Easter at the Marm

Easter weekend was way fun.  We headed down to the Marm on Friday night and had dinner with Nana, Grandad, Grandma, and Grandpa before coloring Easter eggs.  I had the kids strip down to save their outfits from dye so Grandma and Grandpa refused to dye eggs with us because they didn't want to comply with the dress code.  Daxton got really into throwing the eggs into the dye and seeing how many he could fit in a cup.  Not many places where you can sit next to a pond and watch a gorgeous sunset while dying eggs!

Saturday morning Grandad gave the kids tractor rides to check on cows, then we watched conference.

In between sessions we had a picnic by the river.  Growing up Grandma and Grandpa Kartchner always did a picnic and Easter egg hunt in the river and I'm so glad my parents are carrying on that tradition.  The picnic and a million Easter egg baskets lined up on Grandma and Grandpa's long orange kitchen table are some of my favorite Easter memories from growing up.

Mikayla "caught" a dead fish in the river and took it around to show everyone and I'm pretty sure that's why she ended up with a stomach bug during the night.  Oops.

Mikayla was super concerned about leaving a treat out for the Easter Bunny, but didn't what all he would like.  She took carrots from home to leave out for him and added some grass and jelly beans.

Easter morning we did baskets and hunted for eggs.  The Easter Bunny seemed to have a sense of humor with his egg placement, but Daxton didn't mind.  For some reason Mikayla wouldn't touch any of the hard boiled eggs because they are "yucky".

Daxton loves to point at things, but he points down and to the side.  Always.

Daxton crashing the girls' conference watching pallet.  Any time someone lays on the ground he assumes they are ready to wrestle and goes for it.  We definitely have a brother in the house now.

I loved celebrating Easter on conference weekend.  Many of the talks were on families and it just seemed perfectly fitting to focus on families as we celebrated our Savior's resurrection. I am so grateful that my Savior died and was resurrected so that I can be with my family for forever.  That is the greatest gift I could ever receive.  My family is everything and I can't imagine eternity without them.



The Monday before Easter we had a family home evening lesson on Christ's resurrection and atonement...in the sand box.  Can you spot Calvary and the Garden Tomb?

A boy and his Tonka.

Vacation Part 3

Our last day we went to Out of Africa in Camp Verde.  During the month of your birthday you get in free so we only had to pay for Mikayla!  Maren and Jake met up with us for the day and we had a lot of fun.  Out of Africa is really fun, but pretty homemade.  There are a TON of animals there-you just have to walk a ways to find them all.  My favorite part of the day was the Tiger Splash show.  

Supposedly Buffy the bird would dance if you told it to, but it wasn't performing so Mikayla and Maren demonstrated this lovely dance for Buffy while chanting "Dance, Buffy, Dance!"  Buffy never danced, but watching these lovely ladies dance was worth the price of admission!

Tired kids!

Our last stop was Montezuma's Castle. For some reason, I really like that monument. Mikayla was very stressed she couldn't go inside the castle.  Perhaps "castle" was the wrong name for it!

Vacation Part 2

It's amazing how many things you can cram into a 3 day weekend!  In between our little adventures on Saturday and Monday we had lots of fun at Grammy and Papa's house.  The kids cuddled with their grandparents like crazy, read lots of books with the kids, walked around the lake, we did some packing, celebrated my birthday, played outside, and enjoyed every minute of being together!

I can't believe I didn't get any other pictures of them together, but Daxton just adores Papa.  He goes straight to Papa and wants picked up as soon as he sees him, then just cuddles with Papa for forever.  Daxton was fussy on the way home one evening and Papa started playing with him and he seriously laughed the whole way home with Papa (even though this picture doesn't look like it!).

Mikayla found a treasure while we were packing.  It is a wooden Christmas tree with all of Papa's Mom's jewelry on it.  It was supposed to go to Uncle Derick, but when he saw a picture of Mikayla with it he kindly gave it to her.  I honestly don't know if anyone could love this gem any more than Mikayla does.  She is SO excited about it and spends lots of time looking at it, admiring all the fanciness.  We are deciding on the perfect spot to hang it in her room.