Spring has sprung!

Before spring break Andrew and Jack's school had career day.  You were supposed to dress for the career you wanted.  Andrew told me he wanted to be a drummer or a soccer player.  So, he dressed as a drummer.  I'm not sure where this desire to be a drummer came from, but oh well...

 Before spring break officially began, we had an event at church called Disciple Now.  Basically, teenagers stay in homes of church members and they have a fun weekend of studying the Bible and spending time together.  I had 10 middle school boys.  My friend Stephanie had 7 middle school girls.  I was sure to send her some ice cream to her house.

 Once all the boys finally went to sleep at FOUR AM, we all settled in for a good two hours of sleep before I had to get up to make breakfast.  This group of boys ate 30 pancakes, 24 piece of bacon, 24 pieces of sausage, and 24 scrambled eggs...in about 12 seconds.  Gone.

 I also cooked meals for the entire weekend.  For lunch on Saturday, I thought I would come home for a leisurely grilling session. Instead of leisurely grilling my grill caught on fire.  Whoops.  Thankfully, our good friend, Benjamin, was close by and helped me extinguish it.  For the record, those hamburgers and hot dogs are a little overcooked.

 After Disciple Now, the boys and I headed to Dallas, Texas with our friends and Fred went to Vancouver on a mission trip.  Our main purpose was to go to Six Flags.  Our friends that moved to Texas even met us at the park.

 The theme of the day was money and lines.  We spent money and waited in lines.  This was the line for the bathroom.  It was intense.  There were a lot of people at Six Flags.

 Four of our crew rode the pirate ship.  They are in the middle.

 We closed the park down at 10:00 pm.  If you know me well, you know that this is way past my bedtime, but we made it through.

 Another thing we did was eat at In and Out Burger.  The boys have heard about this burger place since we ate there in Utah last year.  It is delicious.  Jack was a fan!  Actually, everyone was a fan of their burgers.

 The next day we went to the Kenny's house.  The Kenny's dog, Fenway, thought he was a lap dog and made himself at home in my friend's lap.

 Between the three of us we have nine kids.  While staying inside is fun with 9 children...not really...we decided to visit a park.  Do you know how difficult it is to get a picture of 9 children??  Here's a taste.

I think we finally found some keepers in the picture taking arena.  A good time was had by all in Texas.  We enjoyed our time together.  Once we got home, we hit the ground running.  Andrew was the only one that wanted to run errands with me.  

 And then later that night, both brothers were busy doing things so Andrew and I had a date.  He told me that "he was really glad we went on this date so he could practice his manners".

While we were in Dallas, Fred was in Vancouver with a team from our church.

They were helping with his brother's church.  It was the new year for this people group.  One of the things they do is jump over fires for the new year.  It's an old tradition that is believed to ward off evil spirits for the upcoming new year.  Our church's team helped man the event.  Around 5000 people attended.

While we were all off traveling, Dash stayed at the Hotel Shackelford with Pawpaw and a few cats.  He seemed to adjust well them, which is ironic.  When we see cats on our runs he loses his mind, but I guess it's okay to sit on a comfy couch with them??

 One of my goals for this month was to have the boys make supper one night.  They have to pick the menu and give me a grocery list.  Then they have cook it and clean up.  Clayton chose burgers and guacamole.  He did a great job.  I may be completely turning it over to him pretty soon. Fred helped oversee the grill since my previous experience had not been the best.