April/May Tidbits

When we arrived home from Arizona, we saw that the Easter Bunny had found our house! There were eggs scattered all across our lawn and the kids had a blast gathering them and opening them up to find money, chocolate and other goodies inside. There was even a giant golden egg for each kid with their name on it. The following day was Easter Sunday and General Conference. The kids were excited to see what was inside their Easter baskets and this year that included shoes, water bottles, squishies, and many other surprises. They are always so fun to create! Then we had our traditional conference breakfast of German Pancakes, bacon, fruit, and orange juice. Easter is a favorite of mine because it means warm weather is on its way, and combining it with messages from the prophets made for a great day. 

Boston started Karate this April! The real name of it is actually Hapkido, but for some reason we've always called it Karate. The class is aged 5-7, so he was pretty young in there and looked pretty little, but I was so proud of him for being brave and just fitting right in. He started to really enjoy it when he got some stripes on his belt, and made it his goal to go further than Deacon did (brown belt), and maybe even all the way to his black belt. It's so fun watching him each week, and having Choi Martial Arts right in Legacy makes it so easy. 

These couple months were filled with birthday parties and baptisms. I will write about Leo's baptism in my next post, but we also got to attend Carter Christensen's baptism and the kids had endless birthday parties to go to. 

FYB spring ball started up again for Bentley and Deacon and they went back to their similar teams as last year and same coaches. Deacon also decided to give baseball a try too. It was a bit of rocky start! I'm not a baseball mom and had to figure out all the equipment to get and how everything works, but once we got the hang of it, Deacon was obsessed! He did a tryout and made a better team, but I had to move him down so his practices would be on the opposite days of basketball. He was a little bummed to not be on the same team as his friend Tate, but also happy to be with his friend Spencer. He ended up rocking it and being one of the best out there. He loves to bat and pitch. It's a slower game, so I think he also likes that he gets to "hang out" a lot, but it was still a lot of fun to watch each week! Minus the cooler days...

My mom's birthday came around and Tamara, Melanie and I took her out to the Cactus Club to eat and then to the temple for a session. It was a great time!

Jeff's birthday also came around and I planned a date to the Canadian Brewhouse to use the golf sim and eat with a few other couples. That was also a lot of fun!

These months were crazy busy with all the sports, mixed with other things like crazy hair day, activity days, Bentley doing track (and rocking the 400m), visiting Petland to hold snakes, etc. You can see some sleeping photos of my kids which sum up how I felt! It was so fun though and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

The month ended with hours spent at Alley-Oop and Boston getting spoiled with cousins and Aunt Kellie giving him free merch. Always the best of times. 

Arizona 2026

Our annual spring break trip to Arizona was so great this year! It was a little earlier in the year with the way Easter fell, but still warm enough for us to swim and have an awesome time. We left on Mar.27 and came home on Apr.4, the day after Good Friday, so we could still be home to celebrate actual Easter.

Our flight was pretty early on the Friday so when we got there, we were able to go to Costco and get some groceries for the guest house for the week. I always love to hit Costco and grab some of the things we don't have in Canada, like the Acai bowls and protein chips. We also bought some caramel apples because they were too good looking to pass up! We caught up with Joce and Jeff and the kids had so much fun seeing each other again and swam for most the day and evening. We soaked up our time with Holli, since she will soon be leaving on a mission. I also found the cutest cactus pajamas for Bentley and Brooke, so I pulled those out for them. 

The next morning Jeff drove out to Scottsdale for a bike race. It was pretty random but, while we were at the airport, we ran into a guy that told Jeff about this race. He noticed the bike Jeff had brought in a specific bag, because he was going to go on some recreational rides this trip. When Jeff heard about the race he immediately signed up on the airplane and went to do it the next day! Super fun and spontaneous for him, and he did really well. While he was gone, I went with the gang to their ward's Easter Egg hunt and breakfast. The weather was great and the kids had a lot of fun. I specifically loved the little Jesus' that were in some of the eggs and we got ourselves a collection of about 5 different colors of them. The kids swam some more that day and then Jeff and I took Bentley, Deacon, Eli and Brooke to the Phoenix Suns game that night where they played against the Utah Jazz. We went out for dinner beforehand at Chelsea's Kitchen, and then off to the game. We got pretty good seats in the 100 section, but unfortunately the game wasn't great. I think it was better for the Jazz to lose, so they weren't trying very hard and Booker wasn't on the floor as much as we would have liked! We still enjoyed it though and had a good time. 

On Sunday it was the Easter church program and then we went to an Easter Week experience walk through, which was incredible! It took you through the week of Easter, had actors and amazing sets, and ended with a bunch of activities and a place to take pictures by "Jesus." Joce and Jeff also got some new chicks that day and let each of my kids pick one to name. The most memorable name was "Slurp" by Boston. I don't think there was a particular reason he named it that besides it's the first thing he though of, but he loved it so we all did too. Bentley named hers "Wendy" and I believe there was a "Chicken Nugget" but I can't remember any more. They entertained the kids all week though, it was great! We also had some great food for Easter and enjoyed our day. 

On Monday, Joce's kids went to school so we went out to the Butterfly Gardens in Scottsdale. It started with a 3D movie, and then we could interact with the butterflies, many of which landed on us. There were also fish to see, and some reptile and other water animal exhibits. Afterwards, we headed to the store called "Love Shack Fancy." I had been wanting to visit this store and Bentley was excited about it too. It was just as cute as I thought it would be! The cutest store I think I've ever been in. Bentley tried on some clothes, but then got frustrated with the prices because she wanted to buy things and they were insanely expensive. I did warn her it was more just for looking at, but that was that. Then we shopped at Target and found some affordable things, and ended the night with swimming of course. 

On Tuesday, Bentley and I started the day at the Tropical Smoothie Cafe and then shopped at the mall and a couple other stores. We were super successful and it was so much fun! We just love Arizona shopping and save our money for it every year. That evening we went to Yogurtland and swam some more. 

Wednesday was Boston's birthday! Uncle Jeff made a B shaped pancake for him for breakfast and I had bought him a new toy boat at Target that we wrapped and gave to him. The kids also gave him a "security camera" (baby monitor) that he had been begging for, so he was spoiled. Then we went on a birthday hike to the Hieroglyphic Trailhead. It was a nice and simple hike and was so fun to see the ancient rock art at the end! Boston decided that because he was now 5, that he's big enough to be a good hiker and he just loved every second of it. He never stopped talking, even to strangers, and always let them know that today he is 5! Him and the rest of the kids did a lot of climbing around on the rocks at the end of the hike and on our way out, we even saw a snake. That evening we filled up the rest of his birthday with fun by going to see the Super Mario Movie and playing arcade games. Boston was so happy with the things he won and got to buy at the arcade and kept saying that this is the best day of his life!

The next day we went to the Museum of Illusions with the boys while Bentley opted to stay home and suntan. We also did a mirror maze and game place and ate some lunch out. That evening we went out for dinner, adults only! We chose Romeo's Euro Cafe, which was pretty good. We enjoyed each others company as usual and had a great evening. 

On Good Friday we all got to hang out together because there was no school! Both the Jeff's headed out to Mount Lemon, in Tucson, to do a bike ride together. The rest of us hung out by the pool most of the day and soaked up as much sun as we could on our last day! In the afternoon we all drove out to a place to shoot the potato gun, which actually turned out to be a lot of fun. Then a friend of the Fox's brought over some bunnies for us all to play with and we ended the day with a fancy, homemade, Mexican style dinner that we all had shopped for at the market. i even cooked up some cactus leaves! We also did a little Easter Egg hunt with candy and money filled eggs. It was a great way to end the vacation!

I'm really loving our kids' ages right now and also love the tradition of Arizona on Spring Break. We're so grateful to have such awesome family there. Until next time!