A Little Bit of Easter

On Saturday before Easter the ward had a Pinewood Derby race.  The boys 'helped' me make two cars by painting them (including the wheels) and aligning the wheels by repeatedly dropping them and ramming them into the walls.  They were still excited about their cars' performances.

 This was the best picture I could get of Jens' Easter dress, and I got this one because she wasn't moving.

 She woke up when we got to Sunday lunch and she was happy to cuddle with Uncle Nick.

 She liked cuddling so much that she went right back to sleep.

 Ryker may have ODed on Easter Candy because he crashed around 7pm and slept through the night.

 He woke up the next morning to Jens asking if he was okay.  He was, just a little groggy from getting so much sleep.

Shooting and climbing trees

Top Shelf is a pretty great place to shoot since there's the hillside, the views and plenty of room for the boys to run safely.

 Rock and Ryker do a good job of hanging out by the truck, eating cookies and wearing their ear plugs. 

 The boys had fun shooting the .22 and the AR-15

 Through our ear plugs I thought I heard someone yelling or help.  I finally found a cat stuck in a tree.

 After we extracted him he immediately started climbing again while Ryker tried to devise a better escape device.

 Ryker ain't no fool and he picked an easier tree to climb down.

 He did still use his ramp, just in case.

 Rock eventually realized that maybe his little brother had a good idea. 

 A most amazing thing happened last Sunday; Rock asked if he could take a Sunday nap.  Then he really took one.

 The nicer weather makes it easier for the kiddos to have fun outside, sometimes they even play nicely with each other.

 Energizer Rock wears the rest of us down, but it seems that Ryker takes the brunt of his energy the most.  That means sometimes he simply lays down and gives up.

 Did I mention the nice weather that we've been having?

 Occasionally we have to go to Wenatchee during the week and normally we go to Cafe Rio.  But last time Ryker kept begging and begging for Mac and Cheese from Red Robin.  We finally acquiesced and he was almost overjoyed.

 Jensley slowly woke up while at the restaurant but once the food came she was wide awake and knew what to do.

 "Maccheese!"

 The boys were pretty excited when Butch Weise showed up with a dump truck full of gravel.  They weren't allowed close to the truck but they got to watch it do its magic.

 Once the gravel was dumped the crew was ready to get to work.

 It is always easy to tell which of our kids is the bossy one. 

 They did work pretty hard at spreading the gravel whether or not that's what Grandpa wanted.

 Jens loved making little benches and then sitting in them.

 Ryker tried to dig a tunnel through the pile but couldn't figure out why it kept collapsing.

 Hot work required hot men.

 Ryker tried really, really hard to dig that tunnel and wouldn't take any explanations or reasons why it wasn't working. 

Jens and Huddy seem to get along...usually.

Jens loves holding Kassy whenever people will let her.

Yard Work and Conference

General Conference weekend used to be more relaxing before we had the kiddos.  DeA used to make cinnamon rolls and other goodies and I could fall asleep during each session.  I tried to let DeA have some of that relaxation back by having the kids help me clean up the yard.  Ryker thought the plan was to trample all the cover.

Rock loved using the 'big scissors' to trim back the trees and bushes.

Jens has learned to be bossy from her aunts and kept telling Ryker to 'top'.

Eventually she left the boys outside and came in to cuddle with mommy with the shirt that she picked out for herself.

To keep the kids outside longer we had soccer and baseball practice.  Rock is really wearing a sweater with rubber boots and Batman pants.  And Ryker is wearing cowboy boots with a Woody shirt and shorts.  Quite the slaves to fashion.

At some point on Sunday someone was tired of being stuck up in the house with 'the little monsters'.  While the monsters and I (I assume I wasn't included with the monsters) walked to Papa Dale and Mama Rae's house while that someone watched the end of conference with her eyes closed.

Papa Dale caught wind of our hike and came to meet us in style.

Mama Rae was home from Utah and had brought Jensley a Minnie Mouse dress for her birthday.

It even came with a purse and accessories.  She was pretty exited.

She is a cute little Minnie. 

She wore the dress the whole next day, even when she went to the park as a Power Ranger.

They had a lot of fun with Huddy, until Ryker let go of the swing during an underdoggy.

They played really hard in the nice weather and burned out about dinnertime.  But you'd never know it from that happy face.