Easter 2010

This Easter Sunday was also General Conference, so we went to Grandma & Grandpas to watch on their bigger tv. In between sessions, the Easter Bunny (who looked alot like Cory and Rusty) hid a few eggs in the backyard.

Summer and Jared were very anxious for the "hunt" to start.

My girl is just "way too cute"!
The "easter bunny(s)" hid a few just for Jared.

Summer had a blast hunting for eggs. She'd put (1) in her basket... run to the next spot while dropping (2) out of her basket... and pick up (1) more. Uh, yeah - this hunt took awhile.

I love my "sassy bunny" she's so much fun.

Tubbs Hill

The sun was out - so we went for a short walk along Tubbs Hill.
My oldest and my youngest - LOVE IT!
Crack kills - unfortuneately it looks very familiar... just like her daddy and papa.

Sassy... sometimes I wonder what she's thinking about?
Summer loves flowers and rocks... I think thats from her Grandma Evie.
Buddy was so excited to be out and about somewhere besides our home and although I'm NOT his biggest fan - it was kinda cute.
Steve has difficulty always following the rules - so kept letting Buddy off the leash whenever possible.
Summer wanted to climb this tower - although it says no trespassing. Of course, daddy let her - and she was grinning ear to ear!

When I asked Cory if he'd like to go out and about "with his parents" ...he said NO. So then I told him to get into the car.

Cory then looked at me and said, "why'd you just ask me than?" Well... I had to explain that while it was his choice to come with us, since he chose incorrectly... I had to help him out a little.
Summer loved exploring with her daddy.

Coeur d' Alene Lake is always so beautiful, definitely one of the prettiest things to looky lou at up here.
Daddy and his little princess - it doesn't get much sweeter than this :)

Summer loved it all!

Park Day

It's now very different for me, as a mother, when I take my children to the park. Before, it was my boys playing and having fun together... now it's Summer, with the boys usually rolling their eyes or making comments under their breath like "... this is gay... is it time to go yet..." or of course there is my all time favorite "I'm bored!!!"

Mikey of course was having a blast. He loves to run around and just be free.

Carter was exploring, climbing onto whatever was accessible.

Isn't this just the cutest picture of Carter - definitely one of my favorites!

Summer suckered Aunt Taylor into pushing her on the swing... Tay didn't realize that Summer can stay on a swing for H-O-U-R-S without getting bored.
Sweet Rusty would sit on the tire swing and help Carter and Summer not fall off. I'm thankful that Summer has her cousins to play with who also think that parks and feeding ducks are "good times"... and not just something that your parents make you do :)

Feeding the Ducks

I was a little bummed when we got out of the car along the Spokane River and all (3) of my boys complained about how "lame" it was to feed the ducks. I have always taken the boys to feed the birds, both in California and at this exact spot in Coeur d' Alene. Summer was off and running towards the water... as the boys hung back and commiserated.

Slowly but surely, Rus and Jar started inching towards everyone else by the water.

low and behold, Rusty was eyeing the ducks.

Is that Jared? Here ducky ducky...

Mikey loved running around... with grandpa close behind.

Carter would clap with excitement whenever Rusty would scare the birds and they'd take off in a flurry.

Grandpa kept a tight hold on lil' Mikey... he liked to follow the ducks into the lake!

Summer LOVED feeding and than chasing all of the seagulls because they weren't ducks / geese.

Aunt Taylor and sweet Carter Lee

Jareds looking the wrong way and is about to get "goosed" for not feeding, fast enough!

100% Rusty Dan!!!

Jareds 9th Birthday

As tradition - Jared was served his birthday breakfast in bed on the "You Are Special" plate. (thanks kristi)

I guess Summer just couldn't resist a burning candle... so she blew out Jareds. (this pic is right before the deed) That evil look on Summers face matches her actions - smoke in her face and all. Poor Jared, he just kind of couldn't believe she'd really do it!
Jared has been begging for an mp3 player for awhile along with the argument that everyone else in the family has one but Summer... and she's a "baby". I suppose 9 years old makes him a man :)

Carmel Rolls for breakfast and an early cupcake! We took cupcakes into Jareds class at school today - he loved sharing with all of his classmates.

I pulled the boys out of school after lunch and we took off to Seattle so we could spend Jareds birthday together as a family. We went sightseeing and hit the Aquarium, Zoo, EMS, Science Museum and of course the Space Needle both during the day and under the stars at night!

Seattle

Steve was in Seattle for (4) weeks training for his new job at F5. While there, we came up twice to visit with him. Unfortuneately we didn't get many pictures - but we do have a lot of video. The first week we headed down to the Fishermans Wharf and LOVED being by saltwater again!

This is a picture of THE GUM WALL. Yes - all of that yuck is pieces of chewed up gum along this alleyway. Of course, we had to add our own to the collection - the boys thought that was pretty cool!

This isn't a great shot, but we are at PIKE STREET FISH MARKET. This is where they toss, chant and sing to the crowds... all while selling fish to the masses.
We thought this would be a fun shot of a "Stewart Street" sign for Grandma Evie... "once a Stewie, always a Stewie". Love you mom.

Cake Decorating

My friend Autumn mentioned that her sister in law, Melissa, was going to show her how to decorate cakes. Well, I invited myself and tagged along for the fun.
For the story on my first cake - see the previous blog post.

At our 1st class we piped stars, shells (clowns), lines (words) and dots.
At our 2nd class we did the rose, sweet pea, leaves and worked with very stiff frosting, which I'd never tried before.
Now, I'd LOVE to say that these (2) cupcakes were mine - but I did cakes and Autumn did these... yea, she's crazy talented like that.
These (2) are actually Summers. Autumn always spoils Sum whenever she can - and Summer loves it! Sum is always chatting away with "Sis Asper" on her faux cell phone, it's just the cutest thing.

Yes - she did just eat the entire rose and giggeled the whole time. Thanks Autumn and Melissa for letting me invite myself to your get together :)