Trip to Salt Lake, Part One

The last Thursday in April, we took off for Utah. The kids were SOOOOO excited!! All morning Sophie kept saying "me ready, go Utah NOW!" Weston also sounded like a broken record. When we pulled into St. George for a pottie break he asked if we were there yet. The kids were anxious, because they knew they would get to see some very special people who they love! The first people we got to see were the Olsens, our dear friends who we miss so much. They were gracious enough to let us stay with them while in the great state of Utah
(Jason would vehemently disagree on the use of the word great in that sentence... he has a SERIOUS mental allergy to the state).
The first evening we were there, Emma (age 5), was reading with her mom when Sophie just jumped on in! Emma is such a sweetheart - like her mom, Stephanie (one of my most favorite people on the planet) And Sophie felt right at home...

The kids had an absolute BLAST playing together. Weston had such a great time playing with Emma and Hope that he told me they were his new best friends!Here is Austin (almost 2) and Hope (4):and Weston, who is Spiderman wherever he goes (thanks to Austin for letting him "borrow" that mask all weekend)! Sophie and HopeIt was wonderful to see the Olsen kids... they are a joy to be around. Friday morning as we were getting ready for the day, Weston kept beckoning Hope to come play with him. Hope declined his invitation several times because she needed to "help" me do my hair! Cute. Weston did get plenty of attention from Emma and Hope though. I think he may have escaped with more than a few kisses from them (on his cheeks of course)! So Friday we arranged to meet Mike, Carrie, and Lily at Cabela's near Thanksgiving Point. If you do not know what Cabela's is, you are not alone. I had no idea! Turns out it is almost exactly like the Bass Pro Shop. It provided a huge indoor place to visit and some fun things for the kidlets to see too. We would have preferred to have gone somewhere out-doors, but it snowed on and off all day and was downright blustery... at the end of April!

It was wonderful to see my brother. I was just thrilled that we were able to get together. Sophie and Lily are only 3 months apart in age, so it was really fun to see them interact. We hadn't seen Mike and Carrie for 8 months (since September). I did my best to get some great pictures, but I was working with some antsy kids. :) Here's Lily, posing beautifully for the camera:I had to get at least one picture with me in it - to prove that I was actually there! Sophie looks kind of angry in this shot...maybe because she was about to forever lose MY favorite hairbow! Observing the fish was one of the kids favorite things (they also liked feeding them).Sophie and Lily both had a little obsession with the stroller! They took turns pushing each other...And sometimes they both pushed it together (thank you Carrie for guiding the stroller pushing activities)!Weston finally got in for a free ride at the end! After exploring the whole store (including the fish tanks, animal displays, gun museum, and various other attractions), we finally went to their furniture section and sat down on a nice couch set to visit until the kids went bonkers...which didn't take too terribly long.We also ate while we were there. While the company was superb, I probably wouln't recommend the food. :)I look forward to these little girls getting to know each other better as they grow up! I'm so happy Weston and Sophie got to see their (one and only) cousin. I really wish we lived closer to Mike and Carrie, but I sure am happy we were able to get together last weekend!!

Easter Morning

Weston told me that Easter Sunday was a good day... which is really saying something for a boy that doesn't like Sundays (something I am confident he will grow out of in time)! So this is how it began...Searching for and finding their baskets...In their Easter baskets, the kids each got a book or two, some sidewalk chalk, a new box of crayons, gum and tic tacs (which Sophie managed to consume entirely at church that day). Weston also got a couple of cool spider man cups while Sophie discovered some little rubber duckies for the tub.Time to get dressed for church...Weston LOVES this pink shirt, which is hillarious because he despises having to wear nice shirts for church. The second we walk in the door, he is usually ripping his nice clothes off. Now that he has this pink shirt, he wants to wear it every day!Little princess!I love it when she grins so big that she squints her eyes.

Grandpa's Easter Visit

The kids were excited for Grandpa (Jason's dad) to come over on Easter. They haven't seen him since February, so they went a little nuts showing off and vying for his attention. I'm sure it was just terrible for him (*nudge nudge, wink wink*)!After dinner, Grandpa went out to his car to bring in a little surprise for the kids. They waited on the couch by the front door, peeking out the front window with eager anticipation of what might be coming their way!He first brought in this box, which turned out to be a prank gift. Weston's reaction was priceless (as shown by video below).

On to the real gifts...You'll notice that Weston is much happier now!Sophie was pretty much thrilled with her Elmo phone. The main gift that Jason's dad brought for the kids was front row tickets to go see Sesame Street live and also special tickets to MEET Elmo before the show! They don't yet grasp how awesome this gift really is, but they are going to have the time of their lives actually going. I'm kind of excited to meet Elmo too... I wonder how tall he is?On to the Easter egg hunt... the funniest part was watching Sophie. She was so ambitious and fast! Weston, on the other hand, seemed to not see eggs right in front of him. It was pretty comical. The kids had a little Easter egg hunt at my mom's house a couple of days earlier, and it was the same thing there, too. She had been concerned that Sophie wouldn't get enough eggs, but that concern quickly melted away. Sophie has always been a real go-getter though, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised!Here I am giving Weston some hints to help him find the egg right in the basket ball hoop, and he's giving me this funny look!They ended up very happily since they both made out like bandits! Here's Weston enjoying one of his eggs with Grandpa.Sophie examining her loot... they both got Jelly Belly jelly beans (the only true and living jelly beans if you ask me!), gummy bears, gum, and money for their piggy banks. Sophie got some chap stick, and Weston got a couple of match box cars. I'd say they did pretty well!Yeah, it was a pretty great time. This was Weston's expression when he opened one of his eggs. I honestly don't remember what was in that particular one, but he was obviously happy about it!