Attempted Volcano Hike

 Brian took a plant taxonomy class last semester and his big project was to collect a whole bunch of local, flowering plant samples. So we spent a fair amount of time just out driving around looking for plants. On one such trip, we passed the volcano out toward Veyo and the boys both got really excited about it. 

 We thought, "what the heck, let's get out and climb it." It was so difficult!! Neither Brian or I are in terrible shape, so we figured we could help the boys up and it would be fine, but we only made it about half way. 

 All the lava rock is loose and you slide down 2 steps for every step you try to take up. We all had tons of tiny, lava rocks in our shoes by the time we trudged part of the way up and then slipped and slid back down.

It's still nice to live in a place like this, though, where we can have so many fun, outdoor activities to choose from. I think we'll go back and try again at some point, but we'll be prepared with huge, sturdy, walking sticks! 

Easter

 I have tons of cute pictures from Easter, so here's a bunch, but still not all of them. I found these cute little baskets at Target for only a dollar each and then even filled them with a bunch of things for only a dollar each. They turned out so cute and didn't cost a ton. 

 And the boys loved find them and going through all of their fun contents on Easter morning. 

 Then after church we headed over to Cristina's mom's house (Leslie) for dinner and a Easter egg hunt. The kiddies were so excited. Just look at them holding their little baskets! 

 There were TONS of eggs to be found. 

 Cristina and I stuffed them the night before and didn't realize how many there were going to be until we were done. They got a haul! 

 Cristina even made each of the kids one of these cute bunnies out of a pair of knee socks. Darling! Dexy loved his right away. 

 Good thing Leslie's yard is a pretty good size, because there were just eggs everywhere. 

 So many delicious goodies to eat! 

It was a very enjoyable Easter. 

Tent for a Bed

 So here's so more catching up, finally. I've really been slacking on this catching up thing. Back in March, Brian came up with the super crazy, super fun idea to put the full-size tent up in the boys room. 

 We propped the box spring up against the wall and then actually stuffed their mattress into the tent through the little, front door. 

 It was really quite cool!  It took up a good portion of the room and they couldn't really open their closet, but when you have an actual tent up in your room, what else do you need? 

We left it like this for about a month. It was actually kind of sad to see it go, but it was getting to be time to clean everything, which hadn't happened that whole time because cleaning in and around a tent was rather difficult. We'll have to let them do it again sometime, because it was awesome! 

The Hunger Games

 So as we all probably know, everyone was really excited for The Hunger Games to be released. Our city was just as excited as everyone else. They had a fun pre-movie event out at Stadium 10 with bouncy slides, and booths, and even archery. 

 The archery was free for everyone to try and they even let our little kiddies have a go. Look at this big boy wield a bow like a pro! 

 Dex taking his turn. I'm guessing the sun was in his eye. 

 There he goes! They both actually did a pretty good job. I got a turn, too. It was super fun. 

Then, I went to the midnight showing with Derek and Cristina. Brian hasn't read the books and kindly stayed at home with our boys. The movie was great! And even though this was a while ago and probably not all that important actually, it was fun and I just had to post the pics of my little archer boys! 

Visit From the Matthews

 OK. So I found my camera cable and am going to do a little bit of catch up. I'm only going to get the biggest stuff because it has just been such a long time. And this tower is a little older, so it takes a while to load up this many pictures. Here is the first big thing that I missed. Way back during the first part of March, my sister and her family came all the way from Texas to visit for Spring Break. It was so much fun to see them after such a long time. We went to Judd's for some yummy breadsticks...

 ...after we took the whole clan to the Temple visitor's center. There were 9 kids and they all behaved beautifully. It turned out to be quite the unexpectedly enjoyable activity.

 One day we went to the sand dunes and Brian buried EVERYONE!! Derek. 

 Dexy

 A moments pause from digging massively deep holes for a picture with his wifey. Resume the digging and burying.

 Alice

 Me

 Ollie

 Really EVERYONE! But that's just too many pictures to upload. He dug and dug and dug like this for the longest time. Then we'd time everyone to see how long it took them to get out. It was so funny to watch. Not only were we there and the Matthews were there, but my uncle Rob's family was there and they got in on the digging and burying action, too. We stayed there for hours and had the most lovely time! 

 The kids all played so nicely. Here's Emily kindly working with Dexy as he names his pictures from nursery that week. They've always been kind of good little quiet friends. 

Hadley and Ollie spent a lot of time dragging their trikes up the hill entry to our complex and then riding them down the hill at full speed. 

 We also went with them to one of the coolest parks around town.

 It's so much fun because all ages of people can play at this park. We had a blast spending time with our long lost Matthews cousins. 

 Before it was all over, Ben rode with us and got himself caught in an Ollie Dexy Smooch Sandwich. Too cute!! We miss them and hope we'll get to see them again soon! 

I Am Not Dead!

Nor have I fallen off the face of the earth. Just the face of the internet. Our computer crashed 2 months ago and we have been without, except for the time that my nice brother let us use theirs. That didn't leave much time for blogging, though, especially since I usually forgot to bring my camera with me anyway. A very nice man who Brian goes to school with tried to fix our tower, but to no avail. The hard drive was just completely shot. Then my also nice parents were coming down to work out some job stuff (they are returning to good old St. George) and brought us their old computer. Yay!! I will now be attempting a massive catch up. Although, currently this computer is seeming unable to read my big, fatty memory card. Maybe it grew up in a time when memory cards this big didn't exist. And it seems that I'm also going to have to remove my Harry Potter quote of the day because it can't seem to handle that either. Shucks! So perhaps the massive catch up will begin tomorrow when I will have found the camera cable. Hopefully that route will work.  Until then, just rest assured that at least I have not died.

Happy 4th Birthday, Oliver!

Our precious Oliver turned 4 on Sunday. He didn't get a party because we had just gotten back into town, but he was spoiled by his Bowles' grandparents and aunties for 5 whole days and then we did do dinner, cake and presents here with Derek's fam. We had homemade mac 'n cheese and corn beef that was so delicious. And he again requested the 'Angie classic chocolate cake.' I must admit, it is good!

We made it look like Blue's paw print from Blue's Clues. It's his current show phase. He loves it! I think the cake turned out quite well.

He watched Bolt at the house of one of our babysitting group friends about 2 months ago and has been asking to get it for his birthday ever since. So he did. It's in that bag. He was so excited about it!

And this was a great present from Cristina. She was with me one time, quite a while ago, when I showed her this toy called 'wall tracks.' She remembered and got it for his birthday and they are just as much fun as I thought they'd be! (I have no idea why this is randomly underlined now. My computer currently hates me.)

Ollie is just getting to be such a kid rather than a toddler. He has done so great at preschool, that after only a year, he no longer qualifies for the special ed preschool. I just found out today and it greatly saddens me because he loves it, but I'm so pleased in the fact that he could eradicate all of his anxiety and such behaviors in only one year! He speaks in fluent sentences, comes up with his own clever ideas and witty jokes, has started trying to actually color in the lines, is a champ at writing letters (see above image) and is generally so obedient and helpful. He is currently obsessed with Blue's Clues, playing on Zoodles on the computer, cutting paper, and playing in dirt (the next post with prove just how much he loves dirt). He had his 4 year well child check today and all was well. He's 42 inches and 40 lbs, the 75th percentile in weight and the 84th in height. He's just getting so big. We love him so much and are so glad that he started our family!

More Videos

Here's more of them trying to be the best.

4 man jump! We showed this video to Sister Galland and she said that this has never been done. They succeeded!

All 5 of us that were missionaries together went up there, but they left me alone, so I had to jump by myself. :( It was still fun, though and a great way to finish a trip.

Cabo Videos

I'm really glad that Sister Galland thinks that you shouldn't build a roof without a place to jump into the pool! We had a blast doing it! And on the last day there, it became a competition to see which guy could do the coolest trick/trying to do something that hadn't been done before. So here's a bunch of videos and this is just a few.

Cabo, Baby!!

OK. This is a gianormous picture post. There are tons!! But we had a great time in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and wanted to document every part of it. So, here goes. We drove up North Sunday night, February 26th, and stayed with Brian's family. Monday we woke up early, kissed our boys bye, and drove down to Provo to board the Gallands' private plane.

This baby was beautiful! Like a limo for the sky. We were the first there and I was so proud of actually being early, which doesn't usually happen with me.

Soon the whole crew arrived and we prepared for take off. We all picked up right where we left off laughing and joking and enjoying each others company; not at all like 6 years have gone by. So on the left there is the golden child, Jeff Bennett; then it's us (obviously); Brian Allen and his wife Jessica; and Courtney Venable and his wife Haley.

The Gallands look pretty much exactly the same. We all decided that they don't age. I like Venable taking a picture of Jeff taking the picture of us.

The plane has a jump seat that they let people sit in to watch the pilots work during the flight. Brian took a turn on the way there.

We landed, drove to the town and stopped for the most delicious tacos before heading to their house. We made it safely to Casa Galland. It is huge, beautiful, and on the very top of a cliff right on the coast! This is the view from the lowest patio.

As we were taking the tour of the house, Sister Galland (who I guess I should start calling Virginia) said, "why build a roof if you aren't going to put a place to jump off of it into the pool?" and she was serious! There is a flat ledge right there so that you can jump the 3 stories into the pool below. So, as soon as the tour was done, we all ran and changed into our swimming suits to give it a try. Brian had just done it. Jeff is the one up there contemplating his first jump.

Then we hiked down the cliff to the beach. The water was so blue! We went to the right side first and that sand wasn't actually sand. It was very rocky. We got rocked in the waves for an hour or so (I got a head full of the pebbled sand to prove it) and then we hiked back to get dressed for dinner.

They took us to all of their favorite places to eat. They were all SO good and some weren't serving Mexican food. Along with the delightful tacos, we had sandwiches, fabulous Greek food, and even big delicious burgers, which is what Brain is chomping into here.

At nights, we'd chill in the spa.

And the boys made a tradition of jumping off the roof into the pool every night. I jumped, but not at night. They loved it, though, and thought they were so cool, which they are to be honest!

Out getting more deliciaries! This place had the best pork sandwiches!

Here's the street that it's on. So classically Mexico.

Down on the beach exploring the tide pools.

Tried our hand at snorkeling. Brian saw fish. I didn't. I had a kind of leaky mask and it was really wavy, so I just got motion sick and stopped trying after about 5 minutes.

Then Brian and I took off to explore the beach. The others went back to the house, but we wandered for a good hour and a half. We drew sand pictures...

....found all sorts of dried out crustaceans.......

....tons of birds, crabs, lots of shells and several different types of sand (to the left is much softer, so we started go that way to play on the beach)...

.....before I was freezing and we made the long trek back and up the hill to the spa.

We hiked up and down this hill everyday to play at the beach. It was a good workout, along with the morning exercise the Gallands had us doing at 7 AM. Ya, they really haven't changed. There were fortunately stairs that made it much easier.

The beautiful shot looking down the beach and back to their house on the cliff. It's the white one on the right side right at the top. I love this picture of the Venables walking down the beach!

Hey look! I actually was at the beach, too.

Night time roof jump caught in action.

Our last afternoon there. :( We had a fabulous time waking up to the breeze wafting through our screen door and the waves crashing, eating the best food, relaxing on the fabulous patios like this one that was right outside our room, playing on the beach, jumping from the roof, even being up early to exercise and hiking up and down the cliff was enjoyable actually. It was sad to say good bye, but I was starting to miss the boy boys.

Back on the plane. On our way to stop in Tucson to go through customs, I got to be the one to sit in the jump seat. It was really interesting to see all the amazing technology that goes into an airplane. I've never been afraid of flying, but having seen all the back-ups that they have, I feel even less afraid. I got to be there to watch them land the plane. It was thrilling.

Then we landed back in cold, snowy Provo at 5 PM on Friday March 2nd. Ugh! It was so cold after having spent the week on the beach. That was no fun. But the Bowles brought the boys down to meet us (so that we could keep heading South from there, seeing as Brian had a test the next morning) and that was fun to see my babies only 10 minutes after landing. We drove home and made it back before it was too late, about 10, which was good because Brain was up early for his test, yes even on Saturday. It was a fabulous much needed break!