Great Easter Weekend (you won't believe who we ran into!)

Our Easter fun started on Thursday when we colored eggs.

We gave Cooper an egg to play with and all he wanted to do was hit it on things. Thank goodness it was hard-boliled!
Brielle
Lainey
All done!

We went up north on Friday afternoon. My parents also came with us. Friday evening we ate dinner in American Fork and then later on my mom and I went shopping. On Saturday, we took the kids to Build-A-Bear. Brielle and Lainey had saved up their birthday money and wanted a Build-A-Bear so bad. We decided to get Cooper one too. This is Cooper waiting to get the 'fluff' in his dog!

Brielle giving her frog, Josh, a bath.

Lainey giving her dog, Rover, a bath.

We made it! Cooper was not happy, but the girls had fun!

Brielle knew exactly what she wanted before we even got to Build-A-Bear, a frog with a Jazz jersey and that's exactly what she got! Lainey wasn't sure what she wanted, but she picked a cute dog and dressed him really cute!

We found a hat finally that would fit Cooper's head. Doesn't he look cute!?!?

We actually went up north because the dance studio that Brielle and Lainey dance for was asked to perform during the pre-game at the Jazz game on Saturday. This is before we left for the Jazz game.

The fam heading into Energy Solutions Arena. It was raining!

When we got to the arena, we all waited to be escorted down to the court. I took this picture before we were escorted down. The girls were so excited!

We (family and spectators) were escorted down to the court while the dancers were escorted to a tunnel where they waited to perform. We were setting 7 rows up from the court. We got to watch some of the Jazz players warm-up. I had to take a pic of one of my favorite players, Paul Milsap.

This is how close we were.

Finally, it was time for the perfomance. There were around 15 dancers. They did quite well. Brielle and Lainey smiled the whole time. This is Brielle.

Lainey loving the perfomance.

The end! Bravo!Take a bow!

After the performance, we all went back to the tunnel and got some pictures of the dancers with two of the Jazz dancers. It was neat. After we got done taking these pictures, we all just kind of waited around for them to tell us how to get to our seats.

We (our family) kind of moved off to the side of the main group (which consisted of around 50+ people) so I could take some more pictures. This is a picture of Brielle and Lainey holding their Jazz Dancer posters.

I had my mom take this picture of us while we were waiting in the tunnel.

Then the most unbelievable thing happened. Right after my mom took that picture, I was putting the camera away and I hear Travis say, "There's the Prophet." I heard the words but it didn't click what he said. Then he said to Brielle and Lainey, "Here comes President Monson." I whipped my head up and sure enough, here comes President Monson walking down the tunnel with his wife and another couple. I could not believe it! And the crazy thing is that we (my family) at that point are the only ones that see him coming. I stood there, wondering if I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing. I just waved at him. He looked right at me and smiled. My mom pushed my girls up in front of us so they could see him. Still, we are the only ones that notice him. He stops and looks and Brielle and Lainey and says, "Pretty girls in blue." then he smiles at them and says, "There's an old song about the color blue." We all just stand there dumbfounded, not sure what to do. The thought came to me to snap a picture but then I thought, no, he is with his wife and I want to show respect. I'm sure it was a surprise to him to see so many people in the tunnel too. If someone would have said, "President Monson will be coming down this tunnel in a couple of minutes." I would of had my camera out, ready to get a picture, but it just didn't feel right to do it right then. He wasn't making a planned public apperance, he was just going to a Jazz game with his sweet wife. President Monson then smiles and walks away from us towards the main group and finally someone from the group of people say, "There's President Monson." and it gets really quiet. He kind of makes his way past them as people are just staring at him. My mom says to me, "Didn't you get a picture?" I told her no, but then I get my camera out and try to take one of him walking towards the elevator. Umm, my hands were shaking so bad that you couldn't even tell what the picture was so I deleted it. We were all in awe. I'm not sure if the couple that was with President Monson was his daughter and her husband or what but Travis told me afterwards that that man came up to Travis and Cooper and took Cooper's hand and talked to him for a few seconds too! My mom cried and I teared up. No one could believe that we were that close to the Prophet of God. Seriously when he said those words to Brielle and Lainey he was only 3 or 4 feet away from us. We told the girls that they are so lucky. Most people in their lives will never get that close to the Prophet, let alone have him say something right to you. Brielle and Lainey kept saying, "That was AWESOME." and I couldn't agree more. We never expected anything like that to happen, never, ever! My mom told the gentleman that was our escort that experience was well worth coming to the Jazz game and he the replied something like "Seeing the Jazz players isn't anything compared to seeing that man." So since I didn't get a picture of him when we saw him in the tunnel, I spotted him setting in this box suite so I had to get a picture then. What's so great to me is that I think I realized that he enjoys doing and attending fun things just like the rest of us do!

We enjoyed the game, but the Jazz lost :(!

Cooper at the game. He didn't feel good (he's getting teeth) but he made it through most of the game.

Us at the game.

The girls enjoying the game!

Happy Easter. Cooper cheesing it up for the camera on Easter. Do you like the brick wall in this picture? We stayed at Camp Williams while we were up north. Hey people, it's only $15 per night and we are in a recession right?!?

The kids in their new outfits outside our 'barrick' at Camp Williams.

We got back home on Sunday afternoon and found that the Easter Bunny had made it to our house. He had put eggs all over our family room and hid the kids baskets. Brielle got a Radio Disney CD, bubble and lots of candy.

Lainey got the new Hannah Montana Movie CD, bubbles and lots of candy too!

Cooper got a Little People boat and a little candy.

The kids with their goodies!

We had a GREAT EASTER 2009! We hope you did too!