Arizona Spring Break- Larson visit

We also got to spend a few days hanging out with the Larson's. The kids stayed busy running around the backyard, swimming, playing legos, staying up late being silly and even doing some Easter activities. Not a single photo will indicate that it was Easter, but we did enjoy it. As the trip went on, Finn because even less of a fan of the heat and also less of a fan of sleeping in a play pen, so I also began to be more tired each day. It did not interfere with our fun, but I think it interfered with me remembering to take out the camera.

We took Heidi out for her first taste of Thai food, and it was delightful.

 We left the kids at home with Rachel in charge of babysitting... ok, not really, but she did do a great job of making sure Finn was happy and well taken care of while we were out.

 Heidi and I also got to do some running together, came across this cow in the middle of Mesa.

 One of our big adventures was hiking on the Windy Caves trail. All of the older kids were great hikers, even if they had finished all of their water before we were even half way up the trail. The 3 and under crowd was a bit more of a struggle, but they made it to the top, and most of them did much better on the way down.

Henry fell and cut his knee pretty close to the start of the hike, but he toughed it out and still had a good time climbing rocks and keeping up with all of the other kids. 

 Lots of good climbing for this crew.

 Mark had to be the hike leader of the older kids, while the rest of us stayed a little farther behind to bring up the smaller set.

 This was not one of Wyatt's happier moments, even though he wasn't even walking.

 Same story with Jade, not too happy, tho also not walking.

 Finally, they got to the top and got to have their snacks and then use the help of gravity to get back to the bottom. Much better second half. They really are strong hikers considering how small their legs are.

 These three were the group leaders by far. Not a complaint for one of them, and they had a great time.

 Henry was always off climbing somewhere when the other 3 were posing for pictures, but he was a great hiker too, injury and all.

 Finn gets the loudest and most grumpy hiker award. He proved once again on this trip that he did not like to be confined to the hiking backpack. He could be heard for great distances on the trail expressing his displeasure from time to time.

 Pretty cool view from the top.

Arizona Spring Break- Gardner visit

We had a great spring break in Arizona. Since we are lucky enough to have a sister from each side of the family living in the Phoenix area, we got to spread the love and the cousin time around between the two families. The first and last days of our trip we spent at the Gardner's house. The boys loved the backyard... for the pool, swing set and puppy.

 Finn is a huge fan of dogs and the cute and excitable, Rocky, was a beloved addition to his list of favorite dogs. This is one of the few moments that Rocky sat still in the vicinity of Finn.

Mara also has a couple of pet turtles that provided a lot of entertainment. A lot of it of the variety where all the kids crowded around to watch for the turtle to come out of it's shell and walk around the yard. They would then pick it up to keep it in the yard, which would scare it back into it's shell, and the whole fun process would start again.

 The swimming pool was a refreshing place where we spent a lot of time at both the Gardner's and later the Larson's houses. The weather during our visit was quite hot even fro the locals.

 Check out the long, flowing locks on that guy!

 Finn was not a big fan of the heat or the bright sun, but he did love finding anything he could get his hands on and throwing it into the pool.

Jade loved having Gavin to play with in the pool and she convinced him to catch he over and over as she would dive off the steps and swim frantically into his arms.

Finn and Ella didn't do a lot of chatting, but they had a great time following each other around and playing together, especially in small areas, like this space between the couch and table.

Gavin might be just a little too big for this slide.

We also had a fun visit one morning to a nature preserve near Mara's house. There were a lot of birds and also a lot of turtles in the pond... and a strange number of dead fish floating around, tho we aren't quite sure about the last part.

Jade and Wyatt had fun running around and trying to climb stuff like the big kids.

It is amazing how much time can be spent searching for rocks and then throwing them into a small body of water, but of course, we had to do that for a long time.