Montana Mountain Adventures

Surprise Surprise... we have ventured on vacation again. The heat in Arizona is a bit much this time of year, so we decided to take the family to NaNa's and Pa's for two weeks. We arrived on Friday night and have been having tons of fun playing outside (novel concept for us). The first item on the agenda was sweeping the barn... Little Man's request, I promise. He even convinced his brother to join in on the fun. I may have to start paying an allowance??

Up next on the agenda of fun and festivities was a mule ride. Adam and Dexter had some bonding time before the ride up to the round pen.Little Man was not shy about riding the mules, he loved Dexter, but asked "Why isn't Dexter a horse?" I said "Because God wanted him to be a mule. Why do you think he's not a horse" Little Man thought for a second and then said "Because he has small legs."Alex wanted to ride Dexter too after his brother, but wasn't totally sure he made the right choice...


The ATV has also been a big hit and an eye opening experience why Adam will not be allowed to buy a motorcycle anytime in the next 50 years!

And since it cools down here in the evenings, we decided to have a cook-out. Mostly because Adam wanted to roast marshmallows for his newest innovative dessert!
Alex really liked the pine trees and I couldn't resist taking several shots to capture how cute he is :)And Nana with her two favorite grandsons...
Jen's flowers have been such a hit that Alex even wanted to wear one... until Adam intervened!

And a vacation would not be complete without a little excitement and adrenaline rush. It started when Big Man, Little Man, TaTa, Alex, and I were heading down a little path behind the house and Little Man picked up this log for the next cookout. As soon as he lifted the log a swarm of bees were around his legs. Adam leaped over a mound of rocks and grabbed Little Man and ran up the hill screaming... Little Man was stung six times and alas is not allergic to bees. I resisted the urge to take pictures of the baking soda covered legs, but you can visualize it. Little Man was a trooper and now we can mark bees and scorpions off the allergy list!

Here's a picture of the hive inside the log.....

Everyone has recovered and we are heading to an indoor water park / resort for the weekend. Stay tuned for more pictures because I have started a new trend of only posting when I am on vacation!

San Diego Part 2

Okay, I'm a bit slow on the follow-up posting, but hold on to your seats you may see more than one post this week!!! Don't hold your breath, but there's a lot that has happened in the past few weeks to post about.... First, to finish up our San Diego vacation was the Smores on the Beach and Sea World. The overcast day was a perfect start to dinner and smores, but not in that order. We started with Smores because we are on Vacation, so we can eat dessert at anytime :)

Little Man was so excited about roasting marshmallows and was focused on the fire and making sure the marshmallow was roasted perfectly.

After carefully assembling the Smores, Little Man took a BIG bite

We tried to get Little Man to look at the camera, but his eyes would not leave the marshmallow roasting

So what was Ax doing while his big brother was roasting marshmallows??? He was either drinking milk posing for a picture in a seat made just for him or...

Engaging in a deep conversation with PaPa

Then off to Sea World the family went.... the boys loved all the animals and we spent most of the time at the dolphin interactive pool where the trainers continuously train the dolphins to perform in one of the shows. The park wasn't very crowded, so we were able to move through the park fairly quickly until Big Man harpooned Shamu....
Big Man won the Shamu in a Ring Toss game and PaPa also won Little Man a purple gorilla, so needless to say it was a good thing we drove to San Diego otherwise these animals would be forced to stay at the park. Ax was nominated to carry the whale and quickly became the topic of conversation among the visitors that we passed on our way to the car. We were even the subjects of several photo shoots..... fun fun :)

And who knew Elmo and Friends are now at Sea World??? Overall, we had a fantastic vacation. Thanks Grammie and PaPa for a great weekend! And the post would not be complete without the final beach and family shots :)

San Diego Fun

Well, we are back from the Bahamas (although I wish I was still on the white sandy beaches and taking two naps a day), but didn't stay in Arizona too long. We ventured to San Diego for a few days over the weekend with Big Man's parents. We had a great time at the Hotel Del Coronado and enjoyed the cooler weather. Little Man and Ax didn't want to leave the beach and the sand castle fun. Here's some pictures of the sandy fun.......

Little Man was so proud of his sand castles. He worked really hard packing the sand and resisting the temptation of Kung Fu fighting the sand castles over....

Ax on the other hand couldn't resist the temptation of destroying the sand castles, so Dad distracted him.....And the day would not be complete without a picture of the entire family :)

Welcome to the Bahamas

We have arrived on Paradise Island in the Bahamas and it is beautiful. The time change was a little too much to become acclimated to, so we have stayed on Arizona Time and have the kids out until 11:00pm local time! However, I have become acclimated to Little Ax's schedule of a nap every three hours, that's a sign of a true vacation. The Cove at Atlantis has so many amenities for the kids and a water park for the adults - it is a great place for families!

We started the vacation with a shallow water interaction with the dolphins. Little Man and I were able to hug the dolphin and Little Man kissed Katie! I asked Little Man what Katie's skin felt like, he said "chicken salad".... hmmm that was a new one for the trainer.

Then off to the Aquarium and the Tunnel of Sharks! Here's what I thought was a huge Stingray... however, I was quickly corrected that it's a Manaray... I guess I will have to stay here longer to truly understand the difference!

For the celebrity watch, Miley Cyrus is arriving in the next few days for her concert here at the resort, we were in the elevator with a big name football player (I can't remember who) and the former Miss America is here. That's all for now, stay tuned for more celebrity news coming soon!

Little Ax is Growing Up!

Little Ax passed a few other milestones this week. The first was his first two word combination. In no time I will be taking orders from two small children.

This one cracks me up, Ax has discovered another body part. This trick will come in handy in High School

On another note, please pray that I start feeling better and my bronchitis and sinus infection icky virus do not spread to the rest of the family before we leave for our family vacation.

Big News

No, I am not pregnant, the big new is our Little Ax is officially walking. He was taking 2 or 3 consecutive steps for awhile and then all of a sudden decided to take off and take 12 steps! Our little infant is growing up and way too fast. He could not be happier to be on the go, now if we could work on the communicating in ways other than screeching!

Being that it is Spring Training Month, Papa Kenny and Miss Mary bought us tickets to go to the White Sox and Dodgers Spring Training game. We of course were in the grass section, which Little Man and Ax loved. However, we did have a couple seats behind the dugout for whoever wanted to see the game close-up. Little Man and I sat there for an inning before he got bored and couldn't understand why he couldn't play baseball and why the players wouldn't say hi to him. .

Then the White Sox first baseman came running to the dugout and threw Little Man a BALL! After that moment, Little Man was a huge fan of baseball


*** I must confess though it was the lady sitting beside us that told me to put Little Man on the dugout because I would not disobey the rules*****

Happy Birthday Ax

Little Ax turned one on Saturday, if you can believe it. He is not officially walking yet, but has taken his first steps. He had a great birthday and loved, loved, loved his cake. I have learned that he is not the shy type when it comes to food (he gets that from my gene pool), especially sweets. His hand was WIDE open when the cake was served and he was digging in... I tried to get a piece of Elmo, with no such luck.... maybe next year.

Happy Birthday, Alex. We love you so much and praise God for you. Here's a picture of Ax one short year ago....

Stay tuned for some more birthday pictures....they are right around the corner