These are a few of my favorite things....

Slip N Slide

Relaxing on the porch swing

Thunderstorms

Picnics at the park

Smores

Longer Days!!

All signs that my favorite season is almost here!!

I love watching baby O do ballet, it's really funny!!

But my all-time favorite thing is stealing kisses from my lil' ones!

Pure Fun...

This past weekend I was able to fly up to Coeur d'Alene to visit family (shortly) and go on a weekend camping adventure with my 3 best girlfriends from high school. We've seen each other since we graduated from school here and there, but after 11 years this is the first time we've had the chance to spend the WHOLE weekend together and let me tell you....it was SOOO much fun, and SOO over-due. It's amazing when you are able to get together and pick up right where you left off, even after all these years and all the changes that have taken place in each of our lives, we still 'get' each other. These ladies have been true, solid friends and I know that if I really needed any one of them, they'd be there for me at the drop of a hat and I find a lot of comfort in that. And it's true when they say that "Old friends are the Best Friends". We brought all our old photo albums, laughed, played games around the campfire, laughed, hiked, laughed and stayed up WAY later than we should have, and got up way earlier than I would have liked! Did I mention that we laughed?? My cheeks were literally sore the day I got home, I hadn't used those muscles that much in a long time! I think it was the best form of therapy to be able to be comfortable acting so silly and chatting with girlfriends! We definitely won't wait 11 years to do this again, we're hoping it becomes a yearly tradition! Thanks Ladies for the unforgettable weekend! I think I took 155 pictures, but here are a few of my favorites....

Some shots of our campsite/cabin. It was Beautiful!

Hiking in The Great Outdoors!

Nighttime/campfires/scary faces/games/smores!

Most of these are those 'you had to be there' type moments!

*click to enlarge*

Another first....

I finally caved and let Jack ride the bus to preschool this morning. He has been asking to ride the bus for quite a while now and so I decided it was time to let loose of the tight leash I keep him on. We walked to the bus stop in the rain this morning and he was so excited. I don't like this growing up stuff, it stresses me out. But I did manage to snap a couple of shots of him to document his first bus ride. He's arriving to school right now, as I type. I hope he loved it!

Spring Break....

This day has been a long time coming, although we had time to 'prepare' for Dan moving, it still doesn't make it easy. I'm sure most of you that read this blog know, but just in case you don't....Dan got a new job in Colorado Springs. It's a LONG story, but in short, Dan has been working over in Oregon for the past year while the kids and I had moved to Boise to be closer to family. The whole time we were just waiting for a good job to open up here so that we could live here by so much family, but alas...there are no good jobs here at the moment, and we're tired of waiting. Boise is just too saturated with dentists and with the 'economy', there isn't much opportunity here. So....when we were looking for jobs around the country, we both felt Colorado Springs was where we were supposed to go. We hope we will love it there as much as the people we know who live there do! We packed up his car this morning and he headed off for the next chapter of our lives....a new adventure as we like to think of it! I am staying here with the kids until school gets out and then I will go down and join him. We've already found a great rental in the school district that we want and we are excited to be together again as a family. It's been far too long! The only bummer is that we'll be leaving behind so much family and that's what made our decision so hard. But, you've gotta go where the work takes you sometimes. The office he is joining is awesome. We were able to meet the staff and Dan has visited both the dental offices a couple of times and everyone is really friendly and they are a busy, fast growing practice with multiple dentists and two locations which Dan is excited about. He was tired of working by himself. Anyway, we will miss him as he wont be able to come visit every weekend anymore, but will still be able to come up a few times before we move.

We were so glad that his last week home was also Spring Break so that the kids weren't in school, piano, dance, etc.! We mainly just wanted to relax at home, sleep in, and stay in town, and we had a lot of fun. We let each of the kids pick something fun that they wanted to do during the week. KJ picked going to Powell's Candy Store and a sleep-over. (Which I didn't get pictures of...oops!) And he also wanted to go to Home Depot and do the Kids Workshop.

Jack picked to go bowling and to Red Robin.

And Olivia wanted to go to the movies and make cookies. We saw 'How To Train Your Dragon' and we LOVED it!! Super cute!

And I picked a date night with my hubby! We went to the temple, dinner, and then to see Alice In Wonderland. My parents watched the kids and they had a slumber party that night. I love it when we are able to sneak in a date night!

What would Easter Be without dying eggs?

Easter Morning!

Easter Outfits!

And I thought Olivia was just so cute, that she needed her own collage!

We went to Nana and Pop's house for Easter dinner and an Easter Egg Hunt!

We had a really fun day!

Happy (belated) Easter to everyone!

Olivia and her cousins!

And lastly....the kids saying their good-bye's to Dad this morning. :(