Salem Easter Egg Hunt

Every year the Salem City Fireman help put on a town Easter Egg Hunt.  It takes place at a baseball complex and the different fields are for different age groups.  So of course with Corey being a fireman we had to go, Derek thought it was pretty fun, because there were so many people there he didn't get that many eggs which meant less Candy and I was okay with that, and best of all because he is so young he doesn't know the difference.

Yes, my husband helped put all those eggs down.

Showing off the loot.

I just loved this picture, Derek just loves to be like his daddy!

Tumbling Performance Videos

Because I had several videos and it takes so long for them to be loaded I just loaded them on YouTube.  Just follow the Links and see the little guy in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oNg4CGq_8A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuuDD4jDnbk

There were some others but I can't get them to load.

Tumbling Performance

As I have mentioned before I put Derek in a tumbling class with his cousin Annistyn.  After the first session, Annistyn thought that the dance class was cooler so she decided to switch classes, but Derek stayed where he was and has loved it.  Well they had their little end of the semester performance and it was so funny, cute, and hilarious all at the same time.  Here are a few pictures to prove it.  I will post a few videos later.  Again, sorry the pictures weren't great they were taken with our phones.

Derek receiving his Certificate and 1st place ribbon (don't worry they all got a 1st place ribbon)

Corey babysitting?

Corey has always been really good about being so willing and able to babysit our nieces, and you may wonder how he does it?  Here is just a peek.  Now the best part for Corey is that my niece Maybel doesn't like the grass so she will just play happy as a clam on the blanket and he has more hands for Annistyn and Derek (which is always needed, those two can be partners in crime). Corey said that she was just so happy being outside for quite a while.  Redneck maybe, ingenious definitely, and yes that is an old trampoline where the D rings were popping out, so we had to get a new one. Reduce ReUse Recycle!

Fishing Day 2011

 Corey took Derek to the Annual Fishing Day.  They stocked the ponds completely full of fish and let everyone fish.  Corey said that after a while the fish caught on, so they would pre-load a fish on to a fishing pole and then let the kids real it in.  Corey said that there were many special needs kids there and he absolutely loved watching their faces, as he said he realized that this might just be the first and only time that would get a chance to go fishing.  Derek had fun he reeled in his fish, but because it was so crowded he didn't want to stick around long, which was okay because it started raining. Sorry the pictures aren't great, they were just taken with Corey's phone.

All dressed and ready even with the rain boots

This is at Salem Ponds they estimated over 2000 people showed up.

Father and Son's

So a couple weekends ago was the Father and Son's Camping trip at Bennion Creek Campground up Spanish Fork Canyon. .  This was the first year that Corey got to take Derek and they were so excited.  They set up their little tent, and were just so excited to be able to go and spend some quality time together.  Because this was a church activity, of course there were other friends involved as well.  They had so much fun, and Derek just thought that he was king of the world.  They grilled hotdogs, ate junk food and were just so excited.  That night they had a fireside where some of the BYU football players came and talked about some of their missionary experiences they had had being on the team.  Corey was really enjoying the meeting, but Derek was not.  Eventually he turned to Corey and said that it was time for church to be over, because he wanted to go back to the tent and go to sleep.  I know it was late, but I couldn't help but laugh when he told me that.  Unfortunately they were really cold that night, but they stuck it out and survived.  Unfortunately there were many other families who came from our ward who got lost and ended up going home.  I'm so glad that wasn't my husband because they just had so much fun, and Derek talked about it for weeks.  The next morning the church provided a huge pancake breakfast which of course loved.  Pancakes are his favorite just in case any of you were wondering.  After breakfast they went hiking and then packed up and came home.  Of course as soon as they showered they jumped in the beds and took a nap, I guess it is really true there is no place like home.  Some have asked how I did while my boys were gone, well that is a whole new post but lets just say that the play "Wicked" was incredible and I enjoyed my girls weekend just as much if not more than they did their camping adventure.

Looks like they scoped out a great spot.

These are the Marbles and they live next door to us.  These boys and Derek are best friends and we feel so lucky to have them as neighbors I know they had so much fun together. 

Lots of tents and campers!

Getting ready for the Church fireside, Derek did good for a while, but he could only handle so much church when he is suppose to be camping.

Derek's absolute favorite part of camping was playing the fishing game.  He slept in this hat and of course several layers of Jammy's, and they were still cold, poor boys.

Easter

Easter was such a wonderful day for our family. We got to spend some wonderful time together as a family,  The Saturday before we were blessed with the opportunity to go and visit the Carl Blauch Exhibit that BYU had.  It was an exhibit of many of his original art work of the Savior.  It was so beautiful and I felt like it helped us get prepared for Easter.  That morning we got up and ready for church and I was so blessed to hear brother David Clare speak on the Atonement, his talk touched my heart and I felt the spirit so strong that day.  I absolutely loved being able to truly reflect on the Savior on Easter.  Of course however, that comes to an end just as soon as we came home from church and Derek realized that the Easter Bunny came while he was at church.  Oh, how grateful I was that he came while we were gone to church, instead of before.  I took some pictures of Derek in his new Easter outfit, and he looked so handsome.  It was such a beautiful day outside, but that of course made Derek squint in every picture that we took.

Aren't they just so cute!

I love these pictures of Derek and Corey, they are such great buddies!

This is Derek finding his Easter basket at the top of the stairs, I just love the Easter Bunny coming after church, that was so thoughtful of him.  Derek broke open all his eggs so quickly that his candy was all gone by the time we got to Grandma's house.

After Church we all headed up to Mom's for a wonderful meal that Nathan actually helped cook.  We had prime Rib, and I must admit that Nate really is a good cook.  I would have never expected it, but it is definitely one his hidden talents.  So we had our family home evening that included an indoor Easter Egg Hunt, we have to do it indoors, because Mom and Dad's house still had snow on the ground.  Grandma gave them all a present Swimsuits! 

Looking for Eggs

They just had so much fun, we had to re-hide the eggs about 3 different times.

Dani tried really hard to get a picture of all the kids in there swimsuits, but well they weren't too excited about it!  Derek's suit was way to big and wouldn't stay on his rear end so we had to exchange it but the girls all turned out really cute.

We are still alive!

I know it has been such a long time since I posted, but well life is just crazy, so don't worry I still have plans to blog about all the things that have happened within the last month or so including Easter, Father's and Sons, Wicked, and other things. It will just have to wait until my life settles down a little bit.