Visitors on Vacation!

Jonathan's brother Jeremy recently got a new job as a dentist in Albuquerque, NM so they decided to use our house as a pit stop on their halfway-across-the-country-trip-- which suited us perfectly because we always love seeing them and any chance to get some extra cuddle time with baby Sophie before WE move is great.

They left from Moses Lake, WA the Thursday before, and travelled down through Utah until they reached us on Monday afternoon. We had dinner, the kids wore Jeremy out by making him wrestle and chase and jump on the tramp, Kylene and I caught up, and we got U-Swirl for dessert.

That night (or early the next morning I should say) poor Sophie started vomiting and not feeling very well. Because she is still so little, Jeremy and Kylene decided they'd better take her in to the ER and make sure she wasn't getting dehydrated-- so baby Sophie got the works with an IV and meds. Tuesday we decided to just stay put and let the three of them rest up before moving on to their new digs in New Mexico. We did get Cafe Rio for lunch though, which always makes a bad day seem better (I think). Wednesday morning we took Sophie and Kylene (Jeremy drove their car) to the airport and bid them farewell. We LOVED having them come visit and wish them lots of luck in their new home while they're getting settled in!!


Zachary was SO enamored with Sophie this time. Last time we saw them in February he basically ignored her unless Grandpa was holding her (in which case he'd get jealous), but this time he wanted to spend every minute right by her. He wanted to hold her, kiss her, hug her, play with her, make sure she was getting fed her "ba-ba's," and he would grab my hand to take me to go lay down by her so we could point out her hands, toes, eyes, ears, nose, etc. If I would pat her head, he'd pat her head, if I would rub her tummy, he would rub her tummy. He LOVED that little baby!

The Cardon cousins doing a little bonding. They sure wanted to take her out on the trampoline, but she's still a bit young for that.:)

Zachy holding Sophie and simultaneously getting maple syrup rubbed into her hair from the pancakes smeared on his shirt from breakfast. Sorry Kylene!

Frousins (friend+cousin)!

Then, we got an unexpected visit from Aunt Whitney on Friday morning. The weekend before she'd driven down to Disneyland with some of her college friends, and only stopped in for about 2 hours to say hello. Naturally I gave her a hard time about that, so Friday morning at about 8 a.m. I got a call saying she was in St. George and on her way!! Best. Surprise. Visit. EVER. Friday night Jon watched the kids so we could go to dinner at Mimi's Cafe and then do a little shopping.

Saturday morning she entertained the kids so I could clean my house and Jon could go hiking sans the slow-pokes at Red Rock.

We went on a very WINDY (and kind of chilly) picnic to the butterfly park by our house. They have a great Splash Pad, but unfortunately it was way too cold to get in the water.

Zachary tried to poke the caterpillar's eyes out about 100 times.

And scared us a couple of times by trying to climb to the top of this with no one watching him. Jon barely caught him here.

After our picnic we went home and showed Whitney "Avatar" (one she'd missed while on her mission) and made some yummy streusel cupcakes.

That night Whitney offered to babysit for Jon and I, so we headed down to the Strip to try "Holsteins" which is a burger bar in the Cosmopolitan. A huge part of why I was interested in that restaurant is because the menu was supposed to have a lot of wacky "chef's treats"-- like duck fat fries, a foie gras stuffed burger, "philly cheesesteak" spring rolls, etc (you can see the old menu here), but when we got there they'd cut the menu almost by half and were missing a bunch of the things I'd wanted to try! I was bummed, but we were there already, we had a babysitter.....

So we tried the "Gold Standard" which was with dry-aged beef, bacon, and aged goat cheese, and the "The Steakhouse Burger" which was peppercorn-encrusted, with BBQ sauce, tomato confit, and cheddar cheese. The burgers were great, if not a little overpriced (we both though Smash Burger was just as good), but it was fun to try something new. Thanks for the date night Whitney, and for coming to visit!! I just can't bear the thought of no more Whitney visits though, so we'd better pressure her into a few more before we go.:)

Easter Weekend

I love Easter. It's definitely one of my favorite holidays. I think because it represents so many different things for me-- that spring is coming no matter what (and winter is finally over), it's a renewal of all living things, but especially and most importantly, it really represents the gift of the Savior's resurrection. Death is conquered!! Can you imagine not knowing that?? I wonder how people can even survive the death of a loved one or hear about all of these tragedies on the news, when they don't believe that there is life after death??

And so, we celebrated Easter this weekend both secularly and spiritually. First we dyed Easter eggs which was a great hoopla with both Lucy and Zach.

Lucy insisted that we ONLY do pink eggs, but Zachary's quick little raccoon hands somehow managed to dunk most of them in a different color, turning many of them brown. Oh well.

Bet you could guess what he's thinking!! Wishing he could stick his hands in that brightly colored dye, no doubt.

Dunking a few more in here and there.

The finished product. Good thing we all like hard boiled eggs because we got a LOT of 'em!

Friday night we went bowling as a family for the first time ever. I don't think Jon and I had been bowling together since that infamous (and monumental) FIRST DATE some 7 years ago back in 2004.

He asked me where I was from, and when I responded, "Idaho," he replied, "Oh. So you grew up on a farm?" And I was so offended I almost left then and there but I didn't. So the rest is history. I don't know why that was so offensive to me back then for some reason...


Mom won with a final score of 93. I almost broke 100, which is pretty good considering Jon ended up with like a 64. Ouch. He said he was "out of practice.":)


Saturday morning we set out to celebrate spring (but it was more like summer) with an Easter picnic at Red Rock.

We found a secluded little cave nestled way off the trail and thought we'd have a great little picnic all to ourselves, until this guy and his wife literally came like 10 feet away from us. It was SO weird. They were like completely oblivious to the fact that we were trying to get away from all the hikers, but oh well.

Sunday morning the kids awoke to Easter baskets full of CANDY,

and chocolate bunnies for breakfast at 6:30 a.m.

All fresh and clean for church in their new Easter clothes!

Lucy: COOPERATING.

Zachary: NOT COOPERATING.

One with Daddy. (Zachary STILL not cooperating.)

HAPPY EASTER FROM THE CARDONS!!

The Secret Garden

This Friday Jon's clinic got the day off-- supposedly they won some award for being "the best" clinic in the entire Air Force last year. I think this is thanks in part to the fact that they keep their residents working at such an insane level compared with other AEGD residencies. (Jon's commander told them they see as many patients in this one year, as someone in private practice sees in FIVE years. Seriously. A side effect of seeing sooooo many patients is that it also takes five years off of your life, but...) Anyway, Friday was a day to celebrate!!

We had heard lots of good things about the Secret Garden & Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage casino, and is it's also one of the only family things to do down on the Strip so we decided to check it out. Zachy was SO excited to see the tigers and fishies! He was decked out in sunglasses and hat-- ready for the 90 degree heat!


It's basically 3 large pools with several dolphins that you can literally come within touching-distance of, and you can sit outside and relax by the pools and watch them play.

They don't have any scheduled shows with the dolphins, so you kind of have to catch random interactions with the trainers who walk around, in order to see them do tricks, but the kids really enjoyed it.

As pampered as they may be in a zoo, I can't help but feel a little sorry for these big huge animals stuck in such little cages. This guy was right up at the fence pacing almost they entire time we watched him.


Here are the famous white tigers from Sigfried and Roy's show. Not that you can really see them with my crappy camera-- but they are that big white glare.

And surprise!! That cheater Pete Rose was signing autographs right outside the exhibit, but Jon didn't want him to autograph his hat so we snuck a picture instead.

Hooray for the whole day off!! Oh yeah, and if you go, beware of the "Bare" swimming area (the clothing optional place) because it's entrance is directly across from the dolphin exhibit. Only in Vegas!!

Carolina In My Mind!

In the words of the legendary James Taylor, "In my mind I'm gone to Carolina." And in reality, we really ARE going to Carolina!! Fayetteville, North Carolina, to be exact. Hooray!! Our new base assignment is at Pope Field, which includes the army base of Fort Bragg. I hope my kids get a southern accent-- like "Nawth Cahlina." And while the shock of it begins to wears off (mostly the fact that we're headed right back out East) basically I'm just glad we didn't end up in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, South Korea, or Japan (no offense to anybody from any of those places!). I'm sure they're great.

(Downtown Fayetteville, NC)
And now we will be 45 min. away from here:

Raleigh, NC
and here:

Chapel Hill, NC
and about 3 1/2 hours away from these guys (Morris cousins in Richmond, VA):

and about 2 hours away from this beach:

and about 3 1/2 hours from this beach:

Outer Banks, NC
and about 3 1/2 hours from this place:

and about 8 hours from this place:

Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL

I think we're going to have TONS to do and see. We've experienced life in the northwest, northeast, southwest, and now, the southeast. Here we come Southern livin'!! And we're DEFINITELY going to be open for visitors!! (Hint, hint)

Meet Yucy (Lucy's evil twin sister)

Last week a different little girl took over my sweet little Lucy's body. So to keep things straight, we named her evil twin sister "Yucy," which is how Zach pronounces Lucy's name.

Yucy's first appearance was Monday night, April 4th, when mommy went upstairs to get toothbrushes for the kids and saw that someone had unrolled a FULL roll of toilet paper in the bathroom, stuck half in the toilet and wadded up the other half in the sink and turned the water on. I immediately assumed such shenanigans were Zachary's doing since such an act is a little above a 4 year old, but Yucy eventually fessed up with the explanation that "she was having fun."

Tuesday, April 5th. Yucy reappears at Wal-Mart. Mommy is grocery shopping for birthday cake supplies with both kids, alone, around 4 p.m. (with every other SAHM in Las Vegas) and Zachary is trying to conduct a game of "See Mommy Run," which consists of him running up and down the aisles as fast as he can and knocking things off the shelves. Mommy hates this game so she buckles him in the cart and he begins screaming bloody murder. Mommy finally distracts him with some goldfish crackers when he suddenly lets out his most blood curdling cry yet. Yucy has bitten his foot so hard he is bleeding and he is inconsolable for the next 20 min. Everyone is STARING.

Thursday, April 7th. Yucy strikes again. Zachary received his brand new train set for his birthday, and while mom is in the shower Yucy takes a glue stick and SMEARS a streak down the middle of the entire track. The dried glue is almost impossible to pick off once it's hardened and the train can't attach to the track anymore. Daddy loses it.

Friday, April 8th. Yucy colors on the stainless steel refrigerator with permanent marker.

Saturday, April 9th. Yucy wants to play with Zachy and Daddy's birthday cards, so takes them outside (money and all) and loses the birthday check mommy's parents sent. When Daddy finds her with the money and gift cards he takes away the gift cards so Yucy secretly replaces them with credit cards from mommy's purse.

Sunday, April 10th. Mommy goes in the downstairs guest bathroom to find poopy brown water SOAKING the floor and the toilet clogged. Again. Yucy has overfilled the toilet with toilet paper and used the toilet brush to "clean up the floor." Barf. And retch. Mommy loses it.

Tuesday, April 12th. Yucy gets gum in her hair and mommy tries everything she can think of to get it out. Nothing works. She cuts 5 inches off in one fell swoop with the kiddie scissors. It's still pretty curly, but no more ringlets from what I can tell. What do you think? Think it's time for Yucy to go back where she came from and Lucy to come back home?!? Me too!!

The gum knot. Lucy FREAKED out when I showed her this chunk of hair. She said, "Don't show me that mommy! It didn't even hurt!"