May Part II

I finally got pictures from Andy's phone!  Here are some goodies from May:

Mother's Day I insisted that we go to the Toledo Botanical Garden.  It was a gorgeous day!

Our Cedar Point day with cousins.  These kiddos started the day on the Blue Streak.  Abe is all smiles in this picture, but he hated it.

The annual father/son campout.  It was rainy, just like always.

Cruise Pictures?!

I was looking through the blog and I think I neglected to post pictures from our cruise back in January.  Andy and I went on a cruise to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.  We are grateful to Andy's mom coming to our house to watch the boys.  (They loved having the time with her.)  She had some hiccups though the week, like the minivan battery dying, but she survived it all like a champ!

A friend suggested that cruises are more fun if you go with friends.  We lucked out with our travel buddies.  My oldest brother Fritz and his wife Becky are some of my favorite people to be around.  We went into the trip with an understanding that we would do some things together, but not everything.  We did some excursions together and dinner every night as well as checking out the entertainment and playing board games together most evenings.  They are experienced travelers, so it was great for us to get tips from them.  We would not have had as much fun on this trip if it hadn't been with them.

Andy started off the trip with some seasickness/maybe the flu?  He couldn't get out of bed.  It was a rough start.  He was able to get out of bed and snorkel at Grand Cayman.  Our next stop was Honduras.  It was our favorite day.  Andy was feeling better, the weather and snorkeling were amazing.  Becky had set up a private charter for us, which other than almost being late back to the cruise ship was perfect.  Also, Andy had served a two year mission for the church in Honduras.  I think it was extra special for him to be back in the country.  Our day in Mexico was mostly spent on a ferry and bus to see Chichen Itza for less than an hour.  It was cool, but too bad to have so little time at the ruins.  We were supposed to have a beach day at the Bahamas, but it was too windy/the waves were too big. We ended up with a relaxed day on the ship to read/shop/swim/pack/eat.

The food was out of this world!  We ate and ate and ate.  The dinners were the best, in my opinion.  By the end of the week I was ordering two appetizers, two entrees and two desserts, just to get a taste.

Here are my favorite shots.

 We had fun dressing up for the formal nights.

 Grand Cayman

 Honduras

 Mexico

May 2016

Swim team three times a week for a month and a half.  These boys are getting really good at swimming!

Notice Simon's backpack.  It also is a leash.  Simon runs away from me everywhere we go.  To get ready for our trip to CA where we knew we'd go through some airports and potentially go on some hikes I wanted some practice with Simon and the backpack leash.  He loves the backpack.  We keep plenty of fruit snacks inside.  He doesn't love it when the leash part it attached, but he doesn't fall on the ground and scream the way Eli did the one time we tried a leash on him.

He is such a goofy kid.

We went to Cedar Point on my birthday.  It was so much fun!  I got to ride Valravn and Gatekeeper for the first time.  I screamed my lungs out!  Abe was tall enough to do some real thrill rides.  Andy took Abe on the Blue Steak. Apparently Abe almost had a heart attack.  ;)  Andy said at first Abe was enjoying the ride.  As soon as they started going down the first hill Abe started yelling, "My head is exploding!"  He didn't go on any other big rides that day, but he does love Iron Dragon.  Poor Eli was just barely too short to go on the big rides.  I think he would have been more adventurous that Abe.  Maybe next year!

My mom and I put in a garden in her yard, now that the frost should be over.  While we were working out back Eli and Simon took my phone, turned it to the camera mode and took over 100 pictures!  Here's one of Eli's shots of Simon.  Silly kiddos.

A random selfie of us.

The last day of school for Abe and Eli!  It was a great year!

April 2016

On to April!

We celebrated Abe's birthday!  He was really excited to get scriptures with his name engraved from Grandma and Grandpa.  He had been begging for a new Batman game for the Xbox.  Instead of a traditional cake he requested a donut cake.  We tried to make it a special day for him.

We love General Conference!

It was a low key spring break, so we took the boys to see Zootopia.  We had the theater to ourselves at first, but a few people came later.  The boys loved the theater experience, but got bored toward the end of the movie.

Abe started Cub Scouts!!

The bathroom upstairs is coming along, little by little.

We got hit by a big snow storm.  In April?!

Grandma and Grandpa came out for Abe's baptism!  We had so much fun!  Grandpa is a much more lively story teller than I am.  The boys couldn't stop laughing!

We had some great weather, and had a terrific day at the zoo.

Abe was baptized April 16th.  Grandma gave a talk about baptism and Nana spoke on the Holy Ghost.  We had lots of family and friends there to show Abe love and support on his big day.

The boys must have done something good to earn some Mr. Freeze.

We signed up Eli and Abe for swim team.  Spring swim team didn't have any meets, but it was great for learning all the strokes and conditioning.  These pictures are the opposite of how the boys feel about swimming.  Eli loves it.  He is still struggling with coordination and getting the strokes just right, but he always does it with a smile on his face.  Abe looks cheerful in his picture, but he puts up a fight every time we have swim team.  It's a shame.  He's really a natural.  He gets especially frustrated with breast stroke, but he has improved a ton already.

There was a Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts.  Abe quickly earned his Bobcat!  It's tradition to give the Bobcat award to the scout being held upside down.  Abe didn't love that part, but he let me do it anyways.  It was a great banquet.  The scouts put on a carnival with games and prizes for all the families.

We had a ward temple trip.  We had some kind friends watch our boys in the church right next to the temple, so we could go to the temple.  It was special to walk around the temple grounds with the boys.