13th Anniversary

May 2022

Back in May we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. The day of the anniversary, we took a temple walk with our kids, and shared memories of our wedding day. 

 

We played in the visitor center for awhile too. And since this was a really long time ago, I sadly don't remember what else we did that day, I guess that's my sign that I need to pick it up on this blogging business. 

Much later in the month, Memorial weekend, I dropped the boys off at my moms house. I picked up some dinner on the way home and when I got back Max was just walking up (in the afternoon, after working night shift) we ate and enjoyed ourselves. 

I really can't remember what else we did this weekend. We went to the mall, went out to eat, and went for a bike ride and had a picnic. I'm sure there was a lot more fun stuff packed into the weekend but I also was lazy about photos so now it's hard to remember. 

We also realized we could use our backpack as a dog carrier, so that was an exciting discovery, She didn't seem to mind. 

Anyway, here's to 13 years!!!

Great Wolf Lodge

May 2022 

As an end-of-the-Homeschool year party, we made a trip to Great Wolf Lodge. We had only been there once when Charlie was just learning to walk.We used some Christmas money from my parents and made our way. 

When we arrived in the late afternoon, our room was still not ready so the employees showered us with extras. We ended up getting a free family meal pass at the buffet as well as two wolf passes that were good for many activities at the lodge. We didn't mind waiting a bit extra and shortly thereafter, our room was ready.  

The boys got their wands for the Magic Quest game and had some fun finding those checkpoints. then we went to our room to change into our swim suits. We swam for awhile then got dry and had a late dinner at the buffet. The buffet experience was new for our boys and they ate like kings! 

With full bellies, we went to bed and the boys slept well after an evening of swimming. In the morning we decided to start with a couple of the other activities included on our pass. 

We dug for gold, went through the mirror maze, did some arcade games, some blacklight mini golf, picked out our cup of candy and ice cream scoop. 

We also met up with our cousins. They had to come a day later than us because that's how it worked out with our schedules but we were glad to meet up with them at lunch time.

We checked out of our room, then went to swim some more. 

Since James and Elizabeth were there we were able to split up and supervise different groups of cousins. I was with Everett and Miles for awhile. 

Miles and Everett working as a team

We played until we were all exhausted then started the drive home. We would have stopped at my mom's house on the way but found out that our dog sitter had kind of neglected our dog all day so we rushed back. All was well. 

Anyway, the boys can't stop talking about our trip to Great Wolf lodge and it may become an end of year tradition. 

Mother's Day 2022

 May 2022

Back in May we celebrated Mother's Day. We always celebrate Mother's Day by going somewhere beautiful and I get a photo with my boys, thus ensuring I'm in at least one photo per year. 

This day, after church we took a nap. After we woke up we could hear it pouring outside and it was so dark and gloomy that I figured we had already missed the best lighting.

We're not afraid of any rain and I never regret a good nature outing with my family so we got in the car and went to a very local park. 

We were already soaked from walking to the car, and on the drive (less than 5 minutes) the rain slowed and the most vibrant rainbow appeared. The park was pretty empty because only weirdos go to parks on days like this. And we got to bask in this stunning color show. 

 

It was still raining during these first couple of photos and the sky was pretty exciting as you can see three of these guys are looking at something. 

I adjusted my camera settings so make this true-to-life colors. 

The next three were taken with a phone which automatically over exposes images, which can be fine, But I love the brightness of the rainbow in contrast to the very grey skies and you don't see that contrast as much in these overexposed phone photos. 

And here's a long series of Walter photos. 

This boy always goes crazy over puddles, I'm glad I caught this little tumble on camera. 

Don't worry, he was fine and back jumping in more puddles soon after. 

Anyway, no regrets about getting out in the rain. And grateful that I've been entrusted to raise these sweet boys.