Easter 2014

We did something new this year for Easter.  We actually dyed hard boiled eggs.  I haven't dyed eggs for over 12 years and I don't really remember doing it much as a child either.  Anyway, I decided that the kids were probably old enough to dye eggs without making a mess so we tried it.  The kids enjoyed it but had a hard time waiting for their eggs to dye.  Since we haven't dyed eggs in years Joseph and I weren't very experienced either.  All of our eggs were colored though and the kids had fun.

Our set up.  Nothing fancy.

 In the afternoon after it warmed up we went outside and the kids hunted for eggs.

Sunday morning we took a few pictures before church.  It was rushed, but we still managed to get to church on time.  We also watched some Bible videos portraying the last week of Christ's life.  The kids like watching these short clips over and over.  

Rebecah was so excited to wear her new dress.  This is a "Sunday only" dress and not a
play dress so it was very hard for her to wait to wear it.

I love Easter.  It is one of my favorite holidays.  I love the blessings that come to us individually and as families because of the Atonement and Resurrection.  I'm glad that we will see our loved ones again and that our imperfect bodies will be perfect some day.  I'm glad we can repent of our sins and be forgiven. I'm grateful we have a loving Heavenly Father who has a beautiful plan for us to follow to bring us back to His presence.

Outing to Ithaca, NY

Spring Break started on Friday.  Joseph had worked overnight Thursday night to Friday morning so he had the rest of Friday off from work so we decided to take a day trip to Ithaca, NY.

Our first stop was the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to see some birds.  It has a very nice set up for bird watching at the lake from inside or outside.  There were trails we could walk as well.  We had another hike planned so we did not go far on these paths because we wanted to save the energy for other things.

Kimball and Rebecah on a trail.

The view of the lake.  I'm sure it is much prettier when the trees are covered in leaves.
Spring isn't quite here yet in New York.

Looking for birds.

Our next stop was Buttermilk Falls State Park.  We intended to hike the gorge trail which went right along the waterfall, but this path was still closed because of ice.  We decided to hike the rim trail above the waterfall instead.  Both trails were 3/4 of a mile in one direction.

Rebecah isn't much of a walker so I brought some fruit snacks along to bribe her to keep going.  I rationed her fruit snacks and she would get 1 fruit snack when I could tell she was getting close to the breaking point.  She always broke out into huge smiles when she saw it was time for her next fruit snack.  I was very proud of her for making the entire journey...1 1/2 miles...without too much complaint.  We later saw that the trail was classified as strenuous so it was steep in places. I was proud of myself for perfectily rationing the fruit snacks so we didn't run out before we were finished.  There were only 3 fruit snacks for the return trip, but it was easier for all of us so Rebecah didn't need as much encouragement since we were going down hill.

Kimball taking a quick break.

Pausing for a picture.

Buttermilk Falls

Posing for another picture.

Ithaca is a great place to visit.  There are so many waterfalls in and around the city.  It is a place we want to visit multiple times.  We just wish it were a little closer.  It took almost an hour and a half to get there.  Kimball has been doing some waterfall research since we returned and he has highlighted various waterfalls he wants to visit on our next trip to Ithaca.

We ended our trip to Ithaca by stopping at McDonald's.  The kids were happy and Joseph and I each found something to eat there as well.

And Then There was None!

The snow cave is gone.  It melted much faster than we thought it would.  I honestly though we would have a mound of ice/snow until May, but once it started to melt it went quickly.

As you may recall from the last blog post, about a foot of snow fell on March 11.  The snow fort was doing great and a week later it started to melt.  I wasn't fast enough to document the "swiss cheese" affect of the second room before it collapsed, but it started melting and getting holes.

These picture were around March 22

I took these pictures the day after the second room collapsed.

This pictures shows some of the swiss cheese affect on the first room of the cave.

Closer view of the holes.

 A few days later Joseph went out with a shovel and knocked part of the roof in on this room to help speed up the process.

The next day this happened...

The roof collapsed.

Second room melted almost to the ground.

 A few days later...

End of march...

The rectangle with the black frame is an old shower door that Joseph used in making a
slide for the kids.  We just left it out to show how it moved during the melting.

April 2nd or so...

Second room is all gone.

 This last picture was taken April 10th.   That night we had some rain and the next 

day the snow and ice were all gone.

The snow cave was fun while it was around, but we were ready for it to melt too.  We wanted to make sure we could have grass growing for the summer.  

March Happenings

I haven't felt like blogging lately.  I think part of the reason is lack of pictures.  I just haven't taken very many pictures of our recent events, and I don't like to do blog posts without pictures.  Here is a quick run down on our recent events from March.

Failed Trip To Washington D.C.
Joseph and I made plans to visit D.C. so he could attend a medical conference and I could see D.C. since it is at the top of my "Must See" places.  We made arrangements for the kids to spend time with friends and everything was working out until the day of our trip.  A foot of snow fell the day we were supposed to leave.  We actually sat on the run way in our airplane for an hour and a half before the airline decided the weather was too bad for us to de-ice and take off.  I was disappointed, I'm not going to lie.  I still hope to make it to D.C. at some point!  The kids were disappointed as well.  The good news is that we were able to get our entire trip refunded so we weren't out any expense.  The next available flight was a Saturday and our original leave date was Wednesday so we couldn't even re-book our flight.

St. Patrick's Day
I always try to make the smaller holidays fun for the kids so we decorate and eat special food on this day.  The leprechauns didn't forget to visit this year like they did last year.  The kids were excited about the "gold" (Rolo candy) that the leprechauns left.

Annual Trip to the Dentist
The kids were so excited to visit the dentist this year.  I personally hate going to the dentist, but I'm glad they think it is fun.  We all came away cavity free so that was a relief for me!

9th Anniversary
Joseph and I celebrated our anniversary this month.  We had our traditional dinner of homemade egg rolls and a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.  I look forward to this meal all year and I'm always sad when the leftovers are gone.  Both the egg rolls and cheesecake are time intensive and on the expensive side for your everyday meal so we only eat it on our anniversary.  So yummy.  I wasn't feeling very well on our anniversary and Joseph worked all day so it wasn't the most exciting of anniversaries, but any anniversary is a celebration.

Cinderella!!

It's no secret that Rebecah loves the Disney Princesses.  She acts out different parts of the movies regularly.  She also pretends to be the princesses and that is determined by the movie she has seen most recently.  For the last few days she has been begging for a wet cloth so she can clean the floor like Cinderella.  I have put her off because I don't want her to think she is the resident slave, but I finally gave in today.  She happily wiped a good portion of our floor as she sang "Sing Sweet Nightingale" the song that Cinderella sings in the movie.  Here is a picture of Rebecah, I mean, Cinderella.  She is all smiles.

Cinderella cleaning the floor.

News Flash...

After almost 9 years of marriage, we have purchased our first TV.  We started thinking about buying a TV at the start of the year, but it wasn't until we realized we needed a new computer that we seriously considered a TV.  We have been content to watch movies on our laptop, but when we get a new computer we probably won't have a DVD player with it and I still wanted the kids and me to have the option to watch movies.  For those of you who don't know, Joseph rarely watches movies.  I do most of my movie watching when Joseph is working evenings/nights.

I'm sure our TV is small, only 32'', compared to the TV size most people have, but I honestly didn't want a big TV.  The TV seems big to us, especially when you consider that we have been content to watch movies on our laptop for years.  The man at Best Buy tried to convince us that for the size of our family room we NEEDED at least a 40'' TV, but I wasn't buying it.  I didn't want a huge one and I didn't want to have to pay for a huge one.

The kids are excited to have a TV, but we don't plan on paying for a monthly cable service so our life will remain pretty much the same.

Monster Jam

Joseph and Kimball went to Monster Jam over the weekend.  For those who don't know, it is a monster truck event that is perfect for the truck lovin' boy, and even if your boy is more into Legos now, he will still love it.  Kimball had a blast.  He rarely plays with cars anymore, but he was so excited about being in the Carrier Dome (Syracuse University stadium) with all of the huge monster trucks.  Joseph said every few minutes Kimball would tightly hug Joseph's arm and thank Joseph for taking him to the show.  I thought that was sweet.  

The noise level was high, but Joseph and Kimball went prepared with ear plugs.  Most people wore ear plugs, but a few brave--crazy-- people didn't.

Joseph and Kimball left about 30 minutes early to beat the crowd and traffic.  Kimball was a little disappointed to leave early, but if they had stayed they would have sat in traffic at least an hour and with the time change and church the next day it just wasn't worth it to stay to the bitter end.  There is always next year.  Kimball is very excited to make this an annual Father/Son event.

Before the show starts.  The stands were full before too long.

Joseph took other pictures, but for some reason we can only view them on Joseph's phone and they are just blank shots when we try to transfer them.  Bummer.