Easter 2024

We celebrate Easter over the last week and it was wonderful. 
We kept our Easter as Christ-centered as possible by celebrating Holy Week all week prior to Easter Sunday. It was so nice to learn and think on our Savior during the week. 

However, we did make some time to color easter eggs. 
We used our little "egg-mazing" coloring machine and the kids loved it.
I put together a little egg-coloring party for us and we enjoyed some little treats too!

For whatever reason, coloring with the egg-mazing never gets old. The color combinations are endless and its so fun to use. 

 

On Friday night we drove to Mtn. Home to celebrate Easter with Nanny and Papa. 
We had a wonderful Easter weekend. 
On Saturday it was beautiful and we had a little Easter egg hunt. 
With all the land surround Nanny and Papa's house, there were a million hiding places but the kids found all the eggs and it was pretty impressive. 

While we did color 4 dozen eggs, the easter bunny hid plastic eggs this year, filled with candy. 
The kids were thrilled with this development and it made the hunt even more intensive.

Of course we had to make egg-salad sandwiches on Saturday. With 4 dozen eggs to use up, we had plenty of egg salad to share. Benson was very happy about this and thoroughly enjoyed his sandwich. 

Then Saturday night we had our traditional Christian Passover Feast. The weather was so nice that we were able to have our feast on the back porch. It was so nice. 

We always enjoy this tradition and this year was no different. I love the symbolism this feast teaches and I love how teaches about the character of God. How he never fails and is true to his covenants. I love that it teaches about the love of our Savior and Father in Heaven. It's beautiful. 

The food was perfect and the night was amazing. 

After dinner we played outside. The kids love Nanny and Papa's hoverboard go-carts and their trampoline. They could play outside for hours. 

Then we did silly string fight with Nanny and Papa. 
This was a last minute impulse purchase and totally worth it. 
The kids had a great time spraying their grandparents with silly string. 

Tanner really enjoyed nailing Papa with silly string and it was all fun and games until Papa fought back. Then Tanner got what was coming to him in the form of silly string everywhere. 

Everyone was thoroughly covered by the end and it was great. They had a wonderful time. 

We ended our night with a peeps taste test. We had 6 different flavors of peeps and the kids got to taste test each one and then rate them, picking their favorite. 

Easter morning found us celebrating the resurrection of our Savior with the Mountain Home ward. 
It's always good to go home and visit but getting to go to church with Nanny and Papa is always a treat. 
This is the ward that I grew up in and I love getting to see some many familiar faces. 

The kids looked adorable in their Easter outfits and Bailey and I got lots of comments on our matching dresses. 

I love my kids. I love my husband and family. I have so many blessings to be grateful and because Christ lives, we can be together forever! I hope that I can always recognize what a true blessing that is.

Happy Easter!

 

Spring Break 2024

For the first time in a very long time we had a stay-cation for spring break. We are trying to save money this year and so we decided to keep spring break simple this year. 

We did go up to Branson on the Saturday after school got out for a couple of days. We used our Bluegreen points to stay and brought our friends, the Lott family, with us. 

We only stayed two nights but we had a great time. The rest of the week, we spent playing around home.  

So first I'll write about our Branson trip. Sadly, as we were leaving Bentonville my check engine light came on in my van and so we turned around and loaded up in Chris' truck. This was a bit closer quarters than we were use to, but the kids actually did really great. 
We had a surprisingly quiet and uneventful trip to Branson. 

We drove straight to the landing and we waited to meet up with our friends before doing our first activity. 

Our first stop was the Mirror Maize. This thing was so confusing. It was a maze made up of mirrors and the lights turned on and off. The kids seem to navigate it just fine, but I stepped two feet into the maze and immediately felt disoriented. 

It just felt like all the paths went on forever but then you would walk into a mirror wall and have to turn around. The kids loved it. 

Then we did the 7D ride. It was zombie themed and we got to shoot at them with our 3D glasses on and the chairs moved with our game. It was super fun. I wish it hadn't been so short. I would do it again and again. We all enjoyed it. 

From there we went to a craft mall to let Tanner look at these old Star Wars Lego mini figurines. I had purchased some earlier for him and he wanted to see if there were anymore there than he really wanted. 
Chris ended up finding some amish jams but Tanner didn't buy any thing. 

Then we drove over to Wal-Mart to pickup our grocery order. While Dad and the boys picked up the groceries, Bailey and I ran over to the bookstore "Books-a-million" to let her pickout some books. She had some money and wanted to get some new books to read over the break.

As you can tell by that smile, she was quite thrilled with her purchases. 

Then we went to check-in to our resort. 

Tucker and Benson helped us upload and then immediately went out to the playground to start playing. 

After unpacking, I joined the boys playing 

We had a great time playing and the weather was perfect. 

We played basketball and shuffleboard too. 

Then we ate dinner. The kids enjoyed eating on the balcony with their dad. 

Later that night we played some mini golf and then went swimming. The outdoor pool wasn't open for the season, but the indoor pool and hot tub were both open. 

That night after showers, the Lotts came over to our room and we all played games for a while. 

It was so fun to watch them play and laugh together. 

Sunday morning we went to sacrament meeting at the Branson West building. 
My friend Jessie and I went back after church to watch the Relief Society Worldwide broadcast. 
It was so nice to get to watch it with other sisters. We were planning to just stream it from one of our phones together, but we couldn't pass up the chance to watch it with a room full of relief society sisters. 

After the broadcast we loaded up the kids to go for a hike. 

We explored and hike for a couple of hours and just really enjoyed the beautiful weather. 

We climbed this rickety observation tower too. Sadly, all the trees are still bare but spring is just around the corner so it will be getting green soon. 

We also hiked along the river and there were so many cool little caves to explore. 

Eventually we made it to the end of the hike and this big cave opening that led down to the river. The kids played in the water for a bit and did some more exploring. 

The hike was so fun and beautiful. We all enjoyed it. 

After our hike we went back to our room and had some milkshakes. 

Then we had some dinner. Yes, we ate dessert and then dinner, because that's what you do on vacation. 

Then we all went out to the resort mini golf course and played together. 

Bailey didn't want to play so I went inside the game room with her and we played some games inside. 

The game room was full of all sorts of different games and we had fun staying warm inside together. 

Then we roasted smores over the firepit and hung out together. 
It got colder as it got darker so we all enjoyed the warmth of the fire and the delicious smores. 

We played more games that night and hung out until bedtime. 

Monday morning we slept in and then loaded up and checked out. 

We have been wanting to do the "Titanic Museum" for a while and we finally made it happen this trip. 

So we checked out and drove over there. 

Before leaving for Branson we had showed our kids the movie Titanic, (edited of course) so they would know the story and what happened.

The "Titanic Museum" was really cool.  When we entered they gave each of us a card with a name and story. The card had the name of an actual passenger and it told whether they were 1st, 2nd or 3rd class passengers and a little about their life before their trip on the Titanic. 

We weren't allowed to photograph anything on the bottom floor of the museum, but we learned a lot about the ship and how it functioned. 

The kids got to do a scavenger hunt and we all had handheld speakers that we could listen to for an audio tour. 

At the end of the tour we were able to see how much the ship tilted out of the water and how hard it would have been to hold on when the ship was being pulled out of the water. 

We also learned about the life boats and how many they could hold. Sadly, none of the boats that launched from the titanic were at capacity. So many more lives could have been saved. 

We learned about the survivors and we were all able to locate the name of our person from our cards on the wall of passengers. The wall was divided by class and by survivors and those who died. 
Surprisingly, everyone from our group survived. 
Sadly, the amount of people that survived varied greatly by class. 

62% of people from first class survived, while only 42% of second class and 26% of third class survived. The stories were heartbreaking but the museum was so well done. 
We all enjoyed it and learned so much. 

Of course we had to take a picture on the iconic stairwell.

After the museum we went to eat lunch and then we all headed home. 
We got home Monday evening and just chilled at home. 

We had a great little trip to Branson and loved getting to hang out with our friends, the Lotts. 

So now for the rest of our week. It wasn't nearly as exciting but it was fun. 

Tuesday morning we met the Lowdens at a new park and let the kids play. 

The older kids  played basketball and pickleball and the younger ones played on the playground. 

On the way home my van decided die so we were pulled over on the side of the road for a while. Tucker took the opportunity to gather a cute little bouquet of dandilions for me. He's such a sweet kid.

Dad came to save us and we made it home. 

Wednesday we went to "Fast Lanes" with our friends, Laura and Ivy Rose. Laura was gracious enough to pick us up and give us a ride because we didn't have a car still. 

But we had a great time. The kids played and played. 
We did the climbing structure for hours. 

We went bowling and played laser tag. 

Laura decided she wanted to spoil all the kids and she bought them the "belly buster" ice cream bowl. 
It had 16 scoops of ice cream and was enormous. 

It was pretty much the best thing ever. All the kids dug in and loved it. 

 

Surprisingly, the kids weren't able to finish it. But they got really close. 

We had a great time playing laser tag. It was awesome. We played multiple rounds and we were exhausted afterwards.

We grabbed chick-fil-a for lunch afterwards and then Laura dropped us all back at home. 

That night Chris was able to fix our van, which was awesome. 
He's the most handy husband and we are so grateful for him. 

On Thursday we went to "Best Friends Animal Sanctuary". 
This new campus had opened about a year ago but we hadn't made time to visit, so this seemed like a perfect opporotunity. 

We met a cute dog named "Tiger" and took him for a walk. 

We played with some puppies and then visited the cat room.

We had a great time at Best Friends and hopefully we will go back again soon.

We aren't in the market for another pet, but it's fun to go love on some animals. 

After "Best Friends" we drove our to Gravette and visited this hardware store called "Can-Do-Hardware". I've never seen a hardware store like this. 
Half the store is hardware- like tools and such but the other half is this massive candy and soda shop. 

I let the kids each pick out a candy or soda and we had a great time exploring it. 
There was even an area in the back that was set up to look like "Diagon Alley" from "Harry Potter". 

It was totally random but awesome. 

Friday night we were going to go camping, but then the weather turned and it was supposed to be cold. 
So we decided to let whoever wanted camp in the backyard. 
We built a campfire and roasted hot dogs and smores and hung out together. 

We just set up our little tent and the boys decided to stay outside while Bailey and I voted to sleep in our beds. 

The boys are hardcore. 

Saturday morning Chris took the kids fishing and the rest of the day was spent just hanging out.

It was a pretty low-key spring break but we had lots of fun. 
I will say though, I'm hoping for a big trip again next year. 

I just love traveling with my family and getting to experience new things. It's the best. 

That's it for spring break 2024 though. Until next time.