Easter and Chicago Trip

We had a nice Easter in Omaha. It was Stake Conference so we enjoyed hearing from our Prophet as well as Elder Oaks and other church leaders in our regional broadcast. It was a treat to hear the Prophet two Sundays in a row, as the previous Sunday was General Conference.

For Justin's spring break, since Adam is at the children's hospital this month and isn't allowed to take time off, I decided to take the boys out to Chicago to visit the Malan grandparents. Unfortunately, Justin got a fever and cough a couple days into our trip. So he spent quite a bit of time hanging out in our room watching movies during the week. He is always such a "good" sick kid and never complains, so he was just fine with that! Spencer acquired this same cough too and wasn't quite himself the entire trip either, but we had a pretty relaxing time--which was my goal. The kids were able to go across the street to play at "Grandma's" park and we were able to go to the Kohl's Children's museum. It was a billion times bigger, better, and newer than ours here in Omaha and the kids had a lot of fun. We also were able to have a little bit of Easter fun while we were there and "Nana" Malan (sorry Mom, you really ARE still 'Grandma' to me and the kids, even after your attempted brain washing!) filled eggs with candy and Grandpa helped hide the eggs. Justin had a blast with that and Spencer didn't know quite what to think about the eggs. Fun times! We survived the quick flights into O'Hare and back without too many tantrums so that helped too. At the very end of our trip, Kara came back from college at BYU Idaho for the summer and so we were able to see her for a few minutes, which was great. Justin had fun with Matthew and they were good little buddies, arguing like brothers from time to time. Spencer learned how to surf down Grandpa's giant staircase on his belly, without incident surprisingly! All in all, a nice visit. Glad we were able to make it out there! Thanks Mom and Dad!

The park:

My future pianist (the piano on which I learned to play):

This box was a source of lots of amusement all week for Matthew and Spencer:

Rocking on the rocking chair of his great, great, Grandma Malan. It rocked his Grandpa Mark when he was a baby:

In the little house at the children's museum with the babies:

Painting a house:

Music room:

Our little drummer boy:

In the water room:

If you can't tell, Spencer got more than a little wet. He didn't want me to take his picture:

The "How many jugs of milk do you weigh" scale:

Car room:

Egg hunt at G&G's: