Columbia

  A couple of month's ago we made reservations to go camping in New Brighton Beach during the kid's spring break vacation.  2 days before we were scheduled to leave for New Brighton Beach, John got on the Internet and started reading comments from people who had camped at the beach lately stating that there were lot's of problems with theft going on, so we cancelled our reservations and went to Columbia instead.
Sunday afternoon after church we left for Columbia.  Monday we went up past Big Tree's State Park to the snow.  We haven't been to the snow for 4 years so the girls really wanted to go play in the snow.  There was still lot's of it too.

 

Mikayla making a snow angel.



Ashlee making a snow angel.





John sunk in the snow up to his waist. 



The little red saucer was left there by someone else and it was broke.



Mikayla wants to try to use the broken red saucer.

After about an hour of snow ball fights, sinking in the snow and trying to walk in the snow, we were done.  The girls were freezing.  Mikayla was crying because her feet were so cold, red and hurting.  We went back to the truck. The girls changed into some dry clothes and we drove down the road to White Pines Lake for our picnic lunch.

After our lunch we decided to start heading back to our campground in Columbia.  But, once we got to Murphy's we decided to go check out Iron Stone Vineyards.  We always hear alot about the vineyards on the radio because they have an outdoor amphitheater there and they have concerts there.  The kids didn't want to stop there, but we did anyways and we were all glad we did.  There were so many flowers in bloom, It was beautiful.  I wish I had these flowers in my yard.  Ashlee took almost all the pictures here.  I wish we were all more presentable and could've had some family pictures taken here.

Tuesday we walked into Columbia.  John and the girls decided that they wanted to pan for gold.  John could've stayed here all day if we let him.

Wednesday we came home and planted our garden and did some yard work.  We have had horrible wind the last few days.  So it's going to be a miracle if there are any seeds left in our garden.

Easter

Saturday we celebrated Easter at my mom's house.  We had a bbq (we even barbacued some rabbit) I think that it was kind of wrong to cook rabbit on Easter, but we did it anyways.  Everyone who was brave enough to try the rabbit liked it.  After eating we had an Easter Egg Hunt.  There was a golden egg with $10.00 in it and all the kids wanted to find it.  Hailee ended up finding it.

Mikayla opening her Easter treats.

Landon

Ashlee and Hailee.

Dylan

 The Egg Hunt.  We had over 100 eggs.

Ashlee, Hailee, Mikayla, Dylan and Landon

 Dylan's 8th birthday fell on Easter Day this year. We celebrated his birthday on Saturday too.

Dylan took the time to read each and every card.

We had cupcakes and ice cream bars for Dylan's birthday.

The kids spent lot's of time riding this and the golf cart.  They love to go ride when they are at grandma's house.

Grandpa Billy (Ashlee took this picture).  He turns 70 this year.  I think this picture may come in handy later this year.

Kay and Grandpa Billy

This is a real frog that died and is stiff like this.  John had fun arranging it for a photo shoot.

Easter morning.  Opening treats from the Easter Bunny.  Mikayla got some candy, chapstick, finger nail polish, and coloring books.  Ashlee got candy, chapstick, finger nail polish and the game Farkel.

Activity Day Recognition Night

Tonight our ward had their Activity Day Recognition Night.  They did a talent show and each girl had to display or demonstrate one or two developing talents.

Ashlee was going to play her violin, but she was having some tuning issues with it, so she decided to do cooking as her developing talent.  She made some chocolate chip cookies and these suckers.  She gave each girl a sucker.

This was Mikayla's first activity day.  She was excited to finally be able to attend.  Mikayla displayed some pieces of art work that she made.

Ashlee received some charms and beads for the projects that she has completed in her Faith in God book.

The evening ended with cupcakes for refreshments.

Seriously...not turning out to be a good weekend

So far this weekend is off to a rough start.  It's been a rough week and I guess it's just going to continue on into the weekend.  Ashlee has had a cough for at least a month now.  The last two weeks it has gotten worse. Mikayla has had a rash since Tuesday that won't go away.  Thursday I decided I better call the doctor and get an appointment.  Today after school I took the girls to the doctor and ended up at the hospital.  The doctor thinks Ashlee could have pneumonia or whooping cough.  So they are running some tests.  They started her on antibiotics and will have some results in the morning and more results Monday or Tuesday. 
I am not thrilled about this.  I think she got sick from the doctors office.  A month ago I took her to the doctor.  From the waiting room I could see the doctor putting on a mask, gloves, etc before going into a room to see a patient.  I thought man,  whoever is in there has something bad.  I don't want my kids in that room.  When it was our turn to go into a room they told us to go into that same room.  I told them I didn't want to go in there because whoever just left there must have some disease if the doctor went through all that to go into a room. They said it was fine and explained that the doctor had to do a nasal swab and patients usually sneeze with that procedure so that's why he took the extra precautions.  I said: "so that kid must have H1N1".  The doctor said "no actually I think he has whooping cough."  This probably being the reason why Ashlee may have whooping cough!
Mikayla has had a rash since Tuesday.  Despite benadryl, zyrtec and hydrocortizone cream nothing is improving.  The doctor said this type of rash is associated with strep.  He did a rapid strep test.  Sure enough, she is positive.  No sore throat, no symptoms what so ever, besides a rash and she has strep.   Looks like we will be pretty much home bound this weekend trying to get the girls healthy again.  I guess I have lots of disinfecting to do tomorrow.....

4/13/11 Update:  The test results finally came back.   Ashlee does NOT have pnuemonia or whooping cough.  They think she either has a bad virus or something wrong with her airways like asthma.  The antibitoics are helping, and they are putting her on a couple inhalers as well.  Hopefully we are on the right track!

Swimming

The girls started practicing this week for swim team.  They both decided they wanted to do it again this year.  Swim practice in April is always a bit of challenge.  The weather is hot one day, cold one day, raining the next.  Practice is in the evenings too, making it even cooler and harder. It seems like we are always in a rush to get home from work, pick the girls up, get homework and dinner done and head out the door again.  Practice is supposed to be at 7pm, but Monday and Tuesday this week, the girls got to bed an hour to an hour and a half past their bedtime.  A recipe for a really rough morning.  Mikayla came home from school on Wednesday so tired she took a two hour nap.  Since starting swimming this week, Mikayla has had a rash all over her body.   Hopefully she isn't allergic to something in the pool. Their both liking it and doing well, hopefully we can all adjust to the schedule change.

GRRR

A few weeks ago my blog ran out storage space while I was trying to post, so I decided to delete some posts and make more space.  It seemed to have worked.  I was able to post more.  Saturday I was trying to upload photos and post about Mikayla's baptism and it said I ran out of space.  So, I deleted 90 more posts.  I still couldn't post anything.  Sunday, I tried to post again and was unable to, so I deleted another 100 posts.  I continue to try to post and blogger won't let me upload any more pictures without purchasing more space.  Today I gave in and decided to purchase more space for $5 a year.  I figure that is cheap and the memories will last forever.  Unfortunately, I have lost well over 200 posts and they can't be recovered.  Good thing they are already printed into a Blurb book.