Zoo Days

Over the past month we have frequented the Phoenix Zoo several times. We needed to take advantage of the good weather and cool temperatures while we had them! Sure enough, spring is coming to a quick end with 99 degrees this coming Tuesday. I'm glad we took the time to go a lot and put that membership to good use. Here are some fun pictures of our adventures.

A few hours at the cave fountain park at the back of the zoo. Cameron took Cason down the slides and shared his towel. It was super cute. They had a blast!

The Rose Garden that I love. I waited and waited for that thing to bloom. It finally did in spectacular fashion!
The fish pond that the boys love.

We had fun at the zoo with J'Nett, Chris, Blake and Jacob on April 23rd. It was a beautiful day and we had a picnic lunch by the lake. The kids had fun riding the carousel at the end of the day.

Cason..."Mom, I gotta bonk!"

Oh the joys of boys...... Not to be outdone, Cason thought he'd follow in Channing's footsteps yesterday. Splat! Faceplant on the cement. His head took the brunt of the fall. Happened just 1 minute from the doorway of the Science Center. Thankfully they had ice!

Our Easter Fun!

A quick picture at church before eating any candy!

On Saturday afternoon we dyed Easter eggs. It was the first year that Ashley Torres wasn't here to help out (a tradition that started before Channing was even born). We missed having her here. I think this is the first time I actually made the dye! Ashley always did it before. Somehow I managed to snap a few pictures of the kids making a mess all while trying to help them NOT crack the eggs (usually Ashley's job)! We only had a few mishaps..... hopefully she finds her way here next year!!!

The boys had lots of fun dyeing their hands.....

We snapped these pictures at home right after church.

The boys were so excited for the "Easter Bunny" to hide the eggs! They could hardly wait! When they woke up in the morning though, there were no eggs to find. We told the bunny to wait until after church for the egg hunt. (of course the boys didn't know that). We decided to milk it though and we told the boys that the house was too messy for the bunny to hide eggs. :) So they cleaned it up quickly (faster than ever before)! :) Luckily they did a good job and the bunny was able to visit while we were at church. There were real eggs and plastic ones filled with candy. If they found all 12 of their real eggs then they got a prize bag. Channing and Cameron were very nice to Cason and they made sure that he found enough eggs. They'd give him one that they found or show him where to find them. Bob helped him out too, but he did pretty well for a little guy with lots of competition. Usually the bunny hides eggs downstairs only, but this year they were all over the house making for an extra long hunt. Loads of fun for all! I laughed my head off. Man those boys can run when they want to!

The Good, the bad and the ER

Our wild and crazy week started out pretty good. It seemed pretty normal with piano and voice lessons coming and going and karate for the boys. Fast forward to Friday and watch the landslide of events unfold......

Good Friday - Channing gets a 1 day school vacation...

9am - we go to piano students house (their car broke down so I taught the 3 siblings at home).
10am - Channing gets bounced hard on the trampoline in their backyard and hits the bouncy part of the trampoline with his face. Crying ensues. Quits after a while.
10:40am - Driving home, Channing complains about his head hurting.
12:30 - after lunch, loading up to go to the Children's Museum, Cameron decides to practice one of his favorite karate kicks in the van....it hits Channing squarely in the forehead where he hit earlier in the day... we take a little break and give Channing some motrin for the headache that he now has.
1pm- Channing perks up a bit and we go to the Children's Museum. We had fun! (more on that later) Channing didn't run around too much, but he played and seemed ok most of the time.
4pm - leaving the Children's Museum - Channing is holding his head and saying that it hurts and he's crying
4:30-motrin at home - more crying - now getting more hysterical
5pm - Bob takes Channing to ER
6:30pm- Danya and Cameron and Cason go to Disney on Ice without Channing (more on that later)
7:30pm - Channing is released from ER because he now seems fine (motrin must have kicked in)
10:30pm -Channing wakes out of a sound sleep and starts vomiting
11:30pm - he does it again and says he's a little dizzy
midnight - Bob & Channing head back to the ER to spend the night waiting in the lobby and hallway for a CatScan. At some point they get a catscan and wait for the results.
6:30am - They return home - Bob having pulled an allnighter goes to bed.

Final Verdict........Mild Concussion for Channing

How's that for a Good Friday??? Not sure it was all that good for Channing.

Oh, by the way, he seems fine today.

The Inevitable...

Well, we knew this day would come. We really thought we'd have more time, but apparently time is up! Bob was laid-off last week. We had an inkling it was coming, but thought he would probably get to stay for the rest of the year. At least his company was nice and gave him a 3-month notice so he has time to look for a job and we won't have to do anything to terribly drastic at this point.

So if any one out there knows of a job for a computer consultant/engineer/programmer (and all that computer jazz), let us know. Time is up on June 30th. After that....who knows.....

Children's Museum Fun!

We've had a great time hanging out with J'Nett, Chris & Jacob over the past few days. We've enjoyed a few fun meals together, some play time in the backyard, and we went to the Easter Pageant at the temple in Mesa.

On Friday night we took the kids to the Phoenix Children's Museum. It was the First Friday Free night and when we arrived we were told it was about a 2-hour wait to get in. So we took a number and left and came back after hanging out at McDonald's Play Place for a while.

The Children's Museum was really cute! It was super crowded at full capacity, but the kids were still able to do a lot. They really enjoyed the noodle forest (made out of hanging pool noodles) and the Whoosh exhibit that blew scarves through pipes and then blew them out at the top. It was really cool! Cason also loved the play grocery store. He knew just what to do and grabbed a cart as quickly as he could and filled it up. He took it right over to the girl that was playing the checker and unloaded it like a pro. I think he's practiced at the store a lot with me!

We've enjoyed listening to conference and I enjoyed a fun night out with the girls while the guys were at the priesthood session (something I haven't done in a long time)!