Easter and Spring Break

Easter this year we spent at my Mom and Dads' house. We had a great time even though it was rather cold. We went down Friday night and colored eggs. The kids had a ball and got really creative in their designs. It was a really quiet Easter. All these years we thought it was the kids who were so noisy when we were together but when Kristie, Camille and Debbie and Mark weren't there we were amazed at how quiet it was. Uh, I wonder what that means? HeHe. Really I am sure that it is just MORE people that make all the noise. So the Easter Bunny came Saturday morning and left all the kids too much candy. It was fun. They were very excited about it all and finding all the eggs he hid. Then we had a yummy breakfast, because of course my kids can't go to Grandma's and not have her Sourdough pancakes and berry syrup. Too tasty!! We also had little nests of hashbrowns and scrambled eggs. Then Grandma had put together an Easter egg hunt with TONS of eggs with all sorts of little surprises in them. And the Sun even blessed us by coming out the whole time we were in the backyard playing. It was a small miracle that we gladly accepted. The kids played Easter Tag and soccer and of course a "Squirt" fight. Grandma loves these cute little squirts and had given all the kids one and let them squirt each other, though Uncle Grin may have gotten the wettest. After all he is the funnest one to get. We enjoyed our traditional Feast of ham, smoked turkey, jello eggs, potato salad, fruit and veggies, and chow mein marshmallow nests for dessert. We enjoyed watching conference through all of this as well. Then much to our dismay the Pearce kids had to go home. Bob and Dad went to the Priesthood session while Mom and I took the kids to "Jump it Up" where they jumped on a whole roomful of trampolines. They thought it was great and we had ice cream when we got home. Sunday was VERY quiet with just us and Grandpa and Grandma but we really enjoyed watching conference and the kids even watched quite well thanks to the conference Bingo game they got in Primary.
Monday we woke up not feeling well. Dallin and I that is. He threw up a bunch of times and we both slept most of the day. The other kids thought it was great since it was Spring Break and no-one cared what they did. I checked the Wii at the end of the day and the total hours played was over 7. Now you may think that is a bad Mom moment but I thought it was great. I got to sleep off the "sickies" and they had a really great day. Tuesday morning we woke up to 12 inches of Snow!! What??? It was a freezing day to pack the trailer for our trip to St. George and we had to actually dig the trailer out to go camping. So strange. Then Wednesday we headed down to St. George, all very excited to use the trailer for the first time. We got there very late but had no trouble setting the trailer up. Unfortunately being first time users we didn't think to turn the heater on and all of us about froze to death. Needless to say the next morning and both nights we warmed the trailer up. It was so fun to have a place for everything and there was practically nothing in the van. Usually when we go camping we have to load the kids and then pack around them. Truly you couldn't even find them until we unpacked. Not this time and it was awesome! Surprisingly the trailer also holds SO much stuff. It was great to have hot water too to wash my face at night. Though I didn't sleep too well on the bed. Possibly due to pregnancy but we may have to make some adjustments before our Oregon trip. I thought I was being the best "Sharon" Mom the next morning when we were all freezing and made hot chocolate. Yuck! Never make hot chocolate out of Nestle cocoa mix especially with water, it was sick. So I will have to continue to strive to be as good a camper as my mom.
After the first night it did warm up though, and we completely enjoyed (ok mostly me) the heat and the sunburns (forgot sunscreen, give me a break it was snowing at home :). We hiked up the cindercone trail to the top of and inside of a volcano. All the "big" kids went on the three ponds trail through the sand (Ali didn't even complain), while Edyn and I played and sunned ourselves in the sand dunes. We went with the ranger on the Johnson Canyon hike. It was beautiful like a little oasis in the middle of the dessert. We saw rabbits, the kids got lizards and made caves for them, road bikes and scooters, and enjoyed being with each other and our friends the Morris' and Reads'. We also went into town to get ice (the fridge didn't work something we have to fix before the next time) and let the kids play in the town square water features. It was fun to feel like it was summer time. They got soaked and layed on the warm concrete to dry off. We dutch ovened Lasagna that tasted great but Edyn, Ali and Dallin had Ramen. I know weird kids. How do you get your kids to eat anyway? I don't know. Before we left for home on Saturday we went on a walk through the park with an Author of the book, "A Walk through the Park" a book about Snow Canyon. We even got a free signed copy. We talked about all the things we saw on the way and even saw a desert tortoise that a gal from the wild life refuge brought for the kids to see. It was great, and then time to head home. We had a great Spring Break and are now back into the everyday life.