Easter 2015

This year, Easter fell on the weekend of General Conference. Every 6 months the leaders of the LDS church speak to its members and to all the world, and it is truly amazing. So celebrating Easter and the life, Atonement, death, and resurrection of the Savior, along with listening to the messages of the leaders of the church, made for an amazing day (well, weekend, since Conference is Saturday and Sunday) filled with the Spirit. And of course some fun too!

Before Mason woke up, I laid some plastic eggs on the floor in our living room so he could do an Easter egg hunt. When he woke up, he looked at us like we were crazy as we were telling him to pick up the eggs and put them in the basket. But he got the hang of it pretty quickly!

 

We may or may not still have said eggs all over our floor still...

Then onto the Easter basket! The Easter Bunny brought a few new toys for Mason, along with some Teddy Grahams! And some candy for Mom and Dad of course. Mason snacked on his new found treat while I made crepes for breakfast (a conference tradition Sean and I started).

After the first session of Conference that morning, we headed over to Sean's parents house for lunch and an Easter egg hunt! Sean's mom had a HUGE basket of plastic eggs that she just threw across the back lawn for the 3 grand kids to go after. Well, two grand kids. The other one kind of just sat in the midst of some eggs and played with them.

 

(After Sean said, "Hayley give me a piggy back ride!" and then I did the same to him, Eve said, "I want a turn!")

 

 I love his face in this picture!

We took Mason home right before the last session of Conference and put him down for a nap. It was nice watching without kid distraction! After he woke up again, and after the session was over, we went back to Sean's parent's house to let him run around some more. He had a great time. And then the chocolate eggs were brought out...

 

Hmm, do I like this? YES! Yes i do!

After we cleaned him up, we tried to get a family picture. Babies just don't know how to smile! Or mine doesn't.

 

I am so thankful for my Savior and his atoning sacrifice so that I can be with my family for eternity. What a blessing to have that knowledge! I love my family and am so grateful for them. Sean and Mason bring so much happiness to my life I couldn't live without it. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

San Diego: Days 5-8 - beach, Sea World, more beach, and traveling

On Wednesday of our trip, we took it easy. We went grocery shopping so we could make dinner for the Tum and Jamie that night, then put Mason down for a nap and watched a movie while I worked. After Mason woke up, we went to the beach again! Mason did better this time, but also discovered he liked trying to eat the sand. Yuck.

Sorry I couldn't pick just one of Mason. He's so cute!

Thursday, we went to Sea World! Sean and I had been once before together, a couple months after we got married, so it was fun to go back with Mason in tow! Today, he slept through us watching people feed the sea lions. Seriously? They bark so loud to get food... crazy. We bought a cute penguin shirt for Mason, a Sea World puzzle for us, and some sea animal magnets for Mason. Which got chewed on, so only a few got pulled out to actually be used haha.

You drive right past the San Diego temple on the way to Sea World. I love that temple!

So long and thanks for all the fish!

Mason trying to swim with penguins. Maybe next time buddy...

"Mom, can we leave the shark place?"

We seriously always have bird friends visiting us.

When Sean and I were here a couple years, ago, they didn't have the ray petting station open because they were building a new roller coaster. It was fun to be able to pet them this time, especially because they don't let you pet the dolphins anymore.

Me and this dolphin would have been besties. I love basketball!

Mason will smile for pictures some day...

Friday we did another beach day! Mason really had a great time today. Sean brought a boogie board and had a great time, and I attempted the skin board. I maybe got one good go on it out of 50 but hey! We had so much fun.

The V's have this cute little chair. Mason had a great time with it!

My hunky beach babe!

Waiting for dad to come back.

Friday night, Tum and Jamie took us out to dinner with Grandma and Joe, who was staying with the V's until he left for his mission. We went to this amazing BBQ place. Like, heavenly.

Then we met up with some friends of mine from college, Trent and Ashley!

On Saturday, we left around 10am to drive to Mesquite, NV, so a little more than halfway. We didn't want to do the whole drive again, since Mason had spent so much time in the car already in the past week. We checked into our hotel, got dinner, and went bowling! Bowling with a baby who walks but can't bowl makes for lack of conversation between the two actually bowling...

I wanted CA In-N-Out. It just tastes better. Mason liked it too!

I'm Snarky, we'll just leave it at that (not).

Anyway, we woke up the next morning, found a local LDS chapel, took the sacrament, and drove back to Provo, all the while missing CA. Probably more so me than Sean, but still. We love you San Diego and will be back soon!

Sean catching a few more zzz's while keeping Mason entertained.

Drive on little man!

San Diego Trip: Day 4 - Wild Animal Park

I'll be honest, as Sean and I were driving to the Wild Animal Park, we were wondering if we would be bored a little since we had just done the zoo yesterday. The minute we walked through the turn-styles we knew we were WAY wrong. This place is so cool, no matter how many zoos you have been too! There are more trees, differently designed enclosures, and a totally awesome safari experience! It was a hotter day than the day before, and we were way more inland than at the zoo, but we did not care. We had a great time!

And now for more pictures!

Right after we got there. We knew we were in for a good day!

First thing we saw: a trainer talking about this lynx! So cool!

My friend recommended seeing the bird show. Totally awesome!

Then just outside the arena for the bird show, they have an "enclosure", but they can fly away any time! We had a huge flock of condors flying over our heads as we walked past this.

Okapi! I love him. I wanted the little stuffed animal but Sean said no. Next time I won't even ask ;)

Very beautiful gardens/vegetation

We always find little bird friends as we are out and about...

The view of the safari area from the tram station!

Mother cheetah with her cub in the shade.

Zebras!

Rhinos!

More giraffes for you Mom!

One of the paid safaris you can go on through the Park. You can get up and close to the giraffes! One day we will do that.

The lions of course.

Pretty bird!

I'm batty...

Okay, the tiger trail was a new exhibit apparently, but regardless, it is AWESOME! We took a million pictures just of the one tiger, from different view points, some through the fence and some through the glass. We were literally half an inch away from his face! (Mason slept through this whole section of the park.)

So so so crazy. And awesome. And beautiful! Jasmine was one lucky girl to have a pet tiger.

View of the safari from the tiger area of the park.

After looking at all the exhibits, we souvenir shopped for a while. Sean got both of those hats, and I got a shirt with the new tiger exhibit logo on it.

Love my little family!!

Oh, another cool thing about this park is that they do a "cheetah run" twice a day, where they show you just how fast a cheetah can go. Sean got to see him run from an overlook, I was walking Mason around because he was fussy in the stroller if we weren't moving. But, that was a life dream of Sean's, to see a cheetah run! So cool!