Wednesday, May 27, 2009

San Diego Day 2 Legoland 5/09

Legoland was a great place to start off the week. Wow, I had no idea it would be so fun! We thought it would be pretty boring for the older kids but we were wrong. We all had a GREAT time. So much fun that we went back again on Thursday and had another great time. This might be a good time to mention that Mom and Dad had bought us all Go San Diego Fun Passes. Boy, were they WORTH the price. From now on I'm going to look for Go Passes where ever we go on vacation. Legoland was free as well as pretty much everywhere else we went except for Sea World. Thanks again Mom and Dad!
The bright orange shirts we Grandma' s idea. At first we were not so sure of it but it was SO nice to be able to look around for safety orange to find a wandering child. The park was not terribly full due to the time year so our group of 32 or so in orange was pretty obvious. We had a number of questions from lots of people. The poor few others that happened to wear orange that day, they kept getting attached to our group.
Our Benefactors!
One of Luke's favorite parts of the park.
Every time we went over this bridge he would have to stop and watch the elephant spray water.
Sam and Luke loved the driving school cars.
We just loved all of the Lego figures that were found through out the park. Amazing that someone could create something like this out of Lego's!
Sam and Luke were scared to death in this little exhibit, so Roger tried to lighten the mood! Those amimals are made out of Legos too.

One of the favorite exhibits for all of the families was the firetruck race. We all decided that this first truck was rigged to loose though. I don't know how many rounds we watched of this race and this truck lost every time. It was funny because they would always put the big guys on it and it would always loose!
For the first part of the day the big boys, Terrin, Cyle and Jake took off on their own and had a good time. We caught up to them at the Sky Rider.
Luke loved these Helicopters! Roger and Sam had a pretty good time too.
One of our favorite places was the Pirates Cove- lots of WATER.
We had so much fun with the water sprayers.
The crew had as much fun spraying the riders as they did riding the ride it's self. Roger would hold his finger over the nozzle until it built up pressure and then would let go on the unsuspecting riders. The kids thought it was GREAT fun.
Jake and Jamie on the crazy jousting arms -never figured out what they had to do with jousting but they were pretty cool! There were 5 levels, Jake and Jamie started at level 3 and rode it 2 more times to level 5. It was pretty freaky, it would twist and turn them around an round, upside down most of the TIME!
Roger and Sam thought level 1 was more than enough!

OK if you can tell little number 13 is not part of our crew, well they started up in the air and had to come down because it was too heavy of a load, guess who took off to fix the problem?

Not number 11, but number 13! It was pretty funny to see the operator take the little half pint off and leave the big Daddy.
Maddy and Sam getting a few flight hours in.
There were some pretty fun roller coasters for everyone to enjoy, sadly Luke could not go on this ride (one of the very few he couldn't).

This was the last ride of the day. Judging by the smiles, I'd say everyone had a great day!
The Little America landscaped and cities were amazing!

All build out of Legos!
Jake thought that he and Sam could take Darth Vader down. "Sam you take the Light Saber and I'll wrestle him down!"

San Diego Day 1 5/09

Finally, the week we have been dreaming about for months!
San Diego, here we come!!!
Grandpa and Grandma Sherwood had the great idea to take us all for our annual after tax season spring vacation.
THANK YOU!
We had planned on leaving Saturday and making an adventure out of the trip down. Like Geo Caching and checking out Yosemite Park. (if it was open, which it wasn't- still snowed in!) But were not able to leave due to the unexpected date of Maddy and Sam's Spring Play they had been working on since February.
So anyway, we ended up leaving at 5:15 am Sunday morning so we could meet the rest of the AZ family by the 3 pm check in time. This picture was taken from the car as we were driving up to the Sierra Mountain Range at about 7: 30 in the morning. The mountains straight ahead are part of Yosemite Park I believe. It was a beautiful misty morning view that required a picture, even if it was looking out the front window of a moving vehicle.
As we were getting closer a wonderful rainbow started to come through the mist. Soon it spanned both sides of the road in front of us. It was so beautiful and the whole family woke up to enjoy it.
It was too big to get in one photo so I took one of each side of the road. Just to prove it really was a full 'bow. :)
Such a cute picture, but ewww GROSS, what is with that NOSE!
The kids had to jump in the pool with in 20 min of getting there. I couldn't hardly blame them though, we had been in the car for 10+ hours and needed some EXERCISE.

What a CUTE kid our little Sam is.
The pool became a great meeting spot at night after everyone got back in for the evening.
Chill time after a LONG day. Time to rest up for a GREAT week ahead.

Spring Play 5/2/09

pictures and comments to come, I just don't want it to be out of order since I hope to print this into a journal book at the end of the year

More BIRDS!

Just an update on the wreath and it's nesting birds.
THEY ARE RAISING ANOTHER BROOD OF 4! And they have hatched already! I didn't know birds did that. The gal Roger works with said they raise three or more clutches a season. I had NO idea.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Luke's Three! 4/27/09

Luke's birthday just kind of snuck up on me this year. Life just seems to go faster and faster every week.
We had a little family celebration after dinner for our FHE, it start with a phone call from Grandpa and Grandma Kunlzer.
We then had Luke's requested German Chocolate cake in our favorite Betty Crocker bowl pan. Often we will fill it with pudding or ice cream but this time it was filled with cake and frosting.
Yum Yum! Then it was gift time!
A fun golf set for the yard.
And of course the long awaited "guitar hero" as Luke calls it.
Plus, a fun scooter for him to call his own. Now Sam won't have to share his!
In our family it is kind of funny, starting with Luke in April we have six straight months of birthdays. Next will be Roger in May, Jake in June, Sam in July, Shawna in August and Maddy in September!

Baby Birds 4/09

Here is an update on the birds nest on our door wreath.
It appears that all three eggs hatched!
These pictures were taken just a few days after we think that they hatched. It is amazing that they can survive being so naked and the weather still so cold most days.
So CUTE!
These pictures were taken a few weeks later. I can't believe how much they have grown in such a short time. We were wondering if they had made it because we never hear them making any noises. So I went out to check and there they were almost looking like the parents instead of the babies.
I can't see the third one in the pictures but Roger and I came home the other evening and had stayed in the car talking for a little bit when we saw the mama and daddy come in and start feeding them. Up popped three very hungry baby birds, so it looks like they all made it after all.

All in a Northern NV Day! 4/24/09

A Typical Northern Nevada Spring Day.
Snow in the morning and gone by afternoon, with a warm balmy evening to finish it off.
We woke up this Saturday morning expecting our first irrigation day for the summer but instead found it cancelled due to the 3-4 inches of snow on the ground!
Sam and Luke jumped right out into it (still in their jammies, even) to make snowballs and try for a snowman. Rather than making a snowman Luke decided to dress up like one instead. Here, he is wearing the scarf and hat that go with our little snowman making kit that goes in the bucket he is holding.
I had to go to Fallon in the morning for a Stake Auxiliary Training meeting for Relief Society and by the time I got home the snow was gone and the weather was nice enough to go work in the garden.
In short sleeves no less!
Here, Roger and Jake are planting the 26 raspberry plants that Grandpa Kunzler sent home with us from Idaho.
He told us they probably won't produce for a year or two but we still have our hopes up that we will have yummy fresh raspberries this summer!