explore the gardens.  Phew!

After that point, everything went great.  The kids and I had a fun time looking at all of the beautiful flowers.  So many tulips (my favorite!).  And now for some pictures!

 It was a hot sunny day so Sadie wanted to use one of the umbrellas that they had there in case it rained.  I didn't want her to get one since I just knew I would end up being the one carrying it.  But she promised she would carry it the whole time.  And she did.  She is such a good girl.

 We made it to the waterfalls.  

 Zac was in heaven throwing tiny pebbles into the water.  That is one of his all time favorite things to do.

 Taking a break on the bench.

 Sadie wanted me to take this picture.

 Zac with the daffodils.

 Sweet Sadie.

 And feisty Emery. 

 This was another picture Sadie wanted me to take.  Sadie was so so helpful the entire time we were there.  I just love her so much!

 Pretty flowers!

There were still a lot that weren't opened, but the ones that were opened were just beautiful.  I love spring time here in Utah.  It is so different from Spring time in AZ where I grew up.  :)

Cute Kiddos

  Last weekend my dad was in town for my cousin Kevin's wedding.  So we got the kids all dressed up to go see them get married.  They looked so cute I couldn't resist a small photo shoot.  And surprisingly, I got a good picture of all of them!  That doesn't happen everyday!

 But first we had to be silly...of course.

 Aww...just look at these cuties!

 Then once we got to the church, I couldn't resist another picture with grandpa.  So cute!  My kids were very cooperative that day.  I think that may be why I let them raid the candy table at the reception more than once.  :)

But the partying was too much for this guy.  He fell asleep on daddy around 6:45.  Ha ha.

Garden Boxes

Last week I built some garden boxes.  Really simple square ones to stack on top of each other where we are going to plant our strawberry plants.  This past saturday, we planted some flowers around the boxes.  We are excited to get some yummy strawberries out of all the work it took!  :)

Easter

 Hooray!  We celebrated Easter on Sunday.  We actually started on the previous Monday by having a good FHE about Christ and the resurrection and why we actually celebrate Easter.  It was good.  It is so fun to see Sadie beginning to understand these things that we are teaching her.  She asks great questions and remembers the things we teach her.  It is pretty rewarding.  The other kids...well, they were there too.  ha ha.  I'm sure in a few years they will be as excited about learning as Sadie is.

Then on Sunday my dad was in town so he got to see the Easter egg hunt.  We were outside bright and early and the kids gathered all the eggs that the Easter bunny brought them.  So cute to watch!

 Here we go!

 Action shot.

 Sadie is so good about leaving eggs for the other kids to find.  She could have taken pretty much all of them, but she showed the other kids where they were or just left them to be found.  

 Rob informed the kids that there was just one egg left to find.  They couldn't find it so Grandpa helped them out a bit.  They thought it was funny.

 Counting their eggs.

After the egg hunt, it was time to take my dad back to the airport to fly back to AZ.  Then of course we had church and after church some of Rob's family came over for dinner.

 Thats when we had a little egg bash.

 Emery loved carrying her eggs around...she really didn't like it when they cracked though.  ha ha

 Sadie with her eggs...

 Zac with his eggs.

 Action shot.

 Sadie's second egg cracked.  She was a pretty good sport about it.  

 Zac and Emery had a hard time making contact with their eggs, but finally I think Zac won this match.

And Duncan was the champion...with the egg that I decorated.  So basically, I won.  ha ha  just kidding.  Good egg rolling Duncan!

Fire Station

 Zac's preschool group had a field trip to the fire station last week.  Rob had the car that day so we decided to walk.  We used to walk to the park (the fire station is pretty close to the park) all the time last summer, but this was the first time we would be walking there since the cold weather.  I was a little worried that Zac would not be able to make it all the way, but we took breaks along the way and he made it just fine.  :)

 Our first break was at the canal.  There wasn't any water in it yet.

 On the road again...

 Then we got to see two trains pass right in front of us.  This is always exciting!

 Popcorn trees.  We are always on the lookout for these!

 They are so pretty!

 We made it to the fire station.  The guys introduced themselves.  One was Rus, and one was Skip.  Fitting names for firefighters.  

 The kids got to check out the truck.  Emery was a little nervous, but the other kids loved it!

 Then they got to squirt the hose.  

 Zac had a huge smile on his face the whole time.

 And this is what Emery did.  ha ha.  She didn't like the noise.

 Our whole group!  It was a really fun trip.

Conference Weekend

 Conference weekend began like this:

 Zac sick on the couch...again.

 Sadie wasn't feeling too hot either.  They both rested a lot on Saturday, and by Sunday, Sadie was feeling better.  Zac was not.  I took him into the urgent care and they prescribed a steroid to help open his airways and stuff.  His oxygen was at 90 and they would have made us take him to the hospital if it was at 88 or lower, so I was glad that it was 90!

 Emery was her normal happy self though.  She wanted me to take lots of pictures of her funny faces...

 Ha ha.  Silly goose.  And notice that necklace (she calls it an "ecklace")?  She has been wearing that pretty much nonstop since we got it in the mail from grandma a week or so ago.  It broke (because she was cutting it with scissors...who knows why...) and that was devastating, so I picked up all the beads and put it back together for her.  ha ha

 The kids stacked the couch cushions on top of the recliner and enjoyed a talk or two from up there.

I saved the "good stuff" for the sunday sessions.  Zac lasted all of 5 minutes before he went to lay down on the couch again.  Sadie loved all of the paper activities and they kept her busy almost the entire four hours on Sunday!  We love conference!  Can't wait to re-listen to all of the talks so I can actually hear them.  :)

Dirt

We got some dirt to add to our garden plot this year.  We had a dump truck come deliver it for us so we didn't have to rent or find our own truck.  So the truck came (right on time I might add!!) and the kids (and I) were excited to watch it dump all the dirt out on the cement.  It was pretty cool.  Emery didn't like how loud it was, so she went inside.  Then it rained the whole day on our wonderful pile of dirt.  ha ha.  It even hailed a little bit. I ran out and put a tarp over half of the pile so it didn't just turn into a huge pile of mud.

In the next two or three days we were able to borrow a wheelbarrow (ours is in Springville at the duplex...) and move all the dirt to where it was supposed to go.  We finished on Saturday and on Sunday it was rainy and snowed.  Perfect timing.  :)

Now the kids love to play in the dirt with their cheep shovels I got them at Target every time we go outside.  unfortunately, once we plant the garden, they won't be able to do that as much anymore.  But for now, they are loving it!

The truck go there and started to dump the dirt.  That was pretty fun to watch...until it made a huge loud noise to help the dirt come out of the truck.  It vibrated or something to help get all the dirt out.  Then, when we thought all the dirt was out, the truck driver pulled forward a few feet and then reversed really fast and slammed on the breaks to guarantee that every last bit of dirt came out.  It was an interesting maneuver, but it worked!

The kids helping.

They did pretty well...for about 5 minutes...then they were ready to just run and play in it.  :)

Cute!

Load #1 out of about 100!  Rob was amazing and wheeled it back and forth from the garden to the dirt pile without complaining.  In fact, I think he loved it!  He had a big smile on most of the time.

I decided to help with the shoveling.  I filled that thing about 20 times, and let Rob carry it over to the garden.  Rob was very patient with me...I'm sure he could have filled it much faster than me, but he let me help.  

Yard work is fun sometimes!  We are so excited about our garden this year...hopefully, our excitement continues throughout the whole summer!  :)