Spring Break !

There are lots of perks to Spring Break when you're a mom.  Like not having to pack a lunchbox for a whole week, not having to get up super early - except to take the dog out : \  and not having to pack up all the kids to drop off and pick Nautica up at school.  Plus it's a good excuse to do a whole bunch of fun things all crammed into a few days!!

So, we started the week of by meeting some friends at this cute little park that we hadn't been to before! It was in Solvang, so the drive to get there was beautiful, (almost 30 minutes) plus the weather is so nice there! The kids had a blast so we stayed until they were all done, which was over 3 hours!  Then we stopped at the strawberry stand on the way home to pick up some giant strawberries!

 They have some very special faces :)

Noah loves this puppy.  He's pretty much the main care taker of the little guy.  And after I took this picture he told me that Surfer wants me to hang the picture on the wall :)

The next day we headed to the Santa Barbara Zoo! I think it's been about 2 years since we've been to a zoo so we were all very excited!

Here are the kids with the snake, Noah wasn't liking the idea of getting close to the window for the picture!

Checking out the penguins, I love how sweet Nautica was with Saylor! She was taking her to each exhibit and telling her all about the animals! Such cute sisters!

The location of the zoo is beautiful, right by the water and next to the mountains!

We also threw in a chore day, grocery shopping and meeting dad for lunch at Burger King.  The next day, we did a scavenger/treasure hunt and here they are chowing down on their "treasure"!

Saylor kept having me take her picture, then she would look at it and say "Gen!" So I would take it again and she would look at it again, and this game went on for about 20 minutes, with LOTS of pictures like this one!

We also swam twice during the week, once without Matt and the other time with him.  I think I prefer taking him along! Plus the weather was much better the second time, with the temperature only around 70, the wind is mean once you get out of the water!

Poor Noah still can't swim...I feel bad because the older kids were swimming much earlier and there just isnt enough pool time here to get him comfortable with the water, he mostly prefers the hot tub!

Saylor on the other hand, is a dare devil! As long as the other kids aren't bugging her, she hops right onto the stairs to play!

Super fun week and what better way to end it than with Easter!!

Family Happenings...

At the end of February, Noah had surgery to repair a hernia.  I was nervous about it and he certainly wasn't excited.  But all went well and he only had me carry him around like a baby for 2 days :) 

He quite enjoyed the attention from us, even Nautica and Luke were running around getting him drinks and snacks and toys! 

Here was a few hours after we got home, still a little groggy!

We went to the beach one weekend and spent the whole day.  It was nice because we don't have to worry about the kids getting in the water, they just run around play while we hang out in our beach chairs :)

This beach did allow cars though which was kind of scary, Nautica ran to us once after she had to stop and wait for a car to pass and yelled "this beach is too dangerous!" 

Then Papaw came to work in CA and went a whole day out of his way, and had to extend his ticket to finish work, so that he could bring us Surfer.  Thanks Papaw! :)

We sure were glad to have him visiting with us for a couple of days.  We played in the yard for hours, went to the barn, and hung out at the tball field! 

It was the kids first game and we were happy he could be there.  Although the wind was probably 30 mph and he spent the rest of the day digging holes in the front yard to plant our new palm trees.  Which we were able to get home because he tracked down a nice old guy with a truck in the parking lot of Home Depot :) 

thanks Dad

The Rest of our February Trip!

After snowmobiling, we headed back to Arizona to thaw out :)

Saylor and Grandpa playing on the piano

We got back just in time for a Valentine's Day Dinner

While there, we spent a day in Pheonix, we hopped on the train in Mesa

Another capital! We went in and toured around and we all really enjoyed it!

 Then we headed up to Payson to visit the Haughts!

Cute girls!! They picked up right where they left off almost two years ago! Can't believe it's been that long!!

Nautica and Kendyll

They were so sweet to let us stay the night there and play and we even had a sundae party!!

The next day we took all the kids to ride horses!

So much fun!! 

We had a great trip and loved seeing so many of our friends and family!!

Winter Trip

We've been road tripping again!! We just got home from a 2 week, multi-stop, vacation/work trip! 

We made our first few stops in Arizona (at grandma and grandpas) and New Mexico (Aunt Carrie, and Aunt Julie) but I only used my phone to take pictures..oops!

Then we headed to Colorado Springs where Matt had a conference and we played at the hotel :)

Swimming!!

After 5 days there, we went up to Brighton CO to visit Uncle Bill and Aunt Jhazmin.  Here are Nautica and her cousin Savannah dancing! They had so much fun, we hardly saw any of the kids the whole time we were there!

Our next stop was what the kids (and Matt) had been most excited for, the cabin!

We had to prepare and gear up before we got there because we certainly don't own any snow clothes! 

Here Nautica and Saylor are testing out the snow while waiting for the snowmobiles to get ready!

Saylor had a hard time because she wouldn't walk in her big suit so we had to carry her around which was hard since she was so puffy :)

Getting ready to head for the cabin

And we made it! The ride was really fun because it wasn't snowing and the kids were so excited!

 Sledding off the roof!

Saylor and Uncle Steve

Nautica was on Independent Study for the trip because we were gone for so long, so she had to work on it a little bit there, but Saylor kept her company!

Always the helper, Noah on the roof with the men, working on..something?

Coming in after a FREEZING day playing in the snow. This was from the second day we were there and it snowed so hard all day that you could hardly see in front of you, but the kids didn't mind. They played and played! Nautica looks a little frozen still! 

Noah and Emmabelle

Watch out: she bites!

Hot chocolate time!

Heading back out! 

We left a day earlier than we had planned because it snowed so much that we were afraid of getting snowed in! This was before the wind picked up, the ride home was a little painful :/

And we're back at the trucks, Luke looks like he enjoyed himself but Saylor, not so much! And Noah and Nautica were crying and angry because they were so cold!

 I was really worried about going with all of the kids and no gear of our own, but I'm so glad we went! The kids had a blast and look how happy Matt is :)