Easter 2011

We made a quick, overnight visit down to Oregon for Easter this year and had a great time! Preparation started Friday when I baked up 4+ dozen sugar cookies {from a mix to save time.... I know, I know - not like me at all but it was quick and cookies were baked, decorated and kitchen cleaned up within just a couple hours}. Once they cooled, I wrapped them up in bags for my Primary class and dropped them off at the Colemans since Vicki was subbing for me - I was feeling a little guilty about missing another Sunday and I was bummed I didn't get to teach the Easter lesson. Meanwhile, we were also waiting for a package from FedEx to arrive - Sean had ordered some Lamb of God DVDs to give to a couple coworkers and Ethan and I were going to run them over as soon as they were delivered. Well.... Sean gets off at 3:30pm and was home by 4pm and the FedEx truck rolled up at about 4:30pm! Oh, well.

Saturday morning we were up early and had to wait for a load of laundry to dry before we left. We stopped in Salem for some gas and a bite to eat at Sonic. Sean and I both decided to try the different hot dogs they were featuring. Sean's was a "New Yorker" with mustard, grilled onions and sauerkraut while I had a "Chicago" style with mustard, dill pickle spear and tomatoes on a poppy seed bun. Yum!

We stayed at my parents' house and not long after getting there, Lizzy and I decided to make a quick trip to Old Navy to check out the deals! I had one mission: get the white 3/4 sleeve crew-neck cardigan I had seen just a couple weeks ago and gone back to get in Vancouver, only to find all the cardigans picked over and none in my size! Lizzy's mission was to find a new summer dress. We both walked away happy - Lizzy was especially happy because we made her find her birthday present from us.

Saturday night my family had already signed up to have the missionaries over for dinner and after that I helped Lizzy get ready for the church dance. I helped her pick out accessories for her new dress and did her hair - it was kinda fun because it reminded me that I helped Christine out with church dance prep (mostly hair) a LOT when she was going because I still lived at home. I haven't gotten to do any pre-dance-sister-bonding-time with Lizzy because I got married and moved out when she was only 9! The rest of the night is a blur of watching Portlandia clips with my dad, chatting with my mom, getting Ethan bathed and in bed and being too tired to watch a movie.

Sunday morning Ethan was up bright and early and went in search of his Easter basket {growing up our Easter baskets were always hidden - seeing how fun it was to watch Ethan try to find it this year and I realized why my mom enjoyed it so much!}. After a game of hot-and-cold, Ethan finally found it behind the curtain in the dining room.

Cars matching game, window markers, new shirt, Goldfish crackers (the kinds we don't usually buy but Ethan always asks for), Red Vines (his favorite candy!) and a froggy bank.

Next it was time to get ready for church, because as much as we love the fun stuff, we wanted to make sure we emphasized why we celebrate Easter and reinforce the family home evening we had on Monday. We went to sacrament meeting in my family's ward and then scooted over to the Thurston chapel to go to sacrament meeting in 5th ward (the only other ward we've been in since we got married). It was so fun to see everyone!

After church it was time for a quick photo shoot of Ethan in his Easter Sunday best!
Then we loaded up the car {including a dresser we just inherited that I plan on refinishing and putting new drawer pulls on, etc. - pictures when I'm done} and headed out to grandma Sandy and grandpa Chuck's house for Easter dinner. Ham, green salad, cheesy Pat's potatoes (funeral potatoes), jello salad and grandma's yummy rolls!
Despite all the weather forecasts of rain and nasty weather on Easter, we got some blue skies and sun in the afternoon and it was perfect weather for an Easter egg hunt {we actually had TWO because most every was napping for the first round!} and perfect lighting for pictures!
Of course, we had to get a few family pictures while we were at it!

This was all I could get for a family shot! Sean and I's heads both cut off, Sean with cup in hand and Ethan being a stinker!

Love this man!

I like both our smiles in the second one better.

Love my boys!

There was strawberry-rhubarb and marionberry pies for dessert and then it was time to make the 2-hour drive home. Hope everyone had a HAPPY EASTER!!

Scenes from the Weekend: April 22nd-24th

I skipped Scenes from the Weekend last week because I didn't have any pictures! This week I'm only showing a couple, because it's basically just a sneak peak of the Easter post I am working on. :)

Friday 4/22
I think this may be Ethan's first attempt at putting jeans on (as opposed to pants with an elastic waist). There was a little frustration at first...

But success in the end!
Also first time he put socks on by himself.

Friday 4/22
Sugar cookies baked for my Primary class.

Sunday 4/24
Easter egg hunt at great grandparents' house.

March Recap

As I was adding pictures to this post, I was having a hard time thinking of what to write about for the month of March and then I remembered... I spent the first half of the month sick! Anyway, the rest of the month was fairly low-key, so not too many pictures this time.

* Date-night-movie-of-the-month: It seems like we were deciding between this and another movie, but I'm so glad we went with the latest Matt Damon flick. It was SO GOOD!!!! Sean and I both loved it and I would highly recommend it.

* Imagination Movers. This was very last minute and a very good deal and very fun! The whole experience is well documented in here. {This was just after I finished recovering from February's head cold, but before the stomach flu and my second head cold hit. Lucky me!}

* Visitors!
1. Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Chuck came by for a few hours on Saturday the 12th (they were in town for a funeral). This was also the day my final head cold hit and I spent the rest of the afternoon/night on the couch.
2. Quick visit from Christine (my mom and Lizzy) on Saturday the 19th. My Utah sister came to Oregon for Spring Break (got here on Tuesday), but unfortunately this was right in the middle of the (previously mentioned) final head cold, so Ethan and I weren't able to meet her down in Springfield. We did, however, get to spend a little time with her the Saturday that she left because her ride home lived not far from Vancouver.3. My mom and Lizzy came up late Friday the 25th and spent the night. We stayed up way too late watching The Switch {which looked hilarious in the previews... it had its moments}, eating spaghetti and bread {after the mess pictured here was cleaned up} and triple chocolate cookies. We also snuck in an episode of Modern Family before finally going to bed - meanwhile, Sean was at a camp-out with the scouts from church. The next morning was pretty laid back and at the last minute I decided to go to the Woodburn outlet mall with them while my boys held down the fort. I'm not sure I even bought anything... nope just a smoothie at Jamba Juice. My mom treated us to Arby's for dinner and the three of us stayed for over an hour chattin' it up and laughing a little too loud for an indoor setting. It was good times. {PS: Lizzy - don't lick your phone. Seriously, that is disgusting.}

* Random pictures!

The monthly recap just wouldn't be complete without a picture of Ethan sleeping! I can't help it when I find him in such crazy positions. Oh, and it was dark in the room, I just don't know how to take a picture without using the flash.

Can I tell you how much I love the sight of underwear peaking out of the top of Ethan's pants?! It makes me smile. And then it reminds me that I have a post to finish about the adventures in potty-training as a first-time parent. Just know that Ethan is potty-trained. And has been for a while!

Keeping with the nudie-patootie Ethan pictures... Ethan loves taking a shower in our bathroom {which is just a shower instead of the tub/shower combo in the guest bathroom} and draws all over the steamed-up door.

Yeah, this picture doesn't really make me smile - just reminds me of the everyday messes and reality of being a mom, both the good and bad!

Portland overnighter

Sean was on Spring Break a couple weeks ago and since we didn't have enough time for another 3 day/2 night trip up to Seattle, we opted for an overnighter in Portland. We played Priceline roulette and ended up with a nice room at the Doubletree Hotel by Lloyd Center - not the 4 stars we were hoping for, but we really wanted to keep our bid low, plus we discovered that none of the 4 star hotels in Portland have a pool! So our bid was accepted and we looked at the hotel's website and were excited to see that they had a pool... until we noticed it was an outdoor, seasonal pool. Boo! Either way, we still ended up with a $175/night room for {drumroll, please.....} $50!!! Yeah, baby!

Upon check-in we were each greeted with a warm cookie - nice touch.
Normally, we would've got a room with a king bed to all share, but they only had this double queen room available, so Ethan got one whole bed to himself. Pretty sure he slept diagonally.After we dropped off our bags, we headed out for dinner. That was an adventure. Sean and I wanted Panda Express and we knew where it was and that it was "close", but the Lloyd Center was in the way. We decided to walk and it wasn't until we were already on our way around the Lloyd Center that I realized it was a mall! I don't know why I didn't remember that, but it has been years since I have been. I had it in my head that the Lloyd Center was some sort of convention center and I felt pretty silly when we walked past the ice rink and it finally dawned on me where we were! So Sean and I got Panda Express and we took Ethan through the food court to see what sounded good. He was desperate for some juice, so we got an apple juice for him to sip on and then he finally decided on some pizza. We got back to the hotel close to 8pm and were all starving by then, so we chowed down.We let Ethan watch "Arthur" while we ate dinner because within about 30 seconds of walking into the room, Ethan had navigated his way through the options on the TV and ordered an on-demand episode of "Arthur"! Luckily it only set us back $3 but we made sure to set up all the parental controls after that. He was so quick, we didn't even realize he had the remote in his hand!

After dinner, Ethan kept himself busy watching a movie on the portable DVD player and stealing the camera to take random pictures.Oh, and some dancing. Sean caught this video of Ethan dancing around the room.

At a quarter to 11pm, Sean and I realized we both had a craving for something sweet and stealing fruit snacks from Ethan just wasn't going to cut it. So Sean flipped through the room service menu and noticed the prices actually weren't too high. He got to the dessert section and read the description for their signature dessert: Doubletree Cookie Crumb Bread Pudding with Grand Marnier Custard Sauce. Uhh... Yum! Neither of us had ever ordered room service and it was only $6 so we went for it and called room service just 10 minutes before they closed for the night. Less than 10 minutes later there was a knock on the door and the server was there with our tray.We signed the bill, included his tip and then opened the lid and found this:Oh... My... Heavens!! It was so, so good!! The bread pudding was fabulous, the warm custard sauce was fabulous, the addition of the fresh strawberries was fabulous and I am drooling just looking at that picture and writing about it! I think we inhaled it.

Oh, and sometime in between dinner and dessert, Sean and Ethan went to get some ice. Only my husband would notice something wrong with the braille sign on the ice maker. He looked at it, read it and was completely confused - it was just random letters and symbols. And then he figured out the problem... it was upside down! I couldn't get a very good picture, but here it is after Sean turned it right-side up. Any ideas what it says?!?
The beds were comfy on the surface - as in, very plush and comfy when you lounged on them or were sitting up to watch TV - but for some reason not very comfy for actually sleeping. Sean and I both slept ok, but the black-out curtains were nice because we all slept in! We got ready for the day, munched on snacks we brought for breakfast and then gathered our stuff to check-out. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Lloyd Center where we had lunch at a 50s style diner and then walked around and window shopped.We got to the "rides" and of course, Ethan wanted to stop, so we let him play a little but Sean and I didn't have any change. And then... we found the magic nickel! Ethan took it and put it in the machine and we warned him that it wouldn't work because we needed 3 quarters. Imagine our surprise when it started right up and gave Ethan back his nickel!!We split up after that and I went to check out the deals at Old Navy. I swear, everything was on sale or clearance there!! Well, almost everything. The new white cardigan I wanted was NOT on sale. I resisted the urge to buy anything for Ethan because I knew he'd be getting new clothes for his birthday and instead got Sean 2 new polos and me 3 new nice/casual tees (the dark blue one has flowers on it and the white one has a cool embellishment on the neckline) - all for $25!!Just as we were getting ready to leave Old Navy, we realized Ethan had been pretty quiet. We knew he'd been playing with the toys by the check-out, but didn't realize it hadn't gotten so serious!For the record, that is every mini construction truck they had in the bin out on the floor!

It was a quick trip, but we had fun and it was so nice to get away for a day! :)