Happy Passover!

This weekend we celebrated Passover.  Gary and Eileen made an amazing spread, and brought it to our house on Friday night.  This year, Ethan was old enough to read the "Four Questions" for the first time.

I have to say, after 10-ish years of passover food, it is growing on me--dinner was delicious.  We had some nice family time, and on Saturday night we gathered again for leftovers.

Spring Break

This year, we were lucky that Jason was able to get off for Spring Break.  The perfect time for a cool national park trip.  I have been wanting to go to Death Valley for a long time, and Jason had never been to Zion, so we flew to Vegas and spent 3 nights in each park.

Zion was as beautiful as I remembered.  We enjoyed some pretty cool hikes: the emerald pools, canyon overlook (where I have to say I was really nervous since there were some pretty steep drop offs), and Jason attempted the trail to Angel's landing, but stopped before it got super steep.

Looking for Jason who was headed to the top of Angel's Landing

The Emerald Pools Trail

Ethan at the top of the Canyon Overlook Trail

We spent a night in Vegas between the two parks...the kids got a kick out of a buffet dinner, and seeing the themed hotels.

Then we headed to Death Valley, which despite it only being mid April, highs were in the low 90s each day!  Death Valley is a other-worldly place, with parallel mountain ranges dropping into a large salt-covered valley that is some 200 feet below sea level.  We did early morning hikes, and spent afternoons at the pool, and then ventured out again in the evenings.  The last day there was a big sandstorm, and we are still combing sand out of our hair--it was crazy!

The Golden Canyon Trail

Multi-colored Sand Dunes everywhere

The lowest point in North America

The Mosaic Canyon Trail-Ethan's Favorite

The Sanddtorm on the Horizon

We had a lot of family time, for sure, and definitely enjoyed the trip together!!  Now back to work :(

Terrible Three's?

Alaina was an absolutely sweet two-year old.  Sure, she had the occasional tears, but overall, she was easy-peasy.  That is, until she turned three.  For the past few months, she has been nothing short of a drama queen.  Anything that doesn't go her way results in a complete and utter  melt-down.  She will literally throw herself on the ground, and kick the floor in a true tepmer-tantrum style.  Some causes: "I didn't want to wear the rainbow socks"  "I wanted to brush my teeth after I go potty" and of course, the nightly  "I don't want to go to bed" episode.

Although Ethan never had classic temper tantrums like this, we are doing our best to grin and bear them.  Which means, generally ignoring them.  This results in some tricky situations when we are out and about.  But I figure, if she learns she can get her way by screaming in public, she might learn the temper tantrum is the solution to always getting donuts at the grocery store!