Spring Break Part 1 -AR, OK and we went to Missouri too but that wasn't new...

For Spring Break Emily was headed on her 15 year old trip to India with Greg so I told Kate, "You are a Senior.  Where do you want to go in the lower forty-eight?"  She picked Arkansas to see Spencer and his family.  So Thursday we cut out of school early and headed south.  We got to their house around 9:00pm.  We got the downstairs tour, pet the cats, looked for deer, and stayed up way to late catching up. 

The next morning we woke up early to see the kids off to school.  Winston didn't remember us but was pretty excited that we would still be here when he got home from school.

We had a lazy morning chatting, touring the outside, upstairs, and then getting crepes for breakfast.  After crepes we tour Bentonville and made a visit to the Crystal Bridges American Art Museum (free thanks to Walmart donations).  The architecture of the museum is incredible, allowing it to be built along the river.  I can imagine it is gorgeous when the trees are green.

This piece of art was begging for a photo.  Winston asked me later if Lily wanted to ride that chicken- I'm pretty sure we all wanted to climb on.

This Frank Lloyd Wright designed home was moved here from New Jersey where it was being destroyed by frequent flooding.  We got to take a quick walk around the less than 800 square feet.  It was beautiful and practical.

After that we grabbed delicious salads for lunch and picked up Winston from school.  That night we enjoyed time with the kids, played lots of games, and stayed up too late talking.

Saturday we got moving to eat breakfast in town.  Lily's acai bowl looked so delicious the cousins had to order their own to share.

Breakfast was followed by the grand reopening of the Walmart museum, which is always free.  We learned a lot about Sam Walton and the kids enjoyed this replica of his truck.

The museum is housed in the first store Walton opened - The Walton five and dime.

The kids loved looking at all the old products on display and I was impressed with Sam Walton's commitment to his employees and customers.  The kids got to design their own Walmart logo sticker, 

and get decked out with Walmart stuff on this random display.

The museum ended with a hologram of Sam Walton where he answers questions and tells stories.  It was pretty cool actually.

I'm sure the kids favorite part was the ice cream shop at the museum's exit.  One scoop was $1.30 and the ice cream was still pretty good.  We had some happy kiddos.

From there we took a 40 minute drive to the Bluff Dweller's Cave in Missouri.  Our guide was entertaining enough and didn't get too grouchy with Winston when he just couldn't help but touch the rocks.  

The most interesting part was when the guide played part of the cave features like drums.  I didn't get a pic but he tapped on very specific places on this one feature and it sounded like bongos, ??.  I've been in a lot of caves and never heard that before - very cool.

After the cave we took a 20 minute detour to get a new state for all the kiddos.

And we had to get a pic going back into Arkansas - the girls were set on throwing this pic in Emmy's face - I think she'd still rather be in India.

After all the driving we got the wiggles out at the climbing gym.  Mckenzie and Emma were all over it.  Lily took a little warming up but once she got to the top once she was on a roll and mastered 5 different paths.  She wants to go again when we get home.

Winston did some climbing too, and wrestling, and running, and laughing.  On the way home he told Lily all about his volcano cake that was cooking in the oven at home and how we had to get it out so it wouldn't burn.

Mckenzie got to stay up and watch Despicable Me 2 (inspired by me calling Winston a purple minion on the way home) with us.  The adults were planning to talk but got sucked into the movie.

Sunday morning the kids enjoyed lazy time together and some video games before church.  At dinner Emma was being shy (or stubborn) about praying and we were all awkwardly waiting for her to being when Winston started giving her suggestions like "Say, Heavenly Father, thankful for the food." I couldn't keep it together and started everyone laughing.

We played the name game with everyone and then some games with just the big kids and we enjoyed some delicious lava cakes made by Kenzie and Keeley before the kids went to bed.  Spencer had Winston convinced we were going to put in real lava.  I sent the girls to bed around 9:30 and stayed up till 3:00 chatting with Spencer and Keeley.  And I still managed to get up before 7 to say bye to the kids.  

We were sad to say bye to Arkansas and the Dame party but were excited to explore Memphis.  I had to use some caffeine pills to get us there safety but we made the 5 hours to Tennessee!

Winter fun

Our ward ski night was a hit in mid January inspite of it being super cold and rather icy.

I found this cute guy wrestling in Middleton.  It was fun to watch the meet with Val, learn more about wrestling and cheer Luke on to victory in his match.

Emily's Christmas experience gift was tickets to Hamilton with a friend.  So after Lily's cousin birthday  party we headed to the Morrison Center with Emmy and Kendall for an amazing night of history and song.  

Emmy knew all the music but had never seen the play and she absolutely loved it.

This was the obstacle course I had to make it through in the dark, carrying a basket of laundry - glad I didn't step on any of these crazy cats.

For Presidents' Day we went to Eagle Island with the Wilfords and Jared's friend to enjoy 90 mins of tubbing.  We all had a blast but missed Kate who was home sick.

On the way back to the car we were admiring all of the crazy colors in Emmy's hair.  

Lily got her first pair of pointe shoes the end of February - I forgot to take a pic till we were at the register but better late than never.

That same weekend was wedding weekend - there were three weddings from our stake back to back in the temple on Saturday.  One was Anna and Dalen so Natali came down for the wedding and brought Miguel to introduce to the family.  We had a lot of wedding goings and comings but also found time to play dad's new game, Liars Dice, Up and Down the River, and just talk a lot.  

Ski days

We took Deanna and Madoc up to the condo with us Thursday night for a quick ski trip.  Deanna wanted to try out Brundage, since I talk it up all the time.

In order to save time the next morning we all slept on top of the beds with layers of blankets on top.  Lily got especially cozy with several layers of blankets and her fuzzy jacket.

We woke up to lots of fresh powder and Lily realizing that she had forgotten her snow pants🤦‍♀️.  Miraculously, (not kidding here it is truly miraculous) she found a pair that fit her in the condo.  They were torn at the waist but she was able to keep them on and my cold prone little one didn't freeze on the ski hill.

We has a gorgeous day, not too cold, too foggy or too snowy for most of the day although we did have three to four inches of powder on top of the groomed trails which made things a little trick but we managed.

We were all ready for our lunch break and ate through four orders of fries.

We had fun with our new ski buddies.

Since I'm not the best powder skier I did have on big wipe out which with all the powder wouldn't have hurt much except that I landed on my ski pole handle which left quite a mark on my arm.  We headed home straight from the hill all quite worn out.

Valentines' Day the girls and I grabbed a couple friends and drove up to Tamarack for a day on the slopes.  The drive there was heinous taking nearly three hours due to a truck jackknifing on the road stopping traffic for 20ish minutes and slushy roads.  We had one little worrisome slide but regained control and made it to the hill safely.

Again we were blessed (or cursed depending on preference) with several inches of powder on top of the trails.  Lily didn't love it but she made the most of it and we had a fabulous day with the mountain almost to ourselves.

Kate, Kendall, and Emmy on the chair in front.

The ride home was pretty stressful again with some serious blizzarding hitting us just before we reached Boise but we made it home and I was thankful for the hot bath afterwards.  Hoping I don't have any more snowy mountain driving this year.  It was a great ski year.

Bday girl

For Lily's birthday this year Lily decided to invite two friends for a day of fun starting at a splatter paint room.  She invited Kate and Emily to join her as the five of them got 30 minutes to create a masterpiece and a mess.  They each had three bottles of paint plus 8 paint filled balloons to share.  I got to watch on a screen outside the room.  It was funny to hear their screams through the wall as they splattered paint all over each other.

Here they are with their masterpieces.

Some of their outfits showed the paint better than others but they were all soaked and the seats of my car still shows some of their marks.

Part two of party day was dinner at Chick-fil-a followed by a Hallmark watch party at home complete with Italian sodas, ice cream and muddy buddies.  It was a great day.

Greg was out of town on Lily's actual birthday so we celebrated her friend party on Friday and had a cousin party on Saturday afternoon.  She choose mini cheesecakes which thrilled everyone but Greg as they topped theirs with chocolate and marshmallows or strawberries and cream - both delicious.

She was excited about her new purse, flower lego, hair curling tool, new dresses, clothes, jewelry and lots of earrings because the best present of all was getting her ears pierced- which she did on her actual birthday on Tuesday.

This girl is growing up each day looking a little older.  She invited a friend over the other day that we haven't seen in a while.  When her mom came to the door she looked at Lily and said she couldn't believe how her face had matured in just a few months.  It's true she is growing up - wearing mascara, earrings, and curling her hair - happy 12th my baby🥲.