Cultivating Childhood

After the initial Easter weekend with extended family, we had a relatively quiet and nice week with my parents. We spent a lot of time just hanging out in their backyard and just enjoying life together.  But we also did some short excursions in and around my parents home city.  One place they took us to was the Children's Music Garden.  The boys thought the "instruments" there were pretty neat. We also got to go my grandparent's home.  I have so many memories as a child playing in their grove, and it was fun to experience that with my kids.  Buddy and Button loved picking and eating oranges right off the tree and exploring their entire house.  They even got to go into one of their Great-Grandpa's Model Ts.  They were really sad when we had to leave. Thanks Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa!  We had a great time!

Playing in the kids area at Seatac Airport After refusing to fly anywhere for over a year, we buckled down and went to sunny SoCal for Easter.  And, we had a great time!  We are so blessed that Phil's job allows him the flexibility to work from anywhere, so we were able to be down there for 2.5 weeks. One of the major perks (of which there were many) was the weather.  In Seattle, we had not had any consistency in the weather which has made it very difficult to plan to go outside or do anything.  In San Diego, we were able to go outside almost everyday and at any time of the day.  The boys loved playing in Grandma and Papa's backyard.  There was a gazebo to run around, sidewalks to water paint, a playground (aka pirate ship) to dominate, a sandbox and lots of other fun games.  I loved being able to let them explore outside! It was also great just being able to put short-sleeve shirts on them.  I've missed seeing their little bare arms.