Mark's Wedding - finally

The reason I was in Arizona a couple weeks ago was to go to my little brother, Mark's, wedding.  I haven't even posted any pictures from the event yet.  Here they are:

Coming out of the Mesa, AZ LDS temple

B. family boys

little boys and Elora

Claire & Brandon

Probably my favorite picture of the day

Sarah with her two oldest boys

and her youngest

Moqui and Charlotte, age 5 1/2

My brother Spencer and his BFF/nephew Gabe

Sampling desserts with Kaleb

My Favorite Photos from Lake Powell (Thurs & Fri)

Wednesday afternoon we drove down to Lake Powell.  It was a very different trip from our usual Powell adventures; new marina, no houseboat, and almost no water sports.  We camped on the Bullfrog side of the lake (further north from Wahweap, where we usually put in).  Our group was five adults and four children on Alan's boat and two adults and two children on our friends' boat (each group also had a yellow lab along).  We spend our days mostly on the boats cruising around, exploring new canyons, with the occasional stop at a beach.  I did go boat surfing once on Saturday and we headed home on Sunday morning (a huge wind storm was raging all Saturday night and still going strong on Sun.).  We had a really nice, sunny time.

Sunbathing Beauty

Jonah wearing Bryson's sunglasses over his goggles

Me, Kathy, and Bailee

Natural stone arch

Brandon and Jason up on the cliff at the ruins with Alan's boat down below

I'm at the top right area of this photo (click to enlarge).  We hiked up to these Anasazi ruins.

Elora's Birthday Weekend

Friday afternoon the kids and I returned from Arizona.  Later that afternoon Elora had her dance recital dress rehearsal.  It was in Park City, so while we were there I took the kids to check out my work, meet a bunch of my co-workers and try the mac n' cheese there.
Saturday morning I got to sleep in.  It felt like the first time in a LONG time.  I am really wiped out with all the traveling and the emotional stress.  When I get up I run to the grocery store for soccer team treats and cake mix.  Jonah's last soccer game is cute and he is tired out afterwards having had to play the entire game since two of his teammates were missing and there was nobody to trade off with.

While Elora takes a very short nap, I bake her a strawberry birthday cake.
Aunt Andy and Uncle Coach meet us in Park City for Elora's dance recital.  It is adorable!

After the dance, we all head to a park to play, open presents, and eat cake & ice cream.

Sunday I go to church but can't pry the kids away from their dad to join me.  They missed their daddy while we were in AZ!  The kids and I take long naps in the afternoon and then play and talk with neighbors in the sunshine while Brandon goes with his dad and Linda to give the wakeboarding boat a trial run before the boating season begins.  Then we have dinner and celebrate Elora's birthday some more.

Easter Weekend

After Jonah got home from joyschool on Friday, we had our traditional Good Friday tea with delicious, homemade hot cross buns:)  The kids LOVED doing fancy tea service.  Who knew that pouring their own milk into their tea would be such a hit?!

That afternoon we went to the Discovery museum with auntie Jen, "uncle" Steve, and Railey.

After that we had dinner at Happy Sumo.  Elora liked the sushi rolls and Jonah did not.  Jonah immediately called out an order for "hotstickers" from the server (my friend Jenny) when she came up and asked what we wanted.

SATURDAY

We began our morning watching Jonah play a soccer game in the cold. 

 

Grammy and Papa came up to watch too and then came to our house for brunch and yard work and hanging out.

Elora collecting earthworms while I tilled our garden plot.

Elora threw up in the night and so missed out on church on SUNDAY but she managed to keep down a Peep from her basket and a little breakfast.

 Jonah and I went to church and loved the all-music Sacrament meeting.

After church was over we all went down to Papa and Grammy's house.

Elora still wasn't feeling well.

She perked up a little for the Easter egg hunt with cousins though.

Bryson & Jonah

Coach & Trey

Papa, Bailee, Linda, and Kathy

Elora was fine on Monday and Tuesday but has been sick since Wednesday.  Poor little thing!  I hate to see her loose ANY weight.  Fortunately her stomach bug hasn't affected her personality.  She and Jonah have been pretty much non-stop laughs this week.  Yesterday Brandon overheard her saying, "...but I would fight back cause I'm a bad, bad, bad pwincess."

More From Last Weekend

We also did a bit of hiking at Capitol Reef National Park last weekend.  The first hike we came upon after entering the park was called Chimney Rock, for obvious reasons.  We got out of the car just planning to ramble around for awhile.  We ended up doing a quarter mile hike (there and back) that was quite steep but had great views.  When we got back to the car I looked it up in my guide book and it was listed as "strenuous".  The kids were champs and we only had to hold Elora for a little while.  I, on the other hand, has slightly sore legs for three days afterwards.

We called these the "alien plants"