Easter Vacation

For Easter this year, we decided to take a family vacation down to Kanab, UT. We met some of our friends from California there, and we all spent the holiday together sight seeing. For those of you who don't know, Kanab is a small city set right in the center of a bunch of State and National Parks.

Saturday April 22 - Arrive in Kanab around 5pm, check into condo. Ten minutes later the other to families arrive: Toones and Hoffmeiers. The kids jump all over, hug and starting running around outside. We give the adults a tour of the condo; the women unpack and start getting settled into the kitchen, while the men watch the kids outside and visit. We hit a local BBQ place for dinner and then head back to get the kids settled into beds all over the condo for the night. Tristan got his own private suite, the closet in our room fits his crib inside. The men sit in the kitchen and talk about video games, while us gals shut ourselves into a bedroom and start stuffing easter eggs and preparing baskets for the next morning.

Sunday April 23 - We awake to Blanca making pancakes for everyone with fresh strawberries straight from Cali to put on top, mmm....yum! The guys hide the eggs outside, while the kids eat. Then we head outside to the golf course for our Easter Egg Hunt. As the kids enjoy their loot, we start packing up to head out and explore for the day. First thing we try Moqui Cave, but it's closed on Sundays, so we head on over to Zion National Park. Inside we have lunch, do a bit of hiking, and end with some ice creams cones. Gabe, who is 2 1/2 years old, did every bit of hiking/walking. He insisted that he was going to do what everyone else was. No one was allowed to carry him, by his request. What a trooper! At the end of the night, he had blisters on his little toes. But that didn't slow him down the rest of the vacation.

Monday April 24 - It's back to Moqui Cave, and this time it is open. Then we pull off the road for some spur of the moment hiking up to some caves. All of the kids but Gabe and Tristan join in the scary climb. We run back to Kanab for a birthday lunch for Isaac, and to pick up Paul who wasn't feeling very well. Then off to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary for a tour.

Tuesday April 25 - Eliza makes everyone pancakes. We all decide to go to Pipe Springs, AZ for a historical tour. One car heads back home, but ours decides to look for some Polygamists homes in Colorado City. Sheesh those homes are ginormous! It that a word? Then we try desperately to find the right road to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. After a short visit playing in the sand, we head back to Kanab. Blanca teaches me how to make authentic chicken enchiladas, while Rob and Eliza hit the courts for some tennis, and Paul and Colby tend to the kids. The rest of the evening we chill out, and the kids all entertain us.

Wednesday April 26 - In the morning we all start packing up, say our goodbyes and head our separate ways. Our little family takes a detour on the way home, and visits Bryce Canyon National Park. Then just south of Filmore, UT, we have a blowout. We wait for roadside assistance to come help Colby change the tire, then in town we end up needing to replace all four tires. Phew! What a vacation.

House full of rock stars!

So for my birthday in January, I begged Colby to buy Rock Band for us all to play. He found a deal with a mail in rebate, so he was fine with it. We took it home, hooked it all up, invited all of our friends over, and got ready to rock out! Most of us were new to the game, so we all basically started on the same level. Colby prefers the drums, but will play the guitar sometimes. Braxton loves the drums but is slowly getting better at guitar as well. Gabe wants to play anything we will let him touch. I prefer singing or guitar myself. These pictures never show me, because I am always behind the camera. Otherwise, there would never be pictures to show anyone. But, you can see how much fun we all have. We recently bought some new songs to add to the list, since we have unlocked them all. Thanks to some friends and Colby brother for their expertise. Braxton is on easy on the drums, but is amazing at Enter Sandman by Metallica. It's is his all-time favorite to play. He trys to get all his friends or ours down in that basement to watch him play that song. Tristan loves to use the microphone, granted he is only 8 months old, but he has fun with it just the same.

Whhhaaattt?!

What is this? I caught Gabe being super nice and cute to Tristan. This is awesome, so I had to snag my camera and caption the moment. Usually he is my aggressor and sometimes he even just ignores the baby. But I guess he was in a good mood, and Tristan always loves attention from his big bros. We laid out the soft, squishy mats to dance on this morning before Kindergarten and after cartoon time (which I try to end at 10am). That's what the colorful rug is on the floor. You put them together like a puzzle. My boys love to play with them at the Grandma Miller's house, and at home. Mostly they just drive cars and trains on them, but today I said they had to clean up all toys and this was for dancing like maniacs on. They really needed to get rid of some energy. Too much fighting!

My Craft (Escape) Room

This is my craft room, the room where I go to escape the chaos that my life entails. I walk in, shut the door, turn on some music and get creative. It is setup so I can stamp, scrapbook, wrap gifts, create fun artistic home decor, or just sit and get away from the kids. From my desk I can reach 2 turnabouts that hold dye ink and pigment ink. In front of me, I have tools like scissors, staples, adhesives, stamp cleaner, and markers and pens. To my left is a wall full of paper. Cardstock, designer papers, textured cardstock, scrapbook kits, and magazines and catalogs. On the wall to my right, there are ribbons, chipboard, metal accessories, drawers full of punches, sponges, watercolor tools, rub-ons, tools for dry and wet embossing, other kinds of ink pads, and a paper cutter. I also have drawers with different scrapbooks in progress. One for each child, a family scrapbook, one for my husband's childhood, and different vacations. I have my pictures (that are printed) organized in chronological order in a huge Creative Memories box. I also have loads of handmade cards filed in that flat rubbermaid container. Behind me is a closet full of rubber stamps. Large background stamps, regular sized stampes, and regular and jumbo wheeled stamps. If you notice the quote above my desk, "Too much of a good thing is wonderful!" It's the truth. Right to the left of the closet and to the right of the door is my embellishment station. A place where I can pound eyelets, attach brads, use the heat gun. Use a cutting blade and mat. This is also where I store beads, rhinestone brads, buttons, and below are scrapbooks that need to be filled with creative inspiration and photographic memories.

This is new to me!

Okay, so I just set this up this morning. And I am new to blogging, so hang in there with me. I guess it's a pajama day, because it's almost 11am now, and not a single person in this house is dressed for the day. I have been too preoccupied with setting this up; and oddly enough, the boys are all getting along with each other. Did I just say that? Okay, this is a weird day! Because that never happens. I hope the weather starts warming up a bit more and staying that way, because we all need to get out of this house and play outside more. It helps everyone's mood. The boys are growing up so fast. Braxton is starting T-ball next month, it's almost the end of Kindergarten and then swimming lessons in June. Gabe is working on potty training, and he will be starting swimming lessons in June as well as Preschool in the fall. Tristan is 7 months old already! I can't believe it went by so fast. He is sitting up on his own and trying so hard to learn to crawl. He loves baby food, though we don't enjoy taking the time to feed him. He is a ssslllooowww eater, just like his mom. Colby loved when he learned to hold his own bottle. He claims it is one of the best accomplishments of being an infant. Because it's less work for us. Then baby food and crawling come along and just add to our task list again. We are pretty selfish with our free time, but we love our kids. They definitely keep us on our toes! I guess that's it for today, but it's still early. I'll get back to you when there is more to report.