Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter

We drove home from Utah Saturday and the kids still had the energy to color their Easter eggs. When I was growing up we had Easter Bunny Day the day before Easter, so that Easter Sunday could be enjoyed without the commercialism. I liked this tradition and have continued it with our family. I was telling the kids we obviously couldn't have the hunt tonight, it was already dark. They begged me to have their hunt in the dark, they were very excited about this idea. They got to work on dying the eggs. I love that even at their ages they still enjoy the egg coloring activity. This year I bought a monster dye kit, so they dressed up their eggs with fuzzy hair, stickered faces and pipe cleaner limbs. The eggs this year were the cutest I had ever seen. We even saw some celebrities emerge like: Elvis, Pepper Ann, Arnold from Hey Arnold and Mike from Monsters Inc. After the eggs were colored, we had our first ever egg hunt in the dark. It was a little tricky, one egg was lost for awhile, but with the help of a flashlight it was finally found.






Years ago when I was at my parents for Easter dinner, she served Easter bread she had bought from a bakery. It was bread that was braided into a wreath, which symbolized the crown of thorns. There was a red egg that sat in the middle of the wreath that represented the Saviors death. The Resurrection or "new life" was represented by the egg. The next year, I created my own Easter bread patterned after hers. It has become part of our Easter meal each year. I worked hard cooking all the food. The family gets a little tired posing for pictures before I let them eat the holiday meals, so I just took a few pictures of the food this time. (I know it is strange, but it was the first time I ever made a coconut cake and it was really pretty.)


Saturday, April 23, 2011

Grandma's Easter Party

My mom always goes to so much work for the holiday parties. As usual, she did a great job on the Easter party this year.

My mom taught us some dances from her day - the hand jive...

...and the stroll, which we had to take out onto the driveway for more room.
Tyler came to the party in perfect costume, he was a little tired of it by this point
Christine and Cooper
Some of the grandsons climbed grandma's tree


Finding the eggs
We had a great spring break. Right after the party, we headed back to Vegas. We stopped in Cedar and picked up Ariel's friend and brought her home with us to spend the weekend.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Backyard Time

My parents backyard is a great place. Lots of memories of BBQ's, Easter Egg hunts, sledding, building snowmen, working in the garden, jumping on the trampoline, it's the place where the family spends time together. I think we had one sunny day over spring break, so Aaron took advantage of it and spent some time practicing his flips. He had a couple of really cute girls watching him.






Lifeflight

My mom's friend works with Lifeflight at IMC hospital. She arranged for some of us to go and check out the helicopter and speak to the pilots and nurses. Of course it was a cold and stormy day. Some of the kids took a turn sitting in the helicopter. It was amazing how small the area in the back was to transport a patient. The head of the patient has to rest right up front next to the pilot. Two nurses can sit in the back with the patient, but it is a very tight squeeze.
We got to ask questions and they were going to take off when we were done talking, but the storm coming in was to quick and they weren't able to leave. The Freebairn Family We were glad my mom could arrange our visit with Lifeflight
Ariel and Tyler
Walking back from our visit to the helicopter pad
Lily was sick, so she was so thoughtful to wear a mask
Mikey looking like a CEO at the hospital's conference room
Aaron and his cousins

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Baseball

We were really excited to go to one of Sterling's baseball games,he is my brother Jon's oldest child. He was an awesome baseball player! I couldn't believe how cold it was in Utah this week. I borrowed my mom's coat this week, I forgot to bring my own. I loved that me, Jon and my mom all had matching coats.
Sterling getting a piece of the ball - We were really proud of him.


A Morning at the Bowling Alley

It was a little rainy this morning, but my goal this week is to let the kids do something fun each day. I don't know if they consider "bowling" very high up on the fun scale, but it's kind of fun. We showed up right when it opened. They had to turn on the lights for us and we felt a little awkward for being the first customers of the day, eager to bowl. We were the only customers of the Orchard Lanes that morning. Aaron was ready and willing to kind of have some fun.
Aaron beat Meg and I the first game. I took this picture because as you can see by the score, after frame two, I had a really strong start to the second game. It went downhill from there. Meg and I both had rolled a few strikes, Aaron had not. This was giving him stress and making him not have as much fun as he could be having. I told him to throw a grandpa ball and it seemed to be just what he needed to get a...

yes, a strike! He kind of had a lot more fun when ALL of the pins fell down.

Megan and I were real happy for him, it gave him the motivation to beat us the second game. We were glad we decided to bowl that rainy morning...and we had a little fun too.


(*not pictured: Megan and Angela)

Monday, April 18, 2011

Annie

On Tuesday, we got to go see the play "Annie" at Rodgers Memorial Theater. I have been an Annie fan since I was a kid. I was 12 when the movie came out in theaters. We lived in California at the time and we were running some errands on a Saturday. My sister, Cheri, worked at a water park and was feeling especially generous that day. We passed a theater that was playing the new movie. Cheri told my dad if he pulled in right then, she would pay for all of us to see it, so he did. I thought it was the best movie ever. My mom bought a cassette tape (remember those?) of the soundtrack...and we grew up singing the songs.

In previous years, I have been lucky enough to go with my parents to see other productions at their community playhouse, and they always do such a good job. I was excited for the kids to go and glad that Lisa and her kids came too. How can you not have a perfect evening when you start it out with dinner at your favorite Chinese restaurant? The play was great and was one of the highlights of our week! I never have enough time to see everyone that I wish I could when I come to visit, but, I am glad I got to spend a little time with two of my friends, Joyce and Tricia.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Spring Break

Sunday night everyone came over for dinner. I love spending time with my family, they are awesome. I had to get pictures of my little "cuties"