Easter Weekend

 

 On Friday, I spent the evening with these 2 cute girls decorating Easter Sugar Cookies.

On Saturday, the kids enjoyed an Easter Egg hunt in my parents backyard. It was Brooklyn's first egg hunt. We had practiced several times at home the last couple weeks so she was kind of familiar with what to do. Kayla sweetly helped her sister while Austin took off to find eggs. But there was still enough eggs for Kayla to find and in the end we dumped it all into one bag anyways.

On Sunday afternoon we had a big Easter Dinner and then the kids headed out for the egg hunt. Some went out the front door.

And others out the back door.

 Brooklyn and Bristol got their own little patch of yard just for them so they could move at their own pace. At first Brooklyn went and touched the eggs but didn't pick them up. Then she picked one up and forgot to put it in her basket.

 But it didn't take her long before she got the hang of it and gathered quite the loot of eggs.

 And without a doubt, Mikayla and Austin found a lot of eggs themselves.

 All the cousins that were there for a the egg hunt. 

The Sunday before Easter, as I was sitting in church the hymn "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" kept coming to my mind.  As I reviewed the words several phrases spoke to my heart and soul....."He lives to silence all my fears. He lives to wipe away my tears. He lives to calm my troubled heart. He lives all blessings to impart....He lives my kind wise heavenly Friend. He lives and loves me to the end...." I know this is true as I have experienced it several times in my life. How grateful I am for my Savior Jesus Christ who does calm my fears, wipe my tears, and calm my troubled heart. I know that He not only died for me but He Lives!! And He is always there to give me comfort and peace.

The day before Easter, our Bishop's middle child was suddenly called back home to his Heavenly Father at the age of 13. When we first heard about this, my heart immediately ached for the sorrow and despair this family must be going through. We have known this family for several years and they are amazing and such great examples! But I have been truly touched as I have watched this family rise up to the adversity that was given to them. It once again testified to my soul that we can feel pain and sorrow while at the same time feel joy and peace! I have seen how everyone has reached out to this family to help lift their burden and "mourn with those who mourn." I have been reminded of the promise of resurrection, of eternal families, and of the tender mercies of the Lord. I am so grateful for my knowledge of  the gospel of Jesus Christ that makes all of this possible!!

Our family is growing....

 We are super excited about adding another child to our family.

 I told the kids that when we found out if the baby was a boy or a girl that I would put blue or pink balloons in a box and let them open it up to find out.

It 's a GIRL!!!

Sprink Break Part 2

For the second half of spring break we decided to go visit somewhere we hadn't been before: St. Louis. We asked our friends if they were interested in joining us and we were surprised and excited when they said yes! So we left Thursday morning and drove the 6 hours there. Originally we had planned to visit the arch after arriving but it was cloudy and cold so we changed plans last minute and found somewhere indoor for the kids to get their wiggles out after the long drive.

They had several large inflatable houses and slides for the kids to play on.

(Austin, Jax, Mikayla, Madeline)

And a large playground. It was big enough that even Craig was climbing up and having fun too.

There was also arcade games

 It was a fun start to our trip. 

The next day we went to the St. Louis City Museum. I had heard great stuff about this place so I was excited to see what it was all about. And it was the most amazing place I had ever seen!! The pictures I have absolutely do not do this place justice at all.

It was several floors of imaginative playgrounds. There were tunnels and slides everywhere!

Even Craig got brave enough to squeeze through one of these.

They had a small train that went into a cave and Austin said there was stars and planets inside.

Mikayla and Brooklyn coming out of the cave.

This area was like a huge skate park but all you needed to a bottom to slide on.

They even had this enormous place outside of the building with huge tunnels and slides to climb around. The kids were in heaven!! We couldn't keep up with them but knew they had each other so we could let them out of sight for a while and knew they would be okay.

Lisa and James with their twins

This place was pretty much donated materials that was used to create such an imaginative play place. There was even a bus on the top of the building that hangs several feet over the edge. Unfortunately it was still closed for the winter season so we didn't get to explore the roof-top so there will definitely have to be a next time!

Stopping for a gooey snack

More pictures from inside

 After we had been there about 4 hours we discovered a whole section on the second floor that we hadn't even seen. And I did take pictures there but it was amazing! The kids would climb up into tunnels in the ceiling or underground and on the main floor where we were sitting you couldn't even see where they were till they popped out somewhere. And then they had a huge cave area. It was full of tunnels and crawl spaces just like you would find in a cave. For a while I was following Mikayla and Jax through it until they went into a crawl space and I was too afraid I would get stuck so I opted to find them on the other side. Kids definitely had the advantage in this place. The caves climbed up to what they call the 5 story slide and the 10 story slide. I went on the 5 story slide with Mikayla and Jax and Craig went on the 10 story slide with Austin and Madeline. We were at the Children's Museum from about 9-3 and could have stayed for hours more! After leaving I told Craig we are definitely coming back to St. Louis again just so we can come back to this place.

Our next stop was taking in a view of the St. Louis arch. Since I wasn't sure which day we would be going or what time we didn't purchase tickets ahead of time so they were sold out and we weren't able to take the ride up to the top. Austin was disappointed at first but I reassured him that we would come back again sometime and for sure get tickets to ride up. So we just walked around and took pictures.

 

And the kids always think it is fun vacationing when they get to stay in a hotel and enjoy the pool.

 The third day we were in St. Louis we went to the zoo which has free admission!



The first stop was looking at the monkeys who are always very entertaining to watch,

The weather was beautiful---sunny and warm.

When I told Austin we were going to a zoo he complained saying that is boring cause all their is to do is see animals. Funny that he never complained once when we were there and seemed to be having a great time.

 After several hours at the zoo we headed back home.

It was such a great trip with great company!!