Who Sait It Was a Snow Campout?

So last weekend we decided to take the kids and the toys up to the mountains for a couple days on a family campout. The Weather Report did say it was going to be pretty windy, which it was.... We actually drove around for a while until we finally found a small valley that was fairly calm. So we unpacked all the gear, set up our tents and sleeping bags for the kids, when all of a sudden it started to SNOW!!! Nowhere did we read anything about snow. Maybe a little rain was mentioned, but NO snow. And it snowed for like an hour, til our tents were all white and the ground was frozen. We weren't exactly prepared for a snow trip, nor was our tent equiped for the snow, with a full mesh screen ceiling (for excellent air circulation), protected only by the rain fly. Let's just say it was a very windy and very cold night. Fortunately, we were somewhat prepared when it came to the proper sleeping accessories, which kept us from freezing, but we were all forced to sleep with our heads under the covers. It stayed uncomfortably cold all through the next morning, even with a good sized fire, so we decided to pack out after lunch and spend the rest of the campout in Grandma and Papa's family room. That's right... we ended up toasting our smores over Papa's new firepit and enjoying a little family room campout fun playing Guitar Hero on the Wii... No complaints here... we should do it again soon...

The 2-minute pop up tent....Right?........

Wrong!!!! This one took a few tries to get it up right...

Comfortable?

Allie wasn't liking the cold too much.

Ummm.... Thanks Jaime... :)

Camp cookies!

Camp clothing accessories...

Camping in comfort and style!

Camp Crybaby...

The 1% of the trip Kaleb's not crying.... A very rare scene indeed...

Cuddlin' with Grandma...

Ohhhhhh.... so cute!

Rylie going for a ride on Momma.

True luxury Family Room Camping

Ethan and Allie discovering hidden talents...

Papa rockin' to a little Bon Jovi...

Lemonade Season

Last week we came home from Grandma and Grandpa Great's with LOADS of lemons. They have the absolute BIGGEST lemon tree I have ever seen, which kicks out thousands and thousands of lemons each year. We squeezed, and squeezed, and squeezed until our hands were sore. The freezer's now packed with enough lemon juice to last us for a year. We filled the 5 gallon camping thermos full of lemonade for the kids to drink to their heart's content.

Campin' with the Scouts...

This week, Jay Leonard and I took the scouts on their first overnighter in Wickenburg. The boys learned how to play with knives and axes, swing from ropes, and become pyromaniacs all in a single campout. Pretty impressive. I introduced Jay to my new, 30 second - self inflating rechargeable mattresses that I picked up at Sam's...which stayed perfectly pumped all night. Well worth the mullah ($). We slept like babies... that is until some nightmarish bugle starts trumpeting into my almost perfect night's sleep at 5:45am! It wouldn't have been so bad, I guess, had we not stayed up so late telling stories and peeing on the kids tents...the old flashlight, stick, and water bottle routine - in case anyone was worried. Just don't tell the kids. The kids split the meals and were responsible for cooking for the rest of the troop for either dinner or breakfast, but somewhere in the middle of cooking and seeing the other kids eating while they were cooking, caused them to make themselves a plate, sit by the fire, and let the food on the stove continue to burn. Needless to say... Jay and I ended up cooking "the rest of" breakfast and "the rest of" dinner... We need to work a little on the whole clean up part, too... It was a fun trip.

Spring Training

I have to say that it is really nice to be able to walk to this pretty field. On Friday Brent's office was moving so he had to be done with work by noon. I know, such a bummer. He can home and grabbed Ethan and they walked 5 minutes to watch a spring training game. They had a great time. They sat out in the grass so Ethan could run around and try and catch a fly ball. They didn't come home with a ball but they still had a great time.

Ethan was patiently waiting for a ball.

Sea World

While we were in San Diego we spent 2 days at Sea World. We had great weather and there was no one there. It was fun to just see everything and not have to fight the crowds.

Funny kids

This was at the 4D show. The glasses are super attractive!

I took this picture after we got off the Atlantis ride. As you can probably tell they are soaked. I have to say that Brent was a real trooper. He was sitting in the front and he got so wet. He might as well of jumped in a swimming pool. He never dried out. When we left the park that night he was so wet and cold. We appreciated him sacrificing himself for the rest of us. Poor Him!

Good thing Papa was there to go on all the spinning rides.

In case you are wondering where Rylie was in all the pictures, we left her at home with Uncle Mark and Aunt Jaymi. Thanks for watching her guys.

Beach

This weekend we decided to take the kids to San Diego. Brent was planning on taking me out of town for my birthday, but we decided to do a family vacation instead. We were excited that my parents wanted to come too. The day we got there we checked into our hotel and then headed to the beach. It was a little chilly so I figured my kids could just walk in the water and look for shells. I was very wrong! It only took about 10 minutes before they were all totally soaked and freezing to death. Maybe that was poor planning on my part. They did have a great time and we came home with lots of shells.

Wicked... Here We Come

I have been meaning to do a post about this for a couple of weeks. I am so excited, we are going to see Wicked!!! YEA!! This is one production that I have not seen and I am so excited, I can't wait. It's not coming until July, but we were able to get seats on the 11th row dead center. Thanks to my mom for coordinating all the tickets. It will be a fun girls night out.

Goodbye 20's ....Hello 30

This day has finally come. I turned 30 today. Wow it's even hard to type it. Where has the time gone. I feel like I am frozen at about 23. The truth is that I am now 30, I have 4 kids, and have been married for almost 10 years. Life just seems to be flying by. I do feel really lucky today to have so many blessings. I had a great day! Thanks to all:)

Trucks Trucks and More Trucks

On Saturday we took the kids to a truck event and Glendale Community College. This was the first year that we have gone, but I guess they do it every year. They have lots of different kinds of big trucks that the kids get to climb in and honk the horns. We went with Brooke and her kids and Spencer and Lizeth came to. The kids all had a great time. Rylie wasn't a fan of all the loud air horns in the semi trucks. Next year we need to bring ear plugs. It was a lot of fun and the best part was that it was free.

Kaleb loved climbing up in all the trucks. He just didn't like the loud horn.

Allie was sitting in the police car acting all official.



Ethan got to try on the vest that the soldiers wear over in Iraq. It was so heavy I was worried that our little light weight might tip over.

The kids favorite part was seeing the Weinermobile. They got to go inside and check it all out.

I told my kids that when I was a kid Brad and my Dad would put Loni and I in the bucket and drive us around. Good times!

This picture made me laugh so hard. I don't know if you can tell but Landon is doing the gangsta pose. I love it.

Fun with Friends

Last weekend we had our friends over for dinner. Jennifer had a new recipe that she had been wanting to share for a Lemony chicken piccata. Which by the way was so delicious. Thanks for the new recipe. We will be having it again really soon. The kids played together and ate outside at the BBQ. It was a fun night. Thanks guys for hanging out with us.

I snapped this pic of the boys and I have to laugh. Kaleb and Conner are totally content to be cruising around in a PINK BARBIE JEEP!