~ The Cowden Family ~: April 2010

Enjoying North Carolina!

Jonah thinks he's a teenager & should be able to pick up his "little" cousins. Here he is w/ Tyler, who's 3&1/2. Cute! (this was at 1 of the 2 graduation ceremonies for my bro)

Slliiiiiipp! Slip-n-slide!

...it has multiple uses. Thirsty?

Alli (me) with my adorable twin nephews - Ben (on the left) & Dan.

Rachael & I have had to relinquish the Burton Twin thrones to these two! It's a good thing they're cute!! :)

Watching Jared play w/ all the kids on the trampoline, us grown-ups (if you can call us that) realized that all the youngest grandkids here are BOYS!!

Jonah still couldn't let go of the whole saluting idea. :) So here's to you, strawberries of North Carolina. You are so yummy. And we salute you.

Merrik w/ his bucket 'o berries.

The Fam. (poor Merrik looks like he's about to sneeze - bless you!) I've made the long drive south to visit family many, many times & it's usually just the boys & me. So this time, we were THRILLED to have Jared with us! Yay!

Arrg! Shiver Me Timbers!

M & Jonah were invited to a Pirate birthday party. Man, were they disappointed to have to dress the part! ...needless to say, they had a super fun time!

Quabbin Reservoir!! Google it. :)

Another favorite hiking spot - the Quabbin Reservoir!

If you google this, you'll find all kinds of really cool historical facts. But the gist of it is - this huge reservoir supplies Boston & it's surrounding towns with water. Back in the 1930's, 4 Massachusetts towns were leveled, burned & flooded to create this amazing reservoir.

We brought Flat Jake so he could learn all about it!
This is above one of the dams that supports the reservoir.

Easter Fun!

*These pictures are out of order, but...*

AJ, Rach & Alexis came to visit the day after Easter. So we extended the fun & had an egg hunt with them, too! This was at the end. Boy, are they worn out!

This was Easter afternoon. Jared, the boys & I went to the noon session of General Conference & then to lunch at Bill & Dolores's house. Here are the cousins! Merrik, Jonah, Jacob & Jisela with their bags of newly found eggs! (some even had money in them - cool!)

Jonah & Merrik with "Flat Jake" - he's our visitor from Colorado! (a self-portrait of my nephew Jake, visiting us for the month of April for a school project - he's come to learn all about Massachusetts!)

On our way to church Easter morning, we made a pitstop at Buffumville Lake to show Flat Jake all the crazy floods we've had! Yes, that is a submerged roof just behind them. Yikes!

At home on Easter morning. M is clearly excited about his new coloring/sticker book! Yeah!

Oh yes, and don't forget the chocolate bunny!!!

The Easter Bunny was very good to the boys. Looks like fun!

Rock Wallin' Alli!

Why yes, that IS a real rock wall I was climbing!!

OK, so maybe not. Our Young Women's (youth group) that I work w/ at church went to the local YMCA for one of our activities. It was loads of fun. I've never done this before. It was a blast.