Halfway through April

The girls went back to school after spring break and they only had 10 weeks left of school. Now they only have nine! I hope the weather catches up and gives us a spring before summertime.

I can't believe I haven't even posted any pictures from Easter. Yikes, I'm in t-r-o-u-b-l-e! If I can still remember way back then, we had a nice Easter. It was George's birthday that day too. We went over to their house and had an Easter egg hunt and lunch. I didn't want the kids to get too much candy so I put change in the eggs I brought. I hope they didn't mind. The cousins all seemed happy with what they got. At the end of the day Riley had them all putting on a talent show for the adults. It was cute to see them be nervous, but really want to do something. Kelby and Tegan did little dances and I think they told some knock-knock jokes too.

The weeks just fly by. I can't even believe it! The girls got to have spring break from March 31st to April 4th. The week started out with snow on Sunday morning! The girls stayed home from church with Michael to build a huge snow fort in the back yard. At least the weather cleared up on Wednesday so we took the new tent trailer and parked at Debbie and George's house to have a camping trip. Mike didn't come because he had to work, so it was just me and the girls. I got to practice backing up the trailer all by myself and setting it all up. I'm a pro now! Grampa even made the girls a fire and Gramma made them popcorn. They LOVED it. The night was very chilly, but the heater kept us warm...and awake because it is a little noisy. Now I know how all the systems work though!

The next day we walked from there down to the Haggens to get a donut and stopped by the park on the way back. It was really great mommy-daughter time. That is why I'm excited to have the trailer because when we are gone from home, they get all of me because I'm not so distracted by the busyness of life.

The Friday of spring break they got to go play almost the whole day at a friend's house. My friend offered to watch them because I had to help set up some stuff for that big ladies church breakfast the next day. I was so thankful for the offer because the girls would have been really bored helping out at the church.

That once-a-month breakfast meeting has been keeping me busy these last few months. It has been a lot of planning, but it has been fun working together with wonderful ladies. Our first meeting was April 5th. It went really well. We had too much food, but otherwise everything went very smoothly.

After that I changed gears to get the house ready for Andrea, Victor and Gabriel to come to visit. They got here on Tuesday. I had a great time having my sister here. We did lots of fun stuff, but she was really sick with a head cold and what turns out was a sinus infection. On Wednesday I took them out to LaConner for lunch. We buzzed through the little shops there. We didn't have quite enough time before we had to get home to the girls before they got off the bus.

We played games and watched movies in the evenings with Andrea and Victor. On Thursday Mike took the day off and we went down to Seattle. We had fish and chips on the dock and then went to the aquarium. It was really neat and the girls were really impressed. They even had tide pools you could touch all the weird creatures! After that we went up to Pike Place market where we visited the first ever Starbucks store and got a coffee, of course. We saw all the Seattle sights.

On Friday we were going to do something, but Gabriel and Andrea were just so sick that I made my girls go to school. The girls were so mad at me at first because they thought they were going to get to skip. They weren't as mad when they got home. Kelby would have missed a rootbeer float party if she hadn't gone. The rest of us ended up going down to the outlet mall at least. The weather cleared off that afternoon and the kids got to play in the backyard. Blue sky is so beautiful. Andrea made us some delicious enchiladas that night... a recipe I'm going to have to try myself sometime.

On Saturday we went out to Anacortes and got on the ferry to the San Juan islands. It was an interesting adventure. We had to switch ferries on a smaller island, and then went on to Friday Harbor. That's were we had lunch and shopped the little shops there. It was a beautiful day, though still chilly!

On Sunday we took my family over to meet Mike's family. I just wanted to show off my nephew since I brag on how cute he is all the time. It was nice, but short because we had to get Andrea and family all packed up and delivered back down to the Seattle airport that afternoon.

Tegan gets to be "star of the week" in her class this week. She is so excited to take an stuffed animal to school on Friday for show-n-tell. They also have a bulletin board where she gets to put up pictures of herself. The attention makes her feel good.

Kelby has the WASL this week. That is the big state-wide test they make such a big deal about. She was a little worried about it, but I asked her how it went today and she said, "I loved the WASL!" Come to find out it was because they gave her a snack afterwards, but hey, at least she wasn't miserable. They have the tests all week.

Anika was tired out from all her fun when Gabe was here, so she's just been catching up on her sleep. She was so funny with Victor, following him around and bothering him all the time. He didn't seem to mind, but I felt bad for him.

Hopefully life will drop down to a slower pace for awhile now, but I have a feeling it will ramp up again with the end of the school year. We hope to do some real camping soon too and Mike keeps on running. If the weather gets too nice soon, I'll have to start running again too.

Love you all!