Idaho Trip

We had a great time on vacation. We had 10 days of fun fun fun. First we drove to Idaho to see the Craters of the Moon. It was a long drive with a couple of potty stops and food. Idaho looks pretty much like Utah to me, less trees :( We were so lucky to find snow at the Craters of the Moon and we were not able to go through the 7 mile drive they have there. Dan was very disappointed and mad at himself. But the kids and I convinced him that it wasn't his fault and we were having a great time anyways. We took some pictures and climbed on some of the rocks that were not covered with snow.
After walking around for a while and going to the visitor center we found out that they were
going to have a truck come and clean the road in 3 days. We decided to drive to Twin falls after that and stopped on the side of the rode to let the kids out and see the lava rocks and take more pictures of them. They had lots of fun. Only one injured kid there. Victor was running and fell down on the rocks, he had a bleeding hand but we put a band aid on it and he was like new.
We drove some more and got some snacks at a grocery store and lunch in the car. Kids whining
a little bit but still having fun :) It was a little boring at some points because there was nothing to see until we got to Twin Falls. That was a beautiful place and decided to go explore a little bit. You can't really see it on the picture but we were pretty close to the edge and it was a long long drop, very scary, Victor and I decided to stay away from the edge as far as we could. We had decided to spend the night at a hotel with a pool and Best Western was just the place. The best hotel I have stayed at. Two big beds, 1 recliner, our own microwave and tiny fridge and the indoor pool. We went shopping for snacks and found a cool grocery store where you can buy cereal and snacks by the pound for really cheap. I guess they have lots of LDS people down there because the store was perfect for Mormon people. We went to look for the water falls, which were really close to the hotel. They were cool looking. The kids played around rolling down the hill and climbing on trees, after that we headed back to the hotel, played in the pool and had more fun, except for Aaron who was very scared and cold. I ended up getting in the jacuzzi with him. Dan was playing with all the kids and seemed to enjoyed himself. The next day we drove home but decided to make one more stop at the Golden Spike. Dan had been talking about taking us there for a long time, and we finally did it. We are going back in May because they have the trains on display and people act out what happened there years ago. Tristan really loved looking at the trains. So that was our Idaho Trip.

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Texas Trip

We left Tuesday morning around 4:30 am for the airport. The kids complaining and cold but
they were happy once we were on the airplane. It was a nonstop flight and very quick, only 3
hours. The kids were great, no crying or anything. We had a rental car which was great, the
coolest car in the world :) I made a reservation on line and it was really cheap. They gave
us a Toyota Siena with only 2,600 miles on it, almost brand new. We had 8 seats and still
plenty of space for our suitcases. We got a little lost on the way to Steven's house but
made it on time for lunch. We were so happy to see Olivia and Amber again. After lunch we
went out to explore the stores and got some groceries to keep up with the hungry people. We
had a little nap and just relaxed for the rest of the day. Steven has a very nice house in a
very nice and quiet neighborhood. We went to a cool Aquarium in downtown Houston. It was
lots of fun for everybody. Amber and Olivia came with us too. We saw Sharks, Siberian
Tigers and all kinds of fish. Shayna, Dan and Victor went on a couple of rides. The next
day we went to the NASA Space Center and spent almost half of the day there learning about
astronauts and letting the kids look around. We took a tour that lasted an hour and a half.
We were able to go see the training facility and the control room and a huge space shuttle.
After that we went to have lunch somewhere else because food there was very expensive. Dan
bought some Astronaut food for the kids and it was really good. We then drove to down town
Houston again to meet with Steven and Amber at the Children's Museum. A very cool place for
kids too, Thursday night is Family Night there so the entrance is free. We were one of the
first families to get there so at the beginning was really cool and kind of quiet but then it
got a little crazy. The whole place is just cool for learning and exploring. They can touch
everything they want and pretend to be anything. Friday we just drove around looking at the
neighborhoods close by and I went to see some model homes. Yes we are thinking about moving
to Texas, we really like it there. In the afternoon we celebrated Olivia's birthday and had
cake. Saturday we went to the Beach, we drove to Galveston which is an Island and had the
best time there. I think it was my favorite thing to do in Texas, it didn't last as along as I wanted it. I am a beach person and Dan is not, but the kids liked it too. We built sand castles and the kids looked for sea shells. FUN FUN FUN. On the way back home we stopped at a new neighborhood close to Steven's house and we all went on a tour there, we saw 4 model homes but the best one was 3,800 sq feet and had 6 bedrooms, lots of space every where and a beautiful kitchen (my dream home). I think they said it was $ 196,000.00 compared to the houses here, that is a bargain. But we are not buying a new home. It was fun anyways.
Monday we went to the Zoo, the coolest Zoo I have been to. The Monkey place was one of my
favorites. They had some sea lions perform for the crowd. We walked a lot trying to see
everything. They also had a petting zoo which was great for kids. After the Zoo we went to a
cool Mall "The Galleria" where they have an skating rink in the middle of it. Shayna wanted
to go in and try it out but she wanted me to come with her, it was going to be lots of money
so Dan decided to skip it. Instead we just watched the people skate which was fun too. If we go back I'll take Shayna :)
So that is the end of it. We got back Tuesday afternoon and were very tired, Wednesday Dan
stayed home to enjoy his last day of vacation, we had my brother come over and played Rock
Band for a while. That was fun too.

Vacation

We came back a couple of days ago, but it took me a while to put this slide thing together. I have been trying to look for new ways of putting pictures here because I like taking lots of pictures. I have like 225 pictures on this slide and then there is another slide show from our trip to Idaho that I will post later. This slide is from the Texas trip. I will post later what we did.

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School Pictures

We recently got the school pictures back and I think they look great. This time the kids smiled the way I like :) This is probably the last thing I will post for a while since we are happily leaving for vacation in TWO DAYS!!!! I know it doesn't sound that exciting to go to Idaho but just the fact that we will all be out of the house and I wont have to worry about cleaning or cooking for a couple of days is great :)
Victor is getting better, his pink eyes are almost gone and he says his ears only tickle now.

Shayna the drummer

We now have the new PS3 Yes I know what you are thinking, WHY!!! But we got addicted to the American Idol game and Guitar Hero. The fun thing is that we can all play together and have fun singing and playing the drums and guitar. It is really fun. Shayna and I are better at the drums and Dan loves the guitar. Shayna has become the new American Idol a couple of times and she even cried one time when I won :) Anyway here is a video of her new passion. On other news I have an appointment with the INS to do my fingerprints and make sure I am not a terrorist, that will be done next week. I guess things are moving along. Next week we drive down to Idaho and then come back home to get ready for our trip to Houston we are so excited.

Crafty Kids

My kids love doing crafts, in fact it is so dangerous to go to Michaels or any other place were they sell craft supplies, they always find something they want to work on. One day Tristan wanted to go potty and we had to go to Ben Franklyn to use the restroom. On the way out he saw all this cute fun and cheap crafts that we just couldn't resist and had to buy one for each. They were only a dollar each. I thought they were going to be hard to put together but they did a great job. Specially Tristan being the youngest one I wanted to help him but he did it all by himself. They turned out so cute.

House repairs

We are fixing up little things around the house. Well we are paying people to do it for us :)
Our fridge decided to star leaking one night and we had a little bit of a flooding in the kitchen. They came to fix it up that same day $$$$
Our garage has been broken for a few months and I finally made the phone call and got somebody to come fix it. We have a new garage opener and we love it. $$$$$
Our ceiling in the hallway upstairs was damaged after the swamp cooler pipe froze up a couple of years ago and we finally got somebody to fix it, he has been working on it for a couple of days and hopefully it will be done by the end of the week. The ceiling downstairs got damaged too a few months ago thanks to my children :) They were taking a bath and went a little crazy with the splashing and the water went down through the vent. the ceiling got all messed up and that is being fixed too. $$$$
Thanks to our Tax Return we are able to do all this extra stuff.

Easter

Aaron was still kind of sick and I didn't want to take him out so we stayed home while Dan went to Sandy to play on the Hand Bell Choir. He loves doing that and I always give him a hard time about practices during the week. It only happens twice a year I shouldn't be so selfish :)
My brother invited us over for Easter at his house and we had a good time. The kids had an Easter Egg Hunt. Shayna was so nice giving the little ones most of the eggs she found.

Victor's Birthday

I feel really bad about not posting his pictures on my blog, but here they are. He turned 6 on the 21st. and we had planned this great party for him. He loves Star Wars and that was the theme of the whole thing. We gave him Star Wars toys and I made him a Lego Stat Wars cake. We found a Darth Vador Piñata and plates. We invited 7 kids but only 3 showed up. I was really disappointed and sad for him. Las year it was a great success and we had over 12 kids here. I guess it didn't help that it was Easter weekend and some other parties going on at the same time. Anyways he had fun and we had lots of activities for them to do. They played Lego Star Wars for a little while too and that was the funnest part of the party I think. I found this masks to print at home and laminated them so all of them got a Star Wars mask to wear while braking the piñata instead of being blindfolded. They had pizza and cake and that was the end of it. It wasn't until a couple of days ago that Victor mentioned to me that he only got to open 4 present for his birthday and last year it was more. The thing is he opened present the night before his birthday party with just the family and I didn't get to wrap them :) but we took him to Chuck E. Cheese Pizza and that was super fun for everybody.
He is such a nice little man and I love him to death. He has the cutest smile and can be nice to his siblings when he wants to. He is so smart but hates the simple stuff, he likes complicated thing. He is doing great at school reading and learning spanish.

Disney Princesses on Ice

I haven't been able to post anything for a while due to different reasons, one of them being Aaron getting sick for like a week with RSV, he is all better now which is great. I was really scared for a while. The one good thing that came out of that week is that he is finally walking now (about 90% of the time). The weekend he got sick Shayna and I went to Disney Princesses on Ice and it was lots of fun. I have a couple of pictures of that experience. It was just the 2 of us and it always makes me nervous to drive to Salt Lake by myself but I did OK.

Music on my blog

I am so excited I found this website and was able to get some of my favorite songs in this playlist and now I can share them with everybody. The coolest thing is that I found the song Dan and I danced together at our wedding reception, Annie's Song by John Denver. Every time I listen to that song I cry, it brings back special memories for us. So enjoy.