Royer Family Fun at a Softball Tournament

My youngest sister, Mary, was going to playing in a softball tournament in Spanish Fork this weekend, so after Owen's soccer game, we packed up the van and headed south to see family, watch softball, and have some fun.

The adults had fun playing a game of Spikeball, and the kids had fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa.  They all took turns having Grandpa Horsey rides.

And Grandpa pushed them on the swings.  At one point he had all five grandkids swinging at the same time.  It was a fun family-filled day.  It's nice to live close enough to get together for impromptu family gatherings.

Fun in the Spring Sunshine

It looks like spring is finally here to stay, and we've been trying to make the most of it.  One afternoon we took a walk to the park down the street. We had fun swinging . . .

and playing on the big toy. MayLynn even learned how to climb up the spiral stair by herself so she could go down the slide.  Owen perfected his swing pumping, and River practiced her crawling skills.

And one more wonderful part of owning our own house is having a fun yard for the kids to play in.  The girls spent a whole morning enjoying the sunshine and picking dandelions. 

Spring time is always my favorite, since we can escape the inside doldrums and soak up nature's beauty.

Mid April Snow Storm

When we moved back to Utah, I expected to have a snowy winter and have plenty of opportunities for the kids to play in the snow and build snowmen, but that wasn't the case this year.  We had an unusually mild winter, but we were able to enjoy one last snow storm before winter called it quits.

MayLynn and I had fun building an "Olaf" and Owen worked hard to build his snowman all by himself.  It was even fun to watch him try to keep his snowman alive for the next two days as it slowly melted smaller and smaller.

Jazzing it Up

What do you do when you get two free tickets to a Utah Jazz basketball game? You take your son with you to a game of course - so that's what Bryce did.  Bryce hadn't been to a Jazz game in years, but he had fun introducing Owen to the only sports team that he followed as a kid.

They had lower-bowl seats with a decent view of the court.  Owen didn't really like all the noise of an indoor athletic event, but he did have fun with his Dad.  Also, to commemorate the occasion, my boys each got a Utah Jazz hat. Don't they look like they're having fun?

A Fun Family Easter Celebration

To start out I want to wish everybody a Happy Easter from the Allen Family.  We have settled into our new house here in Ogden, Utah, and life is pretty good.  

Our Easter Celebrations this year were much bigger than they were last year, since we had more family to share them with.  Grandma Royer, Grandpa Royer and Aunt Mary all came up to stay with us a couple of days early since Grandpa had a mission reunion to attend, so we had several days of fun as well.  They were joined Friday evening by my brother, Danny, his wife, Aleena, their kids, Memphis and Kayzee, and my sister Emily.  So we had a whole house full of fun as we spread throughout the house to find places for everyone to sleep - which we managed quite successfully in my opinion. The biggest part of our Easter weekend took place on Saturday, April 4th.  Everyone that stayed at our house on Friday traveled up to Grandma & Grandpa Christensen's house in Brigham City and met up with my brother, Teddy, his wife, Brit, and their son, Glen. We then proceeded to watch General Conference, with lunch and Easter festivities sandwiched between the two sessions.  The pictures that I took are mostly from the fun we had in the middle of the day.

No Royer/Christensen family gathering is complete without some sort of feast.  This time we had pulled chicken sandwiches with all the trimmings.  It was a beautiful day, so we enjoyed our first picnic lunch of the year.

The next big event of the day was an Easter Egg hunt.  The kids (of all ages) enjoyed looking for the Easter Eggs and had no trouble finding them in short order.

River was just content to play with her Easter basket and the couple of eggs that were designated "hers."

It was fun having cousin Glen to play with too.  He and River are only about a month-and-a-half apart in age and they were both content to play with the eggs, while the bigger kids were more excited about the candy.

After the Easter Egg hunt, we had a piñata for the kids.  Uncle Teddy controlled the movement, and each of the bigger kids had a chance to break it before Owen managed to pop the top off and free the candy from its cupcake prison.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying our time together, celebrating several family birthdays (Aunt Mary - March 28, Aunt Aleena - April 2, Grandma Royer - April 10, and Uncle Teddy - April 24), playing with cousins, and watching conference.  

When it was all done, we went our separate ways, but the memories that we made will continue to strengthen our family ties and increase our appreciation for our Savior.  His Easter sacrifice and resurrection have made it possible for our time with our families to be able to continue forever, not just for this weekend.