Rainy rainy rainy Spring Break recap is below!

Bubba Gump

Who doesn't love Forrest Gump? In high school, it was my all time favorite movie! That's why, when we discovered this restaurant, we just had to go! I'm not a big seafood person but Casey is and he was very excited to try it! He had four different kinds of shrimp...battered, coconut, cocktail and one other that I can't remember. The whole restaurant was plastered in Forrest Gump props, scripts, and quotes. Each table had a sign on it that said, "run Forrest Run," or "Stop Forrest stop." When we held up the Stop sign, any waiter automatically stopped at our table to get us more to drink! It was really really fun! If you're ever in California, check it out.

Spring Break?

Oregon makes it really hard on us moms when Spring Break rolls around. Instead of taking kids to parks or on hikes, or just sending them outside to play, the kids are stuck inside the house, watching the rain (and hail). Seriously...how about some warmth...or even just a little peak at the sun?? I am always singing Oregon's praises...except for this time of year when the nine months of constant rain starts to get on my nerves. Oh well, we are very good at finding things to do indoors :)

Here's our last week:

Pages

Just sharing a little more of our vacation...I had some down time and finished a few pages. The kids want to know why we can't go somewhere for Spring Break. We are sorry to tell them that we blew all vacation money on our little solo getaway. So sorry girls (actually, we're not :)

Black out Springfield

In light of everything going on in Japan, this recent inconvenience hardly seems worth talking about...but it did make for an interesting Sunday. At about 2:00 in the afternoon on Sunday, we got a massive windstorm. We knew it was bad because the rain was coming down sideways. The lights began to flicker and then, they were gone. We didn't think too much of it until 2 hours later, the power was still out. So, we went on a drive to explore.

Casey (in his single days) used to live in this little trailer park. This is a Mercedes, smashed in 2 by a giant tree. In other parts of Springfield, 100 year old trees had come crashing down. See, the problem with Oregon is that trees don't have to grow their roots very far to find water. As a result, they are pretty weak when heavy winds start to blow. I think there's a Gospel metaphor in there right? Grow your roots deep in the Gospel so that you can withstand the winds of the adversary? See...Family home evening lesson, right there!

(So glad no one was inside that car)

We had Chicken and dumplings half cooked in the crockpot when we lost power. So, I threw that crockpot in the fridge and we had soup, sandwiches and cold cereal for dinner. (we have a gas stove so we can still use it without electricity) The girls were strangely excited about the whole thing. They especially liked playing games by lantern. The lights came on about 9:00 that evening. Unfortunately, we forgot to go turn the lights off after the power went out so when they came on, all the bedroom lights roared to life as the kids were sleeping. :)

Seven hours without power helped us to remember the extreme suffering going on in Japan. I can't imagine what they are going through over there.

Anyway, here's our last week of excitement!

Talent Show

the 2nd annual Springfield 3rd ward talent show was this last Friday. I have decided that our ward is full of loonies (Led proudly by their loony Bishop...I say that in a good way of course :). It wasn't really a talent show...but mostly act after act of hilarious goofiness. Charlotte got home that evening and said, "Mom, have you ever had a cramp in your face from smiling too much?" The kids had so much fun... it was definately a family affair.

I am posting our "Star WARS: a tribute to John Williams" act below. It is very un-professional and sounds kind of "screechy" on the video...I don't think it sounded that way live...but I thought you'd enjoy it. We are singing the story of Star Wars to the many tunes of John Williams. It was fun.

week 9

Here is our last fun-filled week! Actually, it was a pretty tame week. The highlight for me was our 3rd ward Enrichment night. It was a "Mad Hatter Tea party." The cultural hall was decorated like a big Alice in wonderland party. We had little sandwiches and vegetables. (no tea:) There was a spiritual program about all the many hats that women wear and then we broke into "flamingo croquet." It was so funny! About 7 cakes were brought in by ladies in the Ward. I just love our Ward's activities. This friday is the talent show. I will let you all know how our Star Wars tribute to John Williams Skit goes! (The Westovers and The Boorens are teaming up to sing!...woo hoo!)

Moms

This is my mom. I'll just say it...she's amazing! She went back to Utah on Monday and my girls miss her soooo much! Somehow, Grandma does things just a little bit bitter than their mom does. :) That's okay...I am so glad that they love Grandma Millar as much as I do. I came home on Saturday to a spotless house, finished laundry, bathed kids and freshly made goodies on the counter. When I grow up, I want to be just like my mom!!

This is the sight that welcomed us after our 12 hour drive. The girls each drew a picture of the things we did on our trip, taped them together and draped it across the front porch.

More fun stuff!

Six flags

Last night I spent an hour whipping out the first few pages to our California vacation. Might I highly recommend a trip without kids? I don't mean a short over-nighter or even a weekend. If you can, take a whole week and get far, far away. It was so wonderful! We missed our kids (a little) but it was such a refresher for our marriage and our friendship. I thought it was a good sign that after seven days alone together, we were not tired of each other. I'm also grateful to my mom who took such great care of our little ones while we were gone. I'm not sure they even missed us that much.