Utah Spring Break

For Spring Break, I found out most of my family would be in Utah. So I loaded up my kids and made the 14 hour drive. It was ridiculously long. We stopped at a hotel in Twin Falls, ID on the way because I'm a wuss. But we got to swim late at night, and the boys loved hotel breakfast the next morning.

Adele loved spending the week with her twin cousin Elsie.

We stayed at Aunt Melissa's house in Lehi. The weather was beautiful.

My littlest sister Julia took us to her dorm at BYU and we ate at the new Canon Center. It has changed so much in the last decade.

"Free" donuts and anything else you want for breakfast. These kids were very happy.

Then we drove to Daybreak to visit my twin cousin Oakley and her kids and play at the park. And I took a lot of photos.

Matt joined us for the weekend. We went to the airport one afternoon to meet up with a friend from Brazil. Matt met Irminia on his mission in 2003. She was small enough to fit in his backpack then. We have proof!

We saw our favorite Palmers who live in Provo now, but got no picture! Just this of Adele and Ezra sharing a romantic moment.

We drove to Springville to see Matt's sister Stephanie and her cute family. 

And they came up to Lehi one day to see us again.

Back to Daybreak to see Oakley again, this time with Matt. Josh and Welles were really sweet together.

The rest of the weekend we spent with my family. Julia and Steven were out of class, and Steph and my dad flew in. Ironically, everyone was together at Melissa and Mike's house except Melissa and Mike, who left on a trip to Hawaii. At least we got to keep Elsie. There was a lot of braiding and nail polish.

Big hair bows and cleaning supplies. Such little domestics!

Yoga and climbing with Steven was super fun, per usual. I was really proud of the boys for being brave. No ropes at this gym.

Last but not least, a scrubby picture of 4/5 of the Madsen kids. I'm glad we made the trip. And very glad Matt drove with us on the way home.

March General

In random order, because I don't care right now, here is the rest of March:

Jude's birthday party. Remember that? Children are CRAZY.

Matt's mom in town for birthdays and childcare. Participated as sous chef by juicing a bunch of beets for Matt's beet risotto. Very hot pink. Will make you think you are dying when you go to the bathroom later. 

Jude and Adele at their annual check ups. I'm happy to say I don't remember anything about the shots, so maybe they weren't that bad. I just love when they play nicely together like this. And wear matching patient robes.

Adele is a big girl who tries to dress herself sometimes. It's funny to watch because she can't.

Josh is sweet and a little somber sometimes. He had to entertain himself during Jude's T-ball practices and did not appreciate being robbed of after-school video game time for this.

Adele has a cute hiney and is extremely coordinated on the scooter. This is how we stay entertained during Josh's baseball practice.

My buddies while Josh is at school all day.

House projects constantly. Note: using a spray gun to paint trim does not save you any time because you have to do all this taping, and you STILL splatter paint beyond the splash zone.

Many house projects means many trips to Home Depot. Can you spy the ginger?

I got Matt to join my awesome gym, and now we get to take the kids swimming whenever we want. On this day, we walked across the street for pizza afterward.  Nothing too special, but when there's a pictures of all of us together, I have to post it no matter what.

Burning through some of the junk pile that our backyard has become.

Whaaaaat?? My hair is down?? That never happens. Must document.

Sometimes it takes us eighty minutes to get to Costco for no good reason. And our kids are starving, and one of them eats a whey protein bar in the car even though he's allergic to whey, and he barfs all over the floor in the produce section of Costco, and we are all disgusting, and we get home late, and we accidentally leave a rotisserie chicken on the piano all night. But it's worth it, because it's Costco.

For our TENTH anniversary, we did a food tour of Pike Place Market. It was delicious and fascinating. I love my city.

And immediately afterward, we decided it was time for me to get my nose pierced! I've wanted to for a long time, and this was the day. I call it my 10-year-anniversary bling. I love it. My parents do not.

That week, my friend Janel, from high school, came to town and met me for lunch. We ate at Thai Tom and caught up on a decade of craziness.

Oh, hello there, handsome man.

The boys had their Little League parade in our neighborhood. Jude's team was the Lightning Cheetahs. Coaches were Mike and Stefan. I think you meet the nicest people in T-ball.

Adele was a pycho trying to catch as much parade candy as possible, and she ran straight out to Jude when she saw him pass. We almost had a Lion King stampede moment there.

Josh's team was the Wild Dogs. Coaches were Matt and John. He loved them.

It was a warm sunny day, so we went to the park afterward. Can you tell my kids aren't used to the sun?