Gila Valley Temple Trip

We took a trip to Thatcher, Arizona on May 1st to go through the Gila Valley temple openhouse. It is a really beautiful temple, and I think our kids enjoyed it a lot. It was a 3 hour drive to get there, but it was an awesome experience for our family.

Afterwards, I wanted to get some pictures of the kids in front of the temple. Do you think I got the beautiful, perfect shot I was hoping for? Of course not. I think this one just might be the best one I got, because all three kids are actually visible in it. And no, I'm not really that bad of a photographer.

Here's the story--after walking through the temple, we went over to the chapel to have some cookies. I took Isaac to the bathroom, and handed him a paper towel after he washed his hands. Apparently that was a big mistake. He wanted to get his own paper towel, but I told him no because 1. He couldn't reach the paper towels and 2. I had already gotten him a perfectly acceptable paper towel. He actually flung himself down right there on the bathroom floor and refused to get up and leave the bathroom. I pretended to leave, and then he came. However, this mood continued for the next half hour.

We walked over to the temple grounds to take some pictures, and he would not look at the camera and just flung himself down on the grass and threw a fit. I even tried positioning him in front of the girls so I could take his picture in all of his fuming, temper-tantrum throwing glory, but he just crawled away before I could get a picture. Fun times. I was just glad he waited until our tour was over to act like that. Someone who saw him said, "Oh he's going to be out in 30 seconds on your drive home." Unfortunately, this was not true--he stayed awake the entire drive home. We put him in the back of the van by himself so his tantrum would be slightly less annoying to us, and also because he and Finley tend to fight when they sit next to each other. Curse our wretched DVD player that stopped working recently...Anyway, he did not sleep, but at least he stopped crying not long into the drive. Finley, bless her little heart, did wail and cry for a lot of the drive home. She finally fell asleep for her "nap" at around 6:30 when we were a mile from our freeway exit.

Anyway, on to the pictures I did get.

The girls were very cooperative.

I snapped a quick picture of Isaac when he sat up for a moment.

Which caused him to do this.

Me and Keith.

And we actually got one with the whole family!

Anyway, I can see us laughing about this years from now when we look at these pictures of a happy family and a scowling little boy. At least now we'll remember the backstory too.

Isaac's field trip

Isaac had a field trip to Peter Piper Pizza a couple of weeks ago. Not really very educational, but lots of fun! They gave us a tour of the kitchen area, which I actually found pretty facsinating. We watched how they roll out the dough into huge strips, which they actually roll onto a spool. After the tour, the kids got to make their own little pizzas.
Isaac with his friend Kami.

Putting the finishing touches on their pizzas.

Finley got to make a pizza too.

Isaac shows off the final product.

A drink and a couple of tokens per kid were included in the price, so the kids all had fun playing the games, of course. This field trip was for the letter X, and Sister Stinnett tied it in by saying we were making pizzas with eXtra cheese. :) It was actually a really fun little outing.

Easter Finery

The kids wore their Easter finery to church the week after Easter. I tried to line them up and get a cute picture, but that was apparently expecting too much. I think the sun was too bright for Isaac, because he kept using Napolean Dynamite eyes. I like different people in different poses--too bad I don't know how to photoshop and select the best pose of each individual.

I wish Sareny didn't have her hand on her face in the above photo--she looks darling in the below one. The other kids, not so much.

This one is pretty cute...if only Isaac would have opened his eyes wider!

I love the look on little Finey's face in this one.

Anyway, so you see my dilemna about the pictures. Oh well, I guess it does kind of reflect their true personalities a little bit!

Easter Morning

Okay, here is the promised Easter post! We had a pretty awesome Easter this year. Especially good was this year's chocolate Easter bunnies.

Last year, after taking a bite of a rather sub-par chocolate Easter bunny, Sareny asked why the Easter bunny brought them yucky candy. The Easter bunny has a long memory, and made sure to improve the taste this year. He solicited the help of an expert candy maker he knows, who molded these cute bunnies filled with delicious caramel. Much better than last year!

Here are the Easter baskets before the mayhem began.

The kids checking out their baskets. Apparently the Easter bunny is not aware that gum is frowned upon in our house.

Then the hunt began. There were some tricky eggs, and each kid got a special golden egg with a dollar coin in it. Isaac spotted the trickiest egg of all.

Daddy helped Sareny get it down. We couldn't figure out how the Easter bunny managed to get the egg up there.

The aftermath.

The girls both got little cabbage patch babies, and Isaac got a megablocks Mack truck, which you can see on the floor behind the girls.

This next picture just seems so bizarrely artistic, I had to include it. I was trying to take a picture of the girls, and at the last minute Isaac stuck his cotton candy in front of the camera.

I love this one too. It just kind of says it all.