Spring Break

Going out to Salt Lake City at the first of March for Sommer's wedding just wet our appetite.  So we decided to go back three weeks later for our spring break.  Our usual trip to Utah consists of hanging around my parents house while all my siblings bring up their kids.  The

 parents visit and the kids runs wild, having a great time!  But this time, my mom just got out of the hospital from having a double knee replacement.  With Scott's mom working full time, Heather and Gavin (our other form of entertainment) in Australia, and my mom out of commission, we decided to change our usual schedule.  We had a full schedule of events planned for this week!  Here our a few of the things we did.

Day one

I ended up driving both ways to Salt Lake City without Scott.  He got a last minute offer to fly into Phoenix to proctor a Dr. there on the Robot.  They needed him both the first day of our trip and at the end of the trip so he flew in to and out of Salt Lake.  Directly from the road trip and Scott from the airport (suitcase and all in hand) we raced to the University of Utah to see a sold-out, record attendance gymnastics meet against BYU.  It was the final meet of the season and Utah had three graduating Seniors. One of the Seniors, Ashley Postell, is ranked number one in the nation!  This was Karsyn's first gymnastics meet to ever attend.  When the meet began, they dimmed the lights, played the music, the spotlights were circling the room, and fireworks were going off while they introduced each girl.  Then the Seniors were escorted in by their parents and coaches and given roses.  The look on Karsyn's face was priceless.  With her eyes real big she looked over at me and said, "Wow!  That is quite a March-In!"  You could tell she was thinking to herself, "Now I could get used to this!"

Utah won the meet and we were lucky enough to see two perfect "10"'s that night.

Day Two

We spent the whole day with Scott's mom, Sommer and Eric and the Dredges.  Clara of course made a wonderful, big breakfast for everyone and then we did what we do best - played games all day!  That night Kennedy and Cassidy were lucky enough to go to the Young Women's General Broadcast with their cousin Maddie.  What a wonderful opportunity!

Day Three

We went to church with my dad (my mom was still stuck in bed) and then hung out with my family.  Everyone that was in town came up to the house and we did a dessert potluck.

Day Four

We took the kids downtown to take a tour of Temple Square.  When we planned this trip I had visions of taking the kids to Temple Square and getting some beautiful pictures of them all in front of all the tulips and spring flowers.  But it was quite a different experience, but just as beautiful.  The temple grounds were covered in white snow and the kids favorite thing of the day was having a snow ball fight with their dad.  Then later that day we went to visit our friends, the McKeons.  They were such great hosts.  We had a fabulous dinner and Family Home Evening with them.

Day five

This was the highlight of the trip for all the kids!  Shelby and Steve invited us to go four-wheeling with them.  They rented some four-wheelers and an RV and took us up to Eagle Mountain for the day.  Everyone had a great time and we left with only a few sore muscles and minor injuries!

Day 6

We took the kids to the Museum of Ancient Life in Lehi, Utah.  They have an amazing dinosaur museum there with a lot of hands-on fun for the kids.  We met Heidi Parker and her boys there as well!  They were also in town for the week visiting family.  We also got to see an IMAX film about Sea Monsters in 3-D!  Then that night my parents took Scott and me to a Jazz game.  The Jazz played the Minnesota Timberwolves.  Just a few nights before that, we were watching the Jazz play the Timberwolves on T.V.  During the game Scott told us that his friend was taking him to a Suns game in Phoenix at the end of the week.  He had me look online to see who the Suns would be playing.  You guessed it....the Timberwolves!  We then started accusing Scott of being a Timberwolves stalker!

Day seven

We took the three girls, along with their two cousins, Jack and Ryan, up skiing.  This was Karsyn's first time skiing so we put her in a ski-class all day.  She was so exited to go skiing until she learned on the drive up that she was going to actually ski DOWN the mountain!  Her face turned from excitement to panic in about one second.  She said, "but I don't want to ski DOWN the mountain, I just wanted to go ACROSS the mountain!"  After much reassurance and about 3 hours with an instructor, we ran into her and she was doing just fine going down the mountain!  We had gorgeous weather - it was warm, but not too warm, sunny and the snow was perfect!  Kennedy's only goal for the day was to get a tan.  I told her how easy it was to get burned spring skiing but she didn't believe me!  Let's see if the little"raccoon" believes me now!

Day eight

Ah, the day we had been waiting for!  Our visit to my cousin, Michele (the hairdresser)!  Many times it seems like this is the only way I can get my haircut. Life is so busy at home and there is never a time long enough to go without kids that this seems to be the only

 time I can get my haircut.  And Layton's hair was almost as long as mine!  He has really loved his long hair this past year and he has such great hair.  The only problem is, that I can't trim it for him.  I cut the other guys but I only cut hair with clippers!  So when I cut hair, I cut hair short!  It is an on-going battle with Scott, he likes Layton's hair short but I love his curls.  Kennedy also got a new do and was mistaken for Brittany Spears at the grocery store!  She wasn't quite sure if that was supposed to be a compliment!  Cassidy missed her appointment to go spend the day at school with her cousin, Maddie.  That night, we had several of the cousins come sleep over at grandma's.

Day Nine

We made scones and honey butter for breakfast and let the kids run wild all day.  They had a  great time seeing their cousins.  Heather and Gavin also got back from Australia that night so we made a quick stop to see them before leaving back home the next day.

Scott flew directly home from Phoenix after proctoring the Dr. there a second time and spending some time with his friend, Marvin, from his mission.  He got to enjoy some great weather (for a few hours), a Suns game, and great company.  Our drive home was actually quite enjoyable.  We did drive through a snow storm in the Blue Mountains and a rainstorm through the Gorge (didn't have to wash the outside of the car when I got home!) but the kids were great.