Catching Up

We had a great Easter weekend. Easter may have not seemed like it was that long ago but it seems to me that a lot has happened since then. I was planning on updating right after Easter but then started re-"decorating" the blog and lost the time needed to do a real post. As more blog-worthy events occurred I felt less and less motivated to update the blog because I knew it would be a big chore when I decided to tackle it. Now is the time. Thus...... we had a great Easter weekend. Saturday morning we took the kids to an Easter egg hunt in Taylorsville. I have a terrible habit of forgetting the camera when we do fun things but I remembered for this event. Unfortunately our batteries died after the first picture of Mitchell playing on the playground at the park while we were waiting for the hunt to begin. Luckily Clint had his phone and was able to snap some shots afterwards.

The Easter egg hunt had three different areas for the different age groups so Mitchell and Caleb were split up. Clint went with Caleb and I with Mitchell. It was a very cold day. Right prior to the hunt I was holding Mitchell and explaining to him how the hunt worked. Mitchell had his own ideas. When they blew the horn Mitchell ran to the far end of the field and picked up his first egg. He was the only one to run that far and could have picked up a basket-full of eggs in that area but he decided to only pick up one and then proceeded to run to the other end of the field before picking up another. He did this 3 or 4 times then realized he wouldn't be getting any more eggs if he continued so then buckled down in one area for the rest. But he only got a few more because of the large number of children that were there. When all the eggs were gone I excitedly commented on the eggs that he did get. I was sure that he would be disappointed by the few numbers in his basket. But he surprised me. He WAS crying but it was because he wanted "eating" eggs instead of toy ones. He didn't even care much about the candy that was inside the "toy" ones.

Clint helped Caleb hunt for his eggs. He sat Caleb by the basket and handed him eggs, one by one, for him to drop into his basket. He felt bad about helping him until he started watching other parents who were grabbing eggs by the armfulls for their children and dumping them into their baskets. Caleb was very excited about the candy that was in his eggs. He LOVES sugar.Saturday night we had friends over and colored Easter eggs. Mitchell had a great time coloring eggs. He loves Charlie Brown and Snoopy and has been watching "The Easter Beagle" all year. If you want to watch a little snippet, click on this link:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zOiRUDhyzi0

The link only shows the first part of the film and doesn't include the best kitchen scene, but the first part gives you a sample of what's to come. There is a scene where Peppermint Patty and Marcy are decorating eggs and Marcy can't figure out how to do it right. Mitchell thought that he needed to make all of the mistakes that Marcy did and so after decorating one of his eggs he proceeded to bite into it with the shell on. Just like Marcy, he realized that he does NOT like to eat Easter eggs. We did eventually get him to eat one that had been shelled and made into a sandwich but he didn't like that much either.

After decorating eggs Caleb went upstairs to take a bath. His girlfriend, Hannah, also needed to take a bath and so they took a bath together. Caleb loved it but Hannah did not. She likes to have the bath water all to herself and Caleb wouldn't stay in his own space. He's an active bath-taker and likes to move around everywhere.

I had meetings Sunday morning so I wasn't able to watch the kids find their Easter baskets. I was glad that Clint took pictures. He tells me that the kids didn't care much about their baskets. They didn't even notice them until Clint pointed them out and they still didn't pay attention. Mitchell got a new white shirt, tie and belt in his basket. He had been asking for a belt for a few months and was excited to get a new belt but apparently he was worried about putting on the shirt and tie. He told Clint that he didn't want to be a missionary yet. Clint showed him that he was wearing a white shirt and tie and wasn't a missionary so it was okay if Mitchell wore one. He looks so grown up in his new church outfit.

During naps after church the "Easter Beagle" came and spread out the eggs we had colored the night before all over our back lawn. Mitchell doesn't believe in the Easter Bunny. There is only an Easter Beagle. Mitchell had a great time gathering them up again. Caleb took an extra long nap that afternoon and so didn't help gather eggs, but he was excited to examine the loot that Mitchell had found.

Monday evening was exciting as well. We underwent a project where we enlarged our garden and moved some sod around. It was a dirty project and Mitchell was in the thick of it. When it came time for bed I put him in the bath tub against his will. He had wanted to stay outside and continue helping Clint. He wasn't very excited when I started washing his hair. He started throwing his head around in protest and in the process slammed his head against the soap holder. He immediately came to me for comfort and I didn't worry too much about it until I noticed that he wasn't calming down as fast as he normally does. So I pulled his head back to look and found a pretty nasty gash on his forehead. I knew he needed stitches but called on Clint for a second opinion just in case my emotions were jading my judgement. He agreed that he would need stitches but we decided that we didn't want to take him to the ER so we superglued it together instead. I'm not sure that we did the most proffesional job but it is certainly better than if we had done nothing at all AND he only missed his bedtime by 1/2 hour instead of hourS. As you can tell by the picture below it's not affecting him emotionally at all.

The excitement continued through Tuesday. Clint's little brother, Daniel, who had been serving a mission in Taiwan was scheduled to arrive home that evening. We went to the airport at 8 pm and waited for almost an hour when Clint got an e-mail from Daniel saying that he was stuck in LA because they hadn't been able to get through customs in time. Clint's family was SO disappointed. Clint has some younger siblings in middle and high school and they had really been looking forward to their brother coming home.

Daniel wrote and let us know that he would be coming in the next morning. Clint's family stayed over night with us and we were up bright and early at the airport the next morning. When Daniel came down the escalator Mitchell ran to him as soon as he got the chance and jumped right into his arms. He wouldn't leave Daniel's side until it was time for us to go home. We were very surprised. We assumed that it would take some time for Mitchell to warm up but he must have remembered how much he loved Daniel before he left for his mission. It was so fun to see him come home. It's always entertaining when foreign speaking missionaries come home and can't remember how to speak English.

Friday afternoon we took a trip to the Living Planet Aquarium. They have story time every day at noon in their sunken ship. Their story-teller had dressed up in a star-fish costume and had sea puppets for the children to wear while they sang a song. It was great. Mitchell was enthralled and Caleb could have cared less. After story time we walked around for awhile and Mitchell had fun looking at all of the different fish. It is amazing how much he has grown up the past few months. We went to the aquarium for the first time last October and he wasn't very interested but he was very interested this time and made an effort to remember some of the names of the fish that we saw. He had an especially fun time playing on their boat exhibit. Caleb was very tired and didn't have much fun at all. He is walking all over the place now and I thought he would love their coral reef play area. They have tunnels everywhere and in the tunnels are little aquariums of fish for the children to look at. Caleb was too tired even for that. We'll have to take him again when he has more energy.

Thanks for taking the time to read this very LONG blog and look at our pictures. I am glad that every week isn't as full as this past one was. If they are I'll have to learn to update our blog more often!