Spring Break 2012:Day 5 Rock Climbing

 Lucky for us, we have a friend who built his own rock wall in his back yard. Even more lucky, he invited us (more like we invited ourselves) over to try it out! It was the perfect day and we had such a great time! Caleb and Isaac played in the sand and jumped on the trampoline while the rest of us took turns climbing. Brandon climbed up so fast on the straight wall and attempted the harder wall a few times, but it was Kelsie who surprised us all by making it all the way up the harder wall! She was the only one out of all four of us to make it! I think this may have inspired a new family hobby for us and a great way to spend our last day of spring break!

Spring Break 2012:Day 4 ZOO

 
We met up with some friends today and headed out to the zoo. This is always a favorite for the kids and just like any zoo, a little on the stinky side. We had a great time and Kelsie was a trooper since this was the second day in a row that she was surrounded by boys. She deserves a medal! The kids fed the ducks, chased peacocks, checked out the zoo train, and braved the tropical house's heat and smell. We had a great time and can't wait to go again!

Spring Break 2012:Day 3 Los Alamos

Today is the day we drove up north to visit some friends in Los Alamos. Never heard of it? That's because it's the secret city of NM, at least it was back in the day of the Atomic bomb. The city is so interesting and the next time we go I need to take better pictures of it. It was built across some mesa's with deep canyons between. We had a great time visiting our friends and were amazed at all that Los Alamos has to offer. We were able to go to the Science Museum, a local park with a miniature golf course, and played at our friend's amazing house. It was a great way to spend the third day of Spring Break!

Spring Break 2012:Day 2

I have to admit that after going to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, the aquarium here in Abq really isn't that impressive. But, at least there is one here so we took advantage and went on our second day of spring break. The kids loved looking at everything there was to see and loved the shark tank at the end of the museum. We had a great time and are looking forward to going back!

Spring Break 2012:Day 1

 Spring break, SO EXCITING!!! :)

Day 1 was yesterday (obviously). We had a very nice day. When I say "nice" I specifically mean awesome, and WARM!! In the 60's! I was so proud! We all went outside, and did stuff like reading, playing basketball, helping mom take groceries into the house, and so on!  

* Sleeping in (the absolute best part)
* Getting to go to the library (Pick out some summer reading!)
* Seeing the movie The Adventures of Tintin (which was a very good action and adventure filled mystery)
* READ! ( If we all read a full book by the end of the week, we'll get a special treat)
* Going to the park (We officially live right down the street from a very good one)
* Playing Mario Kart Wii (unlocking the unknown...) 
* Staying up late (well, later than usual)

Stay tuned for the rest!

~KP

Spring Break Fun

We had spring break a few weeks ago and finally got around to posting some (a lot!) of pictures.  We were able to go up to Denver to spend some time with family for the last half of our break, something we haven't been able to do for a really long time.  I guess that's another advantage to living closer to family now!  We had a lot of fun and Grandma and Grandpa and all our cousins made sure we had a great time!  We were able to go to the Butterfly Pavillion with Grandma one morning.  I was really impressed with Kelsie, Caleb, and Ryan who each took their turn holding Rosie, the tarantula.  Brandon really didn't want to do it but was so excited about all the butterflies!  It's always so fun to see them in their "natural" habitat and to see so many flying around.  They also had a great time running through the maze and trying out the zip line!  That night we spent time at the rec center swimming and sliding down the water slides.  That is until the pool was closed because some other kid had a diaper explosion, and not just the wet kind.

Clockwise from top:  Caleb holding Rosie; Brandon lovin' the butterflies; Kelsie smiling at the camera; Ryan holding Rosie; Mom and Isaac; Kelsie holding Rosie; Butterfly; Look, butterflies!

Clockwise from Top: Isaac chillin in the stroller; Ryan sitting on the big caterpillar, All of us standing under the giant praying mantis; 3 kiddos posing on the caterpillar; Ryan having fun swimming; The three girls smiling; Brandon and Ryan hanging out in the spider's web, Trevor and Caleb.

The next day we went to the Natural Museum of Nature and Science to see the Pirate Exhibit.  It was pretty cool to walk through the ship and see how pirates lived back in the day.  We also saw treasure (and lots of it!) and get sweet pirate hats at the end.  We also spent some time looking around the museum and had the most fun in the Health and Wellness area.  We were also able to take a tour of the capital building downtown and even got the VIP treatment from an old high school friend of Wally's sister.  The best part was going all the way up to the Rotunda and getting a birds eye view of the city.   

Out on the balcony of the Capital Building in Denver.  We had to climb out a window to get there!

We were also able to celebrate Grandpa's birthday while we were there and had a great time hanging out with as many cousins, aunts, and uncles as we could!  We ate homemade pizza cooked in Uncle Rob's super cool brick oven.  It's now on the list of things to have when we finally buy a house and have a yard to build one in! As, you may have noticed, those girls were glued together at the hip the entire time we were there.  It got even better with their older cousin, Aubrey joined the ranks.  She's so awesome and the girls had so much fun hanging out with their cool cousin! She even watched the BYU basketball game with Brandon, and he had fun playing with her ipod later in the evening.

These girls had a great time together! 

What's a party without cake, a trampoline, and a little basketball?

Grandma taught Kelsie and the other girls how to sew the simple skirt they are wearing in the photo below.  She took them to the fabric store to pick out the fabric and then spent one night sewing together.  They all did an amazing job and Kelsie is very proud of her work.  We're so happy that Grandma has the patience she has to be able to conquer such a feat!

All in all it was a great spring break and we were completely worn out by the time we got home Sunday night.  It's great to be so much closer to family to be able to make quick trips up north to see them now!

Spring Break '09: Day 5

Today turned out to be our low key day. We finally got around to cleaning up the house and I am finished the never-ending laundry pile. We made it over to the mall to pick up a shirt for Caleb for Easter. That was the extent of our traveling for the day. It's nice to have quiet days like this. Wally surprised us and came home for lunch too. That is always fun to see him, since we don't get to see him very much unless he takes a day off work. I even found a little bit of time to give Caleb a very much needed haircut. This was one of those days that I was able to check off most of the things on my to do list. Hooray!

Anyway, for today, I thought it would be fun to see what the kids top 10 list of different things would be. So, here they are, in no particular order (you can guess who picked what):

Movies
1. Pokemon
2. High School Musical (all 3)
3. Ella Enchanted
4. Star Wars
5. Matilda
6. Prince Caspian
7. Swiss Family Robinson
8. Harriett the Spy
9. Cars
10. The Wiggles

Books
1. Junie B. Jones
2. Harry Potter
3. Nancy Drew
4. Pokemon: Diamon and Pearl
5. Choose Your Own Adventure
6. Star Wars
7. If You Give a Pig a Pancake
8. How to Be a Pirate
9. How to Train a Dragon
10. Magic Tree House Series

Games
1. Imaginiff
2. Sorry
3. Life
4. Clue Jr.
5. Ticket to Ride
6. Uno
7. Freeze Tag
8. War
9. HSM DVD Game
10. Smash Brothers Video Game

Things To Do on Spring Break
1. Go the Museums
2. Cook Dinner
3. Make forts
4. Play Tag
5. Wrestle
6. Go to the library
7. Watch Movies
8. Sleep In
9. No Homework!
10. Plant our Garden

Spring Break '09: Day 4

Is it really the fourth day already? Sure is and it was a beautiful day! I knew it was a promising day when Brandon, our early riser, didn't even wake up until "the sky was blue outside!". That almost never happens. Today we spent the majority of the day outside! It has been a long time since we have been able to do that! We walked to the post office and then the library this morning. I walked to my dentist appointment while Wally entertained the children and then we walked home and ate lunch. Then, we were outside again blowing bubbles, riding scooters, playing basketball, and even having a water fight--sort of! Kelsie went to a friends house in the afternoon and the boys and I walked over to the park for a while. Kelsie even made dinner tonight! It was a great day. One of those kinds of days where the house was definitely low on the priority list! I have decided that when you live in these kinds of climates, you really don't take the weather for granted. Especially since it is supposed to be colder tomorrow. Oh well. Happy Spring!

Spring Break '09: Day 3

We've been looking forward to this day since we planned the 2009 budget: Museum of Science and Industry Day. And nobody's more excited than me. I managed to schedule a little time off work (a very rare event for sure). It was 9:15 am, and we were just finishing up packing the daypack.

Just one problem.

"Dad? My ear hurts..."

Oooo. This was coming from the kid who gets ear infections, and gets 'em real bad. And fast and furious too. He's been known to mention that his ear "kinda hurts" at bedtime, and by 12:30am he's screaming in pain until it ruptures a few painstaking hours later (poor kid!). So we had to take this threat to MSI day seriously.

Lucky us, we got a late-breaking appointment with the doctor (a REAL doctor; not one of these PhD hacks), and by 10:15 am, Brandon was diagnosed with what is technically referred to as "an eardrum filled with pus that is actually bulging a little bit." Ouch. Good call taking him to the doctor, then, eh? After picking up a bottle of orange-flavored amoxicillin, and a little bit of Tylenol, we decided to push forward with our original - and now 2-hour-delayed - plans. The upshot is that Brandon was already feeling a little better.

The museum was interesting, educational, and fun, just like real museums should be. They have a scale model of Chicago with electric trains running through the mountains to a scale model of Seattle. The waterworks at the hands-on "Idea Factory / Imagination Station" was a lot of fun. And in the "Whispering Gallery", Kelsie and I told secrets to each other even though we were standing 100 feet apart. We watched an old movie, the kind they made before "talkies". Some robots drew pictures for us too. We also learned lots of fun facts too: Did you know that cows eat 30 pounds of food and drink 20 gallons of water every day, which makes them produce 13 gallons of manure everyday?! Gross, I know. But sometimes, those are the facts that stick in yer head.

We had a great time, and best of all we wore everyone out. I don't think anyone is going to be waking up tonight.

At least we hope not.

Spring Break '09: Day 2

Our second day of Spring Break wasn't anything too exciting. The weather was still cold, but not completely unbearable. I gave the kids a warning during breakfast that we were, in fact, going to the grocery store sometime during the morning, in which I received some very unpleasant looks right back at me (they hate the grocery store almost as much as cleaning their rooms). So, to keep everyone happy, we turned our car into the Milennium Falcon and drove to the store in hyper-speed with Anakin (Brandon) firing at the tie fighters the whole way. Leia (Kelsie) controlled the computer module while Chewy (Caleb) moaned and groaned. It made a surprisingly effortless grocery store adventure with all three kids!

Kelsie and Brandon turned our basement into a toy store called The Toy Box when we got home and then turned it into a giant fort after that. They were very proud of themselves for thinking of putting the little tv inside the fort, you know, 'cause every fort needs a tv! Caleb also surprised us all by going in the potty 4 times throughout the day, which he has never done before. We might be a lot closer to potty training than we thought! Yay me!

After naptime, the kids rode their bikes around the neighborhood while Caleb rode his scooter to see the fish in our neighbor's yard. We had fun together. We're all so glad that spring is coming!

The best part of the day though? Check out what Brandon wrote on our Love One Another poster we made for FHE (bottom right corner):

What are these kids coming up with?! I mean, I know everyone loves the iphone, but seriously! He actually was trying to write his friends name, phonetically. Pretty funny, huh?

Spring Break '09: Day 1

We woke up this morning, our first official day of spring break, with a light dusting of snow covering the ground. Bummer. Isn't Spring Break supposed to be warm and cheerful, instead of gray and dreary? Anyway, as it turns out, we're not that far off from the way it was last year, so I shouldn't have expected anything more. We're trying to have a Creative week over here since a certain kindergartener lost any kind of entertainment that requires being plugged into the wall. For. The. Week.

I decided that this week needed to be on the dangerous and daring side. It will be interesting to see what we come up with. I don't have any major plans, but nothing beats creativity in action!

The first thing we did? Well, the above mentioned kindergartener learned how to tie his shoes. He practiced close to an hour and had it mastered. Now he wants to go buy new tennis shoes. Kelsie had a play date with a friend and Caleb just had fun with everyone home. I'd say it was a pretty good start for the week.

Spring Break: Day 5

For our last day of Spring Break, we were super excited because Wally was able to take the day off of work so we took the kids down to the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier. We walked over to the train station and rode down into the city. Brandon had a great time on the train and was even more excited to find out that we got to ride on a bus to take us to the museum! Public transportation is a magical thing to a kid!

The museum was so much fun and there was something for everyone. Wally particularly enjoyed the Inventing Lab, Kelsie loved building a dam in the Waterways room, Brandon couldn't get enough digging for dinosaur bones in the Dinosaur Expedition room, and Caleb enjoyed the Treehouse where he could walk around for the most part undisturbed! We had so much fun and it was great to see the kids having such a good time. Kelsie, Brandon, and I even made stamps at the end of the day in the art center to take home with us.

We had dinner at the pier and Wally and I tried a genuine Chicago-Style Hot Dog and Polish Sausage. It was pretty good, but admittedly, not my favorite thing to eat. Wally asked Brandon and Kelsie if chicken nuggets and some french fries would be good for dinner and Brandon said, "But Dad, that's not a happy meal!" I guess that would make it an unhappy meal? So, in the end they got their happy meals and were happy'! (How many times can I say happy in one paragraph?)


We had a really fun day in Chicago! Once we got on the train to come home, Brandon immediately fell asleep and Kelsie was just glad to be done walking. Brandon slept the whole way, even when we changed trains and then walked home from the train station. He woke up right when we put him in bed, so we decided to go ahead with our movie night, since it was Friday. It was an exhausting day, but everyone had such a great time!

Just a short video of the kids dancing at the pier

Spring Break: Day 4

We had a fun day on our fourth day of Spring Break. We didn't too anything too out of the ordinary, but we did get to know our next-door neighbor a little better since we were outside playing in the nice weather we had. She is a professional farmer who is part of a group that is trying to start an urban farm here in Evanston. She is all organic and full of information. She showed me where the people who lived here before us planted a garden and said she'd help in our efforts to garden this year! We might finally have a garden that lasts all season! She also has a fish pond in the backyard and invited the kids to come over and feed the fish. They had a great time watching the fish eat the food and swim around. We're finally getting to know our neighbors now that everyone is coming out of hibernation!

We also made some tissue paper flowers to brighten our home and watched a movie during the afternoon when it started to rain. Later that night we all went to my first pack meeting as the assistant cub scout leader. We had a good time watching a magic show and trying out some new tricks.

It wasn't the greatest day, but sometimes it's all about the little things. It's good to have down days like this sometimes, don't you think?

Spring Break: Day 3

I know it's hard to believe, but we had a really nice spring day today and so we took advantage of it! We rode bikes, went to the park, ate lunch outside, and had fun just being in the sunshine! This is what Spring Break is supposed to be like, right?!?!

Spring Break: Day 2

Today, we decided to come up with a list of our favorite jokes in honor of April Fool's Day.

1. Knock, knock.

Who's there?

The interrupting pirate.

The interrupting pirate, wh--

Arrrrgh!

2. Knock, knock.

Who's there?

A little girl.

A little girl who?

A little girl who can't reach the doorbell, that's why I knocked!


3. Why did the skeleton miss the ball?

Because he had no-body to go with!

4. What's the longest word in the English Dictionary?

Smiles, there's a MILE between each S!

5. What do dogs like to put on their hamburgers?

Catsup!

6. Why did the traffic light turn red?

You'd turn red too if you had to change in the middle of the street!

7. Knock, knock!

Who's there?

Ya

Ya-Who?

What are you so excited about?



8. What time is it when an elephant sits on your fence?

Time to get a new fence!

Do you have any favorite jokes to share? We'd love to hear them!

Spring Break: Day 1

Today officially marks the first day of Spring Break. We woke up to a gray, cloudy, rainy day with a couple of sick kids. So what did we do about it? We made our own spring! The kids helped decorate our front window with flowers, rainbows, 2 sun's, an airplane, and of course, a tie-fighter (upper left-hand corner of the picture, but look hard). It sure made us feel better during such a gray day, and was a huge surprise for Wally when he came home.

We also started making some "sugar crystals" that will hopefully be formed by the end of the week. I think they are enjoying some time off from school and just hanging our together. They have had fun playing games together, especially Raft Wars (it's a fun game, but a little addicting!). Brandon is definitely taking advantage of more time with the video games!

Hopefully we'll have some nicer weather later in the week, but for now, we're enjoying our own little spring in our window.