On Vacation!

My friend, Emily.

Emily's husband, Randy.  What a goof!

Ben and Aaron were anxiously engaged in flying kites for the girls, but notice how uninterested the girls are!?!?!  It was really kind of cute!

Lilli (all decked out in winter gear, ready to go outside) with my little bro, Kennan.

All right!  I know I haven't blogged in a very long time, but Lilli and I have been out West visiting my family in Wyoming.  We left Ben home alone for 2 weeks.  Boy what a vacation it was!  Lilli got spoiled!  Anytime she'd cry someone was always there to pick her up.  She was so sassy too.  She would always tell me no (which Ben and I don't let her do when we're at home, she'll go in time-out) and got away with it.  Everytime I would lay her down to take a nap or for the night, she would just cry and cry.  My dad would come find me and tell me that he was going to go and get her out of bed.  So there were nights where she would stay up until 10 or 11 pm (EST).  BUT she did sleep in till about 8 or 9 am (EST), which was nice for me.  Lilli had so much fun seeing her aunts and uncles and her Nana and Papa.  On the day that we flew out, we got up at 3 in the morning and drove the 2 hours to the Atlanta airport.  On the way to the airport, we ran over some glass and got a flat tire.  It was so freezing cold!  It made me a little nervous with Ben out there, because we were on the I-20 with semi's driving so close.  Anyway, we got the spare on and needless to say, Lilli and I BARELY made it to the gate in time.  Just as we got to the gate, the lady announced that the gate would be closing in about 60 seconds!  It was close!!!!!  Lilli was okay on the flights, except on the flight from Denver to SLC, she fell asleep but woke up during the last 45 minutes screaming and didn't stop until AFTER  we landed.  That was not fun.  We had a lot of fun with my family.  Both Breanne and Kandyce made trips from Logan to come and see us.  We made a trip up THERE to see them.  It was just fun being able to see everyone again, visiting Grandma Norene and seeing my Uncle Don and Stan and cousin Trevor.  We celebrated my little bro's 11th birthday and got to see the moose living by my parent's house.  My mom and dad decided to wait to celebrate Easter until we got there.  The Sunday before Conference, they had an Easter egg hunt for the kids.  Lilli is now a pro at Easter egg hunts.  4 in one year!  We were able to go to the Lindquist's house and have a fun little Easter egg hunt.  That was a lot of fun!  On Easter Sunday we had our good friends the Pilkington's over for Easter dinner.  They had a little egg hunt before dinner for the girls'.  We had so much candy, it was gross!  

Conference was really good.  Our church got a new prophet, President Thomas S. Monson.  He truly is a prophet of the Lord and it was awesome to be able to sustain him as such.  I think my favorite talk was one of the last ones given.  It was by Elder Ballard.  He spoke to the young mothers.  It was something I needed to hear.  So many times I feel inadequate as both a wife and mother and hearing him say what he did gave me hope.  I feel renewed and ready to go again.  Sometimes I get burned out and it was nice to hear an apostle of the Lord say that it's okay to feel that way and just hear him speak so lovingly and respectfully about motherhood.  I also loved President Monson's closing remarks.  What a wonderful man!!!!!!

Easter weekend, my best friend from college, Emily, and her husband, Randy, drove up from Tampa to visit us (they were buying a truck there and had flown in from Amarillo, TX where they live).  It was a short visit.  They got in at about 3am and left that same day at about 7pm.  We went out to eat for lunch and on our way to the River Walk our car got a flat tire (Yes!  2 flat tires within 3 days of each other!!!) so after waiting 2 hours to get that fixed we just came back home and played the Wii.  It was so good to see them!  Even though it's been a while, it still felt like no time had passed at all.  Thanks for making the visit you guys!!!  Love ya!!

Anyway, that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods.  It was so fun seeing family again!!!  We love you and hope to see you soon!  (Kennan and Kenzie, you really need to talk to Mom and Dad about coming this summer).