Springtime Fun

Even though it's only the middle of April, Easter seems so long ago. Oh wait, that's because it was so long ago! I'm sure whoever came up with the calendaring system of determining Easter didn't live in central Ohio. Our community egg hunt was scheduled for the same day as the Dublin St. Patrick's Day Parade. First of all, that's not fair to squeeze 2 holidays into the same month, let alone the same weekend! And then what about decorations? Do you hang up your green WELCOME clover on the front door or your Every Bunny's Welcome sign? Anyway, the Egg Hunt was canceled of course because of the cold, wet weather (Hello, it's March!), but we didn't know that until Barr had gotten all the kids ready and over there. To help ease their disappointment, after a trip to Wendy's they came home and did an indoor egg hunt. Brittany probably enjoyed that more anyway...organizing all the candy and coins into the right eggs and coming up with all the rules. They actually had so much fun, we had several more indoor egg hunts over the next few weeks. I'm sure we'll still be finding eggs into midsummer.

That weekend I had 2 good friends from Indiana drive over for a visit. It was fun having a girl's night out and then a whole Saturday to do some shopping. They had a little better driving weather than Brittany and I had the weekend before. The business I joined was having a training in Indianapolis. It was the perfect excuse for me to see some old friends. I didn't realize that when the weather men said a winter blizzard was coming, they really meant a blizzard. Brittany and I woke up really early Saturday morning knowing it might be a little slow at first. We could barely get out of our subdivision, but I was sure the main roads would be better. Then we could barely make it to the freeway, but I was sure those would be clearer. Once we were that far, I couldn't even see any of the exits to get off, or I would have. It was a complete white out. The only way I knew where the road was was to stay behind a semi. We went about 20 miles an hour for at least the first hour or two. We couldn't even pull over at the rest stops and knock the frozen ice off the windshield wipers because they were all blocked by semi trucks. We just prayed the whole way that we wouldn't die (and that Brittany wouldn't have to use the bathroom!). Once we crossed the border into Indiana, the snow stopped and we could see the road. It took us way too long to get there as usual, but we were grateful we made it safely. Brittany had a great time playing with her best friends and I had fun after my training catching up with my best friends!

Everything in Columbus had closed down for the weekend because of the Blizzard of '08, so the boys (and Brooke) spent a lot of time honing their skills on guitar hero. Barr finally gave into their pleas to make a video of them and post it on Youtube. You can check it out at the following site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F30o-GZ5X1E

And while you're at it, you can also watch a video of Barr and his work band at the following site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-vbQNFY7J0

Barr has always regretted selling his drum set after high school, but last weekend his dream came true when he finally bought a new one. Brittany likes telling her friends that her dad is in a rock band!

Easter weekend was a fun trip down to Cincinnati to see lots of cousins. Brooke added several more name signs to her vocabulary. The township there always puts on a really big egg hunt, so we were hopeful that wouldn't be canceled too, but because of cold, wet weather again, they moved it indoors. Instead of an egg hunt it was an egg hand out! Pretty lame! Becky's mom, Marilyn, stated it was the Pike Township Socialist Egg Hunt.

That was the beginning of our Spring Break. Barr and I took advantage of his parents willingness to fly out and watch our kids for the week so we took off to Cancun where it was beautiful and 80 degrees every day! It was the most relaxing week of our lives. When we were there 8 years ago, we did a lot of the excursions, wanting to explore the islands, go snorkeling, tour the ancient ruins. This time we just wanted to lay on the beach, read, and drink Pina Coladas! And so that's what we did! We did venture down to the flea market one day where we learned how deceiving some Mexicans selling their wares can be. After bartering back and forth on several souvenir items, we went back to the hotel to find that the prices at the gift shop were even less than what they had promised was the best price in all of Mexico!

We stayed at the Omni Resort, which was all inclusive, so enjoyed a little too much food and drinks. But Barr was really good to still keep up on his triathlon training. He would be the first one in the pool in the mornings and then we would often go running on the beach. It looked a lot different than the last time we had been there because of the devastating storms several years back. The beach is much shorter and all the resorts have built up big walls. We were trying to find the place we stayed last time, and we ran by it 5 times before finally finding it! Everything is either brand new or still in construction.

The kids had a wonderful time with Grandma and Grandpa who did such a fantastic job. I was a little concerned with how Brooke would react to us not being home for so long, but whenever she seemed to be missing us, she would just ask for "Pa Pa" and sitting on Grandpa Hill's lap made everything better! Here, two weeks later, she still asks about him every day.

Now that Spring Break is over, it's starting to look and feel like spring. We're ready for it!

Love,Barr, Becky and kids