Spring Ski Trip

Heavenly Village

The little cabin we have rented for the last 10 years is for sale.  Can we buy you?

We were so excited to have our cousins, Ethan, Claire and their dad, Uncle Jeff, meet us.  Anna and Ethan were gone all day together.  This is a new experience for us, to have Anna so independent.  They improved a lot and had so much fun.

On our drive to the ski resort, people were playing golf and riding bikes in shorts and flip-flops on trails.  We were nervous that it would not be open for us.

But we still wore all our gear!  Unlike others in their speedos and bikinis while skiing.  Maybe we still fall down more than they do!

Colton explored the lodge which we had all to ourselves!

Anna, Ella and Olivia skied and skied all day.

We take our Jamba Juice pick very seriously. Mmmmmm...smoothies!

Ella and I went to an art gallery.  These are bottles made into people.
                                                                          Before:

Afterwards on the way home:

A Wonderful Easter

With matching cousins Ethan and Claire

Olivia prefers to be solo for her Easter picture

The Easter egg hunt took a long time here

 Colton celebrated Easter by walking!

Egg hunt at Grammie's and Grandpa's Backyard.  Dee said that they found an egg a few days before this from last years'  hunt.

Here she is!  World's Most Wonderful Grandma.

Next we went to the other World's Best Grandma with Ethan for a wonderful Easter dinner.

Ethan is greatly outnumbered by girl cousins no matter where he goes.

Colton and Camryn crawl out the doggy door to get outside.  It doesn't seem to hurt them yet.

All the kids found masks in their baskets in the fun-filled baskets from Grandma Nan, along with other cute toys and gifts.

Thanks to the Frasers and Thomanders for a wonderful Easter!

Ahhh...crafts during spring break

How cute is the Fletcher family?  We got a knock on the door, but no one was there, just this note.  This was the best surprise for our kids!  Candy and money, the greatest!

Olivia grew Easter Grass at her preschool.

Colton got into the crafty spirit too, creating a sculpture by balancing blueberries.

Yeah - colored eggs!

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And while we are on a artsy note, here is Anna performing in her school dance performance about the oceans.  It was beautiful.   Did you know that there is a collection of garbage out in the ocean bigger than Texas?  Ah man, tell me it's not true.  My brother Ben sent us another amazing link on how nature and man are connected:

http://htwins.net/scale2/scale2.swf?bordercolor=white

Golden Gate Park

We went to the deJong Art Museum in Golden Park, as well as the Conservatory of Flowers and the Childrens' Playground and hit the beach.

Spring Break Part 1 - Conference

Here are some of the talks I loved when we were not eating Grandma's good food, playing on the trampoline or chatting in the kitchen.

“Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you”

"There are going to be times in our lives when someone else gets the unexpected blessing or receives some special recognition."

"We are not diminished when someone else is added upon."

"The race we are really in is the race against sin, and surely envy is one of the most universal of those."

"Coveting, pouting, or tearing others down does not elevate your standing, nor does demeaning someone else improve your self-image."

"Be kind and be grateful that God is kind."

"We become converted and spiritually self-reliant as we prayerfully live our covenants…"

"May our lives be in tune to the Music of the Gospel" 

Elder David Archuleta sang in the LDS General Conference Choir in the Saturday afternoon session.   

Checking in with Anna

Playing on the Winter and now Spring Select Soccer Team.

 It's awesome.  Eric is the Assistant Coach.  We get to watch her play different cities, including both Eric and my hometowns, Los Altos and Palo Alto.  Who would have thought growing up we'd be living close by, watching our daughter play in our old junior-high fields.  Speaking of junior-high, Anna has been "shadowing", or attending schools just for a day to see what it's like, for 6th grade, which is now considered junior high.  Here she is on her way to a junior high school down the street from us, that she's hoping to get into.  How do I feel about my baby girl moving onto junior high?  Horrible and yet, so thrilled for her.  She came home the happiest I've seen her in a long time.  I hope she gets in, because she loved it and she came home filled with stories of new friends, new teachers, cheerleaders, lockers, different ways of learning and new excitement about the prospect of moving on after elementary school.  Thank goodness this experience was a happy one, it gives me courage to wipe away my tears that she's growing up right in front of me.  I know she'll have fun, but growing up is complicated as well as sad.  I hope that she can always keep it simple like she does now.

Hey, I figured out how to get a video on here, but how do you turn it?  Anna, Ella and Eric have all said they've seen Colton walk across the entire room, but he doesn't do that for me!  I followed him all day with my camera, and I got videos of him playing with blocks, crawling to the open door at the bathroom as fast as he can, eating scraps off the floor, but I couldn't catch him walking!

He can build a pretty good tower and he loves his daddy.  We were playing hide-and-go-seek for Family Home Evening and he cracked us up how he found his daddy hiding behind the piano, and just lounged on him, while everyone else looked for him in the game.

Olivia took her first dance class.  She likes it