Lots of EASTER ... 2012!

EASTER ...  

included LOTS of Easter Egg hunts before we finally celebrated Easter on Easter Sunday!  

Our first egg hunt was our annual (and growing larger every year!) FHE Egg Hunt!  Micah was just happy to get a few eggs - while Benjamin was bummed that he didn't find the prize egg! 

 

Most of the kids at our Egg Hunt... I'm sure it will GROW even larger next year!

 Jacob was content with the 2 eggs Nana helped him to find...

 Benjamin and Micah BOTH had egg hunts at school... Benjamin's was a no-parent egg hunt - but we got to go to Micah's!

 Micah was a little embarrassed at first but then got more than his fair share!

Micah's cute little preschool class!

 Conference Weekend ... the boys got to have an egg hunt put on by Mom Mom with two of their cousins!  There were LOTS of eggs!!

Micah found one of the prize eggs with money in it!

 Our family at the cabin...

 The Monday BEFORE Easter ... we were able to go to the Owens (Grandaddy and Grandma's) for a BIG cousin egg hunt!  The kids had fun!

 Easter Bunny - Saturday!! 

 Jacob was SO excited about his pacifiers!

 The boys looking in their Easter baskets!

 We love celebrating Easter Sunday by going to church and rejoicing in the life and Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ!  We are so blessed to have the Gospel in our lives...

 the boys were pretty tired after church... so we had to take separate pictures...

the boys with Jonathan - HANDSOME!

Happy Easter from the Owens!

Grand Cayman Mom's Weekend OFF Trip!

 My AWESOME friend Lynette and I were able to have a Mom's weekend off thanks to our AMAZING husbands who held down the forts at home! 

We went in March which seemed to be perfect in Grand Cayman - and we were able to squeeze in SO many late night chats, yummy food, fun excursions, and LOTS of smiles and laughter! 

Lynette and I on Seven Mile Beach - just out from our hotel...

 These chickens and roosters were EVERYWHERE - literally and were even the local "road-kill."  No one should be hungry there - if so - they should just take a walk and they'd have a dozen chickens for dinner!

 This was another common site - and they were HUGE -- about 1 & 1/2 to 2 feet long!

The BEST WORST DINNER ever - at Roland's Garden - which is supposedly one of the BEST places to eat on the island - either we know NOTHING about German food - or everyone who eats here enjoys the alcohol first and doesn't realize what they're eating!  OH BOY - we had so many laughs and possibly even a few tears trying to force ourselves to eat the food!  EESH!

 We had a fun time just driving around to different sites - this is  a popular spot named "Hell".  It was neat to see but we thought it was a little anticlimactic for all of the hype.

 One of our favorites was snorkeling at Cemetery Beach.  The fish were amazing here!  We did a lot of laughing too - probably mostly at ME because it took me awhile to get the hang of snorkeling!

 This is one of my favorite pictures - closest to capturing the laughter or me trying to snorkel!

View of the fish...

Lynette snorkeling - she is a PRO!

 fish in the water...

STINGRAY CITY...

We took a boat ride out to Stingray City - which also included a few stops to snorkel as well.  Here we are with the stingrays ... AMAZING!  We got to feed them as well - which kind of felt like a vacuum brushing over your hand!

 

Stingray back rubs...

AND ... we both got to kiss the stingray as well!

 One of our stops was to see these incredible starfish ... a super nice man dove down and got one for us to hold - so many amazing animals in the sea!

One of our site-seeing tours was to the Turtle Farm ... they had all sizes of sea turtles - from big to tiny!  It was fun to hold these little guys!

 Our last day was a drive out to Rum Point and then a night kayaking ADVENTURE to a Bioluminescent Bay!  INCREDIBLE!  

This was the RENTAL CAR aka "the egg" that we RENTED while we were there - did I mention they drive on the OPPOSITE side of the road!  Thankfully when we first got in it - Lynette suggested that we say a prayer (she must've been a little nervous about my driving skills!!) but we did GREAT and only drove on the wrong side ONCE I think!!

The kayaking trip was by FAR one of the hardest things I've ever done - but probably one of the most "fulfilling!"  We had to paddle in the open ocean which was a little tricky - and VERY tiring - but we did it!  We were able to see 3 different types of bioluminescence - my favorite were the SHRIMP - they kind of looked like lightening in the water when you hit the ground with your paddle!

Before our trip... and before we were exhausted!

Fun sign at Rum Point!

One of my favorite pictures of the beauty of the island ... heading to Rum Point!  Definitely the trip of a lifetime and SO many memories!  Loved every minute!

Jacob's First Haircut!

 Jacob came with the MOST hair of all 3 of my boys... so he also happens to be the YOUNGEST of all three to get his first haircut!  He DIDN'T LIKE it at all!

He was smiling before we got going...

And was THRILLED to play with Micah when we were done!

Cabin Days with the Mitchells!

We had a blast with the Mitchells at the Cabin!

Here are the kiddos (minus Jacob) at Mercier! It was customer appreciation day - so they REALLY treated us nice...

We took a little hike to the Swinging Bridge ... it was a little chilly (but FEBRUARY right!)...

The kids were troopers and we had a fun little picnic on some logs right off of the trail!

My FAVORITE was that the older cousins got to sleep in the same bed and would wake up in the morning giggling and playing! LOVED IT!

So happy for cousin time at the cabin!

Ski Trip 2012!!

Had such a fun time on our ski trip ... despite me being sick, the boys not getting the BEST nights' sleep, and not having "day-care" for Jacob one of the two days - we made WONDERFUL MEMORIES! The weather was AMAZING and many more fond memories!!

Here is Benjamin riding up the chairlift at Deer Valley with me at the end of the day! Hopefully he learned more than how to throw a snowball and drink hot chocolate!

Victoria actually took me all over the blues and greens as quick as we could go in the last 2 hours we had to ski!! It was fun having her lead the way!

Here's a quick picture at Alf's Lodge at Alta ... where we stop for leftover COLD pizza, french fries, hot chocolate and candy/granola bars!!

The lady skiers this year: Jenny, Rachel, Lindsey (soon to be MARRIED!) and Victoria!

So we never got a picture of Micah up on skis ... SAD! And we only have a little video of Benjamin - better luck next year with video/photos!

One of MANY pictures over the years of Jonathan and I atop Alta!

AND to end the trip with a cherry on top ... we were able to be at Miss Hazel Hobson's blessing - what an honor! I LOVE Laura - I still call her and all of the other ladies I roomed with at college - ROOMMATES!

Because I was sick I missed/forgot to take other key photos ... BYU basketball game with Jonathan, photo with my friends Shelley and Emily, family dinners, Uncle Jared baby-sitting the boys, and of course Micah on skis for the first time! Thank goodness for sweet MEMORIES!

ps... The boys LOVE LOVE anything about the walkie talkies - and especially when Grandaddy or Dad talk to them via walkie talkie!

"The Beach House!"

ALMOST a YEAR later... I'm hopefully back to blogging...

but with 1000's of pictures to edit - this may take awhile!

We celebrated the NEW YEAR at St. George Island at:
"The Beach House!"

Here's a sweet picture of Jacob and me!

Micah really did chase those seagulls probably a 1/2 mile down the beach!
Thanks to Aunt Laura for going to get him!!

Here are the Ray and Owens cousins!

William and Benjamin had lots of fun together this trip!

Aunt Laura got lots of quality nephew time and helped me out LOTS!

I LOVE when I catch these two playing TOGETHER!

Thankfully Jonathan was able to join us for the weekend and they made a fun sandcastle!

After Jacob ate fist-fulls of sand, I resorted to bringing crackers for him to eat!

Uncle Scott is pretty much a big KID! He LOVES building things...
and explaining things - even to Benjamin to asks a MILLION questions!
The "Great Wall" was just one of the many sand features that were made!

Enjoyed our time - like always at "the Beach House!"