spring break 2008...

Wow, I feel like I'm so far behind - it's been a while since I've blogged and we've been busy, so there's a lot to record. I've been inspired by my buddy, Laura, to create a blog book at the end of the year - so I'm trying to include more of our "everyday life" on my blog...so this post is definitely going to be serving more as a journal entry and will be basically unrelated to scrapbooking -- so if you're only here for scrapbook related entries, you might find this post boring...check back soon for a scrapbook related entry!

April 5th was the first official day of spring break - it was also Brad's birthday!

He asked for three things - pens, (because he can never find one when he needs one), calculators (because ours seem to grow legs and walk away on their own), and a CD set he's been wanting forever - since he saw it on a late-night infomercial. So, that's what he got - four packs of pens (one package from each child), and two calculators. I also surprised him with a pair of Crocs...

I had ordered the CD's for him, but they still hadn't arrived on Saturday morning - so we were especially excited when they were delivered later Saturday afternoon! I know,
I know - he has a huge spectrum of musical preference...I don't think there's any kind of music he doesn't like - but he's a big 60's fan! :o)

We didn't really have a party for Brad's birthday - with it being Spring break, pretty much everyone in the family was headed out of town for the week. We did, however, go out for lunch - just our little family. We went to Don Pedros, because you can't beat churros and fried icecream for a birthday treat, right?!?

On a side-note, I woke up Saturday morning with a killer sore throat (I'd felt it coming on Thursday and Friday...but since I'd pulled a couple of all-nighters for work I really thought it was just a side-effect of no sleep). I knew we were headed out of town on Sunday so I decided (with a little urging from Brad) to visit the brand new Urgent Care facility Saturday morning. I was actually glad to find out that I had strep - because having strep means you can take antibiotics and get better! So I started my penicillin regimin on Saturday afternoon and by Monday morning I was feeling pretty good.

The rest of Saturday was spent packing, cleaning, listening to General Conference, and getting ready to head to St. George on Sunday afternoon. On Sunday, we left after the morning session of Conference and headed South - to the sunshine!

Monday was gorgeous! The kids couldn't wait to hit the pools.

The last time we went to St. George, Seth wouldn't have anything to do with the pool or hottub. He was completely uninterested in the water and only wanted to play at the playgrounds. This trip was a whole different story. He LOVED the hot tub. There were lots of kids jumping in and out, going between the hot tub and the pools, but Seth was content to sit in the hot tub. He surprised me by striking up conversations with the other little kids as they came in and out - he met several four-year-olds. It was really entertaining listening to them introducing themselves and carrying on conversations as if they had been doing it for years!

Zach was not interested in getting in the water at all this time. He was content to dip his toes in the hot tub and play with the water toys on the pool deck. As long as his daddy was nearby, he was happy.

Tuesday was not very warm and it was very windy. But we weren't complaining because we knew it was snowing at home...

Instead of pools, we went to a museum of sorts in Washington. We'd been there before, but Brad wanted to go back. The building is actually an old school house - and it smelled EXACTLY like I remember the old North School here in Heber smelling when I went there in 1st and 2nd grade. (isn't it so weird how smells can stay with us forever - lurking in the depths of our subconscious - and how they can trigger memories of things we'd totally forgotten about - or at least it seemed they were forgotten) Anyway, the building is full of old stuff...and it's all out in the open, not in glass cases...and there is even a table full of odd old objects that you are supposed to guess what they are. The kids loved being able to see everything and touch lots of things.

Seth picked this up and said "Look, it's an old fashioned toilet plunger!"

Of course, Zach headed right for the huge mallet-hammer-thingy...he loves ALL tools - especially hammers. If you don't believe me, you should see all of the little dings in my walls and the lovely job he did on the fridge door...but that's another story.



After seeing this old newspaper (from 1941), I was sure glad I had Lasik a few years ago. Apparently, I look better now and I'm sure I'm much more charming! (*wink*)

After we left the museum, we picked up lunch and went to the park for a picnic. The kids loved playing on the playground for a while.

Zach enjoyed eating the limes from our fresh lime drinks.

And here's the only photographic evidence that I was even ON this vacation!

(Meagan took my camera for a while, because she always likes to take pictures whenever she can, and when I was going through them, I saw that she actually caught me in the corner of this photo - in all of my white-legged glory.) Ah, it's nice to know I was really actually there! :o)

After a little bit of playground fun, we made our way over to this cool water wheel - the same one we took photos by when we were down in Washington for Daxen's blessing...that was 4 1/2 years ago - it's absolutely crazy to think that it was that long ago!

Next, we went for a little walk around the park. While we were walking, Zach suddenly stopped and bent down to the ground - "bug" "bug" "bug" - he was absolutely fascinated with the ants crawling on the path and it was all he could do to keep himself from touching them. It was so cute!

So after our ice cream cones, the kids still weren't ready to go back to the condo. We found another park with this cool climbing rock - I still can't figure out how they can have these out in the open, for anyone to use, without huge liability issues. But the kids liked it, so there we played.

Then we did a little climbing around on real rocks.

After that, we called it a day and headed back to the condo for dinner.

Wednesday was still rather cold and windy, so we spent a good part of the day here at the Sand Hollow Aquatic Center. The kids loved it!

**I didn't take a camera, since I was also forced to don a swimsuit and join the family in the water (not a pretty sight - you should be very happy you didn't have to witness it), so I stole this picture from the chamber of commerce website.

I love how tired the kids get after playing in the water for hours...kind of. We had to work to keep everyone awake so they would sleep during the night - so, after cleaning up at the condo, we decided to go out for dinner. We went to the Pizza Factory on Ancestor Square - yum. enough said.

Thursday morning was still cold and windy, but we were determined to make use of the hottub one more time - so we did. It was crazy cold...but Meagan and Josh were happy to jump in and out between the hottub and pool, Brad and Seth were content to sit in the hottub, and Zach and I were happy to sit on the pool deck and stick our toes in the hottub.

We considered heading down to Mesquite for one night - hoping for warmer weather so the kids could really swim and enjoy the sunshine...but we decided against it, and opted to finish out our spring break at home, surrounded by freshly fallen snow.

We packed up and headed home a little after noon. The kids slept a good part of the way - so it made the drive seem quicker. We stopped at Sam's Club in Provo on the way home - and then returned to our freezing cold house just before dark. We unpacked the van and pretty much crashed for the night.

Since it was still Spring Break, we decided to continue the "vacationing" even though we were home.

Friday morning we headed to Provo. The kids couldn't wait to go to Kangaroo Zoo again - so we spent a few hours watching them slide, bounce, and run around until we forced them to leave so we could eat lunch. After lunch, we had to run a few errands (involving Brad's new truck), so we headed to Salt Lake. After taking care of business, we decided we needed to do one more family activity, so we stopped off at Thanksgiving Point and spent some time at the Dinosaur Museum.

It was the perfect ending to our week of family fun.

And that is how we spent Spring Break, 2008.