Easter 2011

Easter was wonderful. We lucked out this year and Mike and Erin and their kids were able to be in Utah the entire week. Lucy got some much needed Hale cousin time. We started the week off with a little Glee Karaoke Revolution. You should hear my niece, Abbie, rock it. She knows the lyrics and notes of most of the songs perfectly!

Lucy got in on the action too.

Mike had had enough of Glee, so we switched to Beatles Rock Band.

Whenever the grandkids come into town, they want to swim in "Papa's pool".

Snuggling my babies.

The night before Easter we dyed Easter eggs.

Easter morning: we opened Easter baskets first. Lucy loved looking for her basket.

Landon munching on some gummies.

Scott and Rach. Isn't Rachel looking fabulous for having a baby less than two months ago?

Grandma snuggling baby Adelaide.

Lucy's Easter dress looked so cute on her. We took pictures before church.

Miss Abbie.

Trying to get four wiggly kids to all look the same time in a picture is an impossibility. This is the best we got.

After dinner we headed over to the Walkers. I'm such an idiot and forgot my camera!! We hunted for Easter baskets and then the grandkids had an Easter egg hunt. Happy Easter everyone!

Oh Zion, Dear Zion......

Two years ago, when I was pregnant with Lucy, Jordan and I spent spring break in St. George. We spent some time in Zion National Park, but were unable to do anything too rigorous because my sciatica was so bad. We decided to go back to Zion this weekend to do some of the hikes that we missed out on before. On the first day, we took the shuttle into the park and then realized that we'd left Lucy's sippy cup in the car. Jordan found this water bottle at the convenience store in the park and filled it with juice for Lucy. The thing was huge!

The first hike we did was the Emerald Pools trail. It lead to a beautiful waterfall.

After our hike we stopped and ate our lunch in a shady spot in the park. Lucy was being really cute so I snapped a few pictures.

That afternoon we went for a bike ride around St. George. My bum is still not in "bike shape" so my bum bones are pretty sore. Our friends, Scott and Brandon drove down to St. George that night, because they wanted to hike with us the next morning. We got to Zion around 1:30 and then started the hike to Angel's Landing. If you're not familiar with Angel's Landing, it is a pretty strenuous hike with many steep switchbacks for the first two miles. The last 1/2 mile, is up very narrow fins. There are sheer cliffs on either side of you, and all you have to hold onto are chains bolted into the rock. Jordan was a trooper and carried Lucy in a backpack up all the switchbacks. He didn't want to risk taking her the last 1/2 mile so he headed back. Scott, Brandon and I continued to the top of Angel's Landing, which is 1200 feet high. It was a little nerve-racking, but such a cool feeling when we made it to the summit.


This is before the last 1/2 mile stretch.

You can't tell from the picture, but there are 1000 foot cliffs on either side of me.

The summit.



The hike up was amazing, but pretty brutal going back down. By the time we reached the bottom, my back and knees were killing me. If you can get over your fear of heights, this hike is really fun and the view from the top is spectacular.

Spring Break and More...

Do you know what was awesome? Having an entire week off of work to play. I LOVE Spring Break! My cousins came from Vancouver for conference weekend, and stayed the following week. I love when they come into town, because it's nonstop playing. The night they came into town we went to dinner then to the Jazz vs. Lakers game. Let me once again state how much I hate the Lakers. Moving on. We had a relaxing weekend watching conference, then got up early Monday morning to go to........

......Moab!!

Lucy was such a trooper. We threw her in the backpack and carted her around everywhere we went. As long as we kept moving and didn't stop for too many pictures she did just fine.

Dead Horse Point. The view is spectacular!

Our little family.

My cousin Erin and I. People always tell us we look like sisters. I'm happy with the comparison.

The whole group: Len, Elaine, Erin, Scott, Dave, Jordan, Lucy, me, and my mom. My dad is taking the picture.

Help!

What posers.

I love this picture of Jordan.

Double arch. How cool is that?

Moments after climbing down from the double arch, I looked up and noticed a man climbing down after us. Let's just say that he was wearing very short shorts without any underwear, and I saw WAY more than I ever wanted to see of the sweaty, stocky man. Sick.

Captain Nemo himself.

My mom. She had surgery a month ago, but kept up with us.

Scott, Elaine and Erin. Lucy had a major crush on Scott and was very concerned about his whereabouts at all times. If he wasn't within eyesight she would ask, "Where's Sock?"

If you've never hiked up to Delicate Arch, you absolutely need to. It's about 1.75 miles one way over sandstone. You come around a corner and this is what you see. Unbelievable. There are so many beautiful things to see in Utah.

We got home from Moab late Tuesday night. We spent the next few days shopping the outlets at Park City, eating out, seeing movies (Sourcecode is so good!), attending the Salt Lake temple, and playing cards. The Cervos/Terrys left Friday afternoon and we were sad to see them go. The next day Jordan and I decided it was major spring cleaning time. Lucy wanted to help too. I came out of the bathroom to find her like this:

We apparently weren't doing a very good job keeping an eye on her, because all of a sudden I heard her yelling, "mmmmeth!" (mess) I went into the bathroom to find her playing in my expensive Biolage conditioning balm.

After cleaning our aparment we took Lucy to the Discovery Gateway for the afternoon. Once again we spent the majority of time in the grocery store. Lucy is at such a fun age. She will be 21 months on the 20th. Her language skills blow me away. She understands most of what we say to her, and she is able to communicate her wants and needs so well. She is able to name all of the colors, and mimicks everything we say. She loves anything to do with bugs and animals. This is such a fun/tiring age!

Jordan patiently waiting for Lucy to finish playing so we could go home.

Later that night, Jordan asked Lucy if she wanted a popsicle. He gave her a banana creamie, but she said she wanted a Dora popsicle instead. He gave her the Dora popsicle, but then she grabbed the banana creamie out of Jordan's hand. Pretty sure this girl owns her dad.

We found a great bike trailer for Lucy at Costco this week. We have been going for bike rides every day and Lucy loves it.

Back to work....