Just Kids

We went to How to Train a Dragon in 3-D yesterday. Thankfully Rochelle watched Joshua for us so we could all see it. Joshua doesn't like movies yet. As we were putting on the glasses I said that Eli's head was too small. The glasses kept sliding off. Ethan said "I think I must look like Mr. Potato Head with these glasses on." They did manage to keep their glasses on most of the time. We all liked the show.

Joshua likes to answer "me" whenever he can. It must have started with "Who wants some ice cream?" Now he says it anytime there is an appropriate question. "Who spilled water on the floor?" "Me!" Yes, he is often right.
Some of our other favorite words of Joshua's are: don't (he rarely says no, just don't), noisy, Move!, backwards, counter, reach, gross, rock (meaning ice) and the kids names (Lele, alson, caca, than, and li).

Spring Break

The first day of spring break we went to the Bean Museum. The boys had never been. We printed a scavenger hunt before we went. The boys enjoyed finding the animals from the pictures. Eli's favorite animal was the big brown bear. Ethan liked all of them. We were able to see a live animal show. It was entertaining. Afterwards we all touched the turtle, snake and lizard. After eating lunch at Wendy's we drove home in a sporatic snowstorm, our second one in April.

On Wednesday we decided to get away from the snow and cold and headed for Mesquite. On the way down we went to Zion National Park. We saw a squirrel and several tiny waterfalls as we hiked.
Joshua liked climbing on this big rock.

We hiked to lower Emerald pool. This was the waterfall going into the pool. It was a little cold that day so the kids didn't like being by the waterfall.

On Thursday we played at the park, played games at Grandma's house, went in the hot tub and got ice cream cones.

Friday we went to the Clark County Fair. We saw many farm animals -- including piglets, small goats that they pet, ducks and chickens with crazy feathers, guinea pigs, and a turkey. The local zoo brought in a camel, an armadillo, a South American racoon and even a capuchin monkey. Ethan's favorite animal of the day was the monkey.

We also went to two shows -- a frisbee dog show and a lumberjack show. They were both good.

After that we were too hot so we went back to Grandma's and cooled off. Charles, Cherilyn and Allison went to the movie. Grandma took the rest of us to the Casablanca pool. All the kids went down the waterslide, Eli and Joshua with Mom.

Saturday morning before we headed home the boys, Erica, Grandma and I went for a walk. The purpose was to walk the dog, but also to find golf balls. (Grandpa and Grandma live by a golf course. Grandpa's record number of finds in a day is six.) Ethan and Eli each found one and Joshua found some trucks in the dirt. Grandma, Ethan and Eli went past the house for a longer walk. They were very glad to announce upon their return that they had beat Grandpa, finding seven golf balls.

When Joshua started breaking down on the drive home we stopped at Cove Fort. It was a wonderful diversion. We were all glad we stopped.

I am going to attempt to blog again. I like it, but it too often falls off my to-do list.

Thanksgiving was great. We went to Arizona and stayed at my brother's house. We also visited our good friends, the Niu's. It was warm there and we all had a good time with family. We drove it all in one day and it was not the torture that I anticipated. Though I packed and planned many activities, we got through it with a portable DVD player and snacks.
Christmas time was busy with many fun activities. We spent Christmas at home.

The next notable thing (that I remember) was Ethan lost his first tooth on March 2nd. It had been loose for a couple days. He was at a friend's house and it came out. Ten days later he lost his second tooth at school. He had an adorable grin for a couple of weeks (which was never photographed very well). Now he has two new teeth coming in.

Charles and I went to Hawaii in March. We stayed for ten days. It was very nice to get away and to enjoy the beach and nice (for the most part) weather in Hawaii. We hiked, saw waterfalls, kayaked, went to the Polynseian Cultural Center, saw the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, ate good food and spent time at the beach -- reading, swimming and snorkeling. The children enjoyed having both sets of grandparents and their cousin Rochelle watch them while we were gone.

We visited the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, Utah. One of the favorites was the sting rays which Allison and Eli touched. They also liked the sharks.