Spring break fun and more!

Ok, I know I’ve been slacking lately. March just got really crazy, and April of course has gotten away from me to!

Lets see . . . Where to start. March I decided to give Amara her first “haircut”. If you can even call it that. She had this distinct rightwards slant on the back of her hair, so while I was cutting the boys’ hair I thought I would even it out some. It was literally just snipping a line across the back.  Of course now it slants the other direction!!  So I’ve decided that I need to stop trying to use scissors to cut hair. I do ok on the boys because I just use clippers. So Amara will get her first taste of a Hairdresser soon enough. No more mommy cuts for this girl! 

The big event for March though was a last minute trip to Indy for me. My mom was going through some infections and ended up in emergency care. So I came out to spend the week in the hospital with her. Showing her updated pictures of her grandkids, and funny videos on you tube. (there’s not a whole lot to do while confined to a hospital bed for 2 weeks!) but we still had a good time! The one bad part about living in Colorado is that I can’t do that more often. She is healing nicely and is now in a new (Better) facility. The care she’s receiving is a lot better than what she was getting. At least it is now. And we (my sister, Rodger, and some other close friends) seem to have a better communication system in place too, to make sure it stays that way. She is now at University Heights, next to Community South Hospital for those of you in Indy that would like to visit her. She could use some company, any transition is difficult. We are just glad that she’s up and moving about again!

After I got home from Indy I was able to see one of my FAVORITE country singers!!!  Garth Brooks!!  He came to Denver and a friend of mine scored some tickets for us! Cameron doesn’t really do the country music thing, but he loves me, and I’m glad I was able spend some time with him after being gone for a week. It was an absolutely AMAZING concert! Even if we didn’t have the greatest seats, I wouldn’t have passed up being there for anything! 

Spring Break was an amazing week!  Riley had off the end of March beginning of April, and with Easter falling at the end of the week, Cam was able to tack on a few vacation days to make it a quality family time!   The beginning of the week we had some GORGEOUS weather! Nice, sunny, 70 degree days . . . what spring should be like! So we made sure to take advantage and went on a hike with our adopted grandma, Jan. She’s as outdoorsy as we are, and we love spending time with her. She teaches skiing in the winter, so we don’t get to see as much of her during those months, but nice weather means more time with Jan! We can’t wait!   

After our hike, the weather wanted to remind us that winter wasn’t quite over. And it snowed.  So, we had some INDOOR fun! For some reason we always take a trip to the indoor pool in Greeley over spring break, and this year wasn’t any different. Daddy was able to come with us and we had a lot of fun! Jayce is getting more bold, and went down the waterslides all by himself (the little kid sized ones, not quite tall enough for the big ones). Riley spent the whole time in the lazy river or on the big water slides. Even Daddy took a few turns! We had a lot of fun for sure! And everyone took great naps that day.  (sorry for the blurry phone pics, I'm hoping to get a quality waterproof camera before this summer so we can get some good swimming pictures!)

After getting all that snow, we thought it would be fun to go sledding one last time! So we packed up the sleds and headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. There is an area there that is a former ski area, called Hidden Valley. Because of the nicely cleared runs already there, they turned it into a snow play area. The little bunny hill has become a good sledding hill, but we kinda skipped out on the rules and headed to one of the abandoned runs to sled. I’m not sure who had more fun, the kids, or Cameron! We couldn’t get Amara to go down. I think Jayce did only once. Riley only did once on the sled, saying it was too fast for him and he slid on his butt the rest of the time. But Mom and Dad had a fun time! After about an hour and a half of sledding on all the fresh powder, we headed to Starbucks for some hot chocolate! It was a nice treat for everyone! We may have to make this one a Spring Break Tradition as well! 

Easter was another nice day (thank goodness). We didn’t ever make it to an egg hunt that week, so we did one in the backyard as usual. This year I did the hiding a little different though. Last year we separated out the egg colors so that each kid had 2 colors and they hunted only for their colors. It worked out great because then everyone got the same amount and Amara can find the easy ones without the bigger kids taking them first. So we did that again, but this year I let the boys hide them for their younger sibling. So Jayce went first and hid all of Amara’s eggs. He did great making them easy (unintentionally) for her, which was my plan. Then Riley hid Jayce’s eggs. Making them a little harder, but not too hard for him. Then I hid all of Riley’s. Of course making them as hard as I could! J They all had fun, and everyone did good finding all their eggs. (the plus side to this is we know exactly how many eggs were hidden so we can make sure to find them all and there aren’t any surprises 2 months later! 

The next weekend was Cameron’s first race of the year. It was just a little “Fun Run” put on by his work, but even a 10K is an accomplishment in my mind! He did great, coming in at 1 hour flat. He’s not signed up to do many races this year right now, but I’m sure the running will continue. He was hoping to do a run up Pike’s Peak, but that one filled up before he got his registration in. There’s always next year. So he’s working toward some other runs in the fall, and I’m sure he’ll find some little ones to keep him busy this summer too. 

We didn’t do much for my birthday again this year. A dinner at a new restaurant in town, Tom & Chee (because all they serve is TOMato soup and grilled CHEEse, and yes it’s really good! There’s a few different kinds of soup – chunky, creamy, basil, etc.; and more types of grilled cheese than I knew possible! Along with a “build your own” choosing your types of cheese and add-ons.). And then Cam made me Brownies instead of cake this year – YUM!!!  Because I was talking earlier that week about how we hadn’t made brownies in a while. My gift this year . . . A chest Freezer!!  I know, you are probably thinking, what? That’s like getting a blender for a wedding gift, no one wants that! But I DO!!  I’m so excited! Being the grocery shopper (and coupon clipper) in the family made me realize that we could save a lot more money (and gas to the grocery) if I had a freezer to buy things in bulk when they are on sale. No too mention that we have 3 hungry kids to feed and I feel like I have to run to the grocery 3 times a week just to keep bread and milk in stock! (thankfully my friend Trista only lives a few miles down the road and her chickens keep us pretty well stocked in the egg department!) So I’ve been asking for a freezer for a while now. It’s supposed to be delivered any day now, so I’ll update again when it gets here. That is providing we can fit it in the basement! 

Last update I have is our Butterflies! Jan got the kids some caterpillars for Easter, the kind you can watch grow into butterflies. So we watched them eat and grow, spin their chrysalises (not cocoons – they are butterflies) and they are now emerging as butterflies! We started out with 5 caterpillars, and 4 have emerged already. (one didn’t make it) And we are waiting for the last one to emerge. The kids have been so excited watching them grow, and come out. Luckily they started emerging on Sunday, so we were home and they were able to witness one come out! It was really neat!

Well, now we are all caught up on March and April!!  Yay!!  Next month is another busy month, so I’ll try my best to keep up with the updates and photos. Between all the end of school fun, and summer starting (not to mention Riley turning 8) it’s going to be crazy. They kids are already itching for summer, and we have a lot of fun things planned!