{Easter 2014}

 I love our little community of Star. They hold this huge Easter Egg Hunt and games every year. Last year it was at the community center, but this year they had it at a park with jump houses, parachute games, bean bag toss, potato sack races, and lots more. They had such a blast with their cousins Kenzie and Aubree joining the party.

 They also do a great job splitting up areas for the egg hunt. Brock was in the first group, for kids 3 and under. He was slow since he wanted to check the contents of each egg before putting it in his basket.

 Cole was in the 2nd age group and went with Aubree and Kenzie. They were fun to watch.

 Then Ella was in the next age group and she ran and got the most eggs I saw anybody collect.

EASTER SUNDAY

 After church on Sunday my kids ate candy from their baskets (no pictures of this since we were sleeping when they woke up so early. The Easter Bunny hid each basket this year instead of leaving a trail from their room to their individual basket) and colored eggs.

 Then we went over to Gma and Gpa Thompson's house for Easter dinner and the annual egg hunt.

 They were so anxious to get out the door and collect eggs!

 Happy Easter!

WICKED

Since my mom and my birthdays are 4 days apart, we decided we'd go to see Wicked to celebrate our birthdays. Originally she got us 5th row floor tickets on a Thursday afternoon, but my mom's husband got the call to be at his new job on Monday, so they had to leave Wednesday night after the show. My mom called and paid the extra $150 on top of the $200 she already paid to move our tickets to opening night Wednesday, and on the 3rd row middle floor!!  It was fabulous! The music, the costumes, and acting was fabulous. 

And I'm so glad it worked out that we could see it together before they had to move to the midwest for 8-10 months again. 

~April Events~

 April is almost over... and boy, have we been busy! The month started out nicely, as April always does. Conference weekend is one of my favorites, it's relaxing and uplifting at the same time. We went to my mom's to watch conference and celebrate my birthday.  We played a conference game so our kids would pay attention, I think it worked. Papa started out calling the wrong "cue" words out to tease the kids. It was awesome.

 Brock fell asleep during one of the conferences, right on Scott. I think he enjoyed some cuddle time. I helped my  mom put up a grandkid brag wall, so fun for me!

 We celebrated me turning 32! 

Fun times, and THE BEST CAKE EVER!

 A couple weeks later was Spring Break for my kids and so I drove down there for a couple days and we played hard... country style!

 Kassie had baby girl #3, named her Camille Louise.

My visiting teachers left lots of goodies this month on my doorstep, cookies, flowers, balloons, homemade bread and chocolate truffles, etc.

Ella wrote me the best love note EVER!

My kids enjoyed some good hide-n-seek in a new bench I got for our den.

 Cole is has been wrestling like crazy all month with a couple tournaments. He got 2nd and 3rd place this month. He is really improving and is loving it!

 Cole drew a spider on his chest with marker... for me to take pictures of him posing like Spiderman!

 Our big project for the month, was a week-long project of making a bunny house. The kids helped Scott build it all week long.

 And then we all helped paint it

 And put the roof on and holes for water jugs.

 Then we went to pick up our bunnies and all their supplies. The kids have been great being little mommies for these two bunnies, we named: Ashes and Pearl.  They have to make sure there is food and water in their cages everyday.

 More events to come with Easter...

Caribbean Cruise

A couple weeks ago we celebrated our 10 year anniversary by going on a Caribbean Cruise! It was amazing, 6 days, 5 nights of beauty.  But before we boarded the ship in Ft. Lauderdale, we landed in Tampa to see our good friends from Ricks College.

Traveling was even fun with just the two of us. Below we are on our way, 6 hours of air time, and a stop at a delicious restaurant in the Denver airport called Roots Down that got me addicted to eggs Benedict.

One of my besties from Ricks, Jessica ran up behind me at the luggage terminal, so excited to see her!  We went straight to this awesome restaurant conveniently inside a magnificent mall. Jess and I made good use of our waiting time by hitting some shops before we ate. Fun times.

 The next day she took us to her favorite beach in Tampa: Honeymoon Beach only 45 minutes from her house. It was THE SOFTEST SAND my feet had ever touched (softer than the Caribbean). We collected sea shells and her kids build sand castles.

 It was gorgeous and warm.

The next day we took a 3.5 hour ride to Ft. Lauderdale, to board our ship.
What an amazing view! We got a room with a balcony so we could see it all, feel it all, and to help me prevent any sea sickness! Thank goodness I didn't get sick, my biggest worry. We set sail and were on our way to the Bahamas.

 I couldn't wait to meet up with our friends from Indianapolis, Brittany & Chuckie Goff. So fun to do this with them! Our first night we went to fancy dinning... every night we did sit down dinners. Better than the food on the buffets.

 The first stop our boat landed was Nassau, Bahamas. It was beautiful. 

The weather was amazing.

 We wanted to do a little sight seeing here, so we walked around and checked out the shopping streets in Nassau, there was even Gucci.

 We wanted to see the Queen's Staircase, which was 66 steep steps straight up (say that 10x fast). At the top of the steps was Fort Fincastle, some interesting history and lots of guns around.

 Then we got a taxi to see Atlantis. The biggest castle of a hotel with unbelievable scenery and waterfalls. We couldn't get into as much of the hotel as we would've liked, but we saw enough.

 Then we walked around the hotel to the public beach access. This water was AMAZING to swim. It was clear, turquoise water, warm and I could've stayed there forever.

 Then we took another taxi (they drive on the wrong side of the street) to some authentic Bahamian food. We went to Sharkeez to get some fried conch, the most popular food on the islands. Not bad, kinda chewy.

 That night back on the boat we went to a Magic Show by Landon Swank. He did some pretty impressive tricks. Wish the show lasted longer.  Then we went to enjoy the pool deck dancing party. Fun to get our groove on.

 The next day we landed on the Princess Cays island, it was a little windy that day.  Still a beautiful noncommercial island. It was cool to look at this sign and see how far away, or how close we were to different cities around the world.

Scott, Brittany and I all went snorkeling, wish we got more pics of us in our gear. But it was beautiful and we saw some amazing water life.  We spend most of the day relaxing in the sun, driving virgin lava flows and exploring the shoreline. Brittany and I had matching suits, different colors, and we didn't even plan it but wore them on the same day.

That night on the boat was fancy dress up night at dinner. Scott tried the escargot, not my favorite I'd say.

 The next day we landed on the island of Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos. It was amazing.

All around the island there are wild horses that roam, just like stray cats and dogs do here in America. They were beautiful creatures and they were everywhere!

We walked past Margaritaville, where most of our crew from the ship stayed and drank their hearts out. Brittany and I wanted a quieter local beach, and found one with this old ship crashed on shore. We went swimming for about an hour, it was so lovely.

We came across this deserted beach front property we explored its gorgeous remains.

We enjoyed some local fruit juice and got a taxi to downtown. It was a cute little beach town, very small and everyone was friendly.

I think the island men were intrigued by us two single ladies walking around, this older local on his bike rode with us a while asking if we were lost. But our taxi driver told us of the place to get the best grilled conch on the island, and we were to John's Ocean View Bar (pictured below) and it was actually not that bad. We took it for our guys to try.

While we were swimming in the gorgeous waters and exploring the island, the boys had their own adventure. They found a guy to take them deep sea fishing and Scott caught this massive Tuna fish. He found somebody on the island to cook it up for him, and we all tried it. BEST TUNA EVER! Honestly, I didn't know tuna fish could taste that good.

A couple mornings we brought breakfast to our room and ate on the balcony, so peaceful and serene.

That night we made it in time for Movies Under the Stars. They played "Captain Phillips" real ironic being on a cruise boat watching a movie about another boat being taken over by pirates... fun times nevertheless.
We also went miniature golfing the first night on the boat, the picture is terrible, but you can get the gist.

The last full day we were on the boat all day sailing back to FL. Brittany and I enjoyed the spa and some massages while the boys took naps. It was THE roughest day at sea and I wouldn't say I got sick, but it added to my post-cruise vertigo.

The last night on the boat they did this big New Year's Eve themed party where the balloons dropped. We ate some delicious food again, and went to a Newlywed Game show. Very interesting and a little awkward at times to watch. But it was sad to say goodbye to our good friends and our beautiful trip. What an adventure and great memory making times.