March and April--Photo Overload

We took some fun little trips in March and April.  Get ready for lots of photos! 

In March, we spent several days in Pocatello.  Ryan's little brother Cole and his wife and baby were in town from Missouri during Cole's spring break from medical school.  We had never met Baby Tate, so this was super exciting, and the entire family came together for the occasion.  Fun!  

Tate loves his Aunt Rachel

Noah enjoyed mauling the babies...
Lily and Tate weren't so sure.

Four generations of Nielson men.
Love how angelic Noah looks in this photo.  

Grandma and Grandpa with all the grandkids...
a little hard to get them all to cooperate, but we did our best.

A new experience for the Nielson boys was pheasant hunting.  I think it made them feel like real Idaho men.  Ryan cracked me up when he decided to wear his Holden Caulfield red hunting hat for the occasion.  Apparently he is a really good shot (is anyone surprised?) and got two pheasants at once...boom, boom.  I am not a fan of hunting, and fortunately, I don't think this is something that will become a regular hobby--but they had fun doing it for a new experience.

In April, I went to Denver to help take care of my sister's kids for a week.  Her husband Logan's little sister was getting married in New York City, and Logan happened to have the whole week off, which was nothing short of a miracle.  (He is a surgery resident and works 80+ hours a week and gets his time-off randomly assigned to him.)  Since Sarah and Logan seriously never get to spend any time together, they decided to make a get-away of it, and my little sister, Laura, and I agreed to watch their kids.  

I knew it was going to be an adventure, but with both Laura and me working together, how bad could it be??  

Well, it was bad.  Real bad.  We had Sarah's two kids--a five-year-old who missed his parents and was thus uncharacteristically moody, and a two-year-old who is a bit of a princess diva--and then we had my little rascal who doesn't like to share and wanted to rough-house with his cousins who (justifiably) weren't interested in being tackled every other minute--and then we had Laura's three-month-old who contracted a stomach bug on the plane and was very sad and puky and ended up in the ER one night.  On top of that, I still wasn't feeling great from pregnancy and ended up with an awful sinus infection that made it hard to sleep at night.  Seriously, what a week!

No, but we did have fun.  There were lots of sweet moments mixed in with lots of tantrums and tears.  It definitely makes for some funny memories!  I'm glad we went, even though it was CRA-ZY!

 A happy moment, playing in a box

Princess Jade is not so sure about her Auntie Rachel smooching on her

Bedtime stories with Bapa--he was a HUGE help throughout the week.

I love this girl.

Noah was quite taken with Luke and even wanted to share his monster blanket and doggy with him

Cousin snuggles

Two two-year-olds, both sobbing at the same time...awesome!

Granny and Luke--does it get any sweeter?

Callum loved to hold Luke any chance he got.
(unfortunately, Luke was sick much of the week and often wasn't in the mood)

The boys enjoyed playing in the High Line Canal by my dad's house.

Jade DID NOT want to get her feet wet or muddy and screamed the entire time we were at the Canal, even when I was holding her.

Stories with Grampy

Noah was very, very glad to get home to his dad at the end of our exhausting week.  Noah has suddenly turned into a major "Daddy's boy."  He never had a preference between us until just recently--now it's nothing but Dad, Dad, Dad.  

Speaking of Ryan, he had his own little adventure while Noah and I we were in Colorado.  He went to the Final Four in Dallas with his bosses, and they had a great time.  I'm so glad Ryan decided to go--he has never done anything like that with "the guys," and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  

A few weeks later, it was Easter, and my friend Sherry from Buffalo came to Idaho to visit for the weekend.  Unfortunately, I don't have any great photos of us together, but we hiked around Dierkes Lake in Twin Falls, dyed Easter eggs, and made a quick trip to Salt Lake City for Easter Sunday.  Sherry was flying out of Salt Lake anyway, and she had never seen the Mormon Temple there, so we decided to spend the day.  The weather was perfect and the flowers at the temple were incredible.  It was a special, sacred place to spend the holiday.

Noah really enjoyed Easter this year.  At the beginning of Easter Week, we sat outside in the hammock for Family Night and told him the story of Christ's death and resurrection.  We showed him some simple pictures from the church Nursery manual, and he was really enthralled.  He was so sad when we talked about Jesus' death--"Ohhhh--why did they hurt Jesus?"--and then he threw his arms in the air with joy when we told him about Jesus's resurrection and showed him a picture of Christ coming out of the tomb.  It was priceless.  I love that sweet boy.

He enjoyed the secular parts of the holiday too, especially dying eggs.  He was amazed when the eggs turned colors.  Sadly, his mother never got together an Easter basket or egg hunt for him (it had been a long and busy month), but I did grab him a free sticker from the grocery store check-out line when I went to buy toilet paper the night before Easter.  Classy, right?  Luckily, Noah was thrilled with his sticker and had no idea what he was missing.

It was a busy but fun couple of months.  I feel like a broken record saying this over-and-over on the blog, but it's the truth: Life is good, and we are blessed.