Lots-O-Love

On The Ragnar

Wicked Awesome

happy LOVE day

hope your LOVE is as yummy as ours

TuTu Patient

Meady had to be really patient for Mama to sign her up for ballet.

Mom's pose for Meadow's "first day of dance class picture".

Meadow's pose for her "first day of dance class picture".

She couldn't help herself. After all, there was a pole, may as well use it, right?

Our "We love River so much we'll drive to Utah for his birthday because he wants to" Trip

First stop: Lynn Famliy
Cousins Rock.

River really wanted to go sledding on his birthday.

Wish granted.

The bigger kids (and Dads) had a blast

Tubing

In Park City.

The littler kids (and Moms)

Not quite as much fun waiting at the bottom.
(Next year you'll be big enough, Seeky)

Meadow, striking a pose, any chance she gets.

Happy Birthday, dear River!

I got brave one morning and went for a run (IN THE SNOW!) with Kami and my cute nieces, Kora and Hali. (Heaven joined us for the picture, but NOT the run. Smart girl.)

The kids had so much fun

Hanging out with their cousins.

Bye Bye Lynn Family, we'll be back!

Next stop: Martinez Family

We spent Friday

Touring around

Downtown Salt Lake City.

Favorite spot? Temple Square. We all felt the special spirit there, and were full of love for the Savior and each other.

Back at the Martinez Home,
Meadow and Kate played in the snow for hours.

Heaven and Kate "Mommy-ed around" to their heart's content,

And River threw an "I hate you, Dad!" giant fit.

After writing, "I love my Dad" several times,
River enjoyed a beautiful birthday cake

Baked especially for him by Ileana.

Saturday morning we headed over

To a fun Dinosaur Museum

Where we just about left Secret behind
(a "Mother of the Year" award is just around the corner for me)

We ate a yummy lunch,

Then River entertained all the kids

With an impromptu "Bunny Hop"

Bye Bye, Martinez Family

We'll be counting the days till you come out to AZ!

Last Stop: Kare-Bear!

Sunday afternoon we all loaded up into the van (where River could not stop trying to "wow" Joe with all kinds of useful information like, "Did you know my Mom tried smoking once? It's a good thing she didn't get addicted!" and so on and so forth)

We wanted to show our kids the house we met at:

And the first house we lived in:

Don't be too impressed. We actually rented out 1/2 of the attic that had been converted into a studio apartment. It was exactly 15 steps from one end to the other. It was tiny and cozy and perfect for us!

That night we Rocked out at the Morrison's!

Raven sang "Eye of the Tiger" approximately 5 times.
River stayed glued to the drums all night long (he was really good).

Meadow tried her hand at the guitar and also sang back up with Mama once.

The boys made a big snowman.

Okay, so it was a tiny snowman.

The little girls loved having a sleepover with Miss Ava.

All the kids cried on Monday morning when we loaded them up to drive back home. We had such a good time! It was a quick, whirlwind of fun. The added bonus for me is that this was one of the first vacations that actually felt like a vacation in a very long time. Yay for kids getting bigger! Yay for no nursing baby!