Spring Break. . .

We stayed in town for spring break this year. I tried to plan an activity each day since they didn't have school. It was a fun week to catch up with people we hadn't seen in a while!

Grace made a water slide:). They had so much fun on it! 

We drove out to West Linn the first day to hang out with my friend Mary and her two girls.  

Adam and Emily came over  for a playdate!

Lots of arts and crafts. . .

A very serious firefighter, and a biker with a bear in her front pack:). 

Fieldtrip to the hospital. . 

 Grace had been asking for a while if she could go to the hospital to see where Murray works as a doctor, so he was nice and gave his kids and ours a tour of the children's ER.

Their favorite part was running outside on the grass!

Will went to his first b-day party at Chuck e Cheese.  The girls got to go, too, which was fun! Very, very,  busy.  . but fun.

 Louisa and Teddy came over for dinner one night.

Matt, Colin and their families came over for brunch one morning! 

Grace loves hanging out with little Grace!

Another lollipop:). Kate is not amused. . .

It was a great week, and now it will be nice to get back to our school schedule! 

Palm Springs 2014

 We had an awesome week of activity and sunshine in Palm Springs!

The kids had so much fun in the pool! Thank you, Karen, for the floaties!  

I loved the mornings! The kids got up earlier (6 instead of 7), but I didn't even care because it was so pretty out! 

Will led us up the mountain for a morning hike!

With a little help from Pat, Grace made it to the top, too! 

Over to the resort for the play structure and swimming!

More chase. . . 

Pat and I went to the resort one night.  We were cheap and brought our own food:), but it was super fun to have a night out! 

Back to one of my favorite spots for chase! 

Pat's aunt and uncle were in the desert and had us over for dinner one night, which was really fun!

Pat's cousin, Tony, and his family were visiting his parents, and it was fun to hang out with them! 

Kate and baby Brenden.

Making it home thanks to a show! 

The busted toe. .

Grace was helping set the table while in Colusa last week, and dropped a big plate on her big toe.  It split her toe open and there was a lot of blood! It was one of those moments where I wanted to look away, but realized that I was the one who had to examine it and decide if we'd go to the ER or not! Fortunately, my mom was there, and could help with bandages, etc.  But when she asked me how deep the cut was, I truly did not want to assess it because I was afraid of what I'd see!

We decided to treat it ourselves, and while we were doing so, Will and Kate looked on very concerned.  They knew this was bigger than just an "owie".  Kate went to Grace and gave her a big hug.  And Will looked at Grace and said, "I'll finish setting the table for you.  You can go watch a show."

Through her tears Grace said, "I don't want Will to finish my job because I don't want him to get hurt like me."

It was one of those sweet moments that I told myself I should write down, so that's what I'm doing:).

What we've been up to lately. . .

We ended January with a trip to Newport Beach. Pat had a board retreat there, so I went with him.  It was great to get away for a couple days!  And we appreciated my parents coming up to watch the kids! 

The kids drew pictures of what they liked doing with Grandma and Grandpa when they were babysitting.  

This one's from Grace:).

We drove down to Colusa to hang out with family and go to Clay's baptism.  Even though it rained most of our trip, our first and last day were really nice, so we took advantage of being outside! It was especially nice b/c there was a huge snowstorm in Portland while we were there!

Enjoying sunshine in the backyard. 

The kids loved the Farm Show!! 

Clay's 1/2 birthday!

The kids loved hanging out with Clay!

And going to Anna and Em's new house.  Uncle Eric was a monster.  And I think Kate was actually afraid of him:).  

Baptism time. . .

Peek-a-boo! 

Grace wanted to play Go Fish with anyone who would play with her! 

Taking advantage of sunshine after the storm on our last day! 

We got to hang out with Owen and Levi for a little bit on our way back home!

Levi is too cute! 

In between trips, we've been spending a lot of time around the house! The kids are in a nice stage where they play pretty well together and by themselves.  And Grace and Will are old enough to play games.  We play a ton of SORRYand Uno.  Grace is just getting where she can play both, but you have to watch out that she doesn't set up SORRY with a 2,2,1 on top and insist on going first:).  And I can't let her deal for Uno b/c somehow she always ends up with all the draw fours!
And lately Will always beats me in SORRY, even when he is very honest! I guess I need to work on my game:).

Our babysitter made a super obstacle course with the kids!