Spring Break Staycation 2014

We had a staycation this year for Spring Break.  Zac and Emily got gypped for their break.  The only days they had off were Friday-Tuesday.  Aubrey and Addy had the full Monday-Friday.  And for most of that week they were off, Steve was out of town working.  So any type of family trip was out of the question.  Steve and I debated keeping Zac and Em out of school a few more days so we could accompany him on his trip, but in the end we decided to stay home and make the most out of our break from school.  I can honestly say we had the best time.  We spent the break with friends and family and we had fun every single day!  Spring Break for Zac and Em started Thursday, March 27th after they got out of school.  They both hung out with friends that night.  On Friday I took them to lunch at Panda Express.  They both had Birthday parties to attend that afternoon.

That night we helped throw my Great Uncle Buck a surprise 80th Birthday Party.

 We had good food, good family and good fun that night.

And a train ride.

And fabulous entertainment by my cousins.

 The next day, Saturday, we all went to see Divergent.  That night the girls and I all went to a history making General Women's Meeting for our church.  After the meeting we went out to dinner at Zupas.

 After church on Sunday, Steve left to go out of town.  We went to my mom's house for dinner and games.  That night Aubrey and Emily made these beautiful cupcakes.

On Monday the girls all hung out with friends.  

Zac and his friends went for a hike.  We had been having lovely weather until the day before when it snowed.

While on their hike they found a mine and explored that.

 Zac was showing me the picture he took and then he got to this video and said, "And what do you do when you find an abandoned mine?  You have a DANCE PARTY!!!!"  I laughed so hard.  

Watch and you will too:

After the hike they came to our house and did one legged roller blading.  Zac and Ethan made that up the previous weekend when they wanted to roller blade and only had one set of blades that fit.

Seriously.  Who eats pizza like this?

Emily had been shopping with her friends earlier that day.  They came over to hang out.

That night Zac's friend Kierra came over and they rode ATVS in the fields around us.

And they taught Kierra the art of one legged roller blading.

Tuesday was Zac and Emily's last day of Spring Break.  

That morning I took them to the temple to do baptisms. 

 After we left the temple we went to breakfast.  Zac got the "Everything" omelet.  It literally had everything in it.

By the time we got home, it was snowing.  I decided it was the perfect day to put on my PJ's and watch a movie.  My sister Lauren was at our house staying with the girls while we were at the temple.  We popped in Frozen since it seemed an appropriate movie to watch on such a day.

Somehow Zac and Ethan ended up watching it with us.

Emily watched her new favorite show, the Next Great Baker.

And Aubrey played Minecraft.

OK, maybe they didn't watch the whole movie, they spent some of the time making memes.  

Just Dancin'

Addy always helps me with my temple family name cards after we go to the temple.  She checks online to make sure the work was recorded and then files it in the correct place.

Tuesday night around 1 AM, it dawned on me that even though I had 2 girls still on Spring Break, I had two other kids I was gonna hafta get up and get off to school the next day.  My late night, late mornings were over.  Wednesday Aubrey and Addy and I we went to the park with friends.  The moms walked on the track at the park while the kids played.

That afternoon I took Aubrey and Addy out to lunch.  Then we hit up some shops.  Aubrey had a few gift cards from her Birthday she was hot to spend.

On Thursday my sister Lauren came over and we took the girls to see the Muppet movie.  

Finally that night Steve made it home.  We missed him so much while he was gone and were so happy to have him back.  Here is a picture he sent me from his trip.

The next day was Friday and we took Steve out to celebrate his Birthday.  We went to lunch and to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.  You can find my post about that by clicking here.

We ended our Spring Break with a most fabulous, fun family conference weekend.  

You can find that post here.

We had the best staycation Spring Break ever!

Celebrating Steve's Birthday: Lunch Italiana and The Dead Sea Scrolls

My dear husband, Steve, had a Birthday last Saturday.  I knew we were going to be busy watching General Conference all day Saturday and wouldn't have time to celebrate, so the kids and I planned a fun surprise for him on Friday.  Aubrey and Addy were out of school for Spring Break, but Zac and Emily were in school that day.  We checked them out early and headed downtown for our celebration.

First stop was for lunch at one of Steve's favorite Italian restaurants, Tucci's.  The food was fantastic and our waiter was the best waiter we have ever had, ever.  He really helped make our dining experience fun.

This is Steve's very most favorite dessert (that means a lot coming from a man who isn't big on desserts) so we had to have some to celebrate his Birthday.  The waiter even taught us how to sing Happy Birthday in Italian so we could sing along with him.

Emily freaked out because we had to pass the offices of her favorite radio station to get to and from the restaurant. 

Next Stop, the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.  This was AWESOME!  The Dead Sea Scrolls are over 2,000 years old and are the oldest know copies of the Bible.  They were found by a shepherd in the 1940's.  He was out with his sheep and threw a rock into a cave and heard pottery shatter.  Inside the pottery he found the ancient scrolls.  Utah is only one of six US cities that will display the scrolls, so I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and wanted to make sure we saw them before they left.  If you haven't been-GO!  It was such an amazing experience and it will only be in Utah for a few more weeks. 

We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was a beautifully done exhibit.  And there was a feeling of reverence throughout the whole thing.  I found a few pictures of it online.  This is the room in the exhibit that has the scrolls in it.  Under the glass you can see a part of a scroll, like the one pictured above.  Then next to it it has an enlarged picture and also the translated text.  It is interesting because there are some parts on the scrolls that are not in the Bible.

This was one of my favorite parts of the exhibit.  It is a 3 ton stone from the Wailing Wall which is the remains of the temple built in 517 BC (or BCE - Before the Common Era- as we sadly learned it is now being called).  We were able to write our prayers on a piece of paper and put it on the wall.  We were actually able to touch a part of the Western Wall!  Do you have any idea what that means to me???  I'm so sad we couldn't take a picture of us next to it.  But hey, I found this picture of this nice family at the wall on the internet.  

The whole experience was so fantastic.  It had extra special meaning to our family right now because we are reading the Old Testament together this year.  It is a blessing that we were able to see these special, sacred artifacts.  It was also a great way to kick off our Conference Weekend.  Below are a few pictures I took at a place in the exhibit where you are allowed to take pictures.

After the exhibit, and while others in our group were enjoying other exhibits, the girls found a fun little play area where they were able to create this pixelated picture.