Houston!

We were dying the day we left to Houston to look out and see the sprinklers going on the golf course amidst a bunch of snow ha ha.

Always nice to leave snow knowing you are headed to better weather. We decided a month or two ago that we wanted to go to visit Chandra in Houston for Spring Break. We told her we were coming. Then we discovered that flights were like triple the normal cost during spring break. So we ended up flying out of Salt Lake and getting a layover flight to make it more affordable.

Our layover in Las Vegas was only supposed to be an hour and a half but a couple weeks before our trip our flight times changed and the layover was now going to be 3 and a half hours.

Jackson's first flight! He is the best little traveler and absolutely loved it.

Our layover got longer and longer and ended up being over 5 hours. It took us 13 hours to get from our door to Chandra's door and we pulled in at like 12:30 am. Phew!

The kids did so well though and hardly complained at all.

Houston!

The weather in Houston was so bad. The kids didn't care though and went swimming anyway and had a blast playing with cousins.

Our first day there we went to go see the new Super Mario movie since it was raining outside. Then the kids swam in the rain.

Thursday night Brandon and I went to dinner with Chandra and Roland at a really nice steak house. The food was delicious. Don't have any pictures from that, but we had a good time and drove home on the freeway in pouring rain with lightning flashing all around us.

The next day was more swimming in the drizzling rain.

Then they wanted to take us to lunch at one of their favorite BBQ places. It was really yummy!

Super rainy outside and chilly.

Downtown Houston getting lost in the clouds.

The kids had so much fun playing with cousins. Our kids match up really well with Chandra's kids and they had a great time together.

Tyler and Kade played lots of Fortnite.

Jackson and Grayson were adorable little friends.

 

Spring Break

So school got out for spring break. Nothing about the weather felt like spring though, ha ha. We went to see the new kitties at the Robins' house. They are so stinking cute!

Kristen came over with her kids and Kayler randomly was wearing a dress that had the exact same print as Ava's shirt. Too funny!

Ross invited us to his ward Easter Egg Hunt and breakfast. Jackson was such a stinker and didn't want to pick up any eggs. He cried a lot throughout but with Brandon's help he eventually got his eggs.

Then home to watch General Conference. While we were watching Brandon wanted to go through some things in our storage room so we were looking through our old boxes and Mckinley tried on my uniform that I wore to Carlingford High School in Australia. So fun!

Back to see the kitties again!

Kallie made sure we made our traditional Easter nest cookies. Man are they good!! We had a trip planned to Houston for part of spring break and were going to be there on Easter so we made this a week ahead during General Conference.

Jackson and Ava are great friends.

Ava's best friend Harper broke her leg! It's been so sad (and cute) to see her in a wheelchair at school.

 

March

Jackson enjoying his sword we bought him in Mexico.

These girls love doing spas.

Mckinley working her way through braces. I love them and we have absolutely loved Thompson Orthodontics.

We had our first magical day where it was warm enough to go play on the neighbor's playgrounds. With coats still, but it always feels so good that first time you can play outside after a long winter. This happened on March 16th.

We took Ross and Karen to dinner at Chili's for Karen's birthday and of course Jackson fell asleep on the way. I had the hardest time waking him up! I was kissing his cheeks and we took a fun video of it. He's the cutest!

Mckinley had her National History Day (NHD) competition. We made an experience out of it and she and I slept over at my parents' house the night before. I took her up to this junior high school in Alpine or something and she was interviewed for her project and got to see all her friends projects and hang out for the whole day. They went to Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch. I went back in the evening for the awards ceremony.

Mckinley didn't move on to state but she got an honorable mention for her paper on the invention of the television. I had been so worried about this project ever since our first meeting about it in the summer but it turned out totally fine. Mckinley did all the work, we didn't hardly help her at all. And we decided we definitely want to stay in this program for next year! She is the best student ever and has learned and grown so much during 7th grade. She has absolutely loved it!

We got to the end of the alphabet with joy school. I had so much fun making these creative letters for the boys. Joy school is so stinking fun. I just love these cute boys so much! It has been so good for Jackson and he has learned so much. He can write his own name and spell it for you. It's so cute!

So before our cruise our neighbors gave us their beta fish. It wouldn't eat and looked like it was going to die. Apparently they are supposed to live in warm water but our house temperature is pretty cold. Anyway, we gave it back to the Eddy's to keep for us while we were on our cruise and after we got back, I accidentally killed it by putting it in warm water that was apparently too big of a shock. I felt so bad about it!

We told the kids we would get another fish. Well then on facebook someone was giving away these two GIANT goldfish and all the equipment for them. So we got these fish, but they were clearly too big for the tank. The lady bought them when they were like an inch big and they just grew and grew for almost 2 years with her. Anyway, we had them for about a week and then found a pet store that said they would take them. So for now we are back to no fish which has been nice because there were more trips coming up in our future.

So, March 16th had us playing outside on the playground and then we got another big snowstorm on the 24th. This has been a record year for snowfall in Utah. The winter just keeps on going! Ava is obsessed with shoveling snow though and I have been fully enjoying the beautiful snow. It didn't bother me at all to have a couple of late snowstorms.

I took the boys to play at the church and have an indoor picnic for joy school one day which was such a great idea. We had a blast!

Mckinley has read so many books this school year! A lot for English and a lot just for fun. She is such an amazing child. And of course, Jackson sleeping.

I know this will eventually end, but I just love it for now. I always have to take a picture of him when he crashes! We love Jackson so much!