Wagon Walking

We received a wagon for Christmas from a certain Kristi and Matthew Smith that we've been putting miles on already. Sunday late afternoon we headed over to Canyon Lake Park for a supper picnic, some duck/goose/swan feeding, playground time, and a walk along the bike path leading to a geocache. Lydia spent the most time in the wagon and found some fun ways to entertain herself and us all. The boys ran around most of the time but did eventually tucker out and appreciate the ride. (The pulling did get considerably harder though!) Hopefully you and yours have been cruisin' through spring just as easily.

Things that may be...

~Oreo cookies may be on sale buy-one-get-one-free.

~This may be proof of Lydia's first Oreo (NOT her first cookie, just first Oreo.)

~Big trouble may be coming since the girl already has a serious sweet tooth.

~Oreo's just might be milk's favorite cookie. :)

Lydia's silly brothers at Mt. Rushmore

...And a few of the silly antics from the boys on Sunday afternoon. The one that looks like Hans is sitting on Evan's head cracks us up. I guess we spend too much time with them because we find them funnier all the time. I hope your day was just as laughable. (And I'll try not to get so far behind posting next time.) Hugs :)

Lydia's First Trip to Mt. Rushmore

It's funny that we were to Mt. Rushmore often enough the first few years to have favorite parts of the informative movie or the lighting ceremony presentation but now, after living here a six years, we hadn't been there since Lydia was born.

After a busy Saturday we were talking to the kid about what to do on Sunday and they requested visiting Mt. Rushmore. It was a bit disappointing at first that there would be no Aunt Kristi and Uncle Matthew or fireworks (which there were the last time we were near Mt. Rushmore) but once there they quickly recovered. There were only about 10 cars in the parking lot so we had a lot of room for them to run around and explore. Lydia proved she can climb the stairs after the boys without resorting to crawling, that's baby stuff now. She also also waved to everyone and everything from her perch on Dad which was funny to me behind them since she looked a lot like the Elmo on her diaper peeking out of her shorts. She thoroughly seemed to appreciate Mt. Rushmore as much as any other 16 month old would. :)

Saying Good Bye

While we were home we said good bye to two people dear to our hearts.

Andrea ( the older of Nathan's two younger sisters) has accepted a position with the Peace Corps and it leaving in May for Paraguay for two years. She will be working there to help educate the people as to what a democracy means since they have been under a dictatorship for so long they have no idea what self-governing even means. We should see her once during that time when she comes home on furlough next summer. We had to snap some fun pictures of her with her god-son Hans. As you can see he was his usual goofy little self.

We also said good bye to Jordan's girl friend Katie. Katie is in the MN National Guard and will be serving in Kuwait. She left MN the week after Easter for Ft. Sill in TX for training and heads over sometime in August. Katie and Jordan have been dating long enough that she has become part of our family and will be missed much.

May God watch over them both and bless the work that they do. Andrea and Katie, you are in our hearts and prayers. :)

Sandbox

Even though it was winter jacket weather the boys couldn't resist the lure of a sandbox twice as big as ours. The size and the number of "construction trucks" makes it a HUGE hit. Hopefully you find things just as delightful. :)

With the Smith Side

We spent time at Smiths on Maundy Thursday and then again on Saturday and Sunday. Evan and Hans have heard us talk about "going home" enough that they were calling this home. They certainly make it that while we're there. They have a habit of commandeering laps for their own purposes.

The second picture is further proof of Evan's new found appreciation for dogs. He and Freckles are now friends. He's like it even more if Freckles would fetch the ball more than twice before deciding he's too old (or lazy) for that. :)

Pin-YAAAH-tah

My Grandparents spend from November to April every year in Texas. This year one of the souvenirs they brought back was a pinata filled with candy. Each of the great grand kids and the youngest two of the grand kids got to take a whacks at it. When it finally popped there was candy everywhere and kids scurrying for it(Hans definately had the biggest pile-candy lover). It was more fun than peeps so this may be a new Easter tradition for them. :)

A few of our favorite activities...

~Petting Smoky the kitty was a huge hit. The kids fear of dogs is slowly but surely disappearing. They are still wary around dogs bigger than them but anything smaller, including the cats at my parents, receive lots of attention.

~ Uncle Brian took Evan around and around and around on the four wheeler so after watching from the window Hans wanted a turn on but with Dad. We might owe my parents a tank of gas after all the riding was done.

:)

Happy Easter!!

I know I'm a little late for the Easter greeting but Easter greetings shoud last all year right?

We had a great time on our five day trip to MN and WI. Good Friday we celebrated with my family at my parents house. We ate too much crab, shrimp, and ice cream. After that we packed the tiny church my parents attend with the 20 of us taking up a third of the pews.

Over the two days we were there we saw all of my Mom's family. The pictures are of our family on Good Friday, Lydia with my Grandpa, and Hans reading with his Auntie Katy.

This is Only a Test

We have a new camera! Nathan was trying it out the other night and the kids were having a great time hamming it up for Dad.

The bunk beds are still a big hit and they are used as a place to play more often than they are used for sleep. Very often the kids are playing "farm" as you can see Evan with Piggy, Goat, Horse, Farm Puppy, and Hans has Blue Horse. Lydia is just happy because she can climb on the bottom bunk to bounce and in these pictures she has yanked out her hair ties so her pig tails are now crazy hair!

I'll post again next week. We've got a busy day tomorrow with me subbing for our principal who is with his wife in the delivery room right now and then we're off to Minnesota and Wisconsin for five days.

A Blessed Eater to you all. :)

Spring-ing-ing

Ah, it smells like spring today! It's been raining intermittently since sometime during the night which might develop into thunderstorms later this afternoon but it's in the mid 50s with a warm breeze. Our yard is greener every day, trees are budding, tulips are popping up everywhere, worms are squiggling on the sidewalks, and the air just smells fresh. Ah, spring. Hopefully your change of seasons is equally refreshing. :)

Camera Coming

Last night Nathan ordered a new camera for us. It'll be here before Easter so pictures will return. This is the longest I've gone without taking pictures since we got a digital camera. We're looking forward to a quick trip home for Easter weekend. We'll actually be making quite a few trips in the next five months. We're looking at being back for Easter, Michael's graduation weekend, over a week in June, under a week in July, and then to the Tetons in August. How quickly summer will go by us. Let us know if you want to come visit us; right now we have no one on our reservations calendar. Love to you all. :)

Pictureless Posts

Hello family and friends,

It's been awhile since I posted without pictures but that is my only option right now. Last Monday when I was taking the pictures of the kids splashing in the pool I left the camera in the middle of the picnic table and went inside to answer the phone. When I peeked back out about five minutes later Lydia was walking around holding the camera by the string with it turned on and the lens completely zoomed out at a rather precarious angle. Suffice to say the camera is no longer in working condition. Ugh.

We've still be having a delightful taste of spring with or without pictures. The tulips are all popping up, we have a few robins around, the boys were watching sparrows gather twigs for a nest in the birdhouse on the patio, and we had one entire day of rain last week. I know that last one might not mean anything to you in MN/WI but it is never rainy here for more than and hour or two so an entire gloomy day puts both Nathan and I in a surprisingly good mood. Call it reverse seasonal depression.

Today we took good friends of ours, the Maertzes, on a geocache on the Flume Trail. Many of you have been on the Flume Trail during one visit or another in the past few years. It follows an old flume bed that was used to transport logs from the Hills to a mill. The entire trail is 13ish miles and we did about a four mile loop today. What is most impressive about that is that Hans is now hoofing it as he's getting to heavy to pack. That's a BIG hike for a little guy. By the end he was hungry and tired so he bummed a few brief carries but did great. We've got to keep in shape as we look forward to a summer of caches and some time in the mountains for vacation.

That's about all that's new here. The kids are doing great, Nathan has 45 days of school left, and I'm enjoying a weekly pottery class right now. Drop us a note, give us a call, or just pop in anytime. See you soon. :)

Practicing for Summer

The thermometer said 84.6 degrees so I figured I had no good reason to say no when the kids asked. Here is what we did just before lunch today. Hopefully you are enjoying the first tastes of spring/summer just as much. :)

Boulder Hill Cache

This past weekend my parents came out for a visit. They couldn't have picked a better weekend. The weather was fabulous for outdoor activity. Since Nathan got a GPS for Christmas his new favorite outdoor activity is geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing). For those of you who haven't ever heard of it you can check out geocache.com. Basically you choose a cache off of a list in your area, plug coordinates into your GPS, and follow the arrow until you reach the exact location. Then you begin searching for the cache or as the boys call it, the treasure box. You then record your visit in the log and can trade cache (little trinkets). This weekend the boys traded some of their matchbox cars and accessories for marbles, a toy lion, and a toy seal. When finished you hide the cache again so the next hunter can find it. We were able to get in four different caches with Mom and Dad. Three were Saturday in town at a large city park. The fourth was about 20 minutes into the Hills on the top of Boulder Hill. It is a lot of fun and I'm sure we'll be doing it for years to come.

The pictures are:

1. The kids on top of Boulder Hill. Evan hikes all the time now, Hans is about 1/2 hiking and 1/2 in the backpack on Dad, Lydia is still on my back in the pack.

2. My Dad on the ledge finding the cache.

3. The kids eagerly searching for their treasures.

and the snow

Previously I'd mentioned that there had been snow on Sunday's hike. Here is the proof. Our feet were cold, cold, cold and pretty wet when we were finished. Somehow this didn't diminish our enjoyment of the day though. :)