Sanders Family News: Spring break

Soooooooo behind with writing. I want to write about our spring break, Easter and then the fun 10 K we did as a family in Vancouver, BC. I will break this up in several posts though.

Spring break happened finally to coincide with Conference. That meant we had time to drive to UT so we could see my brother. Bonus, he flew his family with him. Since he lives in KY which is way to far to visit really, we were excited to have the time to drive down and see him. We got tickets to Conference too so we had so much to look forward to.
I took Friday off from work so we would actually have more time with my brother since he was leaving Tuesday morning. My sister in law, Ashley was super nice to let us stay with her. We didn't actually spend that much time together since we were mostly running around in SLC but we get to see her again in July when we go visit to meet her new baby.
The drive was pretty long but it was nice to break it down a bit. Thursday after work we drove to Walla Walla, WA and stayed with my other SIL Noel and Michael, BIL. It was fun to spend a little bit of time with them in the morning. The drive was about 10 hours from there so actually not that bad. I even got to stop in Boise for lunch with none other than my old principal. It was so good to see him again. We all miss him so much at Bell.

Anyway, we spent the weekend listening to conference on the grass in front of SLC temple, talked lots with my sister in law, Heidi and loved seeing my kids play with my brother's kids for what felt like the first time ever. They kids clicked and had lots of fun together. We spent time with my brother mostly in the afternoon as he was busy translating the whole weekend.
I even got to see my friend Jessica Ashurst who was super nice to drive and fight the conference craziness just to see me. I loved seeing her precious newborn and even though it was nice for his mom that he was asleep I would've loved to hold him a bit.

On April 1st Dacian turned six and we had to do something special for him. We had a big yummy breakfast with Ashley and Chris at their house and then opened presents. He was delighted with what he got. He waited so long for this day. He woke up with these words: "Woo Hoo, woo hoo, I'm six!" Gotta love kids.

We also went out to dinner that evening and he got spoiled some more.

In the afternoon Heidi was so very sweet and patient and babysat the kids so we (my parents and I; Shane didn't come as he had to work) could go to conference. As much as the traffic was super annoying we very much enjoyed listening to conference uninterrupted and we were able to feel the special and strong spirit that was there.

The next day we all drove to Ogden and stayed the night with Heidi's sister. She has three kids and with our two and my brother's two we had a full house of fun and happy kids. I was so impressed by everyone who got along great and they were all so nice and accommodating.

On Tuesday morning we drove all the way to Spokane. I not being used to driving very long distances (yes, Romanians/Europeans use the train mostly and even then a 5 hour ride is considered terribly long) broke the trip some more and were welcomed with open arms by Noel's family. They love my parents and so it was extra fun being there. They also enjoy my mom's cooking so we made them a yummy chicken soup with dumplings, mousakka, and the yummy orange cake. Noel, had her spring break too so she went to visit her family there.

The best part of a long trip? Talking lots with mom and dad, learning more about their ancestors and all in all quality time. The kids did OK, slept lots, played phone games and read.

The highlight of the Spokane part for me was the fact that I got to ride a horse for a few minutes. I have always wanted to do that and finally I got to do it. Noel knew of this important wish and made it possible for me. Her parents live away from the city and have lots of land. Noel even had horses growing up and used to ride often. Now she has nice neighbors with horses so everyone in our family got to ride Sunny for a little bit. She was very nice and gentle. Even though I've always wanted to ride a horse I have to say that horses kind of scare me, they are huge after all and can throw you off them pretty easily. Of course, we had the owner there holding the horse so this was a very fun experience. We also went to a stable where they board new moms and babies so we got to see week old foals. So much fun. It got cold and snowed that day. I guess that made for pretty pictures but I can say we were all over snow by then.

So this sums up our spring break. Great, wonderful time with family is just precious to me. I felt like we had our own small family reunion and let me tell you that doesn't happen often.

When I came home I was overwhelmed at the fact that Easter was just right around the corner. It was nice though that we came home on a Thursday so that still gave me time to prepare some. Thankfully my parents had us over for dinner.