Easter 2012

 Thanks to Jimmy, a best best cousin to the boys, we are now a Ben10 obsessed household.

Our table and family room floor most days look like this:

Printed Ben10 images from the computer, colored and cut out for playtime.  On the right is Griffin's list of the show's aliens.

So for Easter this year, I knew this obsession had to be part of the mix.

I searched high and low, in stores and online, for Ben10 shirts.

The only ones I found would ship from Great Britain and would have taken too long for my last minute shopping.

So I made them.

I found a heat transfer manufacturer that sold these images and ironed them on myself.

 The boys were so excited.

After a quick change, we went out back for the egg hunt.

 Kai was so funny.  Each time I called his name for a picture, he would stop mid-walk and pose like this:

Instead of candy in the eggs this year, we filled them with Chuck E Cheese tokens, with a promised trip to the favorite pizza place later in the week.

I was so sad to not capture the DeWitt Egg Bash on camera this year.

I had just enough battery life to get some photos of a few of the games my parents had set up for us to play.

This one was a duel visual battle.

You started at the items table side by side with your opponent.  When the word was given, you ran to the visual table, tried to memorize the 8 objects in their proper order, then ran back to grab the items and put them on the placement table correctly.

It was harder than you think.

This game was a simple bean bag toss game.

I say simple, but my parents made this entire structure with their bare hands!!

They're amazing!!  

Ever held a half-PVC pipe, side by side, with 3 other teammates, and try to roll a ball through them to the other side of the room?

We have.

Another use for PVC pipe games:

One player holds the "tower" while the other adds a new section of pipe to the bottom.

The goal was to keep the water container on top for as high as possible.

 A fun marble "Bowling for Bunnies" game for the boys:

This one had 8 players, each trying to stay on the game board for as long as possible.

With each new square you stepped on, you had to turn over the one you just left.

Last man standing wins.

And the end of this blog will reveal my sadness once again about not capturing the Egg Bash 2012.

It was such a rushed tournament this year because of the time we finally ended up starting it.

Allan won yet again.

Is this his third year taking home the coveted title?

He must be cheating somehow.

I can't believe I didn't even take a picture of our dyed eggs.

I also failed to document the annual Gardner Family Auction.

Jeff won the big prize again this year.

An air compressor.

It was a great Easter yet again, despite the missing photographic documentation.

Congrats Sis!!!

My sweet, gorgeous sister, Jillian, graduated from BYU Hawaii today.

We're so proud of her and can't wait for her and her family to live close.

That way we can ALL be privileged to receive side-cheek-hugs from Jill's lovely face.

As of now, Vin and Jonathan are hogging them all!!

Love you Jill!

1...2...3...Strikes! You're... NOT Out.

This year we were able to get Griffin and Kai on the same coach pitch team.

Other members of the team:  Sadie, Jimmy, Gracie, Danica.  All cousins.

 Coached by Greg, Jeff, Shaun, Rob (in-law).  All brothers.

The league is really low key.

Everyone bats, every inning.

No scoring.

Perfect.

In what other league would you be able to have a cowboy-hatted-Grandpa-base-coach:

And little lady players, like Miss Sadie Sue, are welcomed and encouraged to accessorize their uniforms:

(yep... a cheetah print sash)

The best part is the batting.

The coach pitches at least 4-5 balls but if the player still can't get a hit, the tee is brought out anyways.

Coach Pitch - T-ball.  

I was cracking up at all the faces made while the kids were swinging away.

Grace and Kai's were the best:

This is the first team we've signed the boys up for and they seem to like it.

Poor Treyson (probably better than half the team) wasn't old enough and has to sit on the sidelines the whole time.  Next year Trey.  Next year.

Sick at SIX

Kai turned 6 on March 19th.

His birthday ended up being a week long celebration and we still owe him one more "party".

Monday, on his actual birthday, we had most of the DeWitt family over for a Bosa Donut cake.  

Kai loved his face in this picture and made sure I put it in.  :)

A few days later, we had his cake and party with the Gardners after one of the boys' coach pitch practices.

(I'm sure there will be pictures of those games soon.)

Poor Kai was not feeling too well that night.  

All he wanted to do was open presents and go home.

He didn't even eat his huge piece of penguin Mario that I had cut for him.

His cake request was Super Smash Bros.

I couldn't find any figurines from that game to put on his cake so I had to use the fruit roll-up technique I'd used before.

Kai quickly blew out his candles and unwrapped his presents with as much excitement as he could muster up.  Then we packed up and went home.

We promised Kai a trip to Bounce U with his brothers and best cousin to make up for the not-so-much-fun parties he had.

He was such a good sport though.

Love you Kai!!

Spring Break Reward Trip

For the month of February, we challenged the boys to keep us on track with reading scriptures and having family prayer every. day.  

As a reward, we stayed overnight at a hotel in Scottsdale that ended up being right across the street from the

McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park.

The boys had so much fun riding the little train around the park.

While waiting for our "boarding time", we played on the big playground they have there as well.

I had wanted to book a hotel with crazy fun slides and lazy rivers, etc., but EVERYWHERE I checked was sold out! 

But really, all the boys needed was a pool.

Nothing fancy.

Just water to jump in.

We swam, rode the train, went out to dinner and dessert, went out for breakfast in the morning, then saw The Lorax on the way back home.

The break from our "norm" was desperately needed and welcomed with open arms.

Sweet Tooth Temples

While growing up in Flagstaff, my dad did quite a bit of painting houses and such.

My memory is not always the best, but for some reason I can still see clearly the inside of the paint store that we went to so often.

I attribute most, if not all of that memory to the sugar cubes.

Each time the paint store trip was made, my siblings and I were able to enjoy one sweet, disolving, perfect square each. 

 Sometimes more if we got too crazy and the paint was taking too long. 

Last Sunday at the Gardner's we had a family hour lesson on temples.

Each family was given a few boxes of sugar cubes to build with.

Griffin made sure to have Moroni present and asked that I also beautify the temple grounds with flowers.

Along with a great lesson on temples, each of the boys were given their own first memory of eating a sugar cube.

Ragnar Del Sol 2012

Introducing my 2012 Ragnar Relay team:

Sorry.  Yes, this post is about my running....AGAIN.  I wouldn't blame you for leaving now.

For those of you who don't know, Ragnar is a 200 mile relay ran by teams of 12 members.

On occasion, crazy people sign up under the "Ultra" category.

This means you run the full 200 miles with only 6 members.

Like I said, crazy.

With help from Jeff, the name "Sparktacular Six" was born.

We wore sparkle skirts the whole time and "bling-ed" out the van with shimmering stickers.

If my mom wasn't the amazing seamstress she is, the Mesa High School play wouldn't have stolen her away from being our driver for a day and a half.

But circumstances being what they were, this is what my team had to deal with:

We all took turns driving throughout the day AND night.

I only remember bits and pieces of that night.

It's a big blur.

We started off in Wickenburg and finished in Tempe.

My total mileage came to 37.1.

In 24 hours.

I'll say it again... crazy.

I had a blast being with all my friends though.  Can't beat a weekend of laughing, dancing, cheering each other on, and pushing your body's limits to new extremes.

Thanks ladies for the fun!!!

(Me, Kristin, Marie, Breezy, Erin, Jasmyn)

Consider yourself lucky I didn't post the entire 300+ photos that were taken!

Girls and their cameras.

Yikes.