Easter Sunday

We had a great Easter this year. Since Peyton is old enough now to finally "get" a lot of things, we spent the month doing our Family Home Evening lessons on what Easter is really about. They're quite rudimentary, but she retains the information pretty well, and in my heart I believe she is actually even learning a little. Easter morning we were lucky enough to be joined by my mom and Chaz (their flights left around noon).

I need to preface this story with a little background information. Every day, when Jade gets home from work, Peyton hears the garage opens and says "I'm going to hide" or "I need to hide!" Then she jumps behind our couch in the living room, and giggles until he walks into the house. Then she usually yells something along the lines of "I'm hiding" or "You can't see me" or she just squeals and laughs. It happens every day, and it's always the same place. That is where the Easter Bunny hid her basket this year.

When Peyton woke up around 7 we had a little chat with her about the Easter Bunny, that maybe he (is it a she?) came in the night and filled up her Easter basket. We told her to run downstairs and look for her basket. She was so excited. She ran into the kitchen and stopped dead when she spotted the lilies (aw) Jade surprised me with. She was a little confused, I could see it in her eyes. I think she was trying to process if that was what the Easter bunny left for her. We reminded her that the bunny had hidden her basket. We asked her where it could be hiding. She ran right to her usual hiding spot and spotted her basket. She was thrilled. She brought it out to where she could sit down and look through it. I was really excited about her basket this year, it had some great stuff; 2 nice (not dress-up) bracelets, a duckie towel, 5 Fancy Nancy books, Pinkalicious (a book), sidewalk chalk, bunny shoes (that are the same kind as her doggie shoes that she loved but outgrew a couple months ago), a beach ball (since hers popped and she was so disappointed about it), a Fancy Nancy notebook, magnets, and pen, bubbles, and some other good stuff. Notice that nothing in the basket was edible- by design. She already had tons of candy and snacks; I thought she would be more excited about the presents. I was wrong. About halfway into her basket, she asked in the most innocent (not snotty) voice, "Where's the treats?" I was flabbergasted. How did she even know that treats were missing? Luckily Noni saved the day. She told Peyton about how she really wanted to give her a fun Easter present, too, so she brought her a little gift. She pointed her to Tink's toy box, where her present was. Peyton loved this one. All sorts of treats (thankfully for my sake, there was nothing too crazy). I guess next year I know what she'll be looking forward to.

After she looked through her gifts, we had a nice breakfast of eggs and bacon and cinnamon rolls. Peyton looked up at my flowers and asked, "Who gave those to me?" I think she thought everything on Easter was for her. As I was putting something in the microwave, I got a huge surprise. An Easter basket for me! My sweet mommy had brought Jade, Chaz and me each an Easter surprise! She is so thoughtful. After breakfast it was the sad time- time to take our visitors to the airport. It was sad, but we'll hopefully be seeing them again really soon. After the airport, it was time for nap, then church, then family dinner. Grandma and Grandpa Thelin set up an Easter egg hunt for the kids- Peyton, the triplets and Taryn had their own hunt, and the older kids had a separate hunt. It was fun to watch them all go for the candy- Peyton was by far the most competitive "hunter" of her age group, and scored quite a bit of candy.

When we finally got home from all the festivities, we cleaned up our mess of a house, and as I was about to climb into bed, Jade pointed out that he had made me a little Easter egg hunt of my own, and I hadn't even noticed. He was actually right, I was so interested in getting cleaned up that I had missed the eggs! My sweet and thoughtful husband knows what a big deal holidays are to me, and made an extra special effort to make this Easter wonderful for me. He succeeded. I was like a little kid, running around our room looking for my eggs. When I found them all, I opened them and saw that each had a piece of paper with something Jade loves about me. He told me that instead of "10 Things I Hate About You" (that's a movie, in case you don't know) he made "10 Things I Love About You." SO sweet. I am one lucky girl.
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Waiting to go downstairs.

On the run

Cutest sunglasses from Noni

Peyton was so excited to wear her "fancy dress" to church. After breakfast she disappeared, and came back downstairs wearing the dress, backwards, with some too-big patent leather shoes. It was so cute. She really had her heart set on me wearing my "fancy pink dress" to church, so that's what I wore. She's all girl.

I love this crooked smile

She was very sad that her shoes weren't fancy. They actually were really cute, but she wanted patent leather ones. I guess now I'm on the lookout for some white patent leather shoes.

I wanted to get a cute side shot of the dress, and instead I got a nose-pick.

I love this little girl more than anything in the world.

After every egg she picked up, she opened it and examined the contents. Luckily her fellow "hunters" weren't competitive either, or she would have ended up with just one egg.

Easter Egg Hunt/ Fair

I thought it would be really fun for my mom to watch Peyton do an Easter egg hunt (grandmas love that kind of stuff), so we took Peyton to the Washington County Fairgrounds to do the Easter fair. They had a candy hunt for the 2 and under kids, and surprisingly Peyton was very successful. My mom was coaching her before the hunt, "run to the middle to get the candy, because all the kids will stop on the sides." Peyton ran right out to the middle and got a bunch of candy. She was so proud of her loot- she held onto the bucket for dear life. It turned out to be a gorgeous day in Portland- capping out around the high-60's and sunny. Everyone wanted to get out and soak up sunshine, so it did get pretty busy toward the end. At the fair they had crafts for the kids, jump houses/inflatable slides and obstacle courses, a petting zoo, and Peyton's favorite activity- pony rides! Peyton picked her pony first, and when she sat down, the girl told her that the pony's name was Tink! Peyton was thrilled. She had a great time running around and choosing what she wanted to do. She got to go inside a fire truck, and thought that was pretty neat, but she didn't want to go near the police car, because the sirens kept going off and they were too loud. After the fair Peyton needed a nap, so she and I went home, and Jade took my mom and brother to the famous Nike Employee Store. After their shopping spree, Chaz and Jade went to the golf course and played around, and my mom and I took Peyton to her friend Brooklyn's 3rd birthday party at Gymboree. She had a blast, and it was so cute watching her. She danced almost the entire time. She has some serious moves. At one point I was dancing along and Peyton came up to me and said, "No dancing mommy." I guess maybe I was embarrassing her. To cap off our fun day, we met the boys for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. All in all it was a very beautiful and fun day.

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Before the hunt. She was pumped up.

Can you spot her in the crowd?

Showing off her candies.

Frosting a cookie with Noni

Some of you might remember our experience with the Easter bunny last year...
Needless to say, I was a little worried about the whole bunny thing this year. A few weeks ago we were at the mall and she saw the Easter bunny. We walked by him and waved, and she really wanted to go say hi to him. So we went in. She was a little nervous at first, but eventually warmed up to him and gave him a hug. When she saw that he was at the fair, she was adamant about going to see him. We waited in line, and when it was her turn, she was totally cool with him. We were pleasantly surprised.

Jade was shaking the tube when Peyton was in it, so she kept losing her balance and falling and couldn't get out. She thought it was the best game ever. She was laughing and kept wanting to do it again and again.

Wildlife Safari

If you know me well, you know I love animals. I would say I'm borderline annoying about it- just ask any of my hunting-inclined in-laws. I heard about this place when we first moved to Oregon, and have always wanted to go, but it's 3 and a half hours away, so I've never been able to justify a trip out. Since my mom and brother were here, I suggested we take a little road trip to Winston, OR to go to the Wildlife Safari. I'm so glad we did. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. We left the house at 5:30, to be there when they opened at 9. As soon as we got there, we went and bought tickets for our special "animal encounters" we wanted to do later. The guy at the front told us that the animals are fed around 8-8:30, so the best time to see them was right around 9. So we drove through the 600 acre park of free-roaming animals. It was really neat. Our drive took us about an hour, and by the time we were finished, Jade had made it to the park (he was in southern OR working, so he just met up with us there). We walked around the safari village, where they have all sorts of cool animals plus a petting zoo, train, jungle gym and camel rides. Peyton immediately wanted to ride on a camel, so Noni took her on a ride (Jade had no desire to go, and Chaz and I had both already done it, so we let Noni have the honors). Peyton was so into the camel. She asked his name and his friend's name (there were 2 camels there). She wanted to know about what he ate and where he lived. She has been talking about Calvin ever since, and when asked what her favorite part of the Safari (or "fari") was, she will respond- riding the camel! We walked around the zoo part of the village until our first encounter started, the Elephant Barn. It was incredible. The trainers had an elephant in the main pen waiting for us (usually they're free-roaming during the day). When we came in, George did all sorts of tricks for us; waving, hopping, playing the tambourine, blowing his nose on a hankie, playing harmonica, and a few other little tricks. Then we were each allowed to walk up and feed him a carrot, and then we were allowed to pet his trunk. It was all so neat. After we drove back from the elephant barn, we went right on to our next encounter, giraffe feeding. This was an awesome experience. Giraffes are probably my favorite animal, and something you really would never have the opportunity to come in contact with (even at most zoos and things). I was so excited for this one. We got on a high bed truck with about 4 other people and a guide, and drove to where the giraffes are in the park. Right when they saw us coming, they walked up to the truck. The guide said they learned really fast that those trucks mean extra food. The main giraffe that was at our truck the whole time was JT (which Jade JT Thelin thought was pretty great). He was the oldest, and had been in several battles for the top-spot, so he had a lot of scar tissue on his pretty head. We were all able to feed him lettuce to our hearts' content. It was really amazing. After that, we decided to call it a day and head back to Portland, though I would have been happy staying until closing.

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These pictures are from our initial drive through. It's really incredible- the animals just walk right up to your car. You can keep your windows and sun roof down, and get as close as you can. A few times we had to just sit and wait because some kind of animal was in the middle of the trail and wouldn't move.This guy was only a couple feet from my door.He was enormous. I would have been scared except I think they are so used to cars that they don't really pay any attention to people.

These guys are behind an electric fence. I had to zoom out all the way on my camera to get both of them, they were so close. I could have touched the wire, and they were just inches from it. One just slept the whole time, and the other was digging himself a nice hole to cool off from the sunshine. His claws were so big and so sharp. He tore through the earth like it was softened butter.

Two other bears were playing up top, but I didn't get a great shot.

I wish I remembered what she was looking at. I love her expression here.These pictures are from the "Village" part of the Safari.

The Wildlife Safari is one of the top cheetah breeding facilities in the world, and they also are working on a program where they shepherd puppies with flocks of livestock, so the dog bonds with the livestock and will bark to scare away predators. This will help minimize the killing of cheetahs by the farmers who don't want them preying on their herds. The Wildlife Safari brought up this cheetah and shepherd dog together since infancy, and they are best friends. It is so cute to watch them. They just hang out together all day. We were about 1 foot away from that chain link fence, and we could hear the cheetah purring as it was laying there and walking around. In the petting zoo they had goats, and there were 3 brand new babies- only a week old! They were darling.

This is Peyton and I by the camel. Not the best picture. It was probably Chaz who took it.

The emus poke their heads in people's cars. Peyton saw one go #2 and talked about it literally all day.

Little George

They have super coarse little whiskers all over their trunks. Since we've been home from the safari, Peyton keeps talking about how Tink's whiskers are like the elephant's whiskers.

JT

They have super long tongues that are black and a little sticky. Peyton kept saying, "I don't like his slobber."

This was my self picture of me feeding JT.

Seconds before this picture was taken, JT started licking Peyton's flower. It was so funny. Peyton's reaction was priceless. I wish more than anything we would have gotten video of it.

The two other giraffes were loving on each other. I had to snap a picture.