Thursday, April 16, 2009

Spring Break

Merry Christmas, everyone! So far Spring Break has been exactly what you would expect...hot chocolate, playing in the snow, watching Frosty the Snowman, etc. I'm really trying to think on the bright side. It's just that 100% of our Spring Break plans included the outdoors, and not so much the outdoors that requires snow boots, hats, and gloves. We had visions of hikes, bike rides, trips to the park, soccer, flying kites, going to the zoo, etc. and have had to switch our brains to indoor mode. A lot of our indoor plans have had kinks in them as well. Darin wanted to take our family to Vernal to the dinosaur museum. He wanted to make it a true vacation complete with a hotel stay. When we looked online, we found that the main attraction at the museum was closed. Anyway, as we continue to think of the perfect way to spend the rest of our Spring Break I thought I would document what we've done so far.

Day one: PERFECT weather! The kids played outside all day with friends. I was happy to let them. That evening we had a couple of families over for a barbecue and Family Home Evening. We enjoyed the great spring weather while we ate a yummy dinner. (Darin even grilled some zucchini. It was delicious!) After dinner we gathered around the fire pit for a lesson, s'mores, and campfire songs. I really wish I would have thought to have my camera handy. The kids looked so cute around the campfire with their roasting sticks. I'm really glad we took advantage of the outdoor weather. We will definitely be doing more fire pit evenings this spring and summer.

Day two: Lazy, but productive all at the same time. The weather was very rainy. We woke up, the kids did their chores, then friends came knocking. They all spent a big chunk of the day playing--both indoors and outdoors. I stayed in my pajamas ALL DAY. I updated my blog and cleaned. I got a ton done, but was starting to feel like we needed to do something that felt vacation-like. That night we stayed up late playing the Wii and I started formulating a plan for the next day.

Day three: BYU Museum of Art, Creamery, Hannah Montana movie. Oh, and snow.
The BYU Museum of Art has an exhibit with the works of Walter Wick, the author of the I Spy books. Jodi and her kids came with us. It was so fun to play I Spy with the kids. There were also works of art made with garbage, which was really cool as well. There were lots of other displays that looked interesting, but the kids were done at this point so we headed to the Creamery for lunch. (I will have to go back to the museum with Darin on a date sometime!) I did remember my camera this time.

Are you loving the gansta poses? And the sunglasses?

After lunch we came back to my house and let the kids play for a while. They had a great time using their imaginations! Their play included dress-ups, stuffed animals, fake food, weapons, and themselves. They even did a great job cleaning it all up! We left the boys and Lexi home (Lexi chose to stay) and Jodi and I took Rylee, Kamryn and Olivia to the Hannah Montana movie. We had lots of good laughs...at the movie, at Rylee (who is smitten by the love interest in the movie), and at the absolutely tragic point in the movie where Hannah Montana's secret identity is revealed. The sweet mom in the family in front of us let out an audible "Oh no". When we got home, Rylee had to know the name of the heart throb from the movie so she would know who she was crushing on (His name is Lucas Till). We then had to know how to do the Hoedown Throwdown (which will for sure be the new Electric Slide--haven't you been feeling like we need a new one?), so we looked it up on YouTube. Good Times. Sometimes I wonder if I should really be the mom of almost 5 kids. I have a really easy time unleashing my inner 14 year old. (and a little sidenote: I am not so much a Hannah Montana fan--not even a little bit, but I do enjoy a good beat and a catchy tune, and the chance to be a spaz)
Update: As I was typing this, the rest of our Spring Break fell into place! I have a really good feeling about the rest of our week. Stay tuned...

8 comments:

Jodi said...

Well despite the snow, it looks like you guys are having a blast! I have been very upset by all of this December weather though. Yuck... I am excited to see what else you guys have in the works! (You look so cute all pregnant by the way:)

Maleen said...

Way to not let the weather slow you down too much. I really need to remember to take the kids to that exhibit.
Here's hoping the rest of Spring Break is a blast for you.

Anonymous said...

ours was like that too, hopefully warm weather soon

Carrie said...

yeah!!! I loved Spring break weather too, you have to be so creative with low fundage. I agree with Jodie you look absolutely beautiful!

Jodi said...

Thanks for letting us tag along - and for bringing your camera!! And I'm totally going to practice the hoedown so I can teach it to everyone over the 4th of July - we'll have a dance off!!

katie said...

we have NO snow here is rexburg!!! it just rained/snowed/sleet all the way up here on wednesday. we have had bright blue sunny skies with a slight breeze. it is really nice.

megan said...

I felt like it was winter break too. Walter Wick was cool. This week should have been spring break with all this great weather. Looks like you had a great week. I second Jodi you are cute preggers

Rynell said...

It looks like things turned out well. All of our outdoor plans were messed up by the snow and a sick baby!

We went to the Dinosaur Monument in Vernal a couple of years ago, we were also disappointed the Quarry was closed. But good news! I read in the news that they are fixing the Quarry. This is especially good news for my oldest boy, he is quite the dinosaur enthusiast. There is a smaller quarry in Price and an exhibit at the college there. We plan to see that this summer and back to Vernal once the other one is fixed.