Snugglin' Soph...

As I was sitting on the couch holding Sophie while she drank her bottle the other day (yes, she still has a bottle. What can I say? She's #3 and gets away with way more than #'s 1 & 2 ever did). Suddenly I got all emotional thinking about how she wasn't going to stay this size forever and how the time always passes way too quickly. So I busted the camera out and snapped a couple shots so that I could always remember her tiny, little, snuggly self.

 

 

Love Language...

Before Valentine's Day this year, Rob and I read the 5 Love Languages book (great book, I highly recommend it). You would think that after 10 years of marriage, I would know my companion's love language by heart. Well, I sort of did, anyone can probably guess what most men's main love language is... but what I didn't know, is that his other main love language is "quality time". So for Valentine's day this year, I wanted to give Rob some real QT, but how do you give that in a gift? Then I saw this idea on another blog that was perfect, so I set to work. It took me about a month, but finally I had finished the gift. Here it is... What is that you ask? Well, to give Rob the "quality time" that shows him that I love him, I planned, paid for, and prepared, 12 months of dates (1 per month) for the two of us. I put the details for each date in an envelope that we open at the beginning of each month. Wahoo! A gift that keeps on giving all year long:) Rob and I have the hardest time deciding what to do and where to go on dates, usually he wants me to decide and HATE being forced to make decisions on short notice, so this was also a sure-fire solution to the "What do you want to do?" "I don't know, what do you want to do?" dilemma.
FYI:(I definitely spent more on this gift than I normally would have, but it was an investment in our marriage, and money that we would have spent on dates throughout the year anyway. And not every date cost money, a few of them were totally free.)

So, for our February date we got totally dressed up (we never do that anymore), and went to this snazzy little Dessert Bar down town. It was so fun and romantic, the perfect first date to kick off our year of dates...
Then in March I surprised Rob with a trip to some hot springs up in the mountains. We went on a date like this before we were married, so it was really fun to reminisce about that as we drove up there...
This month, we headed out to a Rockies game. We both love going to the stadium to cheer on the Rockies, and it was the first time that we had ever gone to a game, just the two of us. We had so much fun talking and laughing and just enjoying being there together...
So what's next? Just like Rob, you'll have to wait and see...

Spring Break in the Springs...

We took an overnight family trip to CO Springs last week. It was our first EVER family vacation (if you can really call it that), with just our family. It was short, sweet and super fun. We went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, totally worth the trip. Did you know that you can feed the giraffes there?




Then we headed off to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. I think that this was Hayden's favorite part of the trip. He loved to explore all of the rooms and read all about how they were built and used by the Anasazi Indians over 800 hundred years ago...


We spent the night in a hotel and went swimming, this was Ana's favorite part, she spent the entire week before our trip counting down the days until we would "live in the hotel". And it didn't disappoint, she swam her little heart out and then woke up at the crack of dawn because she was so excited to eat the continental breakfast... I know, if only it were that easy to please everyone. After breakfast we headed out to the Cave of the Winds - Super Cool! This was my favorite part (besides being worried that someone... who demanded that she walk by herself, was going to get lost) it was awesome! The pictures don't do it justice.


(Sophie, sad that we wouldn't let her jump off a ledge... we're such mean parents)

The trip was so fun... until I got sick on the way home. But hey, at least it didn't happen until the way home, right?! Family Vacation Numero Uno... success!

Random Fun Things...

Paper airplane design...

Climbing trees...


Target practice...

Sun and park time...



Ice cream on the run...

Building things...


Tooth loss...

Egg Hunting...




Lego construction...

And... the murder of the Easter Bunny...

Born to be Wild... Literally...

I don't know about y'all, but Spring Break at the Clark house is a big deal... PAR-TAY! No school, no schedules... a much needed and much anticipated reprieve. To officially kick off Spring Break, the kids and I took a trip to the Rocky Mountain Wild Animal Sanctuary. A place where large carnivores that have been rescued from being abused, abandoned, or illegally kept, are taken to live out their lives. Hayden had read about this place in a magazine and then saw a show about it on Animal Planet. So when we realized how close it is to us, we decided to put it on the list of places we wanted to visit. Today was the day.

It was really interesting to read the stories of all of the rescued animals. Some had been kept as pets, some rescued from illegal entertainment venues. Hayden has such a tender heart, especially when it comes to animals. He got tears in his eyes as he was reading about some of the awful situations that the animals came from. And then tears again as we talked about how happy they must be now to live in a nicer place, with lots of room to roam.

Sophie was hilarious! She got so excited every time she saw a new animal. She would climb up on the fence and growl and roar as loud as she could. It was so funny and cute, but also freaked me out a bit because the walkway was directly above all of the tiger enclosures. She insisted on climbing and leaning on all the fences and I was sure she was going to fall into one of the cages and get eaten. Not that it could have easily happened, but the thought of it was making me nervous anyway.
We brought our lunch along and enjoyed a fun picnic on the deck by the lion enclosure overlook. This guy was entertaining us rolling around on the ground and roaring really loud, Sophie kept squealing and clapping every time he did it.
All in all, it was a fun adventure and the kids had a grrrrrr-eat time!

Bring on the snow! (As long as we can stay home)...

This is what was happening last night... I'm done with the snow for the year, but if it's going to snow, it better be a lot so that we can have a SNOW DAY!! Wahoo for snow days and sleeping in a bit! Since school was cancelled, Ana decided to make Hayden a special breakfast-in-bed picnic. On the menu: mini fritattas...


What a great way to start off a super fun-to-be day!

Monkey see, Monkey do...

No matter what Monkey #1 is doing, Monkey #2 is doing it, too.

 

Picassa? Monet? No, it's... Clark.