Westin Kierland Resort in Scottsdale

We spend 5 days and 4 nights at this beautiful resort in Scottsdale thanks to Wendy and Joe! We stayed in a 1 bedroom villa and had access to both the villa resort and main resort amenities.

The girls quickly jumped in the jacuzzi tub and fell in love with the Westin bathrobes!

The desert landscape and fabulous golf course made for perfect morning walks and ventures to the pool.

We loved waking up to the sound of chirping birds and every day on our walk to the pool, we would see all kinds of wildlife.

I think there were more rabbits than people!

We only spotted a few of these gorgeous quail.

Ducks filled all of the golf course ponds and flew all throughout the resort with little fear of humans.

Cacti and colorful flowers decorated every walking path and surrounding areas.

The main hotel pool was the highlight of the resort. The girls loved the lazy river and waterslide and Matt and I loved the poolside service and padded lounge chairs!

Taylor makes a splash.

Here comes Allison!

Life is good!

Whole Lot of Shaking Going On!

A 7.2 earthquake came rolling through at 3:42 today making for a memorable Easter. Matt was cleaning the pool, I was making dinner, Allison was sitting on the couch and Taylor was packing in her room. I initially thought I lost my balance, but after seeing the chandelier swaying and the pool water sloshing in the pool, I yelled at the girls to run into a door frame. Allison and I ran to the laundry room door as she screamed hysterically. I couldn't comfort her at all. Matt came running to the slider making sure we were OK. We all recapped what we had experienced and turned on the TV to see the incoming reports. We were all fine, just a little "shaken up"!

Easter

The girls came running down the stairs to view the goodies in the baskets. After they picked through the candy, flip flops, clothes, chap stick and gum, they used their baskets to collect all of the plastic eggs scattered around the house. Taylor had the unfair advantage of height this year, but I think they collected about the same amount and were even kind-hearted enough to pool all of the candy into one ziploc bag to share. Really?

I quickly made yummy banana pancakes for breakfast which we all devoured before getting ready for church. The girls came into "big church" with us for beautiful worship and a powerful Easter message.

Now it is time to pack and get ready for our Spring Break trip to Arizona tomorrow.

The Green Machines

The Green Machines played their 1st game of the Spring season today. Matt is coaching, along with our friend Matt. Allison is happy to have Marley and Reanna on her team for a little "girl power". Reanna was out of town today, so we are looking forward to next week. Marley and Allison before the game

Game time huddle

Lining up for the ref to check cleats and fingernails

Allison played the 1st quarter in goal and nothing got by her. She really loves that position. Unfortunately, the opposing team was short players, so she played defense for the other team in the 2nd quarter. She played a little too well and we were unable to score against her. She was back on our defense for the 3rd quarter and looked really tough and tried hard to get a goal in the 4th as a forward, but couldn't get one in the net. We lost 2-1, but they looked pretty good for game #1. It is a short 8 game season and we are looking forward to some good soccer.

Craft Day

Thank you to Chessa and Kim for a very fun Spring Break craft day. Kim opened up her classroom and Chessa hauled in all of the sewing supplies and creativity for a busy morning of shirt designing and earring making.

Taylor, Shelby, Maddyn, Lorien, Delaney, Allison, Maddie and Madison

The girls each started with 2 shirts (one in their size and one to cut up) in their color of choice.
Taylor prepping one of the shirts.

Then Kristi, Chessa and I cut the shirt into strips for ruffles.

Chessa did a beautiful job sewing on the ruffles to make these adorable shirts!

While the girls waited for their shirts to be finished, they cut the backs off of buttons and created these adorable earrings. Thank goodness for crafty friends!

Brooklyn Paige

We were lucky enough to meet another sweet baby this week. Sarah and Renato welcomed Brooklyn on March 1st and she is adorable. The girls and I met Sarah, Molly and Brooklyn for lunch at California Pizza Kitchen.

She slept through lunch so we had a chance to visit and continued to sleep for much of our time together.

After lunch, we went back to Sarah's so the girls could play, but Taylor couldn't stay away from the baby. She loved feeding her and can't wait to start babysitting.

The girls decorated some sugar cookies as a rainy day treat and had so much fun together. Sarah said that Molly calls Taylor and Allison her "best friends". So sweet!

Santana Row

We spent a beautiful day at Santana Row on Sunday. We had never been there, so we loved walking around the Farmer's Market, window shopping and eating lunch at The Counter. It is a cool build-your-own-burger spot with great fries and delicious burgers.

The girls had fun kicking the soccer ball on the open lawn.

Grandma bought Allison this cute headband from one of the street vendors.

Zach and the girls.

Allison finally got her hands on Merritt.

Taylor too!

Meeting Miss Merritt

The girls and I flew up to the Bay Area for the first part of their Spring Break to meet our newest family member, Merritt. She is now 7 weeks old and cute as a button. We spent most of Saturday just passing Merritt around and visiting with my parents and Chris, Aimee, Zach. The kids kicked the soccer ball around the greenbelt, climbed trees and ran errands with Papa. We BBQ'd and ate a delicious dinner in the backyard.

SDSU vs. LBSU

We were treated to some college soccer right in our own backyard tonight. San Diego State faced off against Long Beach State in a "friendly" game at Birdsall field. Our Hawks club encouraged players to come in Hawks attire to support the teams and see some higher level play and there was quite a nice turn out. We arrived a little early to watch them warm up.

Allison with Reanna and Marley

Lauren, Maylie and Taylor-officially all Hawks girls now!

SDSU warming up

Long Beach in a last minute huddle.

Even though they called it a friendly, these girls were aggressive and played at full speed. There were several penalties called on both teams. It was great for our girls to see this level of play. They saw some amazing passing and footwork, saw unbelievable throw ins and headers (one player did a somersault before throwing the ball in!) and heard the players talking to their teammates the whole game.

The game ended in a 1-1 tie and then both teams got together for a group photo with all of the Hawks players too.

Hawks with SDSU.

I think Taylor left the game inspired and eager to work hard. These players had a lot of talent and I think she could tell it took a lot of work to get to this level. I don't think she will be complaining at practice tomorrow night!