California

We had a jam-packed trip this past weekend to visit our friends in California. We barely escaped a huge Denver snowstorm that threatened to cancel our flight. Instead, our flight home was cancelled due to mechanical problems so we ended up staying an extra couple of days. Our fun included visiting our old ward, Disneyland twice, the beach twice, going to parks, experiencing an earthquake while in a movie theatre watching a movie about the end of the world (crazy), yummy milkshakes, Tami's baby shower, but best of all was visiting with our friends. We miss you already!

things can get pretty silly with 4 girls

beach fun

always on her tip-toes

Disneyland

obligatory visit to In-N-Out.....Rachel and Tami always indulge me

on the tram to Disneyland

Disney's California Adventure- it was so hot that day!

Redondo Beach

We just got home from a terrific vacation to California. It was so much fun that I have decided to do nothing today (except laundry) and instead catch up on some rest. But here is a picture of Hannah at the beach- one of the many fun things we did.

3 days of crazy Easter fun!

Besides planting Easter grass, our first activity was an egg hunt at Cook Park with Hannah's friend Brewer. Here they are waiting on the bench for the fun to begin.

Hannah was the first one racing out the door to fill up her Easter basket. There was no limit so the kids pretty much went crazy. We brought home a ton of eggs and candy. She especially liked finding M & M's, one of her favorites.

Got a blue one!

This is so much fun!

I love Easter!

Her first meeting with the Easter Bunny. She would only sit next to him and give him a high five.

Meeting #2 was at the Children's Museum on Saturday. We had fun doing all of the projects there. It was way too crowded so I couldn't wait to get out of there!

Hannah decorated a basket, died an egg, and made these cute bunny ears.

Decorating eggs at home with Dad

Easter breakfast was french toast shaped like chicks and bunnies.

Ready for church!

When Hannah woke up she went on an egg hunt around the apartment. The Easter Bunny/Ryan had hidden them for her to find. She was so excited, even though each egg only had 2 mini M&M's in it! After she found them, then she went on a treasure hunt with clues to find her basket. Growing up, my parents always hid our baskets and I remember having a lot of fun trying to find them. One memorable year was when it was in the dryer! Instead of candy, Hannah gots some chick stickers and a little wind-up rabbit and an Easter book of "Max & Ruby." We spent the night watching "Bee Movie". It was a great day.

What?

This was one of the prizes in an egg that Hannah found at the Cook Park egg hunt. What? This must be a leftover from a party in 1999. It made me laugh.

Finally, some snow to play in.....

Visitors

This weekend Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us. We tried to pack in as many fun things as possible: the zoo, Wash Park, Duffeyroll, Rioja, d Bar, hiking around Red Rocks, the Denver Mint tour (did you know that the Denver Mint holds 1/4 of the nations gold?), Casa Bonita, the 16th Street mall, our library, Confluence Park to feed the ducks and play at REI, church, and playing Rockband to name a few. Hannah had so much fun and skipped a few naps and stayed up way too late because she was just too excited to have them here. It was a great visit.

On the stage at the amphitheatre in Red Rocks there was a group playing called "The Free Jam Society"- anyone could come up and pick and instrument and play or just dance around. Hannah liked playing the maracas and the cow bell.

We hiked around the Trading Post Trail and saw a lot of beautiful scenery and luckily no rattlesnakes. Hannah even fell asleep at the end, which I could hardly believe. By the end our pants had red dust all over them!

View from our hike

enjoying some frozen yogurt with rainbow sprinkles

Of course we had to visit the famous Casa Bonita! It's a themed Mexican restaurant complete with cliff divers, a mariachi band, Black Bart's cave, an arcade, and a treasure chest filled with tootsie rolls!

Casa Bonita has all-you-can-eat sopapillas!

Hannah has always loved riding on carousels- this one is at the zoo.

our lucky day

When Hannah woke up she discovered that a leprechaun had been to our house! She followed the green footprints around the kitchen and into the family room. When there were no more footprints, she looked under the blanket that they led to and found a special St. Patrick's Day book he left for her. It was pretty funny because when I told her to follow the footprints she was a little scared (thinking the leprechaun was real) and was scared to lift up the blanket because she thought he was hiding under there. But after realizing he gave her a present, she spent the rest of the day asking where the leprechaun was and saying that he was so nice. Then we had Lucky Charms for breakfast. Hannah had 3 bowls! She especially loved the marshmallows and picked out the moons and rainbows to eat first.

After playing at the park with a friend (yeah for 70 degree weather) we went to Duffeyroll for delicious cinnamon rolls. They're flaky like croissants and very delicious. Hannah had the kind with green sprinkles and I chose Pecanilla Crunch. Yum.

Our day got very lucky when we stopped by Einstein Bagels to get some green bagels. I ordered 3 and the man helping me put 12 in and said they were free! So for dinner we had green bagels and green eggs and ham (eggs with chives and bacon).