springtime happiness

I woke up early April 3rd to a surprising text message that baby Owen had been born!  I had texted Molly at 9:00 pm the night before and she wasn't having any contractions at all! Owen's birth story is amazing, as well as all the adorable pictures she has taken of him in the past month. Go look on her blog for so many sweet pictures! We were thankful to be able to come see him for the first time while Molly was still in the hospital.  The hospital was so clean and new. I kept telling the kids that it was more like a hotel than a hospital.  We were all so happy for John and Molly.

Bill surprised us and showed up on his lunch break to see Owen too!

Switching to something completely different... Caleb is starting to show interest in letters and numbers!  For a long time, he kept calling letters, "numbers", and refused to hold a pencil in any way other than like he was stabbing someone with it! I took this picture on this particular day because he did these names with a little help from Luke.

Here we are coloring eggs on the day before Easter.  Aunt Lori always makes Easter fun by coming up with new ideas and ways to decorate eggs every year!

Here's the gang that did our Easter Egg hunt!  It was fun to have Abby and Evee join us this year. Grammy was generous and helped add money to lots of the eggs.  I think Emi found more money than anyone else!

 It's been over a month since these pictures were taken and I'm finding it hard to remember any more details about this day.  I do remember thinking how blessed I was to be surrounded by my family and friends and watching all of our kiddos get along and have fun together. Today, the kids are finishing up their last few school assignments and we are starting to feel summer fever around here. We just came in from playing in the water in the backyard and the kids are laughing and playing a board game together!  I love summer!

when the snow melts...

 These next three pictures were from our last stop in Yosemite at the end of the week.  We were all a little sad to see most of the snow had melted away.  We took Bob on the same trail that we took the first day and didn't do any slipping or sliding on snow or ice because there wasn't any left!

 Dylan and Gracie were so ready to go on every adventure during this trip.  They loved going on all of the hikes and following the trails, and never once complained about being cold or tired! What a blessing!

 I have been trying to catch more pictures of people without having them pose.  I like this one!

This is the tiny winding staircase that takes you from the carport into the treehouse.  It was so narrow and small that the kids were the only ones that could really fit and I didn't like them using it!

Emi, Luke, and Gracie had such a fun time playing restaurant with this window between the kitchen and the dining room. They had a menu taped to the wall for most of the week.  Can you find the one thing in this picture that is always available at a Brown/Blades vacation?

Lori has always been in charge of filling out the guestbook at each vacation house we stay in over the years.

 This was one of my favorite spots during our week at the treehouse. I could read, drink coffee and listen to the birds.

Here is the last picture of our fun trip... Chris changing a flat tire about 30 minutes after we left to head home! Back to life, back to reality  :)

Luke's friend

Luke was so thrilled to have his Uncle Bob join us on the trip! He told me one day that Bob isn't like other grown-ups, he is his friend.  This might be my favorite picture of the whole trip.  We were walking back from a hike that we didn't even get to finish because everyone (mainly Luke) was so tired. Bob gave him a ride for the last part.

We had to make at least one full size snowman.  I had dressed all the kids so warmly, but the sun came out as they were playing and working on the snowman, so most of them were sweating in this picture!

Don't know what I can say about this picture, other than... these three guys make each other laugh so much!  Half the time none of us even know what they are laughing about!

 Chris took us on hike that he remembered from going to Yosemite with his parents.  The kids thought this cave was pretty cool and were hoping to find something exciting inside.

 Mom and I really wanted to stop and see the Ahwahnee Hotel, so we took a look inside while everyone else waited in the car.  As we walked in, we felt the warmth from the fireplaces, the smell of pie baking, and immediately felt like relaxing on a big chair and staying for a while.  Mom wondered if we had enough time to stop in the restaurant.  I laughed thinking about all of the kids waiting for us in the car.  We were tempted, but didn't do it!

 I wanted to just sit and read here for a long time......

I am still not done with our vacation pictures!  It was such a fun experience.  The kids still talk about it, and Caleb still asks if we are going back to the tree house.  My next post will show more pictures of our time there!