Camping

Over spring break weekend the weather warmed up and we decided to try a little camping trip in Palo Duro Canyon.  While I have to admit this trip went smoother than our last adventure in VA at Chickahominy, it was still a trip with our boys.  

When we arrived I pulled out the food and Micah sat at a table downing Sprite and Root Beer while Jared and I got the tent up.  Luke spent the time finding cactus, then dragging Micah over to look at the cactus and shouting at Micah, "Don't touch it!"  From the very beginning we were definitely the loudest site.  Once the tent was up and ready Luke did the air pump to blow up mattresses, and Micah drank some more Sprite.  But once everything was ready and put into place we headed out for a little hike.

It really was so pretty!

After our short hike we drove over to the bathrooms-- that's right.  Drove.  For some idiotic reason there were no restrooms in the camping area, just in the picnic area up the road.  I can bet there's a lot of pee in the dirt around the campsites.  Luke sprayed a few spots (and told his teacher all about it when he returned to school!)  Anyway, after the bathroom stop we headed back to our site to roast marshmallows and hit the sack.

The boys ready for bed:

It was a pretty good night, except that it was much colder than expected.  Micah fussed in his sleep quite a bit until we pulled him into bed with us.  Then he fell right into a deep sleep.  He woke up bright and early hunting for his blankets (at the top of his voice!) and singing (also at the top of his voice!) which woke Luke up (at the top of his voice,) and we decided we better head out before a lynching party was organized.  We drove over to the picnic area to eat breakfast and go for another walk before cleaning up camp and heading home.

The Joseph Smith Story (Luke's Version)

I have to preface this by saying that Luke can't remember "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."  I can't imagine why.  Anyway, he calls our church "The Church on Coulter Street," (which is where our building is located.)

On Tuesday morning Luke found his karaoke microphone.  He grabbed it, along with his Book of Mormon Stories, and commenced giving a talk.  It went pretty much word for word like this:

"Joseph Smith wanted to know which church to go to.  One day he saw a bright light, and there was Heavenly Father and Jesus.  They said, 'Joseph Smith, you need to go to the church on Coulter Street!' "

Well, he got part of the story right.

Sometimes...

I think scenes of my life would fit really well on a "What's wrong with this picture?" page in a Highlights magazine.

Ready for School

Micah can't wait to go to school!  When Luke grabs his backpack for school, Micah wants his own.  Many days Micah cries when Luke walks inside the school doors.  He yells, "Micah go school!  Micah go school!"  I've told him that he will go to school when he is three.  Apparently that's too long a wait.  Micah wants to go NOW.  AND HE WANTS TO RIDE THE BUS!

Spring Break

Luke's spring break was the week of March 11-15.  For the first time since I can remember we got through a "vacation" without anyone getting sick.  And we had a great time playing around in Amarillo.  Of course I forgot to take pictures of most of our adventures, but I did nab a few.  And I also borrowed a few from my friend Nozomi.

On Monday we went to the zoo with Luke H. and Nozomi.  There is a little play ground inside the zoo.  This is Micah and Luke H going down the slides together:

We saw some animals:

I think I've mentioned this before, but the Amarillo zoo is VERY small.  We can see everything in about 30 minutes depending on how fast the boys are moving.  They are usually moving pretty fast.  There is another playground outside the zoo that looked fun but is a bit isolated from the zoo entrance.  As this zoo (as are most, it seems) is not in the best part of town, I've never been brave enough to let my boys go to the "green playground" where I felt too exposed.  (Is that the right word?)  But on this beautiful spring day with Nozomi there too we decided to check it out.  It was a really fun playground.  My favorite thing about it was that I could easily keep my eyes on both boys at all times.  That is, for me, the most frustrating thing about most playgrounds.  It is so hard to keep track of 2 boys running in opposite directions!  We had a picnic at the green playground, played for a bit, and then went home for nap time.

The weather was pretty warm most of the week, so we spent a lot of time outside.  We pulled out our bubbles.

and did LOTS of water painting.  

I think this is my favorite activity for the boys to do right now.  First of all, they love it!  Secondly, it makes no mess.  I just put water in a cup and let them wipe it all over the house.  It dries in a few minutes, and that's that.  And third, it keeps them occupied for a very long time.

For FHE on Monday night we went to Luke's school to play on the playground.  The boys spent a few minutes playing on the equipment...

and then they found these holes!

It looked like some trees had died and been dug up.  In any case, there were 3-4 big holes with lots of dirt and we couldn't drag the boys away.  They smashed dirt clumps and threw it in the holes and tried to climb in and out of the holes.  And just acted like pure boys.

This is Luke pretending to plant carrot seeds.

Only in his head it wasn't really pretend.  We've gone back to the playground a few times since and he keeps checking this mound to see if his carrots are starting to grow yet.

A few other things of notable mention (No pictures, sorry!) are a lunch trip to Sam's club with my friend Emery and her boys, our first trip to indoor playground at a baptist church in town, and a visit to Cheer Texas: a gymnastics and cheerleading studio that has "free" play on Friday mornings.  The kids got to jump into the foam pit, jump on the trampolines, and go in a big bounce house, as well as terrorize their mother by sneaking into the restrooms over and over and over.

For the last hoorah of Spring Break, our family went on a camping trip to Palo Duro canyon.  Another post to follow....

The Big Snow

Amarillo doesn't make the news that often, but this past week Amarillo created quite a stir with a record-breaking 12 inch snowfall.  That is the second highest snow fall in recorded history here.  The snow started falling last Sunday night and continued most of the day Monday.  Coupled with fog and a strong wind it was quite a sight to behold.  The wind blew the snow in swirls down the street.  It looked like the snow was falling sideways.  And because of the wind patterns the snow made hills and valleys across our yard.  It piled high between homes and next to fences, and because the wind was blowing down the street the snow got deeper and deeper the farther down the street one looked.  We were definitely grateful to be in our warm house and thankful that the power never went out.  School and work were cancelled on Monday and Tuesday, so we had a lot of family time this week.

On Tuesday we bundled up and went outside to play for a bit.  The sun made everything so bright that none of the pictures turned out very well.

Maybe the craziest thing of all is that here we are just one week later at a nice 70 degrees today.  We didn't even need to wear our jackets to church.  Weather sure is a crazy thing!