Max and Taryn were in their school talent show again this year. They have to try out to be in it and have made it 3 years in a row now. Max played a piano solo called "Camel Caravan" and Taryn played a duet with her friend Maren. It was "Brahams Lullaby". They did fabulous and didn't seem nervous at all to be performing in front of the whole school and lots of parents. I'm so proud of them and their diligence at practicing the piano.

We spent Easter at home with Todd. Saturday I took the kids to the city Easter Egg Hunt were they scrambled with hundreds of other kids for some toys and candy. Sunday morning they found their Easter baskets and then we headed of to enjoy church. They spent the afternoon eating candy. We went to Todd's brother Brad's house in Draper and had dinner that evening with his family and G&G Wolfe and Grandma Evans.

The day we left was a little cooler and we hit rain for a lot of the trip. We stopped about 45 minutes out of Portland and visited Multnomah Falls. It is right along the highway. We parked and followed a tunnel that took us under the road and to the falls. It was sprinkling and the falls sprayed you so the kids got cold pretty quick. We took some fast pictures and movie to prove we had been there then got back in the car. It has a path that you can take all the way up to the falls but we opted to get back on the road. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. The kids watched more movies. We stopped in Pendleton for lunch again and made it to Becky Ann's for supper. When we left Becky Ann's on Saturday James was not very happy that his cousins were not staying so he and Andrew were happy to see us when we showed up again. My kids went to bed really quick that night. Taryn slept on the sofa bed in the office by herself. Max slept with me in the green room and Cecily slept on the floor in there. Becky Ann, Boyd, and I stayed up visiting until Boyd decided it was bedtime then Becky Ann and I continued visiting until we couldn't keep our eyes open. The next morning we took things slow. The kids all got in the hot tub and splashed around. We got them all cleaned up afterwards and Becky Ann and I snuck off to Walmart to get a couple things while Taryn babysat. We spent the rest of the day visiting and being lazy. Becky Ann popped some popcorn and we watched a couple of Mom's easter cartoons she had recorded. Around 4:30 we headed over to Brett & Lori's for supper. We got to see and hold Mallory for the first time. She looks like she belongs to their family. So cute! Barrett and family also came to dinner so we were able to see Dax as well. What a cute chubby baby! Lori made a delicious lasagna dinner and then afterward there was an easter egg hunt for the kids. They got lots of candy and chowed lots of it down. Andrew was eating one thing after the other and had a cute chocolate face. James, Erin, and Eden sat at the play house eating candy. One of them would stand inside the window and unwrap the pieces of candy. One the other wanted a piece they would come up to the window and be served. A couple of the adults tried the window as well and received a piece also. It was very cute. We headed back to Becky Ann's for bed that night and then left the next morning for Utah. I always want to stay longer but Todd was really missing us and we were missing him. It was a wonderful spring break. Seeing my sisters and spending some good time with them was so much fun and we always love to see our kids interacting together. Todd was sitting on the front porch waiting for us when we pulled up. We got the car unpacked and things put away and then collapsed until bedtime.

We headed to the zoo on Tuesday morning. We saw lots of fun animals and had a picnic lunch there. My favorites were the sea lions and the orangutans'. I think the kids liked the sea lions best too. After we had seen all the animals we could handle we took a ride on the train around the zoo. I was ready to be off my feet for awhile so it was a nice relaxing ride. We were able to catch a glimpse of the baby elephant from the train that we hadn't seen before. After about 4 hours in the zoo we went down the road to a park and let the kids play while Bethany tried to figure out her gps so we could find a geo cache. These are little treasure boxes that are left around and to find them you go on line to the area you are at and get the gps coordinates then try to actually track them down. We found one pretty easy and then finally succeeded in finding the other we were looking for. The kids each brought a small toy that they left in the box and got to pick out a new one that someone else had left. We headed home just before supper time and picked up pizzas for supper. The kids ate and played and then we all went to Evan's T-ball practice. When we got home we got the kids bathed and bedded down once again. Of course Bethany and I stayed up visiting until late again. We woke up the next morning and left around 10am. We had so much fun being with Bethany and her family. It's the first time I have visited her in her own place and she is a fabulous cook and hostess. Evan skipped school for the two days we were there so I'm sure they were glad to get back to their regular routine once we took off.

Monday morning we headed to the ocean. We brought lunch with us and on the way out of town I had Bethany stop at Target so I could get a couple of short sleeve shirts for the kids. I hadn't packed any because it had been cold at our place and rainy in the Portland area but for the 4 days we were there the temps were in the 70's and we were hot in our long sleeves. By the time I got back out to the van the kids were already started on eating snacks. We made the trip to the coast with Cecily only asking about 20 times how much longer. We stopped first at Cape Meares Light house. Here we got our first good look at the ocean. WoW! It is so big and beautiful. We followed the paths around that area and saw the Octopus Tree and climbed to the top of the light house. We also had lunch there. We then headed down to Oceanside. We ventured out on the beach and just let the kids run for a bit. There is a tunnel through the hill that connects one beach to another so we crossed through the tunnel and spent our time on that further beach. The kids immediately took off their shoes and socks except for Dallin who stayed up on the rocks the whole time. The kids would run up to the waves and wait until they started to come and then run away from them. I was filming them do this when suddenly Max became so enamored by the waves that he began running right into them. It looked like he was headed straight out to sea and I started to worry about him hitting a drop off or getting sucked in by a wave. Bethany must have felt the same way because we both started yelling to him but he just seemed to keep going. He was in the water up to his calves when a big wave headed his way. It caught him and tipped him over. Luckily he resurfaced quickly and raced back to shore but not before falling down again. Needless to say he was completely drenched. He was also very cold so I had to walk him all the way back to the van and let him change. We made a deal that he would stay completely out of the water because I had only brought him one set of clothes to change into. Luckily everyone learned from Max's mistake and stayed out of the water for the rest of the time. We spent about 4 hours on the beach looking for agates, sea shells and treasure. We brought home bags of things that we put out in our front flower bed for decoration. The kids also took several of their favorites in to share with their classes. On our way home from the coast we stopped in Tillamook and toured the cheese factory and tried their cheese samples. We also each got an ice cream cone. We ended up getting back later than planned so instead of supper the kids just got snacks and I never did eat because I was so full of ice cream. We watched the movie "Bedtime Stories" that evening before putting the kids to bed.

We had a terrific spring break the week of April 3-12th. We left Friday, April 3rd around 2:30. I got the kids out of school early because their last hour was going to be spent watching a choir concert. That put us on the road and 1 1/2 hours earlier. We drove straight thru and got to Becky Ann's around 8pm. We woke up the next morning and Boyd made us yummy french toast then we headed to Portland. We tried listening to conference on the radio but hit the Blue mountains right about the time it started. We did get to hear President Monson announce Elder Anderson as the new apostle and hear the prophets talk before we totally lost the signal. Darl & Todd were worried about our vehicles going so far so we took Darl & Norma's car. It ran terrific for us and got good gas mileage. We stopped for lunch in Pendleton. The kids were very good and spent most of it watching movies on the DVD player. I thought the drive was beautiful once we started following the river. Everything was so green and pretty. We made it to Bethany's around 4:30 her time and the kids were extremely excited to get out of the car. They pulled out Evan and Dallin's bikes and scooter and played outside until supper was ready. Bethany's house is so cute. She has done a nice job of decorating. After supper she and I left all the kids with Matthew and went to WinCo for groceries. It took us quite awhile because we spent some time visiting without kids around. We got home and put the kids to bed although only a couple stayed there. Cecily and I slept on the bottom bunk in the boys room and Taryn slept on the top. Max, Evan, & Dallin slept in the playroom on the floor in sleeping bags although I don't think much sleeping happened until about and hour after they had been put down and even then Dallin stayed awake for awhile. He's a funny boy and kept wanting to change his clothes. Sunday we woke up and spent the day watching conference. Bethany hooked her laptop up to their TV and we watched it in their living room. We pulled some things off the computer for the kids to color and do. I think that lasted about 1/2 hour before they were trying to sneak off and play. We did make it through both sessions though, we just kept the volume up really loud. After the last session we decorated easter eggs and when they were dry had an easter egg hunt in their backyard. Bethany had some plastic eggs with candy in them along with their colored eggs that they got to find. We also took a walk that evening. Their neighborhood is beautiful and even has a wooded area with paths that you can wander in. We had another fun night of getting the kids to sleep but eventually they all did go to bed and of course Bethany and I stayed up late visiting.

On the 2nd of April we went to Bruce & Kristee's place in West Jordan to help celebrate cousin Bridger's 8th birthday. We had yummy sandwiches and cake and ice cream. The kids loved playing in there fun backyard. When we got home that night there was a message that are new cousin Dax Michael Bishop had arrived.