eleanor swings

We had a very rainy and unusually cool winter, which bled into spring. All the rain made everything green and gorgeous! We didn’t have time for everything on our bucket list this summer, but we did check off quite a few.

Hiking at Casper’s Wilderness Park.

Meredith loved school and begged to go more than two days. On Wednesdays, all the girls stayed for an extra hour and loved doing fun projects with Miss Erica, who is the Queen of Pinterest Projects. Every Wednesday, the girls would groan when I came to pick them up and asked to stay longer.

Samantha and Amelia were jealous of the fruit loop rainbow project Meredith did in her class, so we did it at home.

St. Patrick’s Day chocolate pancake breakfast.

St. Patrick’s Day at school.

Visiting with Great Grandpa!

During one horrible week, the girls were sick with fevers, snot and coughing, all within a few days of each other. Amelia was so sad about going to school by herself… until she got to go on a special Daddy Daughter date for waffles.

Once Samantha was all better, she went on a Daddy Daughter sandwich date.

Helping with treehouse construction.

I am Meredith. Hear me ROAR.

Playing 52 card pick-up.

Building epic block towers and screaming when Monster Baby Eleanor crawled over to destroy the city.

Eleanor’s favorite homemade mac n cheese.

Someone went overboard on the bubbles.

So proud she can stand!

Scooter ride around the neighborhood while sisters were in school.

Tennis practice.

In March, the twins stayed after school for an art class with the 1st grade teacher, Miss Iumi.

Their final cute paintings.

Softball was in full swing, with a practice and game every week. While the girls tolerated practices (mostly because of the tag games they played plus donuts), they alternated between staring off into space and refusing to run after the ball at all during the actual games.

Jake: “Why don’t you run after the ball, Sammy?”

Sammy: “Because someone else will get it.”

They did like trying to hit the ball and running the bases! The first few games, they played the game with no tagging outs, but the last few games, the coaches decided the girls were ready to play for real. The first time Sammy got tagged out, she cried hysterically and refused to play. She sure ran fast the next game though and never got tagged again.

Art and writing projects!

Amelia was no match for this 27-pound baby.

Meredith and her bestie, Maple, at our Tuesday park date.

The girls climbed the tree at the end of our cul-de-sac every day after school.

Sammy the sloth.

Eleanor’s favorite pastime.

Sammy in her natural habitat.

More science and art projects!

Lots of love,

While the rest of our family left for Portland/Utah/Wyoming, only brave Grammy stayed for a few extra days past New Year’s! She courageously volunteered to watch all four girls so that Jake and I could drive down to San Diego for the Utes Bowl Game and stay overnight in San Diego.

Our friend and fellow Ute fan, Lucero, went to the bowl game with us, as well as Kennedy and Sebastian, plus Lucero’s sister. It was cold and rainy, but fortunately our seats were in the suite level, and we were so grateful we weren’t watching the game in the miserable rain. Little Sebastian understandably started to get tired, so they ended up leaving at half time, something we probably should have done too! The second half of the game was a disaster and we’ll just say Jake didn’t want to talk for like three hours afterwards.

We walked the coast and Seaport Village on New Year’s before driving back home to relieve Grammy of her duties!

Back at home, the girls had a little New Year’s celebration of their own. Grammy was pretty exhausted when we got home, but everyone was in one piece!