Easter, spring break and the lot

Whew! Get ready for picture overload. It has been a busy and fun week! Andy has been out of school (will start again Monday) for two weeks so we had to squeeze in as much extra time as we could. Then it's back to never seeing Daddy again. Or close to it...

Some day last week we went for a little hike and picnic as a family up to a local water fall. It was short, but just what the kids needed. 

 Oliver's a fan of the backpack...He was kicking and swinging his legs the whole time!

 A different day we went to a close by park we had never played at before. We walked all the way there and had a picnic as well. Oliver had his first experience on the swings and loved that too. He's easy to please :)

Due to Andy's schedule we didn't see him on Easter. So it didn't feel like Easter. So our holiday was spread over three days. Sunday we had a mini Easter egg hunt outside. I got up a little before the kids and hid some plastic eggs with Candy. We kept meaning to dye eggs but it never happened. Andy and I were not to bothered about not having to clean up dye and wash stained clothes...

Charlotte's face every time she found an egg:

Their spoils. Man I can't get these kids to act normal around the camera...

We like picnics, can you tell? We had one on Sunday- the weather was just too nice to pass up! We didn't even get to go to church because of us all being sickly (you can't tell but we really are!) so I wracked my brain to come up with some fun, Sunday appropriate, activities. check!

 We went for a nature scavenger hunt and the kids each had a bag to collect their findings. We had everything from flowers, to pine cones, to every size sticks and rocks, and several different types of moss. They liked it. Now what to do with those sacks....

 Here is what they found: 

 The Easter bunny came on Monday morning and they were thrilled. We hadn't decided whether we were going to get really into Easter in our family, so we didn't make a big deal out of it. So the kids were pleasantly surprised. 

 Cooked my first turkey (breast) this year and we had a mini feast. We were suppose to host the dinner this year but with the sudden and nasty colds, we had to postpone it. So we just had a family dinner. 

 Random pic of Jesse. He has been obsessing over Mario lately. So one day he wore this all day- even when he was dying of sweatiness he refused to take it off. 

And on to our Astoria trip! We hadn't ever been there as a family so we made a plan and took a day trip. SOOOO much fun! First stop: Aster Column. The kids even went all the way up the 145 steps. 

 Jesse didn't love it. And this pic of Oliver is hilarious! Chunky!

 At the top

  We stopped at a park for a picnic. Oliver was starving...

 Next stop: south Jetty. Pretty view from a cool tower. 

 And finally to the beach...

 To see a hundred-year-old ship wreck...

 Some water time (looks like they are far out but they just got their toes wet....). Charlotte fell in of course...

I don't know how he did it, but he took a small nap. Must be nice!

 And playing nicely together, burying toes :)

Getting water for the sand....

Oliver slept most of the time we were on the beach, so he only got to roll around briefly. Thank goodness for this awesome beach tent! (It looks dirty but it sure did keep him from getting completely gross)

 Next stop: Fort Stevens 

 Pretty cool! This was Andy's favorite part. He loves history like this

 And of course Ice Cream on the way out of town. 

 Even Oliver was happy after basically the whole day in his car seat...

Daddy's lovely "weekend" ended by planting some fruits and veggies this morning. We are adding a few new plants this year to our list. That's garlic in the background, and strawberries in the long box. 

 We also planted some from seed- our first ever, so we'll see how they grow in a week. 

Overall it has been an amazing week and it is will reluctance that we go back to our everyday schedule. Spending time as a family is so much fun for us and it just reminds me how grateful I am for the knowledge of eternal families. I am so blessing and I love my smart, spunky and crazy kids!