Hiking to the Mesa

On Friday, March 27 Don and Cayden went on a hike and camp out with Cayden's deacon's quorum.  They had to hike in to where they were camping so they had to haul in everything that they would need for the night.  They hiked to top of a mesa called Jumpback.  It was about a 2 mile hike in through sand and sagebrush and alot of hiking uphill.  Cayden did so good and carried his pack without complaint and it was quite heavy.  They cooked tinfoil dinners and made campfire that I could see from our neighborhood.  The next morning they had poptarts for breakfast and flew kites off the mesa.  Then they hiked back down to the trucks that were parked at the power line road where they started.  Caleb and Connor have hiked this mesa with their deacon's quorum.  It is a fun hike.  There were lots of lessons that several of the kids learned from this experience.  First that some of them hauled in stuff that was unneccesary like a 5lb bag of M and M's and some learned that they should have packed in more essential stuff like water.  We had several bottles of water that we had in the freezer and I loaded Don and Cayden up with several of them because the weather was quite warm.  One of the boys woke up the next morning and found a baby rattler under his sleeping mat.  Luckily he had a sleeping bag on top of the mat which is probably what protected him from getting bit.  On the way down the path was windey and steep and Don took the picture of one of the boys hanging on to Cayden's pack from behind and Don said that the young man (Luke Barlow) said "I've got you Cayden" as they worked their way down and Luke could see that Cayden was a little wobbly with his heavy pack and in the shifting sand.  Don used several of these lessons and thoughts in his talk that he had to give that next Sunday when we both had to speak for the Easter program.  

21 and still counting

Don and I got to celebrate our 21 anniversary on March 19. Grandma and grandpa kept watch over the boys so Don and I had 2 nights in Vegas to be together. We left on Thursday afternoon and went straight to the temple. I love going to the temple. It strengthens my faith and heals my heart and it is even better with my honey.  For some reason we got to see one of the old old films that was less then 2 hours long. It seemed to go by very very fast and to the point that I thought it was rushed even. I don't know why we saw that old one with Mixhael Ballem as Satan but it was nice to get done a little sooner. We could have made the next session even with sitting in the celestial room for an extra 15 minutes. But we were starving!  

After the temple we went and checked into our room and headed out for dinner. We ate at Outback. I actually ordered and even ate coconut shrimp and then we went to Target for some hotel snacks.

On Friday we slept in a little and then went and wandered around Town Square and did some shopping. We wanted to hurry back to our hotel to sit by the pool because the pool was surrounded by the tall sides of the building and the sun was only over us for a little bit. I think after we got back from shopping and grabbing a 5 Guys burger and changing really quick we only had 45 minutes until the sun went behind the building. That was ok though because then I took a nap and Don watched some basketball.

After our lazy afternoon we got dressed and went to wander the wiles of Vegas. We did a few things I have never done before. We rode the monorail over to Ballys and then got off and walked over to the Aria to eat at a great Mexican place called Javier's. It was my kind of Mexican food even though the salsa was super hot to me. Don could have drank it like soup because his taste buds are immune to anything but lava. After dinner we walked over to the Bellagio and got some items from their yummy bakery and then watched the water show. The Aria had thousands of these paper cranes hanging from the ceiling. It was pretty neat.

Our hotel room looked out over the golf course at The Wynn. That's a $500 a person course right there. It was a lovely view though. 

This is my honey by the pool.  I love him so much and still get butterflies when I see him!  One night while we were laying in bed we played a question and answer game. He was pretty spot on with his answers about me.  I guess he really has paid attention for the last 21 years!  Saturday morning we got up and packed up and then found an IHOP for breakfast.
It was a very lovely two days. We only had one instance of Kyle crying and wanting to calling us. We promised him a present if he would sto crying and he asked for a basketball. We had to hunt for one and ended up getting him a regular sized one because there were no little ones. He was quite happy to see us and we were happy to see all of them!

Green

I forgot to get out the leprechaun mustaches but we did remember to eat our Lucky Charms and shamrock toast and a donut with green sprinkles.

Gardening

Pi Day

Pi Day has been a tradition in our house for the last few years. This year along with our highly carb loaded key lime pie we got a pizza from Papa Murphy's. Caleb was working that day so no classic pictures of him. Kyle only wanted pie. 

Miss Madi's Blessing

We got to go to Provo on March 9 for Miss Mad's blessing.  Kyle and Ella were quite busy and I had to take a few pictures during sacrament meeting.