A trip to the museum

All our little builders

Emily building with the huge legos

Ryan pedaled so hard to make the crane move up

Working on the assembly line

This boy loves his tools!

Move out of my way!!

My little worker!!

We had a great time at the museum with friends yesterday!! Ryan got to pet a snake for the first time and really enjoyed it. Story time was sort of a bust considering none of our kids were listening to the story, so we moved on. The little builders exhibit as you can see was a big hit with everyone. There were so many things for them to do it was hard to know what to do first!! Ryan could have spent the rest of the day in that room!! We had a great day with friends and can't wait to go back soon!!

Memorial day beach trip

Just a few pictures from our day at the beach! The kids had so much fun even though the water was freezing!! Thank goodness for the pool, the little ones sure did enjoy it!! Can't wait to go again!!!

It's been a while....

Can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged, there has just been so much going on. Here's an updated blog of some miscellaneous activities we've been up to lately!!

Both Ryan and Emily are taking swim lessons at the Y and it's been so much fun for both of them. The first week Emily cried for the first half of the class, but now she is enjoying every minute of her time in the water! It's a good thing since we'll be spending a lot of time at the pool this summer!!

Here's Ryan with some of his classmates and his teacher. They both have the same teacher and she is fabulous with the kids. Can't believe he's big enough to take lessons without daddy this year! He loves, loves, loves the pool and is doing a good job listening to his teacher.

Last week we went strawberry picking with the Judds and Maggiores. It was so much fun and Ryan had a ball picking out, stepping on and eating lots of yummy strawberries. Emily had more fun just running up and down the rows and having mommy chase after her. The weather was perfect for picking and picnicing. Afterwards we went to Bergey's Breadbasket and got some delicious sandwiches and ate outside. It was a perfect day!

This past Sunday we headed to Massanutten to spend a few days (more like 36 hours) with my parents at their timeshare. We arrived around lunch time, did some shopping and had a nice dinner and just relaxed. That is until Emily decided to get up at 2 a.m. and stay up for 2 1/2 hours. It was a rough night but Monday we spent the day at an indoor water park and it was a blast!! My mom took most of the pictures with her camera, but here are a few snapshots of our day. Both kids had a blast and there was so much for all of us to do. Kevin and I even got to go down some big slides on our own, a little scary for me but still fun. We could have stayed longer but we had to head home; I am sure we will do it again next time!!

Our trip to Colorado!

Driving through the snow on our way to Breckenridge!

It was very hard to see where we were going yet people were just flying by us.

OK, does this not look like a postcard? This is a picture of the town taken from the window in our hotel room our first night. Isn't it gorgeous?!!!

Here's an idea of how much snow was still on the ground in April. They said they have had over 300 inches of snow this winter! Can you imagine??

Here's another picture of the town, it's just so cute!

It snowed a little every day that we were there.

Just taking a walk through town doing a little shopping.

We didn't ski while we were there, but we did take a ride on the gondola which allowed us to see a better view of the mountains.

Look how much snow is piled up on this little building!! :)
Here's pictures of Kevin and I overlooking the town.

On our last night there we took a dinner sleigh ride. These were our horses....Ted and Spike!

We enjoyed the sleigh ride, but it was soooooo cold!
This is where we ate dinner.....it's called a Yurk. Never heard of one, well me either!

We had a fabulous time on our trip to Colorado! It was eventful from beginning to end and still going! Wednesday night (at 6:30, still not packed at this point) before we left I took Ryan to Patient First because he was acting strangely and he said his ear hurt, come to find out he had strep throat. Got some meds, came home and put him to bed. I have to say that it was the quickest visit to PF that I have ever had.....we were in and out of there in 45 minutes, that must be some sort of record!! Kevin's parents were watching the kids Thursday and Friday so his dad took us to the airport at 800 so we could get on our 930 flight. Sadly due to fog (first time all year we have had fog right!!) we didn't fly out until 1215. We missed our connection and had to rebook and finally made it to Denver around 500....at this point I was already over the day, but we still had a 2 hour drive to Breckenridge. Got some food, hopped in the car and drove.....straight into a little snowstorm. People were just whizzing by us as we were going about 25 miles/hour, you could barely see. We finally made it to our hotel around 700 at which point I was ready to go to bed considering it was really 900 at home (also had been up with Ryan some the night before and a sore throat myself). Went to bed a little late and at about 1000 our heater started shooting sparks and smelling like smoke. Well then we had to call downstairs to have someone come check it out, so there I am in my pajamas half asleep while some maintenance guy checks our heater. Turned out to be nothing big and thankfully we didn't have to change rooms.

Friday we woke up to snow and just spent the day walking around town checking out all these neat shops and eating at fun little restaurants. We also got to take a nap with no interruptions....it was fabulous!! Saturday I went to the doctor first thing, but thankfully no strep throat, just sinus stuff. We spent the day shopping at some outlets that we passed on the way in, it was so much fun (for me anyway, I am not sure how much fun Kevin had!) That night we took a sleigh ride up the mountain (with snow falling) to the Yurk and had dinner with about 20 people we didn't know! It was a lot of fun talking to people from all over the place.....including Scotland!! That night at 900 they set off fireworks while it was snowing, it was cold but oh so much fun!!

Sunday morning we packed up and headed off to the airport. I had to leave that afternoon, but Kevin is actually still there until this Sunday. I hated flying back by myself, it's so boring!! Got back around 915, my dad picked me up and came home to sleeping babies. Was awaken early in the morning (around 315) by a crying Ryan, figured he was still not feeling 100% although he was finished with his meds. Monday was a little rough for Ryan and he fell asleep on the couch at 600, so I put him to bed at 630 to which he didn't argue. At this point I knew we would be visiting the doctor the next morning to see if the strep was still lingering. Beginning at around 1000 I was awaken by Ryan crying from his room, I visited his room at least 10 times during the course of the night. By morning I was exhausted, Ryan was exhausted and feverish and we were headed to the doctor. Emily went to my moms, and we were off to hear the dreadful news that my boy has a double ear infection. Not surprising, but not welcomed either! Went to get more meds and he is doing so much better now. Can't wait to be done with the meds (he hates taking it and I hate giving it) and can't wait for daddy to come home!

Good friends

This past week I watched the Judd boys for a few days while Anderson was on spring break. On Friday Jen brought Erin and Anna over for a play date. We all had a great time enjoying the beautiful warm weather!! Here's the big kids enjoying a snack before the all the fun began! It is such a blessing to know that Ryan has such wonderful friends to hang out with and I know Emily, Carter and Anna will be best buds too!! :)

Happy Easter!

We had a fabulous Easter spending time with both friends and family. We had lunch with my family after church at my aunts and then headed over to the Ratz house for an Easter egg hunt and more yummy food. It was a long day with no naps, but the kids did great and we all had a wonderful time!

Emily looked so sweet all dressed up!

I love this picture with the sun shining on her.

One of very few pictures with both of them. Notice that Ryan has no pants....he had a little accident so we had to wash and dry his pants and socks before we could head over to the Ratz house!

Emily enjoyed her first egg hunt! Once she figured out what to do she was on a roll!!

Ryan had a great time looking for heggs as he likes to call them. Thanks to daddy and Mr. Chris, I think we ended up with more eggs than we should have!! :)

A Day at the Zoo!

Everyone should have a huge spider web at home.

The boys had so much fun climbing all over this web!!!

Never seen a llama up close and personal until now

and I have to say that they aren't that attractive!

Here's the little ones (Emily, Hamilton & Alayna),

they did so great sitting in their strollers!

Check out these giraffes, aren't they gorgeous!

You could literally smell the elephants before you saw them.

I am not even sure what this was, but the boys sure enjoyed climbing all over it. This one's for you Sue....Ryan and the python!

We found a great climbing tree, soooo....here's the boys! (Bradley, Ryan & Alexander)

We spent Monday morning at the zoo with Heidi, Sue and all their kiddos. I have to say that it has been at least 15 years since I have been to the Norfolk Zoo and it has changed quite a bit. We had so much fun checking out all the animals and just enjoying the gorgeous weather! The boys had a great time just running around (I think Ryan enjoyed hanging with the big boys more than the seeing animals), and the little ones were surprisingly content riding along in their strollers. We had a great morning and then enjoyed a nice lunch outside before we left! I know we will definitely be taking a trip back to visit very soon.