Easter

Easter was a wonderful day. 

In the morning we went to our old neighborhoods Easter Egg Hunt. We've done this hunt for years now and it's part of our family tradition. It was so nice to see friends that we haven't seen in close to 2 years catch up and act like time hasn't past by. Our kids were shy at first, worried that their old friends might not remember them. And surely some didn't remember them. But that's ok. It gave them a chance to restart a new relationship. So within minutes shy kids were chasing each other on the playground. And I was way too busy chatting with friends to take photos so one day when my grown kids ask me about this activity they are just going to have to use their imaginations. 

After the hunt was over Mike and Mason went to do some work together. These two guys should start their own business :)
While the boys did that I went home and worked on some errands. 

When they returned we went out to dinner at our kids favorites place, McDonald's,  and seen Batman Vs Superman. It was such a disappointing movie! But I won't get into that. We were happy to spend quality time together as a family.

But the following day we attended church then went home to celebrate Easter with our traditional adults/kids egg hunt. 

                                                        (sacrament selfies)

Several years ago my visiting teacher at the time shared this tradition her family had. I loved it so much I adopted it into my family's traditions. Our kids filled eggs for Mike and I with our favorite candies. PB M&M's for him and Swedish fish for me. While they went outside to hide them we started filling up their eggs. 

Within minutes our kids were back inside yelling, "You'll never find my eggs!" Mike and I went outside with our baskets and found all our eggs within a few minutes. Now it's time to munch on our candies while we continued to fill up their eggs.

When we were ready I had everyone sit in the bathroom (only room without a window) so they don't peek and take a mental picture of where we hid the eggs. While Mike started the egg hiding I got the prizes ready. 

This year instead of the prize basket that we did last year I just put everyone's Easter prizes on their beds.

 Lily's prizes. Unicorn pillow pet, Frozen stationary, playdoh, and cookies.

 Cati's prize. Seal pillow pet, cookies, play doh, and Frozen stationary.

 Mason. All this boy wants now a days is snacks that he doesn't need to share. So we gave him exactly that.

I can't find the photo I took of Hailey's. I must of deleted it then forgot to retake it. But we gave her the Frozen stationary, playdoh, cookies, and a make-your-own jewelry kit.  

( I know their gifts seem random. No bunnies or candy eggs. I got everything on super sale or free. So they know their gifts will be whatever my couponing finds were recently. But no one complained since they loved their gifts)

After I set up everything on people's beds I went outside to help with the egg hiding. 

But from the looks of it Mike got it under control.

Then came the 10 second heads start for Cati. 

 Then came Lily, Hailey, and Mason. Each 10 seconds apart.

Mike and I now stood back and watched our kids run wild.

Within minutes of Ducati filled her bucket up and started using one of my plants. So I quickly grabbed my basket and traded her. 

Then everyone was giving up. So Mike started his guided tour showing kiddos where he hid the eggs. So everyone followed him.

Then the opening of eggs. The prize eggs each said, "Go to your bed!" Which confused people thinking they were trouble but when they went to their bed and found their prizes. They loved them! 

Lily loved her pillow pet!

Cati loved her pillow pet!

And Mike liked Cati's pillow pet.

As for our tradition of dates our kids look forward seeing what they won.

Mason-Movie Date.

Hailey-Dinner Date again.

Cati- Boondocks

Lily- her choice. So this means it'll be whatever she's feeling like doing at the time. 

But soon after all the excitement faded from the egg hunt it was time for a small nap, playing with the prizes, and preparing for dinner. 

I cooked a french dinner so we could finish up our lesson of France. Funny thing to know our kids are not fans of french food.

 But besides the eggs, candy, and toys we talked about our Saviors Resurrection. We usually will do resurrection eggs but this year when I opened the eggs they were all empty so we just talked instead. We talked about how Jesus came back to life today. How Mary went to the tomb to find it empty. But what touched our hearts most were talking about the promise Heavenly Father gave not only  Jesus but all his children; that we will all be resurrected again. So that the loved ones that once passed before us we will meet again- the ancestors we are learning about doing genealogy; the babies I miscarried; grandparents our kids never met; and maybe dinosaurs according to Ducati- we will see,  be with, and share our lives with these people again. All we need to do is have faith (John 3:16) and wait. We know our Savior rose today. We know that he sacrificed himself to help each one of us get back into heaven. Easter is such a special day for us all. Happy Easter for we know He Has Risen!

Family Visit

Mike's side of the family was in town for a week and oh my goodness we tried to see them as much as we could. We drove down to G.G.'s so we could visit and it turns out our kids were spoiled with buckets of chalk, art supplies, jump ropes, etc. These goodies have entertained my kids for so many hours. Besides yummy dinner my niece, Alex, had a birthday party a few days early of her actual birthday since this was the first time in a long time she had family around. 

Here's Alex and Hailey chatting. They were shy around each other at first but after a few helpful topics to talk about they broke the ice and chatted for an hour. They haven't seen each other in 4 years but that seemed to melt away right here. 

The next day Papa came to visit us at our home. Lily and Ducati read to him their favorite books. And he sat patiently listening and helping them sound out a few words.

Hailey made us all some Valentines pink heart shaped cinnamon rolls. This was her first time making a shaped cinnamon roll.

Mike got off of work early so when he got home we all headed out to lunch.

The next day Mike's sister and brother in law, Chrissy and John, came to visit us too with their kids. We went to see Kung Fu Panda 3.

Our girls wanted to play on this display while I got snacks.
The movie was so cute! We all loved it. There were times we either teared up or laughed so hard our sides hurt. We all just had tons of fun that we didn't want our time to end so we went bowling next.
I found a deal on Groupons for all of us to go for 50% off. Gotta love saving money!

Our first game we just played to play. Score was kept but it was just all fun.

 Roni enjoying the spotlight when she knocked down 8 pins.

 Ducati's Strike Secret. Turn and twist so the ball hits the pins you want.

 All our kids had so much fun! They laughed, chatted, joked, and high-5'd each other so much that you'd never know they haven't seen each other in 4 years.

Ducati enjoying a moment to her self. She loved playing with this hand blower!

 Cousin chats!

So for the second game we up'd the annie. We played Parents VS Kids. So parents on one lane while the kids had the lane next to us.

 Our kids really up'd their game. They won us parents by over 40 points! They really improved their skills. They got so many strikes and spares that at one moment we didn't even think we'd break 100.

After bowling we headed to dinner at Rumbi's. This is where Alex showed Lily how to use chopsticks. Now Lily eats with chopsticks as many times as she can. 

The next day Papa went to church with us. This was really nice. But of course my kids were wiggle worms in sacrament that they must have bugged him cuz they bugged me. Then afterwards Papa treated us to lunch. 

. 

But then everyone had to head back to CT Monday night so Mike took Hailey and Mason with him to say goodbye. I stood home with Lily and Cati since their colds that we ignored were now worse and I could no longer ignore their coughs. Plus I was so sore and in pain from bowling that I couldn't stand up. But Mason and Hailey were so happy that they got a chance to say Good bye. They were with their dad this holiday weekend and feared they were going to miss out visiting family. 

Oh man... we miss our family. Papa mentioned we should vacation in CT sometime soon. And this is something we'd really want to do as soon as I get back to work. But until then we'll reminisce on these past few days.

Valentines Day

Mike loves Angie!

Angie loves Mike!

And that's all......  HAHA!!

(his crazy eyes crack me up)

Since Mike knows me so well he knows I'm not a fan of flowers or overpriced candy. He knows that he'll hear an ear full if he ever gave me something full priced. So for gift giving he's had to learn to think outside the box. Like this year.... 

 He got me her. This little bunny.

 I named her Merida. She was really shy, timid, and scared to be around us. She would venture out 1 or 2 steps then run back to her hiding spot. She kept doing this for a few days. She never stopped since her curiosity was peaked when we bribed her with apple juice.

Now she's always around us. She loves to play with our kids. Lily likes to have her ride Angus pony. Get it Merida is riding Angus!! LOL!

Anyways I really love this little bunny. She's so cuddly. And the way she hops when she's happy is so cute. She twist in the air with her back legs higher in the air. It's adorable! She kisses everyone. Either cuz she loves us or we have crumbles on our face. Either way is fine with us. 

PS For Mike this year I gave him the gift he could use all year long. 6 pairs of sunglasses. He loves sunglasses. He keeps them in the car, at work, in his coat pockets, etc. So now instead of carrying them around he can just grab the pair he's left at the designated point. He really loved them all! I loved that I got them on major sale since Target had them on clearance and here was an extra coupon code so I think I paid $15 for all of them. 

San Diego

It turns out I didn't post our trip from San Diego back in July. So I'm just going to post tons of photos and add captions here and there as I recall things.

Arrival:
I recall we got to S.D. earlier than we thought. We usually stop off in Vegas for a leg stretch but we tend to travel at night so the kids sleep right through our long drive.

Mission Beach

 

Mormon Battalion Museum

While we were at a REAL (he kick that this hispanic has not been use ) Mexican food restaurant waiting to burn our mouths off Mike got a email telling him about LDS pioneers he is related too. At first this email was dismissed since we were on vacation. But while we waited for our order Mike read the email. It showed the lineage of a couple of pioneers who treked to Utah but as he clicked around the names he found some names that were settled in San Diego. That means Mormon Battalion!!! So after dinner we headed to the Mormon Battalion Museum in Old Towne. I wished we got their soon since it was almost closing time so we took the tour without gawking and awing over everything. Next time :)

Here's our enlisted volunteers

My tattoo hunk!

Mike taking a picture with his long awaited relative. No wonder he feels like S.D. is his home!

Panning for gold like in the gold rush. Since it was closing time our kids got to keep a few pieces of fools gold.

La Jolla Beach


Mike is such a beach bum. And over the years he's gotten better at surfing. All self-taught!

Cati wanting to learn to surf too. But she's got to learn on a knee board first.

 Surfers at heart ♥

Sunday Chill Day

Lunch at some restaurant.

Then S.D. swap meet.

We love not planning our days out. Itineraries are not for us. It stopped us from exploring with the locals. And if rushed,rushed,rushed we would have missed this amazing place.

Mason and a katana. He loved and still love this thing.

Imperial Beach

 

As you can tell we got there around sunset. That didn't stop our kids from playing. They had so much fun playing in the waves. But soon it got too chilled that we just continued our adventure by walking on the beach onto the boardwalk. We seen so many fisherman on there. Our kids seen one man catch a stingray that they just stopped, stared, and asked the man a ton of questions.

There was fish restaurant/shop at the end of the pier that we ordered some fish and chips. The kids aren't big fans of fish but I insisted since you can't be on the ocean and not eat fish. As we walked back to our car we found an organic-homemade-ice cream shop that we all wanted to try. So ice cream cones on hand we walked back to our car on the sandy beach under the moonlight. It was like a dream.

San Diego Temple

I don't recall when we went to visit the temple but I know we seen it. I remember we were wet so we only walked around for a few minutes before we got too cold.

 Church

Going to church outside of Utah has really changed my perspective as being a Mormon. We walked in and there was so many people who if they walked into my home ward would have been looked at-shunned-ignored-pointed too-etc. Shameful to say the least.
I remember being in the chapel and seeing people with tank tops, men with earrings, short-short skirts, etc all there worshiping God. The way it's suppose to be!
So often people get caught up on how long my skirt is, how tight a shirt might be, that i have tattoos showing, mike had his ears pierced, etc that we get the look of "2nd class Saints". It was so refreshing to see how the Lord's hand really does reach for all his children no matter what. I remember leaving this ward not wanting to ever leave.

Funny photo on how we leaved! We are all about budget friendly trips so we changed in the car, gas stations, or store restrooms. We used coupons, gift cards, and apps to save money. We packed only 2 outfits and a swimsuit since that's all we needed and it cut down on how much laundry we had when we got back. (Also since we needed to wash clothes while on vacation it was only 2 load!)

Anyways I love this man! And  I love the adventures we go on.