Spring Break!!!

 We have had a wonderful spring break!  Monday was just the usual Monday stuff - library and such, plus a trip to the library, and the kids got to do a music camp with Sister Shum.  

Tuesday was another music camp with Sister Shum, and Anna had track practice and Aaron had an orthodontist appointment since he had a bracket pop off.  I did some more yard work and then in the afternoon, we went to OMSI with James' friend Caleb.  We had a great time - the older kids really enjoyed the new teen area!  

Wednesday was more track practice for Anna, and some shopping to get things ready for the trip to the coast.  

Thursday morning Dan worked for a bit, Anna went to track practice and I cooked and packed.  By afternoon, we were ready to go!  We drove down and got there in plenty of time to get checked in and unpacked and head to the beach!  

We used the fire pit to (try to) cook up hotdogs and smores for dinner, but we had some problems getting the fire to light - the fire pit was just too wet!  But we ate and had fun.  

I think the kids were nearly as excited about the hot tub at our rental place as they were about the beach just a short walk away.  They loved it and were great about following the rules! 

Friday morning we spent some time at the beach.  There was enough wind to fly the kites, but barely, so we had lots of crashes too, but the kids had fun!   Then in the afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa got in to stay the night with us.  We went to check out some nearby tide pools.  They were awesome!  We saw so much and the day was just perfect!  We loved exploring and seeing the amazing sea creatures!  Evelyn was much less thrilled than the rest of us - she thought almost all of it was icky and her foot was hurting from a painful handspring on the beach the day before.  

After, we dropped Grandma and Grandpa and the younger kids back off at the beach house for some more hot tub time and Dan and I took Eileen to try to find some more stuffing for her centaur.  She REALLY wanted it done to take pictures on the trip, but we hadn't gotten enough stuffing and her hands hurt from the crocheting, so I finished it off for her and we found a nearby little craft store.  Unfortunately they didn't have any stuffing, but fortunately it was small town full of sweet people and the lady at the store carded some left over wool for Eileen to use as stuffing - she spent nearly half an hour carding it for us and then gave it to us for free, so we bought some yarn and thanked her profusely!  We got Eileen's centaur finished and then we took them out on Saturday morning to take pictures on the beach before we headed home.  

We had a great dinner and evening of chatting and playing games with Grandma and Grandpa on Friday night, then headed to bed.  They left the next morning to head up to John and Melissa's house and we had a last little trip to the beach and packed up to go home.  We asked a sweet older man walking by to take a picture for us, but I think he struggled with my camera, because these were the pictures we got - one cut off David and the other cut off Aaron.  But we were grateful and had a good laugh after!  At least between the two pictures, we got everyone.  :)  

Sunday we got up early to head down Emmalee's ward for Samuel's baby blessing.  It was wonderful to be there and the Relief Society lesson was wonderful.  After, we went to John and Melissa's for lunch with their family.  It was a huge group and we had a great time with them all!  We got home and then in the evening, we had dinner with the Blanchards and had fun playing some games with them, then we headed home and dropped off the boys and Eileen and I headed to Stake Choir.  

It was a wonderful Spring Break - it was so nice to get away for a couple days and just be together without distractions!