Easter 2011

Our attempted family pic, not bad :)

Cutie Ryan!

Her own pose, of course

Our sweet Jane!

Cutest kids ever!

The hunt is on at Grandma & Grandpa's

Alex, liking this idea of finding candy :)

I think I look hot here ;)

Spring Break April 2011

This is for you Kristen :)

We went to Moab over Jane and Ryan's spring break and all loved it! Utah seriously has some amazing mini-vacations all around us! We stayed in one of those little one room cabins that had a double bed and bunk beds for the kids. Alex was in a pack n play. It actually worked out better for us than a hotel because we could put the kids to bed and then got out on the porch and watch a movie on Jeff's laptop! There wasn't a bathroom in the cabin, but they were close by. There was a fun playground and a pool at the campground that the kids loved swimming in. If you compare it to a hotel, you might be a bit dissapointed, but if you compare it to tent camping you feel like you're living it up!

We also went hiking in Arches National Park. I guess we loved it because we are smiling in the pics :) Hiking was only possible because we borrowed Tracy's awesome baby hiking backpack. It worked perfect for us and Alex was happy to be along for the ride.

This was a sandhill that we stopped at on our way out of town. The kids loved running/sliding down it. Funny thing was that their pockets filled up with sand, but we didn't know till we drove all the way home and they changed out of their clothes!

This vacation is highly recommended as a fun family vacation! We thought it would have been a lot of fun to go with friends or family and stay at the same little campground.

Jane's Dance Recital

Jane took dance last year at The Dance Club in Orem. She took a jazz combo class from Miss Caitlyn and she loved it!!! Her teacher was so cute and amazing with the girls. They had their recital in April and did a jazz dance to "Aint Nobody Here But Us Chickens" which explains the cute chicken costumes. :) Jane did a great job, we are so proud of her!

Flowers after the performance :)

She loved all of the dances and wanted to stay and watch the ones after hers, even though it was already way later than she usually stays up. She has since watched the dvd (that came free with the $45 recital fee!) several times so she can learn all of the dances!

LONDON and paris

I really did go on this amazing vacation forever ago, but it seems as if I'm a terrible blogger now! I blame facebook :) And I think we all know that I'm a procrastinator!!!

I owe this whole vacation idea to Monica, who conveniently moved to London about 2 years ago. I was set on going out to visit her and see the place I read of so often! Then Amy said she would come with me! Let me tell you how much work it takes to plan a girly holiday for 2 moms!

1. Neither of us can be nursing a baby

2. Neither of us can be in a bad pregnancy stage (preferably not pregnant at all)

3. We can't miss kids' birthdays, dance recitals, or school programs

4. We have to find people to watch our kids

5. We have to plan it not too close to any other vacation or business trip of our husbands and families

And at the top of the list, we of course needed to plan a time that was good for Monica too!

So after much calendaring, we settled on a date : March 19 - 28. We had a rocky start to our trip, being delayed in Minneapolis for about 24 hours! But then we arrived in London! Well worth the wait! We checked a few sightseeing things off our list before heading to Paris. Paris was a little of a disappointment for me. I thought of it as a romantic city, it was a dirtier version of New York. And anyone I talked to said "everyone speaks english there, you'll be fine." Again, not true. If they do speak it, they chose not to speak it to Amy and I. It was really hard to navigate ourselves around a city without knowing a lick of french. Our hotel was in a sketchy area where we frequently passed homeless men and prostitutes on our way to the bus stop or tube station. BUT, the sights and museums were amazing! I would recommend that anyone wanting to see Paris should do it with some sort of tour. That would have helped tons!!!

When we got back to London we saw a lot more of the city and then took some trips out to Bath (most relaxing day ever!!!) and Hampton Court, where we transformed into Lady Amelia and Lady Katherine. Oh, that's right, I wasn't supposed to admit that :)

It was so fun to be able to hang out with Monica and have her show us a more authentic London life. I was exhausted by the end of it all, but I'm more than ready to go back. I'm just ready for another girly holiday! SO hurry up and have that baby Amy!!!

Apparently the only use of these adorable telephone booths is just a place for a homeless person to pee. That's what it smelled like and that's why I was only in one for 1/10 of a second!

This guard was hilarious. I can't remember what he was guarding, but he took his job seriously (minus the peeking at me).

Trafalgar Square

Paris hotel, it was an Etap, but we called it Ikea Hotel. And yes, Amy and I slept in the same bed the whole trip. And no, she didn't wake me up with her psychotic sleep talking (like she did our freshman year:))!

toilet in the hotel. That big button above the toilet is the flusher - wierd! I do admire how easy it would be to clean this bathroom - spray it down!!!

Top of Arc de Triomphe

Climbing the millions of stairs to the top of the Arc

At Basilique du Sacre Coeur. It took us FOREVER to find it (thanks to paris building being built so close that you can't see anything but buildings, and of course the no speaking french thing) so we didn't have time to go in it :( Maybe next time, except I will probably never go to Paris again.

Inside the Louve. Loved it, didn't spend enough time there, every lady is partially nude in every painting.

Outside the Louve

Top of the Eiffel Tower. We had an amazing Eiffel Tower experience. We got there late afternoon, saw it in the day. Then by the time we got to the top, it was sunset (couldn't have planned it if I tried). Then by the time we got down to the bottom it was night and the lights were on! This was definitely one of my favorite things we did in Paris. Also I loved that we couldn't find it at first! It's only the freaking Eiffel Tower!!!

Waiting in line to go up

Amy, Me, and Monica at some market in London where we ate French food :)

Tower of London. Loved this one too! We saw the crown jewels and everything!

St. Paul's Cathedral. Would have loved to go to a service there, but just not enough time for everything.

Buckingham Palace in the background :)

This is in the locker room of a bath in Bath. I LOVED BATH!!! It was a relaxing day in the quaint little town of my dreams. Now I have a real picture in my mind of what this town is like (which will come in handy when I read Pride and Prejudice for the 50th time!)

The Pump Room!!!!!

Enjoying a little lunch on the Thames

Hampton Court was such a fun place to go to! Not only do you get the whole castle experience, but you get people dressed up playing historical figures and involving the audience. It was awesome! The gardens were so fun and whimsical. Then there was the maze. This is Amy's 4th try at a "I'm lost in an amazing maze!" pose. Love it!

Other highlights not pictured:

*Being hilariously out of it after taking unisom to sleep on the flight and then the flight not taking off till the next day

*Monica's cutie flat that she lives in with her 2 flatmates. They were all sweet to let us stay there and Monica was a wonderful host :) I also loved the fifty dungeon keys it took to get in and out of the flat!

*Shock & Awe we received every time we told people we were moms. I'm still not sure what everyone was so surprised by - that our husbands would watch their own kids? that moms go on vacations? we looked too young and hot to have kids? Yes, I think I'll go with that one :)

*Running, running, running to catch buses, trains, planes, and metros. We caught some, we missed some - made for great exercise!

*Catacombs = sick! And I mean the old school sick, not the modern age sick! Tomb of dead peoples bones lining walls and dripping water (that might or might not have been bone juice)

*Princi the contemporary bakery we ate at - YUM!!!

*Seeing Chicago with Monica & Amy :)

*Hyde Park - could spend every afternoon there. It was beautiful!

*My first experience at an Indian restaurant. It was delish and I'm so glad I had someone to tell me what to get!

*eating at a pub - classic!

*Shopping in London . . . at H&M

*Cadbury vending machine - need I say more?!

*Hob Nobs and other varieties of treat that would appear as we walked through the door to Moica's flat. One more reason she is the best host ever!

*Spending a girly holiday with my girls - I can't wait till we all room together in some posh retirement home when our husbands die!

*Double Decker bus - loved it!

*Bringing umbrellas that NEVER got used!

*Modern buildings and really really old buildings residing next to each other in one city

*Single serve toilet paper

*Seeing armor of knights and their unusual protective "cups"

*little kids speaking with adorable accents!!!

*London blue doors - I hope to replicate this sometime soon :)

*Eating crescents and other baked goods at every meal in Paris. Even though I got sick of it, it sounds heavenly to me now :)

Alex's Birthday

Alex turned one in January! He is the sweetest, most content baby in the world and we all love him soooo much! We celebrated with family, had cake, and he even got some present, including a signed Jimmer picture! Score!