Spring Break

We sure had a fun Spring Break this year.

 Great Grandma Chapman came for a visit.  It was so good to see her!  Hopefully we didn't wear her out too much.  She sure has quite a bit of spunk and energy.  She was such a good sport to go on so many outings with us.  Jilly sure enjoyed the time with her great grandma.  (Darn it... This is the only picture I got of her while she was here!  I have been horrible about taking pictures lately.)

 We went to the zoo for one of our outings.  Last time we went, Jilly was only a few months old, so it was fun to see her reaction to things this time.  She was pretty fascinated by all of the different animals.

 Trent was able to get the week of Spring Break off from work, which was sooooo nice!  We loved being able to spend so much time with him.

 Jilly was not a fan of the sun hat.  She took it off every chance she got.

 Colson was all smiles after he got to eat a foot long hot dog.

 Best bros.

 Viv and Buds on the carousel.  From the minute we walked into the zoo, all Buds talked about was wanting to ride on the carousel.  Once the carousel ride was over, all he wanted to do was go home!  Good thing we saw most of what we wanted to see before the carousel ride.

 Jilly's first time on the merry-go-round.

And that is the extent of my pictures for the entire 2 weeks of Spring Break.  Oh, except for these:

 We got some snow one of the days.  The kids played outside in it and built a snowman.

By the next afternoon it had warmed back up and this was all that was left of the snowman.

The boys and Trent also got to go with the grandmas to the museum and see the reptile exhibit that is here right now.  (Vivi was home sick.  Poor girl!)  I guess Trent was quite enthralled with all of the different species of reptiles.  A little known fact about Trent; when he was a teenager, he used to breed snakes.  He had over 30 different breeds in cages in the basement of his parents' home.  Boy, was his mom ever nice to have all of that down in her basement!  He LOVES snakes and other reptiles.  A few years ago, we found a rattle snake at the end of our driveway.  It was about 10:00 at night that we were walking some friends out to their car when we saw it.  I was ready to get in the car and run the thing over pronto, but Trent wouldn't have any of that!  He called animal control, pulled out a camp chair, caught the thing on the end of a 2x4, then proceeded to wait for animal control to show up.  Every time I would go out to check on him, he would marvel at how amazing the snake was, what beautiful markings it had, and try to convince me to come take a closer look!  I wasn't inclined to get any closer than the front porch.  After waiting close to 2 hours for animal control to come, to no avail, Trent decided he needed to return the snake to the wild himself.  I was still all for running it over with the car.  He enlisted my help in locating a box, as he still had the snake coiled up on the end of the 2x4.  He got the snake into the box, loaded it up in the car and drove it out to the middle of nowhere.  By the time he got back, it was well past midnight.  Luckily we haven't seen a rattle snake in the neighborhood since.

Anyway, back to Spring Break.  The kids also got to go swimming at the Rec center a couple of times.  They had lots of sleep overs with the grandmas.  Trenton got to go on a camp out.  One of his favorite things in the world to do.  Since he is in Middle School, he only got one week off instead of the two weeks the younger kids get.  Such a bummer!  It's tempting to just keep him home, but I was a responsible parent and sent him to school.  :(  Colson read almost 3 books over the two week break.  He's really into the Harry Potter series right now.  I think he had 2 solid days where he sat on the couch reading all day, besides all of the other reading he did.  It reminded me of when I was a kid.  I always had my nose in a book any chance I got.  Vivi, the poor girl, was sick for part of the break, but she made up for it by having shopping dates and tons of sleepovers with the grandmas.

 Here is a picture of her and great grandma while out shopping.

We also spent lots of time playing outside.  The weather was actually pretty decent most of the time.  It was so nice to have the kids home.  It is always kind of a let down when they have to go back to school and we have to resume a schedule.  About midway through the day on Monday, Preston looked at me and said, "Wow mom.  It is really quiet in our house."  Ah. Quiet.  On second thought, sometimes a schedule isn't so bad after all. ;)