Meg's kids had spring break last week. Since Ryan is super busy with work they decided to spend their break with us. How lucky is that?!?  We looked forward to it for weeks and for good reason. It ended up being just the best week ever. Like for real. We had so much fun and LOVED having them here. Loved it so much that we were all actually pretty grumpy on Saturday after they left.  The week flew by and it was really hard to have them go.  But handling the hard was totally worth it because it was wonderful having them here. We're grateful they were willing to submit themselves to two long drives to be with us and grateful to Ryan for letting us have them for a week!

Some of the fun we had ...

-They were here for St. Patty's day so the girls made a cute sign for Lucky the Leprechaun (who showed his appreciate for them not trying to trap them with a big bag of Airheads!). They also dressed up in their new, matching shirts and their cute green bows.

-YM was life-saving skills and swimming this week. Reed and Asher joined Cole for that because you can never get too much time in the pool.

-We always had a puzzle going and ended up finishing 3 I think. (Because Meg and Maliya are puzzle masters and because, despite not liking puzzles, Nick can't handle to have unfinished puzzles out)

We visited our temple!  We got bracelets and stickers and enjoyed a 'tour' in the mobile visitor center.  It was really cool to learn about not only our temple but also the growth of temples since the Restoration of the church.

All of us girls went to Max's spring concert.  He was adorable and of course did great.  I loved watching him and his cute classmates and I loved how extremely excited he was for the concert!

Us girls got pedicures!

Madison could hardly handle the tickles.  It was cute to watch her try and keep her giggles in and cute to see Madison and Lila supporting her with hand-holding.

Everyone attended Madison's spring concert ... after watching Max and Madison at Ninja. (Nick bribed the boys by first taking everyone out to Enstroms and then grabbing chik-fil-a on the way to the concert. Madison missed that because she was still at Ninja so I treated her to a donut before her concert. In her eyes she got the best deal out of all of the kids.) Madison also did a fabulous job. I especially loved her '50 Nifty States' song and I loved how over-the-top excited she was for her concert.

The girls and Max crafted! They made matching wish-friendship bracelets, painted some fun wood shapes that Meg and Lila bought, and made lots of thank-you cards for the temple workers.

We went bowling (thanks to the kids-bowl-free program, woot woot!). 

We had a candy buffet and played games during our last night together.  The kids ate a TON. And then they were super hyped up and *almost* met their bedtime goals.  (The girls wanted to stay up until midnight and I think made it to 11. The boys were planning on an all-nighter and made it til 1 or 2.)

We all went sledding on the Mesa! And built a snow tunnel. And tried to build stairs to the top of the bathroom building (there was a ton of snow ... it went halfway up the building and it covered most of the signs).

The boys went frisbee golfing and axe-throwing and they went on a hike that had a zillion waterfalls (usually there are only 3) and lots of snow AND a frozen spiderweb!

In addition to that was of course TONS of gaming time + Dungeons and Dragons time by the boys and LOTS of playing by the girls, mixed in with some family games, lots of shows and performances by the kids, lots of food and treat eating, and a tiny bit of quiet time.  Like I said, it was a wonderful week.

After the Hamblys left on Saturday morning we all did our usual cleaning and then Madison and MAx both got to enjoy fun birthday parties, which was a nice way to slightly soften the disappointment of having our cousins leave.  We also ended the night at an open house for Treasure, one of my sweet past YW who is about to go on a mission to Texas!

 

And that's a wrap!

Tryazon!

Thanks @formatgames for a super fun night!

We got to try out 3 different games, which was awesome! We love when the party packs come with lots of things to try.  The games were Noggin, Wheels and Doors, and Karen.  For our 'party' we had a yummy dinner, jumped into the games, and finished things off with rootbeer floats, yum! And SO fun that our party included our favorite Vegas cousins!!!

Our thoughts on the games:

Noggin was too difficult. We didn't even play it the right way, we just adjusted the rules and played a practice round.  You have to come up with answers really quickly but there are a lot of different rules to remember.  The idea is great, it really is, and perhaps we'd enjoy it after playing it multiple times because we'd know the rules and be used to the quick thinking. For now, though, it's not one we'd come back to.

Wheels and Doors was a fan favorite! EVERYONE loved it. It's a trivia game that's actually pretty hard ... but still fun.  And the trivia facts are really interesting. Super random but fun! We love finding games that are fun for adults and kids alike and this was definitely one of them.

Karen was funny. It was a little slow moving for the kids - we ended up just stopping early. But it was fun. The kids liked it and would want to play again, and I think it'd be a really fun adult party game.

Overall consensus ... we love tryazon. Seriously love it.

 

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Random Happenings

Hair and make-up night at activity days!

Madison's leaders plan super fun activities and she loves them.

Maliya's first talk in Sacrament Meeting!  She spoke about being born again and she rocked it. Seriously did. We got so many compliments on how brave and well-spoken she was.

Dr. Suess Day! Max had a BLAST and I loved spending the last hour of the day with him.

Date night! Nick and I enjoyed intense massages while Cole hung with friends, Madison went to a bday party (also at Get Air), and Max and Maliya partied at home together (Maliya did a great job babysitting).  We came home feeling loose but a little sore. The massages seriously were intense!

Another fun night at activity days!  Madison and her girlies got to enjoy a music exploration night at the Burr's house. Madison loved it and felt about a million miles tall when Sister Burr called her a rockstar:) We are grateful for such wonderful friends, leaders, and ward members.

Max and Max throwing airplanes! We enjoyed a great lesson on testimonies and paper airplanes and then had an airplane throwing contest! We love our missionaries.

Maliya spent a day baking for a girls camp fundraiser.  She made and sold freezer meals and had so many requests from the community that we asked the Walton girls to help out.  Maliya made enough to cover her camp costs and both of the Walton girls made about 3/4 of what they need. It was awesome and we were so grateful for the support of the community.

Max's best buddy Mabel. She's a sweetheart and Max loved celebrating her birthday with her at Get Air. Loved it so much that he gave me a mega stink-face when I got there at the end of the party and told him it was time to go. He seriously was SO mad.  I'm glad he had so much fun and love that he and Mabel are such good buddies ... we just need to work on this boy's recent tantrum phase!

Volleyball! Maliya had a super fast and super fun volleyball season. She was lucky enough to get the same coach as last year (Brooke) and she was on a team full of super cute, super sweet girls. They only played for a month (issues with the rec center being closed) but they all improved a TON from beginning to end.  Maliya loved it and really did a great job.

 

 Max Funnies:

1. Max helped me make cookies tonight and twice I asked him to wipe up some flour I spilled. The second time the flour spilled because his head and my hand collided and after I asked him to clean it up he said, in a super annoyed voice, "Mom, how come you just keep making messes for me to clean up?!"  Welcome to my life, little dude, welcome to my life.

2. Max's best buddy Henry came over for about 8 hours yesterday.  About an hour before we were going to leave to take Henry home I told them they had 1 more hour to play.  They were not happy and asked if they could have 5 hours instead because they wanted more time.  I offered 20 minutes instead and they started cheering! "Woohoo, that's a long time!" Gotta love it.