Catching Up

We have had an eventful couple of weeks, and I have been a major slacker in the blogging world.  This mega-post will hopefully get me caught up on the events of the last couple of weeks.

Two Years Down...

Yeah!! Colby finished his second year of school. He worked very hard and it paid off.  We are so proud of Colby for this major accomplishment.  Only five years to go.  We had a celebration dinner in honor of the end of the second year.

I spoiled Colby with some of his favorite foods:

Grilled Steak, Steamed artichokes, twice baked potatoes, 

crab legs and sparkling apple juice. 

Happy 29th Birthday!

That about sums it up.  This may be the last birthday Colby "celebrates."

Some of our friends watched the kids and we were able to go out to dinner

and see the new Indiana Jones movie. Happy Birthday Colb!

Colby and his awesome store bought cake. 

(I am becoming a slacker in my pregnant state)

Midwestern Storms..

We have learned that they have they craziest storms here in Iowa.  

You wouldn't believe how loud the thunder gets, or how frequent the lightning is.

Sunday we had a new experience, a midwestern hail storm. Ammon was confused

(thinking it was a tornado) and told me he needed to get his pillow and go

hide in the bathtub (apparantly they learned about tornado safety at school).

Here are some of the hail pieces I retrieved from the front lawn.

Preschool Graduation

Ammon finished preschool and had a great end of year program. 

We are so proud of Ammon! I can't believe he will start 

kindergarten in the fall. 

Ammon receiving his graduation certificate.

Ammon with his teacher, Mrs. Shoemaker.

A sampling of the preschool program.  Isn't he adorable?

Girls Night Out

Sadly, some of our good friends are moving away from Iowa this Summer.  Thursday night we had a final girls night out.  We started with dinner at Panera bread. (Obviously no one was quite ready for me to take their picture!)

Then we had to hit Cold Stone for icecream.

We will miss you Skye, Celeste and Kristine!

We ended at the movie theatre where we saw Made of Honor. (From L to R, Skye, Celeste,

Auprielle, Shauni, Lisa, Heather and Kristine).

It was so nice to get out for the night. We had a great time. We will miss you girls!

Somewhere in Middle America

Colby finished his classes last week and decided to take the weekend off before he started studying for his boards.  We decided to take the boys on a little vacation to Omaha.  When I told Ammon that we were going on a trip we had the following conversation:

Mom:      We're going to go on a little trip and stay in a hotel and go to the zoo.

Ammon:  Oh, is Ashlyn coming?

Mom:      No.

Ammon:  Oh, is Caden coming?

Mom:       No, just our family

Ammon:  Oh, so are Grandma and Grandpa coming?

Mom:       No, just me, you, Daddy and Carter, how does that sound?

Ammon:  Sounds pretty boring to me.

I think it's a little early for Ammon to think that we are "boring," but we all ended up having a great trip (even Ammon).

The Omaha zoo was awesome!  The "desert dome" made us feel like we had

been transported to Southern Utah.  It was full of SNAKES (which the boys

loved, me not so much), bats, mice and caves. It was a little boy's dream come true.

Colby and the boys in the "desert."

The zoo also had an indoor rainforest, complete with waterfalls, vines, 

crocodiles, hippos and monkeys. It was also very cool.

Ammon, Carter and Colby crossing the rope bridge in the rainforest.

We borrowed this wagon from our friends so the boys wouldn't

whine if they got tired of walking. Colby was a trooper and pulled them

around the entire zoo. (up and down many hills, might I add)

Mom and the boys getting ready for swimming at the hotel.

We were also able to visit the Winter Quarters visitors center. 

They had displays of a handcart, wagon, cabin, and a couple of 

cool movies about Winter Quarters.

Here are some fun movies we took of the kids on our trip.

  

Tulip Time

Friday the boys and I drove out to Pella, Iowa with some friends for their annual tulip festival. Pella is a Dutch community about 45 miles Southeast of Des Moines.  During the tulip festival, Pella features parades, crafts, tulip gardens, bakeries and kids games and activities.  We were lucky to have relatively good weather and we had a great time. It is finally starting to look like Spring here and we are enjoying the nice weather!

The kids enjoyed watching the parade, although Ammon was a little disappointed 

that they didn't throw any candy.

The boys played a couple of the kid's games and got 

to jump in the bounce house.

We had to stop at the bakery for dutch letters 

and other yummy pasteries.

And of course, we visited the tulip gardens.  The tulips were beautiful! 

There was a huge variety of types and colors of tulips.

The boys were just excited to be outside, 

running on the brick walkways.

Thanks to some great photography by Celeste, it looks like we are in a vast 

field of tulips. Actually, it was a vast flower bed of tulips.  Too bad my boys

will NEVER look at the camera and smile.