Spring Soccer

Oh let me count the many reasons why I loathe love spring soccer...
- it's cold
- it's windy
- it's wet

We almost avoided it.  On the last day of registration Grant says to me "aren't you going to sign me up for soccer?"  Did you want to play? I didn't know! Of course buddy, I will get you signed up!

The weather hasn't actually been all that terrible.  The first half we wore gloves and hats and wrapped ourselves in blankets.  Last Saturday we needed sunscreen.  It's hard to keep up this time of year with our climate.

The best part though is seeing the smile on his face.  This kid will run up and down the field with the biggest grin on his face.  The second best part is watching him on the sideline, paying attention to the game, and not balancing cones on his head and picking dandelions.  This is progress.

As an added bonus he scored his first goal this weekend.  You would think this might be easy to do, but apparently kids really enjoy just kicking the ball.  Literally just kicking the ball - not necessarily towards a goal, or a team mate, but just kicking it!  But soccer season is short and he seems to like it so everyone is happy!

My Birthday

My only request was a family game of tennis.  We played next to a playground so when the kids got bored Brandon and I got to have a match of our own.  It was a hard fought battle but he beat me.

36 is going to be a good year :)

Grant's St.Jude Trike a Thon

Grant's school did a trike a thon to raise money for St.Jude.  He rode over 70 laps.  The circle was small, the weather was breezy and there were a few crashes! Some goofball thought it was funny to run into kids, this kid seemed to alway find Grant. You did awesome Grant, good job buddy!

Anniversary at the Farm

Grant is in the cab with Pops

It is alway good to know where your roots are and ours can firmly be found traced to black soil.  It was our 12 year wedding anniversary and it was a perfect beautiful day to spend at the farm.  We planted pumpkin seeds - all varieties.  Brandon sent away for special Atlantic Giants (the 300-500 pounders!) and jack-o lanterns, little boo's, mixed...it is a potpourri of pumpkins or at least we hope it will be! Time will tell. Pops was going to give them a dose of nitrogen to encourage them along. The kids also got to ride the mini bikes for the first time.  We learned 3 things: 1) you can't hear instructions all that all with a full helmet on 2)Elizabeth's bicycle has a handbrake and Grant's does not, this knowledge or lack of, transfers over the motorized field of mini bikes 3) Pops can run really, really fast when chasing a 5 year old that hasn't figured out how to stop! Just use your imagination!

Our fashionista wherever she goes! 

We weren't on the road 5 miles and he was out!

Grant Loses a Tooth!

Our little boy who has two adult teeth growing in on the bottom row (shark teeth) finally lost tooth!
It was without any drama, which when we mention this to Elizabeth she is sure we are making fun of her - well in a way she is right.  Here is the difference between Elizabeth losing tooth and Grant losing a tooth:
Elizabeth - tooth is loose for weeks, asks us multiple times to pull it then changes her mind, lots of crying, lots of drama.
Grant - one day he has a really loose tooth, few days later he asks for an apple, he comes inside saying he is done with the apple he has hurt his tooth.  I ask if he wants me to pull it.  He says sure.  I grab a tissue, give it a pull and it's out! Whole things takes five minutes and no one is crying!  Well actually Elizabeth cried when he lost his tooth! Anyway...the tooth fairy brought him a sparkly $2 bill and he was on cloud nine!

Before

After

And yes I questioned the dentist about the so called shark teeth and he basically said start saving for orthodontics!  

Spring Break 2016

Our family had a divided spring break this year.  Brandon didn't have enough vacation time to join us for the whole week so he spent a long weekend golfing and I took the kids out to Arizona.  We all had a blast, but missed daddy not being with us - especially when Grant had to go to the bathroom in public places (but we made it out of that truck stop alive)!

As if going to AZ to visit the Campbell's wasn't fun enough, Amber added a bonus trip to San Diego. We had never been before and we were game.  Our kids are rock star travelers.  I know I have said it before, but I will say it again...they really do travel well - all 4 of them!  But let me start at the beginning...

Our very easy direct flight was delayed due to a mechanical issue.  I always find mechanical issues super comforting!  Let's just say when they started serving beverages in the terminal I knew we were there for a while.  By the time we got to bed it was 3am CST.  We all sleep like rocks.

The next day the children learned a valuable lesson about throwing rocks into the pool.  As in, Uncle Brian is not going to be pleased and even though you begged us to swim and we said "no" you are now going to put your suits and retrieve every last rock.  No we don't care if the water is cold, you made a bad choice.  However, after much crying and blue lips and shaking we let them have a towel and left poor Uncle Brian with rocks in the pool.  

The drive from Phoenix to San Diego is about 6 hours and I give my sister in law a lot of credit for her trip planning.  She had folders and clipboards and envelopes with activities and games and entertainment galore.  All of the stuff was really awesome, the bigger problem was the kids had trouble accessing the items due to our limited cargo space! The boys were actually much tidier than the girls.  We even took a sheet and put it up for a "privacy screen" limi style, sans the noise barrier.  But they thought it was fun and they stopped asking us for a food for 5 minutes.  Really we ate our way to San Diego!

On tap for California was Legoland, San Diego Zoo , the beach and Balboa park.  Check, check, check.

I will let the pictures tell the story, but we had an awesome time.  We stayed one night at the Legoland Hotel, which I would highly recommend.  The theming was awesome and they gave us an elevator ride we will never forget (cue the disco lights and soundtrack of Everything is Awesome).  They had a treasure hunt with a combination answer to the safe in the room with Lego sets.  The theme park was fun and the water park was chilly but awesome.  Major perk, the moms didn't have to get wet! And we all enjoyed our very first churro!  

San Diego Zoo was everything I thought it would be (amazing and hilly!).  We took the bus tour to start the day and heard a lot about breeding mates, which lead to lot of questions by a certain 7 year old girl!  We got to see the pandas, which was such a cool experience.  We walked our legs off and the kids had minimal complaining about tired legs.  We knew when to pass out the sugar!

Since the kids still seemed to have some energy and the moms had caffeinated we checked out a playground at Balboa park.  After a monkey bar incident we headed for rolling green grassy hills and played a family game of tag.  Honestly, one of the best memories we made.  The kid's legs were like Jell-O and they couldn't stay up.  Everyone took tumbles.  Some even knocked themselves out with a bag of kettle corn (me)!  

We finally found some real pizza in San Diego and hit the Ghirardelli ice cream shop.

Ice cream is coming!

The first attempt at pizza

The last morning we found a creperie for breakfast on Coronado Island.  The scenery was perfect, the people watching was fun, the food was ok, but totally worth the trip.  We then headed to the beach with instructions to the children of "these are the clothes you are riding home in, do not get wet!"  OK, whatever.  I dare you to take four kids that love each other to pieces to the beach and not get wet.  In reality a little wet would have been ok and even expected.  They got drenched! But again, the best memories were made and so worth it.  So we drove home with a little sand in the car, really the car had seen worse (girls: popcorn!).  It was so much fun.  

Making memories...one spring break at a time!