April came and went all too fast.  Here a few things that kept us busy last month.

Easter 2012

With the Easter holiday so focused on bunnies and candy it is very crucial that we teach our children the importance of what Easter truly means. 

 I don't think it is bad to incorporate secular traditions as well though.

Please don't pay attention to the construction site behind the kids.  Our addition is still in progress(and making progress I will add).

 We didn't do a lot of candy, the last thing our kids need is more refined sugar in their diets.  But a little bit is always fun.

 We have added "Resurrection Rolls" to our list of traditions for Easter.  Thank you Rachel, we love them!

Jason started his new job the second week of April.  The jury is still out on whether he likes it, but he is now working in Meridian.  It is the same distance as where he was before, just in the opposite direction.  His schedule is slightly different and we are still getting used to it; benefits haven't kicked in yet; and he doesn't feel totally comfortable with their system yet.  We are very grateful he has a job though and are constantly thinking of better possibilities.

April 14th we made a trip down to see my sister and her family.  Jason was signed up for an ultra marathon not far from her and so we went with him to play with cousins.

 Maycie(in the glasses) has decided she wants to be a large animal vet so we went to the Vet school open house that morning while Jason was running.  We had a great time.

 Lynnae was totally siked to see(and touch apparently) this cow.  I can't remember now what they call it, but they use it for research.  When I say siked, I mean squealing and jumping up and down excited.  Too funny to watch.

 The kids were funny to watch at the petting zoo too.  I know this picture above is not the best, but I LOVE the look on David's face as he is looking at this alpaca.

 Cailyn is a huge lover of animals.  She was in Heaven with all those animals.

 David getting braver as he gets older.

 The kids couldn't help but touch this alpaca.  It was soooo soft.  At one point I turned around to see Jessica rubbing her cheek on his hip.  I wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch it, but I had to giggle.

Then Maycie, Coralee, David and I headed to the race to see Jason cross the finish line.  He made a post about it on his running blog.  Check it out at www.hollowayrunning.blogspot.com

This is the part I can tell you.  David is a 3 year old little boy.  He has a NEED to touch and play with things he shouldn't.  He was given some orange cones to keep him occupied because he was getting too close to the time clock with the battery attached(as you can see in the picture below).  However, people constantly underestimate the damage a little boy can do.  He was swinging one of those cones, which he had filled with rocks and dirt, and lost his balance.  He tripped over the cords and knocked them off the battery to the time clock, which tells the runners their time as they cross the finish line.

 The race director frantically went to work to fix the problem.  We lucked out because that wasn't the battery to the computer that was keeping the time, just displaying it.  So, it only took a little time to reconnect the battery and it was all better.  However, one runner did cross the line without their time displayed.  But, lucky for us. . . it was Jason.  AND he said he didn't even notice.  Good!  But for the future races, we will keep David away from the equipment.

 Jason did a great job.  He ended up running 2 extra miles because of a wrong turn, but finished like a champ.

 Which means, he was STINKY!

 So, off to the showers he went.

 And promptly fell asleep in the car.  Which was why I needed Maycie to come with us.  Jason was in no condition to drive home.  Thanks Mayc!


We put up a tree in the kids room a long time ago.  However, we just recently put the leaves on.  With any luck we will keep it in conjunction with the seasons.

 This spring/summer season we put our blessing on each leaf.

We have been extremely busy in May as I am sure everyone is, so our next post will be much more full.

Happy 10th Anniversary

Apparently it has been long enough since my last post that I don't understand Blogger anymore.  Before I had to upload my pictures in opposite order for them to be up correct, but not anymore.  So, with that said, this entire post is backwards and I am too lazy to switch it, sorry!

What you see here it my baby and me being reunited after a week long of not seeing each other.  Not sure which one of us is more happy.

 The last week of March Jason and I headed out of town(check that--country) to celebrate our 10th Anniversary.  Jason surprised me with this vacation.  He wanted to wait til the week of, but since I am a breast-feeding mommy, I needed to help him prepare for it.  He even worked it out for his parents to come watch the kids for us.  They were AWESOME!  Thank you, Lita and Papa!!!!

 That is my Jessica running out to greet us.

Our cruise left from Galveston and had 2 stops: Progresso and Cozumel.  We told ourselves that we were going to try something out of the ordinary to eat and I think that the wierdest thing we had were frog legs.  And yes, they taste like chicken.  We had street tacos in Cozumel, horchata in both towns in Mexico, and bargained for merchandise.  It was a great trip and are planning to do an Alaskan cruise next.

 Saturday before we left for our cruise, Jason and I ran in a half marathon.  We didn't really want to go an entire week without running, so we got up early and ran several days that week.  It was amazing to run with such a beautiful view of the sunrise.  Definitely a memorable experience.  

(confession: I haven't run since then)

 This is the main deck in the morning just after our run, so no one was there.  

 One of the pools and the 2 hot tubs.  Our second night we decided to go sit in the hot tub and ended up sharing our testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  After defending our Faith for about 30-45 minutes with a bunch of drunk people we found out that a guy in the other hot tub was LDS also and we chatted with him for a while too.   

 This is us passing the cruise ship on a smaller boat coming back from snorkeling in Cozumel, Mexico.  If you haven't had the chance to snorkel, DO IT.  It was probably our favorite part of the trip.  Sooooo fun!

 Our first stop was Progresso, Mexico.  We decided to do an excursion to some ruins and then to Merida.  We got to swim in this very refreshing cenote(pond fed by an underground river).  It was a great experience.

 This guy came into our bus as we were waiting to leave for the tour.  He was pretty good!

 I know this is 'old hat' for some of you, but it was too cool to see the towel animals waiting for us after dinner.  It was always exciting coming back to our cabin to see what animal would be sitting there to greet us.  We had this cute elephant, a pig, and a cat(we think).

 In true Jason and Mindi style I forgot my make-up and had to buy some on the way & our car broke down on the way there.  We borrowed Dad's car because we weren't sure that Jason's would get us there, well I guess we were just destined to have a break down.  

 We were only 10 miles out of Galveston, so luckily the cab wasn't too expensive.  We were supposed to be at the dock by 2:30 and left early enough to get there by 1:00.  Good for us because it always takes what seems like FOREVER for the tow trucks to get there and then we had to wait for the cab too(he got lost on the way to the mechanics garage).  Jason called the cruise line and they gave us comfort that we could get there in enough time for the departure. Not that I recommend anyone purposefully be late for a cruise, but I think it turned out great because we got there in time and didn't have to wait in any lines.  SCORE!

Jason did a great job of being patient and upbeat while in adversity.  Isn't his smile so cute?

We had a great time and are happy to still be IN LOVE after 10 years of marriage and 4 kids.  I love you Jason, you are an amazing husband, father, and best friend!