Topaz Mountain

We stayed close to home for the majority of our spring break. We knew we wanted to do something out of our ordinary daily routine, so we decided to make a day trip to Topaz Mountain. Basically it is in the middle of nowhere and is this mountain you can prospect for topaz. We've wanted to go for awhile, and lucky for us, our friends the Knights and the Meads were able to join us. It was such a fun day! Sean got us all prepped by buying special rock hammers and chisels.

Jackson and Garner ("G") 

Davis and Cameron

We paid to actually prospect on a working mining site. The woman who runs the site with her husband was there to show us what to look for and helped get us started.

We had a great set up. We all brought lunches and lawn chairs and made an afternoon of it. We lucked out with perfect weather and surprisingly, all of the kids were happy the whole time!

Luckily, we all found topaz! It was like a treasure hunt. Bode seemed to really have the knack for finding it and had the best luck of our entire family. He found the biggest pieces and really got into it.

Bode's pile of rocks he kept bringing us and wanted us to go through :)

All of the kids had a good time. I kept thinking it was such a great place for the kids because they could roam freely and had an entire mountain of rocks to throw and smash with hammers.

Davis and Graham

I think prospecting must run in my Whittington blood because I have ancestors on that side who had a successful gold mine and I remember my grandpa being a rock hound. I have cousins who also love it and now my entire family loves it also.

Group shot taken from Darren's drone before heading home!

Easter 2018

We had an awesome Easter this year. I loved having General Conference the same weekend, and our kids were also on spring break. I always like getting the kids dressed up a little more for Easter Sunday, but since we didn't have church, we got all dressed up the week before. :) I made this little dress for Molly and I really love how it turned out:

The kids all looked so cute dressed up. On a stroke of random luck, I came across some cute gingham shoes for Molly that happened to match her brothers' bowties!

Getting four kids to stand still is never an easy feat!

The Saturday before Easter we went to our favorite city egg hunt. Molly was excited to put about 5 eggs in her basket and then she got frustrated because she just wanted to open them.

Davis actually made a killing and collected the most eggs! I didn't get any pics of the other boys during the egg hunt because we had to divide an conquer since they were all in different sections this year.

Egg dyeing 

 Easter was a great day. We enjoyed staying in pjs and watching conference, and the kids had lots of snacks thanks to a visit from the Easter Bunny.

We had a yummy Easter dinner and finished it off with our traditional strawberry shortcake!

And finally, I am just adding this picture of Molly and Sean the day of the egg hunt because I love it so much!

Bantam basketball

This year we decided to delve into the world of Bantam basketball. It is the competitive league here in Utah. Jackson's team was all 3rd graders playing up a year since Bantam technically starts in 4th grade. Jackson continues to say basketball is his favorite sport, and really wanted to play, so we went with it. I had no idea what to expect, other than people told us to expect a lot of growth this first year, and to get creamed every game. :) 

I was so impressed with these boys! They started off the season a bit scared and nervous, and they did lose many games against the 4th grade teams by a long shot, but their progression over the season was amazing! These boys held their own and won their games against most of the other 3rd grade teams playing up. It was so much fun to see their confidence and abilities grow. 

Sean coached with his friend Garner, which was a lot of fun for Jackson. Garner's son, Garner Jr. or "G" as we call him, and Jackson have become great friends. I'm excited to see where the future takes these boys!