before Easter

for the last 13 years we have attended the same neighborhood Egg hunt

It's fabulous

our host is BIll Fowler a member of our ward he with his wife Eileen, who was a great friend on mine, started this tradition and he has carried in on even after she passed away a few years

Grace was the only one of my kids who hunted this year
Jared came with us but is too old to hunt its for under 12
and both Tyler and Alex had a soccer game

love my bright and shinny eggs

the 3 of us headed to the game after the hunt

the "Baconators" won there first game

when the boys were done we  grabbed lunch then loaded into the car and head south
stopping for a treat at one of our favorite spots
they have great milk shakes
I guess I should add the stopping at the drive-thru was reward for being awesome while dad looked at bikes for over an hour
now technically the bike was for me but we all know who really wanted to look at bikes 

we were headed south to spend the weekend with the fan
we had an awesome family dinner
spent the night 
went to church
had a feast for lunch then had to head home
it was a whirlwind weekend but so worth it

on the way home we took the ferry my favorite!
and grabbed dinner from Ivars

We ate dinner on the boat which was awesome
we had a seagull try and get our fries through the glass

you'd think from this post is that all we do is eat out
not true 
but we sure did enjoy the splurge!

6 of us

we needed a family picture

the last one I could find was from last summer

so I decided to take a new one 

that was easier said then done

out of 30 pictures I cropped these 2 and said good enough!

6 people smiling
its a miracle!

New Years Day

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
we celebrated new years in style
we headed down to be with family
we spent a quiet 31st with Granny and Pops
then headed to the cousins house to welcome in 2014 

we ate way too much and played games until the magic hour
launched a few flares, yes flares not fireworks
headed back to our beds at Granny's about 1am
slept in (thank you children) then back to another cousins at noon for the crab feast!!
where these 3 princesses rule

I am pretty sure the Johnston family is the happiest when they are eating crab

after dinner had settled in 
we gathered for the airing of grievances and the exchanged of unwanted gifts!
ok no grievances were shared but the white elephants were hilarious

Then it is piñata time!
we went from youngest to oldest

the kids under 12 had no blindfold
the kids over 12 did

We spun Jared over and over

trying to get him in the wrong direction

he was actually the first kid on the 2nd piñata

but that kid can swing hard!!

  They kept it out of his reach for a few swings :)

 Golf!

 candy!

it was time to head back home
the boys were all staying but we still had a 3 hour drive ahead of us
time to get a good picture of all grandkids
I took 17 pictures
they ranged from
not ready

 Ok of everybody

 to go ahead be silly!

 we had a fabulous mini vacation
its so awesome to get the kids together with their cousins
we don't take the chance often enough 

On to a new year!