Spring break???

Our spring break started a bit early.  We took Bailey out of school on Friday for her last two classes and headed up north to SLC with our two girls.  Caleb and Easton stayed behind for Caleb's soccer game and fun with their grandparents.  Bailey's cheer team was competing in their nationals competition and we needed to get there early the night before for a team dinner.  We originally planned on watching all of Raglan's team perform on Saturday but learned Bailey wouldn't be competing until late in the afternoon and we thought it was best that she wasn't hanging out there ALL day.  It turns out we were super glad we didn't have her there any earlier than we did.  Her team didn't compete until 5:00pm and mad it to the match play round which meant they would go head to head with another team at 8:00pm.  Our nerves were all over the place and we couldn't eat or relax.  Once we knew her team was going to the match play round we knew they would take 1st or 2nd...We also knew that her team had blown the competition away in the first round and basically had 1st place wrapped up.  After the two teams had performed they waited to hear the results.  The judges took EXTREMELY long to decided (as they weren't scoring the 2nd round) and I watched as they argued back and forth.  Finally I saw some basically throw their hands in the air and then the announcer said they had a winner.  It wasn't Raglan. :( Raglan had dropped one stunt in the match play round where the other team didn't.  Now typically the dropped stunt wouldn't have mattered because Raglan scored MUCH higher than their opponents in the first round and a dropped stunt is only a point deduction.  I think they basically decided that since the other team didn't drop the stunt in the 2nd round (they did in the first) they were the winners.  It was frustrating and disheartening to try to cheer out little girl up but we had to accept the fact and be super happy that they took SECOND!

 Early Sunday morning we packed up our things and headed back to St. George.  We picked up the boys, repacked and turned right back around and headed up to Brianhead. The kids took the snowboarding school on Monday and rocked it!  Seriously, Mat and I were so impressed with how easily they picked up the sport.  We originally had plans to snow tube on Tuesday but they had so much fun snowboarding they wanted to try out the larger lifts instead.  We were able to stay in a condo for free which was great!  We had the Christensens and the Edwards with us and all of our kids had a blast hanging out, making bracelets, and shooting dart guns.

Our kids can't wait to go again and want to know when they can hang out with their new friends again as well.  They've already put snowboards on their Christmas lists for next year.  It was such a packed weekend but we had a blast.  We are so grateful our kids (and us) get to have such amazing experiences!

Oh that kid!

When we set out to have kids I figured we would have a litter full of freckly, short, hyperactive runts.  Well, we only got one really freckly kid.  I think with each freckle it must be an added bit of personality.  A kid who LOVES ALL animals!  So much that all he ever wants for Christmas, birthdays, any occasion is some sort of live creature.  A kid who hands-down can dirty a shirt like no other and wears through his clothes almost faster than I can shop online for them. :) Mat every now and then receives texts from friends wondering if he has any "Easton stories" for them.  We came home on Saturday to find that he had convinced his grandma that we cook eggs in the microwave to hard boil them.  Apparently he was rather convincing and since grandma I'm sure had never tried it on her own figured it must be okay.  Too bad they didn't have time to clean it up as I was the lucky winner of cleaning the microwave with the remnants of the exploded egg all over.  When the egg exploded it blew the door to the microwave open and tripped the breaker.  Still, Easton claims it would be fine to try it again that he really does do it all the time.  You can give this kid a roll of masking tape and he will have a fort, ball built, and probably have himself wrapped up in it in minutes. Easton has twitches.  We've mostly gotten rid of the snorting, and the squinting while sticking your tongue out, and are currently working on him to stop over biting his lower lip so the poor lip can heal.  Bailey and I were laughing at his stance the other day.  He stands with both feet pointed outward.  Seriously I LOVE him and all of his quirks.  The best was later that night when I looked down at my own stance and yep...he gets it from me!  He also gets the twitches, the easily frustrated personality, and so much more from ME!!! I love him.  Every bit of challenge that comes with him.  Every laugh he provides warms my heart.  We are so BLESSED to have him in our family!