Hawaii

For our 10 year anniversary we wanted to go on a trip.  We had been thinking it would be in the Fall, but when we found round trip airline tickets for $300 per person, we knew we had to do it now!!  Here are some of the good times we had:

Snorkeling:  Just a few of the hundred cool pics of neat fish!

The view from our condo:

Pearl Harbor:

The Polynesian Cultural Center:

Other Misc Fun:

There are a million other pics I could add, but these will have to do for now!!

All Things Batman

Braden decided that for his 4th birthday, he wanted an "everything batman" party.  He has been looking forward to his birthday for a long time, since all of his friends are already 4, and it just doesn't seem right that he was left behind.

I needed a project to get rid of some January blahs, so we had a great time.

I made a cool batman invite, batman shirts and capes, a batman pinata, a sweet cake, and came up with some fun game ideas.  It was defiantly all things batman, and oh so fun!  And, no girls were allowed, too.

 We had to make bad guys and criminals for batman to destroy

 Then everyone stood in a line and threw balls at their bad guys.

 The pinata was very tough.  Daddy had to give it a whack or two to soften it up a bit.

 but everyone was pretty excited about the prizes inside!

Then we played pin the "whack, wam, pow, bam, bang, chop" on Joker

And last but not least we did super hero poses on bubble wrap.

 I tried to put 3 candles on the cake, but luckily Braden's friend Vincent caught my mistake and we got that fourth one on just in time.

Brady hit the Batman jackpot with gifts!  William gave him a batman motorcycle

 Vincent gave him an autobot bulldozer and an angry bird

 Ryan gave him a batman monster truck

 We gave him a RC batmobile

 And Jameson gave him a batman superhero figure, a spiderman puzzle, and a barrel of monkeys!

 It was one bat-tastic day!  And the best part of all is that it was 60 degrees and sunny and we did the whole thing in the backyard!!!!

Since today is Brady's real birthday, we opened the present from Grandma & Grandpa Mills this morning, after waffles with ice cream.  He loves his tractor!!

Better than Disneyland

Dave's brother Russ moved to Nebraska about the same time we moved to Washington.  We have wanted to go visit them and see their new farm, and decided, why not now?  Tickets were a good price into Denver, so we flew from Spokane and Russ and Janelle met us at the Denver airport and drove us to their home in Nebraska, a 3 hour drive.

The boys had such a fun time with cousins.  They farmed like crazy the whole time!!  I am pretty sure my kids have never seen so much farm equipment in one household!!

On Friday....We took a drive up to Scott's Bluff and had a nice walk around and saw the view from the top.

Hayden, Daniel, and Dalton are such good boys.  They played so well with our kids, and were helpful and kind the whole time.  I would take all 3 of them home with me!!  Hayden and Braden kind of paired up and Hayden was so nice to help Braden or get him a snack or whatever.

We went to the farm museum.

We went to a basketball game at the little community college they have there.

On Saturday... we took the kids to the YMCA to go swimming and play raquetball and basketball, and got to watch a group of jump ropers do tricks.  

 That evening we got pizza and had a game night.

 Even Sabree had a fun time!

 And of course a cousin sleepover!!

 Sunday was church and Sunday naps and more farming of course.  (the non-Sabbath breaking kind of course)

Monday we went for a drive to see Russell's farm, then went to a wool factory, hoping for a tour, but just got a peek at lots of yarn being spun into spools and such.

 Then we were driven back to Denver to stay in a hotel so we could go to the airport the next morning to fly home.  We had to check out the swimming pool, of course.  It was nice and warm.

The kids travel so well.  We went to dinner in Denver and had a couple eyeing us the whole time.  When we got up and walked past us the man started to clap his hands and said that I should be applauded for raising so many good kids.  He was flabbergasted that we had so many kids and that they were so well behaved.  He wondered how we would keep up with everyone when they get involved in music and sports and such.  I guess we will figure it out then.  

At the end of the vacation we asked the boys if they would rather do this or Disneyland, and the vote was unanimous....NEBRASKA!!!

Happy 10 year anniversary

This year we hit the big one. TEN YEARS!!  Time flies when you're having fun.

Just so happened that everyone was sick, so we ordered take out from Outback and had a romantic dinner at home with the kiddos.  (swear I had a pic, but I can't find it.)

But the big celebration will happen in February, when Grandma comes to stay with the kids, and Dave and I spend a week in HAWAII!!!