April Showers Bring May Flowers

Life is just going by. We are busy doing lots of things, but not accomplishing anything really. I can’t even remember what we’ve been up to unless I took pictures of it. That’s pretty pathetic, I know. That’s why I should write more often.

I cleaned my house and mowed the lawn…I remember that!!

I popped the tent trailer up in the driveway yesterday to get it all set for camping. There was some water inside. I don’t know where that would have come from, but I’m going to have to figure that out. Right now it is raining, so I’ll have to wait for it to dry out again before I can put it back down again. Oops.

 Last weekend we went to the Tulip Festival street fair. This whole month the tulips are blooming out in the fields, so it is a huge tourist attraction for the area. We haven’t gotten out there to get our annual family pictures yet, but we did enjoy the street fair. It was just me and the girls. We liked seeing all the crafty wares everyone was selling and eating naughty foods like caramel popcorn and french fries. (Or lick ketchup if you are Anika!)

 

I got to hang out with Mike’s sister Heather on Monday. We celebrated her belated birthday with lunch and nursery shopping…the kind with plants! She is a smart plant lady. I got some fun stuff for my front flower bed. I did not inherit the green thumb from my mom, but I give it a good try.

On Tuesday I got to go to a friends house for lunch. She taught me to crochet a “grannie” square. It was lots of fun!

Kelby has had the WASL the last two weeks. That is the state’s standardized test. She didn’t get nervous about it this year. I hope she did okay. That is all done now.

Michael and I got to go out on a date last night! My friend Jennifer  came over and watched the girls. She even made a tasty chicken dinner for them. We are spoiled to have such a nice friend! We went out to dinner at Olive Garden and out to a movie. We haven’t gone to a movie in a LONG time. This was a good one that I’d recommend. It was called “Knowing’. Very apocalyptic!

The weather has been beautiful all week, but today is raining. Mike doesn’t think it is fair that it is nice all week while he has to work and gross when he is off. He’s got to run 14 miles in it! Poor guy.

So we are being lazy today. I’m still in my pjs, since it is almost 11 am. The girls are bored and want me to entertain them. Here is what they have found to do:

Yes, that is the dog in the backpack! Poor guy. He doesn’t really seem to mind though. Maybe I’ll go get them started on a crafting project. That sounds like fun to me!

Love to all! ~shawna

Another Week!

This was a weird week for me. I’m not sure, how to enter back into real life after a vacation. We were thrown off with the sunshine that was here when we got home. That made me get out in it and play a little. We rode our bikes to the park again on Tuesday. We had library books to return, so we visited the “library park”. The big girls have become big fans of the books “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”. They just love them. I guess they are pretty funny.

The clouds started rolling in on Wednesday, but I stayed busy. I took  apart our rotting BBQ and replaced the inner parts so it would quit flaming out the sides and actually cook something! It was a big pain, but I am so happy to have it done. It saved us from buying a new BBQ and maybe we’ll get a couple more years out of it now. Then, I had to go out and buy a bunch of stuff to grill for dinners. Yum!

We all also started cleaning up the yard. Tegan helped by raking up the leaves in the yard because Michael offered her some money. She is a hard worker! Things are starting to look up in our yard. Yeah spring!

I’m in charge of taking a class photo of Anika’s preschool class. I put together a cute photo collage of the class and their individual pictures. The teacher said I could sell them to the other parents for a profit if I wanted!

On Friday I had to take Kelby down for her dentist appointment. She had to have her exposed root planed down a bit to see if that would help her gums to grow back over it. Her gums on that side are very tender and unhealthy. Now I’m going to be brushing her teeth for awhile to see if I can help. At least her appointment went really well this time. They just hooked her right up to the Nitrous and she managed through it without any freaking out or tears.

On Saturday we went as a family out to the Tulip Run. We all took part this time. This was a 2 mile run/walk. Mike ran and got a second place metal in his age bracket. Kelby actually made it running the whole way! She said she didn’t walk at all. She had her headphones on and jogged off on her own. Tegan tried too and ended up finding friends to walk with. Anika and I walked behind. It was a fun family adventure. It felt good to get in some exercise.

After dinner on Saturday we dyed some Easter eggs. The girls always enjoy that so much. It is a nice, easy, and cheap craft to do! We did spill some dye on the carpet under the kitchen table though.

On Sunday we went to church and then to Grandma and Grandpa Wright’s house. All the cousins did their Easter Egg hunt first. It was simplified this year…no candy! I thought it was wonderful having no candy. We had a yummy, simple lunch and Heather brought a delightful carrot cake. That was plenty of sweetness and the kids weren’t constantly asking about candy. The girls got Easter baskets from Mike and I that were “bath” themed. That way the got lots of stuff they would use and not a bunch of junk food. I gave them each a chocolate bunny, so they weren’t totally deprived.

Now onto another week that will surely zip past. We have only 8 weeks of school left! I’m even in the process of registering Anika for preschool for next year! Countdown to summer…hopefully the weather will brighten up for us again this week.

Here’s a couple fun things I made:

Andrea…check out my computer now!

At the Park

Yes, we brought the sun back to Washington with us. I haven’t felt this feeling in Washington in so long! What feeling? The feeling of wanting to go outside…the desire to work in the garden or go to the park or go for a bike ride. It is so weird! Yeah for Spring!

The girls finished their homework after school and talked me into taking them to the park. We road our bikes. The park isn’t too close and we have to take some back roads to get there, but it is worth it.

I guess we better go home so I can make Mike some dinner!

I didn’t accomplish anything else today. I kinda sat at the computer and just spaced out…catching up on emails and reading blogs, not to mention playing on Facebook. It was a real waste of time. I guess I did some laundry at least.

Maybe tonight I’ll work on my sister’s birthday present…Happy Birthday Andrea! I’m working on the birthday present I was supposed to give her LAST year. Pretty lame, I know. She seems to be understanding though. This year’s present will make it to her before last year’s! Love you sis!

Enjoying Family

Time on our trip is flying by. We’ve already had so much fun. The trip will be about over by the time I actually post this.

March 29

On Sunday night we rolled into town to find my sister and her family at my mom and dad’s house so we got to meet my new baby niece, Makayla, right away. She is so beautiful and Gabriel is such a big boy now. He’s almost three, but he looks and acts much bigger.

After dinner, my girls wanted to get right in the pool even though it was dark. Since they didn’t get any pool any earlier in the day we decided to see how brave they could be. The water isn’t that warm yet.

The girls also enjoyed meeting my parent’s dog Harley. He’s a little miniature pincher. They’ve been carrying him around whenever they are not in the pool.

March 30

On Monday morning we took my mom out into the middle of the desert to do some geocaching. The weather is perfect. It is about 80 degrees. We went searching for this geocache among the cacti and rocks. On the first one we only made it so far before we all stepped on some nasty cactus balls. Tegan got one stuck in her shin and it was really hard to get the last spine out. Harley even got one in his paw. The girls didn’t want to go any further, so Mike went after that cache on his own.

The next cache was a little easier to find. It was a in a large pile of rocks. We looked and looked before we found it after a while without any pokes.

After that we went back home for a swim. Once my sister and family made it up to Maricopa, we packed the adults in the (except Grampa) in my mom’s car and drove up to Phoenix to do a little shopping. We found some cute buys. Grampa let the girls and swim and watch movies. They also had fun playing with Gabriel.

That evening my dad built a fire in their fire bowl and let the kids roast marshmallows. What a sweet treat! Andrea introduced us to the show “Chuck” because she thinks the main character is like Michael. He’s a smart computer guy. We rented the first DVD from the first season.

March 31

On Tuesday we got up and once we were ready for the day, we went over to a local park to find some geocaches. We only found one at the park because the other was missing. Then we found one in a nearby neighborhood. Of course we did a little more swimming that afternoon.

At about 2:30 we got in the car and drove to Gilbert. My mom volunteers with Make-A-Wish and one of her wish girls had asked for and received a horse. The family graciously let us visit the horse and the girls got to go for a ride! The 15-year-old girl, Jordan, led the girls around and was so kind and friendly. Ginger was a beautiful and kind horse. All the other horses at the stable were attacking us because they wanted some love too!

Then we got to go to Gigi and Papa’s house for dinner. She made some terrific Mexican food (I need that recipe, because the girl’s loved it!) My Grampa has a beautiful garden that he works hard in. Mike worked on their computer and got it reformatted. The girls wanted to swim so bad there, but the water was a chilly 65 degrees. I let them give it a try. They went down the water slide a few times and they got out. My gramma and grampa have an orange grove in their backyard and the oranges are ripe and tasty.

Andrea and Victor came back to my parents house after that and we played games and watched another episode of Chuck.

April 1

On Wednesday morning we got up and went to the bowling alley. My mom plays on a league, so it was a good opportunity to try it as a family for the first time. Anika beat her sisters with a 61! I only got 100. I guess real bowling is a lot harder than Wii bowling.

Mom had to do some work that day, so while she headed back home, we drove up to Peoria to experience a Mariners spring training game! As we drove into the lot, someone offered us a free VIP parking ticket because we have Washington plates! We bought lawn seating tickets that were only $6 each. It was a great place to sit. You just bring a blanket and sit behind the outfield on a sloped lawn. That made is nicer for the girls because they could wander and play around. Mike even got to see Ken Griffey Jr. hit a homerun. I was in the bathroom with Anika at the time, so I missed it. Mike bought us each a hat, so now we are lookin’ pretty cute. We left the game in the eighth inning because we didn’t want to get stuck in traffic. In the end I guess the Indians and Mariners tied at 12. It was a nice high scoring game and the girls got their first exposure to Mariners baseball.

We ate $lunch$ at the ball park, but the big hit was the slushies, (or “flushies”, as Anika called them) that we got at the Circle K on the way back to my parents’.

We got back to Mom and Dad’s house in time for another swim and dinner. Andrea and family came again and we played more games and watched the last episode of “Chuck” on the disc. It was nice to just hang and be a family. Gabriel was very impressed with how his Uncle Michael could make legos disappear and then end up coming out of his ear!

The next morning we packed up all our stuff and loaded the van. The girls got one more swim in before we left Mom and Dad’s house. Mom came with us and took us out to lunch at "Abuelo’s”. The food was delicious, but we ate too much!

We didn’t make it to Gigi and Papa’s house until 2:00pm. We hung out as the girls attempted to get into the cold pool again. They survived a few more trips down the waterslide and were done. Anika never made it down the slide though…no meat on her bones to keep her warm.

We had a delicious dinner of steak, noodles, and salad. The girls enjoyed the Easter baskets that a “bunny” left for them at Gigi & Papa’s house. We said goodbye to my mom and dad when they left to head home. Mike and I tried to make a movie and left the girls at the house, but we didn’t make it in time to catch one. We wandered through the shopping center there instead and left Gigi & Papa put the girls to bed for us.

April 3

This morning we enjoyed our breakfast and planned our route north before saying goodbye to Gigi & Papa and left loaded down with fresh oranges and grapefruit. All you northern friends…stop by once we get home if you want some!

We are now currently heading north through Flagstaff to find the Grand Canyon. We stopped off at Mantezuma’s Castle and that was pretty neat. It was an Indian house built into a rock cave.

We stopped in Flagstaff to pick up our “Route 66” postcard. We’ll send that into church! (Our pastor is doing a “Route 66” themed series on all the 66 books of the Bible.)

As we were driving toward the Grand Canyon we saw a looming black cloud on the horizon dropping what we thought was tons of rain. However, by the time we made it to the town at the entrance of the park, it was SNOWING! We quick changed into pants and layered on our jackets. The wind was crazy whipping over the canyon and when we stopped at the overlooks we were absolutely freezing.

Even though the clouds made the view a bit hazy, it was still incredible! I am amazed at the width and depth of the canyon. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it from this view point. I know I saw the Grand Canyon when I was a kid, but I don’t remember it very well.

We froze through a few stops. The girls were too cold to really appreciate the view, but we took a lot of pictures and I think they’ll remember it still…maybe more for the fact we saw snow in
Arizona than for the Grand Canyon.

April 4

So we decide to drive through the night. I wish we could find a Wi-fi connection so I could post this, but if you are Mike’s friend on Facebook, you already know what is going on.

We had to decided between two routes and decided to go on through Fredonia instead of Page. Apparently I am not a good navigator relating to weather on routes. I don’t know if the other would have been better, but it couldn’t be worse. We hit snow at 6000 ft…yes that is very high. We continued through the snow until we hit the summit at almost 8000 ft. Just before the summit everyone was having trouble driving. Our van really handled well. There was a semi- crashed and anther truck stopped on the road almost blocking the road. There was barely enough room, but Mike snuck us through so we could keep going! We hit quite a bit of snow on a lot of the road through Utah. Mike drove us through that and I took over once we got back to the freeway.

We stopped just outside of Salt Lake City for breakfast at Denny’s at 4:30 am. Mike had to look up a geocache on his laptop so we could find one in Utah before leaving the state.

We stopped at Sunnyside, WA at the Darigold “Dairy Fair” where they make cheese and Mike got to purchase some cheese curds which are one of his favorite forms of cheese.

Right now we are completely stopped on the Freeway heading over the pass right before Seattle. We made it through so much just to be sitting here for the last 45 minutes! Please just let us through…we are almost home.

….……………………….

We made it! Our vacation was wonderful, but it is always great to have home to come back to. We are all pretty tired. The girls are eating a “dinner” of mac & cheese at 9:45 pm because they slept for the last three hours in the car.