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.

A Trip to the Zoo

Before we headed off for spring break, we took advantage of some very nice weather and headed to the Hogle Zoo with some cousins. (I can no longer say we went with "the girls" since we don't want to exclude Jaren, but that is who we went with.) It was really a great day, and we discovered some very cute new babies had been born since our last trip.
These cute girls really make photo taking fun. What a beautiful bunch.

Checking out some reptiles.

The baby elephant never disappoints, and he was even rolling around in the mud.

The two had a fun ride around and some good snacks to keep them busy.

I think Henry was trying to lift his hat up just by using his eyebrows, it just cracks me up.

Checking out the huge and tiny turtles.

As creepy as it sounds, our favorite thing was watching the baby armadillos. They looked exactly like big armadillos, but tiny. And they were crawling all over in their second day of life. Gavin fell in love with them and kept running through scenarios of what it would be like if there were so many that the zoo had to sell them, for only $1 each and we could buy 2. He couldn't stop talking about them for days and imagining what it would be like to have one for a pet. Safe to say that he loves animals. We went back to see those things about 3 times, but couldn't get a good photo because of the reflections in the glass. I think we will be checking in on them a lot this spring.

Has it really been 9 months?

My crazy little man is 9 months today.

His stats-
23lbs 3oz
29.5 inches tall
Head circumference- Well, let's just say he has a big head.
He weighs significantly less than his brothers did at 9 months, and is between them in height... Gav was actually taller... crazy.

He really cracks us up. He is at such a fun age, and sometimes it is almost like he is telling us jokes. He can't ever sit still and loves to go outside and be anywhere his brothers are. The year is going to be up before I know what happened.

Interesting Sunday

We had an eventful Sunday morning, though not for all of the negative child-related reasons that you might be thinking. Just a few moments that I enjoyed...
Henry's scripture case packed for church. It just struck me as pretty funny that he packs all of the power rangers head down in the side pocket.

For you Caryn-
Wyatt first stylin' hair do. The side part with a little gel. Super Handsome.

And even though I don't think this is the most flattering picture ever... Today was the day that Caleb was released from the Tenth Ward bishopric after 4 years and a few months. It marks the first of what I expect to be many changes in next several months of our lives. We look forward to having him around us more, and perhaps turning Sunday back into a day of rest, at least for now.

(I'm not really this tall either... it was the shoes.)

Coach Cardon is in the house.

Spring Soccer at the U Field House has begun, and guess who was conned into coaching Gavin's team of 1st and 2nd graders? Nope, not me, but my wonderful husband. And you wouldn't believe how excited Gavin is about it. The day of the orientation he said, "You know what the coolest thing about soccer is? The coach gets to ride in our car." Good point, pretty cool.
Coach Caleb in the huddle.

Gavin is playing on the same team as his friend, Parker, who is in 1st grade, and part of the reason that we moved Gavin up a level this year.
They were watching their brothers play the first week and Gavin said, "Hey Mom, Henry is really stinkin' at soccer today. He's not even stealing the ball." What a great supportive brother.

Gavin's first try at goalie last week. He loved it, but was quite nervous.

Henry insisted that he wanted to play soccer, so we signed him up with his friend Josh. I hope that might help with some of the problems that we had during T-ball in the fall. Luckily, he has done great, and wasn't the least bit shy about meeting his coach.

I love this picture. They were running over at half time.

One of my favorite parts of game day is watching these two doing stretches with the team. So hilarious.

We have been going for 2 weeks and things are feeling pretty positive. Let's hope they keep it up and we see some improvements by the end.

JellyBeans Anyone?

I have some serious hot glue gun skills and can't stop staring at my fabulous new wreath.

Dance Party at My House

We are part of the greatest Date Night/Babysitting Swap around. There are four families and we try to have 2 nights a month in which we all drop off our kids at one house, while the other 3 couples can go on a date. We've been doing this with the same families for 3 years now. It started with 8 kids, when Henry was the baby of the group, and has now grown to 11. Since our house is by far the smallest of all, we have to get pretty creative in the winter to keep the kids entertained. The last few times that we have been on the babysitting end I think we have had a ton of fun. Our night included a rockin' dance party. It started because our neighbor (who is not 2) has now figured out just how close he lives and sometimes decides that he wants to go home. I turned on the music to distract him. He loves to dance and loves Wyatt, so I lured him away from the door with my sweet moves.

Next thing you know we are joined by the whole crowd, and they were bustin' out everything they had. Just a little taste of what you can catch at my house. I love love love watching these little kids dance, they are so hilarious and actually have some amazing moves when they forget that anyone is watching.

Does he look distracted? Well, at least he wasn't trying to get out the door... and I did try to feed him dinner so that he didn't have to eat the blanket. He just likes it.

The girls who actually take dance lessons spent their time on the couch making crowns for all of the girls out of Flexeez. I was very impressed.

Our Family Rules

I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and had originally thought that I would copy some ideas that I saw online (here). But after some creative brainstorming, I realized that I wanted something a bit more classic that could fit perfectly in my current home and the homes of the future that I imagine that we will have. I did a rough layout and then went to Stacy's to cut the vinyl, and just did my best to make things work and get it all cut out. When I finally got home and put it all together, I realized I have more space for more things. I like that since we will be able to add to it as our family evolves.

Not to be too prideful, but I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Just because I thought this picture was cute... they hardly even look like each other.

What I want to be

Gavin and I were doing his homework last week and the theme for part of it was occupations. We had some funny conversations about what jobs our neighbors had, there is a lot of diversity in the people we know and the ones that he knew right away were not who I would have expected. He was also amazed to find out what it meant to volunteer. I guess he didn't realize that people get paid to do just about anything. The best part was when I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up-

G- "No one has asked me that. I better think about it."
Me- "Well, you can be anything you want. Is there something you want to do?"
G- "I know. I want to be in the Olympics."
Me- "Cool, So you want to be an athlete?"
G- "What's an athlete?"
Me- "Someone whose job is to play a sport."
G- "No. I want to be in the Olympics, so that when one of the athletes get hurt, I am the guy that goes to help them and tells them what to do to play better in their sport."
Me- "Hmm, So you want to be a Sports Trainer? You have to learn about how the body works like doctors do and also how different sports are played."
G- "Yeah, that's exactly what I want to do. I'll be a Sports Trainer."

I was pretty surprised that he had ever noticed the trainers that help the injured athletes, but apparently that stuck with him. I guess we'll see how that pans out.:-) Sometimes my conversations with my kids just amaze me.