Auntie

Last week my sister Kara came up to visit us while her husband was away in Mexico. She has been intensly working on her nursing degree and hasn't had much free time. But she is only currently taking one online class that allowed her to leave town for a while. Ethan and I loved having her to ourselves during the week. I was especially spoiled to run errands ALONE and go on a date with Kevin. She spoiled all of us with lots of babysitting. We also enjoyed a shopping outing and lunch and swimming in my parent's pool.

Ethan is going through Auntie withdrawl the last couple days. He keeps asking for her. The event that sticks out most clearly for him is the fact that she broke one of his golf clubs. He keeps saying "golf club, Auntie broke it":) Unfortunatly I only brought my camera out one evening, so here are a couple pictures.







We love you Auntie!

Yosemite

Last Monday Kevin had off school for "spring day". We're still not sure what that means, but we took advantage of it anyways. We decided that instead of just hanging out around home we would take a day trip up to Yosemite. It was so great to see the falls in the spring. They were beautiful and really full! Ethan enjoyed seeing the waterfalls and just being outside picking up sticks and throwing rocks. It was a lot of driving for one day, so I'm not sure we'll do it again real soon, but it was fun to try once!

A picture of Bridal Vail Falls from the road.

On our way up to Bridal.

Down by the river with daddy and mommy.

We went as close to Bridal Vail as you could get and we got soaked! It was too wet up there to get the camera out, so no pictures of the falls up close.

"Where is the waterfall Ethan?"

El Capitan. People rock climb the face of this massive rock and actually spend the night suspended in tents...crazy!

Yosemite is one of the most beautiful places in creation to see. It was great to spend even a few hours there.

"New" toys

A couple weeks ago our town had it's citywide garage sale. I hit about 5 that were within walking distance of our house. I found some great deals on toys and books for Ethan. I bought a bag of about 30 matchbox cars for $5 and a car carrier and fire truck for $2. Ethan is loving them! He is truly a boy, he has learned how to make all sorts of car and truck sounds.

Another favorite past time, wrestling with Daddy.

I had to add this picture mostly for my mom to see. I have a picture of me sitting in a rocking chair wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses and smoking his pipe when I was about 2. Mr. Potato Head doesn't come with a pipe anymore, so Ethan just wore the glasses.

Ethan's Sandbox?

The other evening I walked into the backyard to find this......

So do you think the sandbox was built for Ethan to dig in or for Kevin to practice his bunker shots?

Life

I thought I would share a few photos and info about what we have been up to the last couple weeks.

~The weather has been trying to decide if it is going to be warm shorts weather, or windy and cool. So we have been enjoying some time outside, as well as some afternoons inside to avoid the wind. We bought a few new plants at Costco this weekend and got those in the ground.

~We got a new bike trailer and Ethan loved his first ride in it. I anticipate many more evening bike rides...until my baby tummy gets too big.

~We have a baby mouse living in our garage. That probably means mommy and daddy are somewhere close by. He ate the cheese right off the trap last night, so tonight we're trying peanut butter.

~Kevin had a great week up at science camp with his kids last week. They enjoyed lots of hiking and outdoor activities. We missed him and were ready to have him home.

~Last Saturday I watched my friend Jamie's daughter Kate for her while she had her last work day before tax day. The kids did great together. Ethan loved to give her hugs...she wasn't so sure about it.

~Here is my first tummy picture. When Ethan heard I was taking a picture of my tummy, he had to get in on the action. I'm 20 weeks in this picture. Half way there!

~Sunday morning before church Ethan and Kevin got out the hockey sticks and played a little hockey. Ethan was very excited to watch the hockey playoffs as well. (Just ignore the fact that they're shooting with a baseball:)

We'll see what the next couple weeks bring us!

Trip to Denver

Last weekend Kevin, Ethan and I made a super quick trip to Denver. We went to visit Mary, my roommate from Dordt, and her husband Kurt and son Andrew. We left Friday evening and came home Monday afternoon. It was quick, but so great to connect with them again. They are couple that we can just pick up with where we left off and just feel comfortable around eachother. We had lots of good talks, great laughs, and a few rounds of Rook. Unfortunatly, between the nap schedules of our two boys we didn't get out and do much. But catching up is why we went out there in the first place. Mary and I did some shopping at a local outlet mall and the guys went on a run and took the boys to the park. Another bummer was that Ethan ended up getting sick, so we spent 2 hours at Kaiser with him on Sunday morning. The poor guy had a nasty cold. Since we were all sharing a room, no one slept real well....but we've all caught up on our sleep at home, so thats good.

On Saturday night we had a partial roommate reunion. Molly, Jackie and Matt came over to Kurt and Mary's for dinner. It was so fun to see those girls again too. We laughed until we cried remembering all the crazy things we did in college. It was also great to talk about life now and see where God has led us. Jackie is having a baby in June so it was great to see her baby tummy and talk about how their life will soon change!


Molly and I just being goofy....


Molly, me, Jackie, and Mary....we had 3 cameras going at one time so there weren't any pictures that had us all looking at the camera. This one will have to do.

On Sunday morning we also got to see our friend Joel who moved out to Denver to go to Denver Seminary last fall. I got to chat with him a few minutes and he and Kevin went out to breakfast together to have some guy time. We were glad we were able to see him too. I didn't get any pictures of Joel though, sorry man!




This is the closest Ethan got to Andrew all weekend. He has this odd phobia of other children that are younger than him. Although he loves to talk about babies and see them from a distance, he wasn't too sure about playing "with" Andrew. At the end of the weekend Mary said she was glad he kept his distance though, hopefully that helped prevent the spread of his germs!




We had to grab a quick picture before we flew out. Ethan was happy to hug Andrew then, I think it was because he knew we were leaving:)

Thanks for an awesome weekend Kurt and Mary! Let's do it again!

Sandbox

During the last couple days of spring break Kevin worked on a sandbox for Ethan. He got it finished, now we just need some sand and a lid to keep the neighborhood cats out.

Here is a picture of his handiwork. He did a terrific job, I think! Ethan already likes to dig in his "box".

Here is a picture of most of our yard. You can see the orange tree we planted as well as the Japanese maple and one of the Crepe Myrtles. It is so fun and rewarding to see our yard coming together.