Vacation Day 5: Easter Sunday

Day 5 of our vacation was Easter Sunday.  The kids were SO excited to wake up & see what the Easter Bunny brought them.  The Easter Bunny knew we were in CA & brought just a couple things that the kids could eat while we were there & then added a few little trinkets to play with on the plane ride.  It was perfect.

Cadence's Basket

Lorien's Basket

Taya's Basket

Bladen's Basket

Craiger's Basket

Canyon's Basket

We also celebrated with a Potter Birthday Breakfast on Easter morning.  Bladen, Canyon, & Ella all have birthdays coming up so we had a big breakfast for everyone with cupcakes & candles.  They loved it.

After breakfast, the kids got to enjoy their Easter baskets a little more.  The boys got adorable chocolate Star Wars bunnies.  They were SUPER CUTE.

The girls loved all their little goodies & surprises.

After breakfast & basket time, we made our way upstairs to get the family ready to go to church.  We had a little bit of time before church started so we opened up our Easter baskets from Nancy.  Nancy is funny.  She has adopted our family as her own & always sends surprises for every holiday.  She's never done full on Easter baskets before.  It was a lot of fun.  It was like Easter morning twice for us. There were lots of fun things inside like stuffed animals, peeps, chocolate bunnies, & little toys.

Trek got a beautiful teal colored church shirts & tie.  I love the shirts she gets him.  They are always so beautiful.

I got a basket FULL FULL FULL of surprises.  There were chocolates, bath stuff, pedicure things, nail polish, candy, coral sandals, a teal & coral scarf, & much more.  I even got a TON of jewelry for Easter this year.  Nancy is a gemologist & she fully supplies my gem/jewelry collection & has for years.  I love it.  For Easter I got a pair of HUGE orchid amethyst earrings (at least 1.5 carats each), a chrome diopside & white quartz flower ring, a chrome diopside & fire opal pendant, 3 sets of pearl earrings, & 3 pearl bracelets.  Yes, I'm spoiled rotten.

Church was wonderful like usual.  When we got home from church, the rest of the family was at the house ready for some Easter dinner & Easter egg hunting fun.

Easter dinner was fabulous as always.  Opa & Oma always make the best food in the world.  I made the deviled eggs this year & they turned out pretty good too.  Everything tasted wonderful & we enjoyed the family time together.

After dinner it was time for the big Potter Family Egg Hunt!!!!

Vacation Day 4: Park Fun

Tylee, Pete, & Tuhk flew in late on Friday night so on Saturday morning, we felt like a whole family. It was great seeing everybody.  For Saturday we all decided to have a big picnic at a park followed by a good family hike.

The weather was gorgeous.  It was 87 degrees & the sun was shining.  Everything around us was green & beautiful.

There were trees for climbing so my kiddos (including my big kid - the husband) were in every tree they could possibly climb.

We danced to music, had snacks & drinks, played football & baseball, played on the playgrounds, & just had a blast together.

We ended with a big family hike.  It was a whole lot harder than we thought it was going to be & adding the kids to the picture made it even more of a struggle, but we made it quite far up the mountain & had a lot of fun doing it.

After our hike we went out to dinner & then headed home for some games, desserts, & more fun.  Trek & I even got to sneak away for a late night movie alone.  We went & saw Captain America & loved it.  It's been SO long since we've had a REAL date together.  It was fabulous.

Vacation Day 3: Mall Fun

Day 3 of our vacation was a laid back, take it easy type of day.  That morning Oma, Tarrish, Carolyn, & I went shopping at Target & See's Candy for some Easter goodies while Opa & Trek watched all 8 grand babies.  

When we got back we ate lunch & put the kiddos down for a little nap.  When they woke up & took off for the mall.  Valencia Mall is huge now.  It's not at all like it was back when I was living there & dating Trek.  It's a beautiful mall & there's SO many fabulous stores there now.  We had a blast walking around enjoying it all.  Tarrish even got to have Trek take her to the Apple store (his "happiest place on earth") to help her pick out an iPad.

The kids played in the play area & we just relaxed & had fun together.

After playing for an hour or so, we took the kiddos inside for a ride on the carousel.  We LOVE the carousel in the mall.  It's so fun for the kids as well as for the adults.

The girls opted for the spinning teacup.  Ugh.  How do they get on that thing without throwing up?

I got to be with Canyon.  He was hilarious on that cheetah.  He didn't really know what was happening, but he knew it was really fun & his face showed how much he loved it.

Oma took Bladen for a ride.  He's a pro at carousels & loves them.

Canyon was cracking me up.  Every time his animal would go up he'd start laughing hysterically which would crack me up.  We were both laughing the entire ride.  I don't think kids get any cuter than him.  He's too fun.

Opa took Craiger on his horse.  Craiger has a very special place in his heart for his Opa.  They have a blast together.

Afterwards everyone was tired again.  Opa caught a nice nap with Canyon.

And Lorien hung out with little Ella.  They might be 8 years apart, but they sure love each other.  Cousins are the best.