Easter

Easter is one of my favorite days of the year. I have so many fun memories of Easter at my Grandparents house. It always smelled so good and Grandma always had a special treat for us. We had a great time celebrating Easter in Utah with family. It was a tad cold but that is Easter in Utah for ya! The cold didn't phase the kids during the Easter Egg hunt. It is amazing how searching for candy can just warm you right up.

Mac has caught on to the 'get as much candy as you can as fast as you can' philosophy of Easter Egg hunting. Brad, not so much.

He was happy with his one green egg. He thought it was a ball and kept throwing it and laughing. Finding eggs everywhere!

Analyzing the loot. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa McAllister for such a wonderful Easter!

It's a Party!

We had Brad's birthday party in Utah. We had a little piggy cake, cousins, and presents. A perfect party!Mac is really into blowing out candles lately. Since Brad couldn't care less we let Mac have at it.Brad was pretty calm about the whole cake eating experience. He is basically a professional eater so he took it like a champ.All done! Victory! He got lots of help opening his presents. Mac took right over playing with them. Ahhh brotherly love. We love you Bubba!

Cousins are the BEST!

There is nothing better than playing with your cousins. Age and gender do not matter; cousins will accept you unconditionally. Here they are making up a play. Gotta love Carly's facial expressions.

Mac with his new cousin Avie and cute cousin Shelby. We love our cousins; we wished they lived CLOSER!

Kindred Spirits

Brad and his cousin Shelby LOVE food. We caught Brad feeding Shelby after she had finished eating. Brad shoved food in as fast as he could and she ate it all. It was pretty funny.

Some Pre-Birthday Fun

Kate and Melinda came to see us while we were at my parents. We got to play lots with them and take some rides on the four wheeler. They brought gifts for Brad and he had lots of fun opening them. Of course his favorite thing to play with at my parents is the fireplace! I know I am biased but that smile with the dimple and blue eyes just melts my heart.

...and of course the box is just as fun as those dang cute shoes.

Trips vs. Vacations

McKay and I decided (sometime in the 24 hours we were driving) that you take trips with your kids. Vacations are when you go without your kids. :) Needless to say, we LOVE our kids. This is McKay after a few days of our "Trip."

An Easter Egg Dye

We switched things up a bit and did some silk-dyed Easter eggs. They turned out really cool! Plus it was fun to do more than the kit! You wrap 100 percent silk around the eggs, wrap them with cloth, then boil them with water and vinegar and viola!

The eggs getting their dye.

We also did some of the traditional dying. Mac (who was not at all happy in the picture below) settled down and had lots of fun and broke two eggs. It was great!

St. George Spring Break

We had a great Spring Break! We left late Sunday night and made it to St. George where we enjoyed a couple of warm days before we headed north to the SNOW! We enjoyed swimming, relaxing, riding scooters, and eating. Grandma and Grandpa Thompsen were there and made the trip even better.

We went to a Wal-Mart sponsored Easter Egg Hunt at a local park in St. George. They divided the kids up by their age. The girls were too far away to get very good pictures but here is Mac eyeing all the loot, just waiting until they say go.

The Great Race

We did it! It wasn't pretty but we did it. McKay and I trained for about three months to run the Agoura Half Marathon. Almost seven miles of it was on a trail that was a lot steeper than we planned. Parts of it I was walking and I was passing people trying to jog. My knee held up pretty well but definitely was hurting. McKay was nice and ran the whole thing with me even though he DEFINITELY could have bet our time by AT LEAST 10-15 minutes. I did improve my time from my last half by about 10 minutes on a harder course. I was hoping for a better time but here's to improvement!

It was a pretty windy day and my hair was driving me CRAZY! I also could feel the dirt on my teeth - yuck. Alisa and Lorraine helped bring the kids to the finish line to see us (that was no easy feat!)

We ran with some friends - it was so fun to know people at the finish line!

Dad and his boys sporting red!

Me getting some TLC at the first aid station.

How you play with your girls and watch a basketball game at the same time

McKay is really trying to be a better multitasker. He really wanted to watch the Cougs basketball game and the girls really wanted him to play with them so this is what they came up with. Yes, that is chapstick all over his face. He also got a foot massage. The sacrifices he makes to be a Cougar fan AND a great dad...