Sunday, March 29, 2009

First Week of Spring Break

Friday, March 20 was the first Official day of Spring. And what a better way to start Spring then by giving all the elementary students a two week Spring Break. Hooray! Of course, living in Arizona, Spring has been in full force for a while now. Trees blossoming, new leaves growing, bees humming, and hundreds of butterflies in the front yard each morning. My citrus trees all have blossoms and one of apple trees has a baby apple growing. It's absolutely beautiful.

With Spring comes Baseball season. I signed up my three big kids for Little League this season. Yep, that was dumb. But it's my first year doing it, so I didn't know exactly what I was getting myself into. Haha! I figured one practice and one game each week times three. And all games held at the same fields. Turned out to be two practices and two games a week times three, with games held at many different fields. Haha. Fortunately, Hubby can help with carpool during the week.

Saturday, March 21 was Little League Baseball Opening Ceremonies. There are four divisions in our League: T-Ball, Minor B, Minor A, and Majors. And within each division are 8 - 10 teams. All the kids were dressed out in full uniform. They looked great!


Joe #1 Yankees ~ T-Ball



Anne #10 Cardinals ~ Minor B


Rose #9 Diamondbacks ~ Minor A
(when did they change from purple to maroon??)

Later that day, they each played their first baseball game. They had so much fun playing. My kids aren't very good right now, but they are having fun and steadily improving.

I forgot the camera for Joe's and Rose's first games, but I was able to get one of Anne. She played right field. I didn't want another picture of her back, so I called her name. This is the picture that resulted. ;)

Sunday, March 22 we had Stake Conference. I ended up taking BabyCakes out after thirty minutes. Not because he was super fussy, but because my tailbone was aching! Sheesh. I know that mine is almost fully healed now, but sitting in hard metal chairs for two hours is not a good idea. The speakers were our Stake President, the Mission Pres and his wife, the Temple Pres and his wife, and a General Authority. I didn't catch his name or which group he belonged to, but I really enjoyed his talk. Very uplifting and inspiring.
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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the kids and I had fun being bums, watching loads of movies, making cookies and bread, going bowling, playing at parks, riding bikes and skates, and practicing baseball.
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Thursday, March 26, Hubby took off work and we drove to Legoland. It was a long drive. Followed by a long wait in the car to pay for parking before we could enter the park. BabyCakes chose this time to vomit. Yep. It was great. Long drives and cheesy-peanut butter crackers do not mix. And for some strange reason, I packed two extra onesies but no extra pants. Oops. We left his vomity clothes on top of the van. We didn't want them sitting inside the van all day. No one wanted to drive home in a vomity smelling vehicle. :(
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We started out with the Sea Life Aquarium, which is part of Legoland. The kids really enjoyed seeing such a variety of sea creatures mixed in with Legos.
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BabyCakes checking out the fish sans pants


I laughed out loud when I saw the Volvo Driving School. Hubby asked what I was laughing about, but no way was I going admit to thinking about Twilight while at Legoland. I laughed even harder when I saw a Volvo Mini-Van made of Legos. I was just imagining Edward driving a van around and what Emmet would say about it. Shh. Don't tell my husband!!! Hahahaha.


There were two sides. Junior Driving for ages 3 - 5 and regular Driving for ages 6 - 13. Joe, age five, was an expert driver. The other little kids kept crashing into walls. Not Joe. He didn't crash once, even thought several times other kids almost took him out. He just maneuvered around them and kept going. Talk about a smooth driver.


Rose driving on the wrong side of the road. It's hard to concentrate on driving when your Dad is yelling at you to look at him so he can take your picture. ;)


Anne was a little easier for Hubby to snap a picture of because she was stopped at a red light.



Anne, Joe & Rose waiting for a ride.


Legoland also had a water play area. The three older kids had worn their swimsuits under their clothes. When we reached the water area, they quickly stripped down and were completely soaked with five minutes. It was hilarious! BabyCakes slept through most of the crazy water fun. And with all the water shooting everywhere, I kept my camera safely tucked away. So no pictures of the water escapades.

After an hour, we rounded up the kids. Joe was freezing! I tried to strip him out of his wet swim stuff, but he wouldn't let me. Instead he ran to the bathroom, turned on the hand-dryer, then stood underneath it. Trying to blow himself dry and warm. Haha! It only took him a minute to realize his idea wasn't working. Then he let me strip him and put him in his warm, dry clothes.



I don't know how it happened, but somehow I was the one riding the roller coasters with the three older kids while Hubby entertained BabyCakes. Luckily, Legoland's coasters were geared toward younger kids, so I didn't get sick. Haha. Hubby took a few pictures to document our crazy fun.
Joe, Rose, Anne & I riding a Roller Coaster.


Us hanging on for dear life.




It was a blast. We drove back home that night. We stopped in Alpine for dinner. Alpine is GORGEOUS!! Pine trees and mountains. Mmmm. I love that. We are for sure going back there to hike around and explore.
Friday, March 27, we spent the whole morning being bums and recuperating from Legoland. Hubby headed to work after lunch. The kids and I were reading when I got a phone call from my Mom. Her Dad, my Grandpa, passed away. He was 92 years old. I was sad to hear the news, but mostly I was sad for my Mom. She was crying when she called me and she hardly ever cries. The Funeral will be next week. My kids and I were planning on visiting my parents and grandparents next week anyways. Now Hubby will come too.
I'm sad about my Grandpa passing, but I'm also kind of relieved. He has "almost" died so many times during the last fifteen years. His body just wasn't working right anymore. Nor was his mind. It's actually kind of ironic that my children knew him as a man who couldn't remember from one moment to the next. Because the man I knew growing up was smart as a whip. You couldn't put anything past him. Haha. He was always reading and leaning. Always working hard and always kind. Even when he couldn't remember very well, he was always kind and just laughed about not being able to remember. And the best thing about him...his eyes twinkled when he laughed or smiled. I'm going to miss him.
Saturday, March 28, brought more baseball games for Joe and Anne and brought another rehearsal for Hubby.

Joe playing Catcher! His job was to catch the ball then put it back on the "tee".

Saturday we also received news the Hubby's best friend has been in the hospital since Wednesday with chest pains. He had an angiogram Saturday morning. And is now scheduled to have triple bypass surgery on Monday. Yikes! Hubby and I are fasting for him. If everything goes well, he will only be in the hospital for another week and then on bed rest for a couple of months.
But hey, we've got kids, so we can't stay depressed for long. Saturday afternoon we took the kids to see Race to Witch Mountain and then out to dinner.
So far our Spring Break has been quite thrilling. I wonder what will happen next week...

5 comments:

Christina said...

No fair that you get 2 weeks for spring break. Sounds like you are having fun and keeping very busy with baseball. Sorry to hear about your grandpa, but I totally know what you mean by it almost being a relief. Sometimes its really nice to know they are finally able to leave those ailments behind.

Julie Moore said...

WHAT A "BREAK"! Loved the pics! My favorite is the rollercoaster picture. You all look like you're having a blast! YEAH for vacation time! Too fun!

Laurie said...

Wow, what a crazy week!!! Most of it sounds like a blast, so that's good.

Tina said...

I have never been to Legoland, and I really want to take Riley there...especially after seeing your pictures. I think she would love it, but I don't think I have any other takers around here.

Baseball for three sounds very overwhelming! I hope you are surviving it okay. The pictures are cute...:)

Sorry about your grandpa. I know what you mean about being relieved in a way, but it is still a loss. I SO relate to what you said about the fact that you knew him so differently than your kids knew him. My kids did not know my hard working, amazing grandma the way I did. They only knew her during those "endure to the end" years.

Nancy Face said...

I'm glad you got to go to Legoland, and that you had so much fun over Spring Break! :)

I'm very sorry about your Grandpa. I've known him since I was 14 and he gave me my Patriarchal Blessing. He was such a wonderful man, and I'll always remember him.