Last week was Dave's spring break! We were all looking forward to some down time and spending more time together as a family. Dave did work a few days at Target during the week, but he ended up with a three day weekend which was fantastic! During the week we didn't do a whole lot, but we did get a few "chores" done around the house and cleaned up the flower beds outside. We had such nice weather the beginning of the week.
At end the week, we drove up to Bountiful and spent the day with one of Dave's brothers and his family and then drove up the next day to Tremonton to spend the night at one of Dave's other brother's. It was good to see family and Miles always enjoys playing with his cousins! Before coming home yesterday, we drove up to Bear Lake in northern Utah and hiked around some. Zach is working on a paper for one of his college classes so we were there helping him with his research. Miles was a little scared hiking around the big rocks, but once we went down to the beach he was in heaven throwing rocks into the lake and was not happy when we had to leave. On the way back to Tremonton, we stopped at a campground and started a fire in the snow! We roasted hotdogs for lunch. It was freezing, but a lot of fun to do something we don't usually do!
Dad & Miles hiking
Lily & Miles posing by the "big rocks"
Zach & Dave took my phone and these are the types of pictures they took. Guess it has something to do with his research. That red spot is kind of cool, whatever it is...
Looking out at Bear Lake
Searching for shells along the shoreline
Throwing rocks
Lily
Proof that I was there. Miles wasn't happy to be taking a picture with mom. Those white specks on my jacket are snowflakes!
Roasting hotdogs
Miles is so independent and wanted to roast his own hotdog. It wasn't edible when he was done with it.
We had a wonderful Easter day together as a family. Target happens to close for Easter so we got to spend the entire day with Dave! It was fantastic. Our church doesn't start until 1 p.m. so we had all morning to do fun Easter activities together. When Miles woke up his Easter basket was waiting for him to explore. He got some candy along with some new pajamas, a trash truck (from Toy Story 3), and some fun bubble toys. Once he saw the trash truck, the rest was history. He has carried that thing around for almost three days now. He loves it! He even took it to church with us.
Dave made us a delicious french toast breakfast. After breakfast we went on an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Miles had a great time hunting for the eggs. We have a very wonderful neighbor who puts out eggs around the neighborhood for all of the little kids. We knew there would be eggs out front so after Miles found all of the eggs in the backyard, we took him out front so he could find more. He was more interested in picking up all of the neighbor's eggs versus picking up the ones in our front yard. We finally convinced him to leave the other eggs for Baby Ian, Taylor, Cohen, Bailey, and Berkley, but it wasn't easy.
We then went to church as a family (which hasn't happened in a while). Miles made it through the first hour, but ended up leaving with dad so he could go take a nap. He had had too much excitement and was ready for one!
Dave prepared a wonderful ham dinner that evening. He went all out and even had cheesy potatoes, corn, and a wonderful salad to go with it. He is a great husband and father! He worked so hard to make our Easter special. I'm so thankful for all that he does for our little family!
We finished off the day by reading a book called "What Is Easter?" It is a cute little board book we got him last year that explains what Easter really is about. All of the extra things like eggs, candy, and the Easter Bunny are fun, but not the real reason for the holiday. He's still too young to grasp all of that, but we are trying to lay the foundation now.
Here are some pictures from our wonderful day together.
A trash truck from the Easter Bunny!!!
Finding eggs in the backyard
This video is really long and I'm talking way too much through it, but I'm sure the grandmas and grandpas will enjoy it
Formulating a game plan for the front yard
Miles and all of his eggs
Dressed for church (this little man hates to wear shoes)
This morning we took Miles to the Provo City Easter Egg Hunt. What an adventure! I think there were like a million and one people there. Miles loves to run and so I was nervous the entire time that we might lose him in the sea of people, but Dave did a great job of keeping track of him.
Miles just doesn't understand things yet and the concept of waiting in line for forever to get to slide down the bouncy slide one time wasn't something he could grasp. He also couldn't understand why he had to wait behind a white line for 15 minutes before he could run out onto the field to pick up Easter eggs. Needless to say it was a rough 1 1/2 hours for mom and dad.
He LOVES to throw fits these days and was pretty much screaming bloody murder most of the time we were there. I just don't know how to handle situations like that except for maybe not putting him in situations like that until he understands better??? I don't know...
Overall I think he had fun though. He got to play on a firetruck, slide down a bouncy slide, see some baby animals, see the Easter Bunny and Zippy the Chipmunk (Provo Parks and Recreation Department's mascot), play on the playground equipment, hunt for five eggs, run all over the park, and throw a few temper tantrums along the way.
He was a little scared of being up so high
He wanted to go up and down over and over again
The line for a picture with the Easter Bunny was too long so we tried to get a picture with Zippy instead. He gave him a hug and a high-five, but would not stand there for a picture.
Miles' favorite thing to do at a park
Looking at the animals (again the line was too long to actually go inside to pet the animals)
Waiting patiently for the hunt!
Only one parent was allowed to help the child and they were only allowed to pick up five eggs total. The parents also weren't allowed to touch the Easter eggs.
He was getting frustrated that he couldn't get the egg open
We'll have a less stressful/low-key (hopefully) Easter celebration as a family tomorrow!
Dave surprised me when we got back from our trip. He spent his time as a bachelor getting our kitchen cabinets finished. They look sooooo good! He did such a good job. One less thing on our to-do list. Yippee!
We had such a wonderful time in Kansas! Thanks to all who made our trip so fantastic! I was super nervous about traveling alone with a 2 1/2 year old in the car for 17 hours straight, but Miles was a great traveling companion. He never ceases to amaze me! He did get sick on the trip home when we were about 30 minutes away from home. I think his milk had spoiled and he probably had a little bit of car sickness going on too. Poor guy! It made for an interesting last part of the trip, but we survived and dad was ready to help when we got home.
Here is a video and some pictures from our final days in Kansas.
