Easter #1

The weekend of my 30th birthday was a busy one. A little backstory: for Valentine's Day this year, Josh tried to plan an overnight getaway for us. But he was trying to surprise me until he found out that I was planning to go to dinner with "my Bunco girls." The following week was the 14th, so we figured it would be super busy and more expensive to do anything that day. So we rescheduled for a couple weeks later. Then I ended up getting sick that weekend, and ruined the plans again. Since then, Josh has tried again and again to plan something for just the two of us, and something always seems to come up. My birthday was no different. I told Josh earlier this year that I was turning 30, so he needed to do something cool for me, or I would plan something myself-and it would be expensive. On Friday the 27th, I went to dinner with the sisters in Josh's family, and Saturday the 28th, my Aunt turned 80, so we had a big family party for her, and the 29th-my official birthday was Sunday. And the following week was Easter. So Josh is still holding a grudge against me for going to the Bunco dinner in February, because we have yet to do anything with the two of us for Valentine's Day or my birthday.

It'll happen. I'm not worried. Being too busy doing fun things is not the worst problem to have.

For the big day, it was Fast Sunday-also not the first way I would choose to spend my birthday-although I decided in the end that there was something kind of special about fast Sunday on your birthday. I was also asked to teach the lesson in the Sunday School, and even mentioning that it was my birthday didn't get me out of it! Then we had an Easter Egg hunt with the Anderson family.

 (Courtesy of my sister Bethany.)

 Josh's dad was diagnosed with leukemia in February and spent the month of March at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake, so we were all excited that he could home in time for the Easter egg hunt.

 Meili filled that bucket twice with Easter eggs. Candy is never in short supply with the Anderson family. (It's a good thing too, because Easter candy is my favorite.)

 Grant kind of caught on to finding Easter eggs this year. If he was by himself, he would do really well. But being distracted with so many other things, he really just wanted to open each egg and eat the candy as he went-which slows him down considerably.

In the end, I didn't do anything really out of the ordinary for my birthday, but I spent it thinking about my Savior, and surrounded by really amazing family and friends. I don't think I can really complain about that!

Baby Animal Days

The first Friday in April, I went with my brother's family to Baby Animal Days at the American West Heritage Center. Since having kids, this has been one of my favorite traditions each year, but this year might be the last. Or I definitely need to figure out how to do things a little different. It seemed so crowded to me, and we were there for over 2 hours, and my kids did like 4 things-a train ride, pony ride, saw baby cows and goats etc., and... actually right now I can't even think of anything else. We pretty much just stood in line the whole time. Plus, Grant was sick, and I decided to take him with me because he was going to be miserable that day regardless, so I figured I might as well have him outside, and less miserable than he would be at our house. But he was pretty tired by the end, and every time he coughed, I felt the judgement of the world on me. Luckily, Josh got the tickets for free from a connection at work, or I would have been REALLY upset. 

I definitely made it sound worse than it actually was, but I definitely will not go next year unless I figure out a different way of doing it.

 Grant did like the animals he saw, and he is fearless when it comes to petting anything.

 And Meili was a cute litte cowgirl, and of course, loved the pony ride.

Fire Station Field Trip

Meili's preschool took a field trip to the Fire Station in Logan. Her teacher was looking for a few adults to help carpool kids there, so I volunteered.  

The firemen were really sweet to all the kids, although they told the kids a lot of things that they definitely didn't understand.

 For Meili's field trip in the fall, we took a little boy named Tayson in our car with us, and I felt bad for him because he inherited a girlfriend in Meili just by driving with us. This time, Meili found a best friend in Maggie-the only other girl in her class with us. Meili kept putting her arm around Maggie, and standing by her. I'm not sure how Maggie felt about it, but Meili had fun.

A Little of This, A Little of That

 The Young Women in our ward held a Princess Party fundraiser a couple months ago.

 My niece Shasta came over for a playdate, and I had been wanting to try a recipe from Pinterest for "Cloud dough." It's more like playing in the sand than playing with Play Doh. Let's just say there was flour in every crack and crevice on those two girls.

 Someday Meili will grow out of the phase that she thinks it's funny to stick her tongue out in pictures, right? I did. It only took me until I was like 24, so that's right around the corner.

 ...Just making sure that Grant has plenty to talk about when he's in therapy...

 My mom, Sara, and I took our girls to meet Ana and Elsa at the Pizza Pie Cafe last week. I love that Ana is crying with Shelby-as if that makes it better!

 The kids are loving, (did I say LOV-ING?) being outside. Grant has it figured out that when we put on shoes, we are headed out the door. So all day long, he brings me shoes, sits down and starts jamming them on his feet. And oh boy, it is bad news if we are really getting in the car, instead of going outside. I love that most of the time he pushes this car instead of rides in it. And he's very dedicated. Like he believes his number one responsibility is to make sure that the car gets its laps in everyday.

 We got Meili a new bike, and she grew before our eyes. She loves riding her bike. That is also necessary every single day.

 She falls more often on this bike for some reason. But I have been so proud of her, that she doesn't let it stop her, and just keeps practicing.

 But all that playing has meant that she is falling asleep in the middle of the day more often. No biggie, but I thought this was such an awkward position!

 We got this little Asian outfit for her a couple years ago in San Francisco, and it finally fits! I think she looks so cute in it!