Alamosa, CO

Last weekend we took a little family vacation to Alamosa, CO to visit some alligators, see some sand dunes, and hang out with family. My Parents and Elly & Corey met us there, actually they beat us there. We left with snow falling and headed south, where we thought we would find better weather. Well, we didn't' realize to get to Alamosa we would be going over a mountain pass. We were driving along, everyone happy thinking we would end up getting there about 1 hour before my parents....then all the sudden we came to a "ROAD CLOSED" barrier. All the cars were stopped, but it was barely snowing. Jeff couldn't 't believe why it was closed and some of the other vehicles decided to ignore the sign and went around it on up the road. We decided to try it as well. I was a bit nervous wondering what was up ahead so I called a good friend and asked her to check the road report and let us know what was going on. We kept driving and soon came to the base of the pass where we could see a couple of cars stopped up on top....soon a truck came down and signaled for us to TURN AROUND. Finally we heeded the advice and headed back. My friend called and said that the pass was closed. We found a policeman one our way out at the "Road Closed" barrier and he said there we about 30 semi's stuck on the pass and no one was able to get through. They were working on clearing it out and then they would open it, he wasn't sure how long it would take, but he said it could possible be a couple of hours. We went into Walsenburg ate dinner, went shopping, and kept calling the weather report. Finally it was open and we made it through! Our two hour drive turned into a six hour drive-but we made it and had a great time.

We stayed at a great motel with an indoor water park - fun! The kids would have been happy to stay at the motel 24/7. We had heard of an Alligator Farm there in Alamosa, so we went to check it out. You can see from the pictures below, we saw the Alligators. Jeff is holding a real live alligator. My Dad, Corey, and Jackie all held it. The rest of us just looked! By the way, this is one of my favorite pictures of my Husband, I have it as our desktop right now and smile every time I get onto our computer and see his handsome face (just a little side note for ya). You would think, from their happy faces that holding an alligator is pretty fun. I don't know, because I didn't do it.

We also saw snakes, Talapia Fish Farms, and lots of Big Alligators sitting in the mud. There was a lot of mud because of all the snow. The paths were all made out of dirt, which made a muddy mess. We trudged through the mud and tried to feed the alligators -they weren't very hungry when we visited.

After leaving the alligators we headed to the Sand Dunes. Even in the snow they were pretty awesome. Luckily we brought black garbage bags to slide down the sand. They worked great on the snow dunes. Everyone took a turn sliding down. We didn't expect to be sledding in late April, but that's Colorado for ya.

Here is our family at the Snow Dunes, I mean Sand Dunes!

Here are my parents and Corey and Elly enjoying beautiful Colorado with us!

Here is me and my favorite Sis, well she is my only Sister, but still my Favorite!

EASTER

Spring is here! Well at least it is supposed to be. We woke up Easter morning to SNOW! I told the kids it was really Christmas, not Easter. They didn't believe me though!
We had more snow on Easter than we did on Christmas.

We had a great Easter. Jeff sang in the choir at church and they did a beautiful job depicting the Saviour. Our whole sacrament meeting was devoted to the choir. They sang songs and had stories/quotes from people that lived with Christ (Mary, Peter, James, etc).

We had some friends over for a nice Easter dinner that evening. It was the first time we had the opportunity to buy a big Ham (usually we only by the portions). It turned out great, and it was fun to spend the holiday with others and enjoy a good dinner.

I always want to take pictures of my kids on Sunday morning because they look so sweet and cute! Especially on Easter, they looked darling. We got Dallin a suit, he has never worn a suit before and the first thing he said when he looked in the mirror was "I look like Dad". He was so excited to go show Dad, but unfortunately Jeff had already left for meetings. Isn't he handsome! Jackie loved her dress and thougt she definetly looked like a princess. Of course Brea is just cute in whatever she wears!

BROCCOLI

I (Becca) really like Broccoli, but my dear husband does not particularly care for it. Then we had are darling Jackie and she would not touch the stuff. I had gotten used to not buying or making Broccoli. But, lucky for me we got Dallin who is a Veggie lover. He not only likes Broccoli he loves it. Any time he sees that we are having it he gets so excited and says, "Yea Broccoli my favorite". He knows that Dad and Jackie don't like it so he says "Me and you like this huh Mom, but not Dad and Jackie". I was so glad I could have someone to enjoy my broccoli with! Well, things got even better. We just started to give Brea some and guess what....we have another BROCCOLI LOVER in our family. Last night I was cutting some up to steam and Dallin came in. "Broccoli, can I have some Mom". So of course I gave him a few pieces which he gobbled up. I had cut off all the tops and the big stem was sitting on the counter. Dallin grabbed that and started munching away. He realized it wasn't quite as good as the tops so he gave it to Brea. She was delighted. She munched on that stem until Dinner was ready. She was not too happy when I took it away and threw it in the garbage. Here is our Brea eating a Broccoli stem!

Yummy Marker

Brea got a hold of the kids markers and decided to TASTE it! Luckily her aim was off a bit, so not too much got in her mouth...plus the fact that it probablly tasted awful! Her face and arm got quite a bit though. She had no idea what she had done until I stuck her infront of the mirror. She just looked curiously at her reflection, pointed at herself, and tried to tell me something. Thankfully we only buy WASHABLE markers, so I did not freak out to badly when I discovered her creativity on herself.