easter reunion

Easter weekend Emily and I flew up to Utah to visit my mom. What a wonderful trip! It was so great to see her, the weather was perfect, and we fit lots of fun stuff in. No snow to play in, but it looked pretty in the scenery- here's the view from the front yard!We had a little fun with Emily's hair! Two cute buns, which stayed in better than pigtails.
At the BYU cafeteria, we had mom's favorite- the wraps!While mom was in class Emily and I stopped by the art museum and bookstore. I've always wanted to see this iconic sculpture, and what do you know! I thought it was installed in a city somewhere, but after a quick Google, discovered that there are fourteen versions installed in city parks and universities across the country. Lucky me!

There was also an exhibit of artwork from one of my favorite LDS artists, Minerva Teichert, and I got to see in person one this incredible painting of Esther (which I also bought a poster of for our home)

Emily met her first horse! They were pretty friendly.

She thought they were cool!Don't you like the buns?!
Then we saw a play of "Amelia Bedielia" which is one of my favorite children's books!
It was hilarious.
Emily loved Grandma's tub because it has a slope at one end which doubles as a slide!

We were especially happy to be able to visit Grandma Zauss and we decorated her room with Spring decorations- lots of bunnies! Jenn and I stayed up until after midnight talking and laughing and catching up. I really miss my cousins! Thank goodness for blogs! Sunday morning we also visited Megan of This Girl's Life and Cupcake Chowder (but I forgot my camera) and it was great to see her after getting to know her so well through her blogs :)
All dressed up for church!
Emily was loving the neighbor's Jeep.
Mom and Heidi
What is Easter without an Easter egg hunt?!
We opted for fruit snacks and animal crackers. I know, no fun :)Love the bunny!
We also learned handy skills like how to climb up on a chair.


Mom's new place feels just like home. It's really true when they say that a home without family is just a house. Or something like that. And it's huge! More square footage! Plenty of storage! All the furniture fits! With room to spare!
I helped mom decide where to hang her pictures. A lot of thought went into that, I assure you.
What's better than reading stories with Grandma?!
By the way, "The Madsen Hotel" lives on in Utah, so just let us know if you need a place to rest your head- mom has an awesome guest room set up with a guest book and everything!