You're not a man...

This was a conversation in the car on one of our recent family trips:

Danny:  I chose Winnie the Pooh
Cole: What? You're weird and you're not a man.
Danny:  You aren't a man either.  To be a man you have to grow up and grow a beard and you don't have a beard, so you aren't a man.

Just a lot of randomness

 I asked the boys to be quiet in the house since Skyler was asleep.  I was working in the yard and found the boys in the garage doing this...  do you see their project in action?  Popcorn popper on the cooler - and in the garage of course, so they wouldn't be loud.  Super thoughtful and funny boys!

Snakey - is his name.  Danny LOVES LOVES LOVES him - a little bit too much in Snakey's opinion.  But, Danny did throw on his snake costume and let him play inside the costume with him for hours.  Poor snakey. 
PS Snakey hid quickly when he was finally released back into his home (in the raspberry bushes), and I forgot to snap a pic of when we found him again - along with another buddy snake.  Danny walked around our neighborhood with two snakes for the next 3 hours.  Poor Snakey again.

 

We were over at Grandma & Grandpa's one afternoon and couldn't find Danny.  I found him...  that's a new napping spot I won't recommend.

Cole made Daddy and Mommy breakfast - he's so thoughtful and sweet.  The problem is, Daddy is not a fan of breakfast.  But even more, he is not a fan of waking up.   (I think the cereal was soggy when he finally woke up)

Look, there's Hunter!!  Can't you see him?  Middle section, third stripe up, top right - yup, there he is!

This was at the Hope of America performance done by 5th graders in the area.  It was a fun event - but the best part was having Grandma and Grandpa watch the little brothers.  I was SOOOOOO grateful.

Last, but not least, this is the spider that freaked me out in the garden.  No, it's not a good picture.  But I was scared to even go within 5 feet of the guy.  I've seen spiders jump, and I didn't want to be in jumping radius - it was awful.  All I had was ant poison - and that didn't spray even 6 inches from the can.  Lucky for me, he crawled up the fence and went to the neighbor's yard... and unluckily, he did that maneuver while the same neighbor was kindly walking over to my yard to help me.   I HATE spiders.  I hope Snakey eats him up.

Better than Vitamin C

Look what Danny learned to do!

We rode over to a friend's house and I heard him yelling out to Sophie, "I love riding my bike, it's better than Vitamin C!!  I must have misheard him, he doesn't take Vitamin C...  but he's right, it is better than Vitamin C, any day. 

A little hiking too

We had a little adventure with the cousins, Aunt Cherae, and Grandma & Grandpa - honestly, spring break was the best week of weather EVER!  We were so lucky this year!

THIS is the place

** The blankie situation is a little ridiculous - I try to keep them at home, in the crib, but sometimes THEY do make it into the car... how did we end up with more than 1 beloved blankie?

 

I took the boys to "This is the Place" Heritage Park.  It was a great day - perfect weather, not crowded, and they weren't sure if they'd even like it, but in the end we all had a GREAT time.  Check out all the fun activities we got to do.  (PS I didn't take the big camera, phone pics are growing on me while on the go)

 

Panning for gold

Check out the gold we got Mommy!

And this pony ride is significant - we've done many pony rides at a place close to our home and Skyler has always REFUSED to ride one.  This time, he hopped on there like he was a cowboy.

Making rope - which was a lot more interesting than I realized!  The boys loved helping this gentleman.

April Foolery

 Daddy took Hunter and Cole's clothes out of their drawers and left them one option.  Cole threw the biggest fit and ended up wearing his shirt from the previous day.  Hunter thought it was hilarious and was happy to wear his newest shirt.

What else did Daddy do?
Let's see if I can remember all the FACTS:
He put a "cracked screen" app on my phone
Changed my phone to Italian
Hid my shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush, and toothpaste
Covered my (white) deodorant with cream cheese - that was a gross discovery
and he hid my favorite orange juice - that's really mean.

What did I do?  I play the game NICELY and made a pie.  2 pies actually:

The one on the right was what I served first - a "chicken pot pie" that was actually made with pudding, cut-up pieces of Mike & Ike candies (to look like peas and carrots) and bananas (to look like potatoes).  It was a fun prank.  And Danny exclaimed, don't ever make your other pie again, this one is the best one EVER!

Now, let's start planning for next year, with Daddy in mind, of course.

My First Black Diamond

The skiing season is coming to an end and we still had one pass left for our local ski resort - so we dropped the kids off with Nana & Papa and headed up for our last hoo-rah for skiing.  We skiied a bunch of runs and ate our lunch at the top of the mountain in the little cafe.  We sat there admiring my cool helmet, talking about how warm it is and how I love it and can't imagine skiing without it (we really did).  Then Shayne convinced me that I was ready for my first black diamond.  I was skeptical - it wasn't the best snow, that's for sure.  But, I played the tough girl part well and decided to just go for it.  As I started over that "cliff" I had serious doubts of my abilities and wanted to even cry.  But, I stuck with it and got into a groove and found myself enjoying the ride down - I swooshed back and forth - kept those skiis parallel and was feeling mighty fine.  At the end of the run, the passage gets narrow.  There was an icy part - I did not like that part - but I managed to get past it.  Then at the very bottom, Shayne pointed out there was a little uphill pathway (nicknamed the pipeline) and that I would want to gather a little momentum to get up that path without a sweat.  I told him to go ahead so I could watch him and see how he does it - he swooshed out of sight.  I started down and I remember thinking, "UGH! of course it's slushy now, we're at the bottom of the mountain..."  and then I'm sleeping on the snow.  

I don't remember why I'm sleeping on the snow - but it's nice and cool and I thought it felt pretty great.  I hear someone skiing - two people and one is a child asking what happened and then a man says "Are you ok?"  I think to myself, "is he talking to me?  Because I'm obviously taking a nap and I really don't want to wake up" - I think I muttered "who me?" but I couldn't open my eyes.  I was trying to remember why I was sleeping there - or why people would be asking me if I'm ok, but I overhear the man telling the child, "We can't help her, so we won't touch her.  Let's go get ski patrol..."  and then the world is quiet again.  Soon I hear Shayne saying, "honey, what happened? Are you ok?" and there's another person introducing himself as ski patrol and asking me to squeeze his hand and tell him how I'm feeling.  I realize that my head hurts - A TON - and my neck hurts - and I still don't really want to open my eyes, but I really want to get off the snow and stop having people fuss over me.  I feel embarrassed and dumb.  When did I decide to lay down?  Why does everything hurt?  And can you just leave me alone to gather my senses?

They packaged me up on a board, with a neck brace, and put me on the back of a toboggan.  I remember him asking me how old I am - I chuckled - I remarked I rarely remember that on a normal day!  They covered me up, like a cocoon, and tell me it'll keep the snow out of my face since I'm riding behind a snowmobile.  It's the worst ride of my life.  I want to clutch on to something, ANYTHING, but I feel like I'm just rolling off of a mountain - out of control.  I couldn't see where I was going or what was going on and I hated that more than anything.  

I am loaded into an ambulance and Shayne and I are both wondering aloud - is this really necessary?  Can't he just drive me to the ER?  They STRONGLY suggest the ambulance ride - simply because of the neck and helmet injury.  OH, I forgot to mention, my helmet is cracked on the back and little chewed up from rocks or something.  It's not a gaping crack - but still, it's a solid, brand new helmet, and obviously took a hard hit.  I know it saved me.  So, I go in the ambulance and Shayne drives down in our car and meets me at the hospital.  The paramedic asked me my pain on a scale of 1-10 - it's 7 or 8, but wait, isn't there a Brian Regan reference to the pain scale?  The paramedic laughs aloud and I think, I'm not dying and I actually remembered something!

In the ER, I lay on that board with a neck brace for a couple hours - AWFUL!!!  I know why and I understand the reasoning, but honestly, it was no help for the pain I was suffering.  They did a CT scan and I was cleared to go home - concussion, yes.  Bleeding, no.  Cracked vertebrae, no.  They loaded me up on morphine and anti-nausea medicine - I still wanted to puke the whole way home.  No, it wasn't Shayne's driving - it was nauseating just sitting up.

The next 4 days I spent in bed - until I couldn't lay down anymore from the neck pain.  I finally got relief after visiting my chiropractor and switching to Aleve.  The fog lifted on day 5 and each day I progressively feel more like myself.  I wish I was running and exercising - but the head still spins when I do little things.

This week I've had a lot of help.  Help with my kids, carpooling, babysitting, and help with meals.  I'm not usually on this side of service and I have felt silly and lame for being there in bed, unable to do what I consider normal.  I can't thank my parents, Shayne's parents, my friends & neighbors, and extended family enough for their help, concern, and service during this past week.  I was truly blessed, protected, and cared for.  

Last night I attended the Women's Conference broadcast at my local church building, and I kept crying.  I felt the spirit so strongly as the speakers spoke about sisterhood and how we need each other.  I truly was in need this week and so many stepped up to help - the love and service truly brings me to tears.  I felt my Savior's love for me through the loving service of everyone around me.  I'm grateful to live where I do - I have wonderful neighbors who are my dear friends.  They went above and beyond to help this week be bearable.  I'm grateful to be close to family - what a blessing!!  

My new job

Rather than sit and watch Danny play Itty-Bitty ball, I decided to become a coach to play with him.  They provide free childcare for Skyler (sweet deal!) and I get to play with Danny and 8 other children.  This session consisted of a different sport each day - baseball, football, volleyball, soccer, basketball, and then a game day.  WHEW!  I have to admit... it's like herding cats. (really, try to imagine getting cats to do the same thing at the same time... it's impossible.)