Loving Where We Live

Day or night, I can never get enough of the views of home. 

A lesser seen angle of the backside of our house, through the woods and from our neighbor's side of the hill- 

One night last week I spotted this unusual red and green light on the drive home. 

I promptly scooped everyone out of their beds (which they had only jumped into because they heard me coming in) and we drove in the dark to try to get a closer look at the mystery light.  I almost convinced everyone that it was the Northern Lights, but really the clouds were low enough that it was probably just the reflection of an airport. Still pretty cool though, and I know Noah especially enjoyed driving through the dark country at night. 

Where we live, there is always magic happening right outside the window! Which is why I jumped at the chance to make birdhouses that are designed to attract Eastern bluebirds, a bird that we see regularly in our yard. 

We spotted this impressive owl at the naturescape. I love that even after 11 years, we are still discovering new pockets of Des Moines. 

Like this skyline overlook, and this cool clock at Fuzzy's Tacos, where we stopped for lunch after we made our birdhouses and went to a baptism. 

Welcome to the yard, Jonathan and The Kraken!

Where we live, it's easy to stop and smell the roses, get distracted by the bird activity, and really appreciate the beauty of life in Iowa.  It's officially been 11 years, here's to many happy more!

Easter Traditions

 I led a Relief Society activity recently about ways that we can feel the spirit of the temple in our homes. One of the ideas we discussed was focusing on traditions at home.  We love our Easter traditions! They are simple, fun, and designed to remind us of life, rebirth, our Savior's atonement and resurrection. Especially the resurrection rolls!

Although there may be one or two Shrek rolls in here. We can't take ourselves too seriously. 

We had to squeeze egg dyeing in on a busy Saturday between helping a family in our ward move, a birthday party, yard work, dinner with friends and a babysitting night. 

Easter morning was too chilly to have an egg hunt outside, but the eggs and baskets were quickly found inside.  There's always that one last egg that makes us a little nervous until we finally find it. 

These Easter chicks needed some cosmetics!

Noah was more excited about the in-color comics than the rest of the grandparent package!

Love these surprise selfies on my phone. 

And we had an Easter feast! Leah and Emma made a lovely carrot cake, but we didn't cut into it until the next day. They cut the cake together.

Easter is such a hopeful, lovely, happy holiday.  Next year I would like to remember before the day of that we enjoy spending the day with other people.  Some of our happiest Easter memories have been those that we've shared with family and friends. And the offer will always stand that we will invite any new family at church over to dinner because that was our Easter Sunday experience in 2013!

Leah's Band Trip

 Lucky Leah got to spend part of her spring break in Florida!  She said she didn't care to write a blog post about it, so I'll just dump all of the photos she shared with us and give my take on it.  She had to ride on a luxury bus for 48 hours!  That alone made the trip seem quite daunting, but she said it wasn't so bad.  She had stories of endless movies, clogged bus toilets, entertaining bus stops, and thunderstorms along the way. 

Once they got there, the days were packed!  A pool party and practice, two days at Universal Studios, one day at Magic Kingdom, a day at Hollywood Studios, with a recording session and two parades mixed in. What an adventure!

Return of the gecko!

Mickey Bars are a must!

So are Mickey waffles!

"You are now gliding over the shimmering waters of Hourglass Lake!" 

1000% my favorite part of Leah's trip was seeing her cute face pop up on my phone in so many of our favorite places! She had a great time, and we all had a great time reliving the magic through her photos!

Front and center for Fantasmic!

There she is marching down Main Street!

And at the Universal Studios equivalent. 

Color guard has been all sorts of an adventure for Leah.  She has found great friends, figured out more about who she is and what she likes, and made some lifetime memories on this trip and throughout her time in marching band.  The trip was fun, but she said she's happy to skip any future high school travel trips and that now she really knows just how fun our family is when we vacation- we know how to do it right!  I'd guess this trip was a tiny bit of a peak into a mission- long days, good hard work, time with people you like and don't like, and a loving family back home that you can lean on as your support through the good and the bad!