March

This month was all about time together, and finally taking pictures of what we do.  We snuck in some extra "dates" that weren't even in Marcel's envelopes.

We started the month with free pancakes at IHOP.  We decided to brave the assumed busyness and go at dinner time.  We waited about 30 minutes but once we got our seats, the pancakes came out almost immediately.  They tasted so good, but afterwards I had a tummy ache.  I think it was because we no longer use white flour or sugar in our pancakes and have switched to pure maple syrup for our syrup.  My body was in a sugar shock.

On one of the first nice weekends of March (the whole month was actually really nice with warm spring weather), Marcel decided he wanted to hike Table Rock.  It was our second time and it was just as hard, mainly at the very top when you're almost there.  We had an appointment with each of our doctors regarding our struggle with infertility coming up so we talked through what we were hoping to hear and what we'd plan on doing to move forward depending on what the doctors had to say.  Such a hard journey we've walked that has taught us to rely on each other on the good and especially the tough days!

Marcel's "big/out-of the house" envelope was actually the free one this month, because we have so many free movie tickets from Christmas.  We love getting movie tickets and gift cards (even though Lilli doesn't like just getting me gift cards all the time) so that we can go on fun dates.  We rented Divergent a few days earlier so I'd be ready for this one.  I knew Marcel would remember what happened and where the story left off because he's read the books but I haven't and I needed that refresher!  It was a really good movie.  We were both really pleased!

The other envelope date was just a few days later.  We took advantage of him being home for Spring Break!  We drove to Homedale for a Pink Lady.  He was really surprised to like it as much as he did, but he did say it would have tasted better with fries to dip in it :)

This month, our fun with the girls started at their house.  Their parents spent a week in Tahiti for their 10th anniversary.  The girls spent the weekend with Nana & Papa and then we stayed with them at their house for the rest of the week.

We took them to home group with us on Sunday night and it was our luck that it was the week without many other kids.

Monday morning the girls woke up and found a goody bag from mom and dad.  Lilli was so surprised and kept saying "How did they get us a present at our house when they are in "A-hiti?"

Lilli and Marcel spent bed time cuddling while I would rock Cece to sleep and then I'd join them for more cuddles.

The girls were so excited to pick up mom and dad at the airport with the signs we made.

We also enjoyed free ice cream cones at Dairy Queen.

During Spring Break, we took the girls to Northern Lights to see Paddington. Lilli was so excited to go to a new movie theater.  The girls really didn't like that Marcel turned on his camera's flash after the movie to get our picture :)

We also went to lunch with Grandma Wende.  We go every couple of weeks and it always seems to happen that we go the week or so after Marcel has had a day off from school, so we worked extra hard to squeeze in a day so he could come with us.  I know Cece has her eyes closed in this picture, but I still think it is so cute.

Then Marcel stayed home with Cece while she napped so Lilli and I could run out and get another lotion of her very own.

Another spring break day, Marcel was working in the yard and Cece had to get her own pair of gloves to go help him.

We also had our first "green belt/feed the ducks walk" of the year.  Cece was so excited to finally be able to do it on her own.

BSU vs LA Tech

Last Tuesday there was a BSU football game, one that my mom and Don wouldn't be able to go to.  Instead of letting their tickets go unused, they allowed Marcel and I to use them.  We had a blast.

I was preparing to freeze the whole time but it wasn't actually too bad, thanks to the wonderfully warm jacket my mom let me borrow, because I couldn't go to the game and not wear BSU attire.  Marcel did save the day by buying us hot chocolate at half-time, but not until after we watched the marching band.

All bundled up!

The marching band is huge, compared to watching the high school bands

It wasn't until after we took pictures of the marching band that we decided we should probably have some of the actual football game too

Final Score
BSU 49
LA Tech 20

Visit to Victor

For my birthday, my mom gave me money to take a vacation to visit my sister in Victor, Idaho (very near to Jackson, WY).  That same day we decided the best weekend for both of us would be Halloween weekend.  It was great until I forgot to request the day off from Michael's and ended up having to work Sunday, making us have to leave at 7am.  We still had a GREAT time.

There was snow in the mountains, but thankfully not in Emily's backyard like they had the weekend before

 On Friday, Emily and Matt both had to work so Marcel and I drove to Jackson and did the tourist stuff, which included sitting in this huge bear chair!

We also visited the Grand Teton National Park, but instead of paying admission, we simply chose roads around the pay stations.  We still enjoyed the beautiful park, but didn't see any animals.   

At Granite Canyon Trailhead, the one spot we got out of the car in Grand Teton National Park.  It is here that we learned you need to make extra loud noises to prevent bear attacks during mating season, but the sign didn't tell you when mating season was.

Marcel LOVES beenies that keep his ears covered, but we did leave this one at the store

 Emily and Matt live on a golf course, since Matt is the superintendent of it.  He does all the landscaping and other outside stuff to help the golf course run.  After Marcel and I got back from Jackson, we decided to play a few holes.  We are far from professionals, but had a lot of fun.  By the 3rd (and last) hole we played, I almost got the hang of it.

Marcel even accomplished one of his lifelong dreams: to drive a range picker.  Granted we weren't shagging the balls off the driving range, but driving is driving.  This is what we used as our golf cart because the golf carts were all parked behind the mowers, and it was simply too cold for golf that required walking!

After a great partial round of golf
(this is the view out their back door!)

We got up early Saturday morning to head to Yellowstone, but our first stop was Mesa Falls, which Emily had yet to see too.  It was 114 feet high and 200 feet wide.  It was here that we discovered it is always a good idea to carry toilet paper in your car because you can't depend on the public restrooms at nature scenes to be stocked!

I think there are better pictures of us at the falls, but this one is my favorite because you can see Emily & Matt taking their picture at the other outlook.

Don't tell, but we actually took this picture on our way out of the park ;)

Elk...we followed directions and didn't get out of our car to take a picture and to not add to the near accident behind us, Marcel used the side mirror to get this picture.  The only other animal we saw was bison/buffalo.

 The best part about Old Faithful was that we got there about 30 minutes before the next eruption.  It was cool and now we can both say we've been there, but I would have been very disappointed if I had to wait the 90+ minutes between eruptions.  We also watched a very cool video about the eruptions, that Emily would be more than happy to explain!

We crossed the contintent many times.  After I looked at the map I undertstood why.  Who got to decide to make the divide a very crooked line?

We got out of the car at Yellowstone Lake, which was gorgeous.  Marcel and I even put our fingers in the water, which was freezing, who would have thought, right?  It is also where we took this awesome picture.  Good thing for self-timing cameras, because no one else stopped at the lake.

The whole drive through Yellowstone, Marcel was pointing out the scat and after the lake decided that he needed a picture with it.  He actually got 3, but this is the only one I'm posting because I don't like the one where he's pretending to lick/eat it.  I will say that he was very disappointed that the one we found for our picture wasn't ripe.  In fact it was very frozen.  Being the photographer, I, however, was very grateful for its condition.

Look at MaryBeth be artistic!

 After Yellowstone, we headed back to Jackson, to get a souvenir.  We didn't get them our first time through because we were hoping for some from Yellowstone, but their store was super lame.  Plus, Emily said we had to get a picture under this arch.  We were kinda bummed that even though the Christmas lights were already wrapped around the entire thing, they hadn't been turned on yet.

We also enjoyed seeing a deer on our drive to their house, watching some cable shows, playing Wii and helping Emily get her Pro status back at bowling, watching a scary/suspenseful movie, grocery shopping, touring Victor & Driggs (both tours took about 5 minutes!), listening to the sound checks of 2 bands putting on a concert at the restaurant we ate dinne at, and plain ol' time to catch up, none of which was caught on camera.