Glorious Spring Break

This year, Spring Break landed on Easter weekend. We've never had any days off around Easter. So this year we headed to Sunny Las Vegas. And I'm so glad we did because at home they woke up to several inches of snow on Easter and for several days afterwards.

While everyone at home was wrapped up in their flannel jammies, we were eating Easter Dinner on the patio.

The Eater Bunny even thought about hiding eggs in the yard, but decided there were too many thorns in the yard. So the Easter bunny just hid them at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The kids had a good time finding them all over.

The day after Easter was Olaf's 40th birthday. Since we weren't home and I couldn't throw him a big party with all his friends, I took him on a Mob Tour of Las Vegas. Lesson learned: The Mob is really Mean and Violent, don't join. But a monument was placed behind the Flamingo hotel and it's the only monument to a Mobster in the whole US.

Earlier that day we went to the International Boy Scout Museum, also in Vegas. I told Baby to pose like he was looking at stuff and he struck this pose. While I'm sure he thinks it's akin to The Thinker, I think it makes him look like a monkey.

Here's the whole family including my Mom. And Flat Stanley. He's going back to California in a few days so he went on vacation with us.

Then we headed to Arizona to visit my Bestest Friend and family. I've never been in Arizona, other than the airport, which doesn't really count. So I enjoyed watching the countryside.

Loved the numerous Joshua trees and Saguaro cactuses.

My friend has a pool. So my boys didn't waste any time jumping in the water even though it wasn't quite 80 outside. The Arizonans still feel like it's too cold to swim, but my boys, still in the throes of Winter back home, thought it was plenty warm.

We headed to Tombstone. The Rowdiest town in the West!

Here's my and my Friend with a Man from the Past. I think he was headed to the Bird Cage Theater to cause a ruckus.

We stopped at the Boot Hill Graveyard. The graves were all covered with rocks. Once I explained to the kids what was under the rocks they quit trying to climb all over the rocks.

There were a few tombstones with entertaining epitaphs.

And we finally found the Birdcage Theater. The most Haunted Building in the US. Next time I come to town I'm taking the Haunted Tour of Tombstone. Plenty of people died here, I should see at least one ghost.

Then we headed to Kartchner Caverns. They found the bones to a sloth so we had to get a picture of the fake sloth at the visitor's center. Love extinct beasts.

Here's the kids climbing all over one of the stalagmites. But this one isn't real, it's fake and in the visitor's center. They are very careful inside the cave to keep it living. Yes, Mother Earth is real.

We have been having so much fun on our trip. It'll be sad to go home in a few days. But Tank will be glad to see us!

The Last Easter Egg Hunt

A long time ago, before Baby was born (yeah, he's only a Baby in my eyes), we went to the Grandparents for Easter. In the past Grandma had always had an Easter Dinner that everyone attended and afterwards there was an Easter Egg Hunt for all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren. My two older boys loved it. They looked forward to it every year.

Grandma would always boil a couple dozen eggs. Then she would hide them in the yard before all the kids showed up. Olaf remembers doing this when he was a kid. I guess in years past some of the eggs hadn't been found so she resorted to making a list. She didn't want eggs turning up months later after they rotted and smelled to high heaven.

One year we headed up for Easter. We hadn't heard anything and didn't know if Grandma was doing a dinner. I think it was right after she had first been diagnosed with cancer and I knew she wasn't feeling great. But it was a good excuse to visit the grandparents, whom we all adored. When we showed up we found absolutely no extra cars in the driveway or on the street. That's ok, we weren't there to be entertained, we just wanted to see them.

We went in and visited with them and had a good time just sitting around. Grandma was in the kitchen with the two boys and I assumed she was just getting them ice cream, one of the staples at her house. But when I wandered in a little later I discovered her boiling eggs! I guess the boys had asked why there wasn't an egg hunt. Being the entertaining kind of Grandma that she was, she went to boiling eggs. After they had cooled she hid them while the boys waited in the house. The boys were so excited to get one last Easter Egg Hunt at their Grandmas. And this hunt was just for them, they didn't have to share their Grandma, or eggs, with anyone this time.