Way To Go Me!

What?  A new post and it hasn't been a full month yet?  Whoa.  Double pat on my back.

Last week the kids were out for spring break.  It actually turned out better than I thought.  The kids were pretty darn good about getting along and also getting all their work and extra chores done around the house.  I found myself thinking a few times, "If this is how summer turns out it won't be too bad."  I'll keep my fingers crossed.

The kids had been asking to go see the movie Home, so I told them if they could dig in and help get the house cleaned we could go to the matinee.  I'm really trying to keep a perspective on earning rather than just getting.  It was pretty cute and we had fun together.  Kenna was too embarrassed to get in the picture.  She's not 10 yet.  I'm afraid.  Ty, on the other hand-  now that kid loves to strike a pose.

On Thursday our Idaho cousins were in town and Grandma Israelsen and Aunt Maria had a fun Easter party planned for us.  It was so fun!  The kids loved it and it was so fun to watch them run around and giggle together.  I feel safe in saying this is one proud Grandpa (excuse the sun):

When we called the kiddos over to get a picture, they ran over and put themselves in this perfect line-up:

On the last day of spring break Jacob took the day off and we headed to Layton to hit Chuck E Cheese.  They have a worker who walks around dressed as Chuck E Cheese.  Here is how Ty feels about Chuck E:

Yep, he crawled under the table to hide!  He was terrified!  We had only been there 5 minutes and he was begging to go home.  It brought back memories of my own similar experience as a little child.  When I was just little, probably Ty's age, during Christmas ZCMI had a talking Christmas tree in their store.  I still shudder when I think about it!  It scared the living daylights out of me!  I had to have some compassion on my poor little Ty man.  He kept a pretty close eye on Chuck E the whole time we were there, but eased up a bit after a while and had some fun.

Lexi wasn't phased a bit:

She marched around so proud of herself to have a bit of autonomy.

Kenna and Allie decided Chuck E wasn't too bad, especially when they got some free tickets out of him:

Dad, the skee ball champ!

It ended up being a great time together as a family.  Although the last time we were at Chuck E Cheese we were in California with the whole Bowers clan.  It really just wasn't the same without them!  We had a bit of homesickness for our Bowers Fam while we were there.

Of course we had to get in on some egg dyeing.  At the store I found some little q-tip looking things that had dye in the middle of them.  They were pretty messy but the kids loved coloring their eggs with them:

Then it was off to Grandma Otte's house for a scavenger hunt.  That crazy bunny did a scavenger hunt a few years ago and the kids loved it.  He left it out at Grandma's house this time! 

Last week we were driving out to Paradise to visit Connie and Dustin.  As we came into Hyrum, there was a church with a sign outside that said, "Silly rabbit, Easter is for Jesus!"  This just made me smile, I thought it was so creative.  How true it is!  This year I tried to spend a little extra time throughout the week with the kids to learn about some of the events the week before Jesus was crucified.  Hopefully my kids caught glimpses of the Spirit of this beautiful time of year and what it really means.  Even now I realize I can barely even begin to comprehend the magnitude of the atonement and resurrection.  I LOVE that it was also Conference weekend.  Hearing from God's chosen leaders makes it that much more wonderful.  Of course I have much to review, but look forward to doing so. 

Ok April, so far so good!