fashion sense?

Yes, it's another post all about Katy. I swear we like our other children as well. Anyhow, a little while ago she came downstairs to go somewhere, looking like this. And let me tell you, it was way worse in person. The skirt is actually very red (I got it in the after Christmas clearance) with sparkles. Match that with the purple/periwinkle shirt, decorated tights, and brown Dora shoes, and you have one winner of an outfit!

Yes, I let her wear it out. It was painful though!

Awwwww

Yesterday out of nowhere Katy told me "You're the best mom EVER!"

It was wonderful. It made me very warm & fuzzy. I gave her a very big hug. :-)

And I want to record it for all the times in the future that she doesn't like me so much. Now I will always remember that once, my sweet two year old girl told me I was the best!

Easter with the Morrills

Yes, I realize I am still quite far behind. But I am feeling very good about myself for blogging so regularly (LOVE the scheduled post option!), so don't ruin it for me. I'll catch up someday!

Our ward had an Eggstravaganza party at the field behind a church building. Looks like a nice day, right? It was SO windy! We showed up without jackets, and sent Daddy home a few minutes later to get some. Luckily it was very close. So we had some yummy food (Hot dogs! Always a good idea! Kids love them, and they're minimal mess!), then an egg hunt. Every age got to go out alone. And each child was to pick up 7 eggs. That worked out really, really great! After the wild Eagle Mountain Easter egg hunts (and there are pictures of David crying from a year or two before that), it was nice to have it be civilized. The kids all had a good time!

The plan was for the kids to get all dressed up the next morning and take Easter pictures. Only Ryan had thrown up the night before, so he & I stayed home. And since it wasn't all 3 kids, we didn't try too hard on the pics. Well, they look decent. Grandma & Grandpa bought the boys new suits the next week (yes, we went to their house...we'll get to it!), so perhaps I should get them all dressed up in those for a nice picture! If only we could all be healthy enough for church on the same Sunday...

After the Zoo...

One of the repercussions of finally getting in the zoo so late was that we were ready to go at 4:45 PM. Oops. Didn't think that through. So at that point our options were to sit in traffic with hungry kids, or go to dinner and wait out the traffic. And since Daddy works in Portland on the way home, we met him for dinner!

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings. I like it pretty well most of the time. But after spending a few hours at the zoo, it was SO yummy! Everyone ate a lot!

They gave the kids cute hats. Katy made this nice cheesy face for me.

Had I posted about this on or shortly after March 24th when it happened, I probably would've known why Ryan is making that face. I don't. It makes me laugh though!

An Adventure at the Zoo

The week before our Spring Break, I decided it would be a perfect day to go to the Zoo. David had a half day, so we could leave at 12:35, and still have lots of time. And it was a GORGEOUS day. Great idea, right?

Probably 1/2 a mile before the exit traffic completely stopped in the exit lane. And I suddenly remembered that the night before Dan hadn't had choir practice (he's in the Portland Mormon Choir). Because it was spring break for the Portland area schools.

Dun dun DUN

It was absolutely crazy packed. The parking lot was full, with no other options of parking on the road or something. So we drove slowly through the parking lot, hoping someone would leave. So did everyone else. It was insane. Finally, an hour and a half after leaving the school (should be a 35-40ish min drive), we happened to be the closest car to a spot someone was leaving!

So we finally got to the gates, waited in line, and found out that our passes, which are to a place in Ohio that is reciprocal with the AZA (zoos) and the ASTC (science & technology centers) recently started getting only got half off. Boo.

At this point, it's not looking good. We're all cranky from sitting in the car so long. I'm bugged that I have to pay half when I thought it'd be free. And there are a bazillion people.

Oh, and remember this post about the super cool birds that would land on us to drink nectar? Yeah...not so hungry after a day like they'd had. And certainly not hungry enough to fly onto kids' hands. The kids got the birds to drink a bit if they held it right up to them. After a while, though, I finally coaxed one onto my hand. And things started going more smoothly!

Despite the crowds, we were still able to see lots of animals. Everyone was especially excited about the penguins. The bats, zebras, and elephants were among the other favorites. By the time we left, I was really glad we went. It ended up being a nice, fun time!

Tried to get a group shot...didn't work out this time.

Kids love to climb around in this car looking out on the cheetah exhibit. Not sure why it's so fun, but they love it!

Here's a better group shot. At least we all look kind of happy. Oh, and I'm pretty sure Ryan is making that face on purpose. What a nut.

Ryan Morrill, Rock Climber

One of the fun things here in Vancouver is a pretty good Parks & Rec department. The Firstenberg fitness center is about 10 minutes away, and has lots of fun stuff. The pool is almost as cool as the Lehi Legacy Center, and the rest of the gym that I've seen is just as good! We had Ryan take a rock climbing class during the month of March, and he LOVED it! He would count down the days every week!

See the red arm? That's Ryan's friend, Peter. It was extra fun to take it with a friend!

This is about as high as he went. Every week he went this high, and didn't want to go any higher. He kept talking about going to the top (there was 1 little girl in their class of 5 that did a few times!) , but this was the height where it got scary for him. No big deal, I'm just happy he's burning energy!

Reading Time

As a mother, one of my favorite things to see is my kids being nice to each other. Since these pictures are a couple months old and my brain cells have seen better days, I don't remember exactly what is going on here. But I do know that my oldest child is reading to his little sister, and she loves it! And that just makes my heart happy!

The OMSI!

We went to the OMSI with Grandma & Grandpa Smith and Aunt Hannah. It was December 29th (the one day it DID snow here this winter). I got the pictures ready to post, then didn't get around to it. And every time I think about just deleting them instead, I decide not to. So, almost 4 months later, here is our OMSI trip!
One of the nice things about going with them is the high grown-up (semi-grown-up in Hannah's case :P ) to kid ratio. Lots of hands for holding!

Here, I got everybody in one picture. Grandpa is just a dark shape at the bottom, but they're all there.

Sweet little Ryan really loves Grandma. They are buddies.

Katy was clearly not pleased with me for preventing her from playing. I just wanted a girl picture!

My dad is an awesome Grandpa. I mean, how many grandpas get down on the floor and do a silly puppet show with their grandkids?

To be honest, this was the picture that most of all convinced me not to skip this post. It just cracks me up!

I tried to get the kids to pose for a nice group shot. Fail. They had better things to be doing, man!

Revenge of the Slush

You know you're a good mom when you're relieved to find out they spilled all over themselves instead of the car.

And you take a picture before saving them.

(For the record, I told her not to take off the lid!)

Nice weather we've been having, eh?

The first winter after we moved to the Northwest was not quite as temperate as I had talked it up to be. Seriously, lots of snow and ice and general yuckiness. Dan thought I lied about the weather, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

This winter, however, has been a much different story! Several times a week I think to myself "ah...this is why we left Utah." Especially with all the snow my Utah friends have been complaining about.

See, these pictures were taken on March 6th. Yes, the beginning of MARCH! The children are playing outside in short sleeves! I would like to explain that the reason Katy is wearing a snow hat is because David came outside a hat. So Ryan went and got a hat. So of course Katy had to get a hat, and that's what she found!


Of course, it hasn't been consistently this beautiful, but there have been days like this fairly regularly. Yesterday Ryan came up and asked if he could go play outside. Um, the answer for that will almost never be no! Have fun!

Oh, and yes, our yard looks horrible. Much, much work to do. Thanks for reminding me...

Jog Blog Ramble

You know when I think about blogging the most? When I jog. Which, luckily, has been more lately. You know, I did really, really well at consistently jogging during the time we were in the apartment. Then around the beginning of September last year I stopped jogging to save my energy for packing. Then painting the new house. Then unpacking. Then it was rainy, and I didn't know where to run, and it was the Holidays...it's been hard to get back into the routine. Two weeks ago I ran three days and felt great about it, so I signed myself up for the race on May 1st. Then within a few days I forgot, and started skipping it again. Thursday afternoon somebody asked me how my training was going, so I got back in gear! I ran 2 miles on Friday, 3 miles on Saturday, and 3 miles on Monday. And after being sore & achy after Friday & Saturday, I felt fine after Monday! Yay! I might survive running a 5K in only a week and a half!

I have to say, one of the hardest parts of running for me is how bored I get. I listen to music, and it helps a lot, but I still find myself wanting to be doing other things. And not always goof off things. Sometimes I start thinking about all the many jobs that need to be done around the house, and I start feeling all anxious to get started. There's a lot of things that need to be done to our yard within the next few months (since we moved in last September, we haven't really had a chance to do anything yet!), and that comes into my brain a lot. Sometimes I'll see a nice looking yard, and it motivates me to get to work to make ours look nice too. Sometimes I'll see a yucky looking yard, and I want to work hard to have ours not look like that! When I have a good jog, it's usually followed by me getting something good accomplished, time permitting. Monday, for example, I took down our Christmas lights! Yes, they were still up. Yes, it was very embarrassing. The desire, motivation, time, weather, etc. just hadn't lined up. Now they're down!

So, as I said at first, I've been thinking about blogging while I've been jogging. It's becoming a stressful why-am-I-sucking-at-this thing. The thing is, I have a folder on the computer with several posts worth of pictures. So I'm going to hurry and do some, and set them to post one a day for a while. Many of them will be a couple months overdue. But they will be done, and I will feel good about that. And tomorrow when I jog I can think about how great that is!

Green Eggs & Ham Breakfast!

Yes, it was over a month ago. I've been a bad blogger. If I'm going to count this as my journal, I better start recording more things in it!

So, pretend that it's the afternoon of March 4th and I rushed home, uploaded the pictures, and posted them.

Dan & I both got to go with David to the Green Eggs & Ham breakfast at the school! David brought home information about it a few weeks before, and there was a form to send back in to let them know if 1 or 2 people were coming with them. He had circled 1, erased it, and circled 2. So Dan took some time off to go with him.

Here's the cool Dr. Seuss hat David got to wear!

I tried to take a nice father & son picture. This was my first try...

...and this was the second. Very nice, supposedly grown-up Daddy...

So, we got to sit with David & his classmates in the cafeteria and eat green eggs & ham. Surprisingly, it was really quite good! Then we got to go back with David to his classroom to do some reading. I tried to take a nice picture of David with his best buddy, Jonah. No luck with getting a nice picture of them, either...

Well, at least they're both looking at the camera. Sometimes that's all you can ask for, right?

And actually, I should get this printed and put on David's wall. He thinks it's a great picture!