An egg hunt and a Jazz game

Saturday morning, the kids dyed and decorated eggs.

Jared and Teresa hid them and had the kids hunt them down.

In the afternoon, we relaxed while Jared/Teresa and family went to Teresa's sister's house for their family Easter party.

(Jason went to the movie "GI Joe" with Brandon and J.C.)

When they got back, we packed up our bagel sandwich dinner and headed to Salt Lake. The guys and kids went on the Trax, while Tereasa, Lynley and I traveled by car. (In case Lynley needed to come home early. Ok, also so we could make a quick stop into Teresa's favorite home decor store on the way there.). We met at the new downtown mall by temple square. We didn't have a lot of time before the game, but wandered around for awhile. Jade and Rylee bought matching red sequined shoes from the VANS store.

As we were headed back to the car for dinner, we noticed we were missing someone... Where's Carson??? We were more than half way back to the car, so Jared and Colton took off to try and find Carson. (I guess Carson is famous for getting lost/left behind. They told us the story of him getting lost at Disneyland several times.) We ate our dinner, at the car, while waiting to hear news of Carson.

Jared finally called. Carson was waiting for someone to find him, at the last store we had all been together...the Disney Store! (He, being an experienced "lost boy", knew to stay put.) Whew! Guess his reputation continues. This time, lost at the Disney STORE. :)

When we were done eating and all back together, we walked over to the Jazz game.

Treyson and Emma were the lucky ones that night. Treyson caught a ball they threw into the stands (made his night!) and Emma caught a coveted (by Jordyn) pom-pom. 

The kids danced their hearts out, trying to get noticed and put up on the big screen...to no avail. Still a really fun time together.

Spring Break 2013

As Jason was talking to his brother Jared, a Spring Break plan started to form. 

Come down for a Jazz game..and a family BBQ..and Easter. 

Ok.

We left Thursday, after retrieving Rylee from her choir tour bus. She had been traveling back from San Fransisco, CA with her Cantus choir group all night. She had just spent 11+ hours on the bus and then got to spend 4+ hours more in our van. Luck her. She traveled through 5 states that day! :)

 Friday morning, we went to the Hill Aerospace Museum. 

Rylee-Taylee-Jordyn-Treyson-Jade-Colton

Abree-Emma-Carson

Lynley

We found the airplane that our Grandpa Smullin had worked on.

Inside there was all sorts of airplanes..and airplane history.

Rylee

Taylee

Treyson

Abree

A nice employee took our group aside and did fun experiments with the kids. They played with an electricity globe (can't remember the real name).

For the final experiment, he had the kids link pinkie fingers. He charged them up and then touched the electric globe. It sent a shock through the line, making the kids YELP and drop to their knees.

We ate a pizza lunch in a park, close to Grandpa Smullin and Uncle Fred's work. They came over and said Hi!

That evening, Jared had planned a family BBQ at Grandma/Grandpa Smullin's house. (Thanks Jared. That was awesome!) Everyone was there except Jeff/Amy and family. I jokingly called it the Cousin Party..and was so glad it was over with..not having to worry about it for this summer. They didn't go for it..guess the Cousin Party is still on at our house, this summer.  :)

After the BBQ, Teresa had planned a candy hunt. 

A candy hunt is the same as an egg hunt, but without having to fill hundreds of little plastic eggs...genius!!!

Cathy and I hid candy in the back yard for the big kids. While Teresa and company hid candy in the front yard for the younger kids.

Grandma Smullin and Frankie (their new dog).

Jessica-Catie-Ethel

Joshua

Lynley

Christian

Savannah

Jak

It was a fun day and so nice to be with everyone. 

Thanks everyone for hanging out with us!

PS- That night, Melissa, Juila and I went to the movie, "The Host". Melissa and I enjoyed it, but Julia was NOT impressed. 

Yay, for late-night girl time!

4-Wheelin'

After eating breakfast and loading up the van, we were onto our final adventure, before heading home.

Our family, along with Ira and Cheyenne, were the first wave of 4-wheelers.

When we arrived at "home base" we set up the bug/shade screen, put out camping chairs and table and unloaded the 4-wheelers. We passed around helmets, goggles and gloves, until everyone was outfitted. Ira gave us brief instructions on how to operate the 4-wheelers and then we were off.

There were 4 vehicles;
Ira/Cheyenne/Abree
Jason/Treyson
Me/Rylee
and Taylee on the little one.

There is a learning curve when driving a 4-wheeler. Taylee had a few "off-road" moments trying to get the hang of it, at first.

I too had an "off-road" moment when I over-corrected the steering and veered off into the meadow, instead of going up the hill. My learning was, keep the steering handles straight, even when the vehicle tips and bumps around. If you try to turn, it's way too much and you end up in tall grass and bushes, instead of going up the hill. Lesson learned.

Part way through, Taylee switched with Rylee to drive the little 4-wheeler. Rylee had been a big backseat driver on my 4-wheeler, commenting on Taylee's off-road experiences and telling me what to do. I was glad when she could experience it herself and show us how it was done.

The last stretch before getting back to "home base" was on a fairly hilly gravel road. Our speed increased and we started getting some distance between vehicles. Ira was in front, then speedy Rylee, then Jason and then Taylee and I. When I came to the top of a hill, I saw Jason stopped and Rylee off of her 4-wheeler. When asked what happened Jason said as he came up the hill, he saw Rylee's bike on it's side, with the wheels spinning in the air. Rylee couldn't quite explain the events leading up to the wheel spinning, but she was ok and was still having a blast.
I think she was probably going a little too fast for the slippery gravel road, but what do I know I'm just the slow-poke mom.

Taylee and Rylee switched once again and I got to hear "Go faster Mom!" all the way back to camp.... backseat drivers!
When we got back from our 2+ hour ride, everyone else had just arrived at camp. We gathered firewood and made a fire to roast hotdogs and s'mores for lunch.

After lunch, we said good-bye to the second wave of 4-wheelers, as they took off for their own adventure.

Jason/Becky's oldest daughter Whitney, wiped out, hitting a tree and scraping herself up good, to the tune of $800 worth of damage to the 4-wheeler. Yikes!

Jason-Jay-Ira

Awww, they love each other.

We stuck around for a little longer and played "Curses" (a VERY silly game) with those who were still at camp. Then we hit the road... homeward bound.

Thank you to the Crawfords for delicious meals, comfy bedding, good company, lots of laughs and many adventures. Love you guys!

A Hiking We Will Go!

On Monday, we decided it would be fun to take a hike to the "Wind Caves".

We each made our own sandwich wraps, slathered on sunscreen and put on our best hiking shoes then headed out. Becky (7+ months pregnant) and 3 younger ones stayed back, not knowing if a hike would be that enjoyable for them.
Nicky-Taylee-Jay-Treyson-Jason-Cheyenne-Madelyn-Marissa-Savannah-Abree-Rylee-Emilie-Me-Brayden
Our hiking group (minus Spencer).

Spencer finally decided that he WOULD hike with us, when given the choice of staying in the car and not having anything to eat or coming. He said he would rather hike, than "starve to death". :)

Here we go!

About 1/3 of the way up the mountain, we came upon some people stopped on the trail. When I listened, I knew why they had stopped... I heard loud rattling! There was a rattle snake close by and he was warning us to STAY ON THE TRAIL! It made some of our group (including me) a little nervous about continuing, but we did.

Taylee begged me to let her go see it. I begged her to leave it alone and just keep going. She was so disappointed.

Our group was divided into 3 parts most of the way; the teenagers and older kids, me with some younger kids and Jason, Jay, Nicky and the youngest kids. The first group made it to the wind cave a head of all of us. They explored without restraint.

I heard a person (not from our hiking group) say, "Did you see that boy fall? He made me nervous." I was almost certain it was Treyson they were talking about. I found Treyson and the big kid group, scaling the rocky mountain side. There was a narrow ledge that if you hugged the mountain and shuffled your feet, you could end up in another big cave. (So I was told. I was not brave enough to find out for myself.) As I was getting down to the first cave, I saw Treyson disappear around the corner on the narrow ledge. I told him to tell our group to come back and that I didn't want anyone else to go back over there. I couldn't handle the worry of someone falling. The cave had a lot of loose dirt and gravel and it was easy to slip and slide around.

And yes, he was "that boy that fell".

Looking down from the top of the wind cave.

Even when hiking she looks good. :)

Beautiful views.

Rylee-Me-Abree-Jay-Taylee-Treyson

Marissa-Jason-Cheyenne-Savannah-Madelyn-Spencer

Brayden-Jeron-Emilie-Nicky

On the way down the mountain, Treyson started running and wiped out. I yelled to him, "Treyson, are you ok?" He didn't answer right away.

"Treyson are you ok?"

When I got to him, he had scraped up his knee and elbow, but he was ok. He stuck by me after that, but that wasn't the end of him falling. By the end of the day, he had many bumps, scrapes and bruises and his legs and hands were filthy!

Later, he was talking to me about his fall. He said, "When I fell, I started going down the mountain, so I just grabbed the strongest plants I could see. When I didn't answer, did you think you lost me?"

After we all made it down the mountain, we went to a park to have lunch and then headed home.

Nicky had an awesome dinner planned... dutch oven chicken, dutch oven potatoes, cheesy veggies and homemade rootbeer. The kids were fascinated by the dry ice and just had to play in it.

Catchin' clouds.

After dinner, I pulled out some old photos of Jason, Jay and Ira in highschool. We sat around and reminisced.. listening to stories of "the good ol' days".