Soccer Season Begins

 Soccer season is officially in full swing.  Kenzie's first game was this morning.  I had a hard time taking a picture due to the swarm of kids around the ball at any given time...

...but here's Kenzie playing goalie.  She seems to like that position and volunteers for it.

Parker played ball on the sidelines.  I enjoyed him in his sunglasses running around.   I'm sure we'll be signing Parker up for soccer in the future as well!

Last Day of Spring Break

Yesterday was the last day of Kenzie's spring break (a whopping three days, but I guess she does end June 1st so we can't complain too much). A small group of us went to Wheeler Farm to let the kids run around a bit. McKenzie made her usual complaint about the smell! Each time we visit, I get the best smiles from this old treehouse structure. They love looking down on me, I guess! Case in point, big smile. Well, it was going to be a picture of the baby pigs. (They're back there if you really look...) Oh, well, it was a fun day before the school routine had to start up again!

Easter Sunday

"Mom, why do we always have to take a picture on Easter?" Kenzie kept asking. We have a hard enough time most weeks being on time for church, but I make sure to get up 15 minutes earlier on Easter to capture them in their cute outfits.

Parker wanted to stand in the shade because the sun was in his eyes. I got a kick out of his pose here with his hand in his pocket even!

My pretty toothless girl!

When we got home from church, the Easter Bunny had visited! The kids were so excited for the egg-shaped gum.

Kenzie was also exceptionally excited to get some princess stick-on nails. (They never stick on for long... as I write this post she has already gone through all but 2 of the nails!)

Usually on Easter we have a larger family gathering, but this year we had a smaller group at Chris's brother's house. The kids loved looking for eggs on all their rocks!

Showing off their haul. I'm glad they have so much - they won't notice if Mommy sneaks a few eggs this way!

Eggs

Parker was very concerned when Kenzie loudly announced it was time to dye eggs. "But, why do they die?" he asked. Once that was cleared up, though, he was very excited to plunk the eggs into the cups! Here's Kenzie showing off a few of her favorite eggs. The kit I bought last year came with some paint, so both kids really went to town. We probably could have skipped the dye and just painted. I have decided Parker looks way too old in this picture. When did my little guy get so big?

Neighborhood Egg Hunt

Lilly, Skyler, and McKenzie getting ready for the neighborhood egg hunt this morning. It was chilly!

Here's Parker and his little buddy, Erik, waiting to start. I'm glad my kids have a bunch of little friends their age around here.

And they're off!

We'd made sure there was enough for each kid to find 12 eggs... I had to stop Parker shortly after this picture because he was one of the fastest little kids. He already had 15 in his basket and wasn't slowing down!

The bigger kids searched in the back yard. Kenzie was one of the first to find 12 eggs, too. (My kids have been trained by older cousins who don't stop at just 12 eggs, I guess. They know to find eggs quickly or they won't get any!)

I thought this was cute, all the little kids lined up checking out their loot.

Happy Easter weekend!

Final Day of St. George Trip

Our last day was Saturday, and it was a bit windy so we stuck to the indoor pool. I finally remembered to bring my camera, and we actually had the entire pool to ourselves. (That definitely only happened the once - in fact later this day it was insanely crowded.)

One thing about it, I did not have to say, "Smile!" when either kiddo was around the water. Even just three days of swimming helped both of them become quite fearless in the pool.

I wanted to take this shot to show the view we had from the pool of the red rocks in the background. It was a nice change of pace but I think I would miss trees if I stayed there longer than a few days!

When lunchtime rolled around, we got some sandwiches to take for a picnic. Parker only eats peanut butter or grilled cheese sandwiches (in fact, standing in line at Subway Parker looked intensely at the menu and finally said, "But I don't like those. I will just eat bread."). Fortunately we had leftover Brick Oven pizza in our hotel's fridge!

A short walk to a little pond. There were some ducks and fish to look at, but I managed to not get either in the picture.

I had to include this - after swimming some more and going out to eat one last time, the kids took baths and got settled in to watch another movie. Parker made it about 15 minutes before falling asleep. It's funny how vacation is so tiring! The next morning we got breakfast and headed home through rain and even some snow! What a welcome back to northern Utah. When's the next vacation?

St. George Trip, Day 2

Friday morning we went to the St. George Temple. There are several historic church sites in St. George, but we decided to only go see the temple (as our travel companions don't exactly appreciate history when contrasted with the draw of the hotel swimming pool).

This is my new favorite picture of them. They are so well trained to sit and humor Mommy by posing for a picture.

They both loved this model of Jerusalem in the visitor's center. When they pushed a button, a red or green light would blink on the model and the recording would tell about that location. They were mesmerized for quite awhile, until McKenzie accidentally changed it to Spanish.

My cute family. Parker really liked this statue (he loves the one in Salt Lake, too) and while listening to the recording kept asking, "How it talk?"

Parker took advantage of an open patch of grass! He literally ran in circles for a few minutes.

I had to laugh at this - both of them staring at the TV with their mouths agape. Chris and I joked that our schedule for the trip was, "Eat, nap, swim," and we really did seem to stick to that. Of course the "nap" portion of the schedule consisted of us old folks trying to rest while Kenzie and Parker watched cartoons or rearranged the moveable hotel furniture.

I forgot again to bring my camera to the pool, but after a long day of swimming and watching TV we went out for dinner and then watched Kung Fu Panda and popped a bucket of popcorn.

Poor Kenzie was on the edge of the bed most nights. Parker wound up completely sideways no matter how many times I straightened him out!

St. George Trip, Day 1

Thursday after my ultrasound we headed to St. George as a little mini-vacation. It also served the dual purpose of keeping ourselves occupied so we didn't sit around moping for Allie's 1st birthday. We bought a portable DVD player, and it paid for itself as both kids sat peacefully and watched movies the whole way!

We stopped at a McDonald's in Beaver just to let the kiddos stretch for a bit. Parker wouldn't go down the slide until Kenzie went with him.

When we arrived in St. George late that afternoon, our first item of business was to go to Jack in the Box, as the only two in the state are in that area. I personally was disproportionately excited to eat tacos. (I even took a picture of the tacos, but I have decided to refrain from posting that - I might regret it if it makes me hungry later!)

After a swim in the hotel pool, Parker was all snuggled up in the hotel bed for the first night!

Cameron!

Fourth time around, and I still said, "If you say so," when the technician said things like, "And here we see his ear..." It all looked the same to me, except of course the obvious images of his head and then the, uh, outdoor plumbing. I had a dream a long time ago about a boy, so I wasn't surprised, but it's still exciting. Parker is very happy to have a little brother and hugged the CD of images as we left. My due date is still August 26, so let's hope the air conditioner works well this summer!