April-May

Since I missed my Iphone post from April, I've decided to do April and May together. 

Spring has sprung around here!

Can you tell???

I swear this is a daily occurrence with both boys.

I am glad the weather is warm enough for shorts now, 

but Carter's knees are sure taking a beating.

(Yesterday, he rode his scooter with knee pads)  

Doug has been busy in the yard and has even had a few helpers.

We have been on several bike rides.  

It's so nice to be officially done with training wheels!

Our longest was about a six miler down the Jordan Trail to the Peace Park.

The boys  and Hallie were troopers but were too tired to make the trek back, so

Doug and Nadya rode back quickly and drove the truck to pick the rest of us up.

The boys' class went on a field trip and Big Buddah (News guy from Fox) was there.

Alex's teacher picked four students to be interviewed and Alex was 3rd in line.

He quit after the second interview, but Alex didn't seem to mind.

Speaking of school, both boys completed a power point presentation
and Nadya did a report on Russia.

All three of them completed the fit fun run.

Alex ran a mile with Laurence who was my honorary son for the day,

while Nadya and Carter ran 3 miles.

A few weeks ago Alex returned from a garage sale  proudly pulling

a set of golf clubs with a cart. Once Doug figured out Alex only paid five dollars

he quickly gave Alex five more bucks and sent him back down the street to buy the other one. 

Apparently, it's five dollars to just rent a cart alone. 

Alex was so extremely excited and proud of his new clubs. 

(He spent his own five dollars).

He and Doug enjoyed looking through all the pockets trying to
 one up each other on who got the best bag.
It's so fun to see kids get excited over such little things.
Alex found the rain jacket he is wearing among many other things.

Doug is planning on taking Alex golfing this week so he can try out his new clubs!

In other news, my boys took down two Storm Troopers.

Our local library celebrated Star Wars day.
May the 4th be with you.
Alex took his Star Wars book to get autographed.
I had my honorary son with again.

Mother's Day was nice.
After church we had my parents and sister and brother in-law over for a low key lunch.  Doug bought me a new outfit.  Nadya is modeling the shirt. (Nope, it obviously didn't fit me!)
 It's the thought that counts, right?
I am one lucky mom!

The boys won their first EBay bid.
They pooled their money to buy a couple of super cool  Pokemon cards.

Misty and Aaron took the boys to the Motor Cross Races.
They had a blast! Thank you both!

I attempted to photograph the Super Moon, but missed the eclipse as I didn't order a filter in time.

The boys and I are looking forward to the Transit of Venus!

And we have visited Insta-Care twice already this month! Geez!

Once for Doug, and once for Hallie.
Luckily, both times we lucked out.
No broken bones.  

Two Milestones

While Nadya and I were at the Pac 12 Gymnastics meet I got a text from Doug.

I love technology!

Here's what I got!

He is a little wobbly, but is definitely holding his own.

I was so excited for him!  He had been telling me he couldn't

ride a bike without training wheels because "it just wasn't one of his talents"

I think he was frustrated because it was so easy for Alex.  

I kept telling Carter it was one of his talents, he just needed to practice.

  He was so excited to tell me about his accomplishment!

I was so proud!!

The next day he was determined to show me in our driveway.

It was very windy and our drive way requires him to turn quite a bit so

he took many falls and was very frustrated.

He blamed it all on his bike while

I insisted it was the wind.

The next day we switched from the drive way to the circle.

Much, much better!  

Carter is a pro now!

And he is all smiles!

(And he got a hair cut shortly after that picture!)

In other news, Alex lost another tooth.

I think he is going to need to borrow Grandpa's fake teeth soon!

Sunday Bike Ride

We had planned on going boating again this past weekend,

but the weather was a bit iffy this week so we decided against it.

 We opted for another family favorite.

A bike ride!!!!!!

I spent most of my time behind Alex,

encouraging and reminding him the rules.

Stay to the right Alex........

Keep looking forward Alex.....

Pedal, pedal, pedal Alex....... 

Occassionally, we'd catch up with Nadya, Carter and Dad.

But mostly, it was just me and Alex.

It was pretty warm and windy.

It felt sort of like we were inside a hair dryer.

We stopped to hydrate and cool off for  minute.

Silly Nadya put a wet napkin under her sunglasses 

in an attempt to keep her cool.

I think the only thing it accomplished was making her look silly.

We've progressed from the bike trailer to an alligator attachment,

and lots of encouragement to keep Alex looking forward and pedaling fast.

We are just trying to figure out how to teach Carter to sit up right.

Any suggestions?

We biked down to Gardner Historic Village.

We looked around briefly, but it was Sunday and all the shops were closed.

We didn't really have a destination in mind when we started our ride, 

so it really wasn't  a big deal. 

The kids enjoyed watching the ducks in the stream

and just resting before riding back.

We love biking!

The kids had a blast!

Spring Break Ends. Boo Hoo!

We wrapped up our Spring Break with a quick trip to Wheeler Farm for more letterboxing fun!

I do believe the boys enjoyed climbing this tree more
than actually finding the letterboxes though.

We found two letterboxes and we had to take a picture
to document Luca and Marco's first letterbox!

Then on Sunday we decided to leave our plumbing woes behind (broken pipe in the laundry room and our floor needs dug up! argh!)  and went for a family bike ride.  A great time was had by all!!!!  The girls zoomed off in front of us and Carter rode with Daddy and I stayed back and rode with Alex,  who is getting faster!

Alex struggled at first and then told me he got his memory back. (Memory back.  Love him!)  It was pretty windy, so that wasn't helping him either.

Proof that I was there! 
(Picture on the left was taken while riding my bike!  Don't worry, I didn't crash!!!!! Well, all the bike pictures were taken while I was riding, so if they are a little blurry don't mind!)

We quit riding and played a little ball!  Alex is playing baseball again so we thought some practice time would be good for him.

Cute, Cute boys!!

(see I told you it was windy! Look at Carter's hair!)

And, our family outings wouldn't be complete without finding a letter box!  

There was one just down the trail!

And in case we haven't told you Grandma and Grandpa- 
We LOVE our new bike rack!  It Rocks!