Digging for Dinos

This morning we had made plans to get up and go for a hike with the kids.  So after breakfast, I said to Jayden, "Come on, let's go get dressed so we can go on our hike"  To which I got a groaning, "Noooooooooo"  So I rephrased, "Let's go get dressed to go look for some dinosaur bones"  To which I got a response, "Dinosaurs?  Yes!!!!" and he zipped out of the room to find some clothes.

We packed some snacks, water, kid carriers, and paint brushes.  Royal got to carry Easton in the backpack the whole time and then as an added bonus, he got to carry Willow up the hill too!  Someone passing him asked if he had gotten in trouble and if this was his punishment.  Not a punishment, he just happens to be the biggest and strongest of us all!

Here is one of the first "dinosaur finds"

 

 

The 3 boys!

 

Enjoying the view from the top

 

 

And here's all 5 cousins together, with a little Royal thrown in.  Willow was getting a little tired, so trying to get a picture with her not sucking on her fingers was just not going to happen.

Poor Jayden has been taking some spills since we got here.  He crashed on his bike the first day and then he crashed coming down the hill today.  He is now know as Captain Band-aid.

The Ride to Phoenix

We have safely made it to Phoenix!  We actually made it yesterday afternoon, but I was far to tired to sit down and document the trip.  :)

Our plan was to pick Jayden up from school on Thursday and start driving to Phoenix from there.  Well, we had a minor setback.  We don't have any dvd players in our car, or even a travel dvd player, so my plan for movies for the kids was to let them watch it on our laptop, which I had done before for other really long trips and it worked just fine.  I have an adapter for the car that I can use to charge the computer on.  Last time I used it though, I plugged it into the wrong outlet in the car and blew some major fuses - the guy who fixed my car said it looked like my car had been hit by lightening or something - oops!  :)  So, I made sure to plug it into the correct power outlet in the car this time, but once we fired up the car to go get Jayden, we blew a fuse again, which meant not only did we not have power in any of the outlets in the car, we also didn't have a radio.  That was so not going to work for me.   We had a 15+ hour drive ahead of us!  I can do some major singing in that amount of time!  So, after we picked up Jayden, I convinced Royal to at least stop by the dealership and see if they could fix it real fast.  Royal was. not. happy.  He does not like deviating from his plans at all and we had a departure time of 3:30 and this was going to throw it off.  So we stopped by the dealership and not only did they fix the fuse in like record time, they also gave us a spare and showed Royal had to replace it.  It's like they knew just because I've blown the fuse twice, there might be a small chance I'd plug the adapter in again - which when traveling long distances in the car with 2 small kids, if things went south and my computer battery was dead, I was so willing to try plugging the adapter in to help keep the kids entertained.  Luckily, it never came to that!

A little after 4, we were on our way with 15 hours and 28 minutes in the car ahead of us!

 

 

The kids did really great the majority of the trip.  It helped that Jayden was SOOOOO excited to get there.  He'd ask every 15 minutes how much longer and I'd reply, "Oh, about 14 hours and 30 minutes left" and he'd say, "Well, that's not very long, is it?!?!?!?"   Then later, "How much longer until we get there?"  "Oh, about 14 hours and 10 minutes left"  "That's not very long!"

 

 

Willow was really my wild card this trip.  I just wasn't sure how long she was going to be willing to be strapped into her seat, especially since she has never been much of a fan of being in the car when it's dark.  But she did pretty good.

We drove until about 6:30 before we stopped for dinner and we managed to find a park on the side of the road to eat at.  I made sandwiches and the kids got to run around and burn some energy.

I knew I had enough battery power in the computer for the kids to each get to pick a movie to watch, but when we stopped for dinner and saw this, I just knew there was no way I couldn't not plug the computer in to charge!

 

After dinner, we got back in the car and drove until about 9.  The computer battery was dead, and the kids were having trouble.  It was dark out and Willow was tired, so she kept crying about getting out because she wanted to lay on her pillow.  Jayden was upset because he was tired and he wanted to get to a hotel so he could go to bed.  Little did they know, but we weren't stopping anytime soon.  We wanted to get as far as we could the first night, so the next day we could get to Phoenix as quickly as we could.  So, around 9, we needed gas and Royal wanted to switch off driving.  We let the kids out and ran some circles inside the store at the gas station, then buckled them back in, much to their dismay.  I was racking my brain trying to figure out how to help, and then I remembered that I had some books on my iPod, and that totally did the trick.  Willow was out before the first story was over and by the time all the stories had played, Jayden grabbed his pillow and said, "Thanks for letting me sleep in the car!" and he was out.  Royal and I drove until we got to Albuquerque.  It was about 12:30am, which meant 1:30am our time.  But my goal was to have less than 7 hours to drive the next day and we were at about 6.5!  So, we pulled over, got a hotel and got everyone in bed.

 

 Willow was up and down out of bed for about an hour before she finally crashed.
 
But the kids were up at 6:30am,  ready to roll.  So, I sent them off to the pool with Royal to burn some energy and move their little muscles, while I packed up the car.

 

 

 After swimming and breakfast, we were back in the car, heading down the road.  We stopped for lunch around 10:30 local time (12:30 for us), let the kids play, drained the computer battery yet again, cranked out the rest of the mileage and got to Kaylee's house around 2:30.  We all are really tired (time changes are hard!), but have been having so much fun.  Lots more pictures to come!

My Picks

This March Madness Men's basketball thing is getting a little out of control.  Now, besides have to choose the winner out of 64 teams, you also have to pick the winners of 4 play-in games.  What's the deal?  For the love of pete, why can't they just leave it at 64 and be done with it?  Next year, are we going to have to pick the winners of the 8 play-in games for the 4 play-in games, which then get to go to the tourny?  Rediculous...

Well, I'm just not feeling so confident about my picks this year.  Last year, I dominated Royal!  And I figure that was a total fluke and probably so not going to happen again, so I guess the pressure of trying to win 2 years in a row is getting to me.  Kinda like Duke.  I picked them to win it last year and they did, but this year, I have them making it to the championship, but losing.  To who, you ask?  Kansas.  That's right Kansas.  The team I mercilessly made fun of last year because of their Jay-Hawk mascot.  I guess this state is growing on me....

Going for a Jog

Thanks to the time change, the kids are sleeping in!  Jayden woke up around 8:30 and Willow after 9!  I'm not complaining, I love sleeping in, except our Strollers in Motion (SiM) class starts at 9, which means we haven't been making it this week.  And I just can't not do something, I mean we're leaving to drive to Phoenix on Thursday, which means sitting in the car for 2 days and I've got to get some exercise and move my legs before we're all cooped up together.  :)

Sometimes it takes some negotiating to convince my kids to go for a run with me.  If we're at SiM, they at least get to talk to other kids and be entertained by Tonya.  Running down the road gets a little boring, even if we get to run through a "forest" and look for bunnies.  So, I got Willow on board by telling her I'd run to the gazebo, which means that at our turn around point, she can get out and play in the gazebo for awhile.  Jayden told me he wasn't sitting in the stroller, he was going to run with me.  I told him, he could run down our street with me, but then had to get in until we could see the gazebo, then he could get out and run again.  He then told me he wasn't going anywhere without Sam.  Oi!  Do you have any idea what it is like to run 5 miles pushing a good 75+ pounds of kids and stroller and then have to try and control a 70+ pound dog with your free hand?  Don't get me wrong, Sam does great on a leash, but he has a little trouble when there is a double wide stroller in front of him.  He is always pulling trying to get around in front of it, which means his foot get runs over, he pulls the stroller in one direction, his leash gets all tangled, my poor one arm gets tired from pulling him back.  And when I start running with these kiddos, they expect me to keep going, and stopping every 50 feet to correct or untangle the dog makes them think we're done and they can get out.  So, I told Jayden if he had to have Sam come with us, then he was going to have to hold onto Sam's leash and keep him in line.  Once Jayden got the distance of the leash figured out and could keep Sam real close to him, they did great.  And when Sam got a little "pully" on the leash I didn't actually mind to much because he was pulling on the heavy side of the stroller and it made it a little easier!  And with Sam running right next to Jayden, he got a lot of pets on the back and "good job, Sammy!", and "you're running great, Sam!" and "good job not chasing those geese, Sam!", and who doesn't like a little encouragement, right??  I mean, when I pass some other runners, I get a lot of crazy looks and "Wow! You've got your hands full"  and "I'm not sure how you run pushing that thing" to which I reply, "well, it comes with a spot to hold my water bottle, so I guess it's worth it to me..." to which I get more crazy looks and sometimes a nervous laugh.  Just wait until I start running with a super hero cape on, then they're really gonna think I'm neat!

When we got to the gazebo, I tried to convince my entourage to let me take their picture.  Here's what I got....

 

"I'm closing my eyes this time!"

 

and "Mom, the sun is in my eyes and I just can't do this anymore...."

 

 

Outside!

Today's weather was so fantastic!  We spent the whole day outside!  We started off the day by going to the zoo (I know, shocking, but we seriously haven't been in like forever!)  Willow fell asleep on the way home and didn't wake up when I took her out of the car, so she went down for a nap around 11:30.  We had lunch, Jayden begged to watch a movie, but I convinced him to help me clean out the cars instead.  He's such a good helper!  I just really didn't want to stay inside and I didn't want Jayden wasting hours in front of the tv, when it was so nice out.  So, he came out, helped me get the car ready for our road trip to Phoenix next week and then he helped Royal cut up some wood  and build another garden box for the back yard.

This one is for raspberry and blueberry bushes.  And once we get our tax refund, some of that money will go to buying more wood for one more garden box, because we are letting our wild and aggressive strawberries take over half of our original one and I've got more little plant starts growing in the window than I've got room for!

 

I'm sorry there are no pictures of Willow, but she didn't wake up until 4:00!  That is a 4.5 hour nap!  I couldn't believe it, guess she was tired!   But she woke up all perky - I'm pretty sure I would if I took that long of a nap.  And after some swinging, I made dinner and then we all walked/rode down to the park to play for awhile.  But now, the suns gone down and it's getting chilly, so I guess it's time to get the kiddos ready for bed.  I'm so thinking that Willow isn't really going to want to go to bed tonite....

But here is the finished garden box.  Now to kill the grass, add some dirt, and get some berry bushes! And in like 2 years, we'll have some berries to eat.  :)

Kid Quote :: 15

We have a little basketball hoop and some basketballs for the kids to play with outside.  Last summer, when Jayden started wanting to play with Royal, he would just kinda do what he wanted, throw the ball around, but refused to listen to anything Royal had to say about playing/shooting/stealing/dribbling.  Royal is a really good basketball player and with Royal if you want to play, you just do it or practice it the right way.  Well, Jayden wasn't having any of that and continued to just throw the ball up however he wanted.

Tonight, the weather was warm and I pulled the basketball hoop out of the garage for the kids to play with.  Jayden started shooting the ball with one hand, just like how Royal had been trying to show him last summer and he wouldn't have anything to do with.

Me : Nice shooting, Jayden!  Did Dad show you how to do that?

Jayden : Nope

Me : Well, who taught you then?

Jayden : I did!

Me : You did?  Awesome!

Jayden : Yea!  I taught myself on the Wii!

And I totally believe him, because he always makes his Mii left handed and Jayden is normally right handed.  But tonight, he was shooting the basketball left handed, just like his Mii!  :)

What Willow Wears :: 10

Some days there is just no stopping this girl and the clothes she wants to wear...