Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Easter Sunday and Elizabeth's Baby Blessing (Spring Break part 2)

Easter morning dawned rainy and a little chilly, but the Easter Bunny had made his arrival and the kids were excited to see their baskets. I love Easter and all things Spring-- and especially the religious meaning and symbolism behind this sacred holiday.
Books and candy get a thumb's up from Zachary.
Happy Easter! ((I love Leah's bed-head in this picture))
Elizabeth Mid Cardon, 2 months old
Baby Blessing on March 27, 2016
We got the kids ready and headed over to my parents' ward for 11 o'clock church. We met Jon's parents, Devin and Sarah and their kids, and my Grandpa Charlie there. Jon gave baby Elizabeth a beautiful blessing, and was told she would have an especially strong testimony of the Gospel so she could resist the evils and temptations of this world. It was so special she could celebrate her blessing day on Easter! She was able to have her Dad, Grandpa Cardon, Grandpa Tom Tom, Great Grandpa Charlie, Uncle Devin, and Uncle Taylor stand in the circle. Grandma and Grandpa C wanted to start their drive back home after church so the kids bid them goodbye right after Sacrament. Thanks to them for driving so far to be here and I'm so glad they came!
HAPPY EASTER 2016
We had to get a family selfie with Taylor's super cool selfie stick before everyone changed out of their nice clothes!
We sure LOVE this little munchkin who makes our family complete!
After church we had an amazing Easter supper with Taylor, and Devin and Sarah's family. This is my mom's masterpiece: The Ham Loaf. It's like meatloaf but made with ground ham and pork instead of beef. Apparently not many people have ever heard of it, but her mother always served it on Easter, and so the tradition lives on. 
And this is Sarah P's masterpiece: The Dulce de Leche cake from Milk Bar. H-O-L-Y M-O-L-Y. It was soooo yummy and worth the 12 different recipes SP had to follow to create it! We sure had an Easter feast!
Lucy and cousin Eva had so much fun playing together all week. I'm so glad my kids have cousins on both sides they get along with and love to see.
All too soon our Spring Break came to an end. We headed back home on Monday afternoon, and the kids were so sad to leave and have only school to come back to. I guess their sole consolation is that they have one more week of Spring Break before they start back up on April 4th. I'm so thankful my parents welcomed us in, housed and fed us, and entertained us all for the week so that I especially could get a little R & R before normal life resumes. What wonderful memories we made!

Spring Breaking in my Idahome! (part 1)

Ahhh, spring break! What a fantastic invention. We've never really gone or done anything for spring breaks in the past, mostly due to time and money and location. We were sort of in the same boat here in the time department (at least for Jon), and the money category, but I decided to take advantage of our new location since life conveniently dropped us back off in the West. With Jon's help, we finagled some extra Southwest points and flight credits we weren't sure how to use, and managed to find cheap flights for me and the kids to good ol' Boise for the week. And man, I think we made the most of it! We crammed in lots of visits with family, two epic Easter egg hunts, hot tub parties galore, some serious power shopping trips for mom, Easter, and little Elizabeth's baby blessing. Pretty much if you make it to the end of this enormously long post, either a) you're related to us, or b) you have way too much time on your hands. ((Just Kidding)) Let's get started....   
Spring break for us officially started with a visit to my Grandma and Grandpa Charlie's house out in Meridian. They are getting old. That might sound obvious and a little insensitive, but what I mean by that is each time we visit, they look just a little bit older and seem a little bit frailer than the last. I hate it. They've been such an important part of my life of 32 years now, and I can't help but wonder if this might be the last time we get to visit. 
My Grandma loves babies. She is so sweet with little children (and big kids too) and she and my Grandpa make sure to always provide toys and treats and little gifts, and visit with each child individually while we're there. I'm so glad she got to meet and hold Elizabeth. 
Lucy with her namesake-- Great Grandma Lucille. 
Before heading back home we stopped at Zupa's for lunch, which is a little Utah-based chain that's made its way to Boise. I LOVED Zupa's in college so it's always on the list of places we have to eat at when we come back to visit!
That afternoon a lady in my parent's ward hosted her annual Easter Egg Hunt, which gets bigger and bigger each year. This year they had over 2,000 eggs!!! And she does it totally free and just for fun. There's even this awesomely creepy festive bunny available for pictures.
Grandma and Grandpa holding baby Tommy (the tank) and Elizabeth (who's not so sure about the sun and wind on her little face). Having them hold the babies freed us parents up to control the egg-hunting chaos!
Leah, all ready at the starting line just waiting for the word, "GO!"
There were eggs galore, and each kid got to take home about 25 candy (or money) filled egg. 
Leah with her bestie Sophie. These two are so cute together and picked up right where they left off last summer. They spent pretty much every waking moment together when they were around each other. They had such a blast playing Barbies and princesses! 
That night we ordered pizza, watched a little March Madness, and the kids had a wild hot tub party (babies included). Elizabeth loves her bath, so I figured I'd toss her in too and see how she did, and she loved it. 
Cheese! These wild spring breakers!
I had my kids wear their new Easter clothes for church on Sunday, and I think they clean up pretty nicely, if I do say so myself. Leah absolutely refused to go to primary because it was so "born-ing" and there were just "stupid kids" there. Ha ha. She's a firecracker, that one.  
Why even have girls if you can't make them dress up in matching clothes, right?!? I love it. 
The smallest dress I could find to match Leah's was size 6 months, so it was pretty huge on Elizabeth-- she looked like a little pink puff ball at church but sooooo pretty!
Monday afternoon we met the cousins for a play date at the Idaho Science Museum. Because I have the Denver Science Museum pass, they have reciprocity at most science museums around the country and we got in free. Nice! 
Zach spent probably an hour just playing with empty packing boxes. He helped some other kids build this enormous castle, and was pretty proud of himself.
((Big deep breath!!!))
((And BLOW!!!))
Leah loved playing with this sheet of bubbles.
Sophie and Leah hoisting themselves up on the pulley chair. Wheee!! 
Zach running through the tunnel made entirely out of packaging tape. They had a great time making scientific discoveries and played for quite awhile.
That night we kept our tradition of getting ice cream at Delsa's for FHE alive, although we didn't walk there. The sky was pretty dark and threatening so we drove, and not even 15 minutes after we got home a huge thunderstorm sort of exploded  with huge hail and lightning and sheets of rain. Spring in Idaho at its best!  
I got my hair cut and colored Tuesday morning while my mom babysat all 4 kids, which was such a treat! Finding time to do things for myself these days is pretty much impossible. That afternoon we met Sarah and the kids to see "Zootopia" at the theater. 
Wednesday found us outside enjoying the sun and ((sort of)) nice temperatures while picnicking at the park and meeting Grandpa during his lunch break! Three cheers for picnics!
Miss Leah enjoying the sunshine and freedom to run wild. 
That afternoon, after somewhat of a debacle trying to find an indoor swimming place that wasn't full of kids, we found ourselves at the downtown YMCA which had two sweet water slides!
 
Cute cousins just hanging out in the kiddie pool! Zach went down the twisty water slide probably at least 25 times. He get off and get on without stopping probably the entire 2 hours we were there. He had this cool "gorilla move" (as he called it) where he'd swing onto the bar at the top and fly down the slide super fast. He said he was SO sore the next day from using his muscles to swing. Ha ha! 
It was about this time that poor Jon sent me this picture of him not even being able to pull into the driveway because of the CrAzY amount of snow that was dumped on Parker in what they're calling the "Spring Break Blizzard of 2016." 21 inches of fresh powdery snow. Yeaaaaah. Super glad we missed that...
Thursday morning we headed up to Devin and Sarah's house in Hidden Springs to make some baby magic happen. SP is SO good to photograph my kids and my family and I mooch it all I can because they are such treasures. I can't wait to see how these 2 month pictures turned out! 
Reading bed time stories with Grandma Joanie that night. 
Friday morning things kicked into high gear as we prepared for Jonathan and Grandma and Grandpa Cardon to drive over from Washington, and Uncle Taylor from Provo. Lucy and Grandma were hiking buddies that morning up in the beautiful foothills of Boise.
I got taken on a pretty sweet girls date starting with pedicures at the salon, followed by power shopping at the GAP outlet, and lunch at a new pizza place called Blaze. Thanks to SP for wrangling all the kids, and to Elizabeth for sleeping the whole time so I could enjoy it! 
As soon as we got home we dyed Easter eggs, which was one of my favorite Easter traditions as a kid, besides making Scotcharoos (which we also did). Now my kids love both, too.
Heeeeere's Uncle Taylor! He got in about the same time as Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa C; the latter two took off with Lucy, Zach, and Leah for some much deserved undivided attention, as well as dinner and a sleepover at their hotel. The rest of us got dinner at Goodwood BBQ, which is a MUST whenever I find myself in the City of Trees. 
Saturday Jon and the kids spent most of the day with his parents playing at Wahoos and eating lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Late in the afternoon Jon and Zach hurried home for one last pickup game of basketball so Zach could show off his new-found b-ball skillz to his dad and uncles. 


Everyone met up for dinner at Smashburger to kick off Zach's two-week-early-birthday-celebration.  
Grandma Cardon holding a sleeping Elizabeth. 
I had to get a picture of Elizabeth and baby Tommy. There's only 5 months difference between them, but Tom-Tom is a tank! He is such a cutie and my kids loved him.
This baby!! She is a hot tub addict. She was so sweet and totally relaxed during the last and final WILD hot tub party with Uncle Taylor and all the cousins. 
Taylor and his now infamous fedora spring breaking Boise-style. Oh yeah!
After a nice long soak we pulled all the kids out of the hot tub and sang Happy Birthday to Zach-O, who will be SEVEN next week! Holy cow. He is a little shy, but I think he was pretty excited all the attention was on him for a change.  
Mmmmm, Grandma Joanie's chocolate ice cream Oreo cake was delish! After all this partying the kids were pretty tuckered out and ready to get to bed for the Easter Bunny's arrival the next morning. Stay tuned for Spring Break, part 2....