The Eggs of Easter

In order for us to take our spring break trip, Gavin skipped school on Friday, which was also the day of the Easter party. He said it was ok if he missed it as long as he got to dye eggs with Nana, so he did. Kaylee and Henry joined in the fun too.

The kids favorite part was drawing designs on the eggs with crayons. Gavin personalized an egg for everyone that would be at Nana's house for Easter.
Kaylee was even nice enough to make a special egg for me. All of hers had a "K" signature on them, and all of Gavin's had a "G", regardless of who they were for.
Henry went for the abstract art version.

Wyatt really wanted to jump in and help too, but this year we decided against it.

Since we didn't bring any eggs home with us, we also had to do some dyeing for ourselves. Yes, both of the boys are in pajamas since we put this off until the last minute on Saturday.

A big H masterpiece.

This is an egg made for Jesus, with stickers and all.

Dad's chicken man.

I even tried my hand at egg art this year.

The new guy

Before I can do any more trip posting it seems only right to dedicate a post to the new guy- Mr Lincoln Parker Marshall. We finally got to meet him on this trip and oh my he is a cutie. I hear that he sometimes gives his mom a hard time in the middle of the night or in the car, but he knew to be on his best behavior for our visit and I can tell he is growing into a great little addition to the family. He loved to talk to us and smile, and I think he really enjoyed all of our outings. Just a few shots of his cuteness. I can tell that he and Wyatt are going to be good friends, especially when Wyatt is at an age where he won't attack him or sit on him.

More Abluquerque Fun

It has taken me a week, but finally made it through blogging about of fun spring break. It seems very far away as it it snowing outside right now, but at least here is a little proof that we enjoyed some sun and sand.
We got in a little hike in Bear Canyon. It was fun, but not nearly as much fun as the trail run that my Dad and I did one morning up this canyon. It was really nice and reminded me that I enjoy running.

We can always count on some fun in the school yard behind my parents house. There was even an attempt at kite flying, but the wind was pretty intense and Vatti had to spend most of the time untangling kites while the kids played.

Wyatt quickly became and Ipad junkie with this piano app. When Henry would try to play with him he would yell and push his hands away. What a control freak.

Just a little evening swing time.
This lion sang a very loud song and Wyatt kept crawling over and yelling at it like they could understand each other.

Tickle fights with Nana are a great pass time. Nana always threatens to put the kids in the garbage can, which they find hilarious... not that she puts them in, but that she threatens. On this trip she asked Gavin once if his choice was to go in head first or feet first. They all got a good laugh about that, and soon it became the week long game. The boys and Kaylee would run in and say, "Nana, Head first or Feet first?" and run away squealing and giggling and wait for her to chase them.

Bridgett celebrated her birthday while we were in town. Fun little party.

I'm starting to think I need a swing set, and a bigger yard to go with it. The boys played in the backyard almost every minute that we weren't out running around town.

ABQ Zoo

The Albuquerque Zoo really is one of the best zoos that I have been to. They have so many different animals and great habitats for observing them. We spent a great day there with Natalie, Kaylee and Lincoln. Nana and Vatti even got a zoo pass for this year, so the kids were also able to go to the Aquarium the next day for free, but I don't have any pictures of it since Caleb and I used that time to hang out together without the kids. I few highlights of our fun zoo trip.
The New Mexico Lobo that greeted us at the gate. Gavin did hit his head on it after a few minutes of climbing, nothing like starting your zoo day with a few tears.

Our Happy Family of Zoo goers. This was taken right before Henry threw a fit about putting on sunscreen and kicked my toe-nail to pieces, there were no tears from me, but plenty of blood. Gotta love our little highlights of injury and tantrums.

The train ride at the zoo is decent if you aren't too worried about seeing many animals, which the kids weren't. They just enjoyed riding and hearing the conductor talk about what they would see when they walked through the exhibits.

Natalie and Lincoln waiting for the train riders.

Wyatt loved watching the seals eating their breakfast...

... He loved it so much that he had Dad feed him his fish crackers the same way.

The peacocks were walking around like they owned the place. Judging from Alaina's fear at getting close to them, I think they did.

A little spot for camouflage for Gavin and Kaylee.

How many grandkids does it take to equal a crocodile.

This habitat had monkeys and birds living right along with large fish tanks. It was pretty cool. Gavin still had his eyes on the anaconda in the tank next to them.

Miss Kaylee loves a good photo op, she let me know were all the best places to take pictures were.
The little vipers giving their best viper hiss.

We did have one incident with the new playground at the zoo. We arrived at it after seeing a lot of animals and the kids were super excited to play, there were already a lot of kids running everywhere on the structure. After about 4 minutes of them plays a zoo security guard showed up and yelled to all of the parents that the playground was closed and we had to get our kids off. Apparently there were some strangely placed signs under the huge playground indicating it was closed. We had only seen one and thought it was just referring to a small area in one corner. Needless to say this caused some devastation among our kids who thought we were just being mean parents. Gavin was in tears and couldn't believe that such a thing could happen on the day of our visit to the zoo. We had to explain several times exactly what had happened and that all of the kids had to leave and that no, we would not be able to come back to it on another day. By the time we went to dinner that night, Gavin was still telling the most dramatic version of the story to Duane, though luckily just as an injustice of life and not a teary or traumatic situation.

Bisti Badlands

On the way to Albuquerque for spring break we decided to take in a little of New Mexico and made a stop at the Bisti Badlands. Bisti is the name of the Native American tribe that resides in this area. It was a bit out of the way, but didn't add much driving time, so we stopped to hike around. The only problem we really ran into was the wind. It was nuts, and there were a few moments that it felt like some of us would be blown away.
This was the view from the parking lot where we started our wandering. Safe to say that I was unsure that we were going to find much more than some piles of rocks and a lot of wind.

Somehow these very impressive rock formations are hiding out of sight amount what would otherwise appear to be more sagebrush and desert.

Poor Wyatt trying to smile in the sun and wind. He was just grateful to be out of the car, so he didn't complain much, but did hold his breath a fair bit.

My great looking crew.

Lots of places to climb around, and luckily we were more out of the wind when we found the small canyons.

Henry was all over the place jumping off everything and just having a great time until a big gust of wind kicked some sand into his eyes. He couldn't seem to get it out and was ready to be done at that point.

So, I headed back to the car with he and Wyatt. Henry was wearing my sunglasses to keep more sand out. My hair can tell the story of what the wind was like.

Caleb and Gavin explored for a while longer, they aren't easily deterred by adverse weather conditions.

I'm sure we could have spent more time exploring if it has been as clear and peaceful and the photos would lead you to believe. It was a place well worth the stop.