Easter Weekend

Over Easter weekend, we babysat Ellie on Saturday when both Melanie and Nick were working. She enjoyed a couple of trips to our little park - nice to see another generation playing there!

Cora set a very bad example.

On Easter Sunday, after church we went to Loaf Bakery for some treats before later heading to Grandma and Grandpa's for a family meal.

Are my girls too old for an Easter egg hunt? NOPE!

Especially not when some of the eggs had quarters and $5 bills inside!

It was a nice time together.
 

Week in Review

Oh, my dear Sebastian.

This is not the best bird-hunting technique.

The Queen's English car show was this weekend, and Stace and I made a quick trip there to walk around and admire.

Later on Sunday, Cora was at a show choir rehearsal, so Stace, Violet and I took another Quigley walk. The wildflowers were beautiful! Besides the poppies, these tiny lavender flowers were pretty and prolific.

The girls returned to school, and on Thursday, we went to Violet's last Family Dance at her elementary school. She didn't want to go, but because it was one of our final family events at the school, we forced her to go. Can you tell that we also forced her to take this photo in front of the photo backdrop?

Violet doesn't like crowds, modern music, or loud music, so DJs and dance music aren't her thing. We didn't really spend much time in the actual dance, so I snapped a quick pic as we left, for memory's sake.

Exciting day on Friday! Violet got her braces off! Here she is, post-removal, taking all the photos for her chart. 

Just look at that gorgeous smile! 

Violet had two loose teeth, and both were pulled out when the ortho tech removed the braces. Her LAST two loose teeth!

So, the Tooth Fairy made one last stop at our house (years after our dear girls knew the truth...). The note says, "Congrats on a mouth of adult teeth, Violet! - TF"
 

Utah Road Trip, Part VII

After our Bryce Canyon adventure, we drove back to St. George and spent the night in the same motel we'd stayed in Sunday night.  On Thursday, we enjoyed a nice hotel breakfast, and said goodbye to Colleen, Rigo and the kids. We then made a stop in a St. George pioneer history museum that had a number of interesting artifacts from the 19th century.

Then, it was on toward home, with a stop in Las Vegas. 

Cora and Violet had never been in Vegas, and though neither like big cities or lots of people, Stace and I knew we needed to make a quick stop. We walked through a couple of casinos, concentrating our time in the Venetian since it's so pretty.

Fancy boba teas and macarons helped ease their unease about being in Vegas.

Then, we made our way home. What a fun trip! 
 

Utah Road Trip, Part VI

After a snack, we completed the scenic drive and ended up at the Bristlecone Loop hike, at over 9,100 feet elevation.

There was so much snow left on the ground! It was fun to tromp through it.

We felt like we were so far away from the Southwest beauty we'd been enjoying, up in the pine trees.

But then you could look down, and there were the red and orange and yellow rocks.
 

We stopped to check out this beautiful arch on our drive back down through the park. 

Utah Road Trip, Part V

After we all had breakfast and packed up from the motel, we headed back into Bryce Canyon. We made our first stop the Visitor's Center.

I'm a sucker for museums and visitor's centers, and this one was excellent.
 

We enjoyed the interactive exhibits, where my 15-year-old could pretend to be a groundhog. As you do!

A highlight of the trip was the reaction of the four kids when they first saw the amazing hoodoos, the pillar rock formations.

Lots of ooohs and ahhhhs. 

We hiked down among the formations and got an up-close look at them.

The colors are amazing:  red, pink, orange, yellow.

The face you make when you're practicing coin-flipping, for your upcoming play, and flip your coin right off the cliff.

Utah Road Trip, Part IV

When I was researching about Bryce Canyon, I read that sunrise is magical and worth getting up for. The children were not excited abut this idea, so we adults decided to let them sleep, get up and out, and then return to the motel for breakfast and packing up after our sunrise magic.

Bryce Canyon is quite high elevation, and it was very cold in the early morning - like well below freezing, with an even colder wind. Some of us weren't quite prepared for this level of cold, though we layered up as best we could. 

But was it worth the numb fingers?

Oh.

Yes. 

It.

Was.

Watching a new day dawn at one of God's most interesting places is an experience I'll never forget!

And, we were back at the motel breakfast - an excellent breakfast indeed in plenty of time, as our motel was only 15 minutes from the beauties of the canyon! THAT is a nice change from most of our experiences at national parks.