April and The Great Gwilliam Gathering

In April, we headed to St. George for a birthday celebration for this handsome man.  Grandpa Elwood Gwilliam just turned 90 and we were excited to wish him a happy birthday!

Grandpa Woody & Grandma Gerd

Sam was 1 year old the last time we were in St. George, so things like the Virgin River Gorge and red rocks were new and exciting to him :)

With so many of us, Mom & Dad rented a house for the Gibbs family to stay in.  One of the best features was the fenced in backyard where the boys could play.  Sam and Austin quickly declared a corner of the yard their "secret headquarters".

The boys were super excited to spend time with their cousin Andrew!  Andrew kept the boys busy chasing him up and down the yard.

Family gatherings mean playtime with Uncles and Aunts too.  Can you spy Uncle Chris in this picture?  Hint: he is at the bottom of the dogpile.

The evening before Grandpa's big birthday party, we had a smaller family dinner at Uncle Howard & Aunt Debbie's house.  It was so fun to hang out with all my cousins and aunts and uncles!

Here are Eli and Austin swinging in the Simpson's backyard with Grandpa Earl (or Papa ZOOM! as Eli calls him)

Aunt Debbie became the favorite of the weekend when she brought out a huge basket of toys.

Me, Eli, and Aunt Debbie

The next day, we all gathered at Grandpa's home in St. George for his birthday party!  Mom arranged for a photographer to come and take lots of family photos, which were sorely needed since the last Gwilliam family picture is circa 1989 and features my super awesome 80's bowl haircut.

Grandpa Gwilliam and his kids (L to R): Uncle David, Aunt Ruth, Aunt Debbie, Mom (Elizabeth), and Uncle Steve

Allison and Andrew (missing Jon who had to head back to work the night before)

My little clan

Austin (age 4)

Sam (age 6)

Eli (age 2)

The Gibbs family minus Rachel who was still in Bolivia and Jon who was in Wyoming.

My handsome brother Chris (aww...)

My other handsome brother Paul (double AWWW)

Grandpa Gwilliam and almost all of his grandchildren.  We were only missing Christin and Ben and Rachel.  Aren't we cute?

The entire party!

After pictures, we shared lots of our favorite memories about Grandpa, ate lunch, and sang happy birthday.  The boys "helped" Grandpa blow out the candles on his cake.

Back at the rental house, we enjoyed the cooler evening and played some duck-duck-goose out back.  Even Eli got into it!  (Except he just goes around saying "Duck, duck, duck...")

Earlier that morning, Uncle Howard and his son Jacob had arranged a big family Disc Golf Challenge.  The competition was fierce, but Sam helped Ryan to a 1st runner up victory!

The next day was Easter Sunday.  We again headed over to Aunt Debbie's home for a delicious Easter dinner and egg hunt!

Eli and his adorable helper, Dad

Andrew did a great job looking for eggs too!

Andrew quickly figured out that rides on my cousin Steven's scooter were SWEET!  

Too bad a cool scooter like this has to come with a broken leg :(

Eli braving the bushes in search of candy-filled eggs

Sam was too good at this game.  We had to give him an egg limit!

Austin got some help from my cousin Jacob

Happy Easter from Sam, Eli, Austin, and Uncle Chris the ultimate photo-bomber.  I was so busy getting everyone to look at me I didn't even notice!

Sam's favorite find of the afternoon, a Minecraft keychain.  Sam is really into the Minecraft video game right now.  He will do anything, namely chores, to get some Minecraft time.  Ryan and I are always amazed at the things he builds with it like huge houses and castles and furniture.

We were sad to leave, but after a long weekend we had to get back to work and school and real life.  

Other than our little trip, not much happened in April.  We mostly just try and survive the day.  Lately, I've begun a mantra of "Someday I'm going to miss this..." whenever I start to get overwhelmed by the general craziness of little boys.  File this photo away under that category.  Someday I will miss having little muddy hand prints on our windows.

I will definitely miss this someday.  Spontaneous cuddling/wrestling on the couch.  Every night after scriptures we have a "group hug" that quickly escalates to a full out wrestling match.  They poke and punch (its a boy thing. I don't get it.) and kick and tackle and tease each other every second of every day.  But the moment I separate them?  They are BEGGING to be back together again.