SPRING BREAK

I'm sitting here thinking that the last two months have just flown by. It seems like every year goes faster and faster. This past month has been full of fun trips to San Francisco and other events. For spring break this year, we loaded the kids up in the car and headed to San Francisco once again. This time, we planned to visit a lot of the children's museums there (since Reno has NO good museums here) and the zoo. We had a blast running around, as usual. We went to the Discovery Museum just outside of San Francisco, which was wonderful for toddlers and young kids. It was very interactive and creative, and the kids had fun painting, banging on instruments, playing outside on their big playground, etc... The next day we headed over to the California Academy of Sciences, which is an awesome museum, only it was SOOOOOO crowded that it was almost not worth it. They have an aquarium there and tons of cool exhibits and science movies for the kids. We also strolled around Yuerba Buena Gardens, Seal Rock and of course visited the zoo, which was fantastic. We totally lucked out and the zoo was not crowded at all on the day we went. And they have this great grizzly bear exhibit and while we were there, their 2 grizzly bears were out playing in their glass enclosures. So we got to sit and stand less than 2 feet away from grizzly bears and watch them for about 20 minutes. My kids were ecstatic and they were completely enthralled with these bears (Dallin and I were too!).

We were in San Fran over Easter, so we did some fun easter stuff at the hotel (including an egg hunt and some fun crafts). And of course spent lots of time in the hotel pool, which is always fun. Plus, Dal and I got to eat delicious food while we were there, which is always a bonus. All in all, we had a great time. I love being able to drive over the Cali because it's so close to Reno. We already have a list of things that we will do on our next trip to San Francisco.

All bright eyed and bushy tailed before the big easter egg hunt

Checking out the goodies in their baskets

Yep, that's my boy!

Can you see how close we were to these bears?!! Awesome!

OK, I just thought this was hilarious -- especially Dallin!

Riding them turtles.

Ready for a little 3-D action

Loved, loved, loved the aquarium!

At the Discovery Museum

Getting all wet at one of the exhibits

Onto other random things: my Evan is talking up a storm these days. He loves to sing "I am a child of God" and a couple of songs from "High School Musical." He is WAY into Disney's Cars movie and has his toy Lightning McQueen, Chick Hicks and the King in his hands at all times of the day. He also runs around the house saying, "Speed, I am speed." Very, very cute.

Jacob started his soccer season not too long ago and is doing great. He's no Pele, that's for sure, but he has a ball running around the field with the rest of his team. So far, their record is 0-2, but at least his team was able to score a couple of goals last time!


And Aubrey has been loving going to pre-school. She's my artsy child. She wants to color and paint all day long and especially loves finger-painting at school. She's also become my gardening helper around the yard -- she loves to water the flowers and pretend like she's planting flowers, just like her mommy.

Birthday Pics

I'm on a blogging spree because my two boys have colds so I thought i might as well do some blogging while they're home recuperating. I'm posting pictures of Evan's birthday here at home with the Boise cousins. We had so much fun with Reed, Gayann and their kids and were hoping they'd get snowed in by the storm that came through that weekend. But no such luck! They were here for a quick weekend and my kids (and we) enjoyed every minute they were here! We had cupcakes and ice cream , sang Happy Birthday to Evan and opened his presents. He got a Handy Manny tool box, where the tools jump around and sing the Handy Manny theme song which he absolutely loves! He's hardly put it down since his birthday!






This last picture is of a snowman that was made by our neighbor's daughter for Evan's birthday. We all got such a kick out of opening the door and seeing this little guy at our doorstep. Very cute!

San Fran on Segway

Dallin and I just celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary and I can hardly believe we've been married that long. The time has flown by, and to be honest, it feels like we've been married a lot longer (in a good way!). So, for our anniversary, he surprised me with a trip to my favorite city, San Francisco. He arranged for a young couple in our ward to watch our kids for the weekend, so we were able to enjoy a true getaway with no kids in tow. He got us an awesome hotel right in downtown San Francisco with the most amazing views of the city, and made several reservations for us at various restaurants around town. We ate delicious food while we were there, which if you know me, is a must! I judge all of our vacations by the type of food we eat! :)

Enjoying a wonderful dinner at WaterBar

One of my favorite things in this whole wide world: fresh CRAB!!

He also got us tickets to see Wicked, which I've been dying to do since it opened there in San Francisco. We had fantastic seats and got to go in the VIP area before the play and during intermission, which was kind of fun! The musical was fantastic -- I would highly recommend it to everyone.

Getting ready for some wicked fun!

Hanging out in the VIP room
During the weekend, he also surprised me with a San Francisco Segway Tour. I was so excited, but a little nervous to try this out. For those of you who don't know what this is, you basically ride around the city on a motorized scooter (think Paul Blart in Mall Cop!). Those things can actually go quite fast and with all of the hills in San Francisco, I was actually nervous at times. But it seriously was SO MUCH FUN! It definitely was a unique way to see the city.

Learning how to use the segway

Taking a stop in front of alcatraz

The rest of the time, we drove throughout the city and visited some of my favorite spots: fisherman's wharf, chinatown, nob hill, lombard street, etc...

I always have to stop in chinatown!

I've decided that I do officially have the best husband on earth and this surprise weekend trip earns him a couple more "ski on Saturday" passes without me complaining too much! :) So, thanks Dal, for a wonderful getaway.

Everything In Between

Obviously, I've been catching up on my trip to Guatemala on my blog, but a lot has happened since we returned. So I'm doing a quick post and including some recent pictures of the kiddos. First off, a few weeks back, it was Dr. Seuss' birthday so they had all kinds of fun festivities at Jacob's school. One day, they had to dress up as their favorite Dr. Seuss character, so Jacob dressed up as Thing 1. It was hilarious going into school that day. There was one girl who dressed up as Cindy Lou Who and her hair was PERFECT!

A few weeks back, we got a nice big snowstorm, so the kids were chomping at the bit to go sledding and build a snowman. So, we of course did both. I got a quick snapshot of the snowman before it got annihilated by Jacob and the neighborhood kids going at it with a baseball bat! :)

The snowman before its demise

Moving on, Dallin and I recently went skiing over at Tahoe at Alpine Meadows. It's been about 7 years since the last time I went skiing and I've really only been a handful of times in my life AND I've never actually taken lessons. So we decided I would take official lessons this time around. And I loved it! A few observations: skiis are A LOT shorter than they used to be... like at least half the size, which makes it soooo much easier to learn to ski. I had a ball and am hoping to go at least one more time this ski season, if I can.

Me About to Hit the Slopes

EXHAUSTED After a Looonnnggg Day of Skiing for This Old Bird

And lastly, today is my Evan's 2nd birthday. I absolutely adore this kid! He is such an easy baby (except the recent attitude adjustment that comes with becoming two!!) Seriously though, he hardly ever fuses at all. When he wakes up in the morning, he never cries. He always just sits there until we come and get him. It doesn't matter how long we take... he just sits there and waits patiently!! He has Dallin's looks and personality and I am completely enamored by him. We have family coming into town this weekend, so I'm sure I'll have some fun birthday shots of him and the cousins to post sometime next week. So, happy birthday to my big boy!!

The End of Our Journey

We ended our Guatemala trip with a get together with some cousins and extended family in Guatemala city. I thoroughly enjoyed being with everyone again since it's been almost 20 years since I've seen them. But I have very fond memories playing with my cousins in Guatemala when I was little and staying with other family members on previous trips. We had a great time catching up and meeting their spouses and children.

The next day, we drove to Jalapa, which is where my father was born. It has changed a bit over the years, but we loved visiting with his cousin Sergio and his family. My father always talks about Sergio because they were such great friends growing up (and always got into a lot of trouble together too!)

All in all, we had a wonderful trip, but we were really missing our kids by the end of the trip. We couldn't wait to get back and see them. We definitely gained a greater appreciation of all that we have back home that we often take for granted. And although we won't make it back any time too soon, we are looking forward to the day when we can take our own children there and teach them about their heritage.

On a random side note, on the flight home, we stopped by a restaurant to eat dinner and recognized a guy from a show we used to watch called "Men in Trees." So, of course, I had to go up to him and ask him if we could take a picture together. Cheesy, I know.

The last picture in this post is of Dallin's parents who bravely agreed to watch our kids for a total of (gulp) 10 days! They were troopers, although we sent them both home with bad colds that our kids has passed along to them. We definitely would not have been able to go on this trip without them and were very greatful for all that they did for my children while we were gone.

The View

Days 6-8: Lake Atitlan & Tzununa

After finishing up touring Antigua, we hopped in the car and drove straight through to Panajachel, a small town by Lake Atitlan, which I have to admit is one of the most beautiful lakes I've ever seen. Lake Atitlan is surrounded by steep hills, picturesque mayan villages and massive volcanoes, one of which is still active and you can see it "smoking" in the early mornings. The first evening there, we stayed in the Hotel Atitlan and by luck, we were given a suite for the evening, which my parents enjoyed. It overlooked the gorgeous grounds, the lake and the volcanoes.

The following morning, we just walked around the grounds of the hotel enjoying all of the birds and flowers and took a dip in the infinity jacuzzi pool overlooking the lake and volcanoes. It was incredibly relaxing and I almost didn't want to leave the hotel.

Hotel Atitlan was gorgeous and had great views!

Dallin and I relaxing after a swim

Enjoying the infinity jacuzzi pool

After checking out, we headed into town and did some shopping at the mercado. This is where I bought most of our "souvenirs" from our trip. I bought some really pretty textiles, a few nativities and some really cute dresses for my daughter and toys for the boys. I love looking at the native mayans. Their clothes are vibrant and they carry everything on their heads... it's impressive. I don't know how it doesn't keep falling off, but they carry everything from clothing to baskets full of food, etc... on their heads.

Visiting the "mercado"

I love how they carry everything on their heads

We had made reservations at a really quaint (but remote) hotel called Lomas de Tzununa for the next two evenings, and we wanted to arrive there early because you could only get there by boat and then climb 400+ stairs to reach the cabins which were literally built into the side of a steep mountain. The beauty of this hotel was that it was away from all of the "tourist" stops and you had completely unobstructed views of the lake and volcanoes.

So after shopping, we headed over to the pier and got on one of the "ferry" boats heading to the various villages surrounding the lake. By now the wind had picked up a bit and the water was pretty choppy so the boat ride seemed a bit harrowing at times. We got completely drenched from the waves splashing into the boat and after what seemed an eternity, we finally made it to the pier at Tzununa. Like I mentioned, there were 400+ really steep stairs to climb, so we called the hotel who sent down 2 hotel workers to carry up ALL of our luggage. We had 5 pieces of luggage, 3 of which were BIG pieces and those 2 guys carried our luggage all of the way up the stairs. It was incredible. It was a workout getting up these stairs, let me tell you, and we all needed to sit down and rest a few times on the way up. But once you got up there, you were rewarded with FANTASTIC views of the lake and volcanoes.

A view of the hotel from the lake as we were pulling in

Getting soaking wet on the boat

Getting ready to climb the 400+ stairs

The next morning we woke up and enjoyed breakfast while overlooking the lake and volcanoes. Then hopped aboard another one of the boats and headed out to visit the many villages around the lake. Once we were in the villages, we had to board what they call "tuk-tuks." They're kind of what you imagine people riding around in India or someplace like that. They're like little buggies with a driver in front and room for 2-3 people in the back. Anyway, we visited the villages, enjoyed some local food and did some more shopping with the local vendors.

Bartering over a beautiful textile which I ended up buying!

Riding in the "tuk tuk"

Enjoying the views from Lomas de Tzununa

Enjoying a delicious breakfast on the hotel balcony