Hiking with kids

We thought it would be fun to go for a hike at Quicksilver Park last weekend. Hiking with my kids is a lot of work. It seems like the older the kids get, the less they want to walk. How does a five-year-old boy run out of energy? After about 10 minutes of walking, he is tired and has to sit down every few minutes to take a break and whine. Paul says walking is boring but if we say we want to race then he gets all kinds of energy. We did a lot of racing on the hike. My husband carried Paige on his back the whole hike up since she was a little sick and I carried Zoey on my front. A couple times on the way up my husband asked if we should just head back. I wanted to finish the hike so we pushed forward. Paige got down near the end for a few minutes but of course she fell and scraped her arm. We were glad we made it to the end because there was a super pretty view at the top. Little Paul agreed it was beautiful and even though he complained almost the whole time he said he wanted to go on this hike again someday. We will keep trying and hopefully someday everyone will walk on their own and enjoy it. 

Paige riding on Dad's back

Paul on one of his many breaks. It didn't help that he chose to wear the thickest longest socks on a warm day.

Paige's scrape on her arm

Zoey napped on the way up but woke up when we got to the end. 

Yay! We made it!

Zoey happy to be outside

Paul just being Paul:)

Using my nursing cover as a cape 

I've decided my kids have the most fun doing things that involve getting wet or dirty. They had such a fun time together in the backyard yesterday playing with the hose and watering plants and then coloring on the concrete with chalk and jumping/rolling around in it. 

Spring Break

Little Paul had spring break from preschool the week after Easter so I decided to take the kids to Salt Lake to visit Aunt K and cousins. I have to admit I was a little worried about driving 12 hours alone with 3 kids. I was especially worried about Zoey since I can do very little to entertain her in the car. I packed a ton of snacks and toys and decided to split up the drive into 2 days. We drove 5 1/2 hours to the small town of Lovelock, Nevada the first night and stayed in a motel. That worked out great because I could just pull up to the door and carry each kid right in. The next day we left first thing for Salt Lake. It was 6 1/2 hours the second day. Zoey was getting a little antsy with a little over 3 hours left so we found a really fun park in Elko to play at for an hour. It was a beautiful day and the kids loved running around. We finally got to their new house in the late afternoon. The older kids did great with very little whining. Zoey was done being in the car at the end of each day but she did so well. I am glad I split the drive. 

It was so nice to see everyone! We lived in Salt Lake for 5 months prior to moving here so for 5 months we got to hang out with this family a lot. We really miss them and hope we can live close to them again someday. In the meantime, we are all going to have to get used to driving 12 hours to visit each other:)

Picnic in the backyard

Baby Rocket tripled in size since we last saw him at Christmas! He is such a sweet baby!

Paul and Annie swinging at the park. I love that Annie still had her helmet on:)

The kids loved this merry-go-round and played on it for about an hour straight! Paul and Annie got spinning really fast and didn't want to stop. It made me sick to watch them go round and round. Ia see why we don't see these at parks anymore. They are pretty dangerous but also totally awesome. 

Even Zoey loved it.

One of the highlights of the week was driving down south to visit Great-Grandma! She made us this awesome lunch of homemade mac and cheese and the most divine rolls! It was so good and to top it off she gave us all popsicles! We miss Great-Grandma and we were so happy to be able to spend some time with her:) The kids love her house. On the way back, Paul said he wished he could visit Great-Grandma all the time.

Eating popsicles on the front porch

Great-Grandma with the moms and babies

Great-Grandma with our family

Zoey enjoying one of the yummy rolls

We had a couple of beautiful sunny days. However, we got rain the last couple of days. We decided to go to the Church History Museum in Salt Lake on one the of rainy days. It wasn't raining when we left and for some reason we didn't bring anything to shield us in case it rained. Of course, it was pouring when we got there and we had to park a little ways away from the museum. With one little umbrella, we ran with 4 kids and 2 babies in the pouring rain to the museum. We were soaking wet! The museum was fun but then we had to run back through the rain to the cars. Rain + kids - umbrellas = an awesome time. That day was actually comical because nothing went right. Every time something went wrong, we would just laugh. 

Paul turns everything into weapons these days including these carrots he found

Jane loved the hens/chickens

Paige listening to some church jams

Fishing from the arc

Paul playing with Rocket

Sam had school everyday but at least we got to see him in the afternoons and evenings. 

The two babies

 We had such a fun time! I was so sad to leave:( I loved the time I had with Aunt Kris. I miss these people so much!

Easter

Easter is one of my favorite holidays. I love how excited my kids get before an Easter Egg Hunt. They love it so much they practice hiding and finding empty eggs before and after Easter. Dying eggs is so fun for me and the kids. And who doesn't love getting an Easter Basket Easter Sunday? I also love that my kids, especially Paul, is starting to understand why we celebrate certain holidays like Easter, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Our Church has an Easter Egg Hunt for all the kids the Saturday before Easter. It is at a nearby park and we have a yummy dessert style breakfast. The little kids get to start first and then they let the big kids loose. Paul, now 5, fell under the "big kid" category and had to wait a few minutes before he dashed to the big rocks. 

Paige hunting

Paul at the rocks

The two looking together

And the pounding of candy begins...
I don't give my kids candy or things with artificial color at home so they take advantage of events like this;) I don't think we left with any candy. 

Zoey slept through the Easter Egg Hunt. When she woke up all the eggs were gone but she was still all smiles!

Thanks to Pinterest, we tried a few different methods to color eggs this year. First we colored the eggs with crayons while they were hot so the crayon melted onto the eggs. This was pretty cool. Next we painted the eggs with baking soda paint and then poured vinegar over them to create "volcano eggs". This was also a big hit. Last but not least, we dyed them in colored water the traditional way which was a must. We got some colorful eggs!

Coloring eggs with crayon

Volcano Eggs

Colored water

Paul's special egg

Paige's special egg

Our colorful nest of eggs

Discovering Easter Baskets

Discovering Easter Baskets

Zoey getting pumped for the Easter Egg Hunt in our backyard. 

The golden egg had $1 bill inside! The other eggs had dimes and quarters. 

Guess who got the golden egg?

Paige got a good share of eggs herself.

After the hunt

I just wanted one nice photo of the kids in their nice Easter dress maybe with their arms around each other. However, it is near impossible to get them to all smile nicely. I usually have about 5 seconds before someone gets up and these are the kinds of smiles I get from my kids in those 5 seconds:)