Easter Campout

Spring Break finally lined up with Greg's family's annual Easter Campout.  We have heard about it for years and were so excited to join in the fun.  We headed out early and made a slight detour to the Golden Spike Monument.  Every time we drive to Utah we see the signs for it but are always in too big of a hurry so this time we made it one of the destinations.  Honestly it was a little bit of a let down (there isn't actually a Golden Spike) but it is crossed off the bucket list.

Next stop, Antelope Island, another bucket list item crossed off.  This one was pretty cool; unique to see bison while looking across the lake and seeing Salt Lake City.  On our way off the island Andrew was sure he could see a porcupine in a tree WAY off the road.  We didn't believe him and tried to drive on but he insisted so Greg stopped and the two of them hiked out there.  When they didn't return quickly and started circling the tree we figured it must be legit.  We all hiked out there and were lucky enough to watch this porcupine climb around in the tree.  Andrew has definitely passed me up on spotting skills.

From there we headed to my Grandma Lula's 95th Birthday Party.  Not a great pic but it was awesome to see lots of family and talk with Grandma for a while.

The next morning we headed to Nevada and stopped at Kolob Canyon for a beautiful hike.  Kate was not sure about hiking so she was given the responsibility of taking pictures.

Do you think it's a cougar?

It was kind of windy but beautiful up there.

Then we finally arrived in Mesquite and headed to the campsite.  There were a bunch of cool rocks that the kids loved to climb on.  They also came in handy for hiding Easter eggs and having a major Nerf war.  

Lily was a surprisingly good climber.

Can you see our tents off in the left corner?  Mack and Andrew slept in McClain's truck on the right.

Andrew and Emily climbing.

Ready to find Easter eggs.

The Easter eggs were traded in for prizes and wow we had a lot of prizes.  5 tables worth of prizes.  Those kids were so lucky and happy.

I have never been camping with this kind of food.  Nani is incredible.  We had fabulous food everyday complete with dessert.  One night she pulled out 8 different kinds of cake!  Seriously - she is amazing.

Lily and her Papa

Ari, Natali, Piper, Cecily, Dahlia and Lily

Andrew and Greg way at the top of the rocks.

Natali put colored streaks in all the girls hair...then it got crazy and they put it on the boys.

Luckily, a day or two later, Aunt Neelie came to the rescue and brought some shampoo and water to wash the color out.  Andrew and Mack were very grateful.  

Epic Nerf war- Kids Vs. Dads

They had a blast.  Nani had made a bunch of special belts to hold the bullets and we all brought our own guns.  It was awesome.

Our last night was a talent show.  Natali and I represented our family by singing Don Gato - made incredible with Tanya's husband Maurice acting out the part of Don Gato, complete with rolling in pain in the dirt.  He was hilarious.

Mack, Talon, McClain, and Ethan did a skit where they put make up on someone.  I was not so happy to be picked by Mack, but I guess I should take it as a sign of love.

This picture was taken at the end of our long fun hike to see the petroglyphs.  It was such a fun trip but camping in the dessert is dirty and hot.  Thank goodness Nani is such a planner - we had everything we needed and the kids had cousins so they were as happy as could be.

On the way home we stayed at the Pierces to watch conference and hang out.  We even went to an Israeli place for dinner in prep for Easter.

Happy Birthday! (My Baby's not a Baby any more)

Lily wanted her birthday cake to look like her beanie boo, Pixie, who is a unicorn.  I thought I did a pretty good job.  Lily decorated it with the hearts for jewelry and eyes.  We also decorated a ton of cupcakes for her preschool class.  

 Mack gave her an ice cream staking game.

 Samantha picked out this fabulous Princess Twilight Sparkle Seapony.  Very special.

Spencer and Keeley took Lily to the zoo the day before her birthday and bought her snow leopard stuffed animal which Lily has carried around the house ever since.

And Andrew gave her a unicorn book - over all, a lot of unicorn stuff.

This little 5 year old is so fun.  I can't believe that she is 5 already.  Next year she will be in Kindergarten - man I will miss my little buddy.  She does everything with me and is quite attached to her Mama.  I love those big brown eyes and her quick mind.  She is amazing.

Off to Reno

For Christmas we gave Kate a plane ticket to Reno to spend the weekend with the Teresa's girls.  She got to fly all by herself.  She was a little nervous at first but once she got to the airport she was fine.  

Their first night together they went rollerblading.  Here is Kate's report:  I never fell.  It was fun because I got to Rollerblade. 

 We got to watch them make the donuts.  There was a weird machine that put the donut in a hole then the machine would squeeze the filling in.  There was a guy that we thought couldn't hear us talking but he could and he waved to us.  

 There were these black geese that had weird pea green colored beaks and feet with red eyes.  We thought they looked evil - Violet was afraid of them because she thought they looked so evil.

We made play dough and Dahlia put in too much food coloring and covered the whole place.  Her hands were covered in red food coloring.  We read these silly books every night.  I learned how to make a flip book.  

It was an amazing trip.    

Birds of Prey Center

For Christmas Lily got to go to the Birds of Prey Center with Dad.  It was a cold snowy day but my new coat kept me warm.  Outside we saw a bird that dad liked.  It flapped its wings and scared me so I went way far back but dad was really close to it.

 He was feeding this bird.  They talked about the bird.  There was a place with this meerkat cave and we went inside and there was a bird's egg.  We got to see how big an ostrich egg was.  And there was this teeny tiny one but I don't remember what bird it was.

 He said we could take pictures by it so I took one.  It is tied on his finger so it won't fly off and peck us and stuff.  We saw an owl who turned his head all the way around.  It was pretty cool.  Dad bought me a little snowy owl that is fluffy but not really squishy.  When you squeeze it it makes a big tweet sound like a real baby snow owl.

We got Chick fil A and Krispy Kreme for lunch and I fell asleep on the way home.

Merry Christmas Emmy

For Christmas I got to got to California to go to the San Diego Zoo with my cousins, Piper and Gus.  This is a picture of me before we left on our first flight.

This is me during our second flight.

When I got to San Diego I was exhausted and hot.

Then we went to the Mormon Battalion Museum and we got to dress up as War Heroes and we got to go mining for gold.

This is me on Beth's thing that's supposed to help you do a hand stand.

 This is me at the zoo by the koala exhibit with Piper, Gus, Hazel, Harper, Zella, and Dane.  Do you think those are real koalas?

 This picture is me by the panda exhibit.  There is someone talking and they said if the pandas got scared they might hop on top of them and they are really heavy so that scared me.

 This is the okapi exhibit.  There were three okapis.  There was a kid okapi.  I enjoyed looking at their beautiful colors.

 This is me again at the okapi exhibit.  You can see the okapi  in the background but up front you can see me with my okapi stuffed animal that I just got.

This is me by the gorilla.  We were so lucky to see him right up close even if he was backward for a while.  There was also someone showing the gorilla a video of himself from earlier.

 This is when it was raining.  

 This is me at the beach.  We had a beautiful view of the ocean.  The dog in the picture is Aunt Laurie's.  It's name is Roxy.   He is my best dog friend.

 I am holding Roxy again- you can see the leash.

This is me at the beach with all of my cousins that I saw.

This is me while I was trying to look for seals or any sea life but I didn't find any.

This is at Aunt Laurie's house.  We were having a dance show.  This is all the girls in their fancy outfits.

This is me and dad on our flight home.  At the airport we bought a donut with filling inside.  It was so good.  This is a picture of the donut and me ready to eat it.  

That's how fun my trip to San Diego was!