Easter Weekend

Our Easter weekend began with decorating eggs with Grandma Z. Everyone had a great time! This has been a long standing family tradition.











Saturday morning the Easter bunny came and put an egg trail down that led them to their baskets. This was Lydia's first time really getting into it.











Lila's basket


















That Easter Bunny is so smart. She, I mean HE, knew the kids were looking forward to going to the kite festival soon so he brought them all kites.

















Saturday night, we had a family dinner with Hunter, Josh, Chris, and Grandma and Grandpa. After a ham dinner we had a good time playing on the Wii. Lila happens to be the family bowling champion. Hunter was intrigued by that so here they are battling it out.

Over all it was a fun weekend filled with family and fun!

Emma's Farm Trip

Emma's kindergarten class had their spring field trip where they went to the Stout Family Farm. It was a lot of fun once we got there. They had us walk about a city block to the farm and I, not knowing if my stroller could handle the farm, had to carry Lydia the whole way and drag Lila behind me. Luckily a few rounds of Old McDonald helped us make the most of the walk.

Their farm is just the cutest, most quaint, farm I have ever been to. They had an orchard in their front yard, the house had a wrap around porch, tire and mattress swings in the back and cute little animals all around.

This picture is of the kids gathering around to get their instructions. You can see the horses, the mattress swing, and about 1/4 of the kids that were in attendance.




The first thing they did was bring out the baby lambs to show the kids how they are fed. I don't know about the kids, but it was really fun to see these babies suck from bottles.


















Once the kids were separated into groups our group got to feed the horse. I really wasn't sure if the kids would be willing to feed the horse but both just dived in.














Lydia had a really good time walking around. She steered clear of any animal but was perfectly content to walk around and do her best to get her little tush on one of the mattress swings.















The mattress swings were a HUGE hit. The kids loved it and the best part was that a lot of kids could enjoy it at once.












There was a couple other swings to enjoy while we were there. The tire swing in the back and this one here. Lila really liked this one the most.










Here are the cows that we got to feed.















Baby Lydia is happy as a clam (and trying her darndest to get her hands on my cell phone!). She did not want to get off. We just laid on the swing in the shade, under the trees and listened to the trees and felt the breeze. It was one of the best parts of MY day... :)

The

The first day that Grandma and Grandpa were here we went to the DI. We found this little toy for Lydia. She liked it so much that we just had to buy it. In fact she would not settle down until she saw that we put it in our cart and were taking it with us.

Conference Weekend Part II

On Saturday, Grandma and Grandpa wanted to go to the Dinosaur Museum at Johnson's Farm. We learned that the way to determine if the dinosaur was a meat-eater or leaf eater was to look at its toes. If it had four toes, it was a meat-eater, if it had three it was the other. We later learned that most of the dinosaurs in this area were meat eaters. Anyway, the kids had fun counting the toes of the tracks.






When we got home, Lydia crashed on Grandpa. What a treat for Grandpa!









Sherrill and I went and did a little shopping and when we came back I found a bunch of lilacs that Nate had picked for me. My house smells wonderful!
















On Sunday, we wanted to do a little geo-cacheing and make our way to the Valley of Fire in Nevada. This was a lot of fun for the kids because it was like going on a treasure hunt. They had even more fun when we made it a race to see who could find it first. Luckily, we had Gavin to help us because he was really good at finding them.














Finding this geo-cache was a real adventure. We had to cross some railroad tracks and go down a dirt road that had a no trespassing sign. This led to a cemetary, that once passed, we were able to find the treasure. This was an official one that was full of Nevada pins and pencils for the kids. We had just cleaned out the car so we had to do some real digging to find treasures we could leave behind.





In the field where we found the geo-cache was a beautiful blooming cactus. I just had to share!












The last geo-cache that we found was called the Better than Walmart cache. I still don't know what that meant but we had fun finding it!











Just a few miles beyond the last cache, we got to The Valley of Fire state park. This was also a great time for the kids. There were tons of these rocks for the kids to climb with all this holes and nooks for the kids to climb into.









They could have done this all day if we had let them!












Lydia was not going to be left out. She insisted on climbing like the big girls everywhere she could!


















This trail we went down was full of petroglyphs. What was neat about it was we could climb right up to them and look closely. The kids could as well. I told the kids that this particular mountain looked a lot like swiss cheese.

Petroglyphs.

Although it was a full and exciting day, we were exhausted and everyone slept really well that night! The best part was spending time with family and creating awesome memories!

Lila Turned 4!

Lila has finally turned 4, although it took a couple days to convince her that 4 didn't mean 6! For her birthday, she had to have a pink Cinderella castle with Cinderella on the front with a blue dress on. And yes, that is EXACTLY how she put it. While she was in Salt Lake for Spring Break I put together a princess party for her. We didn't tell her that she was going to have a party until the morning of her birthday. The reason being, I came down with food poisoning the Thursday before and I was petrified that I wasn't going to make it. Luckily, it all worked out. She was ecstatic for her pretty new dress and her pretty pink princess castle cake.

To start the princess party off, we played a couple games. Here is a pic of Emma taking her turn trying to put Cinderella in her princess castle.

Next we played a couple rounds of Duck Duck Goose and ring around the rosies. After such exhausting games everyone just had to have some punch.

Well we couldn't have punch without cake. Lila doesn't really like cake, she just likes the frosting. With this being the case, she finished before everyone and wanted to open presents. I was trying to allow everyone to finish their cake but Lila had other plans. Before I knew it she was coming up to me, saying, "Mom look what I got!"

Lila loved all of her presents and the excitement you see here is the same excitement she gave for all because she is just that excited!

After all the festivities, all the kids came back to the house and had a grand old time playing with everything Lila received. Thank you all who came and supported our family! Thank you to all who showered her with presents when she was in Salt Lake. She is definitely the most loved 4 year old I know!

Silly Baby

Lydia is getting more and more personality. With the sun shining we have been going outside a lot and the kids love to ride bikes. Lydia got her own "bike" for Christmas so we brought it out on this day. She would sit on it while I pushed her and we say "Weee!"







Another fascination for Lydia has been anything she can climb on or into. Recently we went to Salt Lake and it was pretty difficult to pack with Lydia either climbing into the suitcase or emptying it as fast as I would pack it. Here she has taken refuge in a basket of dirty laundry. She probably figured it would be a safer bet compared to the suitcases!

Good-Bye Old Truck

Well it is the end of an era in the Cranney/ Zollinger family. This week Nathan sold our blue Ford Ranger. Normally, the selling of a vehicle probably wouldn't call for much of even a second thought but this truck has a lot of memories attached and has been around for a lot of time. My dad bought this car when I was barely a teenager. My fondest memories of this truck included being my dad's travelling partner. We would travel to Idaho to visit our family and to go to our cabin. Sometimes he would even let me bring Valerie and we would sit for hours sewing doll clothes and listening to Garth Brooks in the tape deck.

When I was 15 and learning how to drive it was pretty hard to get my parents to take me out to practice. After much begging, I am sure, Missy offered to take me to learn how to drive. She took me out to Backus Hwy and gave me my first lesson. I will always be grateful for that memory of not only the truck but of my sister.

Eventually my dad needed to part with the truck and, although I do not recall every detail, Missy was the one to purchase it from my dad. A couple of months before Nate and I were to get married Nate had to find another vehicle so his brother, Gavin, could have the Jeep to drive when he turned 16. Missy had had the truck for sale in the newspaper for several months with no luck. Luckily for us it hadn't been sold, because we really needed that truck, and she sold it to us.

The truck was in good hands with Nathan. When it needed anything, Nate, put blood, sweat and tears into it to keep it running. He's worked on just about everything you possibly can on a vehicle and probably then some. We took the truck on our 1st anniversary trip to California. We laughed as we drove this muddy, beat up (well loved), truck down Rodeo Dr. next to all the Mercedes and Jaguars. It was a scene straight out of the Beverly Hillbillies! We also took shelter in it when we went camping and our tent didn't have a rain cover when we needed it most. We discovered the truck was the absolute best option for drive-in movies. With the shell and a good stereo it was like it was our own movie theatre. We would put an air mattress and a whole bunch of pillows and have a great time!

Our girls have loved it as well. The biggest treat of all for them was to ride in Daddy's truck to go anywhere. Both Emma and Lila got to ride in Daddy's truck to go on a Daddy daughter date after getting potty-trained.

I am sure there are more memories that I am missing. Right here in the moment it is hard remember all of the good times that I know are associated with this truck. I would love to hear any memories that any of my family and friends have. You can email them to me at nahan21@hotmail.com or drop me a note on my Facebook page. All of this was brought about because Nate was able to get himself a new truck after the Ranger had run on its last legs. When we posted it on KSL it was only a matter of hours before someone contacted us. This person's family had hit some hard times and needed a vehicle at a good price and was handy enough to make the Ranger run a bit longer. We hope that they will grow to love that truck as much as we have and wish them all the best.

Good-bye old truck...