A DAY WITH THE DUCKLINGS

While we were visiting, we went to the studio of a guy that Rheann's mom knows and who Rheann has used before to photograph her kids. They were holding a special photo shoot for two weeks called "A Day With The Ducklings" and they had a special set in their studio that had a little pond surrounded by logs, rocks, and plants. They had little baby ducks to place in the water or for the children to hold during the photo shoot. It was a neat experience. We did manage to get a few cute pictures considering Hayden had this really goofy-looking grin that day and Kayla was too concerned with all the surroundings and wouldn't smile very much. They gave her a duckling to hold, and after a minute or so, she chucked it into the pond. Of course, she gave a great big smile then!!! Here are the pictures that the photographer has posted on his blog:

JACKSONVILLE ZOO

The day after Waylen arrived, we went down to the zoo in Jacksonville, FL. It was a little chilly when we got to the zoo, but it turned out to be a really nice day. Not too hot, not too cold!! The zoo was sooooo busy that day, the line to get in was pretty long, but it didn't seem too crowded once we got into the zoo. The kids always love to go to the zoo, and just like always Kayla wanted to get right in with all of the animals. The monkeys were a favorite and also the fish aquarium. Kayla really liked the "kitties" and kept wanting to see more. Hayden just kept wanting to go see the giraffes and have a chance to feed them. But (un)fortunately there was only one giraffe close enough to feed, and there was a really long line to feed that one giraffe. --They had an exhibit at the zoo where you could pay extra for a "meet and greet with stingrays". That is what the kids are doing in the top left picture. The stingrays were kept in a huge pool, but they never did swim very close to the edge of the pool. They tended to keep to the middle of the pool, so it wasn't much of a "meet and greet". Waylen and I had went in with the kids and Bradley, but we thought you only had to pay if you wanted to try for a chance at touching the stingrays. Well, we ended up getting kicked out because we didn't have an arm bracelet, and you had to have one to even be standing under the tent. The kids stayed in with Bradley, but Nicolette was the only one that ended up touching a stingray. --Before leaving the zoo, we went to the gift shop, so the kids could get a souvenir. I figured Hayden would pick out some type of stuffed animal, but I had no idea that it would be a huge snake. Then, Kayla wanted one too, so we ended up with two 4 1/2 feet snakes!!

WEEKEND FUN

On Friday, April 10th, Waylen was able to go with my dad, my brother, and my brother's scout troop to Charleston, SC for a tour and overnight stay on the Yorktown, which was a WWII aircraft carrier. They left on Friday morning around 5 in the morning, and got back to Waycross Saturday night sometime after 9. They also got to go to the South Carolina Aquarium after their overnight stay on the Yorktown. Waylen said he had a lot of fun and was glad that he decided to go with them on this trip.

So, while the guys and my brother's two oldest children were gone for the weekend, we took Corbin, Hayden, and Kayla to the park on Friday morning and stayed for a few hours. The kids had a lot of fun and probably would have stayed all day if we had let them. We walked down to the lake at the park, and once again had to keep a close eye on Kayla, so she didn't end up in the water. After playing at the park, we went home and had lunch, then the kids spent the rest of the day playing outside. Later that afternoon, my mom kept the kids while Rheann and I went and did a little bit of shopping at the mall and Wal-mart. Then, we picked up a pizza for dinner and headed back home. The kids had had a lot of fun eating some watermelon and then playing in the dirt. So, they were all pretty dirty, especially Kayla. So, after eating dinner, they were all given a bath, then we went over to Rheann's for the rest of the night. Kayla ended up crashing around 7 o'clock, and didn't move for the rest of the night, and even stayed asleep when I carried her back over to my mom's that night. She had played pretty hard that day, and the days before too, and hadn't had very many naps during the week. The boys stayed busy playing (they even played dress-up), then Corbin went back and stayed the night with Hayden over at Nana's house. They were both sound asleep within just a few minutes, but then they were up bright and early the next morning!!

On Saturday, we took the kids to Burger King for lunch, then made another trip to Wal-mart. We had thought about taking the boys to see Monster vs. Aliens, but decided to just rent each of them a movie, and go back home and just relax for the rest of the afternoon. So, Hayden rented Madagascar 2 and Corbin rented some movie about a fire dog. When we got back to Rheann's, they both wanted to watch their movie first, so Hayden ended up watching his in Rheann's room, and Corbin watched his in the play room, while Rheann and I watched one in the living room. After movie watching, they played outside and ended up playing under the water sprinkler again and "swimming" again!! They played and played until it was time to go get cleaned up for dinner. They had had another fun day, but were both starting to get cranky, so they were both asleep by 8:30 that night!! Thank goodness!!

EASTER FUN

We had a great Easter this year, and it was beautiful weather on Easter. The kids dyed Easter eggs the Thursday night before Easter, since Nicolette and Porter were going to be gone during the weekend. The kids had a total of almost 4 dozen eggs to dye, and they were done in what seemed like just a few minutes.

The Easter Bunny did manage to find the kids while they were staying at Papa Mike's and Nana's house. He brought the movie Madagascar for a combined gift, then some Tonka Construction trucks for Hayden, and a princess camera for Kayla. Plus, Nana got them some stuff for Easter, and later that afternoon when we went over to Rheann's parents for Easter dinner, they got another baggie of goodies from Rheann's mom. They got so much stuff we ended up having to mail a package home of just all the toys and souvenirs from our trip.

Kayla packed around her stuff all morning before church, and then had her arms full when we went to church too. She wouldn't even let us take it from her for pictures. The pictures that we took of the kids together before church turned out really blurry, so we took a few more after church. But before we could, Hayden had to go to the bathroom, so we tried keeping Kayla outside so she wouldn't get distracted and not want to take more pictures. Well, mission failed!! She did good for a few minutes, and even let us take a few more pictures of her, but then she went inside and when she came back out she had her chocolate Easter bunny. So, in the morning her arms were full of all her toys and purse. Then in the afternoon she wouldn't let us take the bunny from her, and when we did she had a complete meltdown (picture in center where she is reaching out)!! So, the picture taking went just as it does every Easter and Christmas, pretty stressful!!

We went after church, down to Brunswick to have Easter dinner with Rheann's parents. We had a delicious Easter dinner, then the kids enjoyed hunting for Easter eggs.

We spent about another hour or so visiting, then we headed back to Waycross. Like I said earlier, we had a great Easter, and the kids enjoyed all of their Easter goodies and loved hunting for the eggs. That pretty much wraps up our trip to Georgia, we got clothes washed and packed up on Monday, and took it easy all day Monday. Then on Tuesday, we left warm and sunny Georgia to come back to cold and windy Colorado, but at least the last few days have been really nice. Now, all we can do is cross our fingers and hope it only improves from here, Wishful Thinking maybe???

My Oh My, Guess who turned 5?

Hayden celebrated his 5th birthday on March 29th, and was pretty excited that his birthday had finally arrived. The night before he didn’t sleep very good, he was up for more than 2 hours complaining of a tummy ache. (Not sure if he was really sick or just anxious for his birthday to arrive!!) Needless to say, he was pretty tired the morning of his birthday, and he didn’t want to go to church (which really isn't anything new, he never wants to go because it takes too long!!) But we managed to make it through sacrament, then Waylen decided to bring him home for a little nap, and Waylen was pretty tired too from helping his brother move that weekend. So, they were able to get a nap in before Kayla got home and woke them up!! So, thankfully Hayden got all rested up for his party that afternoon. –He had a great party!! Papa Larry, Grandma Debby, The Snuffy’s, Aunt Melody’s family, and Aunt Jacki’s family were all here to celebrate his birthday. We enjoyed a dinner of barbecue sandwiches, then we went out into the garage for the smashing of the Monster Truck piñata. It was fun watching the kids, and watching wheels fly off and across the garage, and Uncle Tyler helped Hayden finish breaking the piñata, and that resulted in part of the handle flying off the stick and flying across the room. Luckily, no one was injured!! –After all the smashing and flying of car parts and handles, we enjoyed some of his Monster Truck cake and ice cream, then it was time to open presents. He got a lot of nice presents (Monster truck, slip-n-slide, Mater crocs, Whack-a-Mole Tower game, Hot Wheels Loop Track, fishing pole, and money too) and loved all of them. He stayed busy the rest of the night and all day the next day playing with his Hot Wheels track, and the batteries were almost dead by the end of the day on Monday. –All in all, Hayden had a great 5th birthday, and like always I wonder where the time went, it’s hard to believe that he is 5, and will be starting Kindergarten in less than 5 months.