Mike taught an art lesson in Nate's class. The students made sculptures based on Mike's work; Making an image using the fewest squares possible. The kids assembled pre cut wooden blocks together using wood glue and then painted them. They loved it.

Joshua Tree

At the end of spring break we decided to camp at Joshua Tree. The campgrounds are on a first come first serve basis and unfortunately we got there at 6pm on a Friday night and every campground in the entire park was full and had been since Wed. So we found a motel in Yucca. It was very cool.

We spent the next day in the national park.

From all of the rain this year the desert was blooming. Gorgeous!

We were able to secure a campsite for the next night as we found someone leaving. We camped in Jumbo Rock campground. Each campsite is surrounded by huge rocks on which the boys loved climbing.

Skull rock is just a short hike from our campsite.

The Cholla Cactus Garden is amazing.

At the end of our trip the boys received their Junior Ranger badges.

Mind Control

Happy Easter!

Easter morning.

An attempt to get an Easter Sunday picture

Easter egg hunt at Grandma's

The Lovebird Wedding

My cousin Alison was married in March and had a theme for her wedding, lovebirds. Her wedding planner (Heather Balliet) did an excellent job. She is in my ward and was my sister in law's roommate in college. My sister, Tracy, made the wedding dress and did Alison's hair and makeup for the big day. We took baby James to the reception and he had a blast dancing with everyone!

The lovebirds, Eric and Alison


the table setting


Jimmy dancing!

Harry Potter

When Andrew was 4 he had two favorite movies, Harry Potter and Star Wars Episode I. Since then he has had nothing to do with Harry Potter. Then in February, out of nowhere, he started reading the Harry Potter books beginning with book 2. He couldn't get enough of it. He read constantly. I could only get him to stop to eat and barely to go to school. He read all 6 books in a month and a half. I am glad he loves to read.
Here he is reading...pretty much everywhere we went.

Cousins

At the last minute we decided to go to Arizona for the weekend to see Mike's sister and her family, his brother, and his mom who was there visiting from Utah. The kids were excited to meet their newest cousin, Oliver. (This was in March. Yes I am trying to catch up on my blogging.)
James and Oliver

the whole crew