Our Easter Traditions

We celebrate Easter with the usual traditions, starting with dying eggs. This is one of our very favorite things to do! The kids are all very creative. Paisley absolutely loves crafts, so she really looks forward to decorating them. Brooks has that perfectionist gene and when it didn’t turn out exactly the way he envisioned it he kind of lost interest haha, andI think Easton and Collins just enjoy the mess. We thought it would be a good idea to try out the faux eggs from Walmart to save on time and to keep collins from breaking them all. But they were not the best for coloring. they held the paint and the dye that was in the package that it came with, but just wasn’t the same experience as dying real eggs. They just floated on top of the water, which hindered a lot of the kids creativity. At least we know now to go with the real thing, also we didn’t get to do deviled eggs with them either.

On Easter morning the kids woke up to their baskets, each one filled with some eggs stuffed with treats, some goodies and he always leaves pair of shoes and usually an outfit for each of the kiddos. We love it when he brings those little cartons of gum, and painting our lips with the wopper eggs. It was raining pretty hard all night and into the morning so the kids found some eggs that were hidden around the house. Then ended up having an egg fight with their Dad in the living room, making a giant candy + plastic egg mess, but they had a blast. They all looked adorable in their pastel pajamas that I found on Amazon, they fit so cute and were super soft and comfy!

After their candy breakfast we got into our Easter best to head over to Grandma Shell’s. If you grew up with cousins, then you know that Grandma’s house on the Holidays are the best! These kids have so much fun together. By the time we had eaten the sun came out and was perfect for the rest of the festivities. They raced to find all the eggs hidden all over the pasture. The babies got a bit of a head start, but that didn’t stop the older kids from making away with a ton of goodies! Then we tie dyed some shirts for the MS walk we’re doing next weekend. We spent the rest of the night relaxing, and eating candy. It was an absolutely perfect day. What are your Easter traditions?

Our Trip to Sand Hollow

This was the first actual trip in our new motorhome. We don’t normally go camping this early in the season, but we were all kinds of excited when our friends wanted to plan something! We also figured it would be a little warmer down south. We wanted to get there before dark, since we’ve never been to Sand Hollow before and weren’t even sure where we would be able to camp. But by the time we pulled in it was very black out. Looking through internet threads we drove to a spot where we thought we could pull in for the night.

When we got up in the morning, we were greeted with the owner of the property. Luckily he wasn’t upset, but let us know that we wouldn’t be able to stay there. He talked to the guys for quite some time about all of the neat things things he’s found on his land over the years, and also eerie ones - like the body of a murdered woman *YIKES

We ended up getting a spot at the state park by the beach, the view was gorgeous and they had really nice showers with heated floors. On our first ride we came up on this huge rock formation and of coarse the kids wanted to climb it, So we did. It was fun to get to almost the tippy top and look down on all the peaks and valleys. The trails were very sandy (hence the name) and it would have been nice to have some paddle tires, but we managed.

We were adventuring with some of our favorite people, The A Family. They always bring the funnest camping toys and gadgets. This time they had brought along some metal detectors. The kids love to dig in the sand (Especially Collins) and with the detectors they were able to find some fun treasures. The kids favorite find was a crystal cube from a projector that they used to play games with the remainder of the trip.

On our next ride we came to this cliff with yet another amazing view where we spent some time just taking it all in. On our way back we decided to take one last trail and Brandon found a spot that seemed perfect for him to do some donuts. Not my favorite thing, but he was having fun. As we started to pull out, we all looked back at our friends, right as they were about to spin their own donuts and watched helplessly in slow motion as they tipped over. I just remember hearing screams and saw Brandon jump out of our RZR and run at full speed to help.

Once i caught up with him, I heard them say their machine had landed on her leg, so we all lifted it off of her and then scrambled around in our side by sides in the rain to the nearest instacare. Luckily it wasn’t too far away. We decided to take the kids back to camp, he took thier kids in their Teryx and I was driving ours in the RZR, Brandon wanted to lighten the mood and play around a bit. He pulled into this area that had been primed for riding with jumps and such . He went up this jump and then just stopped dead in his tracks, as i came around the other side, at the bottom of the jump was a giant pool of muddy water. I was laughing so hard! Glad that he didn’t just blindly go for it (He never would, but still haha) At that point we called it and headed back to wait for the verdict from the hospital. She had broken some bones in her foot, but fortunately didn’t need any surgery. It was such a relief, we were all very concerned!
All in all it was a great trip, we made some memories and would definitely go back. Maybe when it’s warmer and we can actually dip in the lake!

Lake Life Here We Come!

Every year in July we take a 10 day trip to the lake, and just booked our outing for 2019. You can only book 4 months to the day in advance and the RV spots are going quickly, so we know that it’s something that we have to plan for which gets us looking forward to it early on in the year!

The kids love playing on the beach, making all kinds of things with the sand rocks and driftwood.
Jumping off the back of the boat to swim with the fishies. All the best boat activities, boarding, tubing, and soaking up the sun. We eat the yummiest camping food and treats and take a stroll around the park every eveing.

Paisley and Easton even learned to ride their bikes on these streets. The golden hour glows extra brightly or maybe that’s just my attention to the beauty that surrounds me when I’m here. We usually spot some wildlife before the sun sets. This place definitely has a special piece of our hearts!

We look forward to this vacation every year, but we’re extra excited this year because we got a new motorhome! Until now we had been spending our days in a 1981 Allegro covered in orange crushed velvet and wood panelling. We’ve loved all the memories we’ve made in that beast, but it was extremely unreliable (Like cross your finger and pray we make it up this hill type of reliable) With that in mind and our family not only growing in numbers, but taking up more space with their growing bodies, It was time for an upgrade.

I love going through photos of past trips, and reminiscing of all the fun memories we’ve already made. One of my favorite things to do is to take photos of all the fun that we’re having. My husband used to tell me to put the camera down and enjoy myself, but that IS what I enjoy. Obviously I don’t have my camera on me the entire time and I make it a point to be present and soak up the family time and the atmosphere, but I just love capturing it all as well!

We put all the photos from each of our trips into a look book (We’ve used Chatbooks, Shutterfly & Artifact Uprising) and the kids love flipping through them! It reminds them of all the fun we have together and helps them to keep their appreciation for that time in our lives active!

The kids also LOVE to watch the videos of our getaways. It’s like a little movie where they get to be the star!
I love our films because they remind me of things like finger dimples, thigh rolls, belly laughs and itty bitty voices. All the things that change as they get bigger. I will continually cherish where we are right now, but I treasure being able to look back on where we’ve been! I need to catch up on editing our more recent films.

Of coarse I went picture crazy for Collins first year at the lake. She is definitely a water baby and just like her siblings she is obsessed with digging in the sand! We are so excited to see how things go this year in our new home on wheels!