Land of Enchantment

Did you also notice how sunny and bright it was?

Easter found us on the road to the Land of Enchantment aka New Mexico. We were on our way to see Clark's parents who have been serving a mission there since last July.

While there, we were hoping to thoroughly enchant them with our children . . .

namely little Miss Afton who they had yet to meet.

However, here are some things we were enchanted by:

*Spending time with Grandma & Grandpa amidst their very busy schedule.

* A most excellent climbing tree.
Sadly, the trees in our yard are scrawny little things.

* Flamingos at the zoo

*The really awesome Albuquerque Zoo.
And as a side note, we went to the zoo and the children's museum for a grand total of $10. Gotta love reciprocals.

Most of the individuals pictured here are monkeys so it doesn't matter that we were blocking the real animals.

* And a real treat, meeting Elder Quentin Cook, Bishop Keith McMullin, Elder Claudio Costa, Elder Keele, and the temple president and his wife.Yes, Afton is in her car seat. She slept through the whole show. But, I wanted to at least document that she was there. She thankfully didn't barf on anyone like I expected her to.

I had the wonderful privilege (ok let's be straight here) nerve-wracking opportunity to sing "O Divine Redeemer" to this fine crowd. I can't account for how everyone enjoyed the song. However I was wildly impressed that my children did not fall off of their seats from sheer boredom from having to hear this song for the millionth time! Someone once recently asked me when I find time to practice. Ha, ha! Good one. When I cook, clean, change diapers, drive and resolve disputes. Although, strangely, never when I shower.

It truly was a beautiful weekend and we treasured the time to spend with our children and their grandparents. We look forward to another trip to the land of enchantment.

I've Got Swagger

It was a good deed gone bad. Ok, the deed part - a little service activity with our kids - went fine. Despite the little bit of running around. And the screaming. Oh, and the more running around. It went bad as we pulled out of the driveway. Our hearts glowing and our mental back-patting, the driver [don't want to disclose the guilty party, but let's just say it was NOT the person who accidentally drove into the garage wall and put a hole in the drywall] clipped over the curb and pulled off the front bumper. Uh-oh. Is that really the blessing of service?

Well a few days later, I get my ducks in a row and I determined where and when I was going to take our van in for a damage estimate. As I am on my way to the repair shop, my van is rear-ended. Not kidding. Me, eating a cookie, minding my little old business with three kids in the van--stopped at a stoplight--was hit from behind by a man driving about 45 miles an hour. Thankfully everyone was fine. It was scary but to quote Eliza, "We're ok."

Really, I had to laugh though. I was on my way to the repair shop! What are the odds? So, despite the circumstances, an hour later found me on the way to the repair shop. Might as well get the front and back fixed while we are at it.

Thanks to all that, I've got some swagger. In the form of a Toyota Sienna. Move over my precious Honda Odyssey. Me and my (4!) kids are going to be doing some swaggering this week.

5:17 PM

*Re-posted because I fixed the picture links!

Here's our Friday evening at 5:17 PM

Photo courtesy of Jaron (first time!)

Photo courtesy of Russell (first time!)

I considered just having rootbeer floats for dinner tonight. Because I'm that lazy . . . and it's Friday. However, my health conscious side talked me into making something for dinner which my kids will pick at and pretend to eat. And then will have rootbeer floats.

Happy Friday Everyone!!