Spring Break / Easter Weekend

WARNING: Lots of pictures to follow!

We must have had a fun spring break/Easter, because I have lots of pictures to show for it.

We decided it would be fun to head to Vegas for a few days while the kids were off school. My Mom flew down Sunday night, watched my kids Monday while I was at work, and then she helped us drive to Vegas. We should have known our drive would be an adventure when it started off by Rayden throwing up before we even got to Bountiful. Maybe we should have taken it as a sign, but instead we continued on our journey. Just after St. George, we came up on a truck that was driving rather erratically. After trying unsuccessfully to reach Highway Patrol (no cell service) we turned the corner to see a cloud of dust followed by the truck burst into flames. Since we were one of the first cars on the scene, I got out to see if I could help. Thankfully there were already 3 men trying to get the guy out of the car that was on fire. After about 20 minutes they were finally able to pull him out the passenger side. He was still breathing, but unconscious and had a good size bump on the side of his head. One of the truckers said he had went from one side and swerved to the other when he hit the side of the hill and went air born! Very scary and lucky no one else got hurt. We think he had some kind of medical condition, but no one knew for sure. It took quite awhile for any help to come because of the bad cell service. My kids were in the car with my mom freaking out because all they could see was the burning car and lots of black smoke. I guess we will never know what happened to him, but it was a very crazy experience!

My kids were thrilled to be out of the car & see Grampy & the cats!

We got lucky because Rayden never threw up again, she just cried alot.

We colored Easter eggs
(We were watching Angel's kids so they helped us)
Riley, Rayden, & Baylee

Riley & Angel (my sister)

One of my favorite things to do when I lived in Vegas was got to the fair in Logandale (about a 45 minute drive out of Vegas). The fair was in town while we were there so we decided to go.

Jason had flown in the night before & his brother had the day off, so they came and so did my friend Lindsey & her family. My brother and his family were out there too! We had so much fun!

We saw lots of animals in the animal exhibit

Checking out the chickens

Waiting to watch the pig races

Zander cheering on his pig

The girls relaxing in the shade while the guys took the kids on the rides

(Jackie, Lindsey w/ Zachery, Kelsi)

Jason taking the kids for a spin

We had an Easter/Birthday party...complete with an Easter egg hunt

Making Rayden get some eggs

Having sooo much fun :)

All 10 grand kids...plus 2 on the way!

We had a BBQ after the Easter egg hunt

Angel ( my sister) & her husband Alan

My brother Richard (aka Uncle ToTo) with Riley his best bud

The kiddie table

My sister-in-laws

Wyndee & Heather

My parents

My brother Chad with some back flip action

Jas pushing Rayray on the swings...she loves it!

The birthday celebration!

My dad got a marshmallow shooter

The kids waiting to catch some in their mouths

very entertaining!

Rayden's present from Grammy & Grampy

My dad made our favorite...waffles with carmel syrup!

We got do lots of swimming in my grandparents pool!

Checking out what the Easter Bunny brought!

Although our Easter Sunday didn't turn out exactly as we planned we still managed to get pictures of the kids in their cute Easter get up.

Isn't that sweet?

Ryker hanging out in the tree

So Happy very late Easter! Thanks Mom & Dad for a fun week in Vegas! You guys are the best

The kids went to tell Uncle ToTo goodbye & Happy Easter

He hadn't gotten up in his chair yet

A few days after we got back we finally got concrete on the side & the back & Jason got to install his hoop! Ryker shooting some hoops.

Just a random picture...but really WHY?

Crazy Hair Day

This is how Riley's hair ended up for crazy hair day...

if only I had been more prepared with some color & sparkles!

She was all excited about it until she walked out the door and decided she was embarrassed.

I reminded her she would not be the only one with crazy hair & told her to have fun with it..

I would love to have gone to school & seen all the crazy hair creations!

Playing Catch Up

Yeah...I know its been awhile since I posted anything, it wasn't because I didn't have anything to post...I just really didn't feel like doing it. So know I have a ton of pictures and way too many to put up. So here is a little bit of an update about what we have been up to. One of these days I might post Spring Break & Easter...but don't hold your breathe :)

Some bandidts that tried to rob us

(Riley & Eliza)

Celebrated St. Patrick's Day

complete with green milk & green muffins
We sported some green...
but failed to get a picture of all 3 together

We got matching bangs

Happy Anniversary to us!

March 24th...8 years of marital bliss..hehe

Our romantic getaway I surprised Jason with

The hole Jason dug for the basketball hoop

Yeah..she can be a little crazy

She's wearing 4 tutu's

The 1st grade performance....

You can see Riley right?

Yeah we couldn't either

See..she really was there

Lauren, Ms. Tai, & Riley

They love their teacher

she has been out for 2 months because of a 4 wheeler accident

they can't wait for her to come back

Salem & Riley

twiners thanks to Chantel

Oh now don't worry...it wasn't cold..it was freezing!

The first soccer game of the season

I know, not very exciting, but that's our lives. Sometimes we just barely get by, and then there are those times, although a little rare, we really have fun...to bad it's not more often. I know I don't post very often, but don't worry I still visit all of yours and love it when you update!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RAYDEN!

Look who turned 2 today...Rayray!

I can't believe my baby is already 2. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was in denial about being in labor, barely made it to the hospital, and had our beautiful baby shortly after arriving. We are so happy Rayden is in our family...we love her soooo much!

Newborn Rayden

1 year old Rayden

Spunky 2 year old Rayden

Wow..this girl is incredible. I love her personality and her cute little voice, the way she says certain words (i.e. chocolate, popscile, & delicious), it is so entertaining to listen to her tell a story and try to keep up with her older sister & brother. She likes to yell at them & copy whatever I scream at them. She gives the best huggies and she loves people. She will say hi to just about everyone and then asks me what their names are. She is so animated & expressive and I just can't get enough of her. Of course she never throws a tantrum, cries, hits, spits, or is naughty.. haha..We still love her even when she is a little less lovable!

Happy Birthday Rayden!

Trip to Prague

I had the incredible opportunity to visit Prague in the Czech Republic with my Mom. It was an absolutely amazing experience and the chance of a life time I couldn't pass up. So I left my sweet husband & kids for 8 days and enjoyed some time a way in a foreign country. After about a 4hr flight to Atlanta & then a 9hr flight to Prague we arrived. To try and get use to the time change we stayed up the rest of the day and started exploring right away. The pictures don't even do this place justice, but hopefully you can get a taste of what we saw. Every day we saw something new and got to experience being a tourist in a foreign country. It was difficult to communicate (who speaks Czech?), and interesting making our way around the country, but we were able to see and do a lot in 7 days. My sister-in-law Heather had done a lot of research before we went so she really knew what & where we should go and what to see. We froze our butts off, surprisingly ate some yummy food (I thought I was going to starve, but ended up finding some yummy stuff...fruit dumplings :), and enjoyed being with everyone! We saw beautiful cathedrals and castles and buildings that where built so long ago and were just incredible. I have never used the public transportation system like we did on this trip. We took the metro, rode the tram, train, and buses, and it was rather an eye opening experience. It might be fun if you are young and single, but I saw women with strollers on the metro and people carting suitcases to here there and everywhere and had a much greater appreciation for my car. There are so many more pictures than these, but I couldn't put them all on... put the arrow over the pictures and it will pause it and tell you what it is if you want to know. Enjoy!

Thank you Mom for the incredible opportunity and for having so much fun with me. Thanks Billy & Heather for letting us tag along, visit all the sites, & for lots of good laughs. And thank you to my wonderful husband who took extra good care of my kids while I was gone, taking off work for a few days, & for the spotlessly clean house I got to come home to...trust me he is amazing! Also my mother-in-law for watching my kids a few extra days. I was so lucky to be able to go and couldn't have done it without you two. (That kinda sounded like I was accepting an award or something...oh well you get the point)