Springtime

This spring flew by with three kids in soccer, all the birthday and Natali coming home.  Greg and Andrew went out looking for big cats a few times and finally scored themselves a bobcat sighting.  Andrew was one happy boy.  They had to wander through snowy valleys like this but it was all worth it.

Easter wouldn't be complete without a few missing candy eggs and lamb cooked by Jonny (I don't think any Eastons eat the lamb but it is there every year none the less).

Lily enjoyed her spring season and scored her first goal.

Mack bought Lily this Lewendowski shirt so she could watch Bayern with him in style.  She knows most of the teams roster by now.  It is pretty adorable.

Mack's team.

We were invited to Sabrina's Wedding reception complete with waffle bar - so yummy.  I'm so grateful to have such wonderful neighbors.

Kate and I got our delayed weekend in Provo.  We helped Natali with Mission shopping, ate at Seven Brothers, got Dohl Whip, went to breakfast with Holly, and illegally slept in Natali's dorm room.  We had such a blast.

Wonderful day - Natali went through the temple.  So excited for this girl to face life's next adventure. 

Ditten has embraced the spring weather by bringing in birds (mostly still alive) and mice (thankfully, mostly dead) like crazy.  Vacuuming up feathers nearly everyday even led me to accidentally suck up a pink soccer sock and plug the vacuum (only a cool hundred to fix😩).  

Lily has started carring Ditten around like this and calling her baby.  We don't know how the cat endures it but somehow she doesn't seem to mind that much.  Either that or Lily holds her so tight she has no choice - I'm really not sure, but I know Lily loves doing it.

For Mother's Day I really wanted to try a homemade donut recipe.  So we made donuts which were good but the apple fritters we made from the left over dough pieces were absolutely incredible.  Yummy.  

 

It’s Birthday Time

Spring birthday time - Kate led us out with a request for a cake from Cheesecake Factory but at $50 I wasn’t going for it.  So I found a copycat recipe and made it myself.  That’s right- I made that cake and let me tell you it was a labor of love but so worth it.  Layers of chocolate cake, cheesecake, caramel and Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups, chocolate frosting, chocolate ganache, and peanut butter frosting.  I wasn’t sure I could pull it off and I worried it wouldn’t taste good enough to justify the effort, but it turned out amazing.  A fun project for me and a happy Kate.  I can’t believe this 14 year old will be in high school next year!

The two of us were planning to go to Utah the day of her birthday but Holli Pool's funeral was that day and my friend Becca came into town for it.  I couldn't miss the chance to see Becca.  Kate was understanding and made the most of the day even though I was gone for most of it and her bday dinner had to be put off till a later date.  I appreciated how unselfish she was on her big day.  Luckily, we were able to go to Utah the next weekend - so I think she was okay.

Emily requested bear claws for breakfast and since her bday was on an online school Friday I had time to make them.  Her teacher gifted her with a no homework bday present which made her so happy.  

This amazing cake was her brainchild and she had a hand in nearly every part of the decorating.  Can you see all the gummy animals?  She invited Rachel and Sammie over to spend the night as part of the bday celebration.  It was a nearly perfect day for her. Complete with the big jungle Lego she wanted.  My 11 year old is saying goodbye to elementary school😭 - why do they grow up so fast.

Natali was in Utah for her bday and we gave her all her presents when she got home but somehow took no pictures – Love you Natali!

 

I came through for Andrew and made cinnamon rolls late into the night in order for him to have hot rolls for breakfast.  Natali took him out to lunch and he had bacon wrapped chicken for dinner.  A pretty great day.  His Dairy Queen ice cream cake was delicious as usual and luckily the more mellow colors I requested didn’t stain everything it touched.  He put the candles in a wall of fire which burned much hotter than single candles and melted the candles together a little.  It was funny.  He got a lot of stuff to prepare him for Peru and Bolivia.  Lucky boy.  I can't beleive he is 16  and ready to date!

We planned a surprise birthday party for the weekend after he turned 16.  Mack invited all his friends and Natali and I planned the food.  We had a fridge full of soda and juice (the surest way to please Andrew).  He saw it and I told him it was for Greg’s birthday and he believed it (Greg likes water).  By the end of the week of secrets I was convinced that if you aren’t looking for a surprise you won’t see the obvious signs of a birthday party.

 

He was totally surprised to arrive home for dinner to find a dozen of his friends hiding in family room.  They enjoyed yard games, climbed on the slackers line, and played basketball and night games.  He had a good time and hopefully felt loved.

 

After a weekend of treats Greg just wanted pumpkin scones for his birthday cake.  No one complained about that.

 

Another round of bdays complete – I don’t have to think about presents again till October…

Braces Time

Another Easton gets braces.  Emily's mouth has been ready for braces for over a year, but I told her we would wait till she had really good brushing habits and she was ready (I've learned).  A few months ago she told me she was ready and I concurred.  She had to get 4 permanent teeth pulled and unfortunately the dentist decided he’d rather not do it and sent us to an oral surgeon.  The worst part – it was the day before she got her braces on.  She was a trouper.  She hardly complained at all even though I know she was pretty uncomfortable.  She missed 2 days of school: one for the teeth and one for the braces.  Then she was back at it.  That girl is amazing.

The morning the teeth were pulled - she was comfy and had numbing cream on her veins to be ready for the IV. 

 

Southern Belles: Free Museum Day, Wormsloe, And Findin’ Us a Gaters

Originally, I had planned to drive to South Carolina and tour Rose Hill plantation but Saturday evening I realized that there were two Rose Hill Plantations in South Carolina.  One- the original Plantation with a super cool house, sprawling yard and gardens located 3 hours and 40 mins away.  Two- Rose Hill Plantation the gated community only 30 mins away.  Unfortunately, my maps app had made me believe the gated community was the real deal.  Rather than spend our day trying to break into the gated committee pool, we scrapped our plans and decided to tour a house near our hotel instead.  

We loved our Saturday breakfast so much that we repeated it before heading to the Davenport House for the first tour of the day at 10—that is ten o’clock everyday but 12 Sundays - sad.  We had to check out by 11 so we wandered around one last time. While wandering we learned that it was free museum day—a bit of luck. We had just enough time to go tour the Telfair House and museum before we checked out of our hotel and headed out of town.  The house turn museum was filled with art.

It wasn’t much of a drive to Wormsloe Historic Site, the former planation.  Wormsloe has an amazing mile and half driveway lined with southern oaks.  It was so incredible (not worth the 20$ fee to drive down it but still pretty amazing).  I naively hoped to find gaters there as well, but our little trail walk didn’t lead to any animals.  So we hit the road headed to an animal refuge nearby where I read you could see gaters—I didn’t read that it was closed on Sunday.  

 

The day was definitely not off to a great start, so we moved on to plan C and drove to Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge in South Carolina, while listening to stake conference.  Hopefully we would find gaters and if not, Natali would at least get a new state.  Conference ended just as we arrived.  It was hot, humid, very sunny, and Natali was at the peak of her illness discomfort.  Her determination won the day and she walked a mile to Ibis Pond and on our way we saw a little baby alligator and around the bend in the pond we found her mother and a ton of amazing birds.  They were making so much noise; it was truly amazing.  It energized Natali to walk on another half mile to Star Pond but that was all she could handle.  We were both sweaty and hot, but happy to have met our goal; a gater and a new state.  

We drove back to Savannah to the airport, returned our rental car and emptied what was left in our water bottles on our feet before going through security.  It felt good to have clean feet on the long flight home.  

Natali was worried about being sick on the way home but luckily her mask and sitting by the window hide her illness and we made it home without incident.  She slept nearly all day the next day and still took a few more days to fight that cold off but it was worth the amazing trip together.

Souther Belles: Savannah Trolly Day

The next morning we stood in line for breakfast.  The wait was well worth it – the almond croissant and cream cheese danish was divine.  From there we began our trolly tour.  

 

We hopped on and off all day long.  Exploring the city in between stops.  Natali still wasn’t feeling very well so we took lots of breaks, took tons of pictures, and just loved the old buildings.

 

We walked through local farmers market, toured the Mercer Williams House, saw First African Baptist with its red door letting everyone know the building is entirely paid off, saw a snapping turtle, and loved the Southern Oaks and all the vines growing on buildings and stairs.

We needed a break from the trolly so we stopped an toured the Scarborough House and Ships of the sea Maritime museum.  The place was nearly empty; a wonderful reprieve from the crowds all over town and on the trolly.  The house was my favorite part, especially the rounded doors to fit in the rounded walls. We explored the gardens and watched moms set up for prom.  We were ready for some southern treats, so we headed to the candy store.

Pralines and caramel goophers were worth the stop.  We ate as we walked down to the shore.  By the river was the Cotton Exchange building it was cool to see the special bridges connecting the different stores to the alley where all the cotton was brought.  From there the purchasers would bid and the winner would have the cotton delivered right to their store’s back door.  Pretty cool history – sort of unsightly today but interesting.

We stopped at the oldest structure in Georgia (1734) which is a part of the Pirate House, a restaurant that was frequented by pirates in the time of Robert Louis Stevenson.  It was in this restaurant listening to pirates where he gleaned some ideas for “Treasure Island.”

We managed to walk quite a bit over the course of the day and Natali was exhausted, so we took a quick nap and headed to Cotton and Rye for dinner.  We ordered 5 side dishes.  The cornbread was delicious but sadly the rest was not as good as expected.  On the drive back Natali really wanted to try the famous Leopold’s Ice Cream, but she didn’t want to stand in line (we had seen the line all the way down the block and around the corner earlier in the day).  On a stroke of genius, I looked online and found that you could preorder and go pick it up.  So we placed and order, drove back to our hotel, walked to the ice cream place, cut in front of dozens of people and enjoyed some delicious ice cream. 

At that point Natali was ready to stay down so we returned to our place and watched a movie before dropping off to sleep but not before I managed to get a picture of the creepy/hilarious mirror.