This is the suitcase

Mindy Gale and I took some pictures of Mickell's baby (Mindy's sister) the other day.  Mindy has some clever ideas for such things and she brought along a suitcase that belonged to her Great-Grandfather Morgan.  She also brought a "thing" which Les calls the Liahona.  They were both good props. 

Angel's Landing/birthday

We had a great time on Monday climbing Angel's Landing. I missed having the rest of my family there with me though. Tyff and Jason caught some terrible bug and were unable to travel down for the event. We hope to do the climb together soon! What an amazing hike this is. Pictures do not do it justice. You have to experience the hike to truly appreciate just how amazing it is. I will post some pics to try and give you a feel for just how awesome it is.

Spring Break

This year we did a "staycation" for Spring Break, meaning we didn't pack up and go anywhere exotic, just found fun things to do in the area. Here are the girls with their cousins on the Randall side and a little friend who looks a lot like a young Harry Potter, don't you think?

On the train at This is the Place Heritage Park

Apparently this is called planking. I'd never heard of it. But it seems to be the thing to do.

The craziness continued the next day at Thanksgiving Point Gardens. Here we are in hats.

And flower petal moustaches

More planking, this time in the Secret Garden

And yoga there, too.

Now the break is over and it's back to the school grind for another month and a half, and then, graduation! 

Easter at the Randalls'

Here are a few pictures of our Easter festivities.

Josh shows that you're never too old to dye Easter eggs.

We realized it's been about sixteen years that we've been dying eggs with the cousins on the Randall side. It's been a fun tradition.

Here are the girls in their recital/Easter dresses. This was Tamsyn's last recital. She's now done with piano lessons.

Getting ready for a game of Resistance following our Easter dinner. The two boys next to Josh are his and Derek's roommates. 

Easter Pics

I tried to upload these pics on Sunday but it wouldn't work so that's why there is a Happy Easter post and nothing else. Oops! These were taken on my phone so they aren't the best quality but I thought I would share them anyway.
Siennah in her Easter dress. Doesn't she look so grown up?

She had so much fun dying and decorating easter eggs. Her favorite is this one with the S.

We had a nice relaxing Easter at home this year. It was weird not travelling or being with family but it was nice to be home. I hope you all had a good Easter too!

Happy Easter!

Storm impact

I am happy to report we were not personally impacted by yesterday's storms. Jared and Amanda spend about two hours in "tornado safe" places in their respective schools. I spent about an hour in the underground parking garage at work. Kristin stayed home, ready to flee to the downstairs bathroom if needed. While in the parking garage, I went to my car and turned on the radio. The reports were crazy. There were wave after wave of storm cells passing through the D/FW metroplex. The cells all had the potential to carry hail or kick off tornados. To closest the hail came to our home was within about 3 miles. The tornados were mostly south of Grapevine. Kristin said there were powerful thunderstorms that went over our home. I don't know if any of you have experienced buckets of rain coming down all at once, but it is pretty amazing when it happens. The lightening and thunder yesterday put on quite a show. Today, we are having gorgeous weather. Spring weather in Texas can be quite volatile. Thanks for the phone calls and overall concern. We made it through another violent storm system unscathed!! Now if our beloved Mavs can whether the storm until the playoffs, we'll be happy!

Banana Peanut Butter Coffee Cake

I posted this recipe on my personal blog, which I've lately resurrected, but decided I'd better do it here, too. I made this by combining a couple of different recipes from allrecipes.com and Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. Apologies to Kennedy for the peanut butter. The original recipe on allrecipes had pecans in the topping, which Megyn doesn't like, so I went with this instead.

Banana Peanut Butter Coffee Cake
1 8-oz package cream cheese
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 medium bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
TOPPING:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup peanut butter
3 Tbsp butter or margarine, softened

Beat together the cream cheese, butter and sugar. Add the bananas, eggs and vanilla; beat until smooth. Combine dry ingredients; add to batter and mix. Smooth into a greased 13 x 9-inch pan. Sprinkle with topping. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
For topping, stir together brown sugar and flour. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter and peanut butter until uniform.