Take a Break

I thought it would be fun to visit my family in Ut for spring break. Since Daniel had to work, my mom graciously came to help me drive down and back. I don't think I could have made it otherwise! We set off and this is how Mom's week went:

She is a champion Devon Chaser! He is extremely fast and turns on a dime, so having one adult on his tail was essential.
We started our adventure by going to the Aquarium and it was so fun seeing all the animals. They had a wide variety of creatures both aquatic and land. There was a rope bridge that the kids really liked.


Then we played on some Dinosaur bones at the Mall.


Visited Sal and Caitlin.



We drove passed his work which was fun.
Tried some delicious food at Culvers.

And visited some animals on the Farm.


Where the kids got to ride horses!

"Look Mom, no hands!"

 I had a good time there except for some kids ruffing up Devon. I kind of flipped out at that point. He was in a tunnel and these two older boys were hitting his head against the back wall. It was noisy in there, but I was the only parent who reacted to the screaming. Then I screamed a bit and yelled for those boys parents, got my kids and left. I was pretty shaken up. Devon recovered well, but he didn't want to get off his horse, I had to pry him off. Poor thing. They all loved the horses.

Then there was a wagon ride before we went home.

Our next trip was to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. When I moved away from Utah, well over a decade ago, Thanksgiving point was just getting started, now it is a massive attraction.The gardens are amazing, I think we walked through about 2/3 of them. We met up with Grandma Murphy, Aunt Cheryl, Laura and Uncle Matt.
It was a beautiful day and the flowers were stunning. I was surprised to find my cousin there, Matt was working a booth for Winder Farms, where he works. I thought that they were just a dairy, but they deliver all sorts of food and desserts.


There is a statue garden with huge sculptures of events in Christ's life.  
After a quick lunch at IKEA, we went north to visit my Great Aunt Audrey and Uncle Harris. It was a nice visit and I wish that I could have stayed longer, but the kids were tired, so we had to go. Next we visited This is the Place.

I had fond memories of going there when I was a youth and dearly wanted to take the kids there. It was amazing! We started with the memorial to the Mormon Battalion and the pony express.


Not only was it educational, but they had made it very family friendly. The kids got to ride another pony and pet animals. We had lunch at the hotel and rode the train.
 We put them to work washing, ironing and plowing.



Charles liked using the plow.

This house was closed due to a spring cleaning. The descendants of the family who ran this lodging house come up every year to give it a onceover. I though that was so neat!



On Sunday we went to hear my cousin's homecoming talk. She had been serving a mission in the Philippines. Her talk was wonderful and after church we all had a good time visiting and the kids ran a muck. As they are prone to do.
 


Here's Lizzy with her namesake, Elizabeth Murphy:


And Four Generations,

Then we headed out to Boise ID for the night and moseyed on home on Monday. We stopped for a few hours in Baker City visiting the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Here's Lizzy loading up her wagon:





Sorry the images are quite poor. We had a grand time there and then we had lunch at Sumpter Junction. It's a cute restaurant with model trains and one train runs around the whole restaurant. Then we made it home in time for dinner. Mom had to leave the next day, so that was sad, but it was a wonderful week and I am glad to be home.

Off to the Emerald City

About a year ago Jessica and I decided that we should go to the Emerald City Comicon. So since we were going to the Emerald city we just had to do a Wizard of Oz theme. I mean, come on Daniel is from Kansas! How could we not?!? So we decided to do our take on Oz the Great and Powerful. So armed with some images:
And a whole bunch of optimism, we set out to become three of the main characters from this movie. I found a perfect green velvet dress at Goodwill and I fashioned a coat of sorts based on Elsa's icy dress. I wanted Jessica to be able to use the dress on it's own if she wanted. Next we found a huge suit coat and I shrunk it up and made Daniel a vest and tie. He made his top hat and my broom (which I decided not to take). Finding the necklace and head ornament was particularly difficult, but Rex painted a pendant and it looked fabulous. I finally found a squarish pendant to use for Evanora's Head piece. I think they turned out great. Someone even recognized Jessica as Evanora there! We had our picture taken with Clark Gregg who is Director Coulson from Agents of SHIELD. Who is so funny and nice.

We also got to see Alex Kingston who is brilliant! And Hayley Atwell who plays Agent Carter. And a few others. It was a great weekend and I hope to go back some time. Here's the rest of my cosplay pics since I know that is the best part!

Lucky Days

So for St. Patricks Lizzy was asked to make a leprechaun trap to bring to school. We didn't have any real instructions so I looked on pinterest and had Lizzy figure out what she wanted to do. She got very excited and Daniel helped her with the hard parts. I think that it turned out super cute.

She put coins and shiny bits and bobs to attract the leprechaun. 
We also got to go to Lizzy's Green Eggs and Ham breakfast. It was fun. 

All Things Holiday

So I am ashamed to be in the new year without documenting the festivities of the last year. Ugh! Someone hit me with a wet noodle! Anyway, so I should start with Birthdays and Thanksgiving. We celebrated Charles' birthday over the Thanksgiving break, but we still had cake on the 22. 
It's a C for Charles... (ok not really, I gave some to a Sister I visit teach who was in the hospital for her birthday so she didn't celebrate.)
Here's a nice picture of Devon wrangling some chicks:
Then we had the Martins over for the festivities. My picture isn't very good, but it was so cute seeing all the cousins on the couch together.
 
We put Rex to work making delicious Sushi.

I see a tradition in the making! Charles loved his gifts.

Junon did too.

So much cheese! Then we played at the mall and rode the train. It was fun.

Getting so many kids together is impossible!
All in all it was a great Thanksgiving!

New Beginnings

So I have to tell you about the holidays, but I am too excited about this to wait. Behold, the first pictures of the newest member of our clan.

I had an early ultrasound because we were not sure how far along I was, the official due date now is July 11, 2015. So there we are, back to your regularly scheduled afternoon.