Dillon's 11th Birthday

Dillon had his birthday, and I did a little better job with him.

 Dillon had a good turn out.  My brother Heath and his family were able to come and celebrate with us.

 Our friends R-Jay and DeAnna and there family came too.  He wanted an ice cream cake so that's what he got.

 Kay (Jason's mom) was able to come too.  So he had a good time with all of them.

 I made these cupcakes for Dillon's class.  Did I mention that he is a huge Nebraska Huskers fan.

As always the balloons.

Dillon is the best child ever.  I take it for granted that he is such a good kid.  He has always been so smart.  I am amazed at his intelligence.  I love what a good brother he is to his siblings.  He is so responsible and I sometimes think I expect too much from him.  He is an amazing kid and I am so glad that Heavenly Father has trusted us enough to raise him!!

Elleree's Birthday

Ummmm, so Elleree had a birthday but I only got one picture.

I am pretty much the best mom ever.  She turned six this year.  

I can't believe this little muffin is six.  

She is such a blessing to our lives.  This house so over run with males, and she rules the roost.  I love her so much I wish I did a better job being patient with her.  She is my only colorer/artist.  She picks out her own cloths and sometimes I laugh at what she comes up with.  She refuses to let me comb her hair little alone curl it or make it all cute. She does love to wear make up and nail polish.  She is as stubborn as they get.  We wouldn't have her any other way!

Easter 2014

I have not posted in forever.  I don't use my computer very much these days, because I think it is on it's last leg.  It is so slow I hate it!  Anyway I am posting now.

 We had Easter..... we died eggs. 

 Sometimes I am not the best mom and forgot to get the dye.  Soo we used Kool Aid.

 Let's say it didn't work that well.  Dillon is getting to the point that he thinks he is too big to dye eggs.

 Beckett still loved it.

 Dyeing eggs is not my most favorite thing.  Why is it things are not as fun when you grow up and are the parent.  Maybe because you are now in charge of all the crap that someone else used to worry about.

 The final product.

 The next day the Easter bunny had visited and the kids made a haul.  I bought cute little new church outfits, but half of my kids where sick so they didn't use them.  I never got the awesome picture with all of them.  What do you do.

 We hid all these eggs for a hunt.

 As you can see our dandelion crop is coming in wonderfully.

 The kids always love the egg hunt, more than the baskets even.

Dillon even still like to look for the eggs.  That was our happy Easter!

Spring Break 2014

Be warned this is going to be a very long post.

 Jason decided to take us on another one of his adventures.  This time to Escalante, UT.  They have some really cool wind caves.  This is us before we started the hike to Peek-a-Boo and Spooky.

 Beckett was in Heaven, he thought this was just a huge sand box.

 We hiked for some time before we hit the actual caves.

 This is the mouth of the first one.  Jason has been to these several times, but never at this time of year.

 This is what we ran into.  Meet Meagan, she had been waiting at the mouth of the cave for some one to come and help her get over the walls.  We couldn't get a grip on the sides, because of the mud it was horrible.  We would have never made it if a cute little family hadn't come along with a rope.

 There were five of these awesome mud lakes as I like to call them, that we had to go through. I felt like we were on some sort of reality TV show that had us working with strangers to complete strange trust exercises.  All of which required a lot of strength and determination.

 It was seriously exhausting.  Elleree and Beckett were the only ones who stayed dry, we were able to lift them from one wall to another.  I think that there were times Beckett was pretty scared.  He became good friends with Meagan though.

 The boys thought it was awesome.  Until their shoes wouldn't dry out.

 It was so beautiful though I have to say.

 There were some crazy formations.

 Our family after Peek-a-Boo and we still had to hike over to anther one and out.

 I beat the crap out of myself.  I had bruises and scraps all over my body.

The sand was just caked to our shoes and cloths.  It was everywhere.

 We got through the next set of caves.

 The kids were so done hiking by then.

 I ended up carrying Beckett most of the way.  Not an easy task, but as he said "mom I lost all my energies".  So what can you do.

 It was beautiful, just a little more than I had bargained for.  The kids will always remember it.

 Next stop Hole in the Rock.  It is a place the early pioneers used to take their wagons down to cut a couple of days off their time.

 If you ask me it would not have been worth it.  They had to have been crazy to take anything down that thing!!  You can see Lake Powell in the back.

 The next day we tracked out in the wilds looking for......

 these Moqui Marbles.  They are the strangest thing.  Ironite deposits in the sandstone.  They come in lots of shapes and sizes.

 Elleree is sporting one that looks like a hat.

 Beckett kept putting them in his pocket.

 When we made him clean it out this is what we found.  Not all of those are marbles.  He ended up with some little poops too.

 He would dig and dig to free some of the marbles.  Very dedicated.

Elleree stowed a couple in her pockets too.

 My OCD liked lining them up smallest to largest.

 Elleree make little nests with eggs.

 We then stopped by the interpretive center that the LDS church had done for the Hole in the Rock.

 Then we went searching for the petrified forest.

 We found some cool specimen.

 It was kind of a long hike, plus I had to pack Beckett again.  Not sure it was worth it, but hey you don't know until you do it.

 The reward was getting to soak our feet in the lake at the bottom.  Very refreshing after a long hot hike.

 The next day we headed home.  We stopped by the Hogle Zoo first. 

 Here the kids are looking at the Rhinos.

 The zoo was pretty sparse at this time of year.  Lots of the inhabitants were not in there enclosures.

 Thank goodness for the gaffes.

 The Elephants came out at the end too.  Really the kids and I were so tired we looked like a bunch of homeless people.

I am glad the kids are such good sports.  They are used to their dads adventures, and love them as I do.  They may not always be easy, but they are memorable, and I wouldn't have it any other way.