WEEK 1 - 1.5 (April 1 - 10) - April always feels like a breath of fresh air here in eastern Idaho. It still looks like everything is slightly dead, but you get a little hope at least that something better is coming. It's fun when Easter falls in April and this year Easter was the first Sunday of April which also means it was on General Conference weekend too. So that is always doubly fun. We were finally able to get a chicken coop for the chickens and it is actually really cute. We moved the chicks who were giant out to the coop but it was still pretty chilly during the night. One little chick name Poof never climbed up the ramp into the top part with the heating lamps and ended up freezing the first night. It was pretty traumatic for Kinsley. One morning I heard Ava's alarm going off on her phone. This was the reminder she had with her alarm: Friendly reminder to get the heck out of bed. It made me laugh. The Saturday before Easter, Susan and her kids came down from the valley. She needed to run some errands so Mason came over to play. The kids painted some eggs and then when we went back out to Grandma and Grandpa's house we hid them for an Easter egg hunt.
Easter Sunday we had a big surprise planned for the kids. Jed and I had been planning to surprise them with a trip we have had planned for about a year. Back at the start of 2020 Jed told me I could plan a trip for my 40th bday and I had decided we would go to Florida and go to Disney World and on a Disney cruise. Then covid happened and that plan was shut down even though Disney World stayed open. I already had all the skymiles and credits from planning that trip so we decided to try again. We weren't able to do the cruise but we had planned to go for a week to Florida and go to Disney World. We did our typical scavenger hunt for the kids to find their baskets and it ended on the front porch with a sign that said "Surprise we are going to Disney World!" It was even more fun to tell them we were going in just a few weeks.
We watched conference and then went out to the loft at noon for an Easter egg hunt and gathering. The Loft has the best outside area. It is very pretty and the perfect spot for hiding eggs. The kids had a great time. Then we watched the last session of conference.
These were some of the quotes I liked the best from conference. During the last session the Prophet announced over 20 temples. Isn't that amazing?
Afterwards we went for a quick drive to check on the cows. It is always so fun to see all those cute little babies. Almost all the babies are born and they'll get moved here in a few weeks out to pasture. We haven't gone over that much this year at all.
Spring weather in Idaho is so interesting. On April 5th we had these amazing sunrises and then April 6th we woke up to snow. It made us that much more excited to head to Florida and the sun soon!
We had a pretty quiet week of getting everything ready to go on our trip and the kids with school. Friday morning I got a text early from Abby saying that she was pretty sure she was in labor and was going to head to the hospital. She had asked me earlier if I would come and take pictures of the baby. I told her if I was here I would but I actually didn't think it would happen before we left. But I was wrong! Abby was in labor and early afternoon she had a little boy they named Cashton Clark Hamilton. He was 6 lbs and seemed so tiny. It was awesome to be there and I was reminded again at the miracle that being a woman is.
While I was at the hospital Jed, Kasen, Kinsley, and Dallin were branding the cows and getting everything ready to ship. Jed said at one point he looked over and Dallin was sitting on a calf in the pen. He crawled up on its back all by himself.
WEEK 2 (APRIL 11-17) - This was such a fun week! We drove down to Utah on Sunday and stayed the night at Mal's and left first thing Monday morning. We flew back the next Sunday. We had the greatest time. There will be a full post coming on Florida and Disney World. So thankful for Jed being on board and taking us on this trip.
WEEK 3 (APRIL 18 - 24) - The week back from vacation is always a slow one. We didn't do much besides catch up on homework. Dallin didn't want to be the only one not working on a project so he decided to create "habitats" for his toys. He reminds me a lot of Ava as a kid.
Speaking of Ava she has been making products to sell on an etsy store. She told me she wanted to look into opening a shop and I gave her some resources I had about it. Then I just let her work on it. There were times I wanted to interfere and give her pointers or get involved, but I just decided that I would let her figure it out on her own. She worked hard on graphic design and came up with all her own designs. Then she found a place to print and dropship the products so she doesn't have to carry inventory. She came up with some great ideas. We ordered a few to see how the quality was and we were very impressed. Kasen was so excited to order the "gogh for it" sweatshirt and wear it to school to show his art teacher. Kinsley is so excited about everything and when we were going through the box she said, "Wow Mom, Ava is just amazing isn't she?!" These were a few of her products she listed...
That weekend Ava and I drove down to Salt Lake for a volleyball tournament. It was rough driving back down to SLC just a few days after being home! I didn't stay for the whole 2nd day because it was also Kinsley's year end dance recital and she really wanted me to get home for it. She did not think that Jed was capable of getting her makeup done the right way. So Ava rode home with the Berrys and I was able to make it to dance.
Kinsley and Raleigh did a great job on their dances and I got so emotional watching them. I just kept thinking last year we could have lost Kinsley in that razor accident and this year we almost lost Raleigh. It is true that we really only have the present day as a guarantee. We plan and prepare for the future and we learn from the past but we really don't have a lot of control over the future and we can't go back and change the past. The present is what we have to work with. We really do take our lives for granted. It was a special little reminder for me watching these two dance.
WEEK 4 (APRIL 25-30) - We finally made it up to see baby Cash on Sunday afternoon. I couldn't believe it had been a whole week that we've been home and haven't been up to see him yet. My kids were pretty excited to hold a little baby. Cash is still so tiny and his skin is still really tan. Jaxon is really protective of him and kept his eye on us the whole time.
The rest of the week was more practices, church activities, and learning. Kasen worked on a book report soap carving. We took a trip to the library and Dallin never ceased to entertain us during the day. Life is pretty simple and that is something to be grateful for.
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