April Fool's Day/Easter

As is every woman's right, we have the ability to change our minds with little to no warning and without explanation. Mother Nature is no exception, which is why we woke up to this on the morning of April 1st.

Thankfully, this Springtime Winter Wonderland did not last very long and by Easter we were once again restored to warmer weather. I use the term "warmer" loosely to mean that there was no snow on the ground, however, our Easter egg Hunts were frigid at best and felt a bit more like Trick-or-Treating in late October than I would have preferred.

Despite the colder temperatures, the Easter Bunny did make it to our house, with bath tub letters, multiple spring dresses, some apple bits that Alex didn't care for, and candy for all.

At long last, I believe Spring has finally come. We have broken 70 on a couple of occasions, we finally got the last of our leaves raked up, and there are flowers blooming. Well, not our flowers, but someone else's flowers are blooming very nicely.

Yes, things are looking up.

Iowa

Recently our Brother and Sister in law moved to Iowa to finish school. We were their best friends and they were devastated. We had not as of yet managed to make it out to see them in their new home since they left, so when the Anderson's announced their plans to visit them over Spring Break, Lance quickly chimed in "Oh yeah, well we are going to visit them next week". There. That ought to do it. Favorite in-law position solidified once again.

So with our energy drinks and 4 grocery bags full of treats in tow, we began the 15 hour journey across the country. We decided to make the trip in one shot by driving all night. It actually worked very well, even though the idea terrifies me. Alex was a trooper and slept fairly well in her car seat, and by 10 a.m. the next morning we were there. A little worse for wear and in a questionable mental state from lack of sleep, but there safely nonetheless.

There was basement ball

(no picture)

walks to the flooding river (awesome)

a trip to the "Meat House" (also awesome)

a belated birthday celebration for Maren (awesome)

this roofing company (which I thought deserved some free advertising)

And last but not least a trip to the zoo. This was by far the most amazing zoo I have been to. It's Iowa and cold for part of the year, so all of the exhibits had to be indoors, which allowed them to create multiple exotic habitats. There was a rainforest, a desert, butterfly enclosure, aquarium with a undersea tunnel, and they had penguins!

(This barrel was for shooting fish. Turns out it really is easy.)

There weren't many cages, letting the animals roam around their respective habitats sometimes close enough to touch. But they frowned on actually touching.

The lions were fat and sleepy and the tigers were angry and awake. These were in cages.

Our trip ended with a stop at McDonalds, and you all know how much I love McDonalds. Awesome!

(thanks Maren and Rob)

There's no place like Home

On March 4th at 9:30 a.m. Elder Tyrel Jan Beckstrand arrived home from a succesful mission. We were all really excited.

My entire family made the trip to the airport for the occasion, including an electronic version of my sister. Thanks to the airports free WIFI, Skype, and Corbin's fancy laptop we were able to channel Missouri and include my sister through cyber space.

Our family shares a unique quality that is even more obvious when we are all together in public places such as the airport. We have the pleasure of being taller than the majority of the population. Strangers tend to find this characteristic intimidating, terrifying, and by in large peculiar. So when we find ourselves in such places as the airport where we are surrounded by the regularly sized majority, it is quite comical to see the wave of reaction we evoke. You would have thought we were an alien race, which stereotype we didn't really help by talking to and laughing with a computer screen. However, the circle of isolation in which we found ourselves did not dampen our spirits in welcoming home our final alien who could not wipe the smile off his face.

This was the first time Tyrel met Alex. Wanting to make a good first impression, she dragged his balloons and candy all over the airport floor before handing it over to him. They hit it off instantly.

Temple Square, what homecoming would be the same without a trip here. Alex loved the giant Sheshu (Jesus).

Uncle Tyrel did awesome on his homecoming address. I never thought such wise words could come out of the mouth of someone who believes there is an art to making Kool-Aid. Missions are awesome!

And Alex learned that Grandpas are awesome. When no one else was willing to take her outside, Grandpa would rise to the occasion. He taught her how to pet a cat (no ear or tail pulling aloud), and helped her chase the cat down when she did those things anyway. They pet the horses, played with the dirt in the garden and learned to drive the truck. She'll grow up to be a cowgirl yet.

We had such a large group, we held the luncheon at the High School cafeteria. I was comforted to know that the weekly lunch menu had not changed, however, they were much more insistent about only having ONE MILK!!!!!! This must have been a big problem because there were about seven signs each stating the same point distributed throughout the lunch line. The penalty for taking more than one was actually death, which I thought was a bit much. The number of signs was only surpassed by the number of "got milk" posters encouraging kids to drink more milk. It's Fillmore.

Alex and daddy went on a tour of the high school when they grew weary of mom's chatting at the luncheon. They found a mean eagle, a nice eagle, and the newly refurbished tennis courts. Nice. Millard High. Way to represent.

We also found other engaging forms of entertainment.

And speaking of engagement, Corbin got engaged this weekend. Hurray! That is an understatement. I've never seen my brother happier, which makes me the happiest sister of all.

Thanks to everyone who came down for the homecoming. It was great to see everyone.

Princess for a Day

On February 18th, I turned 27 years old, an unreasonably high number.  Although I have reached this age, I do not feel that I have obtained the maturity level that a 27 year old ought to have.  Shouldn't I have more of life figured out by now?  Better if life were the other way around and age were determined by maturity level.  If that were so, I would still be approximately 18 while Alex would be 47.

For my birthday I got to be a Princess for a day.  I was whisked away to a beautiful far away land known as Park City high up in the Mountains.  I got to stay in a place where magical woodland creatures (housekeeping) clean up after you, and where they do not allow you into the kitchen but rather prepare the food for you and do the dishes afterward.  While there, I kissed a frog and he turned into a handsome prince.

I got to visit a beautiful ice castle with said prince made from thousands of icicles grown special for the occasion.

They must have known we were coming because they put this sign outside the entrance of the ice tunnel.

We even battled the forces of evil while warming up in the natural hot springs after the ice castle when a wicked witch decided to take her clothes off.  The springs were large and she was of little bother until the awesomeness of our dry ice, which Lance had brought for the occasion, attracted her attention.  Lance cleverly realized the ice's potential for distraction and selflessly relinquished possession of the whole of it (even though it was awesome) into the hands of the demon who swam away happily once again back to her lair.

The next morning we woke up so late that we had to have hamburgers and french fries for breakfast.  My favorite!  We returned home to a happy baby and a clean house (thanks Casey) and the spell was broken, but it was truly a great day.