Spring Break 2010

The kids have been home all week for Spring Break. Here are some of the highlights:

On Tuesday, March 16 the kids got a new cousin! Dallin's brother Daniel and his wife had their first baby, a little boy named Russell Daniel Strong.

Connor also started potty-training on Tuesday! He is doing so great. I knew he was getting close to being ready so that morning I bought some little prizes for him when we went to Walmart (4 kids at Walmart...in the pouring rain). He doesn't like candy very much so I got some metallic plastic easter eggs and a package of pellets that turn into little shapes in warm water. He LOVES them and gets so excited to watch them "pop out."Here's his prizes after less than a full day. It's still gonna be a long while I think, but he's doing so well there is absolutely nothing to complain about. Good job Connor!

On Wednesday the kids all had dentist appointments. No cavities!!! It was Connor's first time in the big chair and getting his teeth cleaned with the little buzzing thing. He did really well until they started buzzing in his mouth and then he was not very happy. But overall it was a successful visit. We also went to the park and enjoyed some great weather in the afternoon.

On Thursday we went to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, TX with the Benoits. I was able to fit them all in my new van, which made the drive more fun. We haven't been to the zoo at all since moving to Texas, so the kids were thrilled. Connor was so excited, since he doesn't remember the only visit he's ever had to the zoo when we went in AZ. This zoo was great because it had all sorts of play areas and fun things for the kids to do mixed in with the animal exhibits.

They loved the treehouse...

I LOVE Texas in the spring. Arizona is pretty, but Texas is beautiful when all the trees start getting blossoms. I love all of the trees that turn white before they get their green leaves, like this one.

They had an awesome place with all kids of fish. Zach was in heaven. He has decided that he wants to be an oceanographer when he grows up (for now).

We all really liked the tigerfish...

Jacob & Savannah's favorite part was the clear slide that went through the sea otter exhibit. The sea otters can swim over and under it while the kids are in there. They went down that a few times. If you click on the picture you can see them all lined up, slowing going through. First Connor, then Jacob, Zach, and Savannah.

I love that Zach is so into nature. It's so sweet. He's always finding pretty flowers and stuff for Savannah to look at, and it's something that they love to do together. Next to the buffalo exhibit (which was pretty smelly) they had some fun tee-pees for the kids to play in.

Connor LOVED it!

There was also a really big reptile house (that was also really smelly). We walked in and Connor said "What's that smell? It's a stunk!" But it had lots of really cool stuff to see in it. The boys really liked that each snake or lizard had a sign that told if it was poisonous or not.

We finally made it to the giraffes! That's what Connor had been waiting for. He was so excited that he had to make sure that everyone around him knew that they were looking at giraffes. In this picture he's telling the mom next to us (that we didn't know) that the giraffes are over there..."Look, over there, giraffes!!!" This is such a good shot of Connor and I. Too bad it's not such a good shot of the elephant. It made me laugh.

The boys tried to be our guides...

Of everything we saw the entire day, this waterfall was by far Connor's favorite thing. I have no clue why he loved it so much, but I had to pull him away from it a few times to catch up to the others.

There were no monkeys or orangutans out playing during our entire visit. Hopefully we'll get to see them next time. But the kids didn't mind. They were excited to BE monkeys.

Afterward we went to McDonald's for lunch. I have to note for journaling purposes that Connor stayed dry in his pull-up for the entire trip (which was about 7 hours total). He didn't do so well after we got home, but I was still impressed!

Today (Friday) we went on a walk on our favorite neighborhood trail. It was so peaceful and we had fun taking our time and exploring. We saw a woodpecker and squirrels and the kids had fun collecting flowers and pill bugs. Connor had a handful of these purple flowers for the entire walk. He kept saying "Purple is my favorite color. These are like purple grapes!" They actually did look like little bunches of purple grapes.

Savannah picked a pretty bouquet of flowers and was excited to show them to her "puppy" when we got home.