Well, it was Easter Week!  Which, at the Skinner house, means coloring Easter eggs.  Ben was ensconced in his high chair, eating his favorite, green beans.

Which left everyone else to the serious business of egg art.  To get a truly good design, it is all in how you hold your mouth . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Savannah’s case, it is also necessary to make sure you are wearing your ipod – which, is actually necessary no matter what the undertaking.  You don’t see Cheyenne and Calianne in these serious pictures because they were done with all four of their eggs in 3.5 seconds.  These are their favorites:

If their eggs seem a bit pale, it’s because they haven’t quite grasped that the longer you leave the egg in the dye, the darker it becomes!  Oh well, they were a fun 3.5 seconds!

I didn’t get a picture of Mariah hard at work, but she was, and I even got her to smile for a picture!  (If she looks a bit smug, it is because I wanted her to smile with her teeth, and she thought I needed to know, yet again, that I can’t make her do anything!)

I also got Mariah and Cheyenne to stop arguing over which egg belonged to who long enough to get this picture, “OK!  Stop arguing for a second and smile!”

I took pictures of Savannah and Sarah with their favorite eggs, too.  After seeing their pictures they said I should delete all of them because Savannah says, “I look like a boy!”  And Sarah says, “I have a big nose!”  Crazy kids don’t even know how beautiful they are!

At least they smile with their teeth!

Megan was just pleased that I didn’t notice that she didn’t have her glasses on the entire time, so she got pictures taken of her without the dreaded things!

She is a gorgeous little trickster!

And if I could just get Bethany to look at the camera!  “Beth!  Beth!  Look at the camera, sweetie!  Over here!  Over here!”  Ah well, she’s pretty anyway.

Dad made us all grilled tuna sandwiches for lunch while we worked, and he helped with Benjamin, who loves to stand up in his high chair when we think he is safely ensconced. . .

Benjamin can make the “Ma, ma, ma . . .” sound now.  Unfortunately, he only uses it when he’s making a face like this:

Funny how “Ma-Ma” and crying go so well together?

So, we finished coloring the eggs!

Next, for the egg hunt!  Luckily, we found a basket the right size for Ben . . .

We had the egg hunt inside this year because it was COLD outside and muddy.  (I need to give up on Easter in Springville and just head down to be with my family in Las Vegas!)  Anyway, they thought hunting inside would be lame because it would be so easy.  But they didn’t know that Dad and I were such good egg hiders!  The moral of the experience being, of course, never underestimate your mom and dad.

So, anyway, Saturday was a fun day.  On Sunday we got the girls some fun little things as gifts.  We didn’t do dresses this year, but when I stopped to see my sister Margaret last week, she gave me three matching dresses that used to belong to her daughters.  So, the little girls got to be matching afterall!

After a wonderful day at church, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik’s for a delicious ham dinner.  It was a nice ending to a full holiday.  My favorite part of the day, though, was being able to sing with the choir at church.  It was tender for me to sing of my love for the Savior of us all.  He has done so much for me and it is wonderful on Easter to celebrate how perfectly he fills all His promises.  He is Risen!  Alleluia!  Happy Easter!

Savannah’s Amazing Edition of the Skinner Update!

Well as usual everyone in the house is busy doing something or other that I’m sure is very important except for me who at the moment is procrastinating her Honor's English homework. (Don’t worry mom it’s just copying down an earlier assignment -- it’ll take five minutes.) Anyways because my wonderful mother is actually doing her work and doesn’t have time this Sunday to work on the blog she told me I could. So here we go!

This last week, in the lovely *cough* Nebo school district, it was spring break and you know what that means! Right… CAMPING! Except this was no ordinary camping trip -- this was the incredible S double G and P Epic Female camping trip! Okay, for everyone who doesn’t speak Savannah-on-sugar, the translation is that my Mother decided that since dad couldn’t go, she would invite the Groslands, who for the out of state/loop are a wonderful family in our ward. Sister Grosland was all for it and brought two of her children: Cari who is exactly a year and ten days older then I and her youngest Hannah who has the same middle name as me and on a less important factor is in Sarah’s grade and is one of Megan’s best friends. She also invited our resident wonder woman, Sister Porter, or Gwen and she likes to be called. And as a last minute addition, we ended up inviting the Griggs, whom many have probably heard about through me. Seeing as they are my second family and their eldest daughter Miranda is my best friend who came along with her younger sister, Rebekah, another one of Megan’s best friends.

Anyways, originally it was going to be only females (and Ben) but Sister Grigg, being the wonderfully insightful person she is, decided that her only son Noah should not be left to his own devices for three days and Noah, being mortified at the thought of going on an all-female camping trip with only a one-year-old as male support, insisted that he be allowed to bring a friend along. That friend was Caleb Gay. The Gay’s are another wonderful family that live on the back road behind our house. So for all of you counting, that meant that there were 18 going on this camping trip -- fifteen girls and three guys. There was a big reason it was Epic.

Okay so that’s only twelve but you try getting eighteen people in one photo. We took this picture after setting up camp and this group of us went to hike Watchman. The trailhead was right by our camp and it led to a great view so we (the older kids) actually hiked it the first night and the next afternoon!

So as I forgot to mention earlier, the location of this trip was Zion’s National Park. Which according to the really cool buses has a grand total of about ten million visitors a year. (Megan the annoying (yet insightful) voice over my shoulder informs me that they are shuttles not buses.)

Zion’s is known for its amazing hikes, beautiful cliffs, and gorgeous scenery. And apparently fierce winds. The first day there it was so windy that it knocked our three tents down. Or at least the huge gust that we called ‘That huge wind.’ (Show’s our Creativity, right?) So anyways, it was dreadfully cold that night and I personally didn’t get much sleep and then some idiot or very unlucky person depending on who you asked, had their car alarm go off at seven twenty in the morning and when you’re camping that means way too early and it went on for fifteen freaking minutes. To say that most of us were not happy was an understatement.

So besides the bad start to our only full day in the park, we had a lot of fun. We started out with pancakes and got ready to head to our first hike of the day: Emerald Pools. So what I considered the best part of the hike was when the boys had to take turns carrying the sleeping Ben. It was so cute.

The emerald pools are separated into three areas: the upper pool the lower pool, and the middle pool. Everyone hiked to the lower pools, then Miranda, Noah, Caleb, and I went all the way to the top. I didn’t have the Skinner camera. However Miranda brought the Griggs. I will have to do some snooping later. In the mean time here is the lower pool/waterfall thing.

Yes It was quite gorgeous. Afterwards, we headed back to camp,

ate lunch and headed back out to hike Weeping Rock. The boys, being the speed demons they are, took another longer trail and enjoying the free transportation around the park probably hiked several others. Anyways. Pictures.

Nice, Huh? Anyways after that we decided to take the riverside trail or the beginning of the Narrows. The Narrows is a hike that takes you into the river and seeing as it is early spring, that was not an option. But the riverside is a beautiful hike and we saw a lot of wildlife.

But at the end was the real fun. I don’t know who, but someone decided that the end was too boring and started stacking rocks up and everyone joined in. They had probably started weeks before we got there but it was just so inspiring that the moment you saw it you had to go down and add your own. Here I will picture-ify you.

You have to admit that’s pretty cool. So after that we went back, had dinner and the lovely Sister Grosland made a fire.

Sister Grigg and Sister Grosland brought a mountain of s’more supplies so we were very entertained.

When it got dark, the older kids took the shuttle to the end of the canyon again and back – just for fun! Sister Grigg came along. Mom got her little people asleep while we were gone and got to sit around the fire with Gwen and Sister Grosland. The night was cold again but no great gusts so it was better then the night before.

The next morning after a warm fire and another yummy pancake, egg, and bacon breakfast, we all went our separate ways. The Griggs and Gwen went to hike Angels landing, the Groslands home, and the Skinners to go on a couple more hikes and to get souvenirs. The hike we went on wasn’t very long but we got a couple good pictures. Oh, and before I forget, before we broke camp, Sister Grigg found a beetle and dubbed it the Great Zion Beetle. I got pictures.

THE GREAT ZION BEETLE!

Skinner girls at the end of our last hike.

So in the end no one died and we all had a great time and because I feel like it I’m going to end with some more pictures. I hope I didn’t scare you too badly. See you next time I’m allowed to update. Bye!