Happy Easter

I finally fixed the problem with my camera and I probably have 50 more photos from our trip to upload but let's talk about Easter first.  We had one of those rare spring weekends where there wasn't snow on the ground, the wind wasn't blowing more than 30 mph and the sun was shining.  It was a great time!  Saturday, Glenn and Will went turkey hunting in the morning.  Reina and I ran errands, I jogged with a friend, attended our church's prayer vigil and grocery shopped, all in time to meet the guys back at the house by lunchtime.  On Sunday, we woke up early and attended the Easter sunrise service.  We had a delicious breakfast at church and came home to a little Easter egg hunt.  By 9:00 a.m., we were finished up. It's amazing how much you can get done when you start the day at 5:30 a.m.  Later, I made everyone nap.  The (little blonde) person who most loudly proclaimed, "BUT I'M NOT TIRED!" slept for 2 hours.  The Fry's came over for Easter dinner and we all took turns entertaining Baby Cousin.  Weekends like this one don't come around very often.  The next few weeks look to be really busy so it was a nice way to spend some family time together.  Plus:  chocolate Easter candy. 

 

Easter finery provided by Grandma Pauley. 

A siting of the Bronco Baby Mom - who's Easter finery is also provided by Grandma Pauley

You'll never run as fast as you do when you are trying to get to the Easter eggs before your sibling does

Trigger and Tootsie prove very helpful in sniffing out all of the hidden eggs.  Bonus when one of the eggs 'accidentally' breaks apart. 

Degas, eat your heart out

Reina is a prodigious artist. She brings home sheet after sheet full of all of the ideas floating around her brain: the entire plot of the movie Frozen, a drawing of her family including her pet ants (a story for another day), Tootsie and Trigger, ice cream, etc. While we were in Florida, she drew her first ballet picture for Grandma Pauley. As the date nears for her big recital in May, she has ballet on the brain. Here's her latest work:

Reina's ballet masterpiece

We have the audience in their seats. They are so captivated by the performance that their heads are floating in the air.  The yellow squigglies on the side of the page are the doors and the stairs naturally.  Notice the ballerina leaping through the air?  That's Reina.  The quadrupeds on either side of the dancers are unicorns accompanied by a herd (?) of Easter eggs.  The gentleman in the red hat is not Abraham Lincoln, as I erroneously assumed, but rather a Nutcracker.  Well it is a ballet painting!   I think it compares well to this one - http://www.edgar-degas.org/The-Rehearsal-Of-The-Ballet-Onstage.html.  Besides, I think we can all agree that Degas could have used a few more Easter eggs in his painting.  And a unicorn.  

Springtime

Here are my pretty daffodils shining in the sun on Saturday morning.  The tulips are peaking through and I'm busy scouring the seed catalogs to see what I want to branch out into this summer.  Besides teaming up on the community garden plot with Aunt Vicky, I'm also going to try my hand at our own plot in our church's new community garden space.  But in Wyoming, garden plans are on hold until Memorial Day, at least.   

When I saw the weather report, I thought about knitting them sweaters. 

And here are the same little daffodils on Sunday morning.  It's been snowing all day and we have the pellet stove fired up again. It's amazing how cold 20 degrees can feel in April.  In January that same temp felt like a little heat wave. I'm not complaining about the moisture, just the color of it. 

Florida - Part 1

We made our annual Spring Break trip to Florida last week.  We had great weather, hospitable hosts and a few adventures.  The kids had fun and were (mostly) on their best behavior.  I have a million pictures from the actual camera to upload but the technology is being cranky so here's the cell phone version.  

 

Even the shuttle at the airport in Orlando is magical.  According to a 5-yr old anyway. 

Day 1 at DeLeon Springs.  One of our favorite places to visit.  The water is always 72 degrees or something like that.  The kids swam until their lips were blue. 

After a cold swim, nothing's better than a warm dad to snuggle up to. 

Or sunbathe with. I didn't even get my suit on.  The weather was too cold for me.  I've turned into my dad! 

We fished and fished and fished!  Reina loved it and threw a fit on the last night when I made her throw the fish back.  On the previous nights, Glenn kept some of the fish and fried them up for breakfast the next morning.  My little animal lover has no qualms about fishing. 

Will caught fish too. I think they were drawn to the glow from his outfit. 

Day 2:  The beach at Cape Canaveral National Seashore.  Look at Glenn's pecs!  This is one of our favorite beaches to visit.  It's undeveloped and on a Tuesday, not very busy either.  Reina ran up and down the beach trying to catch seagulls. I love that she has enough confidence to think "why not?  why wouldn't I catch a seagull?"   I did get in the water this day.  It wasn't incredibly warm but I can't resist the ocean. 

Day 3:  Disneyworld Hollywood Studios and one of the soldiers from Toy Story. 

Trying on Muppet hats at Disney.  I almost bought this one but I'm hoping I can find it online for a little cheaper, and in my size! 

We stayed the night at the Art of Animation Resort and it was delightful!  I have a thousand more pictures of the resort on my camera because I kept seeing little details that were so fun.  Stay tuned. 

The #1 reason to visit Disney Hollywood Studios was for all of the Star Wars stuff including the Jedi Padawan Academy.  More on this story later (it involves one of the top 5 arguments that Glenn and I have had but all's well that end's well) and many MANY more pictures of The Most Serious Jedi Ever.

Battling  DARTH VADER!  I actually gasped when Mr. Vader came on the stage because I wasn't expecting it and I'm a bit of a geek.  Darth Vader did say that the Force was strong in this one when he was battling Will and I may or may not have yelled "That's right!!" 

I had texted pictures of Will's Star Wars adventures to family members and Grandma asked what Reina's dream come true could be at Disney.  It very well may just be this Disney cake pop that's all her own and a live Little Mermaid show.  She had a great day too. 

Traffic cone bedside lamps in our hotel room.  The cuteness! 

A sofa that looks like a bench seat in an old car.  It also pulled out into a sofa bed for kiddos.  Squeeeeee! 

The morning after Disney, we drove back to the grandparents house and stopped for breakfast with one of Glenn's old friends.  We met at a diner and I had grits for breakfast.  They were delicious. 

One of the houses that Glenn grew up in - we did a drive-by. 

Towards the end of our trip, the kids were really getting into the warm weather.  Will usually doesn't like to go topless but when it's warm enough, why not?! 

It's a Florida girl! 

On our last morning (a Saturday), I was just climbing out of bed when Glenn came in the room and said he needed my help.  He'd woken up early to fish by himself and he came back with the hook in his hand.  I googled 'how to get a fish hook out' and promptly announced that we were going to the ER.  When I read that you'd have to push the hook all the way through, I barfed a little on the inside.  We also couldn't remember the last time he had a tetanus shot and let's face it - we don't mess around with weird infections and Glenn Pauley.  

In the ER.  I told him the last picture I took of him in the ER wasn't very cheery so we needed to turn that around.  I like this version much better.