Parker turned 5!

Parker's birthday happened to fall on a day that there was a big planned power outage in Fillmore, school was canceled, and mostly no one could work without the power. So we were lucky to have Daddy around and got to bring Devin and Isaac along on a fun day up north for Parker.

We went to Lehi's awesome pool

and to "Jump on in", a big trampoline playplace

then to a restaurant (Mimi's) for dinner

He said he had the best day ever, it was so much fun just to spend the whole day having fun with these sweet boys. Happy Birthday Parker!!

Rolling eggs at the sand dunes

Easter (for us) includes going out to the sand dunes to roll our eggs down the hills. My Aunt Jolene and Uncle John live in my parents house while they are away, and my cousins Hanna and Robin were down visiting with all their kids. So we all went out to the sand dunes one evening. It was of course a little windy, but the kids really didn't care. Plus, its not really Easter until you've eaten a literal "sand"witch. :)

My other nieces and nephews were busy, but we got to bring Isaac with us. We love Isaac!

First sand experience for Nix

Easter 2013

Easter Sunday this year was spent trying to make our way home from Holland. We did a little Easter thing in Holland, but of course I had more things to do once we got home :)

Looking to see if the Easter bunny had come...

He came! 

Love these sweet boys, Happy Easter!!!

We went to Holland!!! (day 1 and 2)

Well we did it!! We made to trip to Holland to visit my parents who are serving for 3 years as LDS mission president in the Netherlands/Belgium mission. 

Here is my play by play, more for my benefit to remember than anything :)

Day one: Friday

We made it to Salt Lake in the midst of pouring rain, everything went perfectly and we got our tickets and through security without any problems. Had a quick bite to eat, and boarded our plane.

 waiting at the gate

 The boys were so excited for their first plane ride

 Nix was an angel and was just happy to be along for the ride

We had a 4 hour flight to Chicago that went great but was just a bit behind schedule, we had a quick connection where we needed to take a shuttle to our connecting gate, take the boys to the restrooms, and pack around all our carry on mess. We RAN through the airport while they held the plane for us, but ended up making it on ok.

After a 9 hour flight, We got into Amsterdam around 8 am, which is 2 am Utah time. The boys were so so good, when we landed the people in front of us saw Nix and said they had no idea I had had a baby behind them the whole time. We have such good boys!

We made it through the huge airport, customs, and baggage claim. Then walked through the doors to see my parents there waiting for us!!! We were all so happy to see each other, my Mom grabbed Nix (who she and my Dad have never met) and held him for a long time :) 

We took the train from Amstedam to Lieden, where the mission office is. I was super windy and cold so we hurried and walked from the train station to the office. They have parking garages that are several stories tall and just filled with bike after bike, I've never seen anything like it. There is no parking anywhere, so everyone you see is riding a bike (and they don't stop for anyone or anything!)

On our way to breakfast we had to stop and get our first windmill picture. We were not as prepared for the cold as I should have been, I was expecting chilly but this was bitter cold. Luckily the mission office had some extra coats for Lance and I. It was the coldest spring in almost 100 years, my parents kept saying "Sorry, It is usually so nice here!" Haha, I'll believe that when I see it, I guess we have to go back now :)

When new missionaries come in they always take them to the panekuken haus (pancake house) the pancakes there are so so good, they are huge and have lots of yummy toppings. I got caramlized bananas with powdered sugar, lance got "speck, haam, and kass" which is bacon, ham, and cheese. The boys got a "kid sized" powdered sugar panakuken.

Or course we were exhausted and so after our brunch we drove to the mission home which is about 15 minutes away. We unpacked, had a nap while my parents watched the boys , had dinner (I loved eating a dinner my Mom had cooked!) and then went back to bed :)
The boys were up around 3am (9am Utah time), Yay for Ipods to entertain them while we try to get a little more sleep.

It had been too cold for the regular flowers to come out, so the yard workers planted flowers all around the mission home for our arrival :)

We Went to Holland!!! (day 3 & 4)

Day 3 of our Holland trip was Sunday, my parents were scheduled to speak in Leeuwarden. Which is a 2 hour drive away. It was fun to drive across Holland and see the beautiful country, and it was so much fun to listen to my parents both speak (in Dutch!) they did a great job. We had a few people translate for us. It was fun to hear them interpret what my parents were saying. Of course everyone loves them and is so happy and grateful for the job that they are doing.

The boys went to primary, and a lot of the leaders speak English but the meetings and lesson were all in Dutch. The boys did great and tried hard to understand what was going on :) The ward had a lunch together after church was over. It was ... different, but fun :) 

We drove back to my parents house and just spent the rest of the afternoon together. The boys played dominoes, and wrestled with Pop (they have missed their wrestling matches so much!)

My Mom made us such a yummy dinner of the best Salmon I have ever had! Yum!

The boys showed Nana and Pop videos of their wrestling matches

Baths in Nana's sink 

Day 4 (Monday) was super cold and windy so we wanted to do some indoor things.

We went to Den Hagg to a fun dome theater, and watched "The Living Sea"  It was funny because it was playing over the speakers in Dutch, but we had headphones that were playing it in English, and the English was the real words and narration that went with the movie. The boys loved it and it was actually really neat.

We drove to Delft while we were out. We pulling into this parking garage and I had to take a picture, it was the cleanest nicest parking garage I have ever seen. The floor was painted and shiny... it was crazy. The Dutch are really clean, organized people.

Every city has a centrum, with a big church in the middle and a square around it with shops and stuff. It was fun to walk around and see it all. 

There are canals everywhere. I always imagined one big canal that kind of windes around. But there are hundreds of separate canals everywhere, then the windmills lift the water from one canal to the next and on and on until the water is finally at sea level and heads out to the ocean, 

We got back home and it was just fun to be there with my parents and watch them get to know Nix, he loved them right from the start and just got more and more attached.

Loved this!