Spring Break

The kids will tell you that spring break didn't officially begin until we got home from Seattle. Then they could be lazy and start to forget all the school stuff that they had held on to. They organized a big game of Capture the Flag in the orchard.

That was topped off with floats

and apparently some betting on arm wrestling.

DeA has been trying to order a Cross Net for months and months and finally it got here.

DeA and I spent quite a bit of time over the break and between conference sessions teaching the youth their place.

We had a temple trip on Thursday morning and it was so great too see pretty much ever young man and woman that was in town there. They had to wake up at 6:30ish to drive two hours each way and did it happily and seemed to have a great experience.

DeA is too good to enjoy the delicious sandwiches at Jersey Mike's, but she at least came in so that we could enjoy her beautiful face.

We have had some incredible sunsets.

It is rare that we don't have to go anywhere on Conference Saturdays. It was such a great day of feeling my prayers answered and to receive guidance.

DeA and I disagreed a little on how much we should push the kids to participate, but I didn't even know that there was a Saturday of General Conference until I was at Ricks College, so I'll count it as a win that he was even in the right room.

Sunday is still donut day. I time it so that we fry them between sessions.

Jens is now sprinkle bae.

I guess Rock wasn't the only one to sleep through a talk or two.

Rissa's herd came over for dinner and for some serious cross net action. Sofia was ready for anything.

Two spoons, one with cool whip and the other with refried beans. Yummy.

Ryker printed the boys some multicolored dragons and Leo was so excited to show them to Sofia.

Easter

I have really enjoyed the increased emphasis on celebrating Easter correctly. We started with a family walk on the beautiful spring evening.

We had a great Sunday meeting and then drove over to Nick and Emily's to bless Crewe and see them. We tried to pack a lunch, but it didn't work out so we had to feed the minions halfway there.

We were in a loose caravan with Rissa's group and Mom and Dad. Along the road, just past Leavenworth, we saw Rissa and Javi making a pit stop.

It is always fun to be around the lil' ones.

Rissa organized an Easter Egg hunt in the field next to Nick's. My kids were too cool to participate.

They did try to steal candy from the younger cousins.

Sofia took the easy way out.

Nick made a delicious dinner with root beer floats. Ryker approved of it all.

Brownies with ice cream was pretty pretty good, too.

Don't worry, it is only mud.

"Do what you want, but I have already won"

The teenagers and almost teenagers were "starving" so we made a late night run to the Bell.

We chilled and played pickleball and napped before taking the train into the city.

It was a Julio bobblehead night, and we didn't get there early enough, so we had to wait in line for a bit.

I love sitting and watching BP, and it is great that the kids are old enough now that they can watch it with me.

Nick, Hadley and Cambri got there about 30 minutes before first pitch with his brother-in-law and their twins. It's nice to be there with little kids who don't want me to be the one to take them to find food.

It was a nice, sunny day in Seattle.

DeA had fun, at least she said she did.

It was a fun time.

The ballpark is amazing, but there is way too much T-Mobile magenta in there. 

Spring Stuff

Right now, our lives are full of baseball, Knowledge Bowl, church and school stuff. 

Rock is going through the classic small high school dilemma of taking practice for fast pitching, but then facing slllooooowwww pitching in games. He's squared up a lot of pitches, but has also been so far out in front that I thought he was going to hit the England Chiropractic sign behind him.

The cheering section has always been on-point.

He got to catch a JV game and looked nails back there. He even threw a kid out to end the game (nevermind that the kid decided to hopscotch or something into the base, he still threw a perfect ball right on the base).

It got just a little chilly after the sun went down.

After months of asking, Ryker finally printed me something from Lord of the Rings.

We've had some nice evenings to hang out outside with the kids.

Jens is the only kid that still is interested in dying eggs, and that makes me a little sad, but not really sad because it can be a hassle, but still a little sad.

Sofia was mad to be left out.

We've been trying to get Leo Puppy and the cats to co-exist, but Leo keeps wanting to eat them. Horchata has zero fear of Leo and seems to taunt him at times. Amber Michi just chills in the garage at all times.

 

Amber did catch a mouse while hanging out in the garage, so DeA will let her live here for at least another year.