May - a little late...

So... Yeah.  I will explain.  Starting in May, a lot happened.  A LOT. Which means less blogging time and even more to blog.  Things are only JUST NOW starting to return to normal enough I'm trying to START to catch up.  We'll see how it goes.  Some things may get left out, forgotten, or glossed over.  Admittedly I've gotten really lazy with the camera at times, just trying to enjoy moments with family instead of "capturing" them.  Unfortunately this means we have some fairly big events with no pictures.  But, despite all of that, here we go.... May.

May started out with a bang as Steve had ankle surgery on May 1st.  He had injured his ankle before we got married, but dealt with it for years until it got to be too much to deal with.  When he saw the doctor, the specialist said he can hardly believe Steve could walk as he had a "rhinoceros horn" bone spur, and stretched out ligaments and tendons that were so full of junk they had to be cleaned out, cut, and sewn back together shorter to try and prevent continuously re-injuring the ankle.  Yeah, he did a number on it.  But go big or go home, right?  It's a beaut.  And this is only one of three surgery scars he got and after it had healed a while!

And of course Steve chose a bright orange cast and put a Broncos sticker on it.  He was very inconspicuous as he wheeled around on his scouter with his neon orange leg...

On a more serious note here.  Steve and I got so focused on finally getting his ankle fixed that we didn't fully take into account all that would change when Steve was in a cast and couldn't walk for 6 weeks.  I took on double house duties, learned a LOT of love and respect for all Steve does to help me out, and increased my gratitude for his and my partnership in parenting and caring for our home.  By the time Steve got his boot in mid June, I was FRIED.  Laundry, kid duty to myself much of the time, dinner, mowing the lawn, cleaning, extra cleaning as things fell or got tipped over as Steve tried to help out hopping and crawling along, extra cleaning as things had to be reachable for Steve and meant they were kid-accessible....  It was a real trial at times.  And one I hope I don't soon forget as it taught me how lucky I am that I don't have to do this all alone.  I love my husband.

Anyway, back to the chronicles of May....  Unfortunately, not knowing earlier when surgery would be, I also committed to going back to work the first week of May.  We had some wonderful neighbors watch the girls the first day I went back to work, just a day or two after Steve had surgery.  In May I also agreed to become the Head Swim Instructor at work through the summer, but more on that later.

May also brought the Spokane Lilac Festival.  For those of you who don't know, I was a Spokane Lilac Festival Princess in 2006.  This year was the festival's 75th anniversary, and as such they wanted as much past royalty to return as possible for a reunion and to march in the Armed Forces Torchlight Parade.  (Seriously too long, but seriously an amazing parade that I cry at at least once when I go because of all the Veterans and Service men and women.)  Steve and I had agreed I would go participate earlier on in the year, so despite all the craziness in our lives, I did.  It was so fun to catch up with most of my old royalty court and to have Ellie so excited to see me be a princess in the parade.  She still tells me I'm a princess, which is pretty awesome.

The same weekend we were in town for the Lilac Festival Steve also blessed my niece Aubrey.  Steve blessed her brother Wyatt, so it seemed fitting that he would also use the Priesthood to bless her.  It's always wonderful to have our family in church together and to see the Priesthood in action.  Ellie loved being around "Baby Au-ber-ey".

The other main event that occurred in May for our family is that Steve's nephew Tyler gave his mission farewell down in Smithfield, Utah.  We, of course, were there.  Tyler planned to give his farewell during Memorial Day weekend so we could travel to get there even though he left in the beginning of June.  It was a pleasure to go see him one last time as we'll miss him for the next two years.  (This is one of those events I tried to enjoy rather than photograph, so I'm lame and have no pictures of Steve and Tyler as I should.)  Instead I have someone else's cell phone picture of Mckayla enjoying time with Papa Bennett at the luncheon after Tyler's talk.

We also took lots of detours on the way down to see Tyler and on the way home.  On the way down for the farewell, we left home Friday after Steve got off work and drove part of the way.  The girls enjoyed staying in a hotel, even if they didn't sleep perfectly.

The next day we stopped at the Boise Zoo we kept meaning to hit to break up the driving for the girls.  We only spent a couple of hours there, but it was fun none the less.

After the zoo we trekked on to meet up with some old college friends.  There was a group of single guys, and one married couple, who hung out when I met Steve in the single's wards in Moscow at the U of I.  At the time Steve was in Vet School and they were all Law Students, so they all were doing the grad school thing and hanging out.  It's a pretty fantastic group to hang out with, and we had a BLAST catching up with them and seeing everyone and they're cute kids.  (This picture is missing Steve-O.)

 May ended with Ellie's last dance class with Miss Jill.  The sister of a gal I go to church with was offering for little girls to come to the church Friday mornings and take a very informal dance class for soooo cheap!  Ellie of course already thinks she's a ballerina so she ATE IT UP.  She was so excited for dance each week.  We were sad when Miss Jill moved.  Most of the dance class and some little sisters as well.

Other random notes:  Ellie fell in LOVE with the snails we got for our fish tank - which are all long since dead now...  And decided she needed to "fix" everything with whatever she decided were tools - plastic megablock Elmo arms, plastic eggplant, random McDonalds toys...

We fought Ellie A LOT on naps and sleeping at night, and finally settled on her only napping every couple of days, but she still stays up some nights after napping.  Ellie got a bike helmet at a free community safety day, which led to her wanting a bike and talking about getting a princess bike all the time.  It got warm enough to play outside.  Poor Mckayla got the flu, and was still her chipper self.

 And these two were cute all month!

Like I said.... It's been BUSY!  And it only continued from here!  Stay tuned for June!

April

April started for us with Spring Break, and then, if possible, got even busier.  First, we knew Steve was going to take a business trip and be gone for a few days, so we planned to jam as much fun in with the girls as possible with Daddy before he was gone for a little while.  One of the things we did was take them swimming at my work, which was Mckayla's first time in the pool.

Steve then left for a fun trip to San Antonia, Texas for the National Science Teachers Conference.  He got to see animals at the conference, sit in class for hours, see lizards everywhere, visit the Alamo, and get lost on a long bus ride to see the Spurs kill the Kings.

It also got warm enough here we could enjoy the yard and sunshine.

 We learned that given the choice Ellie will often choose salads at restaurants - and then I get to try new delicious salads...

And we went whole hog into cloth diapering, finding a brand we absolutely LOVE called Bottombumpers which are much trimmer than a lot of the puffy cloth diapers.

Other than those random occurrences, April was a month of fun science and projects at our house.  First for the science - which Steve has Ellie totally hooked on right now, which is great.  Daddy brought home some left over dry ice after finishing an experiment at school and Ellie played with it and loved it.  

I love watching Steve teach her - he is both an amazing teacher and an amazing father, and watching him combine the two things he's so wonderful at is fun to watch.

Daddy also taught Ellie about "rollie pollie's" or pill bugs.  Ellie was so excited every time she saw one of these for quite a while after.

 Just read my comment above.  He's amazing.  And you know you're jealous.

Ellie also had fun wearing hats and her apron while being a "helper" while I was in the cooking mood one day.  Here she was helping make pudding for dessert.

Ellie also made some fun art creations and I took pictures of this one because I loved how painted she got while making Daddy a picture.

Other random pictures - the family having fun with balloons and fans in the play room.  Mckayla was especially funny with the fan blowing on her.  Any time you blow in her face she thinks you are being hilarious, which makes this not a great disruptive tactic when she gets upset like it was for Ellie.

We also took pictures of the girls for a Mother's Day gift for Kerry when I headed to Spokane with the girls while Steve was in Texas.  I will share just these pictures because they are PRICELESS in showing how Ellie fell apart during pictures and then was her goofy self later on a second photo shoot attempt.  Later we found out our girl was quite sick (feel like a jerk much mom? Yeah, an ER trip after 105.9 F fever, a broken fever with popsicles and watching Iron Chef waiting for Daddy to arrive from the airport late Saturday night while a church friend watched Mckayla, and another mystery fever illness that we have no idea what happened.  FUN!)  ANYWAY...  the awesome photos I was telling you about:

First Take

 Second Take - I know, she's a gem.

 The other big news of April was that by the end of the month Mckayla was an accomplished sitter and could already reach forward, grab things, and sit back upright.  At the time I thought she was growing so fast, but now looking at this picture I can't believe how much bigger she's gotten since!  Miss Mckayla also cut her first bottom tooth around April 27th, followed by the second about a week or two later - technically in May.

And hopefully that takes care of most of April without forgetting anything too important...  Oh, except one fun story... Steve was reading Ellie one of her wombat books one night and the line in the book was "I sometimes come first, but I sometimes come last."  Steve changed it to "I sometimes come first, but I sometimes come Oakland Raiders."  Such additions and changes in books are not unusual for him...  Anyway, Ellie without missing a beat pipes up "Oakland Raiders come last!  Yeah!"  Yup.  Daddy was proud.  You may call it brainwashing, but in this household we call it vital character formation to look down on the Raiders.

Random Interjection

Since I forgot to put it in earlier...  Did you know that Steve and I had one big Christmas/Birthday present this last year?  And it was a concert?  To see George Strait?!  This was supposed to be his final tour and the closest he was coming to us was Boise.  So of course, we asked Aunt Julie to babysit , grabbed a hotel, made a VERY quick turn-around trip, and got the freak to Boise!

Oh, and as if it can't get better than watching George Strait sing, Martina McBride opened for him!  Like getting two concerts in one!  It was amazing.  And we loved it.

Random, but one of my favorite parts of the concert - listening to George sing "Give It Away" and forgetting the words at the chorus at one point.  I can't explain it, but somehow I liked him even better for it.  Oh, and he signed autographs only for two little kids up front who he was very sweet to.  Just good people that George Strait.

Us on our Christmas/Birthday/Birthday date.  It was a fun one!  Even if it included late night chicken nuggets at Jack in the Box while we waited to be able to leave the stadium and a LOT of driving with not much rest.  Thanks for a great memory babe!

Spring Break Part 3: OMSI and Waterfalls

I know, I know...  But working 40 hours a week and then trying to spend the rest of the time as family time leaves little free time for blogging...  But, I am going to try and catch up a little more tonight.

Here is (sadly very late) the conclusion of our amazing spring break trip.  Friday the 5th of April (I know!  Give it up ok!)  we packed up, cleaned up the rental house a little bit, and headed north up the coast.  Our first stop was OMSI - the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.

This is how Ellie chose to ride to Portland... Hat and scarf are always appropriate and fashionable when you're two and a half.

Ok, so if you're like me you hear Museum of Science and Industry and think BORING.  But, Steve first convinced me to give it a try when we'd been married for only about a year, and even then we looked forward to someday bringing our kids there.  OMSI is awesome!  We only had  a few hours to spend there before we needed to keep travelling home, but we had a lot of fun in those hours.  I will first say that Grandpa isn't in any of these pictures because he got to tour the submarine they have there (awesome I know!) which Steve and I really enjoyed on our first trip years ago.

While he did that, Ellie, Grandma, (and eventually Steve and Mckayla) and I looked around at some of the fun contraptions and play spaces they have.  Here Daddy and Ellie were using robots to play connect 4.

Ellie also really liked the ball room where they had different vents set up to shoot air and balls all over.

However, if there is one thing we have learned about Ellie, it's that she enjoys playing in the water.  We spent A LOT of time at these boat tables as a result.  You were supposed to create sail and paddle boats in them, but Ellie just enjoyed playing in the water with the boat parts and pretending they were actual boats.  Who needs to build something when you have an imagination?  This first photo is my favorite.  The wind to push the boats catching Ellie's hair and it being obvious how into the pretending she was.

 Yeah, she had fun.

 Next we stopped at an area with cranes and cars that were definitely a little too advanced for Ellie although she loved being around the other kids which usually meant she was in someone's way.  And then we stopped at the table with different nano technologies.  You could use magnets to collect and pull apart the particles in the viles and it looked pretty darn cool.

We spent some decent time here because Mckayla was seriously captivated.  I wish I had a picture that truly showed how intensely focused on it all she was.

 Then we headed to play with gears.  Ellie is smiling and Grandma Bennett here who was her main playmate throughout the day and yet I didn't get any good pictures of where I was focused on trying to get Ellie's face all the time.

 Steve and Ellie enjoyed watching people crank this Vandergraff generator and make people's hair stand up and lose little pie tins they were holding.  Ellie liked trying to crank it enough to get a spark to jump between the two metal balls.

 Next we had to grab some pictures in front of the famous Mythbusters shark.  They had another exhibit from Mythbusters too, but Ellie was excited about the shark (sometimes called "teeth" for obvious reasons) as she really likes sea life right now and has been on a marine kick for a while now.

 I almost wish we hadn't enjoyed so much of the rest of the museum because frankly a lot of it was too old for Ellie but she found things to like anyway.  The reason I say that is because with only an hour or so left to play, we learned they had added a toddler area to the museum since our last visit almost 5 years ago.  It was awesome.  Ellie played a few musical instruments before heading to check out the bugs and magnifying glass.  This girl is into bugs and spiders (except for the rare occasion where she's afraid of them) and she certainly gets that from Daddy, not Mommy.

 They had an awesome water play area with magnetic walls to create water paths, little fountains to splash in, and this water cyclone that took down and then spat out plastic play balls was a HUGE hit with all the kids.

 Well, Ellie enjoyed the toddler area, even if Mckayla gave up after obviously spitting up (reflux baby!) and zonking out.

 One of Ellie's favorite things in this part of the museum was a giant sand box for the kids to dig, bury, and just have fun in.

 She also loved the market place and kitchen they had set up.  She made all sorts of food for Grandma.

 After a rushed tour of the tots area, it was time for us to hit the road again.  We decided on the way home to take the scenic highway around Multinomah Falls and boy do I recommend taking this route!  We saw SO MANY waterfalls and each was beautiful!  I wish now Steve and I had known about this area before we had kids because I would love to have hiked every one of them.  Instead, we had rainy weather and two passed out girls in the car, so all we dared do was stop the car quick for a few photos if there was a good place to pull over.  One of my favorite memories of this trip is actually taking photos of these waterfalls.  I didn't have shoes easily available and didn't know that there would be so many to get out and look at, so at the first gorgeous waterfall I charged out in the rain in my socks to grab some photos.  By the end of this short route my socks were destroyed and I was hopping around barefoot to grab quick pictures instead.  But, it was fun, and we got some pictures out of the deal....  Here are just a few of my favorites of just a few of the waterfalls.

Like I said - big fat recommendation if you're driving that way.  It was seriously gorgeous.  On a totally different note, that wrapped up our fun and adventures over spring break.  We drove the rest of the way home and soon after Grandma and Grandpa headed back home as well.  I have to say though, probably one of my favorite trips and spring breaks EVER.  Thanks so much for hanging with us Lori, Curtis, Bridget, Grandma, and Grandpa.  WE LOVED IT!