My Little Sunshine: April 2008

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Google Reader is Fabulous!

I got this from my friend, Jen's blog. I set up all the blogs I check often as well as websites I like to look at on Google Reader and it is great.

(From Jen)
Just in case you don't know about google reader, I will tell you what it is because it has SAVED ME SO MUCH TIME. You can go to this one page and enter in all the websites you visit often and if there has been an update on that page it will show you. So I use it for all of my friends' blogs. That way I don't have to go to each families site, I can just see from this one page if you have any updates. I can read your update right from that page or I can go your website. It is awesome and saves so much TIME! Which I know is most precious to all of us!

You can get it at the top of your gmail or just google it.

Thanks Jen for your great hints, you always have a helpful hint up your sleeve.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Cirque de Soleil

On Friday night Travis and I had a fabulous date. It was different than the usual dinner and movie date. We went to a delicious Itallian Restaurant downtown Portland called Mama Mias. Everything was made from scratch and the Amaretto Cheesecake was to die for. I recommend this restaurant to anyone. After dinner we went to see the show Corteo from Cirque de Soleil. We were 5 rows up from the stage and it was amazing. I told Travis that I want to go everytime they come to town, I was so impressed. I wish Travis could throw me around and I could fly in the air. I guess it is not possible since I am not 4'8" and weigh 80lbs. The show was incredible, it was a first for me. Travis scored big points for planning that date. It was well worth the $$$.

Welcome Home to Portland

After our 2500 mile journey we arrived home to Portland to odd weather. We heard it had been strange weather while we were gone. When we drove through downtown Portland we had snow. When we arrived home the sky was pretty clear and then all of a sudden a strange hail storm came and dumped for about 3 minutes. We had just finished unpacking our car when it hit.

Last Stop...Boise

The last stop on our Spring Break trip was to Boise to spend time with Jess, Katie and boys. We love visiting Jess and Katie because our kids just play and play like cousins, Jess and Travis play and play like brothers and Katie and I get to shop, hang out and talk. It is always very relaxing. Katie and I did a little shopping, looked at a lot of open houses, caught up on a little TV and just had fun while Travis and Jess played Guitar Hero, watched the NCAA basketball tournament and played more Guitar Hero, went and played basketball and then played more Guitar Hero. The kids had to beg to get a turn to play the game. We even went on a fun date and played Columbian Uno like old times. My kids absolutely love Caleb and Lukey. Sydney thinks Caleb (or Zach Zach as she calls him) is the greatest. The kids would all get up early in the morning, get themselves breakfast and let the adults sleep in. One night we celebrated Luke and Jake's birthdays since their special days are only a week apart. Travis also made his famous Traviladas and tried to teach Jess how to be a real chef. Thanks Jess and Katie for your hospitality, we love you!

Salt Lake

We had a great time in Salt Lake. We were only there for 2 days, so it was a pretty crazy. One of the days was Jake's birthday. This is the second birthday in a row he has been able to spend it in Salt Lake with his cousins, aunts and uncles. For lunch on his special day we got McDonalds (not my favorite but Jake loves it!) and took my Grandma to a park for a picnic. Then we met our good friends, the Biglers, who used to be our neighbors in Portland but now live in Riverton to see the movie, "Horton Hears a Who". That night we had a big family party at a bowling alley with his cousins, aunts, uncles and one of his best buddies, Mitchel Bigler. He loved spending his birthday with family but now he wants a friends party at home. I need to figure that one out in the next week.

The next day in Salt Lake we went to the University of Utah to show our kids around the school we both graduated from. We went to the bookstore and bought the kids Utah t-shirts. It was fun to remember the fun times of college and see how much the U has changed.

After the U we went to the Salt Lake City Cemetary to show the kids where my Grandpa, aunt and great grandparents are buried. I knew that President Hinckley had been buried just up a little bit from my Grandpa so went and found his headstone. There was such a sweet peaceful feeling when we were there. We knew that other prophets were buried there so we went on a little trek through the cemetary and found where about 8 or 9 prophets had been buried. It was really neat to talk about each one and the history of the church.

We then went to one of our favorite places to eat, Cafe Rio, and got take out. We went to a local park by Temple Square and had a picnic. We then went to explore Temple Square. We showed the kids where Travis proposed to me. The picture of all 3 of them is interesting to me, in that spot is where our little life all started and now 9 years later we have 3 beautiful kids. Whenever we go to Salt Lake we are rushing around trying to see everyone, this day was fun to really explore downtown share it with our kids.

The rest of the afternoon we were able to see a couple of good friends. Carrie Godfrey and kids were in town visiting her parents. Jake got to see his good buddy, Jake Godfrey. We then went to visit Matt and Lesa Racker who were good friends of our when we lived in Salt Lake over 6 years ago. They just had twin girls, number 4 and 5 for them. They have Jake who is 7, Hailee who is 5, Emma who is 2 weeks older than our Sydney and then the twins are Ellie Kate and Sydney Paige. We realized that our 2 Sydneys have the same first and middle names. Baylee's middle name is Kate. I think we both have great taste in names. It was fun to visit with them and see how crazy life can be when you jump from 3 kids to 5.

That night, my sister watched our kids so we could have a night out with Trav's brother, new wife and little sister. We had so much fun with them and laughed a lot. I am sorry for all those that we missed, hopefully next time we will be in Salt Lake for more than 2 days. It is always fun for us to come back to Utah, it always feels like home.

Happy Easter!

We were able spend Easter in Zions. The kids were worried that the Easter Bunny would not find them but he somehow did. They had Easter bags instead of baskets but they still had a great egg hunt inside the cabin.

Zions National Park

For part of our Spring Break we drove down to Zions National Park with my sister, Tina and her wonderful family. They brought their 2 4-wheelers and 2 motorcycles and we rented a great little cabin 3 miles out of the park. This resort we stayed in had over 50,000 acres of land that we could just explore. We put a lot of miles on the 4 wheelers, thanks Troy and Tina. My kids, including Travis, could not get enough. I think Travis is going to start looking for his own soon. We also did some hiking at Zions, the scenery was amazing. I think we should make this a yearly trip.