Pinetop

We went off to Pinetop with the Williams for an awesome weekend get away. We stayed at the Roundhouse Resort. It wasn't exactly 5 stars, but they had a rec center that made the resort worthwhile. The weather was cool and overcast. We had a few rain drops fall on us, but nothing to dampen our spirits.
Fun activities: racquetball, billiards, ping-pong, basketball (yes, Dan is healed), swimming, bocce ball, mini golf, a hike around Woodland lake, the park at the lake, the movies in the hotel 'theatre', ice cream, church (If your ward was empty, rest assured they were probably in Pinetop. It could have been stake conference. A RM gave his report and he did awesome in spite of the enormous crowd!), Wii in the room, 'Night at the Museum II', paper airplanes, water coloring, drawing, puzzles, checkers, Trivial Pursuit (the girls won!), and duck feeding.
Alex pouted on the way from throwing out the last bag of trash. He said, 'Do you know why I was going so slow? It's because this is the best place ever.' Which, it was a great vacation, I'll admit! I however was not pouting to leave. I was more anxious about the nauseous ride down the mountain!

Archive discovery

I am working on a lesson plan to teach art lessons to a small class of third graders this summer. We'll spend a few sessions doing photography so I was scanning through picassa and stumbled upon these pictures that were long lost in some old journaling folder from college.I'm not in the pick, but here is part of my Archi class in Florence, Italy. I thought Val would find this fun.

This is us chicas on our way out of Rome. We stopped to throw our coins into Trevi Fountain. Yes, we lived around the corner for 3 months and never did it until the final day. But it was early and there were no tourists! so we got to be in front of the fountain!

Living in Rome was wonderful, but studio could be mind numbing and challenging. We found a postcard of Naxos, the Greek island we were going to spend our final days in Europe and posted it by our desks. When we needed a break we would clang the lamp and yell, 'Naxos' and just enjoy the thought of us on an island with nothing to do! This is a picture taken on the island.

Ok, this is one of my favorite stories. Before leaving the USA Mere and Timmy got international drivers licenses. We never used it on the continent with public transit being so abundant, but here on Naxos we needed adventure. Meredith rented a tiny little jeep for us to go exploring.

This was a classic Visa moment. Here we were on this little back road when we stumble upon these goats. $5000 a semester in Rome, $80 to rent a jeep, 4 girls stuck in a jeep behind a goat herder, priceless!

Space Camp

I am so excited that Alex will get to go to space camp this summer! We applied for a scholarship from the Arizona Association for the Gifted and Talented and Alex was selected. So, Alex will be headed off to the AZ Challenger Space Center for a week of afternoon fun in July. He will be attending the "Living in Space" session where "Little explorers could be the next inhabitants in space. They’ll learn about planets, space suits, helmets and what is needed to live in outer space." I hope he enjoys going. I hope he gets to go every summer because they do way cool stuff the older you get. I hope I'm not limiting his career goals by reinforcing space. He loves to write; maybe he'll aspire to write novels about space exploration! It is exciting to have these little boys that can grow up to be ANYTHING!

Father and Sons Camping

The boys left on their adventure Friday afternoon. I had had a long and unplanned for day and didn't get to enjoy my evening alone as I planned, but did manage to get to the temple Saturday morning and off to the Chandler mall for some shopping for me and baby. Who can pass up cute summer dresses?
The boys say they had a good meal Friday night. They slept in the back of the pilot. Dan didn't blow up the air mattress, so did not get as great a night sleep as our little boys did. Saturday morning they went for a hike around the lake, did a service project at a cemetery and then shot off 2litter bottle, bottle rockets. They came home wiped out and with lots of pictures.

May Flowers

This is Ryan's sunflower. He goes out everyday to see its progress with Dan. I thought it would grow taller than him, but I guess it was stunted in its growth. We have two more plants growing so maybe they'll out grow him.
Today is Mother's Day. I got cinnamon rolls and milk in bed and the boys gave me cards. Dan had the boys decorate a pillow case with markers. It has drawings the boys made of them selves. Dan's is clever with a busted pinky and all! I am looking forward to having Dan home from some of his meetings today.
Happy Mother's Day to all of you ladies! Whether you are a mom or not, you are making the world a better place for the next generation. And if you are of our faith, just think, when you get to be a mother in the next life, you will be perfect!
I am always thinking, 'ugh, why can't my boys just... fill in the blank...' and then I remember, if they were perfect then they wouldn't have had any reason to come here. I love my boys with their imperfections! I just hope I can make them into men that their wives will love with less imperfections!

The Lake

Mark and Kirsten had us out on their boat on Saturday. We headed to Lake Pleasant around 11am. The boys were complaining the whole way: are we there yet? and I'm so hungry! Ryan loved the speed of the boat with the wind in his hair. He lost interest in this towards the end of the trip because it was too bumpy and he was tired. He actually fell asleep while we were out riding around. Alex refused a ride on the inner tube. He climbed in it while we were anchored, but let Dan have the fun of being bounced off the tube! Both boys loved the swimming. You can certainly see my tummy has expanded in the last couple of weeks! I don't think my 'high risk' cargo and I will be out on the boat again this summer. It was a good time, but I could see that it would be a little too much jostling for comfort in a few weeks. I am so glad we got to go out as family and create these fun memories. Thanks to M&K for a good time!

No Ice

I wanted to add this Ryanism because it was hilarious if you were there.
When we went to lunch Monday we had to sit outside to await the rest of our party. The host asked if we wanted drinks while we waited. I declined, Neil got tea and I ordered Ryan a Sprite. As the guy was walking away Ryan yells, 'No ice!' Everyone turned to look at Ryan. And the guy looked at me like, 'Is he serious?' I shrugged. I guess he didnt' want ice. He got some chuckles out of it, and if you know Ryan that was probably his intention all along. I have never ordered a drink with no ice before and I have absolutely no idea where that came from.
I got a drink from IN and OUT Wednesday night and he asked if it had ice in it before he took a drink.
What is really funny, is that we never have ice in our freezer because the water here is so nasty, our drinks all in the fridge, and the water cooler is certainly cold. We have some friends and family that rag on us because we never have ice. I had bought some this week just for the birthday festivities, so if you want ice at our house, you better come soon before it is all gone!

Old Man River

We celebrated Dan's birthday this weekend. On Saturday we had Mark, Kirsten and gang over for pork fajitas and cake and ice cream. I got Dan some 'weekend' clothes since Mark is always making fun of Dan wearing the same clothes every time we see them! They got Dan some lottery tickets. Alas, we didn't win it big or little so Dan won't be getting anymore new clothes until his next birthday!

On Sunday our friends the Williams had us over for a Cinco de Mayo meal. The boys love to play ping-pong at their house even though neither one can really do it. Ryan really wanted to go swimming, but seeing it was Sunday and the water 70 deg, we said, 'No way!'

Monday was Dan's actual birthday. Per tradition, we had donuts for breakfast and Dan opened his gift that was on the bed. He got some new flip-flops and a bag of mini Heath bars. One of his co-workers decorated his desk with balloons and crepe paper. Ryan and I met Dan, Neil, and Dave (the guy with the transformer car) for pizza at Oreganos. YUM!

To finish off the day we had family night with the Williams. (Julianne's bday was last family night so we swapped weeks of hosting.) We played our version of Frisbee golf and had banana splits for dessert. I think Dan was partied out. He has had a lot of stress at work as of late, and I'm glad we could celebrate him being a part of our lives. Love you, Old Man!

Alaskan Mail

Thank you Chuck and Jan for the Alaskan surprise we received yesterday. Ryan LOVES to open mail and you can bet a large box on the front porch was a fantastic surprise.
They sent us some yummy candies, a cute kid book, salmon, and halibut. If anyone has a good recipe for halibut, I'm open to suggestions. Oh, and if you get invited to dinner anytime soon, you know what we'll be having!
Thanks again!

Summer is here

Summer has arrived. We took out the slip 'n' slide Wednesday for some water fun. I upped the watering schedule for the yard plants and while the grass was getting some extra water Ryan and I went out to play. We coaxed and then forced Alex out. Man o man, that kid drives me crazy. I just need to accept that he is Anxious Alex and must be forced into new situations or any situation that has water involved. He is hyper sensitive to water temperature and tenses up every time he has to approach it. Yeah, that makes baths and showers really fun. And yes, Ryan is in his birthday suit. He did start out in swim shorts.

Alex was sick Sunday-Wednesday and it was great getting him back on Thursday. He had a fever that finally broke Wed night. We found him in a pool of sweat (more than his usual sleepy time sweat) and had to change the sheet and take away his new bear he made at school on Monday.

We are gearing up for Dan's birthday. He managed to get a slickdeals deal on Wii games, so he got himself 'DragonQuest' and 2 games for the fam for a good price. That will go towards his birthday budget!