Friday, March 2, 2018

April 2017 - Time with Tuttles and Easter

The last few days of March were taken slowly as I tried to settle back into housework, parenting, and recovering from Travelers Diarrhea.

Luckily, I was feeling well enough to join up with my friends from PG to celebrate Kylie’s baby girl due May 2nd! We ate at Zupas and just chatted and laughed for about four hours, even taking the chatting outside in the cold for awhile after Zupas closed. It was a lot of fun.


Now into April...The Tuttle kids were in town! Amy and Robby went to Hawaii while we were away. We went to visit that Friday evening to play, have pizza, and eat milkshakes.

I love this: a kandid of the grand kids gathered around to watch the PicSkip Video Codes in the Family Reunion Photo Book!


The next day was the start of General Conference. Jason and I listened on Saturday while doing yard work, weeding, mowing, planting peas and onions. That night, we went to Draper to be with my family. My mom made pulled pork sandwiches. While the men watched Priesthood downstairs, we played with the boys upstairs. We spent the night there and shared our stories, pictures, and videos from Cambodia. The next morning we enjoyed Belgian waffles and watched the Sunday morning session of conference. Then we were off to Alpine to spend time with the Gruber side.



Unfortunately, Nancy was sick. The Riverton Grubers were at their new house watching conference, and the Tuttle kids were with their aunt. After the final session, everyone came to celebrate April’s birthday with a dinner and we played outside. That evening, since Nancy was sick, we took the Tuttle kids home with us for a sleepover.

We had a great time with the Tuttle kids and made quite a day of it. We went to the new Orem Park and had a Chik-fil-A picnic lunch. While the little ones took naps, we played Dominion. Luckily, Jason got home a little early from work and so we took them to BYU Campus to feed the ducks and get ice cream in the Cougar Eat. We enjoyed our ice cream outside on campus. We had a lot of fun. The boys loved it! For dinner, we were back in Alpine. Nancy was starting to feel better.

Clara did Colson's hair that morning :)



spot the flying frisbee...



The next day was a very special day. It was the year mark since Grandpa Banks passed away and we would be doing a part of his temple work! He would be sealed to Nancy! We met at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple; the temple was chosen to best accommodate Amy and Robby returning home from Hawaii. We all made it there (even after Amy and Robby’s craziness at the airport); however, when I tried to enter I was denied because my recommend had expired. I had no idea! I was definitely bummed to miss and couldn’t believe my mistake, but was happy to wait there in the entrance of the temple and to hug them all when they came out. It was a great day! After the temple, we all headed back to Alpine for a lasagna dinner. Amy and Robby gave out their travel gifts and we both shared trip pictures and videos. It was a lot of fun!

Beyond our eventful Conference weekend and week with the Tuttles, here is more that happened in April:

We helped the Grubers move into their beautiful new home, ironically enough just behind and kiddy corner to their old house.


Jason continued playing soccer and the boys just loved going to the games, somewhat watching, but mostly running around chasing each other and the other children. One game they had an awesome win: 12 to 3! So fun!

In addition to the yard work this month, we cleaned out the garage. A big enough task worth mentioning. We also tore out the bushes to the right of our driveway. They were hideous and seemed to be dying, so while the neighbors were in the process of replace their fence, we took the liberty of taking them out. Another big task worth mentioning!

See the bushes behind the boys, those are the ugly bushes Jason pulled.

Amy and Johnny got back from Thailand and surprised us by bringing back more white pepper for us. It was so thoughtful! They also shared their stories from the second part of their trip, pictures, and videos.

Dylan had his mission farewell, leaving to the Marshall Islands. Darnel was actually back from his mission just in time to see him go due to parasites and other medical things. He was not in good shape. Dylan gave a beautiful testimony. It was really awesome to hear. In true Poly style, the farewell included TONS of delicious Polynesian food. That evening we were back in Alpine celebrating Alex’s birthday.







Wish I could remember what we were watching!


Max and Cole-Train time


In the world of PicSkip, Jason and I were busy working on the yearbook side of things: updating the look of the site and reaching out to Jostens to attend yearbook conferences in the summer.

The month of April means Easter (usually) so Charlie made sure we kept the proper decorating and dessert traditions. We tie dyed eggs this year and enjoyed lemon cupcakes. The Saturday before Easter, the boys woke up to Easter baskets and an egg hunt around the house. We indulged in a delicious French Toast Casserole for breakfast. Then we were off to another Easter egg hunt at Vivian Park at 9:00 am that was put on by Hayden Pyne’s mother. The Pyne family invited us to join in. It was a lot of fun. The boys loved it and really got into it. They even found one of the special eggs with money! After the hunt, we stopped at Home Depot to take advantage of a special they were doing of potting plants for you. I picked one out and was very happy taking it home. That evening we went to Arbons for a full evening of festivities including: egg coloring/dying, bubble blowing, egg hunting, cookie decorating, and other Easter activities and education. We had a delicious dinner of fish tacos/flatbread and other yummy things that we ate on the floor while Christ videos played above us.










Pyne Egg Hunt:


















On Easter Sunday, after church...I had Sharing Time...we went to Grubers for a dinner of brats and more Easter fun, this time including team sports, activities, and rotations. We were loving the good weather as we played outside and enjoyed dessert.














I love Colson's cross-eyed face!


Find the egg...

We had a another fun day with Gruber cousins and Grandma swimming at the Provo Rec Center (a definite favorite of the boys) and McDonalds for lunch.

We had some really nice weather in April and got to spend more time at different parks. The boys were in heaven. I renewed my Thanksgiving Point membership (this time just getting the individual plan since Colson was still young enough to get in for free). We went to the Tulip Festival with Nancy (always a favorite of mine). We ate lunch and got ice cream from the booth they have there. Such a treat!


Tulip Festival:




To no importance for anyone but me, I ripped out my scraggly eyelash extensions from Cambodia and was horrified to see that I pretty much had no eyelashes left! For weeks I had to glue on falsies. Can't say I will be getting eyelash extensions again anytime soon.

On another busy day, I went to a baby shower for my friend Alisha, visited my friend Amy, and then met up with Bryan to take some Senior Pics at his school. I also met up with his Prom group to take group and date pictures at the Draper Barn.






















To celebrate Amy’s birthday and mine coming up in May we had another combined dinner date: We went to Carrabas and then saw the live action Beauty and the Beast.

One day while Charlie was at school, I took Colson on a special date. We went to the Puppy Barn in AF (something he loves a lot more than Charlie does) and then got kiddie cones at McDonalds.

Jason helped with/put on the YM Fundraiser for the year. That’s quite the stressful ordeal, let me tell ya’! It was a lot of work, but Jason was so glad to see it over and done with. They power cleaned the garbage cans of members in the ward. That night we celebrated with a date at Maria Bonitas (a recent favorite of ours) and then watched La La Land at home.



It is funny writing this post a year later...wow, it’s hard to believe how busy we were! We sure packed it in! We are definitely blessed.

Here are more pictures from the month:

Charlie at preschool











Uncle Alan's Bran Muffins - a favorite!

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