Spring break Day 3

We headed to the L.A. Zoo It was much larger than the Hogle Zoo Lots of walking, the kids did a great job.  It only cost us a churro and an icee.

 This was the reptile snake area and the best thing was it didn't stink like Hogle Zoo!

Jake loved all the snakes and reptiles

 This is Jake reenacting Steve Irwin tackling a croc.

 The gharial  was Jake's favorite

 Emily loved the koalas

Spring break day 2

It was cold and rainy so we went to a movie Mirror Mirror.  Then Uncle Toe came home from work early and took us to Dave and Busters.  It reminded me of Vegas except for kids.  All the noises and blinking lights.  A little overwhelming at first.  The kids had a blast.  

 They love the car racing games but they didn't give out any tickets.  We all played an airplane war game in honor of Papa Due.

The games that gave out the most tickets were the favorites

Uncle Toe even spent a few dollars on his favorite coin game.  He won a lot of tickets.   Mom's  favorite game was deal or no deal. 

The kids ended up with 1,600 tickets They traded in for some stuffed animals

Even Aunt Terri joined in for some fun.  

Spring Break

Dad had to work most of spring break so we headed to California to visit Aunt Terri.

Day 1: 

The only scheduled semi nice day, so we headed to the beach.  The first hour at the beach was perfect.  Except the water was freezing!

Uncle Toe told them all about catching sand crabs but we didn't have any luck.  Even the birds were coming up empty.

This is our sand castle master piece.  Emmy was quite proud.  Watch out sand wars!

Jake had fun feeding the birds all our snacks.  He was in heaven with about 20 birds waiting for him to throw them a treat.  They weren't shy.  If you left the food unattended they would rush in and steal it right out of your bag.

Love Aunt Terri and Swedish Fish

Trying to get warm in the sand.  After the first hour the wind came up and started misting us with salt water.  A little chilly.  We had to move way back on the sand away from the water to keep warm.  Not as fun with out playing close enough to see the water.

On the way home, we stopped by our old place to show the kids where we lived when Emily was born. It's all gated up now but we snuck around back, through and open side gate, to get a picture.

It was fun hanging out in Pasadena again remembering the fun times we had while Devon was in school.

Easter

It was kind of nice to have church early this year on Easter Morning.  No time for Easter baskets and eggs.   It was nice to concentrate on the real meaning of Easter first.  We started a new tradition this year.  The kids had to follow the clues to find their Easter baskets.  They loved running all over the house to find their baskets.

This was the first year I can remember having an easter egg hunt outside.  No Snow!  A beautiful sunny day.  The kids had fun hunting for eggs.

 So this year after the kids were done gathering all the eggs, I told them who ever had the empty egg was the winner.  Then we were going to discuss why the empty egg would be the best egg. Trying to reinforce the real reason for easter. No one could find the empty egg.  Well, while Devo was  taking care of the eggs, he realized it was empty and filled it with candy.  Too funny.  Next year we should do a little more communicating.

Spain Sword

This is Devo's new toy.  An authentic Spain sword from Toledo.  Britney and Jeremy did a great job picking it out.  It puts the one we bought when we were there look like trailer trash. Now Devo can start turning our exercise slash office downstairs into his Spain room with all his collected paraphernalia.  

Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day Jake got to go to the orthodontist. We made it back to school just in time for the last hour of school for his Valentine's Day party.  He got a metal spacer glued onto his bottom teeth.  Which was a little painful for him.  He also got a retainer for the top teeth.  It was suppose to have a spider on it but it just ended up glowing in the dark.  Mom gets to turn it twice a week to move his molars back to make more room. He sounds pretty funny and has trouble swallowing his spit.  Devo and I giggled all the way home listening to him slurp every few seconds. To celebrate the day Jake got some florescent green tennis shoes.  We went to several stores and he has figured out that he likes the feel of expensive shoes.  Takes after his Dad!

                         

                                                   Lauren Originals

                                                               
My niece, Lauren is studying floral design and is working in Provo at a flower shop.  I knew Devo had ordered some flowers for Emily.   As we walked in I told him, "You didn't buy me any flowers right?"  He said no, but as we walked by the glass refrigerator I saw a calla lily bouquet and said to myself,"Yes you did that one is mine."  When he proposed 16 years ago, he had this huge bouquet of calla lilies with one red rose in the middle with the ring box open in the middle.  He had described it to Lauren and she designed it.  Loved it, and Love him for recreating the memory.

After school the kids convinced Dad to build a snowman since he missed it the day before.  We are loving the snow paint. This snow man is even more fancy with clothes. While Dad and Emily built the snowman jake drew pictures.  You probably can't see them but there's a t-rex, crocodile, and a spider.  Devo gave a few lessons in beginning snowboarding.  He pulled the kids around on the sled for old times sake. Jake kept throwing snowballs at me up on the deck.  Even Maddie joined in with all the snow fun.

Devo's Valentines Day gift: a weekend of golf, in Saint George, with his incredible wife. We played Sky Mountain on Friday a little too cold and windy for me.  Our friends, the Welburns, were on their way home and they played the back nine with us.  It's always better to play with people you know.  Saturday we played Sandhallow, a favorite of ours.  It was a lot warmer and we played a lot better too.  We found a great breakfast place called the Bearclaw.  The best crepes and waffles! Thanks to Aunt Jill for watching the kids!

It Finally snowed!

For Christmas Aunt Terri bought us a snowman kit.  In mid February it finally snowed.  So the kids managed to drag me outside to help build our best snowman ever! Thanks Aunt Terri!

Grandma Due gave Emily some snow paint for Christmas that she finally got to use too.  We wrote a message for Dad.  He was at church still, missing all the family fun.

                                                                  Classic Jake always on the ground