Spring Break 2013

Bryan had to travel for work to Louisiana for 9 days this month.  He usually only has to go for about 3 or 4 days, maybe 5, so 9 was a long one--for all of us!  He was lonely and tired (they worked sun-up to sun-down for 9 days straight), and the kids and I were all pretty sick of each other by the time he got home.  SO, we needed some vacation time!  Luckily Tess's spring break fell the week after he got home.  We pulled the trailer down to St. George for our first camping trip of the year.  It was a lot of fun--warm weather, gorgeous scenery, and lots of time to relax!!

Day one:  travel (stopping way too often for gas, lunch, or more likely one of the children pooping--man, were we ever a fiber-filled group that day!) and setting up camp.

Day two: playing at the sand dunes...

"...water....water..."

sand angels

...And skipping rocks at the reservoir (we were staying at Sand Hollow State Park--so fun!)

this cute girl got SO dirty, every day!

Day three:  visit to Zion Nat'l Park.  These pictures are all from the Emerald Pools Trail hike.

at Lower Pool

Middle Pool

Upper Pool

Day four: more four-wheeling at the sand dunes and playing in the sand at the beach.

While Bree napped, I took Tess and Miles to a fun swimming pool in Washington City.  While we were there, they were trying out a foam-machine for a party later that night... (I don't know what it's called officially, but it just blew out tons of foamy bubbles onto the patio.)

I sure love this little gal!

Day five: quick stop at Walmart before our trip home, and look who we ran into!  (Bree was SO excited, and Miles & Tess were just kind of shy.)

Happy Easter!

We drove from St. George straight to Bryan's parents' house for the annual Easter Egg Hunt/Birthday party, which will be my next post.... :)

Random Terry Happenings...

Here's a random photo of something cute that I found the other day when I went into Miles's room.  He was just hangin' out, reading books with some stuffed animal friends, in his cardboard box/rocket ship:

We recently ordered new backpacks so that we can re-do our 72-hour kits.  The ones we have are small, cheap, and not very sturdy.  So we figured we better get something a little bigger and stronger.  Bryan wanted to test out their sturdiness and here are the results:

They look sturdy to me!

In other news, Bryan's parents graciously offered their piano to us.  Neither of them play so it wasn't getting any use at their house.  Since they know I play, and Tess has started playing also, they asked if we wanted it!  At first I was hesitant because our old behemoth piano holds so very many memories for me...my parents bought it before I was born and my mom painstakingly refinished it.  I learned on it and have played on it for hours and hours and hours over the years.  BUT, it is over a hundred years old and it's extremely heavy and big, so moving it is always a huge challenge.  Plus it doesn't hold a tune as well as it used to.  So, the logical side of me finally won over the nostalgic side of me and said that I was crazy to not accept such a generous offer.  Our new piano is beautiful and sounds fantastic.  I love to hear Tess play on it every day!  (And I sit down to play once in a while too :) Here's Tess and me, saying goodbye to this old lug--we sold it to a super nice young couple with a little girl; the mom says she can't wait for her daughter to learn on it, so that made me really happy.