California Easter Egg Hunt

While I was down in California visiting my family we decided to let Alden have an early Easter egg hunt in my grandparent's backyard.  I grew up doing Easter egg hunts in their backyard every year with my siblings and we always loved it and I wanted to see one last generation enjoying their backyard before we sell the house.

Alden had a great time going through the whole backyard with Grandpa (my dad) while he looked for the eggs.  It was funny to watch him look for the eggs because he definitely did not look for eggs in the most efficient manor but it was cute to watch.  He would see an egg all the way down the trail on the other side of the hill and would run over to get that one, while he passed three others on the way.  It was cute to watch him get so excited over the eggs.  Anders even got a couple eggs and he just wanted to eat them and shake them but it was really cute.

We had an amazing time doing this Easter egg hunt and it brought back so many good memories from my childhood!  I am so glad that we took the time to do this and enjoy the amazing backyard that my Grandpa created.  I am going to miss visiting this place and reveling in the memories that I have created here.  However, I know that a lot of the reason I love this yard so much is because I associate it with two of the people I love most in the world, my Grandpa and Nana.  Although they have both passed away and are no longer living on this earth I know that they are with us and that their good influence and example is still significantly affecting all of our family.

Alden heading down the stairs to go find Easter eggs.

He found his first Easter egg.

Alden sharing an Easter egg with his brother.

He wanted to stop and look at the interesting Easter eggs that he found along the way.

Running to grab one that he saw on the swing.

Anders got some time with Grandma while trying to eat the egg that he got.

Alden and Grandpa heading up the trail to go find some more eggs.

Alden running down the trail to find the egg.

Alden saw an egg and had to run to get that egg...missing a couple other ones along the way.

He got the egg that he had seen...

So, now Grandpa could direct him back to the ones that he had missed.

Anders was perfectly happy chilling with Grandma outside!

Alden got so excited every time he found an egg!

Anders had to show me the egg that he found!

Alden loved running around the trails while finding his eggs.

Anders loved playing with his egg!

Alden showing off one of the eggs that he found.

He found a cute green frog shaped egg that he was really excited about.

Grandpa had to help Alden to find one of the last eggs that was hidden in the branches of this tree.

Alden found another egg hidden among the ducks.

I seriously love their backyard!

Alden finally found the last egg...in plain site on the chair.  He had an amazing time.

Just a couple more pictures showing the beauty of their backyard!

Alden then got to go inside and open his eggs!  He was so excited.  We had a great time and I loved getting to see Alden enjoy one of my favorite things from when I was a kid.

Oregon Zoo with Cousins

We were so excited to get to go see Drew's cousin, Jess, and her family in Portland one last time before we move all the way across the country.  While we were there we loaded all of our kids up and went to the Oregon Zoo.  Between our two families we have 5 kids under five and so our whole trip was a little crazy but it was a lot of fun.

We took a train to the zoo so that we didn't have to deal with traffic or parking.  Once we got to the zoo it started raining and got rather chilly and stayed that way until we were starting to leave the zoo but we still managed to have a lot of fun.  Alden loved running around with his second cousins and seeing all the animals.  The kids also really enjoyed taking the train to and from the zoo and it just added another fun aspect to the trip for them!  I am so glad that we got to go to the zoo with them and see somewhere new in Portland while we were there but we also just loved getting to visit with family!

After visiting the zoo we just went back to their house and relaxed with them for the rest of the day.  The kids played really well and I had a great time visiting with Jess and Erik.  After the kids went to bed we had fun playing a game that Jess and Erik taught us.  It was a lot of fun and made for a great end to a great day!

Alden loved riding on the train with his cousins.  He was such a good little traveler and did so good at holding on!

Anders loved staring out the window as the train sped along.  Every time the train stopped he would look around the train but then as soon as the train started again he would go back to staring out the window.

Alden was so excited to start trying to find the animals in the enclosures.  Quite a few of them were tucked away and hidden which didn't surprise me since it was so cold and rainy.

Drew had fun walking around with Alden and his cousin Aaron, who is about his age.

The boys enjoyed seeing the turtle, even if he was just sitting on a log.

Drew had fun looking around at the animals with the two little boys.

We were all pretty excited to find this guy sitting right in the window staring out at us.  It was fun to finally find an animal we could easily see and watch.

The boys were so excited to find these and ride them!  It was so cute to watch them on there!

There was a snake in the back corner of this case that Alden was excited to see but he wouldn't get any closer to the case than this.

All three of the bigger kidos wanted to get back on these horses and it was so cute watching them pretend to ride them and say "yeehaw."

The kids had fun watching the penguins actually swim around and then seeing how tall they all were with the Dads compared to the bears.

They had a brand new elephant exhibit that had just opened that was really neat to see.  It was also really nice to get inside somewhere to warm up and get out of the rain for a few minutes.

Alden had fun watching this monkey swing around a little bit.

This porcupine was out and walking around.  I actually love the quills on porcupines, I think they are beautiful.  Anders had also fallen asleep by this point and was sleeping peacefully in the stroller.

When we told Alden we were going to the zoo he immediately asked if he would get to see a crocodile.  He really wanted to see one and he was so glad when we finally got to see one.  It was sitting right up next to glass so that you could see all of it's teeth which was pretty cool.

One of the last animals that we got to see were the bats who were feeding when we saw them so they were really active.  It was fun seeing them all moving around.

We had a great day at the zoo together!  We will miss being able to see these guys so much!

Alden and I had a fun time on the train ride home!

Our game, Dead of Winter, from that night.  It was really hard but a lot of fun!  I am so grateful for amazing family and I hope that we get to see these guys again not too far in the future!