Spring 2010 is here!

Audriana is VIP this week at school. She has waited all school year for this honor! Each child in Mrs. Soderquists class gets this distinction for a week, and they get the VIP board decorated with their pictures and information about them. She also got to take "Froggy" home and since it was Spring Break, Audriana got to have Froggy for a whole week! All the other kids got him for just a weekend, so she felt pretty special. She got pretty attached to that stuffed animal, too! : )

With the onset of Spring, comes the onset of soccer practices and soccer games. Today was the Red Tigers first game since last Fall. Same team, same coach, and same players continue on in the Spring which is really nice. Coach Mike is a wonderful coach...very supportive, very positive and very kind to all the girls. Players are: Anna, Audriana, Avery, Carlie, McKenna, Belin, Payton, and Anna (from Audriana's 1st grade class). They are a really good team...everyone gets along and they really play well together. Audriana scored 7 of 13 goals that the team scored today. She was on fire! The girls did so much running today, I know they were all exhausted after the game! Thankfully, the weather cooperated -- no rain, no snow...just sunshine and some pretty cold temps!

Easter 2010

Our day began with a wonderful service at St. Mary's with Kristi, Mom and Jay. The girls were very patient and good during the mass, even though they knew that the Easter Bunny was probably at Grandma's at that very moment hiding eggs for them -- and he was! After Church we all headed to mom's -- we parked and headed up to the front door and were met with a note from the Easter Bunny taped to the door. It said that he appreciated how good the girls have been all year long, and that he hid lots of eggs and wanted Audriana to leave the eggs that were down low and easy to find for Sofia. He went on to say that now that Audriana was seven, that she was going to have to find the eggs that were more difficult to find. What a smart bunny to lay down a few rules before the hunt began! Our beautiful girls in their Easter dresses.

Ready for the hunt! Thankfully the sun was out for the majority of the day!

WOW -- Sofia found a lot of hidden eggs!

Audriana's basket is bigger and deeper, so you can't see the eggs....but they are in there!

Uncle Mike always likes to help out with the hunt each year...it's a great tradition! He always helps the girls color the eggs each year, too!

Aunt Kristi is never too far away! The girls were very sweet and both of them wanted to sit by her in church. We are so lucky to have Aunt Kristi in our lives!

Why are all the boys huddled around the end of the table? Look closely....that's shrimp and they all wanted to make sure they got their fair share! : ) We had a nice brunch at Mom's -- bagels, lox and cream cheese, lots of fruit, tortilla chips and salsa, OJ and coffee. Mom had some hard boiled eggs that the girls had colored the night before, but we forgot to bring them out of the refrigerator!

That afternoon, we all headed over to Patty and Chad Wilhite's house for Easter dinner. They were perfect hosts! Their beautiful and talented daughter, Marissa, had prepared a really fun Easter egg hunt in their backyard and the girls had a blast. They found eggs that had lots of little surprises in them -- baskin and robbins gift certificates, a watch, candy, packets of flowers seeds, and a cool pen with a pad of paper! How cool was that!?!? It's been fun connecting with cousin Patty again after all these years! : ) Their daughter Marissa is 17 and is a wonderful pianist! We coaxed her into playing a few songs for us.

Marissa made this bunny cake -- the girls loved it! Mighty tasty, too!

Having fun checking out the fun surprises hidden in the eggs they found in the backyard.

What a happy day -- one filled with family, and making good memories!

Traveling home..........

We are so sad to be leaving Seattle today. We've had such a good time playing "tourist" -- and right in our own backyard! The trip was truly a labor of love for the girls -- we tried to fit in as many things as possible and were on the go all the time. Of course when I asked the girls what they liked most about the trip, they answered in unison, "the swimming pool at the hotel"!

We left the hotel around 10am and headed to Bellevue. I wanted to drive by our old house and see the neighborhood again. I love doing that. We got on our way up the pass at around 11am. The girls wanted to stop again near Vantage at the Wild Horses Monument......they wanted to hike up to them again. We did....and I'm so proud of myself again! What a hike and what great exercise! And what a great view! Incredible.

It took me longer to get up the hill than the girls (of course) and when I finally got to the top, they were here sitting on this rock waiting for me. Aren't they sweet?!

Audriana had to get one more picture of Froggy -- this time alone on a horse!

The view is breathtaking! Here is Sofia in her new dress that Grandma and Grandpa brought her back from Mexico -- she loves it! It will be a very cute summer dress. Today she has on tights, a sweater and a coat over it!

We couldn't pass through Moses Lake without doing a couple of things......

1. Stopping at the taco truck and eating tacos....and

2. Driving the extra 30 minutes or so to Ephrata to see the Sandbergs!

We didn't stay for long, but we did get to see their amazing new house (it's beautiful!) and the kids got to see each other and play for awhile.

Spring Break in Seattle! Day #4

Seattle Center, Space Needle, Pacific Science Center, Butterflies, and the Monorail! What a day -- what fun!

Spring Break in Seattle! Day #3

Rain Rain Go Away...Come Again Some Other Day!

It rained on our trip to the Woodland Park Zoo today. But as I told the girls "we aren't afraid of a little rain"! "It's just water....it'll dry"...right?!?! I was trying to stay as positive as possible.....and I truly thought that it would just sprinkle...or drizzle...or stop....but it didn't. It rained so hard! We stayed though! And just chocked it up to "The Seattle Rain Experience"!!!! It was a bit cold -- but it is such a cool zoo. We don't have a zoo in Spokane, so we all thought that it was still pretty awesome. The girls' favorites were the monkeys, gorillas, bears, and feeding the birds. We spent about 7 hours wandering (stopping to rest and duck out of the rain quite a few times, too). After the zoo, we were just plain exhausted. We headed back to the hotel and rested for just a few minutes before heading out to have dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. This was Audriana's idea -- and she really wanted to take Froggy there for some pictures. She has been so cute with Froggy, always making sure he is with her and making sure I have taken lots of pics of the two of them. She'll be a really good mom some day....

Anyway, the highlight of dinner was the kids getting these really cool, blinking neon lit glasses. It was $5 extra, but it was well worth it. It kept the kids just busy enough so that Matt, Angie, Martin and I could enjoy our dinner and have some adult conversation. We really had a good time. After dinner we headed back to the hotel where the kids swam for about an hour and then finally to bed at 9pm. We have been going going going, and the girls have been so good about everything -- their reward has been getting to go swimming each morning and each evening! Luckily the Meadows love to swim, too, and the boys and the girls get to play and swim together. So much fun!

Almost to the penquin area......!

Audriana and Sofia feeding the birds! This was so cool...and a "first" for the girls!

It was so rainy....here is sweet Jakey trying to share his umbrella with Sofia.

This bear was sitting on this rock (left hand side foreground) for so long...then we guessed that it got tired of the rain, too, and decided to take off. We got such a good close up look at this huge bear because it was so close to the viewing area that we were in (it was dry and undercover, so we stayed for a while escaping the rain).

A beautiful bald eagle and his nest!

Audriana petting a snake! Sofia chickened out....... :)

Huge hippo....

Then ended the night by having dinner at the Rainforest Cafe! :)