Easter: Take 2 - Preston

I know, I have fallen way behind on the blog updates.  I want to make sure I record the fun memories we had going to Preston on April 2nd through the 8th.  We headed out of Spokane Monday and drove to Preston where Grandma and Grandpa Bennett got the news about Ellie becoming a big sister.

Then on Tuesday we had beautiful weather so we headed to Logan to Willow Park where they have a great little zoo and park.  Ellie loved seeing all the animals.  She was so cute too, because she had to say "Hi!" to all the animals we looked at and chatter at them some before we could move on.

Taking a quick break from all the walking.  Ellie loves to climb on things and let you know she's sitting, but I won't say the word it sounds like she says each time she says sit.  Let's just say we need to work on our ssss instead of shhh.

Here she is totally fascinated by the "peeyock".

After the zoo Ellie had fun on the slides with Daddy and Papa, playing in the bark, and then we forced her to tolerate a swing for a few minutes.  Man that girl hates swings!

Wednesday Steve, Ellie, and I had the day mostly to ourselves.  Ellie enjoyed playing with the dogs, riding one of the horses that is housed at Ray and Reva's right now, and going for a four-wheeler ride.  

After taking this picture I climbed on too and held Ellie around Steve so that she was doubly secured.  We also didn't go very fast, but she loved having the wind blow over her the whole time.

This is what a similar four-wheeler ride looked like later on that week.

On Thursday we headed down and spent the day in Ogden with Steve's sister Kathy, her daughter Amanda, and Kathy's new fiance's son, Max.  We went to the Tree House Museum and out for lunch before heading back to visit Steve's sister Lori for a while and head back to Preston.

Here are pictures from the children's museum.  Ellie loved the drums in the music area, the colored blocks on the light table, and the play kitchen.  She had a blast!

This was Ellie PASSED OUT as we left Ogden.  She played so hard and hadn't napped at ALL!  I love that she fell asleep while she was eating - you can see the apples in her mouth still.  I was a little nervous and kept checking to make sure I could hear her breathing.  She woke up and finished eating her apple slice in her mouth and then went right back to sleep.

That night Kathy, Amanda, and Ryan came to Preston and stayed for the weekend with everyone else, so we had a nice lazy play day on Friday and Reva helped me with some domestic projects I couldn't have done with out her help.  We made a CUTE new blanket for Ellie when she gets her toddler bed and Reva told me what to do and I made her famous cinnamon rolls.  This is one of the trays before Reva frosted them.  They're pretty much amazing.  

Then Saturday we split up men and women.  The girls headed to our niece Erin's bridal shower, and the guys kept her fiance Jordin busy with brauts and shooting.  After everyone had reunited and Ellie had napped, we began our Easter festivities.  Amanda was a great help with Ellie dying her first Easter eggs.

And Ellie even enjoyed painting one.

Then both girls enjoyed an Easter egg hunt.  After already having experienced the joys of hunting eggs about a week earlier, Ellie knew just what to do and needed no assistance.  She especially loved opening up eggs that had jelly beans in them!

After the egg hunt the girls took turns riding the horse again.  Amanda is big enough she got to ride on her own.

But Ellie always had a few escorts.  Here's the whole gang from that weekend minus myself.

After all those festivities, it was just about bed time, so Ellie went and snuggled up with Kathy and Amanda for some bed time reading.

The next day we went to church with Steve's folks and then hit the road to get home so Steve and I could both get to work on Monday.  It wasn't the most relaxing Easter, but we got to enjoy so much fun the week previous it wasn't a big sacrifice.  We always have such a great time when we visit family, and it was doubly exciting this time to get to go down and share our big news with everyone!