Happy Easter!

It was a crazy, low key Easter. I don't think our family has ever been left to our own devices for Easter before. No ward party. Half of my family out of town, so no big family party.

Wait a minute...are we even capable of celebrating a holiday all on our own? What do people without family nearby do, I wonder....



We had a nice, little, tiny, sweet Easter. I kind of liked it...




We colored Easter eggs by ourselves, alone. Some of them started out green or brown, thanks to the Andersons who donated fresh eggs from actual chickens;) Yum.


two of them were tiny, and Abigail called them baby eggs. She thought they were the greatest things ever. Created just for her.

We put Abs to bed and had a nightime egg hunt for Kindyl, Mitchell, and Brenley. With flashlights, (or head reading lamps)





Easter Sunday is officially one of the few times I am grateful for 12:30 church




Bren and Abigelli danced around after they got dressed. They couldn't wait to put on their Easter dresses!

Abigail's dress was a little plain so I had to spice it up with a sash and a flower clip. She matches the whole black and white Easter theme I was going for b etter this way. And of course there were hair accessories to make for all 4 of the girls.

This is why I have mostly daughters. They are alot more fun to dress up!

We took the kids outside to pull some teeth, I mean take some pics. The lighting wasn't great out there.






It was a little better inside...




We may or may not have bribed the baby with Easter candy in this shot....

Abigail was especially cranky and had a hard time sitting through sacrament meeting which, as mentioned above, starts at nap time. O.k, she didn't sit through sacrament meeting at all. I was skeptical about putting her in nursery instead of home to bed. But she loves nursery, and was fabulous for them.

Church was lovely, and all of the kids were able to tell me what they learned about the atonement.

When we got home, the kids refilled their eggs and gave Abigail her own massive egg hunt. She didn't mind that most of the eggs were filled with individual fruit snacks. It was all about the thrill of the hunt for her.




What? Yes we did. We let the grass grow out on purpose to make the Easter hunt more interesting....that's right.

Hawaii- Day 1

(the house we rented in Princeville)

I know, I know, I am a total blog slacker. I haven't had a real post in over a year. And it has been months since we went to Hawaii. But I really want to document this trip for myself before I forget the details. So I figured I had two choices:

1. Scapbook it

2.Blog it

So now you know I am an even bigger scrapbook slacker! (Brenley and Abigail don't even have books. Gasp!)

I have always wanted to do something great for our 15th anniversary. I knew we would be done having kids by then and 15 years deserves a celebration. It was between another cruise and Hawaii, and Hawaii won!

I have to say I have never had the urge to go to Hawaii. I dream and plan and read and obsess over parts of Europe. I have some episodes of Rick Steves memorized. I aspire to visit Egypt and Israel. I would love to do another tropical cruise. But I didn't ever really think about Hawaii. It didn't have enough relevant history for me.

Luckily, My mother in law talked me into going. I am so glad she did! It was perfect. We couldn't have ordered better weather.

We landed Monday evening, ate, hit Costco, and went to bed. Then we woke up early Tuesday morning to go on Captain Andy's catamaran cruise up the Na Pali coast. It was perfect.

(partly because I took a healthy dose of drammamine)

For some reason the theme song for Gilligan's Island kept running through my head. I am not sure if it was because the show was filmed here on this part of the island, or if it was because I was worried about being shipwrecked on our own "3 hour tour"


(Ellen, Pam, and myself on the trampoline front of the boat.)



(Wendell snorkling off the back of the boat)

Everybody got to see these guys but me. Oh well...




(In my pictures folder this file is named "nobodylistenstoturtle". If you can tell me why you win a prize...)

We saw more whales than anyone ever has in San Diego. They were so close. These guys decided to show us their synchro act. You could tell they had been practicing...




(Pamela taking my picture)


This is the Na Pali Coastline further north. There is no road to it so you can only reach it by boat or helicopter. Popular place to film t.v shows (as mentioned above) and movies. It was breath taking.

After we finished our cruise we hit the Red Dirt Shirt Company (feartured on "Dirty Jobs")and the Glass Beach


Then we saw Waimea Canyon,"the Grand Canyon of Hawaii" Hawaii doesn't need it. Everything on the island is prettier than the Grand Canyon, in my opinion.

(Dean, Pam, Ellen, and Wendell)



It was a full and fabulous day