Not so Spring… Break…

Last month Parker’s dad bought him a plane ticket to California for Spring Break. Parker decided he wanted to keep it a secret surprise from his mom and sisters. It was REALLY hard for him to keep this secret! He was SO excited to see his family! He hadn’t seen his mom and dad since summer, so it was a LONG time waiting! His flight was scheduled for Friday at 4:45, so we decided to leave to Utah Thursday after school so we could have a mini-vacation in Utah. We got a hotel room in Salt Lake and went to the Living Planet Aquarium. It is a little aquarium, but it was a lot of fun! The pictures are pretty blurry because it’s hard taking pictures of moving animals in the dark . After the aquarium it was raining like CRAZY, so we decided to walk around the mall for awhile since we weren’t hungry for dinner yet. We had fun looking in all the stores since the Idaho Falls mall is so lame! After the mall we went to Chili’s for dinner. When we had checked in at the hotel we found out the hotel had an indoor heated pool. We didn’t know that, so we didn’t bring swimsuits. Parker LOVES the water, so I decided to go to Target to buy him some swim trunks. After dinner we went down to the pool. It was completely empty, so Parker got to swim the whole pool! I soaked my feet in the hot tub and read my book while he swam. It was SO relaxing! After swimming we went to the soda machine and bought a pop. We tried to buy a Kit Kat, but it ate our money . We watched TV and fell asleep! Parker had a HARD time sleeping because he was SO excited! When we woke up Parker went down to get us some bagels from the complimentary breakfast. He saw the pool was open, and since we had time he went swimming again. We went to Denny’s for breakfast and realized we had a lot of time to spare before going to the airport. Parker had been really fascinated with the state capitol building and the Salt Lake Temple. We decided to take a little tour. It was raining and snowing like crazy, but it was still a lot of fun! Parker loved driving around downtown. We didn’t even get lost! We headed to the airport, got our security passes, and headed up to the gate. We got the airport REALLY early, even though we blew a lot of time downtown. We got a soda and found our gate. Parker had his little netbook, so he watched some movies on Netflix. I gave him lots of hugs and kisses and put him on the plane!

After Parker’s plane took off I headed down to Pleasant Grove to spend the weekend with Lori. I LOVE hanging out at Lori’s house. Lori’s older kids are all moved out and on their own, but her little boys are still around. Hunter is 8 and just got baptized. Morgan is 6 and is a total hoot. Last time I visited, Morgan was still a little shy with me… but this time he wasn’t shy at all. It was SO fun! On Saturday Lori had a couple errands to run, so I stayed home and played with Hunter and Morgan. We played Mini-golf, bowling, tennis, and Pokemon on the Wii! When Lori got home we took the boys to a birthday party. Lori and I had several hours to ourselves to just TALK. We had so much to catch up on! Lori showed me how to make Taco Soup and I watched her make her famous homemade bread. MMM… Warm bread out of the oven is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!!!!! When the boys got home they wanted me to play hide-n-seek with them. Morgan was the BEST and made me laugh for hours! I told him I would count to 100 then come find him… he would go hide, and then yell “I’m ready” from wherever he was hiding! I didn’t have the heart to explain to him that he was giving himself away…. so I would look everywhere, then find him. It was SO fun. After hide-n-seek we played tag and chase and tickle wars. I was worn out! On Sunday Lori and her family went to church while I slept in When they came home I helped Lori get dinner ready. Her older kids were coming for Sunday dinner, so Lori made a roast. Treavor’s girlfriend was bringing the potatoes, so we focused on making the salad and cutting up all the fruit. Who knew watermelon would taste so good in April! Morgan helped cut up the cantaloupe and watermelon and did such a good job!

After everyone left Lori and I played Qwirkle with Morgan. What a fun game! Hunter made me his famous dessert (SO FUNNY!) It was cut up banana in the bottom of the bowl and then cut up strawberries around the banana. He said, "it’s healthy and delicious!” I told him I needed the recipe! He was SO cute and pestered his mom for hours about writing down his recipe. I’ve decided to call it “Hunter’s healthy banana-strawberry extravaganza”! It was very tasty. Hunter and Morgan were so sad that I had to leave Monday morning. They are on Spring Break all week as well, and wished I could stay and play all week. I wished I could too! I had SO much fun. I could go on and on about this trip. I was able to talk and talk and talk to Lori. I was able to talk with David, which was so nice. I haven’t really had a chance to talk to David much since his illness. Although David is very different mentally, he is still such a great friend to me. I just love these guys and I didn’t take ANY PICTURES I’m so sad about that! I have to head back to Salt Lake on Friday to pick Parker back up from the airport. I have missed Parker so much since he’s been gone! He would have had so much fun at Lori’s! I have to get back to internship on Wednesday, with new clients I am super busy and I LOVE it!!!

Here are some pictures… sorry for the long post

 

He’s so handsome