We had a great spring break! We were thinking of going out of state on vacation but decided to stay close to home and spend time with friends and family! We started out on Friday evening after Chris got out of work. We met up with our good friends, the Daniels (I can't believe I forgot pictures!!!) in Pocatello and ate some delicious Pizza Pie Cafe!!! (Our fav!!)
Next onto Burley to Grammie and Grandpa Graf's house!!!
Zach and Grandma Jones got in some cuddle and bonding time as we enjoyed a Saturday morning visit from her!!!
Grandma and Grandpa have been busy at work tearing their former kitchen, dining room and living room apart to remodel! We can't wait to see all of the changes the next time we visit!!!
The kids always love to help out around their house with projects, especially helping Grandpa with the garden! It was spring tilling time, which Grandpa had done before we got there! The next day it was scooping compost from the truck into the wheelbarrow! Our little princess girl also has a gravitational pull towards dirt! Who do you think was in heaven!!!
Brady got good and filthy as well, and this momma is still learning how to relax and let the kids dive in and get dirty!!!
Although Zach didn't join in on the dirty work he sure had a great time being held in the warm sun by Grammie and watching big brother and sister!!!
Saturday afternoon we headed up to Twin Falls to check into our hotel and play in the pool with some of our best friends in the world! (Don't worry, Olivia's TOO SMALL swimsuit got swapped out for a brand-new yellow polka-dotted one-piece the next day!!! I didn't realize just how TALL she had grown since last summer!!!)
This picture came out really grainy- the humidity in the pool area must have affected my camera...
This was both Jane and Zach's first time swimming! They both loved it!!!
It made my heart so happy to watch my kids swimming around and having a blast with their buddies again! (Also, it didn't hurt that I was with my best buddy too!!!)
We swam for quite a while and then had a movie night with the kids back in the room! Popcorn, a movie, soft comfy beds....sounds like a great night to us!!!
And then it led to this....
Sunday we attended church at our old ward and enjoyed seeing friends there. Many people were hoping we decided to move back, but alas...in Eastern Idaho we remain...for now!
That afternoon daddy took the kids swimming again while mommy took a nap with Zachary. Then Zach found his identical twin! Which kept him occupied for a while until we were ready to leave to have dinner with our friends, the Wells!
On Monday we checked out of the hotel and the kids took a spin down the hallways in style!!!
Then onto a little shopping to kill some time! We (or maybe I should say, "I") raided Once Upon A Child and got some great swimsuits for the kids this summer! Because I was so thrilled at all of the deals I was getting I was late to the play date that I had arranged at Hop2It!!!
It is very hard to get pictures of kiddos while in midair and bouncing!!!
For lunch we had an indoor picnic at Jon and Charlotte's house, due to rainy, windy weather! The kids all had a great time exploring new toys that Sam and Alivia had gotten since our last visit (Christmas) and we stayed and played/talked for several hours! So good to visit!!!
Of course we tried to capture a picture of the two little cuties! Unfortunately, Jane was not too thrilled to be woken up from her nap to snap a picture with her boyfriend!!!
The rest of the kiddos anxiously posed for their photo when we told them they could all crawl into the box fort together!!! LOVE these kids! LOVE watching them all play and be creative and imaginative together!
That evening we drove up to Hailey (making a brief pit stop in Shoshone for some shakes and french fries (tradition)).
As soon as we hit the road from Twin Falls I looked back to find not one, not two, but THREE zonked out kiddos!!! (Olivia always has the same expression when she falls asleep in the car! It's so hilarious!!!)
Brady utilized Zach's carseat and feet as a pillow...good thing Zach didn't seem to mind!
Zach was happy to see Grandpa again and enjoyed the evening sun together!
Grammie and Grandpa met us up there and we had a movie night with the kids at the theater on site in their townhome community!!!
(Ignore the freaky night-vision eyes!!!)
The next day we set out for some fun window shopping and thrift store searching. We found a few treasures along the way and the kids had a fun time posing infront of all of the local statues in Ketchum!
Chris was gracious enough to pull off to the side of the road so I could snap this picture.
I LOVE barns, and a barn + a wreath + mountain backdrop = sweet photo opp!!! I'll be playing around with some editing on this photo to see what results I can come up with!
We had lunch a cute 50's-style diner...you can see how impressed Zach is with his daddy's sense of humor here! The face says it all!!!
The rest of the day/evening consisted of some time in the hot tub, relaxing, playing and another movie night!
The weather was dismal so we spent Wednesday afternoon at a
pottery painting shop called
Local Color! I've always wanted to go to one of these places but never have. It was a great idea from mom and dad and they treated the kids to their own piece of pottery to paint! When Chris and I saw how much fun they were having both of our creative/artsy sides started to "itch" so we jumped on board and found a piece for each of us to paint! It was fun to something unlike anything we'd ever done!
Olivia liked that she got to pick out her very own colors to paint with!!! She chose a fairy and we were all very suprised by how meticulous she was about painting it "just right!"
Brady chose to paint his own mug for hot cocoa.
Grammie painted a special SUN VALLEY sun photo holder to put pictures of her grandchildren on!!!
Everyone was very patient, especially the kids! It took me a LONG time to paint my platter. Thank you guys for allowing me the time to be creative and have fun painting! The shop lets people eat there so we had a "picnic" lunch while it rained outside and we were warm and cozy on the inside. Grandpa entertained the kids by playing with Zach and telling stories.
Daddy deep in concentration as he painted his PATRIOTS plate
The process of painting my platter...first I had to cut out stencils that I drew using pencil and contact paper...then I had to paint around the contact paper, pull it off and then paint in the flowers.
The finished products...ready to get kilned!!!!
Dinner followed at Smoky Mountain Pizza...this was my calzone!
Eat up folks!!!
The next afternoon we went back to pick up our works of art! I think we've found ourselves a new tradition!!!!
