Spring Break 2011

We had a very busy and fun spring break going on last week.  Dallin's vacation started off with a bang.  After he got home from school on Friday he and Peter took off for a special campout with the scouts.  Peter is always happy to include Dallin in his scouting adventures.  They camped in Washington and the next morning hiked through the Ape Caves.  The only problem was that there was snow at the caves so they couldn't park very close to it and had to hike and extra two and a half miles through deep snow each way.  They hiked a total of 8 miles that day! Everyone was completely exhausted afterward.  By the time they got home Saturday night Dallin could barely hold his head up.  He even let me hold him like a baby for a while and rock him (I didn't mind). He had the time of his life though of course. Here he is all tuckered out:

On Sunday night we headed to Astoria to spend a couple of days at the beach. We love the free lodging at my sister's place. We spent some time exploring around town. First stop was the Astoria column. I remember hiking it as a kid with my best friend and going up and down it several times. This time I think my quads actually caught on fire by the time I got to the top. It was very windy up there so we didn't stay too long. There was a lady with her kids throwing little wooden airplanes off the top though which was awesome. They would fly and soar forever before dissapearing into the forest. We will definitely remember that for next time.






Lily is our little trooper.  (her face isn't dirty, she has a rash)

Afterward we took a ride on the trolly.  It was a really cool 100 year old car and the kids really liked it.

We didn't go into the museum they have because it was closing but they had fun climbing around on this huge propeller.

Checking out the harbor.

There is a large heard of sea lions that live on this dock. They are all single males apparently.  The leave each year to go find a mate and the ones that aren't successful come back to stay.  What a bachelor pad. 

They make the greatest sounds.  I tried to mimick it and this one looked at me like I was smoking something.

Later, Peter and my brother in law took the older kids for a drive on the beach.  They had a blast building a sand castle and then running it over.  Eden and Dallin love the beach for 2 totally different reasons (see video below).  The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousins. They played like there was no tomorrow at my sister's house.

Dallin can never get enough of playing in the sand. On the way home the next day, he had an idea of making a sandbox at home.  So on the way back we stopped at Home Depot and bought a couple of cheap bags of sand. When we got home Peter and Dallin cleaned out our little turtle and lady bug boxes, put them in the playhouse and put the sand in.  This led to an evening and the whole next day of playing outside, yay! 

On the way home from the beach, we also dropped Eden off with Miranda and Peter's mom to have a special sleepover at Grandmas house.  They showed me a huge list of activities that Lucy had planned for them.  The did lots and lots of crafts, dollar store shopping, cooking and baking, movie watching and Lucy even used her own money to take Eden to a nail salon for a mani/pedi!  Eden was a very happy girl when she got home, to put it mildly.

Cute little pedicured toes.



On Friday we took a day trip to Salem to visit my sister and play with cousins. We at pizza, the big kids went to the park across the street together by themselves! There was a lot of playing and bonding going on. I had a good visit with my sister and then we headed back home. Well not home actually, I dropped the kids off with Peter's parents and met up with Peter for a temple date night. It was much needed time together for sure. The kids had a great time at Grandma and Grandpas and when we got back we visited with them for a long time. We ended up getting home at midnight!

During the night Carter got a croupy cough so bad that he could not get enough air. At 4am Peter finally took him to the ER. The cold air on the drive took the cough away by the time they saw the Dr. but he was given a steroid to keep the cough away for 3 days, long enough to get over it. They didn't get home until 7:30 that morning and they both crashed big time. It was a long sleepless night for all of us.

Later that morning Eden and I got to go on a superdate together. First we went to Deseret book and browsed for at least an hour. I could spend all day there. Then we met up with my best friend from childhood at Benihana for lunch. Eden loved it. I got her yakisoba noodles and she at it all! After lunch we went to the mall to check out the new H&M store. Eden got a new dress and we had fun looking at all the fashions. She is a great shopping partner. I bought some dippin dots ice cream which she was pretty wowed about. We ran a couple more errands and were gone for about 6 hours! I was so glad for a little break from home and we had some great girl time. I love one on one time with the kids, it is a blast. Eden is my little best friend who likes to do the same things I do.

Sunday night we had Dickinson relatives over for and enchilada dinner. We had fun visiting and the kids had more fun with cousins. As you can tell, there is no shortage of cousins in our family, like somewhere around 40 these days. Peter's Grandpa H came over for pool and they played for about 3 hours. Some people played chess and we had so much fun visiting that before we knew it, it was 10:00! On a school night! After a week of sleeping in! Yeah, Monday morning didn't go too well. oops.

So the week went by quickly and the kids had lots of play time and adventures to show for it. I wonder if I could keep up a schedule like that for the 3 month summer break. There was certainly no time to be bored.

So here is a video of the kids at the beach. It was cold but they sure don't seem to mind.