The Swensens

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Easter Weekend Kick-off

Our neighborhoods annual Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday morning kicked off Easter weekend. Nicholas could not even wait for the Easter egg hunt and got a nice little stash. It was our first beautiful weekend in a really long time after having record rain the whole month of March. Thank goodness Spring is on its way!

Running to the park for the hunt.

Waiting to start...

...and GO!!!

Karlee pointing out an egg for Nicholas.

Eggs for all!

Later in the afternoon, we colored Easter eggs!

Artists at work!

Nicholas waiting patiently while his egg soaks.

An Easter package from Grandma with bubbles (& lots of other goodies) provided hours of entertainment on the back porch! Thanks, Mom!

The Sand Dunes

Ok! So I figured out how to get pics off of my iPhone. It's as easy as plugging your phone into your computer. Who knew? These pictures are from our little adventure playing in the dunes in Florence, Oregon. It was like being in another world off the coast with the miles and miles of sand. Our driver took us on a rockin' CRAZY ride, up and over hills and off sand cliffs that took our stomachs and blew sand in our faces and mouths as we were screaming for our lives. All in good fun! Good thing he knew the terrain and what he was doing! What a blast! I highly recommend fun like this!

Getting prepped before loading in the buggy. Goggles were required!

Even the little ones! They had no idea what was coming but we didn't hear a peep out of them! I think Kennedy even fell asleep at the very end.

Getting stuck! Our driver had to call for backup to pull us out! It gave us time to get out and play in the sand.

The group... standing around, wondering if we were ever going to get out of here.

Karlee having fun!

My cute niece, Kennedy stomping around!

The video of us getting unstuck!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Depoe Bay 2012

We made our 2nd annual trip to Depoe Bay, Oregon with Mark's sister and her cute family in March. This year, Mark's younger sister, Sydney, & her hubby drove down from Seattle to play with us. We had a GREAT time! Despite all of the rain, we DID have a few good days that we got to do a little hiking, see a lighthouse or two and spot some sun bathing sea lions. These pictures were all taken on our way to Florence where we went dune bugging in the sand dunes. Those pictures are all on my Facebook page (how to get pictures from my iPhone to my blog, I still haven't tried/figured out yet). We had so much fun and like we always say, "We can't wait until next year!"

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Snow Day!

Okay! So we got a little bit of snow here in the Northwest. Shocking! It only happens about once or twice a year here but it's enough for us to want to throw on our rain boots (we are never prepared with snow gear) and go outside and play in the white stuff! This year we discovered the sledding hill at the end of our street. The whole neighborhood was out sledding! My kids were a little apprehensive about me sending them down the hill alone, but they survived a couple of trips! I loved it! These are the kind of days I remember from my childhood, growing up in Utah. Days that were so sunny and bright....and white from the new fallen snow! Of course, the rain had to come and ruin it all! At least we had fun while it lasted!

Officially 4!!!

Nicholas and Karlee are officially 4!!!! They woke up to find streamers and balloons in their rooms. Their preschool was cancelled due to snow and black ice on the roads. They were totally excited about that! I let them open a few presents to keep them busy. We went to lunch at McDonalds (crazy, but they love that place) and then waited and waited for Mark to come home to open the rest of their presents. It was torture! Luckily, the UPS man delivered a few surprises from Grandma. We went to Izzy's Pizza Buffet for dinner and then Nicholas insisted that he have a big birthday cake (not cupcakes), so I scrambled to throw one together! It's totally pathetic but they were so happy to be sung to one more time.