A Day Trip Down Memory Lane

President's Day - we decided to use the day off to go on a fun day trip to the beginnings of our little family so many years ago. We headed down to Provo to relive our college days.

I can't believe this place is still standing. It was kinda dumpy back when we lived here! (o: Our humble beginnings at "The Manor House". Such a fancy sounding name for this cinder block structure. We had good times here though in our cute, little studio apartment. And the not so good times are funny to us now. Like the night after our neighbors moved and we smelled cigarette smoke coming from next door in the vacant apartment. We called the police and they found a homeless man in the closet right on the other side of the wall from our bed. Yikes! Good Times! (o: I prefer to recall the fun times trying to figure out how to cook dinners, keeping our little house, having my little sis visit for sleepovers, staying up all night playing King's Quest VII The Princeless Bride when we bought our very first computer and then Heroes of Might and Magic. It was good therapy after long nights studying!

One of my old places of employment. I didn't get a picture of Franklin Elementary where I worked most of my years down at BYU. My last year, before we moved to Oregon, I worked here for the Utah County Visitor's Center. I was so blessed to have such great jobs while we were going to school. I worked with great people and got to go visit so many fun places (while getting paid) so I could recommend places for people to visit. I have great memories of going with co-workers Kristy and April to various museums, the preview of Thanksgiving Point's gardens, hotel tours and even skiing at Sundance! I also got to take pictures for the Utah County Visitor's Guide. So I can say I've been published. (O:

We took the girls to Los Hermanos - one of our favorite restaurants to go to for special dates back in our old college days. It's in a new location now, but has the same feel.

After lunch we headed to the Bean Life Science Museum on BYU campus. Natalie did not like the 8 foot tall scary bear as you can see by the look on her face.

But this butterfly exhibit was pretty amazing to look at!





Sarah enjoyed watching a real live paleontologist at the museum of Paleontology.

... until she ran into this guy.

We finished off the day at Cabella's and let the girls try their hand at the fun shooting gallery. What a fun day!!

Easter Sunday

The girls always get fun packages from their grandmas on holidays!

The Easter bunny brought each of the girls some candy and a book and stickers.
Eating candy in the fashion show tent.

The Easter egg hunt. We always do a more spiritual Easter egg hunt with little items that represent different parts of the story of the Savior's crucifixion and atonement in the bible. It's a nice way to remember the most important part of Easter.

It was especially neat having Easter Sunday fall on General Conference weekend - the music was stunning and the talks were so inspirational. The focus in general conference is always on the Savior, but it was extra special having it on Easter.

I don't remember why she was making this face - she makes it a lot though! That's my Loo. (o:

Sarah with the deviled eggs and her new card game.

Happy Easter cat. Doesn't she look so happy?

St. Patty's Day

I usually like to do something fun and greenish for St. Patty's Day, but this week was such a blur (see Sarah's Pneumonia entry) that I was just proud to remember to help Ang and Natalie wear green to school. We had preschool that day and the kids all looked cute in their green. They had fun learning about ABC's that day...

Angela loves to wear her "funny little hat" on St. Patrick's Day. (o: I love it!

Tori meticulously paints her Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree in shades of green. How appropriate!

Valentine's!

The evening before Valentine's Day, we went for a special treat with grandma and grandpa to Moonstruck Chocolate for their amazing chocolate shakes. Mmmmm. They were very busy with people buying valentine's!
Daddy always gives his girls a flower for Valentine's - what a sweet dad.

Natalie made this adorable mobile for daddy. Isn't it cute? She comes up with this stuff on her own. Actually I think she found the idea in one of our art books, but she does it all on her own. What a cutie.

Hanging out with grandma and grandpa is our favorite. We love just hanging out, playing games, watching movies and laughing with grandma and grandpa. We even had them try out Rock Band on the Wii! It was lots of fun and lots of laughs!

Valentine's day was on Sunday, so the girls had just a few minutes to see their valentine's before we headed off to church.

Sarah loves those Magic 8 balls that tell you the "future" or answer your yes/no questions.

I found this idea in Family Fun - to make one using Magic clay wrapped around a liquid-filled baby food jar. Inside you put a small cube of Styrofoam with foam glued to each side and a prediction written on it like, "In your dreams" or "definitely". It really turned out cute, if I do say so myself and Sarah LOVED it. She took it to school for show and tell the next week and all her friends were enthralled. She said everyone wanted to play with it and ask it questions.

Small and simple things . . . it doesn't take much to make kids happy. (usually!)

Natalie loves teeny tiny things, so she got this teeny tiny pool table. She has it in the Barbie house now so the Barbies can play!

My Valentine from my valentine. (o: Aren't they pretty?

We made melty chocolate lips for dessert that night and served them with homemade pink ice-cream.

This heart puzzle was Angela's Valentine. She's my puzzle girl.

I love Valentine's day and it was so much more fun celebrating with grandma and grandpa! We had a wonderful day together!

Welcome Grandma and Grandpa!!

We are always thrilled to hear about visits from grandpa and grandma and the anticipation is almost too much for all of us! Finally the day arrived!

Lots of hugging going on!

Grandma and grandpa arrived the day of Sarah and Natalie's Valentine parties. Natalie had her Valentine bag sitting on the desk. At one point, as we were visiting, we saw Twilight climb inside the bag. (She LOVES bags.) While inside she got disoriented and fell off the desk in the bag. It was very entertaining and would have made a good candidate for A.F.V. (America's Funniest Videos), but I was not quick enough to get the video camera. Too bad.

Grandma T. sent the girls a fun Valentine package. This was Angela's outfit she put together with her new heart shirt from grandma.

Weee - grandpa got a good workout on this visit!

First Memories of 2010

We took our distinguished guest to one of our favorite restaurants - The Venetian. We LOVE this restaurant. The food is fantastic, the atmosphere is relaxed and urban and it isn't a chain restaurant - it's unique. We love supporting local businesses in downtown Hillsboro. (Like the awesome toy store "Let's Play" and the Stratford Tea Parlor") This is also the venue where we saw A Christmas Carol in December.

Dad tried out the citris mango vinegrette that we reccomended for his salad. Yum!

Next - we decided to burn some calories bowling!

Look at the rainbow of balls. The girls love all the fun colors.

Chrissy giving Angela a hand.

Strike!

Angela helping grandpa out with his shoes.

Daddy and aunt Chrissy and mommy broke 100! But the girls and grandma and grandpa weren't far behind. Sarah is so competitive she was upset with her 83, which made grandma and grandpa feel a little bad as they were only a couple points ahead of her. (o: I don't know if we can ever convince her that winning isn't the point.

Some snuggle time with Chrisy - priceless. (o: