Ellensburg Easter

Ok so I know it's been a whack load of time and

 I'm still trying to remember what post's I have yet to draft 

and which ones I just decided to skip all together.  

So here's one of the BEST parts of the last few weeks!  

Because looking back, with the exception of this week long trip 

someone in the house has been sick, for over a month, 

at times enough to take us to the ER!!

ELLENSBURG

My brother and sister in law live in Ellensburg Washington.  

They don't get to come visit very often and the last few significant 

family events that occurred for them we decided to 

make sacrifices for our school and stay home.  

In December my sister in law had twins and this year her oldest 

was turning eight in march and therefore being baptized.  

They were awesome and decided to have 

a huge party weekend in march to celebrate everything

 so that as much family as possible 

could come be with them!!

So on this trip we celebrated two birthdays,

a baptism, two baby blessings,

Oh . . . and did I mention it was Easter weekend??

Yep so you can imagine we were dead on our feet.  

After a 12 hour drive (over two days) with 3 kiddo's under 5 years,

 I was definitely in the mood for a hot tub!  

 Even if they are this cute!!

Instead immediately after check in at the front desk 

the girls were ready for the swimming pool. 

(I couldn't blame them we had been bribing them 

with swimming for the last three hours of the trip!)

So my sister and I jumped into the slightly frigid hotel pool 

and splashed around with the kids while 

Shane and my dad went to find us some lunch.  

(grandma was lucky and got to sit poolside with

 Mr. T and stayed mostly dry!)

Eventually the parent child ratio evened out after 

Grandpa and Shane returned to jump in and Play!

(ps Oh I SOOOO did take a turn in the hot tub 

before we left the pool)

After our swim we had some late lunch/dinner and then 

headed out for visiting at my brother and sister in laws house

for visiting celebrating the first birthday party.  

Zack turned three in march.

Lucky man got a stuffed sword and shield all the way from Canada!

We headed back to the hotel after a while. 

(I needed to make preparations for Easter)

Yes the Easter bunny even found us at the hotel,

in fact the Easter bunny found us three times that weekend!!

The girls were ecstatic and we had to put the breaks 

 

 

on their dresses as we had plans to go to the

 park that morning and the baptism wasn't until the afternoon.

The weather was amazing and the girls were happy to have 

some outside time at the park with aunties. 

 (and their dad!!)

 

 I was glad to have a bit of down time to chat with my sisters and mom.

 Even Mr. T had a grand time!

And yes Easter didn't all fit in our hotel room so the silly 

Easter bunny had to leave some things in 

grandmas hotel room for the girls too!!

After that we were back racing back to the hotel room 

to get ready and then off to the baptism which was so good.

I was very proud of my mom who did an awesome job 

talking about the Holy Ghost and being Confirmed.

Ms. E and Ms. A were so excited to sit right up front 

and watch their cousin get baptized!!

There was lots of love shared and I was so happy to have 

so many of my mom's sisters there to visit and meet the kiddo's. 

 It has been quite a long time for most of them and we were 

excited to give our girls a chance to get to know them!

After the Baptism the Easter Bunny Struck again!!

It was a collective effort and the kids adored it!

 

Yep, see that loot in the green bucket

 that was only part of Easter!

 The girls made some awesome new friends that day which also made 

church on Sunday less of a challenge!!

 (why are adults not more like this - 

making friends everywhere???)

After all the excitement of Easter we had Birthday #2

and then after that it was time for Family Pictures!!

One of my mom's adoring sisters had brought her some Daffodils 

from her flower bed and the girls just loved them! 

 I admit its hard for me not to smile when I see Daffodil's.

Here we are a happy family!!

Sunday was lovely and the girls although tired 

were good through most of church.

I admit I was reluctant to leave late that afternoon.  

Mostly dreading the trek home, but also not feeling like

 I had had time to sit with Anna my sister in law.

 Enjoying some time talking about real life, mommy-hood,

husbands and anything else that 

entered what was left of our mommy brains. 

Their last trip we had enjoyed a visit just the two of us and 

so as we headed home I had plans in my head to come and visit

 just our little family and just take time to relax and enjoy. 

After all the kiddo's deserve some cousin time!

We broke up the trip home a bit with a few extra stops

for the kids (and dad too)!!

We spent the night on the east side of Spokane and so decided to visit 

the temple grounds in the morning before heading off.  

Then Daddy took the girls to Cabelas!! 

I went to get groceries (aka cheap american cheese)!!

Then not long after we found a Mc Donalds 

We could barely get them to eat some lunch!!

Needless to say we were home REALLY late Monday night.

It was an amazing weekend and I was grateful we 

made it a priority to share some family time.

Next up - Conference.