i’m not sure why so many people care to see pictures of our trip, but i’ve really had a lot of requests….and i’m sorry to say i barely took any pictures because i was too busy enjoying it.

leaving the kids was much harder than i thought.  i flew my lil sister in from colorado to stay with them (best sister ever) and after picking her up from the airport, she dropped me off at our grandparents house to wait for chase, and she took off with the kids to St. George for my family’s Spring Break trip.  i cried.  no, i sobbed.  i could barely even breathe for the whole hour that took place between Taylor leaving & Chase getting to me.  i didn’t expect it to be so hard.  but then after i knew they had arrived safely in southern Utah, i was able to relax a bit.

after chase came down from Logan, we tried a new restaraunt in SLC called the Copper Onion.  Ew.  i try to like the new “trendy” things but really that place was so crowded i could hear the people next to me in detail and the food was so gross.  reminded me of the Communal in Provo.  i mean really, who names a food joint “communal”?  every time i hear the name it makes me think of communal toilets.

then at 11pm we left my papa’s house and headed to the airport for our 1am flight.  Joy.  our flight was long and uncomfortable and sleepless and we landed in Atlanta at 6am there (felt like 4am to me).  then i unsuccesfully tried to sleep on the airport floor until we caught our 9am flight and landed in st. lucia at 3pm.  the flight there was rough because i was exhausted and also chase and i were split between the isle so i didn’t have anyone to lay on, which is a must for me.

we rented a car and took off exploring the island on our way to our resort.  commence the fun part.

we stayed in a beautiful bay called Marigot Bay.  before we booked this trip we were fully aware that it wasn’t a beach resort, but we kind of liked the idea of staying in a lush, green marina bay and then just taking day trips to the beach.  and the scenery at our resort didn’t disappoint, it was so beautiful.  our room even came with a kitchen & living area that i didn’t expect, so we were able to grocery shop and eat on our own!

thursday, our first full day, we decided to drive to the north island and find one of the popular beaches “reduit beach”.  we obviously passed it and ended up at a dead end and decided maybe we should hike down this mountain and see what we find.  well we found heaven.  it was a private, all inclusive resort called thebodyresort (yes all one word) and it must’ve been very popular amongst the British because that’s the only accent I was hearing.  we snuck onto the beach and grabbed some chairs and enjoyed some hot sun.  maybe too much hot sun because we ended up both fried!

because of that, we decided to spend Friday, Saturday & Sunday out of the sun to let our skin recover.  we spent most of the time by the pool in the shade reading our books or napping.  Sunday we headed up to the capital and joined the island’s members and missionaries at the Branch house to watch the morning session of General Conference.  because of the 2 hour break in between, and how grumpy i get when i’m hungry, we headed back to the resort and skipped the second session, but not before stopping at the beach and enjoying how sunny and blue it was.  it was really cool to experience the Church outside of the USA for the first time for me.

friday night we took a ferry across Marigot Bay to eat at a place called the Rainforest Hideaway.  Expensive food and it wasn’t anything special, but it was so romantic to take a ferry in the twilight and walk through this twinkle lighted pathway through the rainforest and then to eat on the water.  i loved the ambiance.

Monday we actually went to Reduit Beach and i was super disappointed.  the beach was rocky, there were tons of ants and bugs crawling around, it was a steep drop from the sand to the water and it wasn’t even very blue water.  i am still not sure why tripadvisor has it ranked #2 beach on the island.  chase snorkeled and i sat on the towel keeping my eye on a crab that was dangerously close to me. (crab is circled in the picture…it was creepy and moved like a tarantula)

Tuesday we spent our last day just lounging and relaxing as much as possible by the pool.  we made reservations at the “nicest restaurant in Castries”, according to the members we talked to, but it was really not that great.  maybe i just am not a fan of eating outside where bugs are constantly attacking you and your food.  but the place was right on the bay and it was a beautiful view.

wednesday we packed up and drove down south to the airport.  it was the first time we had gone south of our resort and it was a crazy scary drive.  for one we were on the left hand side of the road and in a right hand drive car.  then the roads were only wide enough for one car so you had to be really careful and focused.  and to make it worse it was like driving through the Alpine Loop…a million twists and hairpin turns that didn’t have any guardrails so if you let your tires off the road even one foot you would fall down a huge cliff to your death.  it was so scary.  but chase drove like a champ even with me yelling at him the whole way, and got me to the airport safely

it was definitely the most relaxing and laid back vacation i have ever been on and it was a fun way to celebrate our 5 year anniversary without the kiddos.  (but believe me, i was antsy in the pantsy to get back to them)

this easter was much more fun than the past because Q was finally able to get excited about dyeing eggs, the egg hunt and easter basket.

egg dyeing was an experience.  like usual she was interested for about 3 minutes and then all the work i had put into it seemed futile.

we celebrated a few days early with the Smith family since the rest of my family was headed to st. george and we were headed to the caribbean.  the girls loved looking for eggs….for like 2 seconds.  then once they found an egg, they were happy and stopped looking.  haha, little kids crack me up.

the on easter morning we just stayed at home and did our own thing and after church we headed down south to the brammers for a big cousin easter egg hunt.  needless to say that quinn had a ball, but of course i didn’t get any pictures because i was too busy chatting up the sis-in-laws

i don’t want to do an individual post for some of the photos i have so this will be the big mess of unrelated things that we have done in the past few months.  mostly about the kids.

B: had his 4 month apt and shots.  when he started screaming, Q walked up to him and said in these exact words “Baby.  Shhhhh.  Crying.  Sad.  Shhhhh” in the most annoying tone of voice.  like how dare he cry after getting poked while she was trying to play with the doctor office toy dolls.  hers come up next month and hopefully she’ll follow her own advice and not be a feverish, whiney little thing {here’s hoping}.

he also spent some time in his hand-me-down swing, had rice cereal and bananas for his first time, which he hates and rolled from his front-to-back and back-to-front.  i say “rolled” because he has done both ways only a handful of times and refuses to do it consistently.  yep, i have a 5 month old who still hardly rolls.

Q:  got her first princess potty but we are waiting to actually do the potty training until Chase & i are back from our trip.  she had her first haircut by mom and it was a complete lopsided failure.  she dressed her dad up like a princess, she switched B rooms and transitioned to a big girl bed which surprisingly has been a big success.  and she had plenty of tea parties with her favorite friend, Bear.  oh and she is currently sick with a nasty cold and i’m ready for it to go away.

we’ve spent a lot of time as a family lately which i am loving.  it just melts my heart when Q yells “Oh Daddy! Book!” and i see them walk into her room and cuddle while reading a book.  she is at a really fun age right now and i wish i could pause time and enjoy it for longer before moving on to the next one.  i think that’s why i am going to end up with 10 kids all 2 years apart.  i just hate having them grow out of all of these stages of development.

as for chase & i, we are going on a trip.  a real trip too, not like the cruises we have done in the past {i say real because we actually had to book the amenities and plan and it was a lot of fun.  we will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary in May, so  we are jetting off to St. Lucia!  i’m very excited and also a bit nervous, but it will be so nice to get away and spend some time just with Chase and in the sun.

we also celebrated st. patricks day with rainbow waffles, played around with grown-up toys {helicopter}, shoveled countless feet of snow and have just enjoyed the end of winter together.  now, bring on spring and summer please!

we met my college roommate and favorite friend, Lindsey & her little guy Peter at the Ogden Treehouse Museum for a playdate.  I had not idea what to expect, but it was a good middle meeting point so it sounded nice.  little did i know it was the coolest place ever.  KID HEAVEN!

i plan on taking Q back a lot more, and if you have kids and live near it you should too!  it’s worth the money for sure.

they don’t allow strollers inside in order to minimize the traffic in the walkways, so i carried B in his pack which was really nice, but at the same time hard to get down with Q and play like i wanted to.  next time i might leave the baby with his grandma

my cousin Megan and her no-husband, Aaron, got married a couple of weekends ago {or maybe it was last week?? time is too fast lately}.  she was beautiful as always and it was nice to have a few kid-free hours being dressed up and feeling like a normal person again.  thanks to my bestie Lindsey Hannay who watched both kids!  she is a champ.

and while we were here, the kids were playing in the most awesome toy room ever.  the walls are just a bunch of Disney movie murals that the previous owners had put up.  i need to take a picture of it sometime cause it’s so cool.  i guess you can see some of it in the background of these pics, but it definitely doesn’t do it justice.

Natalie had her baby girl and I was so excited.  Natalie if you read this ignore the rest of this.

let’s just say I’m getting way excited for my friends to have kids mostly because i can’t for the life of me imagine them as moms. they are like the least responsible people i’ve ever met, but i guess they’ve gotten better as we’ve gotten older.  but still, to watch them become pregnant and then moms is like the most amusing thing ever.

anyway, i was able to go see this little cutie, Kennedy, at the hospital and she definitely made me baby hungry again.  watch out chase!

and then i got to take some newborn photos of her and do her baby announcement.  before you ask, no, i don’t have any experience taking photos so they weren’t that great, but it was sure fun and i understand why it can become a passion for people so quickly.  anyway these are some of the announcements i made for her, i don’t know which they will use, but just look at those cute little cheeks!

this year is probably the last with all of my best high school friends still in the valley {we’ve already lost a handful but luckily they are just barely south and poor Annie is all the way across the nation it seems}

so i am enjoying our tradition of birthday lunches/dinner more than ever since i won’t get to see everyone very often in the coming year.

happy birthday tara!

it was nice and sunny while we there so we ventured to the outdoor pool with the kids and they had fun.  it eventually got a little too cold for B so i sat out with him and watched Chase & Q play together.  he is such a great dad because he is still just a little kid at heart.

we went for some fun stroller walks to feed the ducks, drew with sidewalk chalk, rode around on the tricycle, visited Great Grams & Gramps, got some sun at the pool, chase went on some long bike rides and Q tried to dress up like him so she could go ride her tricycle and had some serious fun.

the start of the long drive went off without a hitch because Q had her unlimited supply of Sea Salt fries from Wendy’s {her fav} and i had a bag of Cadbury Eggs so we were happy road-trippers until the kids finally fell asleep.

we love st. george at the condo {before july when it gets to hot to even breath down there}.

i’m sure that all of these posts today will be completely out of chronological order since the iPhone dump i did was like 400 pictures and there’s no way i’m organizing them into categories AND dates.  so in this post let’s go back to february 28ish.

2012 was a rough year for chase at the job.  from may-december he worked 80 hours weeks, sometimes even more.  while i was pregnant with B, he would leave for work at like 8am and not get home until 1-4am the next morning.  it was rough and i’m really glad that we’ve made some changes this year and are living a much more balanced family life   but because of his working and my pregnancy/newborn we hadn’t left northern utah since July of 2012.  YIKES!!

so for Chase’s birthday {ahhh he’s 28!} we decided to celebrate the night before and then on his actual day head down to st. george to catch some rays and just be away from Logan in general.  i decided to make chase’s cake this year because he doesn’t like any dessert other than Funfetti Cake {barf} and i tried my hand at decorating it like a golf course cake i had seen on pinterest.  well needless to say i’m not a very good cook, so the cake was made from a box and i used packaged frosting {all you pinterest moms reading this can gasp now} and for my first time ever frosting a cake i think it turned out ok.

the night before his birthday we went with my family to indian oven and then ate cake & opened presents:

he got a punch pass to the Golf Course from me, some dinero from my parents, a colored card from Q {and B} & some gushers and rice krispie treats from my bros.

the morning of his birthday i made him some heart shaped breakfast in bed

and then we took of for St. George after chase got off of work.  we stopped by his sister Brittany’s house for some delicious pizza and some fun with our nieces & nephews and then we were off.  we decided driving at night is much better with 2 kiddos since they sleep the whole way there

next post: st. george

this year has been real fun with Q as we celebrate the holidays.  naturally christmas was a blast, but i have been trying to come up with some good toddler entertaining ways to celebrate the rest of them.

this year for v-day we took some cute pics of the kids (thanks tay!)  like most photo shoots with Q it went terrible.  we got like 3 cute shots of the two of them and like 150 ones where she is pouting.  that’s ok though, i don’t pretend to have the perfect little life, so i guess the pictures just show how it really is around here  the first one is my favorite because it shows Q “honking” B’s nose.  that is her favorite thing to do!

but now we are done with v-day and Q has already moved on to the next!

i am already coming up with some fun St. Patricks Day traditions to start but hopefully they will play out as fun in my mind.  over at my “modern mark” blog, i have a free printable for leprechaun feet that i’m planning on cutting out and using as a trail from Q’s door to a hidden pot of gold with treats in it.  i have had a dozen people or so already download it, so i thought i’d share with my friends & family on this blog in case you want to use it too!

via http://www.amodernmark.blogspot.com/2013/02/pot-of-gold-trail.html