Spring Break Day 2

We started day to at the Dinosaur Track Museum.  This is the blurb on their website, "See thousands of fossilized dinosaur footprints at the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm. This rare site preserves a 200 million year old lake ecosystem that includes dinosaurs, fishes, plants, sedimentary structures, and other animals."  

With that being said...it was kind of neat, but kind of boring.  Yes - there were fossilized footprints.  Old people.  An overpriced souvenir shop.  And a tiny outdoor area for kids to dig for fossils.  

 The tracks behind the kids I guess is the largeest preserved track known.  So, that's kind of cool.

 I could never make it as paleontologist.  But I'd look darling in the hat.

After that adventure we headed to Dixie rock.  It's fabulous red rock where you can climb all over the place!  The kids had a blast.

 Someone had carved a B inside of a heart.  Taylor said, "Look mom!  Someone made this for you!"

 Rylee was having a rough day.  She had tripped a couple of times, and fallen once.  BUT what was amazing is we saw her first grade teacher hiking around too!  What are the odds of that!

....so we had already been to the Dinosaur track museum and to Dixie rock.  That's enough, right?  WRONG!!  So we headed back to the hotel room to eat some lunchie and to have the kids change into their swim sutff.  We were headed to the Children's Museum!

I love this museum!  We went to the depths of the ocean....to mining country....back to the land of the dinosaurs and the science room is one of my favorites!!

The kids could've spent all day in the grocery store room.  The deli section you can make sandwiches and pizzas.  Weigh out and sort fruits and vegetables in the produce department.  Load your cart with all sorts of goodies and then check out with working cash registers.  Adulting is the best!

Want to know one of the best hings about the Cihldren's museum??  It's right next to the fabulous splash pad.  Not having to load up 7 people into blue steel (the mini van) is always a total bonus!

Before we got soaking we, there is a darling carousal next to the splash pad.  So we took advantage of that too!

They are mine...yep, all of them.

 Luke is a lot braver than you might think he might be.  He's an emotional little fella...but if he knows mom is right there, he's pretty brave!

 My other son is finding his sense of humor.  He thought he was quite hilarious pretending that one of the water streams was actually a pee stream.  He was cracking himself (and his parents) up.

 It was actually a pretty perfect day.  I love those.

As we were getting ready to go change for dinner we passed this painting and Caleb said, "Look!!  We did all of those things today!"  That is because your mom is awesome Caleb.  Please don't ever forget that.

Spring Break Day 1

I decided that we needed to get away.  And it was a fabulous decision if I do say so myself.  Crystal Inn has sold their St. George location and I had a gift certificate for a free room that I needed to redeem.  AND I had enough Crystal Reward points for a free room.  AND I got us 2 rooms, 2 nights for only $25 a night!  We had adjoining rooms and stayed for 3 nights and it was only $110.  That will probably NEVER happen again.  

The view from our room was fabulous!

Kids and vacations means that we are watching TV in the hotel room and swimming like a bunch of fish!  The girls got mermaid tails from the Easter Bunny and were so excited to try them out.

I had my darling mermen jump in for a photo as well.

After swimming we had some dinner and then decided to check out a park that we hadn't ever been to.  Thunder Junction.  It.  Was. Amazing.  It had a dinosaur theme so you know the boys were in heaven.  The ground wasn't covered in sand or bark, it was rubbery like and kind of squishy.  And it had an awesome splash pad portion with a waterfall AND a fossil fountain.

AND as awesome as the park was to top off the fabulousness of it all, WE WERE THE ONLY ONES THERE!!!  We were running around like crazy people looking at everything and trying everything out.

They had zip line type swings that the kids loved so much!  A giant teeter totter for 4 people.  A giant hammock type swing that Casey and I fit on together.  If you are ever in the area - this place is a must see!  We were there pretty late, but during the daytime they even had a train ride.

Easter

The Easter Bunny found us!!  The kids all get pretty excited when they find their basket - actually - they get pretty excited when the find anyone's basket!

 Luke didn't give 2 cares about the toys in his basket at first.  This little boy is all about the sugar!

 All of the girls got new swimsuits and the neatest mermaid tails!

 One of everyone's favorite Easter treats is the peeps.  Smart kids!

 Caleb got the new Jumanji on DVD and we had to watch it immediately.  It cracks him up.

 Rylee didn't waste any time getting into her new swim stuff, finding a comfortable spot and reading her new book. 

Easter Sunday fell on General Conference, so that was actually quite nice!  The following week the kids got to wear their new Easter clothes.  Everyone really liked their new clothes and Taylor & Rylee can't keep their hands out of their dress pockets.  The dresses didn't come without stress though!  Thanks to Grandma Mona's fabulous sewing skills, it all worked out.

 If you look in the picture above, Taylor's cheeks are swollen and red.  She was dressed and I was just about finished with her hair and she told me that she wasn't feeling good.  Poor girl got all dressed up and ready to go and ended up staying home with Casey.  BUT - she got a Slurpee.  That always seems to cheer up my sick littles.

Annual Anderson Picnic

Easter in March isn't my favorite - but somehow the weather cooperates with us 90% of the time! It was a great day for a promontory picnic!

And come one.  How cute are these??!!  It shocked me how many peeps were tore off of these kabobs and placed back into the tupperware.  Unamerican.

The Easter Bunny had managed to get all of the eggs hidden yet again!

Caleb had camouflaged eggs.  Hmmmm....that silly rabbit might have to rethink that one.  They were hard to find!  He got some practice in driving a 4-wheeler around and got to scare all of the girls with a lizard.  Successful day in any 10 year old boys head I would think!  He had just spent all of his money on his new Carolina Panther's hat.  He told everyone, "Now I'm broke!"  It was pretty funny.

The girls were are each other's little helpers during the egg search.  They are pretty dang cute when they get together.  Eva is LOVED to say the least by my 3 ladies.  Each of the kids got a whistle in one of their eggs.  That was F U N.

Luke, Luke, Luke.  He was pretty excited this year and each year he gets a little less whiny!  After he was told he had found all of his eggs, he wandered back to the picnic table and proceeded to open each and every one to see what was inside.  Magic!  This little boy loves a good campfire as well.  It seems to hypnotize him for a moment as long as the smoke is traveling in the opposite direction.

The girls started the day out with their cute bunny ears, but by the end of the afternoon they looked more like sheep.  My Alexa Loo is a little diva through and through.  Sour patch candies are always a good time with the little people.  And I think she liked the attention she got from Angela and Jeff exploring her Easter finds.

Guess who else came to the picninc??!!  PUPPIES!  Ashely and Derrick are on puppy duty every year!  Talk about cuteness overload!

Happiness is a warm puppy!!  As long as they don't breath directly into your face.

Jordon and Dylan are so awesome that they both wore them Choot Em shirts.  I bet they called each other and planned it.  I love and hate that my mom has to wear 2 glasses to take a picture.  Jackson is just a stud muffin.  And Rylee & Eva enjoyed watching each other open their Easter eggs.

Blake.  This kids smile has me feeling all of the feels lately.  Whenever little Blake has a sincere happy smile, I seriously melt.  And my dad has a way of cracking him up pretty much every time they see each other.

The day ended with a show.  "Let's go fly a kite"  Starring Grammy and Blakie.  It was the best show EVER.

March

Taylor and Rylee got to experience their first dance competition.  They LOVED that they got their very fist trophy! 

 This time they requested to have pictures taken ALONE.  Break my heart!  Just kidding.  I guess I just love that they are twins and they get annoyed by it sometimes.  Taylor struck a pretty cute pose for her picture.

  I had already taken Rylee's picture and when she saw Taylor vouge-ing it up she was upset and said, "I need to pose!  Will you take another one?"  Of course girlie!

My mom was babysitting Luke & Caleb so Casey & I were able to take our girls out to lunch.  They were cute and LOVED sharing dessert.  We got 2 desserts and 5 spoons and they thought that was fun.  Lexi loves her kitty sweater and headband.  We were headed out the door and she said, "Wait mom!  I need a bow like my kitty."  Again - granting wishes wherever I can.

These two love to paint!  Paint books and play doh aren't my favorite things - but the experts say "let them be little"

Making fruit loop rainbows for St Patrick's day with my babies!

Making a tie dye rainbow cake with my kids and a couple more for St Patrick's day!  All this and I'm not even Irish.  Where's my pitcher of  beer??

Easter was coming early this year!  I got a little crafty.....

 and I want to get better at glazing sugar cookies so I had a little fun with my peeps.

March snowstorms are wonderful.  The snow only lasts about a day.  We didn't get much snow this winter so I helped the girls with a mini snowman.  I couldn't find a hat - so it got a unicorn horn instead.

Somebody loves this kid (me...yes, it's me) and ordered him a Carolina Panthers tie for church.  He loves it.

This girl melts me.  It can take her an hour to paint a picture.  She is very particular and patient.  She actually enjoys it too!  Luke & Caleb get so stressed out with this kind of stuff.

Caleb's class made some cool fossil things at school one day.  An activity right up this kids alley!

Enjoying the rain storm!

Miss Thing got a new swimsuit and worked it for 3 days straight.

DANCE PICTURES!

Went to Walmart one morning with Casey and the little twins.  Got out of the truck.  And then got pooped on.  I had just showered and dried my hair....I'm so glad it missed that!

Me and my littlest waiting for Casey one morning.  I'm going to miss my 4 year olds.

I want to start teaching the kids a little more about cooking.  Caleb helped with chicken roll ups (that's what we call them).  He REALLY hates to have his fingers dirty.  He would wipe them off every time anything was on them.  Taylor helped with spaghetti.  Rylee got to help with take & bake pizzas!  She did get to prepare a salad, so some lesson was learned.