Carson's Birthday

 Carson is six years old!  At the end of his birthday I asked him, "Well, how do you like being six?"  He shrugged and said, "It's just the same as being five."  I hope it's not too much of a letdown!

Lego motorcycles from Spencer

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit.  This was Grandma's first prolonged encounter with Dakota.  She got a little slobbery.

Reading about sea animals together

Parker likes hanging out with Grandpa.

Carson asked for lemon cake this year (not chocolate!) and asked to have this number six candle instead of six individual candles. 

He got his own bat wings! 

Grandparents are the most rapt listeners you can find.  Even better than the dog!

Recent Events

Here are random pictures to update you on the state of things in our household.

 Parker shares his affection in short, but intense bursts.  This particular night, he decided to follow Carson around and hug him despite all attempts to get away.  Usually when Parker hugs people, he rests his head on them and sighs loudly.  He also gives kisses with a big, "Mwah!"

 We received an e-mail video about baby ducks who dive out of a tree hole to land in a pile of leaves at the base of the tree.  It's all set to music and the ducks are in slow motion to accentuate the drama of the event.  Parker LOVES it and wants to watch it over and over.  The first two dozen times he watched it, he would yell, "Owww!" each time a baby duck landed.

 Spencer had an assignment to create a habitat model.  His assigned habitat was the ocean.  This was the result.  He found an image of water on the Internet to make the background and we put glue and sand from our sandbox in the bottom.  Andy suspended the plastic fish with fishing line (of course).

 Now that Parker is fully mobile, he looks beat up sometimes.  I was out scooping dog poop in the backyard one day and turned around just in time to see that he had climbed up one or two of the back steps.  Just then he tumbled down, landing on the cement.  This picture was a couple of days after the incident, so it looks a lot better than the original injury.  I panicked and kept watching him for signs of concussion, but he was just fine.  It was one of those days when I wish I could cover them all in bubble wrap!

Easter Sunday--They're a little slouchy, but at least they're looking at the camera and looking pleasant!  For each child you add to a picture, you have to try an extra 5 shots to get a decent photo!

I got Parker a little t-shirt that says, "Little body, big attitude."  It is so fitting!!  Andy was loading the dishwasher one night and Parker came along to "help" by pulling out knives and other dangerous items.  Andy gently reprimanded him, and then he began the mad cry.  A mad cry produces no tears or sorrowful sounds, just a lot of yelling and redness in the face.  He ran to me with upstretched arms.  I scooped him up and he pointed an accusing finger at his father and exclaimed, "DA!!"

Swimming

We had another round of swimming lessons in February/March while the boys were out of school.  They are making great progress!  Carson is willingly putting his head underwater and Spencer is getting better at the breaststroke.

Patiently waiting for his turn with the teacher

Floating with NO HELP!!

Gliding back to the steps by himself

Cute little fellas watching Carson swim

We couldn't get both classes at the same time, so for 2 weeks, we spent most of each morning at the pool.  I had to bring a wide variety of entertainment for Parker, and even then, he got kind of cranky halfway through Spencer's lesson.  He loved wearing his goggles though!

And his shades!

Breathing during breaststroke

Not the best lighting, but at least you can see Spencer's outline, diving in.

Fun Center

While the kids were out of school a while ago, I took them to the local "Fun Center," where they have bowling, laser tag, inflatable toys, etc.  Here are some pictures from that day.
 

 Parker wasn't too sure about the whole thing.

 He enjoyed this little ball pit for a few minutes, and then he was done.

 Carson, however, had a blast, especially on the big slide!

 Small baby, big driver's seat!

Spencer loves air hockey.  Must be that innate male aggression--they like to make objects collide. 

Cuties

 Here are all my cuties!  This post is a few random pictures of all members of our family...ALL members!

 This was taken the day we did a Random Act of Kindness for Andy at his office.

Spencer went on a field trip to the Planetarium and Andy went along to help.  Spencer seems to have quite a following of friends.

It's cold on the moon (or Mars, I can't remember what this is supposed to be)!

I always wear a football helmet when doing art projects, don't you?

Wow!  Crazy hair!  He looks like a baby orangutan.

Parker's first time falling asleep during a meal.  Awww!

He is going through the terrible two's a bit early.  Especially feeding time has become very difficult.  We found this "FREE" sticker and considered setting him out on the curb to see if someone will pick him up.  But then he had this cute little smile and we changed our minds.

All social boundaries collapse when there's a choice bit of sunshine to bask in....

Maui

Yes, I know this post has been a long time coming.  There are many more pictures to share with you, but when my friend Dori came all the way up to exchange photos with me, Andy didn't copy any of hers!!  So you just get a brief glimpse for now.

My first day in Maui at the beach.  It was amazing!  I liked the water splashing up on these rocks.  My favorite thing to do at the beach is wander around, inspecting little bits of ocean debris on the shore, like pieces of algae, coral, or shells.  Living in Utah my whole life, these things are so foreign and interesting to me.

Great picture, huh?  I love sitting with my toes in the sand, watching the sun go down. 

We went on a whale watching tour!  I took many pictures, trying to get a great shot, but I finally decided I could waste the whole time taking pictures, or I could just enjoy the moment.  So I chose the latter.  Here you can see a pectoral fin and the spray from another whale.  They're a bunch of males competing for the attention of a female.  Just like high school all over again--different species, same obnoxious
behavior.

There's a good poof.  We got to listen to the whales with an underwater microphone.  They sound a lot like cows to me. 

Another lovely day at the beach.  The temperature is pretty much always in the 70-80 range, year-round.  Hard to believe when we have such extremes here.

This was our little condo vacation rental.  It was so cute and nice--perfect for our needs! 

View of the pool from our balcony. 

This is Spencer's favorite car, so I had to pose like Vanna White with it.

Here's Dori with our rental Jeep.  We did take the top off a couple of times.  The second time we tried it was much quicker.  Later that day, it started pouring rain, so it was a good thing we had practiced putting it back together!

The water is every shade of blue you've ever seen.  It made me want to put blue in every room of my house.

Here's a guy skim-boarding.  It's like surfing but on a much safer level.

We drove up a mountain and found this lavender farm on the way.  The lavender wasn't in bloom, of course, but it was still beautiful.  I ate my first veggie burger there.  I can feel the heartburn just thinking about it.

This is the top of the mountain, an inactive volcano.  It's significantly colder up there and hardly anything grows.  The ground is made of chunks of lava rock.  We saw a few people biking up.  Crazy fools. 

We were above the clouds!

Back at sea level, I saw this rainbow.  I've rarely seen the complete arch like this.  Hawaii--it's the rainbow state!

This is how I looked after I tried to be brave and get in the water.  I was about waist-deep when a big wave came and knocked me off my feet.  It was a couple of days before I stopped finding sand in my hair.

We took a couple of little hikes.  These trees are super tall and many of them were covered with philodendron.  I have a "Phil" in my laundry room.  I acquired him about the time I met Dori in college.  In the last 17 years, he has never looked like the philodendron in Hawaii.  I had no idea he had such potential!

We stopped at this cute little food stand and ate crepes. 

Here I am posing with the sand castle I built.  I've learned I'm not much of an architect.