trip to the Y

Yeah! Steven and Meredith graduation from BYU! what a perfect excuse to for a family trip to Provo. We are so proud of them both! Thanks for letting us come celebrate with you!

We spent some time visiting and exploring the campus.

We swam and played games and had loads of fun! I even got to get together with a bunch of my friends from hygiene school. It was so great to catch up! Thanks for a fun evening! I miss you all so much!

short & sweet

Riley just being darling.Emma loves artichokes. She even knows how to eat it properly.

(wow can you believe it was actually short--finally!)

what a week!

We started April by taking the girls (Ginny, Riley, Kallie) to another $5 Friday with the PNB. We essentially got to view a rehearsal of Swan Lake. We got seats on the balcony which worked out great for the girls. what an experience. Man, can those swans dance and dance and dance!

The next day was an Easter egg hunt at our housing complex.

So much fun, except when Emma tripped on her boots and fell face first on the concrete (big bright bump on forehead to appear in pictures later on).

Yeah, first time on the big girl swing!

On Sunday afternoon we took a walk on the water and through these marshy islands and it was so cool. I can't believed we've lived within a mile of this place for almost 3 years and never been there before.

Can you see the stadium in the background?What a beautiful day!

This is Riley just chillin' with the grandparents

while Emma was spending a lot of time exploring and discovering things at her level.

Then on Monday, my good friend Bri invited us to have a family photo swap (I'll take your picture if you take ours sort of thing) with the beautiful cherry blossoms up on campus.

Best buds, Ginny & Riley.

So many picutres, I know, but I just love my new camera. I have a hard time narrowing down which photos to use.

Then we decorated eggs with my sisters during the week. This method is called Pysanky.

mine is the mostly orange one.

On Sunday, the Easter bunny paid a visit leaving lots of loot

and hiding eggs.

check out that teamwork!
Then we got in our Easter dresses and went off to church and on to Monica's for a fabulous feast.We finished off the day decorating a Easter cookie house. (thanks mom!)
Wow, long post. I tried to tell you it was quite a week.

the rest

We traveled a lot during March. It was fabulous. Mike had spring break and I only work 1 day/week so we took some time to visit our parents for a few days.

We played

at the park

by the river.
The girls spent quality time with grandparents, getting spoiled with good eats

and new matching dresses (thanks mom!)

Then Michael and I took off!

We used our tax return and the offers of generous grandparents to babysit for a few days and Michael and I took our first little getaway. Can you believe it? A trip without the kids?

It was awesome. We stayed at a great place near a beautiful waterfall. We were able to use some free passes to Crystal Mountain to go skiing. (thanks, Monica, it was awesome!)

We hadn't been skiing in a few years, so it felt so great. If the fog wasn't behind me you'd be able to see Mount Rainer, but you get the idea.

yes, we used helmets for the first time ever, but this was just a few days after that actress died from a minor fall on the slopes, so we decided to play it safe.
The whole trip was wonderful and felt so decadent to leave the cares of parenthood behind. Thanks to our parents for watching our kids. I know all of us had a fabulous time!
They really don't look like they missed us at all, do they?

We had to return home so I could work, but we still had 3 days left of Spring Break. So we went on vacation in our own city. We went to the Science Center one day.
Riley loves playing tic-tac-toe with the robot.
Emma making music at the museum.

The next day we were headed to the Children's Museum but ended up at the First Robotic Competition happening next door. We weren't sure what we were getting in to but it was free so we decided to check it out. We had a blast. All these high school kids and their mentors invented robots to compete and play this game. It was pretty impressive. Some teams even had mascots.
It was fascinating what these kids created. Between the music, the robots, the energy, and the popcorn, we were all pretty entertained!Emma was pretty entertaining too!
When we decided to leave we walked outside and a Women in Commerce fair was happening. Riley and I built a toolbox. No pictures of that, but we Riley & Mike did go pose by the fountain.
Spring Break, woo hoo!!
if you're still reading this, wow, you really have patience or extreme blog stamina.

most of march

We had a blast celebrating Mike's birthday.

I made a special cake, had a few friends and family over to share it with.We love you, Michael! You do so much for our family and we are so grateful!!

We took Riley to the see the Lion King.We had a blast. I was worried because the show didn't even begin until her bedtime, but she was awesome. Even just walking to the theater from the parking garage we were downtown and she kept saying, "Mom, we are in the big CITY, this is a big CITY." She was so excited it was super cute. Then as the show started and she saw the animals and lion costumes/puppets, she got a little nervous. She kept asking to make sure they were staying on stage and not going to come up hear her. Then she did great. The show was amazing. Thanks for helping us get the tickets Karen.

The girls were darling and silly

(is that pencil up her nose?)

and super cute with their backpacks.

I did some fun hair on Emma. I thought I should document the first (and likely the last) time I did it like this. She still has so little hair, this was pretty hard to pull off, and didn't last very long. She kept pulling out parts of it.

Riley's best buddy, Ginny, turned three and had a great princess party!

What good friends!

fun, fast February

So one of my bigger projects was making a dress for Riley. We were invited to a Project Runway party and making a dress was part of the challenge. I had just enough in my budget to buy a pattern, interfacing and zipper. My mom let me have some of this fabulous leftover fabric she had.
She won an award for being the best model and couldn't stop walking the runway and posing. It was pretty darling. I can't wait for her to wear it for Easter. It was a lot of HARD work. Now I know why I pay so much clothes--they aren't easy to make.

My parents came to town with fun Valentine's Day giftsso cute! Riley has a matching rain outfit.

We had a fun Valentine's day!

Riley driving the 4wheeler with Grandpa!

Emma goofing off.We were all just cracking up. Riley would say "Emma you already have a nose, you don't need that one. ha ha ha, he he he!"

PS. this was my 100th post! sorry it wasn't super exciting, but I'm still catching up!