Our little dancer!

Mara is our little dancing girl! She loves her dance/tumbling class. She started her new dance class in November and really picked up on the routine fast! She performed at the high school during the basketball game.

Mara was a little nervous for her first performance with this group, but she sure did look beautiful! Her daddy hardly recognized her when she came down the stairs!!

 

Here she is at he the high school! 

 

Warm up time! Her daddy calls her "Mara Long Legs!" 

 Mara did an awesome job! She didn't forget any moves and she did a perfect job!

 

Mara loves  being with so many of her friends! 

   

She performed a really cute dance to one of the songs from Tangled. 

 

She did some really awesome tricks in her dance including a back bend kick over! She was so nervous she was going to fall on her head but she didn't! She did great! 

Hurray for Mara! I love watching her dance! She is always doing cart-wheels, and tumbling around the house! She just loves to dance!  

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park & Zion

We woke up Friday morning and brrrrrrr was it cold!! It must have been in the 20s because our water bottles in our tent were frozen and it was so chilly! I'm really surprised my kids a)slept through the night and b) weren't crying in the morning from the cold! They sure are good campers and tough kids! We jumped in the warm car and went for a drive until it got a little warmer. We made a stop at a gas station and bought doughnuts and hot chocolate to help us warm up! Then we drove to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park.

As soon as the kids went out on the sand they started rolling in it, and making sand angels! They thought this was the biggest sand box they had ever seen!

 

Nate, Caleb, & Ty hiked to top of this highest sand dune! 

Hello Ty! He didn't seem to mind all the sand, he thought it was great! 

 Here comes mama, Carder, and Mara! Mara was less than thrilled and thought this adventure was lame! Her attitude quickly changed when she saw how much fun her brothers were having rolling down the sand hill and playing in the sand! She started doing cartwheels down the hill! 

These boys had too much fun! They even said this was their favorite part of the camping trip!!

Caleb said "It was really hard to climb up the sand! It was more fun rolling and running down the hill!"

 It really felt like we were more in the Arabian Desert than in Utah (although we are a desert!)

 It was fun to explore a new place, the kids really had fun here!

 I can't even describe the amount of sand this kid had on him! Caluba was covered in red sand. He had so much sand in his hair that he actually looked like a red-head! It's a good thing we had showers at our campsite!

 We hiked quite a ways in the sand filled desert then it was time to go back to camp for lunch!

 After lunch we were ready for another hike! This time we went in Zion but stayed on the east side of the park and did our own bush-whacking hike!

 The hike was awesome! We had beautiful scenery, we hiked high and low, we went through a slot canyon! 

 

Along the hike we found several pools of water in the rocks and near the water were little frogs! 

 What a great hiking crew we have! Ty seems to always find a good hiking stick wherever we go! The kids get better and better with each hike we go on!

 I can still carry my little buddy on my back (and sometimes front!) I'll be so sad when I can't carry my hiking buddy with me! He really didn't want to get in the ergo and he cried and threw a fit when we strapped him in! He wanted to hike like the big kids, and he did pretty good! But he was also tired and as soon as he went in the pack he fell asleep and had a great nap!

I think Carder is one of the best hikers I know! He is willing to hike as long as we will let him!

Zion: Day 2!

We had no idea Zion would be so overcrowded! It was crazy! By the time we found parking and stood in line for the shuttle and rode through the park our day was half way over! We were able to do a few hikes, but even the trails inside the park were packed with people! We felt like cattle being herded down the trail! 

The boys thought riding the bus was awesome, especially because they didn't even have to wear a seat belt and could stand up!

I remember doing this hike with Nate 14 years ago and we even got a picture right here! Now instead of one handsome guy in the picture with me I have three handsome boys!

The hike we did was called Emerald Pools. There were three different pools of water. We made it to the high pools.

 

The kids enjoyed climbing on all the boulders at the end of the hike. We sat on the rocks and ate our lunch. 

I love the beautiful scenery in Zion, it never gets old! 

 

I think Caleb thinks he's the kind of the mountain! There isn't a rock he couldn't climb! 

He loves posing for the camera and getting his picture taken while he's hiking!!

The next hike we did was weeping rock. You can't tell form the photo but the cliff above us was pouring water behind us! 

Even though it felt like we were in an amusement park instead of a national park at times, it was still awesome and a great place to go! 

 The weather was perfect during the day, nice and warm and sunny and perfect....at night was a different story! It was a little chilly and even dropped down to the 20s which is quite when you are tent camping!!

Spring Break: Zion!

First road trip of the year!! Spring Break camping tradition continues this year to one of my most favorite places in the world: Zion National Park! I love this place! I hold a special place in my heart for Zion! Many wonderful memories there! Next year we might try somewhere new, but I will never be tired of going to Zion! We left first thing Wednesday morning (7am!) and actually the drive went really fast! We only had to take 2 potty stops which is pretty good considering 4 kids in a car! We were hoping to find a camping site right in Zion but they had filled up at 9am and the entire park was so overcrowded. We were able find a camp site on the east side of the park which turned out really nice to get away from the crowd. After we set up camp we went for a couple hikes until dinner time.

The first hike we went on was in a slot canyon. We love slot canyons! We could only go so far before we would need ropes so we had to turn around. 

 

The kids found all sorts of fun places to hide and play.

 

It's fun to have Carder big enough to hike with the big kids! 

My baby is growing up! 

 

Ty loved finding holes and pots in the rocks and 'stirring' his brew!

 

The next hike is one of my favorites: Canyon Overlook!

Ty trying to hold up the cave!

This is a great hike for kids.  A little scary with the cliff right there! 

 

Caleb was so excited finding this stick...too bad it broke half way down the hike! 

 

What a view! We made it to the end! This place is amazing!

Don't do it Ty--don't jump!

Love this family time we have together! 

 Carder sitting in a hole on top of the rock!

Caleb is covering his nose, he got a bloody nose when he got to the top of hike! High elevation!?

 Mara hiding along the hike!

Easter

I'll be honest...I'm not a big fan of plastic Easter eggs, coloring Easter eggs, Easter baskets, or Easter grass! Call me crazy but it's just all fluff! It has nothing to do with Easter! It detracts from the true meaning of this sacred holiday! But although I am apposed to such silliness it's still fun for the kids and they love it all! I just don't want my children to lose focus of what's really important: Our Savior Jesus Christ's Atonement and Resurrection! I really try to emphasize that this is the real reason for Easter and the true meaning of the holiday!

With that said we did color Easter eggs before our camping trip and the Easter Bunny came while we were on our camping trip so we could get all that 'fluff' over with before Sunday!

 Caleb was all about using every color of dye on his Easter eggs!

 Mara took her time and made sure each egg was just perfect!

Ty was detail oriented! He used several colors in different areas!

He was pretty happy with how they turned out! 

And Carder...well...he was just so happy to do this activity! He was pretty excited with about everything!

 Caleb's multi-colored egg sure turned out awesome!

 

 Carder's finished products! His eggs turned out great!

My favorite thing about Easter this year was watching General Conference and hearing our leaders of our church bear witness of our Savior! My other very favorite thing was a special Family Home Evening we had. Mara gave our lesson on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and we talked about the importance of Jesus Christ's resurrection. I am so grateful for the resurrection and the knowledge I have of being resurrected also. I am grateful I can see  my loved ones again that have passed away. I am grateful for the sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I know He lives!