Easter Sunday

 Easter Sunday with the entire Foster Family all together - it was a picture opportunity just waiting to happen!

 The whole gang!  Notice all of the granddaughters' matching dresses my mom made for the occasion.  She's too cute!

 The outdoor version - we're actually grouped by family in this one.

 The luckiest, most spoiled grandchildren in the world!

 The cute girls in their dresses.

The ever-growing Macbeths.

 Easter morning brought the first of many egg hunts.  Here is Libby checking out her loot for the first time. 

 Sharing the spoils with Daddy and Ellie.  Well, maybe not sharing...how about "showing"?

I found some!

Amy introduced us to a new tradition - an egg rolling contest.  We played in rounds and whoever's egg didn't crack moved on to the next level.  Ellie was the winner, but fun was had by all!

Easter Weekend In Provo

 After another one of our famous drive-through-the-night trips to Utah, we arrived in Provo at 7:00am on Saturday and slept for a few hours before the festivities began.  For Brad's early birthday present, Amy got him a trip on the Flow-Rider at Provo Beach Resort to join her boys.  He had a blast, and we had fun watching and checking out all the other fun things they have to do there. 

 The girls' version of the Flow-Rider.  Cousins are so cute!

Brad started out on his stomach, smiling for the crowd and camera alike.

But soon opted for the real surfing experience!

After spending over an hour there, Brad and the boys hit up the slopes at Sundance for the last day of the season.  As you might imagine, the snow wasn't great, but he had a blast and was thrilled to get even just a couple of hours in on his snowboard for the season.  Poor guy - he used to go everyday, and now he's lucky to go once a season!

We girls had fun doing some sidewalk chalk to celebrate Easter and Summer's 15th birthday.

Here's the proud recipient of our hard work!  (Notice that Max and Libby had fun coloring, too!)

That night it was Easter egg dying time!

 Libby was lucky to have lots of helpers and cousins to show her the ropes.  She loved it and only managed to spill one entire mug full dye! ;)

Pizza for dinner and family game time after that.  What a day!  Welcome to Provo!

Zion National Park - Day 2

Our second day was great, too.  It rained during the night, but was pretty nice by the time we woke up.  We planned on a couple of hikes and a quick visit to the Human History Museum before hitting the road that night. 

Our first hike was called Canyon Overlook and it was AMAZING!  Brad was a little nervous to take Libby on it since there were lots of cliffs with steep drop-offs, but we just held her the whole way and all was well.

What a view!  She actually got to get down and walk around once we arrived since they had the fence there and she was thrilled to get to run around!

Yeah, Zion's is gorgeous!

My two favorite people!

It was beautiful every direction you looked!

The very-happy-to-be-free girl!  Notice the flower that she's holding.  Brad picked it for her and she wouldn't let go of it all hike long!

Pictures don't do it justice!

After that hike and a visit to the museum, we headed out on our last hike of the trip.  We had been on the trail not more than 5 minutes when this happened...Libby fell asleep in my arms.  So, we decided that meant she'd had enough and we called it quits.  Guess it was just too much fun to handle!  We LOVED Zion!

Zion National Park - Day 1

After some time in Provo and our incredible daytrip to Mt. Rushmore, we headed to southern Utah to visit Zion National Park for a few days.  We stayed in a cute hotel in Springdale and enjoyed lots of hiking and sightseeing in the park.

When we first arrived we just drove through the park for awhile and were in awe of how gorgeous it was.  Libby LOVED the mile-long tunnel and spent the rest of the trip searching for more tunnels to go through!

Gorgeous on every side!

Our first full day was a hiking dream. (Hiking the way an 8 months-pregnant mom and year-and-a-half old can handle, that is.)  First stop was Weeping Rock.  It was cold, but still beautiful.

Next stop was the Riverwalk Trail - the hike leading into the Narrows.  Due to the rains the day before, the Narrows was closed, but we still got to enjoy the incredible cliffs along the river until then.

Libby liked the river and getting to run around in the sand.

The contrast of the red rock and green trees was so beautiful! 

We saw some deer, some wild turkeys, and too many squirrels.  Libby loved them all!

Though not initially a huge fan, Libby's favorite place to hike ended up being atop one of our shoulders.  We got comments from everyone we passed - "Now THAT's the way to do it!"  Lucky girl!

You can see why the Narrows was closed.  This was the start of it and the water was really high and moving pretty fast.

They're just too cute together!

Our next hike was the Emerald Pools.  Libby hung in there for the first two pools, but when it came to the toughest part of the hike to get to the third one, she tuckered out and fell asleep.  Poor Brad had to lug her up the mountain as completely dead weight.

And, wouldn't you know it, once we got there, she woke up and was rearing to go!  That little punk!  But I'm glad she didn't miss it - the waterfall was so cool!

We took a different route back and got to go through our own little "narrows" on the way.

One last cute one!

When we got back to the hotel Brad and Libby hit up the hot tub.  (I was super jealous!).  She was in splashing heaven!

What a GREAT first day in Zion!

Mt. Rushmore

Note: The next few posts are all from Spring Break, but not necessarily in order.

After spending a few days in Provo, we managed to convince Mark that a daytrip out to Mt. Rushmore was a great idea. (Turns out he didn't need much convincing!) So, as spoiled as they come, we got to fly out to South Dakota for the day and visit one of the most patriotic sites in the nation. It was a dream come true! I loved every second of it!

Our fearless pilot and his co-pilot. Private planes are the coolest! We had a perfect flight and were totally amazed at the whole experience - no wonder Mark loves it so much!
Once we landed, we drove about an hour through a national park on our way to the monument. We got to see buffalo a-plenty and fell in love with the Black Hills of South Dakota - it was gorgeous there!

The coolest part of the drive was that your very first time seeing the monument is driving through a tunnel that was cut out just perfectly to form a picture frame for the monument. It was breath-taking! Pictues, as always, don't do it justice!

We've arrived! Zane got to join us for the day and we were so glad he did - it was a blast!

Now if that doesn't make you feel proud to be an American, I don't know what will! ;)

A pretty cool family picture, if you ask me! Pregnant belly and all!

We hiked the short trail that takes you closer to the base of the monument and got some cool shots from a different perspective. Here are the boys looking almost as fantastic as the Presidents!

One of my favorite parts of the whole experience were all of the state flags lining the entrance up to the monument. It looked really cool and Libby thought the flags were all wonderful - I think she liked those more than the sculpture itself!

After spending the day in South Dakota, we flew home and arrived back in less time than it would have taken to drive there one-way. Wow! Are we spoiled or what?! We can't thank Mark enough for the amazing day and for letting us experience his plane. Libby won't stop talking about "airplane, fly, white airplane" and we are so glad! A day for the record books, that's for sure!