Spring Break

Hello!! I haven't completely fallen off the face of the blogosphere, but I have been incredibly neglectful. What happened to me this winter?? But now it's officially spring so maybe I'll be better about it all.

I have to play catch up again so first here's a post about our spring break. Here in CO spring break does not at all coincide with Easter - I don't know why, but it doesn't. So at the end of March Sophie and Ben had a week off from school and preschool so I decided to head to Utah for some fun visiting with our families there. Adrian couldn't get the time off work so he basically just did the driving with me and flew back for work during the week then flew out again to Utah for the drive home. It was so great to see our families and the kids had an absolute blast with their cousins. This post even though in bullet form is bound to be of chunky length, there is no shame in skimming. Actually please skim, I'll feel bad if you read it all!:) So here we go, on with the highlights:

• Fabulously yummy lunch at Los Hermanos with Adrian's Mom, Francine and Augusta, and Brad and Connie and kids. It was so lovely to catch up with everyone. I got a "cold fusion" like I always do and eating there always brings back nice memories (we've had many family dinners there like Adrian's college graduation dinner).
• Driving around Provo showing the kids all the places we lived and worked and eating some Burger Supreme goodness. (I'm mentioning food a lot aren't I!)
• Going to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point with the kids. Nina yelled, "Dinosaur eat me!" when she saw the big dinosaur mural on the side of the museum, but got over that and all 3 kids had a great time. They have a fun water-table play center and dinosaur bones digging center so it was very hand-on and cool.
• Shopping with my Mom and Grandma at Quilted Bear and the University Mall. I always have to take a trip to these places when in Utah. Where else can you choose from such a selection of hair bows for Nina and layering T's??
  
• Going to the Children's Museum in SLC with my sister Lori and her adorable little boy Zach. The kids all had an awesome time and that place seriously rocks at keeping kids busy and happy. We spent the whole afternoon there until it closed and then we all went to Chin Wah for delicious Chinese food. I was seriously impressed by how much Zach who is only 3 loves Chinese food - he ate egg rolls with all sorts of cabbage and bean sprouts clearly visible inside.
  
• Seeing my wonderful friend Cami who has recently moved to Utah. It was so weird to see all her TV room furniture in a different room! Oh all memories that big ol' TV and comfy couches have from our ANTM and SYTYCD nights!! It was so good to chat with Cami again. I can't even tell you how much I love this girl and how fun it will be now that she lives in Utah where we vacay lots! And the kids all had so much fun playing together. Cami even made delicious snickerdoodles - you are a rock star Cami!:)
• Learning how to bake super easy and really good bread from my sister Julie. She got this amazing recipe at an enrichment and now bakes tons of bread and other things like stuffed crust pizza. Only problem is now I totally want a Bosch mixer because I witnessed it wonders in person.
• Having family dinners with my whole family watching the kids eat all together in happy cousin-ness on the deck while the adults sat around the table inside and talked.
  
• Playing Scattagories and Apples to Apples with my sister, her kids, and my grandma. My grandma is quite the gamer with an amazing vocabulary. Very very funny answers came up and I laughed till my gut hurt quite a few times.
• Hanging out with my Dad during the day and hearing him playing Wii downstairs with my kids. Dad you are a very patient person to listen ad naseum to every facet of Sophie and Ben's game strategy in Super Smash Bros.
• Meeting my mom at the school she and my sister work at for Pizza day. It was fun for Sophie and Ben to eat lunch with their cousin Jon and have recess with him while he was in school.
• Going to the BYU Museum of Art with the kids and my grandma. We had such a great time. There were tons of painting that I remember and have such fondness for (I used to work as a janitor at the museum when I was a student at BYU and absolutely loved all the alone time with the art while I cleaned), but there were also some great new stuff. There was an exhibit with amazing paintings of Christ one of which Ben just mentioned the other night during FHE. Yay for some of it making an impression on him. Also there was this amazing installation art exhibit by Dan Steinhilber that we all enjoyed. In one room a bunch of packing peanuts were piled up in the corner and a regular intervals a bunch of fans turned on and blew them all over, it was COOL! Nina did not want to leave the "popcorn room" as she called it. Then there was also an exhibit by Walter Wick the artist behind the I-Spy series of books and the kids LOVED it. It was such a neat trip to a museum, no one was bored and I basked in the glow of one of my favorite places in the world and the opportunity to share it with my family.
• HFAC - of course since I was so close to my beloved HFAC, the building I spent so much time in as an art history major at BYU, I had to take my kids in to show them and I wanted to walk through it again. I think it had been probably 10 or so years since I went up to the rooms where I used to sit mesmerized by the clicking slides and the voices of my professors as they lectured on my favorite subject, art. It was kind of bitter sweet actually. If I'm being honest I admit that I still beat myself up about not finishing my degree so it was weird to be back in that building, walking past those classrooms... But I took a picture of the kids sitting on one of the benched that I frequented as a student and I realized like a lightning bolt how much more my kids mean to me than that degree. I love their guts and wouldn't change the decisions that I made which took me away from my student life. Okay that was heavy, let's move onto the next highlight.
  
• Having dinner at the Spaghetti Factory in Trolley Square with Adrian's dad and stepmom. It was great to catch up with them and we were so happy that the night that Adrian flew into Utah coincided with Adrian's dad being there on a trip from Idaho.
• Getting together with my side of the family to celebrate Adrian and my sister Lori's birthdays. We all went to Cracker Barrel together and had a great time talking and eating yummy food. The cousins all sat at their own table together. Cute. It was so neat during the whole trip to see what a strong bond all the cousins have even though we've pretty much always lived in a different state.
  

Sadly we had to cut our trip a little short and leave right after the birthday get-together to beat a snow storm in the mountains. We did beat it, but ended up getting home at 3 in the morning so it was kind of a rough drive. Of course 3 am is tons better than driving through snow so it was all good.