A Moses Lake Break

The babies and I spent a wonderful week in Moses Lake. As others have commented, it is hard to remember to take pictures in your hometown. So here are my pictureless highlights...


- I have faced my fear and conquered it! I can make a plane trip with both children by myself. It was not the easiest thing I have ever done. Especially since I'm way too cheap to pay to check bags. So in addition to the two children I also got to tote along my backpack and two rolling suitcases. Let's just give a quick shout out to the kindness of strangers... and bulky two year olds able to wheel their own bags all the way through McCarran airport while yelling "come on mom!"

- Scarlet was finally nice to my family! She knew everyone by name including Grandma (or Jamma). She was devastated when her aunts and uncles had to go to school, especially Kendall and Bryan. I think they might actually miss having her around this time!

- My mom actually got Rhode to take a bottle. Aaah the smell of freedom... lasted about ten minutes. Then came the spit up, the upset stomach, and some disturbing looking poop. Did you know that baby formula has soy in it? So far they all seem to. So close!

- Kylie looked so fabulous in Junior Miss! Her talent might be the most adorable number I have ever seen. If you haven't seen it yet, go check out my mom's blog. She was awesome.

- Also reaching the level of awesome this weekend was Brad. The homecoming talk of champions! I let Scarlet run absolutely wild while other people tended to Rhode and just enjoyed every word he spoke.

- Kylie and I fulfilled one of my mom's "life checklist" items by singing in Sacrament meeting. It was not the easiest of tasks since we are most definitely a family of altos. Kylie somehow convinced me that my poor attempts at a high D were not that bad so I took the high road, literally. It was a pretty smooth performance, that is until a fly decided to dive bomb towards my face halfway into the number. It was large, very black and traveling at such a high velocity it was hard for me to tell if it was a fly or a bee. Either way, I not so gracefully dodged to avoid it. But the number continued, and thankfully ended shortly after.

I don't think I ever thought I would say this when I was younger, but I really do love a trip to Moses Lake.

Back it up

Rewind a few weeks back to General Conference weekend. The two foreign exchange students living with my parents this year and one of their exchange friends came down to see Vegas for a week. The girls we lovingly refer to as the "fes's" wandered the strip and spent money like it was going out of style. By the time the weekend had come, they were tapped out. So when we offered to take them with us to hang out in a cabin in Utah, they jumped on the chance to not bankrupt their parents further.

Our friends, the Larkins, invited us to spend the Conference weekend at their cabin in Pine Valley. The Stouts came as well, and both families arrived a few hours before we did. We had plans to watch talks while the kids enjoyed a little Spring air outside. Oh the best laid plans...

The sun was going down as we got closer to our destination. Then, the snow began to fall. And fall. And fall.

And before we knew it, the sun was gone and our tires were spinning. Jon and the three fes's got out into the snow (after one traded her flip flops for my tennis shoes) and we gave the best effort four girls and one guy can do to get the truck moving again but it wasn't happening. Jon trekked ahead to see how far away from the house we really were, luckily it wasn't too far. Now remember, I don't have shoes on at the point. So Jon took the fes's and Scarlet up to the house while Rhode and I chilled out in the truck.. in the snow... in the dark. I took this picture to commemorate what may have been, if horror movies really reflect reality, our last moments on earth.

But, the men came back to save us and we all made it to the cabin to thaw and refuel.

The next day, it finally hit me I had not packed for snow weather. Scarlet was begging me to go play outside. All I had for her was a light jacket, stretch pants, velcro open top shoes, a thin pair of cotton gloves and a scarf she had grabbed and stuffed into the bag. She had to wear my hat. I thought she wouldn't last more than a minute outside before she froze. Not so.

By the end of the weekend, most of the snow was gone. Hard to tell if it was because the sun came out and melted it or if Scarlet just ate it all.

We had a great time chatting, eating way too much food, listening to the prophets and apostles and occasionally checking on the kids.

And a true shout out needs to go to the three girls who cut their Vegas vacation short to be stuck in the snow with old people and loud kids. I laugh inside when they claim they had a good time... what good sports.

Easter Weekend

I had a few realizations this weekend.

First, it really doesn't take a kid long to realize that finding Easter eggs is a pretty awesome activity. Now, days later, Scarlet is still searching through our house every morning for "candy" eggs.

Second, being the oldest kid would really be the most awesome thing in the world... if only we could remember all of the great things we got to do when we were the only ones around to do it.

All of the Easter egg hunts I remember as a kid involved me being the 'grown up' one and making sure all my brothers and sisters found a fair amount of eggs. But now I realize there was probably at least one year when I was the only one old enough to hunt. Scarlet had to whole house to herself to find eggs at whatever pace she deemed reasonable. It makes me happy to think that maybe I once had the same experience. It also makes me happy that I can blog about it now and when Scarlet complains in years to come, I have documented proof that she once had the world all to herself.

We started our Easter festivities at the Bass Pro Shops. They hid plastic eggs around the store. When you turned in five you got to spin a wheel for prizes or candy.

They also had free pictures with the Easter bunny. When I suggested the idea to Scarlet I saw the most terrified expression I had ever seen. I had to agree the 6 foot bunny was a little creepy looking so I avoided that traumatizing situation. We stuck with egg hunting.

What is better than one cute Easter basket? That would be two cute Easter baskets.

That night we held our second annual Easter barbecue/egg decorating party. We grilled some mean burgers, even threw on a little london broil (an Earl classic) and made some seriously bright Easter eggs. I don't know what we did to that dye but we had some great color going on.

Sunday morning, both kids woke up within minutes of each other so we all headed downstairs together and the hunting ensued.

We hid the real eggs outside, just in case one wasn't found. Hidden inside the house were plastic eggs filled with various treats. When she opened one with a bouncy ball or a bendy rabbit, she would scream in delight, throw it in the basket and continue her quest. We could always tell when she found an egg with jelly beans inside because we wouldn't hear anything for a few minutes while she poured them all in her mouth and chewed them up.

Rhode watched from the couch, eggless and Easter basketless. So while Scarlet will read this entry in later years and marvel at all the fun and enjoyment we planned just for her, Rhode will be left to think, 'wow you guys really ignored me that first year of life didn't you?' Yes, yes we did.

After a quick nap, it was time to get ready to church. Scarlet is not a fan of the curling iron. I haven't even burned her yet and she is already freaking out about it. I have to catch myself from saying, 'wait until you have a red mark across your forehead or at the bottom of your neck, then you can be afraid of the curling iron!' Either way, it wasn't going to stop me from having adorable curled Easter hair on my little girl. After Jon took this picture I had another realization...

I told myself a thousand times as a kid that I was not going to torture my children in an attempt for cute hair. I have a very sensitive head. I still just have to grit my teeth and will my eyes not to water when I get a hair cut. But turns out, I was wrong. Tears or not, those curly pig tails were going in.

It didn't take her too long to forgive me.

Then, the required photo shoot.

Happy Easter

Don't worry mom, I got this

Turns out, mom doesn't always know best. Sometimes the two year old knows better.

See, I thought Rhode was full. But while I went to fetch a towel to clean him up, Scarlet decided otherwise.




The real question is why we bothered to help feed Rhode in the first place. He obviously has things under control.