Spring Catch-up

A lot has actually happened in the month of March and so far in April. I haven't been in the mood to track down all the pictures and upload them, but because it just feels better to sit down today, cleaning will wait and blogging will ensue. I warn you, I think there are something like 30 photos I am going to put on here, so it will be long and probably boring for the lot of you. But, I do know grandparents check this blog, so they'll appreciate each and every one.

Vegas

In the middle of March we traveled to Las Vegas to watch the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament (too bad BYU lost in the semi-finals but it was a great game). We met up with my mom, step-dad, grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin while we were there and had a good time seeing some of the sights (although I just really hate the casino environment no matter how cool their gimmicks are), watching basketball and spending time with family. It was a quick trip, but a lot of fun.

The night we arrived in Vegas we went to the Vegas temple and walked around the outside. None of us had ever been. Brett and I were hoping to get there for a session, but it just never worked out. I am glad we at least got to see the grounds with the kids.

It's always important to get a 4 generation picture in front of a giant M&M. Adie was very excited to go to M&M World.

While we were in the M&M movie, my uncle and cousin watched Chase and had him try on a few souvenirs. Doesn't Chase look thrilled?

I think Chase liked being an M&M bug better.

Grandmas and Chase with the Coke bear. Another important picture to capture for posterity

The whole lot of us in front of the Bellagio

Brett and I enjoying a BYU basketball game

We walked down some of the strip and made sure we at least documented it with a picture in front of the Luxor

St. Patrick's Day

I actually love this holiday. It's low-key and green just happens to be my favorite color, so I don't mind having an official excuse to wear it. I skip the pinching because I hate being pinched and I think leprechauns are kind of creepy, but we can just ignore those parts.

We don't really like corned beef in our house, but Cabbage Patch Soup is tasty and festive

The St. Patty's Day spread: Cabbage Patch Soup and green biscuits, served with green bowls and cups. Do you like our place mats? Yes, we are high class.

The kids in their green garb

Diana and Marc came to visit

Brett's sister, Diana, and her husband, Marc, came to visit us during their Spring Break. It was a lot of fun to spend the days seeing local sights we hadn't seen yet and spending the evenings playing games and talking. (I hope you don't mind us stealing a couple of pictures from your blog).

We met Diana and Marc in Mesa as they were driving down and caught the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant. We hadn't been before and really enjoyed it. The kids did really well. I hope we can make it a tradition as long as we're down here.

We took a hike in Sabino Canyon.

Not a bad view, eh? It was perfect hiking weather.

We went to the Biosphere just here north of Tucson. It was really interesting. I can't believe a group of people were sealed in there for two years. I was really fascinated by the idea of them creating a self-sufficient environment. If you're a local and haven't been I think it's worth checking out.

We hit the San Xavier mission on our way to watch a spring training baseball game. We watched the Rockies play the White Sox. Half the time I was keeping my eye on Adie, who was running around the bleachers, or trying to put Chase to sleep, so I can't honestly say I remember who was winning (we left before it was over), but it was fun to be there.

Easter

The Easter bunny visited Saturday morning. We dyed eggs in between conference sessions and had a little hunt in our play room upstairs after conference because the community egg hunts looked to be an insanity. Adie doesn't know any better and had a great time. Sunday, we enjoyed conference and relaxation. Some friends invited us over to paint Easter cookies during the week, but due to illness, we weren't able to do it. They still gave us the cookies and dye though and Adie had a blast painting them Sunday morning.

Egg hunting

Racing back to the basket. Adie pulled the pigtails out of her hair that I had put in so she was sporting some Easter wings that day.

Chase spots the Easter grass

We give in and let him have at it. He loved playing in it, even if his face in this picture doesn't show it.

Creating her works of art. I was going to give her a water color brush, but couldn't remember where I had put our paint supplies, so she got to use a pastry brush. It still did the trick. Good thing she wasn't looking to be too detailed.

The finished product

Grandma Millar comes

Now we are caught up to this last weekend. Brett's mom came to town and it was so fun to have her here. Adie was anticipating her visit for weeks.

Brett's aunt and uncle are currently on a mission here in SE Arizona, serving in Sierra Vista, so we took a little trip over to visit them. It's fun to have them close. We've been to visit them twice now and will hopefully get to return a few more times before their mission ends. You will notice poor Adie looking pretty miserable. She was. She broke out in a fever shortly after we arrived there and she spent most of the visit napping on the couch.

Daddy taking care of his sick little girl

We got to borrow a jack hammer on Saturday morning and finally were able to finish planting the trees we bought weeks ago. After many failed attempts to manually dig the holes for our trees, we were happy to get this project done. The soil here is somewhat akin to concrete, so it was not nearly so easy as we thought it would be. A big thanks to Grandma who watched the kids so we could get the trees planted.

Adie is a big helper whenever we're working in the backyard.

Here are our three planted citrus trees. We also dug three more holes for other trees we will be planting soon. I will be so happy to have this project done. We thought the backyard would be done in a matter of weeks, but those weeks have turned into months. We want to finish up before it gets too hot to work outside and plant, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that we can keep making progress.

We took a quick trip to show Grandma the San Xavier mission and then drove over to Saguaro National Park and took a look at some of the natural beauty we're surrounded with here. Right now is a great time to check it out. Brett took some great photos of cactus blooms (he'll have to post some his pictures).

Grandma with the grandkids at Saguaro National Park

Sabino Canyon Sunset Run

My friend and I have been running most mornings together for months and it culminated in our running this 7.4 mile race up and back down a canyon at sunset. It was beautiful scenery. They handed out glow sticks for the way back since it started to get dark. Overall, I really loved the race and hope to do it again. I was disappointed in my performance because I had to stop and walk twice. I was getting really light-headed during a fairly steep and long uphill climb near the turn around point. I felt we had trained well for it and I was surprised how much it affected me. I thought about pushing through but thought it wasn't worth it to me to see if I could just keep running without fainting or throwing up, so I walked probably a little more than half a mile up the hill. Kali kept right on trucking up the hill. I am pretty sure it should be her, not me, running a marathon this summer. She is a driven woman. Good thing she got me out of bed to go running because I would probably be pretty far from my goal if I didn't have her out their motivating me, so a big thanks goes out to her. Anyway, I had to run faster than my normal pace back down the hill to catch her, but finally did. Near the end of the race, there is another short, steep incline that I thought I could easily run up, but again, the light-headedness got to me and I walked 1/3 of the way up the end of that hill (boo). We still finished in just under 1 hr 20 mins, which equals about a 10 min 45 second mile. Not great, but not horrible. When I do it again, I'll know what to expect and try to train accordingly.

My family greeted my stinky, sweaty self at the end of the race.

My fabulous running partner and friend with our glow sticks. We made it!

And now I am caught up on my blogging and can slack off for a while again. What a relief!