Easter, Spring Break, Colorado... Oh my!!

April 3rd-8th, 2015

Cam was headed to Australia for the week, so we decided to road trip to Colorado to visit Grandma and Grandpa.
It is a 71/2-8 hour drive.  We were pretty excited.  We left early Friday morning.  I didn't want to be driving in the dark and we wanted as much time as possible there.
So we're off.... 

Just a picture of the boring part of the drive.

 Once you get into Colorado, the scenery changes for the better.  It's a really pretty drive.  The tunnels are our favorite.  We try to hold our breath the whole time.  The girls think I'm amazing for being able to do it the whole tunnel length.  Someday they'll catch on that I'm breathing through my nose. ;) For now, I let them think I'm amazing.

We made it!!  I can't remember what these crazies were doing, but the girls were so excited to hang out with Grandpa.  The feelings were mutual!

I finally got the girls settled down and into bed.

I love just hanging out with the folks and catching up. We were in my Dad's office.  That is where he spends a lot of his time.  He's sure a pretty great guy.  And my mom is my favorite.  

(The A.P.'s came over for a meeting one night and they just kept telling me how much I'm like Sis. Mendenhall.  They said if I answered the phone, they wouldn't be able to tell us apart.  My mom is amazing, so I'll take it as a compliment.)

 Thursday we hit up the American Girl Doll store.  We spent FOREVER in there.  I have a hard time myself leaving.. I can't imagine how the girls felt.  They were in heaven.

 After finally deciding what they wanted we were out of there.  Grandpa was stuck pushing the dolls around.  Lucky guy.

We took a little break from shopping.  This mall has a little grassy area and the weather was so nice.  To bad those girls would not let me relax.

 We came home to dye eggs and let my Dad go to Priesthood.  The girls played with their dolls.  

 We haven't spent Easter with my parents in a very long time.  It isn't home, but it was so great to be with them.

We sent out a group text to see whos egg was the best.  Su won, which we were not thrilled about... She kept trying to accuse all of us for stealing her designs!! Haha.

 Dad got home from Priesthood and we played "Louie Gooey"  It is a "Booger Picking" game.  If you pull the wrong booger his brains blow out.  The girls couldn't get enough of it.  Leave it to my dad to find a game like that!

Sunday the girls woke up to find their easter baskets.  It was nice to not have church.  There was no rush to the morning.  We really missed Cam.  He spoiled us with a giant easter basket.  It was cute and fun.

We had "easter bunny" pancakes for breakfast.  They were cute.

We got ready for the day and turned on Conference.  My parents had bought some lego sets for the girls to work on while we listened to conference.  So smart.  

In between sessions we got ready for dinner.

 We were in charge of the napkin folding.  I tried to do a tutorial.
This was mine.

 This was my Dad's.  Haha.  #fail

 We were ready to eat!  It was so good.  We had so much food for just a few of us.  

 After the last session, we had an egg hunt.  Well, the girls had an egg hunt.  My dad puts on the best egg hunts.  I mean, anyone can hide eggs, but it's what's inside that matters :)

They were counting their loot.

After the egg hunt, we went for a walk.  They have so many awesome trails there.  While we were walking, we went under this bridge, and a bird pooped in my mom's hair.  It was so funny.  Not to her, but we were laughing so hard.

Best grandparents ever!!

We came home for more games and party mix.  Note to self... never play Uno with Reese.  Her attention span is like 5 sec. and she doesn't get the game yet!!

 Monday is the missionary's P-day, so my parents usually have a pretty quiet day.  We were able to all go to the zoo.   The Colorado Zoo was pretty cool.  So many animals we never see at our zoo.

We were waiting for the Elephant show to start.  This cute little elephant was doing all sorts of tricks.  

 Reese conked out for 1/2 the zoo visit.

We were looking at the kangaroos.  Sage was sad her Dad wasn't there and that he was seeing kangaroos in the real wild.  She didn't think it was fair.  (Neither did I)!!

 We came home and got cleaned up.  The girls were painting bird houses for Grandma's backyard.  She has some ferocious squirrels and they destroyed the other ones.

 There was a trail pretty close to my parents house, so I went for a run on Tuesday morning.  I came across a sign warning me about wild coyotes and how to deal with them if they tried to attack!! Ummmmm... I ran anyways and never saw any.

Tuesday my parents had a few meetings, so we were on our own.  We went and did a little shopping, went and got lunch to eat and play at a park.  It was a nice, quiet afternoon.  

When my parents got back, we went out to dinner and ice cream.  We played more games, put the girls to bed and talked for a while.  It was nice.

Time to go home on Wednesday.  Always said to say goodbyes.  I am so glad that my parents live close and we are able to visit.  The girls really didn't want to leave.

Thanks Mom and Dad for a really fun trip.

 The girls did awesome driving home.  We stopped only once and made great time.  They are awesome travel buddies.

 Thursday was still spring break.  We spent the day cleaning and unpacking and running errands.  And we have waaay too much candy.

We washed the car.

And cleaned the baseboards, and cleaned out closets.

Friday we rewarded ourselves with lunch, cupcakes and the movie.  We went to see Home.  It was a very cute movie.  We liked it.


Saturday I got up early to hike the Y.  First time for the season.  My legs are still on fire and I was a little winded.  Here's to hoping for it getting easier.

Sage had Abi's birthday party in the afternoon.  Reese and I ran some errands and went and picked up Sage.  Meg and I ran to get a drink at sodalicious.  
I had to come home to work on my talk.  I had to speak in church Sunday.  And..... I hadn't put much time in preparing.

Sunday- the girls finally got to wear their Easter dresses. AND CAM CAME HOME!!
We missed him very much.  He is home today/tonight and then leaves for Vegas tomorrow morning. :(

He brought home all sorts of souveniers for the girls.  We spent the afternoon trying to master a "boommucker" (boomerang) throw.  We tried all sorts of Australian candies, counted Australian money and played with kangaroos.
But their favorite thing was the dang eye covers that they gave Cam on the plane!!  Ha!

Spring break kept us busy.  We loved it, but are ready to get back to our routine and normal life!!