Spring Break

Last week the kids had Spring Break so we packed up our van (with lots of room to spare) and headed to CA where we spent Saturday through Wednesday on the beach in Santa Cruz with Morgan's family and then Wednesday through Sunday morning with my parents at their home. We had a wonderful time as you will see from the picture overload;)

Saturday Evening: We arrived in Santa Cruz and the kids could hardly stand it so we walked to the beach from the vacation rental we were staying in.

Each kid took a turn falling in because of the force of the waves but they surprisingly thought it was fun;)

Noel just couldn't stop jumping and squeeling she was so excited to be at the beach.

Games with Grandma Young.

Morgan and Gary played some games as well;)

The kiddos were ready for the beach yet again.

The beach was only a block away so it was nice that we could just walk to it.

Sam loved playing in the sand.

Grandma Young had some "pirates" hide some treasure coins throughout the house and at the end of the treasure hunt there were little treasure boxes that they found full of goodies.

The kids enjoyed playing in the radio flyer in the back yard.

They played a lot of foozeball.

The spa was also a hit.

Monday we spent a good few hours or so at another beach nearby. It was perfect and beautiful!

There was a large stream that the kids played in a lot of the time.

Morgan and Brian boogie boarded for a little while.

The beach ball blew away. Sam to the rescue! 

We saw a pod of dolphins just off the shore.

Noel just played, and jumped, and kicked around in the waves, still squeaking and squeeling. She was so happy.

My handsome man.

Morgan's sand caste.

Monday evening we went to the Mystery Spot full of optical illusions (or perhaps there is something strange about the gravitational force there, we'll never know;-))

Crazy right?

My Spider-Man

Noel helped out with a demonstration on the tour.

The Mystery Spot makes you silly;)

Tuesday morning we went to Roaring Camp just next to or perhaps a part of the famous Henry Cowell Redwoods. There we took an hour and a half train ride through the sequoias and redwoods. It was so cool and so beautiful! 

The gang.

Sam eventually ended up falling asleep in Brian's jacket on his lap. It was too cute.

The view from where we were sitting on the train.

Morgan and Brian at the Roaring Camp Saloon.

Here's Morgan and the conductor. He was a great conductor/tour guide.

The conductor took a picture of us and asked who wears the pants in the relationship. Morgan quickly points to me and the conductor stuck his hat on my head. It was pretty hilarious. I'd like to think we both wear one of each pant leg in the relationship;-)

Noel and Grandma Young.

The boys. Notice Sleepy Sam.

Noel and her "Fuzzy" stuffed animal souvenir.

Tuesday Evening we went to the beach one last time. Morgan and Brian went boogie boarding and the kids played in the waves. Here's Brian walking out in to the waves.

Sam was dancing around in the water.

Noel was also having a blast dancing and jumping around in the water as usual.

I love my kiddos.

Morgan and Brian in the waves.

Brian catching a wave.

Sam was collecting kelp.

Morgan catching a wave.

Morgan and Brian both caught a couple of the same waves. 

Morgan catching another wave.

The next day after we checked out of the vacation rental we all went our separate ways. We then went to go look at a lighthouse nearby. We've never seen a lighthouse up close so it was pretty cool although we couldn't go inside it. 

We then took a walk on the Santa Cruz Wharf. We also got to see some sea lions!

More sea lions hanging out under the wharf.

We ate lunch at The Dolphin Restaurant on the wharf and I had me some delicious fish'n chips!

Thank you Mary and Gary for the trip to Santa Cruz. We are grateful for the memories that we now have from there with you. 

From Santa Cruz we traveled to my parents to stay with them for a few days. During that time we went to the local Pet Store that I grew up going to. The kids loved looking at the baby chicks.

We visited Morgan's grandparents and Morgan found this snake in their yard.

Sam and Noel helped Grandma Watkins make some delicious homemade lemonade. Mmmmm mmmm it was yummy.

The kids love lemons.

We then took a trip to Cameron Park Lake. Oh my has it changed since I was little. There were tons of turtles and tons of geese all over the place sitting on their eggs. We took a walk around the entire lake.

Here's a momma goose sitting on her eggs. There was a lot of hissing going on as we strolled through geese village.

There were a couple momma geese whose babies had hatched. They were adorable.

Grandpa Watkins has a mini desk vacuum that the kids enjoyed sucking things up with. It was pretty humorous to watch.

We took a trip to the Gomm's and the kids chased chickens and fed them some worms and grub that they found at Grandma and Grandpa Watkins house.

Morgan loves chickens. We will hopefully be able to get some next year.

Saturday evening, before the kids went to bed Grandma and Grandpa Watkins played the game of Trouble with the kids. 

What a wonderful way to end our Spring Break. Mom and Dad, thank you for having us at your home for a few days. We had so much fun spending that time with you. 

We sure are grateful for family:)

The rest of March

Oh, the joys of homeownership... A few weeks ago, one morning, I walked out into the kitchen to get the kids breakfast and found a mound under our kitchen floor near the dishwasher. As the next few days unfolded we found it was all due to a leak in the dishwasher which damaged the flooring in the kitchen area. We've had people come out to pull up the flooring and air everything out along with the insurance adjuster which ultimately led to finding out that our flooring cannot be matched and we will need to replace our entire main floor flooring.

It was Sam's turn to bring home "Bruno" from preschool to have some adventures with. 

 We had a ward Easter Party which included breakfast, activities for the kids and an Easter Egg Hunt. Here's Noel in the egg race.

 Here's Sam in the egg race.

 Easter Egg Hunt.

 Here's a picture Noel drew of herself with the Easter Bunny.

 Dying/Painting Easter Eggs.

 Morgan being silly;) 

 Easter morning. 

 My 20th Week Pregnancy Photo. I'm much bigger now at 23 weeks. It's amazing how quickly the baby and your body grows. 

 We went over to Ems and Ben's home for a wonderful Easter Dinner. We watched a video of the Resurrection, visited, and ate delicious food.

 The kiddos eating Resurrection Rolls (also called "Empty Tomb Rolls")

 Noel got a hair cut. Here's the BEFORE...

 ...AFTER.

 My parents came to Utah for General Conference and we were going to be out of town over the weekend so we met up with them a few days before, in Salt Lake for dinner. We had a great time.

Sam: "If I went to space I would...fly into the big red spot. I would walk into the black spots too."

 Noel has been learning a lot about our nation. She drew this picture of the American Flag.

 Noel had what is called the Kindy 500 at school, which is where all the Kindergartener's build a box car and on the day of, they perform in a special program singing patriotic songs and reciting a phrase they've memorized in relation to our nation. Then after all the parents leave, for class time, they "drive" around to different stations learning more about the United States of America. She had a blast making this truck with Morgan. She particularly wanted a truck (that's my girl;) and she wanted it to be pink and have black flames, and she wanted her license plate to be from California. Don't you just love her?

 She is third in line to recite her line she memorized. She did so well.

 Noel is in the top row next to the kid in the navy blue shirt. She sang all of the songs so well. 

 Sam, waiting to see her in the parade.

 There she is! 

She's growing up too fast. Just another month and a half and she's done with Kindergarten and will be moving onto 1st grade:( She's too smart to promise me that she will stop growing up. So I make her promise to stay just as sweet as she is right now:)