Marvelous May

We have been busy doing a lot of the usual stuff, but some of the highlights from May include a quick trip to visit J and Jan and watch "the boys" run the Huff to Bluff Marathon and Memorial Day festivities... The marathon route was the highway...fortunatley, it was pretty safe. Here's Bry - this was a tough marathon for him. His legs started cramping up about mile 15 and gave him fits the rest of the race - at one point, he went down...but he never quit - he got up and finished the race! We were both suprised to learn that with all the leg trauma - he was only 2 minutes behind his Tokyo Marathon time...woot woot. Go BABE!

"The Boys" after the race at Twin Rock (I think that's what the rock formation is called in the background :)

And then there was Memorial Day weekend...I took the girls to Thanksgiving Point to see the animals. It had been raining, but it only sprinkled on us a couple of times when we were there - then it got nice and warm and the sun came out!

Tori rode on the pony all by herself! Laeni and I were right behind her, trying to get Laeni to sit on her pony - but that wasn't happening. At one point she sat down in the saddle for a couple of seconds, otherwise we just walked in a circle like we were one of the ponies :).

Laeni was also afraid of several of the other animals - there was a cow behind the bars that she wouldn't walk past - hence the scream face. She wouldn't budge. It was really funny. She was even wearing her farmer's overalls!

We had a picnic, which the girls actually ate most of...Laeni ate Tori's cheese and Tori ate most of Laeni's sandwich. It was a pretty good trade for both of them :)

Tori wanted to feed the cow, but only let the cow eat off of her hand once. The rest of the time she would put the corn down as fast as she could on the wall and run away. In this photo you can see how she is alreay starting to move back, and the corn isn't even out of her hand yet :)

It was a fun trip to see the animals. On Monday - Memorial Day, I wanted to take them somewhere else, but it was raining again. I thought about the Bean Museum, but Bry's mom called and reminded me that because of the holiday, it probably wouldn't be open, so we went to Cabela's instead - hehehe...free animals to see and a giant fish tank. The girls had a good time there too. For dinner, we went up to Bry's mom and dad's for a BBQ of hot dogs, chips, salads, and of course S'mores. We lucked out for good weather for the BBQ.

Origionally, I was going to take the girls up the canyon, but was grateful I didn't when the girls were all over the backyard, Laeni crying for multiple reasons, Tori wanting to throw things in the fire, etc. Our BBQ turned out perfect in the backyard - Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

2011 Easter Edition

Happy Easter (a few weeks late). We had a fun Easter season with FHE lessons and egg hunts and coloring eggs, etc. We started the week earlier with our FHE Easter Egg Hunt. There were 11 eggs and each corresponded with a picture and part of the story of the real meaning of Easter. The eggs contained different things like white cloth, rocks, nail, 30 pieces of silver, etc to help share the story, but the 11th egg was empty - I wish I could download Tori's face when she opened the egg. It was a neat experience to explain the empty egg representing the empty tomb. After my little testimony about the resurrection and the Savior, I asked Tori what song she would like to sing. She looked at me, kinda sad, and just signed and said "more." "Tori, more what? Do you want to learn more about the story?" I don't think she even knew what she wanted more of, but I think she felt the Spirit and wanted more of that. My most favorite part of being a mom is to see their testimonies of the Savior start to grow. I am grateful for the empty tomb, grateful for the Savior's sacrifice through the Atonement, so that all of us might be saved. He IS risen, just as He said he would be!

The Saturday before Easter, we went to Kim's house for an Easter Egg Hunt and you can see below the number of eggs "hidden" for the littlest kids. Laeni would walk past 10 to find the one she wanted...she didn't quite get it this year :). Tori was picking up more than her share :)

Then...playing single mom, I decided we still had to dye eggs, so I got the girls "dressed" for the occasion and I think they did a fabulous job. Here are some pictures of their creativity.

Easter morning, Tori came into my bed with me and I asked her if the Easter Bunny had come in the night...she had forgotten all about it. I heard her walking down the hall and probably looking all over for her Easter basket full of goodies, when all of a sudden I heard her little shriek of excitement and "mama, he did come, he did come, the easter bunny brought me a lot of treats and a book."

Here they are enjoying some of their treats - not sure why the Easter bunny brings Peeps, but he used to bring them to me too when I was a kid and I've never liked them. Apparently, my girls do like them!

My disclaimer about the Blog photo: church starts at 9 am and playing single mom is tough when there is so much to be done by 8:45. I didn't get a picture of the girls when their hair looked cute before church, but I managed this one after church (or maybe even after their naps). They don't always look homeless :)