Spring Break has come and gone!

We had a great spring break! It was so nice to have Eric around for a whole week with no studying! We took advantage of his time off and took a little vacation to the Great Wolf Lodge. We had a great time. Indoor waterpark, interactive scavenger hunt with your own magic wand. Brooklyn had her own hide-a-bed to sleep in. Ice to crunch on. A great time was had by all! If we hadn't disconnected the phone in our room who knows how many calls we'd have made to the front desk by our two little girls. We were all ready to go swimming and were walking out the door of our room but Brooklyn was "talking" on the phone to grandma and wouldn't hang up. She'd much rather stay on the phone than go to the indoor water park! We wrapped up our 3 night hotel stay with a 4 hour drive to the airport to head to Grandma's!

Brooklyn and Sadie we're so excited to go to Grandma's. They are such good travelers. To get up early drive for four hours in a car only to ride in an airplane for four more hours. The biggest bump in the trip came after Sadie chugged some chocolate milk while we were driving. It came back and the precious blankie and her clothes all got covered. Poor Sadie was freezing to death as we were trying to get her cleaned up on the side of the freeway in 15 degree weather! Not counting the wind chill! It was COLD! And I wasn't the one getting a change of clothes! Thank goodness that was the worst of it!

We landed in Utah and Brooklyn had said she was going to run to Grandma and give her a big hug and that is just what she did. The shyness of living so far away is wearing off. Sadie of course did the same thing because she does what her sister does. Then Valerie came and Brooklyn ran and threw her arms around her too!

It was a quick trip to Utah but it was nice. Eric and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary with a night out for dinner. We got to hang out with Val, Alli & Jake. Play some killer basketball to help Jake practice for his region championship game. Watched half the St. Patty's day parade enjoyed watching the aggressive grandma next to us helped clean everyone out of candy and necklaces and hand them to us. She was awesome! Then the great championship game. Maybe if we hadn't played so hard the night before Jake would have made a few more baskets, but Sadie is still hollering every now and then "Go Jake!" and something about "basketball!"

We got to attend the Bountiful temple and be there for Richard's first time through which was really special before he heads out into the mission field in a month.

We fed ducks with Great-Grandma and Grandpa Payne at the park. Had a couple quick visits with Grandpa Mike and Grandma Jane and we were back to the airport to head home. Brooklyn wasn't happy as we landed back in Michigan that Grandma wasn't there, but I reassured her that she would be here soon, like Friday soon.

Grandma and Grandpa flew to Michigan and drove down our street as Brooklyn and Sadie were riding their bikes to help the time pass. They were delighted to have them at our house to sleep downstairs! We did all sorts of fun things with Grandma here. We went to the Maple Syrup Festival and watched the sap drip out of the maple trees and learned how they make syrup. Ate some awesome pork sandwiches from Backyard BBQ. We went to a beautiful butterfly exhibit, and toured the fun gardens briefly before it closed. I love this picture of Dad leaning back and staring up at the huge Trojan Horse.We ate dinner at Bob Evan's, visited an awesome grocery store that sells chocolate cheese and just about anything else you can imagine and during the daytime they have a live pianist playing a grand piano in the middle of the produce section. No I'm not kidding!!! It's awesome. Grandma went to sunbeam's with Brooklyn. We watched a Under the Sea 3-D movie at the theatre and about scared Sadie and Brooklyn to death, checked out Menards and found a dead mouse by the ladders, took a long nap, watched NCAA action, had an early birthday party for Sadie and about wore ourselves out!

Then Grandma and Grandpa had to go. Brooklyn is still mad that she didn't get to wave goodbye to Grandma. She was trying to "save" Grandma from going to her house by not letting go of her hand. But "grandma let go of my hand!" She loves and really wants her "grandma-parents" and I hear about it daily. That is when she's not mad at me and telling me to go to my "mother's house!"

Sadie had her 2nd birthday! I can't believe she's two! We gave her a dollhouse, a little dress up puppy, and a little bunkbed for her baby doll. She's getting defensive over what is hers and how much Brooklyn can help with. She'll holler "my birthday!" and "my present!" and she started to cry when Brooklyn was helping her open her present. It's hard when your little. Brooklyn actually handled it all quite well, as Sadie was still crying and opening her next present. Don't get in Sadie's way! Hopefully things will settle a little for a few days or so! But it's been fun!