Disney World Day #1

 First of all...this trip wouldn't have happened if Andy hadn't completed a milestone...he graduated from South Florida State with his Doctorate!  Pretty impressive!

So we decided that we would fly down to Orlando and help him celebrate at Disney World!

(In my defense, his request was that we came after graduation for the fun part!  But we did get to watch him hooded online.)

We flew down on a Monday and the next day headed to Blizzard Beach! 

 Eliza, Talia, and Brayden all loved this tube slide.  They went down it over and over!

 Brayden wasn't too keen on pictures this trip!

 Me and my girls!

 Talia in her Grandma's glasses!

 After Blizzard beach we went back to the hotel for a nap and some dinner and then headed over to Magic Kingdom!

 It's a small world after all...

 Waiting for Tinkerbell to fly by and the fireworks show!

 Cinderella's Castle all lit up.

 Posing with a Goofy statue on our way out of the park.

Comfy reading...

Talia's choice of blankets to be "comfy" this day were towels and washcloths...at least they were just out of the clean laundry!

Haircuts!

Eliza and Talia got their hair cut!

 Eliza was so excited to get hers cut...

 Talia...not so much.  Her head stayed in the same position the whole time.  Face looking downward, very seriously.  The sucker afterwards made up for it a little.

 Talia had about 3 inches cut off and Eliza about 6 inches.

They're pretty happy!

Swingset!

Daddy spent a couple of Saturdays (and a few week nights) putting together this swingset for the girls!

 It's awesome and they LOVE it!  (And so do I!)

 And it couldn't have been better timing with spring and summer around the corner.

Thanks for all your hard work Dad!

Olympia/Seattle

The next day we went to the Seattle Aquarium.

It took a little convincing but the girls finally decided they wanted to touch some of wild life.

 They played a parachute game with a bunch of other kids...brought back some Elementary PE memories for me!

 Wouldn't you make this pose if you were riding on the back of an Orca?

 For the record the water is really not green like this picture...but the girl in green is pretty darn cute!

 Then we drove over to see the Seattle Space Needle.

 Talia fell asleep in the car so she missed out on this one.  Then we headed to our hotel to relax followed by dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  Yum!  Mom and dad took Elayna and Mitch to the airport late that night to catch their red eye flight.  Glad we got to see you guys...we love you both!

The next morning we did some shopping on our way out of Seattle.  I think I would love if every store had carts like these to keep little hands occupied...though it would cause some major traffic jams in the isles.  Thanks IKEA!  We made it to Yakima in time for Dad to join Grandpa at Priesthood session and enjoyed a nice visit with Grandma and Chelsea.  And then headed home after that...to find a tired daddy who had cleaned the whole house!  (I should leave more often!)  

Trip to Olympia...

Mitch and Elayna flew to Mitch's home town of Olympia, Washington for a few days.  So me, the girls, and mom and dad drove over to see them while they were there.

 We went to a farm near Mitch's home where the girls could see some animals.  It rained on us most of the weekend but that didn't stop us from having fun!

 Aunt Elayna, Eliza, and Talia as pumpkin scarecrows!

 We saw pigs, chickens, turkeys, goats, chicks, sheep, and peacocks.

 Talia thinking she's brave enough to feed some animals...

 ...but mostly they just watched Elayna and Mitch feed them.

 The peacocks are behind the girls...Eliza really wanted to see them spread their feathers but she couldn't figure out how to make them do it!

Two silly apples!

Happy Easter!

 Easter morning the girls woke up to find the Easter Bunny had left a trail of candy from their room to the family room.  They found all of the eggs he hid!

 They even found a movie in each of their baskets!

 All ready for church!

 After church we went over to Grandpa and Grandma's for dinner.  We joined Andy, Julie, Brayden and even Grandpa and Grandma Great!

 And the day wouldn't be complete with yet another Easter Egg hunt in Grandpa and Grandma's backyard!

It was such a beautiful Easter Sunday!  We are so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and for the resurrection.  The peace, hope, and comfort the Easter and Spring season bring to us are a blessing.  

Happy Easter everyone!  

Day of Easter Egg Hunts...

The Saturday before Easter we had gorgeous weather and a day full of Easter Egg hunts.

 We started the morning off with a bunch of friends and an egg hunt in the park.

 Grandpa, Grandma, Andy, Julie, and Brayden joined us for the hunt and then we enjoyed a picnic lunch together.

 That evening we had an egg hunt for our neighborhood at the Davis' house.

 The girls had A LOT of Easter candy and eggs by the end of the night!

And then they of course took advantage of the Davis' trampoline.  They were pretty excited that night for the Easter bunny to come to our house!

Decorating Easter Eggs...

The Friday night before Easter we decorated Easter eggs.  The girls were so excited to do it and they did a great job.  Their favorite part was putting stickers on them!

 She even poses with eggs...sigh.

 Thumbs up dad!

 Putting stickers on the eggs.

 The look of concentration...this is serious work.

 Proud of her Easter eggs.

Let the Easter fun begin!

Rough Sunday...

Sundays are rough for Talia.  We have church at 1:00...which means she misses her nap (unless she falls asleep in church which usually doesn't happen.)  She uses all her self control to stay awake so she doesn't miss nursery.  But it catches up with her sometimes...like at dinner last night.  We were talking with Eliza about her primary class and then looked over to see Talia like this.  Asleep.

Her nursery leader caught us on the way out of church and had to share a story with us.  They talked about families and so each child brought a picture of their family to show.  When Talia was asked how many siblings she had she of course said one sister.  Then she was asked if she plays with her...Talia's response?  "No, we just fight."  Proud parent moment.  For the record, they do fight but they also really love each other.