Easter

For a preschool field trip before we left, we went to Peter Piper Pizza, made our own pizzas and toured the kitchen.  Then we had an egg hunt and the Easter bunny came and sang a few songs and took pictures.  She was darling to the kids!  The milk carton was a handmade Easter basket they made in class.

Impossible to get a good picture of these two together.  But at least they had fun hunting for eggs and multiple occassions.

The main reason we went to Utah was to celebrate Pookie & Papa's 80th birthdays and have an Allred Easter party extravaganza and carnival!  Nancy and the aunts really outdid themselves.  I'm glad we were able to be there.  

Keeping in mind that this was the reason that we were there, at the very beginning we wanted to grab a family picture, which we were mostly prepared for.  Rachel was not ready - she was emotional and wanted to sit on a chair.  Then followed the TANTRUM of AMERICA by our 3 year old.  I kid you not. I was so embarrassed, and we tried threatening her with anything we could think of.  We got the picture, but barely - as you can see, Rachel is a mess.  After this picture, we took her straight to the car and home to Grandma Nancy's (missing the first hour of the party).  She missed the Easter egg hunt, which I was glad because she needed to understand the severity of the situation.  Her bad behavior had come at the worst possible time ever.  But what do you do?  Her and I drove away with her screaming bloody murder, and her kicking and screaming and spitting.  It was the.most.out.of.control she has EVER gotten.  

Hale Family Picture

Grandkid picture after the party - Rachel promised to be happy this time

Morgan and Brandon with some carnival prizes

Allie, Rachel & Kennedy sporting their new glasses

Andrew easily won the best behavior award of the day!

Pookie with Andrew and Miles.  Miles is Rachel Murray's little boy and he is such a cutie chunk!

I wanted to take a picture of me and my friends :)  Kacie, Rachel, me and Leslie

Call me a bad mom, but I don't really get all that into dying eggs - luckily Gma Nancy saved Easter and she helped the kids color some eggs.  

Easter best - dress courtesy of Nana

Easter best - Bubba's first suit!!  Brandon came home with this outfit for Andrew a few weeks before.  He was at Sears looking at the tools, and on his way out he saw this and thought it would be perfect for Andrew.  He looks so handsome!

Checking out the loot!  I love my mom's spring yard!

He got the goods and now he's out!

Egg rolling and other games at Nana & Papa's

Not great of the kids, but my parents look darling!

I think Rachel was being a stinker because she was having to share Nana with Andrew.

Fun to see Andrew and Logan together this trip (about 4 months apart)

Cute girl cousins!  Kennedy, Brynn & Rach

Hogle Zoo with Grandma Nancy and Hale Cousins

Flight home by myself was a breeze - especially when you have two movie players and old fashioned suckers.  

This was one of my harder trips to Utah.  I am a big baby and don't like to be there when Brandon is not.  He is such a big help to me - particularly around bedtime.  And the kids and I both miss him, of course.  We stayed for an extra week while Brandon went back to work.

Andrew was so sick while we were there.  The day before we left, I took him for a well check and the Dr. said he had an ear infection.  So we got him on an antibiotic, but it wasn't doing anything for him, so 5 days later, I had him back into our Utah doctor (yes, we have a pediatrician in both states) and he had a terrible double ear infection, so they quickly changed his medication to something else.  He really is a trooper when he's sick, but he still just isn't able to act like his normal, happy self.

Brandon and I don't take the children out to dinner hardly ever - personal, family rule - and for good reason.  While in Utah, I took them with my parents out to dinner twice.  The first time was at a pizza buffet and they did fairly well.  I was thinking I was a pretty awesome parent.  :)  Reality check - the second time I spent half of dinner in the car with Andrew since he couldn't stay in his seat and refrain from running around the restaurant.  He also just happened to not be wearing any pants since my mom had just taken them to a garden nursery and he got soaked in some puddles.

I hate to highlight just the harder stuff, but that is all that is coming to memory - how sad!!  We also had some fun times and love to catch up with family.  We had a fun trip to the Hogle Zoo with Grandma Nancy and the Hale cousins.  I took Cade's senior pictures, and helped Kyle get set up on mint.com and start a budget.  I got to visit with sister-in-laws, go to Chris' birthday, and get a haircut from my favorite hairstylist there.  More is coming to me now ... we also got to see Hunger Games (loved!!) with four different couples and went to J-Dawgs (delish!) and I also attended a shower for Naomi.

The reality of living away from family is that when you get to go visit, you want everything to go perfect, but it usually is pretty much the opposite.  You want your kids to act perfectly and be the cute, little angels you know them to be and show everyone all their tricks and little darling things that you get to see everyday.  But it just doesn't happen when they are out of their own routine and home, sleep deprived, usually get sick, and being run around from place to place.  A normal, laid-back mom would just roll with the punches and enjoy herself regardless.  I think I'm just too uptight and too much of a people pleaser to not stress out about it.  Don't get me wrong, I love visiting our families - and how lucky are we that they are all in one place!  We don't have to pick and choose and can see our entire families on both sides every time we go up.  We truly are blessed, and for now, we wouldn't have it any other way, even though it sometimes feels a little challenging.