Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Spring Break- Sand Hollow Reservoir

Our Spring Break was FABULOUS! We took the kiddos down to Hurricane (right by St. George, Utah) to Sand Hollow Reservoir. It's this great reservoir that hooks right up to Sand Hollow, which is a big ol' mountain made out of red sand.
It was pretty crazy waking up to snow on Thursday morning and by that afternoon being in such nice weather. It was still pretty chilly, but lots better then snow! We did lots of hiking around on the rocks when we got there...I just LOVE to hear my kids say "This is the best camping trip ever!"...they say that a lot but it means a lot to me because it shows me that they are really enjoying themselves.

On Friday we drove over to St. George and went to Snow Canyon, another state park where there are lots of hiking trails through petrified sand dunes and red rocks. Again...lots of fun but then the wind picked up and we were forced inside...which turned out great because by then we were exhausted!

Saturday we took a long drive trying to find a way to get to the sand dunes by truck, rather then 4 wheeler...no luck, which was a bummer as the kids had brought along sleds that they wanted to try using on the sand dunes. We eventually ended up at this gorgeous beach (at Sand Hollow) that is made up entirely of soft red sand. It was still pretty chilly but the kiddos had a BALL playing in the sand, burying each other and playing in the water. I can't believe how much fun we had that afternoon and NO money was involved...no toys were involved...no whining, just harmonious siblings getting along having fun together. Ok..yeah, that only lasted until we hit the showers a few hours later, but it was FANTASTIC while it lasted! But darn it! I sat there and took video of some GREAT moments and wouldn't you know it...the brain here never pressed record. I sat there and took video on pause! AHH! And Kira had done the FUNNIEST dance around Austin while he was buried. Guess I'll have to scrapbook it. I also missed out on a great wrestling match between Dave and Austin in the sand, but ya can't catch it all or you miss out on stuff yourself. But I did capture the kids "swimming" in the sand. And yes, just in case you are wondering- pockets were full of sand and now my laundry room and dryer are full of red sand. I guess the sand in the pockets was helped along a little by good ol' Big brother Austin who thought it was great fun to put sand and worms down everybodys shirts, shorts and in Ella's pockets...but it was funny! Oh well...it was well worth it! And just so you know...Austin didn't find the worms in the sand, they came from a left behind container of fishing worms. :)
We packed up and came home on Sunday and the kids begged and pleaded to stay longer. I'm pretty sure the consensus was that they would all live in our trailer pretty happily if they could. And you know what? Crazy as it seems Dave and I are actually considering it. Maybe living in a motorhome for a year and traveling the U.S with our kiddos while they are still kiddos isn't such a bad idea...something for us to think about.- yeah..a lot to think about!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter Fun

Easter was fabulous this year! I didn't even mind the rain amazingly enough. We had lots of fun doing the normal easter egg hunts, dying eggs and going to my moms for an Easter party. Sunday was great just spending time together as a family, giving all the kids time to spend together. I LOVE my family! I was able to do some scrapbooking today since my back has been acting up...lucky me! MAYBE I will even get caught up someday....yeah right. :) Anyody want to exchange some spring digital layouts?

April Foolishness

Ok....so I'm late..what's new. Ok- here is a peek at our April Foolishness. We started the day with the preschoolers and lucky for us it was Wed., which means Kitchen time, yeah! We made Dirt Pie and the kids loved it! They scraped the oreos, crushed, mixed and created their flowers for their own little pots. They laughed and laughed the entire time about how they were going to fool their parents with pretending to eat dirt. You just have to love a preschoolers sense of humor. Sorry about not having photos of the rest of the kids at the other table! I've TRIED 10 times to download it and it just keeps downloading the text that I put on the picture, but leaving the picture part blank, so you will just have to believe me that they also loved it.

For dinner that night I created the Nielsens first ever April Fools dinner. My kids are crazy..they came upstairs and did NOT even comment on the fact that the table was upside down! no...they got all excited about the cake and "tiny burgers"...Nicks most recent obsession...but they were in for a surprise! At first I told them "April Fools" we get to eat cake first tonight! They cheered and were SO happy. Dave served up the first piece to Ella and then to Kira. The look on Kira's face was priceless. After poking at it for a minute she asked "Mom...why does my cake have meat in it?" It was only then that they realized that they were sitting on the ground, up to an upside down table and that this was ALL an april fools day dinner. At that point they knew the hamburgers weren't really burgers, but they still loved them. And so did I...aren't they too cute? Just vanilla wafers, peppermit patties and a little icing and coconut. What a fun dinner...I'm going to have to really come up with something to trick them with next year now that they know what to expect!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Silly Nick

Sunday morning Nick craweled into bed with me and the first thing that I heard him say was "Mommy, why do you love me? I just want to know..." Nick is such a sweet kid. He is SO not a hugger/cuddler/lover, but sometimes he surprises me- and apparently I need to do a better job of reminding him of why I love him, although after some surface thoughts I'm at a loss. I just love him because he's MINE...what more can I say?