The Thatchers: Lots of randomness with a touch of Hawaii

These pictures might be a tad random. Some of them are off of our phones. I'll try to explain what they are.

This is a cool new park that has been built about a mile away from our house. We are very excited to play there more this summer.

My Mom and Dad came to visit a couple weeks ago! It was such a fun visit and the girls loved playing with their Grandparents. Here's my Mom reading to a bunch of kids that gathered around her at Kickboxing.

Rachel just absolutely loves rocks. Girl after my own heart. I tried to get a picture of her trying to lift this one as well but it didn't turn out.

Just funny.

This is from wayyy back at Christmas time when I took Anne to the princess festival at the mall.

She was very excited to meet a princess.

She has two favorite things right now, trains and carousels. Our mall happens to have both :)

The mall playground.

Just love that face.

We went to eat at an awesome hawaiin restaurant in Provo called Sweet Eats, I think. Anyways, we ALL loved the food. Mmm mmm.

I think she is saying, "Say what?"

The girls even got to hear one of the employees perform a song on the ukelele.

I can't believe this picture turned out, with my phone. Beautiful provo sunset.

At my Russell family Christmas party this year they had a Kinex (sp?) set up and all the adults got to play. Here's my uncle Lin and Lee trying it out.

Ok, here are the pictures off our normal camera. Here's Rachel show us her monkey skills.

You never know what story you're gonna get when Grandpa tells the story, he's very creative and tends to ad lib his own ideas :)

It decided to be winter here during my parents' visit. We put on the girls' snow gear for the SECOND time this year and they had a ball building a snowman and going sledding in our front yard.

In absence of a hill we all took turns as reindeer.

These girls really do love each other so much. It warms my heart to see them learning to play and interact together.

And yes, I'm starting to embrace the whole wearing dresses not just on Sunday thing.

We got a touch of Spring here for the past couple weeks and we have all been enjoying the sunshine. We have been playing outside almost every day. And for these pictures I think it's funny to notice that Zac got them dressed, so of course they're both wearing their football shirts. However, he came up with tying Rachel's shirt to the side, very 80's, I love it.

I decided to try and make pork chops one night. They looked so good while they were cooking I wanted to take a picture. However while eating them I remembered why I am not a huge fan of pork chops, yuck. I think Schnitzel is the only way I like to eat pork.

Our friend Alexis made some very yummy homemade super healthy, non-dairy ice cream and shared some with us. We are all huge fans. I am so excited to get a Blendtec so I can try making some of my own!!

Random pics from Zac's phone:

A couple months ago we went up to our friends the Enz's house in Salt Lake and spent an evening with them. It was so good to see and catch up with their sweet family. They even pulled out their cool bouncer and filled it with balls. The kids loooooooved it.

Zac dancing with the girls at a stake dance instruction night I had to help out with.

So these are from Hawaii. Here's a video of Zac's Mom getting off the airplane and seeing us (which was a huge surprise).

Breakfast time with all the Thatcher grandaughters.

On one of the trips to the beach we passed by a cute farm with horses.

One afternoon Zac listened for the girls while they were napping and I got to go read out in the sunshine. I read the second Hunger Games book, soooo good.

We took the girls to see Pearl Harbor. A very somber experience but we were glad we were able to see and pay our respects to those that lost their lives there.

The Memorial.

I think the hardest part emotionally was trying to explain to Anne what had happened. I think she understood in her own way and was very quiet and respectful while we were there.

It is weird to think that Pearl Harbor is to our grandparents what 9/11 is to us. We shouldn't forget what happened at these places, not to be weighed down by the sadness of the event, but so that history will stop repeating itself.

Anne liked playing in the mini sub display they had there. She kept saying it was an airplane...I can see that.

For Zac's Mom's birthday we went out to sushi, mmmmm. I'm so glad I have such a wonderful mother-in-law that is so kind and generous not only to me but to my girls as well. Thank you Debbie!