Jared's 2nd Birthday

Look at our little fireman!  

Jared turned 2 years old on May 19th.   We have sure loved our little boy.   He has been so much fun!  He has such a spunky little personality and a love for life.    We get a kick out of watching him experience new things.  Every day he is learning new words and everything is so exciting for him, whether it is an airplane up in the sky, a bird, or a new toy he has just figured out.   We love watching him grow.

Playing "peek-a-boo" for the camera

We celebrated his birthday while down in Sandy visiting my family.  His main birthday gift was a new red wagon, which we didn't actually get out until Heidi's birthday almost a week later- it was for both of them.   He didn't really know any different anyway.  

The sad thing was that he woke up feeling awful, having thrown up in his bed and being pretty lethargic and clingy.  So, I held him a lot that morning and he didn't eat anything.  Well, by that afternoon, after keeping drink down, he seemed to be pretty-much over it and back to normal.  So,  we let him celebrate his birthday like planned and he was doing great.  

With all the travel down to Salt Lake that weekend, I never made him a cake.  Instead, we had a picnic at the park in Provo after going to the Natural Wildlife Museum at BYU.   We ate pizza and Jared got cars cupcakes, which were a hit with the kids. The museum was really neat- and even better, it was free to the public.  I have never been there before and I was really impressed!   They had all kinds of exhibits about animals, which were stuffed not alive, but really cool to look at.  

At the park the kids got time to play with each other before saying goodbye again.  

Opening his presents- What could it be?

Jared at the park playing with his two new gifts-
Lightning McQueen and Mater cars.

At the museum,  Erika and Kyle thought it was pretty cool that we could take a picture and make it look like they had horns coming from their heads.  Who says Mormons don't have horns?
 

My Parents' Homecoming

On May 17th, the big day finally arrived when my parents came home from their mission in Vietnam.  The kids were so excited to drive down to Sandy and see their Oma and Opa again.  They have been gone for 18 months and we have really missed them.  We are thankful for the blessing of Skype, though, which has really helped us keep in touch.   In all honesty, the time has actually gone by really fast, just speaking for myself, although there were hard times.  When I was standing there next to them, it just felt so natural, like they hadn't even left- like it was a dream or something.  The kids warmed up to them so quickly as if they had been here the whole time.  (Except for Jared, who was 6 mo when they left, but he is still shy around everyone and actually did pretty well with them.)

We are so proud of them for making the sacrifice to go on a mission.  Not many people have the opportunity to serve at such a young age.  They experienced a lot of challenges, but I know they have learned from it and I could tell that they have grown spiritually, too.   We are grateful for their example to us of service to the Lord.  It also nice to have them home again.  

This isn't everyone who was there- my family was all in the car
when a bunch of us just jumped into the picture.    

The day after their arrival, we spent the night down at their house for a few events.  Friday night we went to the wedding reception of my cousin Camille Sparks.  The kids had a great time with their cousins at the reception.  They especially enjoyed groovin' out on the dance floor, totally uninhibited.   It was nice to visit with many of my family there.  

The next day, the kids got to hang out at Oma and Opa's house and have fun together.  They got to play outside and go for a little horse ride.   They also had a lot of fun going out to the barn to gather eggs and see the animals.  Erika, Lucy, Kyle, and Logan were almost inseparable.  

Erika and Lucy enjoying a nice lunch

We had a little baby shower for my sister Amanda, who will be having a baby girl in July.   There were several other people there, but this is a picture of just me and my two sisters and sister-in-law.  We  had a good time playing games and eating, and planning for babies soon to arrive.  It was a great weekend!  

Candice, Jordan, Amanda, and Me

Erika's Performance

Erika started a singing group called "TaVaci" this last year and has really enjoyed it.  They perform a number of songs with actions and occasionally a speaking part.  She has had a lot of fun learning the songs and loves to perform.  We went to watch her perform on May 3rd. 

I always enjoy watching her perform because of how much she gets into it.  She loves being up there.    One of her favorite songs was "Dynomite", which they performed under black lights with neon gloves so all you could see was their hands moving.  She was really excited about that.  

We are proud of her and grateful that she has the opportunity to develop her talents.  

A visit from our cousins!!

On April 19th,  we were so excited to have a visit from my sister and her kids. It has been about 2 1/2 years since we have seen them,  so it is a big deal to have the chance to spend some time with them.   They have lived in New York for the last 5 years and her husband just got a job in California (quite the move).   They have traveled across the country and are staying in Utah for a few months until they settle down in CA.  California is still far away, but at least we will be able to visit them now!  The kids had a great time just hanging out around home.  They played in the backyard together and we had a little picnic at the park.  We are looking forward to the next few months when we will get to spend some more time with them!

Chillin' on the swing set in the backyard

As you can see, after several hours of church, the kids were done sitting still
and we were out of luck with getting any more pictures!

Erika and Lucy

A "Hole" Lot of fun!

Okay,  I just remembered we had a few more pictures I wanted to post from our trip.

On the way down to Zions in April,  we noticed at one of our stops that the tires on our trailer were pretty worn and could pose a problem.  So, we took a stop at a tire place where they were able to get us in and replace them so we didn't have to worry about it anymore.  This made the trip take longer than the 6 hours it was supposed to be, but it was kind of nice to get out of the car and walk around, too.  

While we were waiting, the kids found a few stacks of new tires that they couldn't resist climbing in.  It was so cute, I had to get a few pictures.  

Zion National Park

At the top of the "Canyon Overlook" trail at Zions

Okay, this post probably has the most pictures of any I've ever done, so I apologize, but there were so many good ones and I just couldn't choose.  So, I used a lot of them.  

Over Spring break this year (April 5-9th), we took a trip to Zion National Park in Southern Utah.  We have been trying to plan this trip for a long time and this turned out being the perfect week to do it.  The weather was nice- not too hot but warm enough to swim.  We had to wear jackets a few times, but that was okay.  And, we aren't sure how many more vacations we will be able to take this summer after the baby is born so thought we'd take advantage of this break when I was only 29 weeks along.

It got kind-of stressful a few days before the trip when we tried to reserve a campsite and realized that every site in the whole park was reserved- through the whole summer.  I had no idea that it is so popular and hard to reserve!  So, we got panicked and ended up calling a few of the RV parks close by and Aaron landed the LAST site at a place called "Zions River Resort" in Virgin, Utah, only about 6 miles from the park.  We considered ourselves very lucky.  The RV park costed a little more than a regular campsite in the National Park, but it definitely had it's perks.   The main thing was that it had a really nice heated pool for the kids to swim and we took full advantage of that!   I think this was actually one of the kids' favorite parts of the trip.  

Erika and Heidi relaxing after a good swim

Kyle was like a little fish- loved the water!  

Erika and Kyle had fun having
 Lucky pull them on their scooters.  

Going to Zion National Park, a place with beautiful hikes, we knew we probably weren't going to be able to do most of them with 4 little kids, but we were able to do 4 that were fairly easy-  Emerald Pools, Pa'rus trail, Canyon Overlook, and Weeping Rock.  Most of these were pretty easy hikes, on two of which we were able to push the two little ones in the stroller.

One of our first hikes- on the Pa'rus trail, about 2 miles and almost flat- perfect with the stroller!  

The Canyon Overlook trail was the most strenuous, with steep uphill trails.   Aaron carried Jared most of the way and Heidi was such a trooper.  I held her hand the whole time and she was so tough.  She kept saying, "I'm tougher, mom!  I'm a good climber!"  I think I enjoyed that hike the most, simply because it was so beautiful!   And, there was a beautiful view at the end.

Yes!  We made it to the top!

Man, you guys are strong!  

Celebrating Easter this year was a little different than in the past.  The kids were glad that he was still able to find us while camping.  He hid eggs and baskets outside our trailer that morning.   The older kids also got to go on a flashlight easter egg hunt in the dark the night before.   We were able to attend a nearby church at LaVerkin, Utah and enjoyed a nice, quiet Sunday together.

On our last day we went on a short hike up to "Weeping rock".  It was  a beautiful evening and we actually saw at least 7 deer around where we were walking.  

Can you see the deer in the background?  The kids wanted a picture with it.  

Erika got pretty close to this deer!

Weeping Rock is really unique as it is constantly dripping with water  and was really beautiful.  

Our trip to Zion National Park was definitely a vacation to remember for us.  It was so great to get out and enjoy God's creations and to explore a new place.  We loved spending quality time with the kids and making good memories.  

On the "Emerald Pools" trail