cleaning

you know it happens every so often. forget to post daily happenings and now....need to clean off the camera again.... here's what we've been up to:

we took the kids downtown to the children's museum. it was crazy busy but they kept the kids entertained...here's the lightrail trip over

caleb chalked the sidewalk, but mostly just his butt

ethan climbed the walls

and then we finally got in. the noodle maze was all the rage, and the only picture we got in there.

remember all that hard work i told you about?


this was why we did it!

oh and also because now we can do this!! the water is still cold..i don't even like my toes to get in, but what's temp to a kid?


life is so unfair for caleb...really shouldn't someone call cps on us? poor kid!

we found out that baby g loves brad paisley. can you blame him??!?!? he has excellent taste...

we also took a trip to the zoo


they also had a great time brushing the goats. they weren't too scroungy looking either.


easter was very non-traditional this year. general conference was on the same day so we didn't have 8:30 church to get ready for. we did watch the morning session with my grandma and the boys really enjoyed that. she lives in a retirement community and they like to go over there to play with the cool marble game she has


also because there are very few cars driving around and a very low speed limit so they can ride the cool trike with a basket all around the park



her neighbor also has a train set up in his front yard. he runs it a few times a week but if you ring his doorbell he will come out and start it. the sign in front even says so!!!

granny came for a visit and we went to the rainforest cafe. ethan did not care for that place! the lightning was a big scary and i don't think he quite understood at first what was going on.

caleb had fun swinging with granny and also telling her all about the woes of being 7. life is really tough on him, don't you know...

and we all had a nice, relaxing time even though dad was in el paso and we missed him (and that adventure)!!
so---my kids love to lick the beater. who doesn't? when they asked for the beater after i made bread, i figured this would cure them..not so-i have mentioned before garet's affinity to bread, have i not? i guess even dough is still bread in his book.

amongst all of our outdoor activities, we learned how someone somewhere at some time came up with the idea to put those rolling tracks on a tank. what are those called anyways?

just another funny video i had to add. this dog was nuts. i think they posted a sign after we left that said something along the lines of 'no dogs of any kind allowed in store' garet loved this and lets face it, it is kinda funny...

that's all the fun for today folks. hope you enjoyed.

p.s.if any of you have seen this kid, please explain to us why he keeps showing up and saying "take me to your leader"!!

spring break

i know i am over a month late, but better late than never. this will probably be the
most boring post ever!!! sorry-humor me if you want,if not posts of the boys should be done later today ...

last summer this guy and i celebrated a huge anniversary--#10.

can you believe i don't have any wedding pics because we got married before there were digital cameras everywhere (gasp!?), so you will have to look at this one we took at an awesome concert we went to in sept. anywho!

all of you who have jumped that huge 10 year hurdle know how cool this is. it seems like forever away when you get married and then bam 3 kids later and there you are... so-we planned lot of fun things for our big day. vacations, cruises, etc. we saved and saved and saved-we deserved this right? on a side note-we do not take regular vacations without the kids. actually i don't even need fingers to count how many times we've done that-its never!!! well...fast forward june 12th...we decided to move the family to arizona. good-bye aniversary vacay!!! hello life...

so now we are mostly settled and my mom mentions coming for a visit. woo-hoo our spring breaks coincide, and gosh its been hard without a mom. then the wheels start turning..would she??!!! could she???!!! YES she can and YES she will!!! yahoo!! thanks to frequent flyer miles and fun but stressful last minute planning we headed to florida for some sunshine and relaxing. my only request was it not be cooler than here and that it had a beach. so-sarasota here we come!

did i mention i love the beach? i mean really really really love the beach. who doesn't right? actually my husband doesn't. i dont know why, but he's just not as much of a fan as i. but what a guy to humor me. anyways-notice i said i love the beach. not the ocean. all i really wanted was a day to lay on the beach with a book and a comfy spot to take a nap and get warm. check.....check......check! it was heaven and i hardly even touched the water! here's what else we did do though!

had lots of amazing and interesting food. and i mean lots of food. all you get is a pic of the deep fried soft shell and the food channel's famous loaded old salty dog. yum!


then we went canoeing. never mind that jeremy counter-steered me the whole time and i became the model for sealife pictures, it was so much fun and we learned so much about the area from our tour guide. he was a smart guy!
this crazy bird duck thing followed us the whole time. his name was skitzo and he was hilarious. kinda scary though when you didn't know he was there and then he suddenly popped up by your oar.

this was called a tulip shell. the tour guide just plucked him from the ocean floor. he was alive too-it was cool!

this was a huge mussell like shell. it was even eating a clam. weird...

this one was my fav. not a great pic but this was one of those spiky sea animal things (should have listened to the guide a little better, eh?) that had covered himself with shells in order to camoflauge himself. smart...

these are the mangroves. they are super cool, my favorite part by far. these plants somehow figured out de-salinization and can survive! too bad developers chopped these down like crazy and now there aren't too many left. where were you on that one mr. gore???!

awesome camera skills displayed:

after all that paddling we really worked up an appetite, so it was off to the old salty dog for us...

we spent a lot of time being hauled around the island on this trolley

actually we spent more time waiting for the trolley than we actually spent on it. ana maria island is pretty small, even when you go from one end to the other.

jeremy made me pose by this pelican. he was really pretty and didn't even try to bite me. what you couldn't see was the lady next to him that he was really sitting by. she was fishing, and feeding him the fish she didn't want.

our last adventure was to conquer jeremy's fear or heights and fulfill a lifelong dream of mine. see i'm really a big whimp. i love exciting thrills but don't care too much for risks. roller coasters have been safety tested again and again, but those fairs that set up on the side of the road in parking lots-yikes! see i could never sky dive or base jump (what if your parachute didn't open?!?!?!) but connect an opened parachute to a boat with deep water below and a boat close by-keeps sounding safer and safer..
here's jeremy and his cousin it heading out to sea. he looks scared huh? ha ha!

we loaded up and away we went!

once you're strapped in you're gone, and there's no looking back!
up up and away

up in the air

that's us up there--500 feet felt like nothing from up there!

the only part jeremy did not deliver on was the warmth(geesh!!). it was pretty cold most of the time we were there. the great part about this adventure was dry take off, dry landing....they did dip our toes though! and by the time we got back to the boat our toes were purple and frozen!

unloading after our fun

we made it home safe and sound, relaxed and happy. the kids had a blast and survived also. not sure what they did as mom keeps saying there are pics but i have yet to see them...it was so good to take a break. it was so good to come home. wish we could have hung out with mom more. i'm sure she won't be back soon-haha!


sure glad this guy is such a great guy and indulges me even if its just for a quick trip every 10 years!!! here's to many more...