Antelope Island

Well I am almost a month late in posting this but since we are still in April for a few more days, I will just barely make it in time. When we were in Utah for Easter weekend we had our traditional family picnic and egg hunt out on Antelope Island. I haven't been able to make it over for this family get together since I was a kid, so it was a treat for me just as much as Joseph. It was a beautiful day and we had plenty of activities to keep us busy. Once the kids had all quickly eaten their lunches we had the annual Easter egg hunt and the kids covered every inch of that beach to find all the eggs. While Joseph was hunting eggs he came across a not so good surprise, it was a wet pair of blue underwear. Gross!! He quickly tossed them aside and filled his basket with many colorful eggs. After the egg hunt had finished we then spent the afternoon playing volleyball, digging in the sand, flying kites and spending time chatting with each other. It was a great day and I am so glad that we were able to make it over.

The Great Salt Lake

Joseph with his favorite buddy Aunt Kris.

Digging in the sand.

I am ready to swim mom!!

Burying Jack and having lots of fun.

Brody and Brodi

Let the egg hunt begin.

Hunting is hard work, but worth it.

A very sleepy Jace.

Let's go fly a kite.

Grandpa and his Pepsi. He had three and enjoyed all of them.

Rainy Day Fun

One of the days we were in Utah, Kaden and Jace came over to play. It happened to be a rainy and snowy day so we had to come up with some fun indoor activities and Aunt Kris had some great ideas. We started with dying more Easter eggs and the boys enjoyed coloring and decorating them. After having some lunch, watching a show and doing a little bit of wrestling we pulled out the dough. Aunt Kris had this great book full of fun things to make with bread dough and the boys picked out spiders. So we set about smashing the dough, rolling out the body and legs and then put all the pieces together.  They turned out super cute and were very yummy to snack on.

Jace chilling while watching Rio.

Joseph and Kaden ready to dye eggs.

Deep in concentration.

Dying eggs is serious business.

It's spider time!!

Rolling them out and putting them together.

Ready to bake.

Showing off his spider moves.

City Creek Mall

After we finished at Temple Square we waked across the street and met up with Kris, Sarah, Meagan and Melissa to check out the new City Creek mall. It is so nice and is an outdoor mall but can also be covered when the weather is bad. They have a ton of cool stores, but Joseph and Kaden's favorite thing was the real fish they have swimming in the creek on the lower level. We had a hard time getting the boys to keep walking when they zeroed in on a fish. When we stopped for dinner in the food court they have this great dinosaur play place for the kids and the boys were able to run off some excess energy. As we were leaving, we caught the water show that they do in the middle of the mall with music and it was really cool.

Kaden and Joseph rock climbing. :)

My wild man.

Kaden and Joseph taking a break.

Jace making his way through the ribs.

The start of the water show.

The suspense is building.

Nearing the end.

Ohhhh Fire!!

Temple Square

So one of the days we were in Utah we made a trip over to Temple Square since Joseph has never been. It was such a neat experience to be there with Joseph and explain all the pictures and displays in the Visitor's Centers. As Joseph and I were looking at the pictures we came across the one of Jesus on the cross and as I was explaining to Joseph what was happening the spirit was so strong it brought me to tears. As we slowly made our way upstairs to see the Christus the spirit grew even stronger and I am so thankful we were able to sit in silence for a while. As we were getting ready to leave some sisters missionaries began talking to us and offered to show us the video on families and temples. I am so glad that we took the time to watch it.

The flowers are in bloom!

My handsome model. It was his idea to take this picture.

Makes me smile.

I actually made it into a picture.

True beauty.

Utah Day One

We arrived in Utah on the Wednesday before Easter and our first order of business was to have dinner at Zupa's. It is the best sandwich and soup shop, if you haven't been you need to go, it is one of my favorites. Jeff and Kris met us for dinner and after we finished dinner we headed over to their house to relax and play games. We had been in the house maybe five minutes when Joseph pulled out the Air Hockey/Foosball table and challenged everyone to a game before he finally crashed. On Thursday we spent all day visiting with Grandpa Hansen, Aunt Elaine and Aunt Mary. It was so nice being able to spend so much time with them and watch Joseph play cards with Grandpa. One of my favorite memories from my childhood is when I used to get up early in the morning with Grandpa and we would play cards until everyone else in the house would wake up.

Joseph challenged Jeff to a game of Air Hockey and Foosball.

Joseph was on such a roll he took on Kris.

Joseph and Grandpa playing Go Fish.

Enjoying the game.

My sweet Grandpa

Egg Dying Fun

Since I knew that we were going to be in Utah for Easter and I didn't want Joseph to miss out on dying eggs so we did it a few days early. Joseph was very creative this year and tried lots of different color combinations and was a good sport with me while I took a ton of pictures.

Let's do all the colors.

Being a goof ball.

Egg Dying is serious business.

My sweet little man.

Joseph's eggs!

Egg Drop Project

Last week in Joseph's class they worked on their class science project. They had chosen to do an egg drop experiment and were so excited when the day came to test their theories. They were each given three eggs to drop, some of them were more gentle then others and a few kids in the class ended up only have one egg to test. I guess that happens when you give a group of six year old boys eggs. When they finished testing their theories they wrote up their findings and drew pictures about the experiment. This week they have been displaying their project in the cafeteria with everyone else's for parents to see. It was so cute to see the smiles on their faces when they all received a participation ribbon. Sorry the pictures are so bad, they were taken with my phone.

The final project.

Some of the containers they used. The plastic one on the left is the one Joseph and Jackson designed.

The explanation of what they were hoping to learn.

What they predicted would happen.

Their findings.

Spring Break fun!!

This past week was Joseph's spring break and we played hard. Joseph really wanted to take a trip to the Bahamas but since that didn't happen, we had a little stay cation at home and we had perfect weather. We slept in which was great, played at Leawood and Westlands Park with friends, went swimming, took a trip to the zoo along with everyone else in the state, watched the new Chipmunk movie and brought out the bubbles and sidewalk chalk. I love this time of year and can't wait until summer when we can do even more fun outside activities.

Lounging around with Hana

Issac and Joseph being silly! They went down the slide like this forever.

My gorilla boy!

Brain freeze!!

Climbing Hippos is the coolest.