Team Robison

Red Rock Canyon

On Friday morning, we decided to drive out to Red Rock Canyon National Park and do some hiking. The Park is a 13 mile one-way loop road with hiking trailheads and overlooks off the road. We ended up stopping at the first pull off, Calico I. It had a trail that hiked along the Calico Hills, but mostly you walked a quarter mile or less and then climbed around on some awesome rocks. Matthew had a blast climbing on the sandstone features. Hannah had a hard time, and by the second time she fell she decided it was better to be carried. It was a perfect little spot for Matthew. Afterwards, we stopped at the Lost Creek Children's Discovery Trail. This was a .75 mile hike out to a little waterfall. The hike itself was great, but the waterfall made the hike worth it. I didn't bring my camera on that hike, but it was crazy to see a waterfall in the middle of the desert. If you ever want to see "the natural side of Las Vegas" as it was advertised, I would definitely recommend Red Rock Canyon.

Red Rock Canyon National Park

Benjamin, Jess and Daniel

Matthew

Hannah and Mark

Aunt Jess and Matthew

Hannah, Mark and I

Matthew

Hannah and I

It's missing part of its tail.

Uncle Benjamin

Matthew, Mark and Hannah

Exploring a small slot canyon

Mark and Hannah

Las Vegas

After all the craziness from the car accident, it was nice to take a break and go to Las Vegas for a weekend. We had planned the trip months earlier and convinced my brother Benjamin to come with us, and luckily we got all the car stuff sorted out before we left. And since we had the minivan, we were able to have Benjamin, Jess and Daniel ride with us instead of taking two cars. We drove down Thursday, and spent the evening just getting settled in our hotel. We booked a two bedroom suite and the Desert Rose Resort, which was just off the strip near the MGM Grand. It was so nice having a suite. Benjamin had one bedroom, we had our kids in the other bedroom, and Mark and I slept on the pull-out bed in the living room couch. We also had a full kitchen and a balcony. We didn't actually hit the strip until Friday afternoon. We parked at the Bellagio, and visited the conservatory and then got a performance of the fountains outside. Matthew was terrified of the fountains. We then walked over the Flamingo to see the flamingos in their atrium. I didn't realize the atrium was on the far side of the Flamingo, so it was a bit more walking than I figured. But the kids enjoyed seeing the flamingos and some parrots (the pelicans were all sleeping).

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and cooked some dinner. Mark and I put our kids to bed, and then Benjamin and Jess watched the kids while we went out for the evening. The weather was just perfect, and we walked over the New York New York to visit Alvaro, a family friend who is a housekeeping manager at New York New York. It was so nice to see him. He bought us some dessert and we sat outside and caught up. Then Mark and I walked across the street to see the magician David Copperfield at the MGM Grand. Honestly, the show was amazing. The theater was all tables and booths, and we had great seats. David Copperfield was such a good showman. It was amazing to see him make cars and motorcycles and even huge animatronic dinosaur appear out of nowhere. And even the little things - making a paper rose turn into a real rose or pulling the duck out of a bucket - were just done so well. If you ever have the chance to see him, I highly recommend it.

Daniel

The Bellagio Conservatory

Matthew and Hannah

Benjamin, Jess and Daniel

Bellagio Conservatory

Mark and Hannah

The Robisons

Hannah and Uncle Benjamin watching the Bellagio fountains

Mark

The Bellagio

Jess and Daniel

Hannah at the Flamingo Atrium

Matthew and Mark

Jess, Daniel and Benjamin

Daniel

My darling nephew Daniel

Alvaro, Mark and I at New York New York

First night: Sleeping in the same bed

Second night: Sprawled all over the bed

I don't have a picture, but on the third night, Hannah fell

asleep under the nightstand on the side of the bed.

Minivan

Since the car accident suddenly put us in the market for a new vehicle, Mark and I had lots of choices in front of us. Originally, we were planning to fit all 3 kids into our sedan for a year or two. Then we would probably know if we were going to have more than 3 kids or not, and would have saved up enough money for a second vehicle. We see-sawed back and forth, but we eventually decided to go with a minivan. After test driving various years and models, we decided we wanted a newer model Honda Odyssey. To put even more pressure on our car buying, our rental expired on a Tuesday, and we had non-refundable vacation to Las Vegas booked for Thursday. So on Tuesday, April 7th, we dropped the kids off with my sister-in-law, and went and bought ourselves a minivan. We found one at the right mileage and the right price in Murray, which was actually just minutes away from my brother's house. The van is really nice. The kids seem to like it. Matthew won't let you refer to it as a car. You must call it a minivan, though at first he would say "moving van."

Our 2012 Honda Odyssey

Hannah Boo ready for a ride

Matthew ready to drive

Hannah and Ayden checking out the back seat

Matthew wouldn't hold still for a decent picture

Easter

We had a low key Easter at our house this year. The day before, I realized I should do something for the kids. Hannah had fallen asleep early, so she missed out, but Matthew and I dyed hard boiled eggs. Then on Easter morning, we did a little Easter egg hunt in the backyard with a mixture of real eggs and plastic eggs. When I was out shopping the day before, I saw the cutest little play necklaces and bracelets. I've been wanting to get some for Hannah, so I decided to get them an Easter present. I was trying to figure out a matching gift for Matthew, when I spotted the tow truck. He's talked so much about the car accident, I realized it would be the perfect gift. Between sessions of conference, we made Eggs a la Goldenrod, which is something Mark's family always made for Easter, but I had never had before. It was pretty good, which is saying a lot since I don't even like eggs.

I found one!

Looking for more eggs

Hannah and her basket

Matthew picking the eggs off the pear tree

Mark did a good job placing the eggs

A rare photo of the two of them together

Hannah's jewelry

Matthew's tow truck

Mark is learning what it means to have a daughter

Anytime the choir sang, Hannah thought there

would be a prayer next

Mark and Hannah eating Eggs a la Goldenrod

Matthew didn't actually eat his, but wanted his picture taken.

An Eventful Spring Break

For spring break, my in-laws came and stayed with us for a week in March. Elwin had work in Salt Lake, and Diane came along for a nice visit. Our visit started out nicely. Diane and I took the kids to the library and the park. Of course, that was the only time I pulled out my camera. Then in the evening, Mark, Elwin and Matthew went to a Manly Madness function the Elder's Quorum was holding for the men of the ward. Diane and I decided to do a girls' night out, since I didn't feel like cooking dinner. On our way to the restaurant as we drove through an intersection, a car going in the opposite direction tried to turn left right in front of us. It literally came out of nowhere. We smacked straight into the passenger side of their car at 40 mph. Luckily, the other car didn't have any passengers and no one was injured. Our seat belts, airbags, and car seats performed marvelously. Hannah only briefly cried out mostly from fright, and then was perfectly fine. The most traumatized was probably Matthew (Actually, it was probably me. I was definitely in shock, and had nightmares for a while. I was terrified to drive the rental for awhile.) The boys came from their party, and arrived in time to see the tow truck take away our blue car. He still talks about how the blue car and the white car crashed, and the tow truck took away our blue car and threw it away. Our Elantra was a total loss, which given its age didn't take much damage to accomplish. We were so excited to see it reach the 200K mile mark. But, alas, it only made it to 186K. Ironically, almost exactly four years ago, my Honda Civic was totaled - also not our fault - when it had 198K miles.