Garden of the Gods

Finally! We had our first weekend with no work/travel/church obligations, NO SNOW, nice weather, and a long list of things to do and places to see. We headed about 40 minutes south down to Colorado Springs to check out the Garden of the Gods. In the 1800's this unique land was privately owned and operated by a local rancher. In the early 1900's upon his death he donated it to the city of Colorado Springs under the stipulation that it must always remain free to the public. My kind of guy!  

And what a gorgeous place it is! With a snow-capped Pike's Peak in the background, amazing red-rock formations galore, and plenty of easy scenic hikes, we were in for Mother Nature's treat. 

My little hikers eager to get started. I think the fact that this Colorado wonderland is free, combined with a sunny and 75 degree Saturday, made every red-blooded nature-loving Coloradan turn out in force. It was PACKED. Every parking lot was full, with about 10+ cars ready to pounce on the next available spot. We ended up parking here at the Visitor's Center and then walking about a mile in.  

Baby Elizabeth was a champ and napped in the front pack most of the afternoon. There were signs posted along the way to stay on the trail and watch out for rattle snakes! Every little movement in the grass had Leah and Zach totally freaked out-- and then we saw a couple completely off the trail taking engagement pictures and Zach was so worried for them! He kept asking, "Shouldn't we tell them about the signs we saw?" I think I feel a future FHE lesson coming together... 

Leah was sporting her black glitter high tops and kept calling them her "hiker girl" shoes. They must have been, because she pretty much walked the entire thing by herself!

The White Wall. With the sun full on, it just glowed amidst all the other red rock formations.

The "Kissing Camels." Can you see them? 

Lots of hikers and walkers and rock climbers to share the trail with. I hate how pictures never seem to do justice to the scenery! The colors were so vivid!

If you look closely you can see someone rock climbing about halfway up-- right on the middle of the rock. Jon was fascinated. I think we may have a new hobby to deal with living here in Colorado! 

Zach and Leah were inspired by all the rock climbers and decided to get in on the action. They had a blast checking out all these crazy rock formations.

The main trail is about 1.5 miles roundtrip and loops around the backside of the rock formations. It's totally flat and was just perfect for my kids to do. I'm sure we'll be back many more times!

On the opposite end of the park is Balanced Rock. Literally, this huge rock is sitting on top of a little tiny rock underneath-- maybe the size of a tennis ball. This picture doesn't do it justice-- but it looks like it could topple over at any second but has probably been like that for thousands of years!

On our hike back to the Visitor's Center we ran into a herd of about 8 deer. You can't even see them hiding in the brush in this picture they are so well camouflaged! We decided Heavenly Father was pretty amazing. 

After all that hiking we'd worked up a pretty good appetite. Jon had heard about this little hamburger joint from a patient who lives in Colorado Springs. Apparently it's a new hamburger franchise opened by the chef of In 'N Out burgers. 

YUM!! The burgers were amazing with the Chef's special sauce, and we'd been told we HAD to try the boysenberry milkshake, which was also very good. Such a fun way to spend a Saturday and much better than shoveling snow, ha ha! 

April Snow Showers, Bring May Flowers... I guess.

I can't believe we are halfway through April already. I guess what they say is true-- time flies when you're having fun... Or also when you're just super, super busy!

Look at this sweet little thing! Jon said it best when he observed that she just gets cuter by the day. She has huge blue eyes and these soft, squishy cheeks! She'll be 3 months old next week. I hate how fast these little babies grow up.

She had her 2 month check up right after we got back from Spring Break. That meant 3 shots (plus the rotavirus one which is oral)-- and she was not a happy camper. But the good news was we got to see her stats, which were awesome! She weighed 11 lbs. 1 oz., which from her 2 week check-up weight of 6 lbs. 15 oz., means she'd packed on some nice, healthy weight.  She really is a great eater.

We decided to get Miss Leah's hair trimmed even shorter, and she absolutely loves it. She actually likes going and getting it washed with nice, smelly shampoo at the salon, and she keeps asking if we like her "short cut." I think the shorter hair definitely fits her feisty personality.

Jon took her on a daddy-daughter date to get ice cream sundaes at McDonald's and she was so excited. She asked me the other day if her name was Leah, or Wee-Wees. I asked her what she thought it was, and she gave it a couple of seconds and said definitively, "Wee Wees!"  

Sweet sisters! It is so fun for Leah to have a little sister home during the days with us. She still has 2 more years before kindergarten (which is only half-day here), so they have 3 long years ahead of bonding time. Elizabeth has become Leah's little doll, and to all of our very pleasant surprise, she has 

never once been jealous or mean to the baby, at least that I can think of. She is super protective of her when Lucy and Zach get home and tells them it's "her baby."

Isn't she just so cute?? She is a hit wherever we go.

Being attacked cuddled by Zachy. Man, he loves this baby! I have to constantly tell him hands-off the baby because she gets mauled by all three siblings so often. I guess that's just the plight of the fourth child.

I've been doing little DIY projects to spruce up the house a bit. We tore down the old sliding blinds that were there-- they were old and brown and ugly, and replaced them with some curtains from IKEA. I LOVE how it completely changes the room! This isn't a great picture, but my favorite time of day is late afternoon when the sun is on that side of the house and the whole room just glows.

While Jon was gone in Chicago for his last implant course, I decided to paint the piano. I've wanted to ever since we bought it four years ago off of Craigslist. I figured if I messed up or hated the color we were only out $100 or so. We nicknamed it the "Battleship" because it's this cool old antique, enormous, dinged up monstrosity.

So, pretty much I spent all afternoon/evening on Saturday painting. It wasn't that hard actually-- in fact, the hardest part was just picking the color! Between shifts of baby duty, entertaining kids, feeding kids, and bedtime, I got it done. I LOVE it. It totally lightens up the room! It's amazing how much light that big, dark piano absorbed. Jon was completely surprised when he came home Sunday night because I hadn't said a word-- but he likes it too.

I started back up teaching since having the baby, and it's been going really well. They added a Friday morning class for me at 11 a.m., which (let's be honest) is kind of a crappy time, but I figure it's a start. I recently helped launch Body Pump 97 and it was so much fun to team teach! 

The three instructors I teach with and sub for. The one in the middle is Australian and also hilarious. It's certainly not First Health, which I still really miss. The group exercise programs here are so small! But it's better than nothing, and I'm just glad I even have an opportunity to teach/workout so soon post-baby.

Well, on to the April Snow Showers part! We had been enjoying fabulous sunny weather since getting back from Boise-- but as most CO natives knew, it was too good to be true. Old Man Winter dies a slow, painful death up in these parts. We woke up Saturday morning to a huge blizzard.

This was once of four times Jon had to go out and shovel, just to keep up with it. Overall the Rockies got 4 feet of snow, and in Parker we got 2 feet. It was wet, heavy spring snow-- and was not kind to the trees and bushes. There are dead branches everywhere from all that extra weight! And to think, summer should be just around the corner. The ironic part (besides it being APRIL 16th!!!), was that this was our first free weekend since January. Between Jon working, Jon traveling to Chicago, Spring Break, and hosting various visitors, we have not had one weekend as a family to go do something fun together. You can imagine how excited we all were for Saturday!

We'd originally planned to drive down to Colorado Springs and see the Garden of the Gods, but due to the weather, that definitely was no longer an option! We settled on the Wildlife Experience in Parker. It was close, it was open, and the kids like it. 

We even got tickets to the IMAX 3D movie "Prehistoric Planet" and had the entire theatre entirely to ourselves! The museum was also completely empty, so we had free-range of everything. Being from North Carolina, we wondered where are all of these hearty Coloradans hiding?? 

Elizabeth had fallen asleep in the car, so we stopped at the brand-new Freddy's by Target and got takeout for dinner. Not bad for a Plan B on a very snowy April weekend!

Sunday morning-- we woke to find our backyard COVERED in snow. It was up past Jon's knees when he went out to knock the snow off the trees. We live in Narnia for sure! At least church was reduced to just Sacrament meeting. 

I had to show off this cute baby in her Sunday best though!

My view of bored kids during FHE, ha, ha. I think that secretly they really do like it...

Baby smiles and laughs are the BEST! Here's hoping Spring is really, truly here and Mr. Sunshine makes quick work of all that snow! Rumor has it that all this spring snow will make the wildflowers up in the mountains incredible this summer. And with all these showers we should definitely be getting some beautiful May flowers!

Birthday Boys!!

 The beginning of April always signals spring, General Conference, aaaaaaand our most wonderful BIRTHDAY BOYS!! Too much fun to have two birthdays in two days. This year we even got lucky and they didn't fall over Conference (it makes it really hard when you're trying to celebrate two birthdays in between 10 hours of meetings). Our birthday celebrations kicked off on Friday night when we took Zach out for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Yeeha! 

We told the waitress and she made sure to put him up on the birthday sawhorse and announce it so the WHOLE restaurant could sing to him. Ha ha! He was super embarrassed.

I'm pretty sure the free birthday brownie more than made up for it though. We knew Jon would be working late on Zach's real birthday plus he'd be gone that weekend in Chicago for his implant seminar, so it was a perfect night to squeeze in a pre-birthday dinner!

Our not-so-little man turned SEVEN on Wednesday, April 6th. I probably could have been persuaded to let him skip school if he hadn't just had two weeks off for spring break, but we decided he'd better go for at least the morning. Here are his seven presents for his seventh birthday!

He got the big-sized Fin and Kylo Ren lego guys, a soccer ball, Flash Justice League lego set, new shorts for summer, Pokemon cards, and his favorite chocolate bars. Man, we love this kid!

For his special breakfast he requested bacon, donuts, and smoothies. Mmmmm.

All set for school. Here he is-- looking very handsome and grown-up. I can't believe how much he's grown and matured since kindergarten. A cross-country move, a challenging first grade curriculum, and a new sibling will do that to a boy! Even though his teacher has been strict, he has become an excellent reader, and way more confident in math. It's also been great to see his little testimony develop too. He told me that when he gets nervous about math, or scared during tests, he closes his eyes and says a quick prayer to help him. 

He wanted to be taken to lunch for his birthday just like Lucy, and even picked the Cheesecake Factory, which was just fine by me! We picked him up at 11 and got him the hamburgers and fries, and chocolate cake for his birthday dessert. We let him play hooky the rest of the afternoon, so his class had his birthday treat of rice krispie treats the following afternoon when he was back to the grindstone.

That night as soon as Jon got home from work around 8 pm, we cut into his Yoda cake. This was his pick, and man! I had THE hardest time trying to make the mouth and nose look right, but whatever. ((Yoda!! You tease.)) He was thrilled with it and that's all that matters!

Singing Happy Birthday to our sweet birthday boy!

Blowing out the candles and making a wish! 

I can't even begin to express how thankful we are for this boy. With three super-girly sisters he helps bring balance to "the force." He will forever and always be our little "Mans" wanting to "wessle." Besides always making us laugh, I think what I love best about Zach is that he's always had a very tender heart. I hope as he grows up he always keeps it. He loves babies, is a sucker for his sisters, and fiercely protective of them. He told me the other day that he was walking down the hallway at school with a little girl from his class, and this big 5th grader bumped into her and yelled, "Why don't you watch where you're going??" Well, Zach did not like that, so he said he defended her and yelled back, "Why don't YOU watch where YOU'RE going??" Ha ha.  Lucy, Leah, and 'Lizbeth are lucky girls to have a brother like him!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACHO-MAN!!     

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 Fast forward to the next morning, Thursday, April 7th and Jon's 34th birthday!!! 

His special day started off by sleeping in (a little), and waking up to homemade granola and berry parfaits for breakfast!! He is a man of simple pleasures, and homemade granola is one of them.

He is SO hard to give presents to because whenever I ask what he wants, he always replies, "Just to pay off my loans.":( Poor guy. That mostly translates into, "Don't buy me anything." So, the only thing I can truly give him is permission to do his favorite thing in the whole world and take a weekend away to go backpacking!! I also made him a "gift certificate card" (kind of like a candy bar card) so at least he'll get some Indian food and a chance to see the new Avengers movie "Civil War" in the near future. 

He had to work the afternoon/evening shift at work, so we just had time to workout at the gym, and take a picnic lunch to the park. It was beautiful sunny weather!! Leah and Elizabeth and I sure loved getting to help celebrate his special day.

We met just after his 22nd birthday, so I've officially known him for 12 years now, and for 11 of those birthdays he has requested this no-bake cheesecake with strawberries. Easy to please!

I am SO thankful for this handsome, kind, patient, fun, husband and father. He is an amazing provider and tireless worker. He is truly selfless. Let me share a story that will probably embarrass him, but frankly, it is the stuff of legend!! Back when we were living in Philly, maybe a month or two after Zach was born, Jon got super, super sick. Ever heard of the expression "as sick as a dog"?? I can only imagine it was designated to describe people as sick as Jon. Nonstop vomiting, severe nausea, high fever, aches and pains, you name it.  We thought it was most likely a really stubborn 24 hour flu bug, but it ended up lasting for daaaays. We figured he was just immuno-supressed because he was finishing up that brutal 2nd year of dental school and had been burning the candle at both ends by serving as Young Mens president too. He ended up having to travel to Washington DC for some Air Force requirement that he absolutely could not miss, and could not reschedule due to school conflicts. So we drove (stopping for him to vomit along the way) the 3+ hours to DC with 2-year old Lucy and 2 month old Zachy and stayed the night in a hotel. Zach (and Jon for that matter) both had terrible nights sleeping-- Zach because he was a fussy newborn, which meant I was up too trying to keep him quiet in that little hotel room, and Jon because he was sick. Operating on like 2 hours of sleep and super dehydrated, Jon headed to his AF interview and then we turned around and drove home. Well, to be specific, Jon drove home. JON!! Sick-as-a-dog-Jon. So I could then sleep in the back. He was thinking of me, and that I was tired, and he wanted ME to sleep. I think it was about a day later that we got a phone call from his doctor who'd run a few lab tests that he had indeed been battling SWINE FLU (H1N1) all week. Ha! Can you believe that?? He should have been in the hospital. Thats just him though-- he puts his head down and powers through and gets done what must get done. He is my dream guy. HAPPY BIRTHDAY J-MAN!!