Roughin' it.

This last weekend we made a trip to Moab to go "jeeping". This has been one of Ben's favorite pastimes since we got our Jeep. This time the wives and kids came along for the ride. I think in the future most of the wives agreed that we will just let the boys have their fun and stay at home. It was fun to see what it was all about, but it sure did make for a long day in the car with kids going over lots and lots of bumpy spots. It was good to be with family...it was almost like a mini family reunion 'Clark style' of course, which almost always includes some sort of motorized vehicle. I think we had a total of 8 Jeeps packed full. Here are some pics:

Welcome to the family...

Yesterday, I spent the day babysitting my sister, Stephanie's, kids while she had her 4th child. We spent the day playing Guitar Hero, watching movies, making a "Welcome Home" sign, and going to the park.

Then she was finally born at 6pm that night. Here they are saying "shhh..." to stop Elizabeth from crying. They loved it.
Elizabeth Avery Grant, welcome to the family!

Easter.

Maddie & Cam really enjoyed finding the eggs that the Easter Bunny had hidden outside.

It was so fun to have both kids be old enough to participate in the festivities of Easter. I was explaining the real reason of Easter to Maddie over breakfast. When I got to the part about Jesus being resurrected, she said, " I don't like that". I guess we have a ways to go before she understands everything.
Here's our family picture, taken after church. I love getting ready for Easter Sunday and dressing the part. Growing up, my mom always made us girls new dresses to wear. I am not as talented, but I do know how to shop! I am so grateful for my family and the testimony I have of our Savior and all that he sacrificed for me. What a great day!

Easter Morning

Posing with all of her beautifully colored eggs.

Here is Maddie in all her Easter glory.

Cam wouldn't look at the camera at all...he was too busy unwrapping candy.

Egg Hunt: Unsuccessful

I decided to try something new this year and take the kids to the Orem City Easter Egg hunt. I thought they could brush up their egg finding skills before our family egg hunt on Sunday. Boy was I wrong! It was held at 9am on Saturday morning...which is pushing it for me to get out the door, ready and all. We were running late, naturally, and arrived about 5 minutes late to find swarms of children and adults. I had no idea it was such a big ordeal. We walked in anyways...only to find that all of the candy had been claimed. (This will explain the bewildered look on my kids faces.) Poor little kids :( One little girl saw that they had no candy and gave them each a big handful of hers. What a nice little girl. I only hope my kids grow up to be so kind and generous to others.

Yea for Husbands & Bikes!!

As you can see, I have the best husband in the world. I previously posted that I wanted this bike and Ben decided to surprise me with it. Even though he was still recovering from his sickness, he still came outside with us to take it for a test ride. I love it!

We found this bike trailer for the kids to ride in.

Maddie also scored with a new bike from Ben's brother while we were in Arizona.

(his little girl had grown out of it, so he passed it on to Maddie)

Bring on the warm weather...we're ready!!

Our Little Getaway

We decided we needed a break from our everyday lives and some warm weather was a must, so we packed up the car and headed to Mesa, AZ, where Ben's brother, Matt, his wife Barbara, and kids live. It was the perfect trip (besides some unusually whiny children). Their house was beautiful (we felt like we were staying at a 5 star resort!), and they cooked us some wonderful meals, the weather was great, and hanging out with their family was awesome.

{These pics are all out of order b/c I didn't feel like taking the time to reorder them, after they'd been downloaded, sorry!}

A view of the pool in their backyard.

A small glimpse of their house...and Maddie.

They loved the swing set, which was in a fenced in area...so I could just let them go out without too much supervision, a treat for a mother.

Matt and his kids, plus Annie (Ben's sis), myself and my kids.

Touring some airplanes from WWII, I believe.

A quick picture before church.

Daddy & Camden

Unfortunately Ben took sick on the last day we were there :(

Ann came along for the ride and made for an excellent shopping partner and babysitter, as always.

Here we all are in the car, well minus Ben...ready for our 10 hour drive, yikes!

Here he is.

The first day we went flying with Matt, who flies airplanes as a hobby-I had no idea. He rented a plane for a few hours and took us out.

What a treat---however, come to find out I get motion sick on small airplanes. I filled my "sick sack" pretty well after a nice lunch at The Cheesecake Factory :(

Maddie enjoyed a nice nap along the way after snapping some shots of Mesa.

Matt was even nice/crazy enough to left Ben fly for awhile...maybe that's why I got sick??

(These plane pics were all taken previous to my motion sickness)

It really was a treat to be able to go see them before we head east in a few months. Thanks Matt & Barb for everything!

Our Engagement Story

Well, Nicole tagged me, so I am suppose to tell my engagement story. I thought it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane, so here it goes:

Ben and I met at BYU-Idaho in the bookstore as many of you may know. We dated for a few months, and Christmas time was approaching. We knew things were getting serious. So, we decided Ben would come home with me for Christmas, so he could meet my family. I kinda thought something fishy was going on when on Christmas Eve when I caught my Dad winking at Ben and then later he asked if I'd like to drive to the DC temple with him alone that night. When we got there, he said he needed something in the back seat, which made a loud noise. I tried to pretend I didn't hear it, and play along...making him think I had no clue what was going on. We first went into the visitors center and looked around at all of the Christmas trees they had decorated. Then we walked around the temple once, and nothing happened...so figured wasn't going to ask me. Then he asked if I wanted to walk around it again, (building up his courage I suppose) which we did. After that we stopped in front of the temple, where a water fountain was. We talked for a minute and he said he had a present for me--a build-a-bear he had built earlier in the day, with the help of my mom and sister. It was dressed just like him and said 'I love you" when you pressed the paw (the sound I heard when getting out of the car). After inspecting the bear closer, I could tell something was inside. I opened it up and inside was the ring! He got down on one knee and proposed. Right as he was doing so, it started to snow...it was perfect! We were both ecstatic. Here are some pics from the memorable day...

Here we are telling my family the story when we got home (grinning ear to ear you might notice).

The ring. I picked out the band a few weeks before with my sister and he picked out the diamond. I loved it.

It was Christmas the next day, and extra special being newly engaged.

One of our engagement pictures.

I love you, Ben. You're the greatest!

Pretty Boy.

My little Cam has gotten into an obsession with MY shoes, not Ben's or anyone elses...mainly my high heels actually. Here he is being a little shy about showing his girly shoes.

Maddie tried to take them away from him, as we were trying to get out the door for church and he screamed bloody murder. I don't blame him, I love shoes too.

I stink!

My friend Kellie posted this on her blog, so I thought I'd go ahead and give it a try. I am so embarrased at how bad my score is, that I just went ahead and posted it for all to see anyway. I should say I am totally out of practice, but the truth is I've come along way from pecking at the keyboard, which is what I did until I finally took typing my senior year of high school & sorta cheated by always looking at the keyboard...don't worry I don't exactly do that anymore, but I still stink none the less. Go ahead--beat me, I dare you!


52 words

Speedtest

spring fever.

As previously mentioned, I am suffering from a pretty severe case of Spring Fever. I find myself at the mall more than usual just looking at all the new cute springy clothes the stores are tempting me (I mean "us") with. This is probably where my spring fever derived from. To top it off, this last weekend we enjoyed some nice weather and it really got me excited for the warmer weather ahead. Which would mean we could spend more time doing fun stuff like going to the park, taking walks, grilling, flying kites, the usual stuff. However, somehow I've got myself convinced that we need to be more "active" as a family. By active, I mean becoming more outdoorsy and taking up a hobby like riding bikes as a family around our neighborhood and up the canyon, which is SO close. I'm not saying we should go camping or anything crazy like that, but biking sounds fun right? Ben loves this new idea of mine, except that I don't own a bike. So we decided to go looking at bikes, and I found the cutest bike at a shop a guy in our ward owns. It's a little more pricey that we'd like to spend, but it's just so darn cute. I mean, who knew bikes could be so cute? This alone makes me want one. Hopefully I'd actually ride it, if we did end up getting one...but, we'll see. Doesn't it sound like a good idea though?