Happy Birthday, Kaelin & Logan!

As I mentioned in my last post, the boys & I drove to their cousins' house for their 4th birthday party. Kaelin & Logan got a great new trampoline for their birthday, so that was tons of fun. They also rented an inflatable waterslide for the party, and although the weather wasn't perfect (overcast with sporadic rain and only 70 degrees), it was sooo fun! The kids didn't seem to mind much that it was a little chilly in the water (except Bryson who did it only once, very reluctantly). The rental company even let them keep the slide an extra day because of the rain, so the next day all the grown-ups tried it too. Can I just say - I want one! Happy Birthay, KK & Logan, and thanks for having us at your super fun party! Love you guys!!!

Touch-A-Truck

Last week, the boys & I made the drive to their cousins' house for their 4th birthday party. Along the way, we stopped in our old city for the annual Touch-A-Truck event. When we pulled into the parking lot, both boys squealed with excitement. They were practically panting, "Trucks! Trucks! Trucks!" However, Bryson's excitement quickly turned to fear when we got close enough to hear the blaring sirens and constant horn honking. He clung to me and wouldn't let go. I love holding Bryson (he's still my baby), but he's getting too heavy to carry around for an hour! Despite Bryson's nervousness, we still had lots of fun and Carter had a fantastic time. He happily jumped into almost every emergency vehicle, construction truck, and work truck on the lot. Just as we were leaving, we spotted a milk truck that was giving away free chocolate milk to anyone that wanted to walk into the refrigerated semi-trailer and grab some. Bryson decided that chocolate milk would be worth overcoming his fears and letting go of my neck for a few seconds, so he did go into ONE truck!

Boating

Kevin again here, Becky just left to celebrate Gaylee's belated birthday, I think. I know she said something about something and going somewhere, I am a good listner, I sit there and nod and say yes, whatever you want. I just don't actually listen though.

Anyway, back to the main point, BOATING SEASON is amoung us. Due to the rain, we were planing on trying a new lake, but when we showed up at our usual spot to pick up the boat, the water was glass with no debris. So we decided to do some cruising, but with air temp of 83 and water temp of 75, we decided to throw on the wetsuits an get in.

It was GGGRREEAAAT!!!! as the tiger would say ( the cereal one, not the golf one). I got a helmet and had a chance to test it out a few times, I tried a in air 180, but it was more like a bass jumping, a whole lot of flopping and water splashing but not really going anywhere.

Becky and the kids had a great time, maybe we will get the tube out on Monday if the weather holds.

Hope everyone reading will make some room in your schedules to come out with us, we will be going nearly every weekend, and if we were not planning and yall call, we will definitely go.

Have a safe and fun Memorial day.

It's Alive

I, Kevin, have taken over Becky's blog for this one.

Well after starting it nearly 4 weeks ago, right before the 22 straight days of monsoon season, we've had up here it is finally finished, well, close enough to post pics of. I had this dream of building a "tree house", more like a tree deck, but non the less, a fun structure for our kids as well as all that come over, since we moved here nearly a year ago. I am very glad it is finished so we can start to enjoy it now.

Here is the Mastercard List:

18 lbs of screws

350 lbs of concrete

410 sq feet of lumber

5 trees (they were already there)

Nascar qualification racing slick, Left Front tire to be exact

20 climbling holds

16 ft very fast slide, look at the fear in Carter's eyes

2 steering wheels

Tube intercom system

17 feet of chain

Binoculars

Tire pony

14 ft Firemans pole, which puts fear in my eyes

Tic-tac-toe (to be done this weekend)

The fact that my kids think that I am the best dad in the world: Priceless

The fact that I have all of my fingers and eyeballs: Bonus priceless

The fact that Becky's pheromone receptors go crazy for the smell of sweat and sawdust: Extra bonus priceless

The fact that birds poop on it: about 119.99 (the cost of a pellet gun) J/K?, unless they do it again then some one is getting a pellet in the beak.

The fact that everyone will hopefully have as much fun on it as we do: Super bonus priceless, which is good, but not better than Extra bonus priceless.

And this is the reason Becky does not let me post on her blog about our family :)

Visit from Australia

My brother & his wife came for a visit from Australia this week! They came for Chris's childhood best friend's wedding in San Fransisco. Since they were in the US, they came here for few days, too. The visit seemed too short, but since their kids couldn't come along on this trip, it needed to be a quick one. We all had so much fun together, and I can't wait to get together again soon. Carter fell in love with Uncle Chris and already misses him so much (he left just a few hours ago). They had tons of fun together just acting silly! It was so wonderful to see you, Chris & Sue!!! Come back soon - we love you!

Mother's Day Pics

My favorite picture place just opened up a new franchise in our new city, and I'm so excited! We got these great pictures taken just in time for our moms on Mother's Day.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was very special this year - I got to spend it with my mom! My parents drove up Saturday night to spend a few days with us. My brother & his wife would be flying in for a visit from Australia on Sunday night, and we were all looking forward to the time together. Sunday my parents visited our new church for the first time, and the boys made me great frames with their pictures inside in their preschool class (so cute!). Kevin & the boys made me a gift created with sticky packing peanuts and gave me some gift cards (It's like I always say - the best gift is the gift of shopping! ;-). Afterward, we tasted some of the fresh strawberries from my garden and played a silly game of Coo-Coo together. It was a great Mother's Day!

Happy Birthday, Chloe!

Last week, our friend Chloe turned 2 years old. We celebrated together at Chuck E. Cheese and had a blast! Happy birthday, Chloe!

Zoo

A few weeks ago, we made a trip with the boat to a lake a couple hours from here. Sounds easy, right? Maybe even relaxing? Wrong! It ended up being 1 hour to pick up our boat, 1 hour to get gas, air, and lunch, 2 hours to get to the lake, and 1 hour to find a public ramp where we could put in. Whew! Finally! Time to relax, right? Wrong again! After an hour & a half on the lake, it started to rain. Ugh! Half an hour to trailer and cover the boat, 2 hours back to storage, 1 hour to clean up the boat and eat dinner, and 1 hour to get back home. That ended up being 9 & 1/2 hours of traveling for 1 & 1/2 on the lake!!! Kevin & I vowed, then & there, that we would never again plan to travel for longer than we planned to be at our destination.

All that to say... we were only at the baby shower for about 2 hours yesterday, but we would be traveling for a total of 3. We weren't ready to leave town just yet!!! It was easy to decide where to spend the extra time - my favorite place in town - the zoo! The boys & I headed to the zoo even with the risk of rain looming overhead. We rode the tram all around the zoo, seeing many animals all along the way. We stopped to see a fabulous new dinosaur exhibit where very realistic looking robots towered 2 stories high! It was incredible! Carter thought they were "awesome", but Bryson was a little nervous. Look at how tiny Carter looks standing next to the life size giants! It started to rain at that point, but just a little, so we walked around a bit more. We stayed dry riding the carousel (Carter rode the cheetah; Bryson chose the "couch"). As we walked in the rain, Carter ran from covered area to covered area to stay dry but stopped at every sprayer to get wet. :-) The lions were feeling playful in the cool air, and put on a wonderful show for us right in front of the glass (this is rare as they usually hide behind their "mountain"). It was a great trip!