a new trick

McKay's latest step on the road to crawling is to plank, pretty funny stuff.

visitors from Rhode Island

Curt's aunt Jenni and her family are on Spring Break.

They're headed down to Florida for some sunshine, but stopped to see us on the way

Des and Evie both said "we're sure going to miss them" as they were driving away.

{Sophie trying to cheer up an over-tired baby who should be sleeping but who doesn't want to miss anything}

quick trip to Phoenix

Curt gave me a beautiful gift.

At the beginning of the year he told me to find a weekend where I could go see my grandparents (I haven't seen them in too long) and that he would have a weekend with our big kids.

It ended up that my mom was heading to Phoenix over Shane's spring break, and it was General Conference weekend so Curt wouldn't be needing to play the organ at church.

So I went then.

So so good to see these people that I love.

It was perfect.

Perfect temperatures, perfect seeing family, perfect that the flights all worked out.

And bonus, Melynda came with her family.

 {Nin and Zan}

Grandpa just had the pool resurfaced.

Too cold for me to get in, but that didn't stop Melynda's crew.

{traditional family feast}

 {the citrus was abundant and grandpa made us juice of the orange and grapefruit variety}

{a family walk one evening so the kids could get out the wiggles and feed the goats}

 {big old tree}

We watched some conference (though I'll definitely need to review) and cuddled some baby.

I looked at old pictures and found some gems.

{grandpa and grandma on their honeymoon, ages 19 and 16}

 {me with a newborn Shane. he was so tiny and now he's taller than me}

 {big Shane}

{Brielle, practically a teenager, cry cry cry}

It was Easter too.

Great weekend to get a spiritual uplift from Conference.

The kiddos colored eggs, had a hunt, and got baskets.

 

 It was just the best. Good for the soul.

And then I was so very happy to see my husband and my other babies.

a visit from Dad

Dad was going to be in town for a work conference last month so he came in a day early and stayed a couple days past when he would have to spend that time with us.

Most people come to visit and relax, indeed that's what we expect, yet Daddy doesn't sit still and he ended up accomplishing several things on my house to-do list before leaving.

 The biggest project was probably getting the wall mount faucets installed in the bathroom.

I'll do a full post on this later, but I do want to mention here that Daddy custom built metal back plates to make things better functioning and stable.

Yep, he's amazing.

{watching out the back window in the guest room}

{Desmond drew himself with me, Curt, and grandpa}

{Spring was unfolding}

 {a day outside raking up pine needles while Dad was at his conference}

 {the kids helped by picking dandelions}

When Dad came back he brought some rubber band helicopter things that we went out in the field to try.

 

{Daddy let Des 'help' with projects, which I love because those are cherished memories of my growing up too. Here he is taking notes of things Dad would call out to him}

{out to get some good Mexican food}

  {this was after Dad left, but I thought I'd tack it on because, you know, baby grins}

 I loved the time that we got to spend together.

Love that more people have reason to be in Atlanta, and so we get visited.