The Perfect Spring Break

Three things.  Three things every day of spring break that made my children very, very happy.  Like you-buys-are-the-best-parents-ever-for-letting-us-do-this happy.

1) Eating sugar cereal every morning for a week, while at our AZ cousins' house.
2) Watching cartoons every morning for a week (while eating said sugar cereal).
3) Swimming in the pool every day, all day, in beautiful 90 degree weather.

Even better, Zach was able to fly from a school in CA to spend the weekend with us in AZ before having to head straight back to CA.

Playing bball at a neighbor's house one morning:

 Lucy and Maddie heading to the temple:

 Hot tubbing:

 Lucy:

 Isaac:

 We went to a trampoline place, and the kids tried riding the bull:

 We watched General Conference with the family at the end of our week.  A little virus started going around, so we ended up staying an extra day to give everyone a little time to feel better.  In retrospect, it wasn't the best choice I've ever made.  But that's a story for another day.

 And then we came back to this:

Eli the Yarfing Machine

Eli celebrated his 2nd birthday at the end of March.  His absolute, very-favorite, most enjoyed place is the park, so we planned a picnic with the family for his birthday.  The weather cooperated, but Eli did not.  He yarfed all over me in the morning but seemed to perk up after that.  We thought he felt better and went ahead with the party.

 He was clearly thrilled as all the kids tried to get him excited about his gifts.  

 

He was obviously NOT better and threw up after we got back home.  And the next day.  He skipped a day (thank goodness, as we were driving down to AZ that day), but stayed pretty sick after that.  And for the next 2 months, he continued to throw up every couple of days.  And we found out that when this kid starts, he can't seem to stop.  (I think his record was 9 times in a row before I was able to get him a Zofran.)  

He spent pretty much the whole of April and May looking like this:

And yes, though it's disgusting to remember and write about, it was a major deal trying to figure out what was going on.  It's been almost a full month since he's yarfed and our conclusion was . . . we have no idea.  It wasn't a food allergy or sensitivity.  No parasite, no celiac's, no milk allergy, no other links to food that we could find.  Perhaps just 4-5 viruses in quick succession?  Here's hoping we don't experience 2 months like that again.  (Now if we could only get him back sleeping through the night, which he stopped doing about 2 weeks ago . . .) 

Lucy in Joseph

Lucy got the chance to be in the children's choir in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  Super fun for her and super fun to watch.

Lucy and Sarah after a show:

Pharaoh was Isaac's favorite character, but Isaac was a little too shy to take a picture with him.  Nothing a $.50 bribe couldn't fix:

 Lucy heading off to the play one night.  Makeup made her look way too old: 

 Dave and Lizi came for a show:

 

 Lucy chose to miss her last performance so we could go to the LDS Conference center for the General Young Women's meeting.  It was a great experience for both of us: