Yay for lip gloss!

Zac was thrilled when he spotted Brynley's purse sitting on top of the bar. Once he climbed on the stool, he went exploring and found the coveted lip gloss! He was more than happy to show it to me and then show me how well he could put it on all by myself!

This might be the cutest picture ever taken of Zac, I love it!

Notice how well he is managing to get the gloss on his lips???

All dressed up for Easter!

I always love trying to get the kids to coordinate for Easter. It usually starts with Brynley's dress and then we go from there. Hayden was less than thrilled with the opportunity to wear a "pink" tie. Then Dad stepped in and explained that it's not actually pink, in fact it is fuchsia. Thanks Andy - he didn't seem to mind it as much after that!

Dang glare on Hayden's glasses, ugh...

Our attempt at a family picture using the camera timer

The three kids outside - mostly cooperating - Hayden is a horrible picture taker - it usually ends up with us yelling at him to just smile - a normal smile!!! Then they still don't turn out, so we take what we can get!

Brynley was happy to be our little model!

Spring Break 2010 - or the longest blog post ever!

What a great Spring Break we had. It took about a month convincing Andy that we had to make the drive up to Utah. He doesn't love road trips - especially long ones but in the end I think he was glad that we did it! I have missed Utah and just wanted to go and eat at some of our favorite restaurants, shop, go to BYU, and see friends and family.

Before we headed up to Utah, we spent a few days in Scottsdale with Andy's parents who were here for a medical conference. We went out (Andy and I) with Sharon and Henry to a very posh Steakhouse call Mastro's Steakhouse. It was divine - and spending time with the two of them without kids doesn't happen often enough!

The next day we took the kids to their resort for some swimming and dinner. Being March13th and all, it was a bit cold outside - even though the pool was heated, it was still freezing! Zac was happy to be wrapped in his towel for a portion of the time! This resort had some great water slides which I didn't get any pictures of but that's where the kids spent most of their time! After swimming we had a great dinner at one of the restaurants on sight. My kids love hotels so this is always a fun novelty!
(Not sure how I missed Hayden in the pictures I took. He was kind of off swimming on his own most of the time - meeting new friends.)

The next day we were off to St. George where we stayed a night and then headed up North to Utah Valley. We drove through Orem in perfect time for dinner at our favorite restaurant from the college days - Tucano's! Yum, that place rocks! It is a Brazilian steak house where they bring the meats around and cut it onto your plate for you. Zc was diggin it, he held up his plate every time a new guy came by. (Sorry, left the cameras in the car!) We then headed up to Salt Lake where we spent the week with Andy's oldest Brother David, his wife Ashley and their cute boy Noah.

Tuesday we went to a great indoor swimming facility. Andy forced Zac on the water slide a few times - he came down with a look of horror on his face both times until eventually he was dragging Andy out of the pool to take him over and over again!


Later that night we had a great dinner and invited Uncle Chris to come over - I think he has officially become the kids favorite Uncle! He is so good with them and he has the energy to run and play and throw them around, it's been really fun for them to get to know him better.

Playing after dinner

Wednesday we spent the day in Park City - shopping most of the time. I think we spent almost 4 hours at the outlet mall, it still amazes me that the kids lasted that long! We had dinner on Main Street and watch some skiing. Hayden thought we were watching the winter Olympics!

The next day we headed down to Orem/Provo. We stopped for lunch at our other favorite restaurant - Wallaby's. For anyone who lives in the area and hasn't been there - seriously, you have to go! It is the best pulled pork and mashed potatoes you will ever have. The BBQ sauce is amazing, we come home with a bottle of it every time. Zac was in a particularly bad mood, he had been up all night with a fever but we made the best of it anyway!

Zac was pretty much only happy when standing by the fish tank!


We then took the kids to the BYU campus. I remember as a student there I would see families bringing their kids to show them around and show them how they met, etc. - I thought they were so lame! Well, we became one of those cheesy families and I'm proud of it! Hayden is totally set on going to BYU - he asked us which classes he would take in each building - it was cute. Most importantly though, the whole family came away with new BYU shirts, including a jersey which Hayden proceeded to wear for 3 days!


BYU Campus from a 4 year olds perspective

LAter that afternoon we headed to Alpine to visit with some of our very good friends who moved from Gilbert last year. Following that visit we spent the evening in LEhi with some of Andy's friends from high school. There were 8 adults and I think at least 20 kids. Jeremy and Kelly were very kind to open their house to such chaos - it was so much fun, we had a hard time dragging the kids away!

Friday was our day to ride Trax into Salt Lake and go to Temple Square. The kids were beyond thrilled as it started to snow while waiting for the train!
Zac looks a little weirded out here on the train but he sobbed when we had to get off!


That is snow in Zac's hair, not dandruff!

You can't see it but we are standing in the snow as well!

After touring the Beehive hose and walking around the temple and visitor's centers we headed to the Tabernacle to see the old pipe organ. Hayden was fascinated by it and was wondering exactly how the sound gets fro the Organ and out the pipes.



Ah, sibling love... This is Hayden's half-hearted attempt to hug his sister after she gave him her roll from the Lion House!

The kids kept taking the camera - Hayden was excited to take some shots of the temple and got this great one!

Brynley on the other hand took 5 pictures of the window washers!

All toasty and ready to get on the train so he can go have a nap before family pictures!

The family pictures will be included in another post, on another day!

A conversation with Hayden...

Last night while making dinner, Hayden says to my Aunt - "I have a photographic memory you know."

I freak out a little and ask, "Who told you that? Did Dad tell you that?" He responded with "No."

"Did you hear Dad and I talking about that?" He responds "No."

"What is a photographic memory Hayden?" He answers, "It's when you see something or read something once and then you can always remember it and it stays in your brain like a camera."

I bit later when it was just he and I, I wanted to investigate a little further so I asked him again.

"Hayden did someone tell you that you have a photographic memory?"

This was his response: "No Mom, I'm just reading a book about a child detective named Cam Jansen, but her real name isn't cam, it's Jenny. People call her Cam because she is like a human camera accept there is no film in her brain, just her memory. And so I was thinking that my brain is somewhat like Cam's brain because I can remember everything."

"Oh, yep, I suppose you're right!"

I worry a little about him going around telling people he is super smart with a photographic memory - you know, those were the kids who got made fun of growing up! But, we have known for a very long time that he has a great memory - for instance, he can look at his spelling words one time and always get 100% on his spelling tests. The only time he missed any was when he forgot to write two of the words down because he wasn't paying attention! I pray every day that his talents will lead him to do great things... you just never know...