Bunny Business

Easter has always been a holiday in flux. Our traditions aren't nearly so entrenched at Easter as they are at Christmas. We've really tried to incorporate both Smith and Green Easter traditions - with mixed results.

Diamond grew up with a "jelly bean trail" - so we have tried to work that in:


Diamond's family had put together baskets, so we have baskets too:

My family always had to find hidden "nests" - with each kid having a different color to find. We tried to incorporate that as well by having the kids find plastic eggs:


Somehow they each ended up with TWO baskets!?! One basket they had to find and one basket to collect the plastic eggs.

The boys never know what to expect when they wake up Easter morning. Go figure. I'm never sure what's going to happen either.

Pinewood Pressure

Last year at the Pine Wood Derby, Big Boy #1 had a less than ideal experience. Between a couple of computer glitches that didn't work in his favor and a car that didn't race so well he was in tears the whole way home. Trying to avoid a repeat of last year, Diamond got on line to find some Pinewood tips and with a ton of help from Grandpa Green, Big Boy #1 made "The Patriot Missile"

With Grandma's funeral, BB#1 didn't have a chance to finish his car before we left - and the Derby was going to start at 6:30pm on the day we drove home. We got into Colorado about 4:00pm, headed to Grandpa Green's house at 4:15, finished up a bit before 6:00 and got to the Derby by 6:15.

We weren't going for a win - I just wanted a boy who wouldn't be crying at the end of the night.

Early on I could tell that The Patriot was performing well, but I had no idea how it was ranking until they announced they winner.

HE WON!!!

Thanks Grandpa for all of your help! We couldn't have done it without you!

Utah

Though the boys had only been back in school for three days we left for Grandma Smith's funeral last Thursday. We tried (unsuccessfully) to time our drive to hit the mountains between snowstorms.

Despite the harrowing drive, we had a great time in Utah. The big boys had a couple sleepovers with their cousins leaving the Caboose to be spoiled by his grandparents.

Ann cooked with him, took him on a walk to feed the birds, played the piano, etc.

The big boys spent just about every waking moment (and quite a few sleeping ones) with their cousins. The Smith clan has five boys between almost 8 and 11 years old. They went swimming, played video games, played baseball in the backyard, went to a bounce house, etc. It was boy heaven!

We were also able to fit in a BYU Men's Volleyball game. Diamond used to take me to their games all the time when we were dating. Back then the spectators could barely fill the first few rows. Last week there were well over 3,000 cheering them on. I guess more co-eds figured out how much fun is it to watch gorgeous, broad-shouldered, tall men jumping while wearing shorts. (Diamond, I promise that when you took me here on dates I was (pretty much) TOTALLY focused on YOU.)


The Caboose adored his older girl cousins and managed to get them in some kind of competition over who could hold his attention the longest. Two very cute teenage girls doting on him? Yeah, the Caboose was in heaven too.

Of course the reason we came out was to honor Grandma Smith. The funeral was lovely. (And yes, the casket was pink - apparently Grandma's favorite color. I wonder if caskets come in aquamarine...)

It was amazing to see all her posterity. She had 5 children (4 who lived to adulthood) 19 grandchildren, 89 great grandchildren and 8 great-grand children. It was quite a crowd. We had a great time reuniting with so many cousins - many of whom we hung out with during our days at BYU but who now have five, six, even seven kids. Makes me think I'm a wimp for settling on just three kids!


All of Diamond's siblings were able to make it. It was a great celebration of family and Grandma's life. 'Till We Meet Again...

Spring Break

One of the perks of working for the Canadian government is how they are required to compensate their employees for any overtime. While they no longer pay out in cash, they do give Diamond the time back in vacation. So with the fiscal year about to close, Diamond had a full week's worth of time he was able to spend with me and the boys over Spring Break. We didn't go anywhere, but we had a great time playing around home.

We also took the boys swimming. It was a great way to burn off some energy!

Why do they call it SPRING Break in Colorado??? We had a big blizzard move in and were stuck at home for a full day. A day at home with nothing to do WOULD have been fun, had the alternative been school, but when we had a full day of fun planned, I was suffering from cabin fever about three hours in! But once the sun came back out the boys had a ball making a snow tunnel/fort.

I think by the end of the week we were all ready to return to our regular schedule.