Spring Break

Wow, this is huge for me! Three Blog posts in one day! (Actually I'm just catching up and finishing some posts that I started earlier and didn't finish. So if you're looking for the third one, it's below "And then there were Four".)
Anyhoo, I hope you all had a good Easter because we had a GREAT one! The girls had two weeks off for Spring Break, Chris had one off, and my fabu sister Laura and her family came to visit for the other. (Hooray for cousins!) What can I say, it was nothing but a big party. (Oh, by the way, I couldn't get the pictures all in the order I wanted, so this is just going to be random jumping around. Deal with it, por favor.)

The neighborhood had an easter egg hunt and potluck breakfast the day before Easter, which was a huge hit. Aly went on the ultimate egg challenge which gave clues leading all over the neighborhood. It was a huge success and got our kids out into the nice fresh air before conference mania began.

So, now let's talk about my sister's visit, shall we? Aly recently bought a hula hoop, and I told her my sister had been a champi-o hula hooper in her day and so they would need to have a hula hoopin' contest when she came out. Oh man, that was more than I bargained for. Laura was raising and lowering her arms and going forever and so I was just like, "okay Laur, that's enough; I think you've won. Let's just give Aly a turn." Well, little did I know that Aly had gained some mad hula hooping skills while playing at her friend Hailey's house in Louisiana! She was jumping and hulaing and all sorts of crazy stuff. Then everybody got in on the action. Even I did a little hoopin' with my belly - extra curves to help me out, ya know. It was good times. :)

I told Chris, "It's so nice to have people come to visit so we can be tourists in our own town!" We did everything: fly kites at the beach, go to Point Lobos to watch waves crash, look at seals and sea lions, go hiking, attend the aquarium, take the kids out for dinner and a movie, look in the tide pools, go to the famous "Dennis the Menace Park", go swimming, and my personal favorite, have a bonfire with hotdogs and smores on the beach. Ya can't ask for more than that!

Aw, Kate loves her daddy. She is always sad when he has to go to school and whenever she's having a hard time (usually when I'm getting her in trouble) she'll tell me, "I want my daddy!" Thanks for the awesome fire, Chris. We loved it!

I love this picture of Kate chasing the seagull. She would have ran straight into the ocean a couple of times if Chris and her Uncle Mike hadn't grabbed her. Kate's quote of the week: "My hiccups are buggin' me, like a ladybug."

The kids loved running from the waves, trying not to get wet. Aly was out there dancing and twirling up a storm too. It was awesome just to watch it all.

During Chris' week off we had a lot of good family time going on. We planted this year's garden - our first year doing it completely on our own. We were pretty impressed with ourselves and it looks beautiful - now if it will only grow . . . Chris took the girls on daddy-daughter dates, which are always a highlight. And finally I bribed the girls with a sleepover with friends while Chris was at his scouting campout if they would help me clean the house really well and get it ready for their cousins to come. It was good motivation.

Lise is holding a piece of a crab shell we found. We also found some hermit crabs, albone's (sp?), and cool shells. My favorite was watching Mike give his flip flop to some sort of sticky mussle looking thing and watching it try to suck up his shoe!

Oh yes, a leash is needed with Kate at the beach. While we were at the tide pools as a family Kate jumped off a three foot ledge. No fear - not necessarily a good thing. But anyhoo, enough of that. Let's just say that Spring Break was just the break that I needed. I loved it!