Spring Break part 1: Mesa Verde

For spring break this year we decided to do a road trip with some friends. Chase decided not to sleep the night before we left so we had a little trouble getting up the morning of our trip, but somehow we dragged ourselves out of bed and headed to Colorado. The kids cooperated as well as could be expected on the looooong drive, but we were all glad to finally make it to the camping area.

Our first view of Cortez, Colorado

The next morning we ate a quick breakfast and headed up to Mesa Verde. Before we left the kids were playing at the campground playground and Ethan was spinning around and around on a tire swing. Evedently it upset his stomach, and halfway up the mountain Ethan got sick. We had to stop and clean him up, and clean up the car. We drove back down to the campsite and had him take a quick shower in the trailer and change his clothes, and we headed back up.

The first area that we stopped at was the Spruce Tee House which had a quick little hike down to some ruins. Being able to get up so close to the houses the Native Americans built into the cliffs was something we'll never forget!







We were all able to climb down a ladder into a kiva. Inside was a small round room which was used for a ceremonial chamber.

Julia and Caden tried out the corn grinding stones












We stopped and ate lunch, and then headed to our scheduled hike to the Cliff Palace. This hike was a little more difficult with some really steep areas.






We had a guide on this hike and we weren't able to explore as freely as we had on the previous hike, but it was still really neat.

It was really remarkable that they were able to construct these buildings into the side of the cliff without any of the modern equipment that we have today.

Back at the campsite Chase loved seeing (and feeding) the horses!

The kids all slept in the tent the first night besides Chase, and the adults slept in the trailer. On the second night it was a lot colder and we all squeezed into the trailer.

The kids had a great set-up in the tent

The next morning we headed back to Utah, but the trip wasn't over yet...

Soccer, we made it through again!

This spring the weather has been so yucky for almost all of the kids' soccer games. It was either snowing, raining, or super windy and freezing, so I kept Chase home for several of the games. When I did attempt to take him to some of our Saturday games in the cold I ended up having to leave early because he was not happy and needed to leave.
For the kids' last game of the season the weather ended up finally cooperating. It was beautiful and we made it through Julia's game, a short picnic lunch there, and Ethan's game-- finally!







Julia has done great this year, scoring several goals throughout the season. She plays soccer with Ethan and his friends so she really gets a lot of practice against some tough competition, and it shows!

Derek was Ethan's coach again this last season. I know Ethan really loves having him as a coach, and several of the kids from our team have asked how they can have him for a coach again next year, he does a great job.

Ethan has really gotten into soccer the past year or two and enjoys it a lot. His team always wants him to be the goalie because he does such a good job at it. He does really enjoy being goalie, though he does enjoy being able to play on the field too.

Last fall Orem Youth Soccer decided that they wanted a new logo. They held a contest and let everyone submit their ideas, Derek put together a few different ideas and submitted them. We never heard anything back about it until this spring when Derek got a phone call telling him that he had won the logo contest! He won tickets to a Salt Lake Real soccer game, and his new logo is already being displayed at the soccer fields.

Derek's logo is shown on the left side of this sign.



It has been a great season, and the kids are already looking forward to fall when soccer will be starting up again.

(Waaaaaaay late) Happy Easter!

Chase didn't get too much candy in his basket, but he definitely took advantage when one of the kids' eggs broke open and spilled jelly beans all over the floor. He stuffed a bunch in his mouth and loved them!

I convinced them to stay in their church clothes long enough to get a couple of pictures. I tried to take a picture of me and the kids, but it didn't turn out so well:

So Julia said she'd take a picture of me and the boys.

We had dinner at my parents' house, and my Grandpa came to dinner too.
It was a wonderful evening!

Funeral

The night of Chase's birthday party we received a call from my Dad. He had gotten a call right before the last session of General Conference- his Mother, my Grandma, was not doing well. He stayed in Salt Lake and went to the care center to visit her. My mom was at our house for Chase's party but was going to head up right after presents to go be with my Dad. Right around the time we were finishing up the party we got another call from my Dad that she was gone. It happened so quickly, but she had been suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia for several years so it wasn't a huge shock to us.

The funeral was the following Friday, a cold, cloudy, snowy day. It really was an amazing experience to be there with all of my Dad's family. I completely agree with what my sister stated on her blog, "The words spoken and the beautiful music performed during the funeral really made us all rejoice in Grandma's life and in her posterity." It really made me appreciate what an amazing woman my Grandmother was.

I grabbed some pictures from the family luncheon from my sister's blog:

My two sister who live in Ohio were able to come out for the funeral and for the first time in a long time all six sisters were able to be together!
Four of us have had babies in the last year and a half or so, and it was so much fun seeing all the cousins together.

It was a weekend full of tears, but also a wonderful opportunity to be with so many of our loved family members.

Chase's 1st birthday

Yes, his birthday party was quite a while ago but I'm yet again trying to catch up, so here it is!

Chase's birthday party was actually on the day after his birthday because the night of his birthday was the General Priesthood meeting, and we had a baby shower to go to that night too. We had thought it would be fun to have the party outside since the entire week it had been warm and the weather had been gorgeous, but of course the day of the party it snowed. We were having grilled chicken for dinner, and poor Derek had to go outside in the wind and snow to cook it. (It was very yummy though!) Derek's parents were on skype with us when we did the birthday cake, that's why you see him holding up his laptop in front of Chase.

Chase wasn't too sure exactly what was going on at first. He did really like the Happy Birthday song though!

We got some video of him eating his birthday cake. I think he had more fun throwing it on the floor than eating it!

After cake we had presents. Ethan and Julia really enjoyed opening his presents, ha ha, but did let Chase help.

And of course he had to taste the wrapping paper!

Daphne enjoyed the presents too, especially one of the boxes. She decided that it would be a perfect chair!

Chase had tons of presents, but I think he had just as much fun playing with the boxes and wrapping paper.

Happy Birthday to my baby boy!

Chase's 1 year stats: 31.5 inches tall (90th percentile) and 21.8 pounds (30th percentile).