Mallorca

Sun, sand and nothing to do but flip from front to back on my beach chair.

I was lucky enough to spend 3 glorious days in Mallorca, Spain with 2 friends (Kim and Kathy). Brice sent me away for my Mother's Day gift while he got stuck at home with 3 kids. Yes, I am a very luck woman...he is the best.

View of the beach from out on the pier.



Sitting on the pier looking into the crystal blue water.



Taking in the view.

Six feet in need of a tan.

Obviously taken on the 1st day.

The water was so beautiful with all the shades of blue. This picture really doesn't do it justice.

Picture taken from our hotel.

Lunch on the beach.

We had a fabulous time. It was so relaxing. We went down to the beach at about 9am and didn't come inside until 6pm for showers and dinner. We read, slept, chatted and people watched. There were a lot of very interesting people to watch and some that you would rather not see since many of the ladies opted for no tan lines. We had a 300 lb lady next to us that went topless. We tried to look away and "delete, delete, delete" the image, but it was useless. Instead we called her "big momma". It was such a beautiful place, that I would love to take Brice and the kids there someday. Thanks again Brice, I love you.

Paris09

I finally got my pictures back from the pathetic disposable camera I had to buy in Paris. Picture quality is obviously lacking, but at least our memories have been captured.

The last time I went to Paris I went with my sister and Caden. We did a lot of walking and saw a lot of sights, but went at a much slower pace than Brice and I did in April.

I can not even guess how many steps we went up. Over 700 just at The Eiffel Tower, plus all of the other sights and a ton navigating the subway. We walked miles and miles (mostly up and down the Champs -Elysées). We were really tired, but had a wonderful time. I am so glad that I got to see this amazing city again with Brice.

The Sacre Coeur

"Venus de Milo" at The Louvre

Arc de Triomphe - Located at the western end of the Champs-Elysées

Notre Dame Cathedral

Eiffel Tower

The line at the Eiffel Tower

View from 700+ stairs up the Tower

Tower at night

Notre Dame

Notre Dame

W also visited the Sainte -Chapelle which has the most amazing stained glass.

We were in Paris over Easter weekend. So you can imagine being at some of the most famous churches in the world over a religious holiday. It was very, very crowed. We didn't mind because it gave us more people to watch. Our trip highlights were having an fabulous lunch on the Champs=Elysees and the view from the Eiffel Tower.

They're Back!

I have 4 new loves in my life and Brice doesn't mind one bit! Caden loved 'em. Kayla loved 'em. Now it's Avery's turn.

Avery is by far our most active child. She has never had any interest in sitting still, much less watching TV. No Baby Einstein, no Barney, nothing....until now. We have several Wiggles DVDs but she will only watch one...over and over and over again. She asks for the Wiggles first thing when she wakes up although her pronunciation sounds nothing like "wiggles". However I am amazed and equally embarrassed that her vocabulary has doubled since watching this show. She knows all of the songs and even the dance moves....I must get it on tape. She is starting to make 2-3 word sentences and can repeat almost everything we say. Thanks to Greg, Anthony, Jeff and Murray.

My Fallen Apple

They say "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree". Truer words were never spoken when it comes to my sweet Kayla. She is just like me...good and bad. She is extremely independent and not only doesn't want/need help with things, she can get upset when given unsolicited help. When ever she gets upset with me for helping her do something, I usually apologize for not asking first and then say, "I know just how you feel, you are just like mommy." Her independence is extremely evident in her appearance. She always picks out her own clothes and dresses herself and always wants to "fix" her own hair. I usually don't mind and let her do her own thing, except in a few instances.....like school pictures.

Yes, I picked out her clothes and fixed her hair. She did not like it at all, but went along because I had been telling her for a few days that it was going to happen.

She looks cute huh? I think so. Kayla will usually fix her hair with a simple headband, but sometimes she throws in a little something extra.....like a half ponytail in a clip. I have no idea where she gets it, or why she likes it, but to each her own.

Notice the hair-in-face look

Behold the half ponytail.

To prove my point again, just notice the hair sported in the picture below. It is hard to tell because my hair is dark, but I too have my hair pulled back on one side and a nice big fly back on the other. I did my own hair and little sister's hair....FOR FAMILY PICTURES.

Mother's Day 2009

What a wonderful day. Every year my only gift request for Mother's Day, is the gift of time. I just want the day off. Not necessarily the day away from my kids, because I love to be around them on Mother's Day, but off from the normal daily tasks that aren't so fun.

Brice always comes through and gets up with the kids, feeds them, gets them dressed, does dishes, housework, gives them all the attention the are begging for. I can just sit back and "enjoy" them without all of the fighting and bickering.

However this year he was extra wonderful. My friend Kim has been wanting to get away for Memorial Day for a moms only trip. But because of the Paris and Amsterdam trips Brice and I recently took and the family vacation we are taking in July, we decided that a mom's trip just wasn't in the budget. So for Mother's Day Brice secretly told Kim that I am on board for the trip and surprised me with the news. We are for sure where we are going, but at the top of the list is Palma de Mallorca. Doesn't it look sooooo relaxing!

Me and the kids today.

Sweet bouquet of candy flowers the kids made at church for me.

(Of course, as Primary President I made all of the flowers for them to assemble, but it was still nice to reap the rewards of my labor)

Heartfelt letter Caden wrote to me.

He also painted me a picture of a beautiful butterfly.

Front few of the "breakfast in a bag" from Kayla.

My breakfast :)

This afternoon we spent hours in the back playing with the kids as they rode bikes, played soccer, watered our flowers and just enjoying being a family. I feel very blessed to have 3 beautiful children and an amazing husband.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms I know and love.

Holland

I still have to post about our trip to Paris, but I was a big doofus and forgot my camera. I had to buy a disposable one. I just sent it off to get developed and will post as soon as I get the pictures back. But in the meantime......Holland!

Last weekend Brice and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary. To celebrate, we went on a quick overnighter to Holland.

One of the things on our to do list while living in Europe was to visit the tulips in Holland. Keukenhof Flower Gardens in a small town just outside of Amsterdam called Lisse. Keukenhof boasts of being "the most photographed place on earth". I don't know if it's true or not, but by the gazillion people that were there, it just might be so. We hit the gardens just at the peak season and enjoyed several hours of beautiful blossoms. We could have stayed longer and seen more, but when you have looked at flowers for several hours, they all start to look the same.

Our hotel was in Amsterdam. We had a great time touring the city on a really cool canal boat. And while we really enjoyed seeing the city and it's sites, the most entertaining part was people watching. "Anything Goes" is the creed I give to Amsterdam. You could never be the weirdest person there, because no matter how weird or "unique" you are, there is bound to be someone just a little weirder. You can wear just about every color scheme and pattern all in the same outfit and no one would blink an eye. You want to walk around bare foot......ok, not problem, you'll fit right in. You want to cross dress, have blue hair, dress like a movie star, dress like a slob...ok, "anything goes". It was awesome. But of course in a city where both prostitution and marijuana are legal, what do you expect?

Because of all the canals and small bridges the city has, the roads are very crowed and narrow. There really aren't a lot of cars there because most people get around on bikes. You can imagine what driving our big of minivan was like on the crowed streets. The bikers are right there in front of, beside and almost on top of you.

Crowed city corner

Old church

Inside the diamond museum

Rijks museum

Taste of home

(notice the silver angel buying a hot dog?)

Line to visit the Ann Frank house

In front of the Ann Frank house

We toured the secret annex Ann Frank and her family hid in for 2 years as she kept her famous diary. I re-read the diary before we left and had a really powerful experience visiting this house.

Some of the unique architecture found in Amsterdam

Bike garage. There were thousands and thousands of bikes everywhere.

View of one of the many bridges

House boat

View from the canal

We were only in Amsterdam for 2 days, but it was long enough to get a good feel for the city. I know there are outskirts of the city with houses, normal streets and families. However the city center is just as you would image...the good and the bad. It was really nice to see the beautiful buildings, historic museums and unique people. A "must do" when visiting Europe.