Sick

I've got the fever!!!

I'm pretty sure that every year of my entire growing up life we traveled somewhere warm during spring break. My mom was prone to catching the fever this time of year, the spring fever, the sick-of-the-cold-ready-for-warm-weather fever. I apparently am just like my mom.

Unfortunately I didn't make any travel plans this spring break and the weather in Reno has been crappy. We tried to alleviate some of the symptoms of my fever by planning a two night staycation. Swimming would be sure to help right?

Our staycation included a two night stay at the Peppermill. We did enjoy their wonderfully heated pools that were nice even in a crazy, record breaking spring snow storm.

I didn't take many pictures because it was freezing out of the pool.

We also enjoyed the buffet...TWICE.

I'm ready for summer, but if it's going to snow, we're going to try and make the best of it. So on Monday we headed up to the mountain to enjoy the fresh foot of snow. Powder and people less than 60 pounds don't mix very well. It feels more like cross-country skiing than down-hill skiing. Whiny kids and a whiny mom made for a short ski day.

Grumpy Mom

I was ready to be done with Mt. Rose for the season, but gave it another shot with a different approach a couple days later. The kids happily watched a movie in the lodge while Shay and I took turns making runs. This was much better.

Now I'm just hoping for wonderfully warm weather in Reno and snow up at the mountain. Is that too much to ask for? 

Easter Sunday

Easter is such a wonderful holiday!

This Sabbath morn we had church early. 9:00 a.m. early. This meant we needed to get an early start.

This didn't prove difficult when the Easter Bunny came during the night. My kids were eager to wake and find their baskets. I forgot to take pictures, but their baskets were filled with candy, kites, and dvds.

The kids got dressed and ate breakfast. I served them eggnog in hollow chocolate bunnies. (Eggnog at Easter? Slap some pastel colors on a carton of eggnog and suddenly people feel that this delicious drink has to be a part of their Easter celebrations. These people and their crazy marketing antics!  I was happy anyway since I failed to drink any eggnog at Christmastime.)

Cayben put on the wrong church clothes. How could he forget the torturous hours we'd spent yesterday shopping for Easter outfits?

We finished getting ready and made it to church and were close to being on time! Church was nice and the kids had wonderful lessons about the Savior's resurrection.

After church I made the kids let me take pictures of them, with some difficulty of course!

While I made dinner, Shay hid eggs and let the kids go on a little egg hunt in the backyard.

On your mark. Get set. GO! 

 

Confetti Eggs

 Dinner was simple, delicious, and festive!

Shay and I followed up dinner with a forever long nap while the kids watched a new dvd. Now we're ready for a staycation!

Easter Bath Party

Shay calls this an "Easter Bath-kit"

Shopping

I decided the day before Easter that my kids needed Easter outfits. I imagined a quick trip to the store where I would miraculously find everything just as I imagined. My kids and I would be in and out in no time and on Easter they would show up to church in their Easter best.

Who was I kidding?

I've had kids for awhile now. I should know that a quick errand inevitably takes longer than it should. Pair that with the fact that Cayben loathes shopping. Embrie is incredibly picky about her clothes and prefers demands shirts with skirts instead of dresses. (Do you know how difficult it is to find skirts for 6 year olds?) And Solee... well she's okay with shopping, but she is just one more body that needs to be taken to the bathroom at the most inopportune times.

Shopping took hours!

But we did it! 

Clarks Came to Visit

Shay's sis and family came to visit for spring break and things got wild... okay, not too wild, but we did have a lot of fun!

Unfortunately a stomach bug traveled through all eleven of us during the course of their stay, but we did squeeze in as much play as our sick bodies could handle.

We spent Saturday, the only day we had nice weather, at Idlewild Park playing and riding the train.

Solee, Brian, & Taleya

Elly, Erika, Me, Solee, & Embrie 

Wesley, Cayben, Elly, Ayden, Embrie, Taleya, & Solee

We rode go-carts and played at the GSR indoor play area the following day.

Shay & Cayben

Erika & Taleya

This picture so perfectly captures spring break 2016. Look at all those sick, worn out kids! 

That evening the kids dyed Easter eggs and I took blurry pictures.

Taleya & Solee

Cayben & Embrie

On Monday we went to a movie and later went to a Scheels Kids Club event were we found the Easter Bunny and got candy filled eggs.

Solee puked up her Easter candy all over Scheels. This is the glamorous life I tell ya!

On Tuesday, we played at the Discovery Museum.

Solee has a giant noggin!

Can you see Solee's little head way up in the clouds?

It was so nice to have the Clarks come visit! I hope they come back soon!

Still Married!

Celebrating 10 years of marriage was absolutely divine!

While planning our anniversary celebration, Shay and I thought about going on a trip. Then we remembered that everything we love to do is here in Reno, so we planned a little staycation/getaway for ourselves to celebrate this milestone.

My hope for our celebration was to spend some quality, one-on-one time with my lover doing all of the things we love to do, or at least as much as we could do in a few short days. We have three little ones whom we love dearly, but we haven't spent a night without them ever. Ok, that's a lie. We did have those few nights when I was birthing their siblings, but that doesn't really count!

So first things first, we needed to find a babysitter. My niece, Morgan, kindly volunteered, so we flew her to Reno.

The kids and I picked her up Thursday afternoon. As soon as Shay got home from work, we were off to the Peppermill Resort.

We did not arrive in a limo.

Suite Retreat Basket

After checking in, we grabbed some dinner and headed to the local climbing wall. Shay and I have both been working out a ton, and it was nice to see our hard work pay off at the climbing gym. Although, our forearms were screaming. I'm not sure you can really train for climbing by doing anything other than climbing, and unfortunately we don't get to do that enough.

We woke early Friday morning to go to a yoga class. This was the first time either of us had been to a heated yoga class, and surprisingly I liked it. It was kind of a mental trip to learn to accept and enjoy the heat.

After yoga, we headed up to Mt. Rose for an amazing day of snowboarding.

View of Lake Tahoe

Ten Years!

Friday evening we went to the Grand Sierra Resort to see Brian Regan's Comedy show and have ourselves a good laugh.

With a ticket to the comedy show, we got free entrance into the Lex Nightclub. I like dancing, so we gave it a go. I'm thinking dance clubs are no longer my thing. I'll just stick to dancing in my living room from now on. 

On Saturday we headed back up the mountain for some more snowboarding. Unfortunately, I caught an edge on my first run and smacked the back of my head into the ground. This is only the second time this has happened in all my years of boarding. Thankfully this time I had a helmet on, so I was only left with a headache rather than left trying to figure where I was and what year it was. After a little break we took a few more runs, and then headed out for our next adventure, which was shopping! Shay bought me snowshoes for our anniversary. I sure feel spoiled by him! 

We had hoped to go on an afternoon mountain bike ride, but we spent too much time joyfully lollygagging around and ran out of daylight. We went for a run along the river instead.

While we were out to dinner after our run, Morgan sent this text of our kids.

We sent this in reply.

Too bad we didn't have cool hats.

Saturday night we went and watched a talented band play at the Terrace Lounge. We danced a little too!

We spent a lot of time enjoying our suite as well. We loved the steam room, especially Shay, since he was fighting a cold. Now we think we need to install one in our bathroom. We also spent way too much time enjoying the Jacuzzi. 

It's totally normal for married couples to bathe in their swimwear, right? Haha! 

I think I'm going to need a waterfall installed in my home tub, as well!

We were both so excited to see our kids, come Sunday. We took them and Morgan to Lake Tahoe which was enjoyable until Solee decided to throw a rock at her brother's unsuspecting head.

Yes, that's snow on the beach!

After we nursed Cayben back to health, we drove back to town and said our goodbyes to Mo.

I did learn a few things from this trip. First, we need to do this more often! And I'm not going to wait another ten years! I think it is so beneficial for a couple to have time together, time to prioritize each other, and time to play together. I feel like we came back from this with an even stronger relationship than we had before. Second, we miss our kids like crazy when we are away from them. We also worry about them way too much. I'm grateful we stayed local because I don't know if we could have handled being miles away from them. I'm going to have to add three kids to the picture when I'm daydreaming about traveling to tropical islands with my lover! Haha!

I feel so blessed that Shay and I have had such a wonderful life together. I'm glad we got to celebrate our marriage!

#shayandcass10years

Woot! Woot!