Last bit of Spring Break

March 12-15

We had a wonderful end of spring break.

We traveled to see great friends and their two beautiful daughters.

Thanks to Nana and Papa, the older kids enjoyed the long car ride with their new DVD players. (Great Christmas gift!) Milk Dud enjoyed the ride so much he forgot to take a nap!! Lucky for him, Mom sat near and entertained him for 6 hours!

We enjoyed a trip to a Children's Museum.

We made homemade pizza. Every0ne made it the way they wanted it.

We enjoyed getting the kids doughnuts. Our

Goddaughter had this to say about doughnuts awhile back, and

we just had to treat her again.

We enjoyed a cool day at the zoo. By the end, we had a few less layers and a lot of wet feet. The melting snow was almost as much fun as the animals. We did see a very pregnant giraffe and were able to feed her. Did you know that a garaffe does not sit down once pregnant and is with baby for 15 months!

Our first outdoor picnic of the year!!

We brought our Wii along for Ice Cream to play during down times. He was able to play with the adults after all the younger kids went to bed. He loved that. On the last day, as we were packing, we let the middle children play. When we went to eat brunch the babies thought it was their turn and jumped right up to play.

Cabin Fun - Triathlon Weekend

For those that did not know, Doughnut and Nectarine did a triathlon this weekend. More at the bottom. We made a weekend of it. Another family that participated in the race joined us at the cabin. We had Saturday to stay out of the sun, get rest, and prepare. No one said that would be easy with 5 kids but we did our best and this is how our no sun day went!!

Jet Sking - jumping off the trampoline

Water Skiing - kids went a few times. We just watched them from the jet ski or shore. Not one of us wanted to tire our arms for the big swim!!

Ice Cream tried knee boarding again. We tried it last year and it did not go well. This year he had a great time and he even showed off by using only one hand to hold.

Friends across the lake came with their boat and took us tubing. What fun to see them and know they are on the same lake.

Kids spent hours looking for frogs, making the sand box into a frog swamp and holding them.

Ended the night before the race with a fire, light-up bracelets and early bed times.

Milk Dud had a great day and was one of the only ones that stayed out of the sun!

Race was early. So we do not have many pictures as Uncle Pizza got their late. (Trying to get 5 kids ready in the morning is harder than it looks. Thanks to Pizza, Papa and Nana for watching all the kids.) We left around 6:40 am and headed 5 miles into town. It was a cool morning and nerves were tight. Not sure how much sleep we each got.

Got our equipment set up and headed to the beach to hear instructions. There were 5 total from our neighborhood that decided to join. It was a first for all of us. I, Nectarine decided to do this and others joined in on the fun. It was a great training and talking about what we would do or not do. We each decided our mountain bikes were ok but seeing all the faster bikes I think a few of us had bike envy.

We started with a quick 1/4 mile swim in a cold fresh water lake. I think once we started no one thought about the cold at all. Then we biked around that lake for 12 miles and closed the race with a 5K (just over 3 mile) run.

All in all, we all did GREAT!! We did far better then we expected and felt good that afternoon and the next week. We are glad the first one is over and I know a few of us will be back for more next year. I am sure you want to know so, Nectarine beat Doughnut by under a minute. If anyone wants to join us next year we would love to have you.

Pool Time on Vacation

After a 5 plus hour car ride we were all ready to head to the pool. Wow - it was fun!!

Here are a few of the highlights from the pool

Ice Cream found out that he is good at doing somersaults.

He can do 4 in a row without taking a breath. The next time we

were at the pool, he did 5 with one breath.

Candy loved that she could go down the slide by herself and swim to the edge.

She also really worked on her pulling and kicking under the water.

We have some swimmers here.

Milk Dud thought the water was a little cold and would

rather be in the hot tub.

We did take him down the water slide on our laps a few times ,but

he did not seem to like it or not like it.

The water slide was really fun for all!

Ice Cream felt great slam dunking the ball.

Wedding Fun - long drive

What a beautiful wedding - again. We had a wonderful time seeing friends we have not seen in years. We were so glad to be part of their wonderful day.

Bride's family has a tradition at Christmas to remember her brother by letting go balloons.

We miss him lots.

Our parents are always looking to give advice.

Two of the four moms have to check out the groom for their friends daughter.

Got my kids cleaned up before the wedding. The white shirt on Milk Dud did not stay clean as he is still crawling on his belly. I forgot about how dirty it would get. They looked good at first. Candy could not wait to wear her "fancy" dress.

Candy was so excited because the bride talked to her. Thanks for doing that for her. It was exciting. I told Candy that the bride was the prettiest girl at the party and she said, "I am really pretty today though." Sorry, I guess it is a tie.

We did not call everyone in advance and we were not part of the wedding party.

We just all wore black. Great to be with fun friends.

New kids to play with. Grandmas were proud of the grand kids.

Bride's Family all dressed up. These are some of our childhood friends all grown-up.

Groomsmen all got fun shoes to wear, but they did not even stay on with all the dancing. The women might have kept their shoes on longer.

Another great family with new Grandkids for the grandmothers to brag about!

We know these two have guys but we have not seen them!!

We cannot wait to meet them soon.

Trying to get a good picture of these three was hard.

Sorry - I had to post this one for those that were there.

Same thing happened here - M you crazy girl with the grabby fingers!!

We had a great time dancing!

My kids loved the party but did not make it all night.

We had a wonderful lunch the next morning.

It was one long ride back home... about 5 hours and the kids did really well. We were able to borrow a DVD player for the big kids and Milk Dud took a few naps. They were all ready to be done when we got home.

Thanks for doing a lot of the driving Doughnut.