Vanuatu

Danny left today for the experience of a lifetime. He's about to spend just under seven weeks (6 weeks 5 days) on the islands of Vanuatu. This all started when he was approached by Professor Jenson and asked if he'd like to go on a biology research trip with her colleague Professor Bybee. She said that we could think about it and talk it over but that she felt this would be a great thing for Danny to do. She even said that she'd pay for the trip and that this would count as an entire chapter in his PhD program which means that he could possible graduate a year sooner than planned. In his program he has five years to complete three major chapters (projects) to get his degree and he'd been stressing over what his third chapter could be. I personally was in favor of him graduating early which helped me be as supportive as I could be. He's definitely going to have an unforgettable trip and even though I'm going to miss him so much I know this would be the best thing for us in the long run. We went over the pros and cons and believe that the pros outweigh the cons in this case. As of right now we believe he won't have access to any WiFi and little to no phone signal so our contact with each other isn't looking great. It's going to be okay though. At least that's what I'm telling myself. I cannot wait to see his face again though when he comes home late on June 14th. I just hope these next seven weeks hurries up fast.

Poor kids did not handle this goodbye well and all three cried for most of the long drive home without him. We're definitely going to need some help because it's only night one and we still have seven weeks to go.

Boy in Charge

In two days this little boy will be the man of the house. :)

The Atonement

Tonight as I was putting my kids to bed I started thinking a lot about the atonement and resurrection. I'm so grateful that families are eternal. In recent years two of my sisters unexpectedly became widows and it would be so unfair if there wasn't life after death. One of those sisters is struggling with a super rare disease that is taking her life as well. I LOVE my family and I love that because of Him I will be with my family forever. That's a long time and I'm glad.

Easter 2019

The Easter holiday for us starts on Saturday and this year I might have gone a little overboard. It was nothing too crazy but a little more than we'd like to do. We definitely want to simplify it from here on out. The kids had a great day though and I love seeing their smiles. We started the morning with them looking through their piles and once everyone was done with breakfast and dressed we headed out to our backyard for a little egg hunt.

Addie's Pile

Hudson's Pile

Grant's Pile

After our egg hunt the boys were able to fit a nice nap in and then enjoyed some egg coloring. Hudson really only cared about the blue dye and wasn't interested much in the other colors. Addie says her favorite color is rainbow which basically is her way of saying all of them are her favorite.

Grandma Donna wanted to celebrate Easter on Saturday as well this year so we ended our day at their house with a barbecue as well as another egg hunt and more egg dying. The kids had a great time.

No Lack of Pictures

I hear that by the third kid you usually stop taking as many pictures and he gets the short end of the stick. That hasn't been our case. :)

Unicorn Festival

Addie is obsessed with unicorns right now so when I saw an ad for a first ever Unicorn Festival not that far from us I knew we needed to go there. I'm glad we went because Addie's smile when she got to see and touch the 'real' unicorn made those insane crowds worth it.