Spring Break

April, from what I remember of it, was a Very Busy Month.  We were starting to enter panic mode with the house sale preparations.  My focus was on decluttering and storing as much stuff as possible in our storage locker.  We made many donations, and many trips to our storage unit which was stuffed to the tip top!  Mac took his only week of leave to do some major projects (repainting mostly), which left him with only a few days to join the kids and me on our Spring Break vacation to Yakima.  We were there for Easter this year which meant Grandma's Easter Egg Hunt, where if you are very lucky and a shrewd bargainer, you can come away with some serious money!!

As always, when we visit Yakima, first on the agenda is Playground Fun. 

Guy has a *little* height advantage over Steven!! 

Luke, Grace, Josie, and Isabel teetering and tottering.

Wonder if Josie will ever grow out of the toddler swing?  With a sister like Isabel pushing her, it's doubtful!  Too much fun!

When Mac arrived, we took some time to tour Seattle. 

On our way to the Space Needle.  Grandma and Kate decided to go shopping downtown instead of going to the Space Needle!!  Imagine that!

A gorgeous day in Seattle!

What is Steven looking at?

Ah yes...  the stadiums.  Football is closest (CenturyLink Field), and baseball (Safeco field) is the other.



Reminiscing about the view from when Mac proposed to me...

And there he is, the guy who said "I always park in McDonalds when I come here.  They don't actually tow you!"  Too bad that just after he proposed and I said "Yes", we watched a tow truck pull up to start hooking up the car right next to ours...  We luckily made it to my car in time...   

Finally Isabel got a turn!

Steven, Luke, and Isabel.

Me, Josie, and Isabel.  Josie wasn't really happy to be up there that day.  Wasn't really loving the Space Needle, the wind, or the fact that she could only see a view if she was lifted up!

We were lucky to be able to see Ben and Cara in Seattle.  We met up with them in the downtown area.  Cara was in the last weeks of her pregnancy, and looking very fit and energized!  So Mom and I knew she still had a while to go...  There was an Anime convention going on in the downtown area, so there were lots of adults dressed up in interesting costumes.  Fun!  Although technically a convention is not required for dressing up in Anime costumes in Seattle. 

Kate in Pike's Place Market

Hard to see us all- but here is Mac, Isabel, Josie, Luke, Grandma (way behind Luke), me, Steven, and Kate.  Behind us is where they throw the fish around. 

A favorite Aunt and Uncle (actually Cousin and Husband) - Such fun to see them!

While in Seattle, we were also able to have a fun Easter egg hunt and delicious brunch at my Aunt and Uncle's house!  Mac had to fly back to Maryland, so he wasn't there.  But we ate enough delicious Belgian waffles to make up for his absence...

Ummmm, yeah someone's being an egg-hog...





Now back to Yakima for more Easter activities!  We decorated Easter eggs with Great Grandma.  Fun!  And messy!  All the kids did at least one egg.  Even Guy, although I have no photographic evidence...

Look at that concentration!

Squiggles and glitter.  Beeeeautiful work Grace!

Great Grandma and Josie discuss different decorating techniques.

We also had an Easter egg hunt in Yakima. This is the one where the goal was to gather a LOT of money. (Hey kids-- look for the little eggs that are taped shut!) We give the kids a limit-- so each child can find a certain number of eggs. After they hit their number, they can trade the eggs, or open them, or whatever. These are The Rules and most of the time it works out pretty well!

Wow.  That was the trickiest egg to find.  No way was it out there for, say, a 3 year old to find...

Grace follows the money (lots of money eggs in the vines on the fence) while Guy heads for the eggs way way WAY up high in the couch-swing.  Thankfully his reach is something like 8'6" so no prob.

Ahem.  A RULE is that you open your eggs INSIDE the house...  Rule breaker.

If I were an egg, where would I be?

There it is.  The money egg.  Josie had a lot of money eggs!  She drove a hard bargain too-- she traded money for Squinkies, but she would always make sure to get a good Squinkie or two, and she never paid more than 85 cents!

Looks like Guy is analyzing his booty.  I think Guy was the only one who followed The Rules.

Eventually we had to get back to boring old regular life in Maryland.  When we got home, Luke discovered a very neat surprise.  He noticed birds flying in and out of the hedge in front of our house.  He thought to look in the hedge and see what the big deal was.  And he found a bird nest filled with little blue eggs!

Robin eggs!  How cool!

Luke studiously tracked the progress of those eggs, and made sure that we didn't knock them over or scare away the mom and the dad.  Usually the mom robin was nearby, and the dad was scouting from a higher perch.  The first thing Luke did after coming home from school each day was to check on the progress of his birds.



The baby robins just born-- You can see there are still 2 waiting to hatch. They looked like little aliens. Very charming...


One week after they hatched, they were covered in feathers and getting pretty big.

Only a few days after the previous picture, the baby birds had grown significantly!  The mom and dad robins were always bringing them worms, and they seemed to be looking a little bit tired...  Soon after this picture, these birds vacated the nest.  It was a fun process to observe!

We also had our daily crazy life of sports and what not going on in Gaithersburg.  The kids all ran track, which turned out to be a lot of fun!  Luke found his event (400m dash), and Steven found his (1600m run), and Isabel discovered that she just loves to run.  She was best at the 200m, but she really enjoyed racing a lot!  They also had the long jump and softball throw as a nod to the Field part of Track and Field.  (Woot!)

Luke ran the 50 yard, 100 yard, 200 meter, and 400 meter all at about the same pace.  So...  400m is probably his best bet!

The girl crossing her arm in front of her with atrocious form?  That's Isabel.  Hard to see, but the 200m was usually one of the last events and so you'll just have to take my word for it!  She always ran with a big smile on her face, and atrocious form...

I promise Steven is in this picture somewhere!  But this is a sprint also (the 200m), and Steven was much better at the mile.  All that swimming!!  He's a faster sprinter in swimming and slower at the long distance swims, but the reverse for track (or as swimmers call it, "dryland".)

Speaking of swimming, we of course had swim meets to attend in April.  So a couple of shots from those, and that will do for April.  A busy BUSY month.

Breast stroking Isabel

Flying Steven