Hands on Children Museum

On Saturday Feb 28th, we took the children to the Olympia Hands on Children's Museum. We were again looking for something to do to get the kids out of the hotel and out of the car. We drove about 20 minutes south and on the way passed by the capital building. Well really, the museum is right across the street.

We started in the ball room. You put the balls in the chutes and watch them travel.
Haylee loved the suction.

Then we moved onto the pins area. The kids and Dave LOVED this.

They put their faces in it.

I took the twins to the toddler section while Dave and the big kids went to another section.

Then we all met back up at the water section, where I swear we played for an hour.

They constructed and reconstructed the track to see what the best possible route was.

I got bored playing in the water, so I played with the blocks.

The kids made toothbrushes in the art center.

And then we went grocery shopping.

They filled their baskets

And paid for it.

Trent is really good with numbers, so it didn't take him long to figure it out.

But there wasa some serious money learning going on here.

It was a really fun place to visit and I am glad we got the chance to visit. It is about 40 minutes from out house now, but I am thinking I might get a yearly pass so that during the summer time I can take the kids more often and keep them busy.

Part 2: Vegas Day 2/3

So after our day at Coke and M&M we let the guys go play the tables and the girls hung out. The next morning, we met up for breakfast and took off to explore. We stopped and took a few pictures of the kids.

At this point, there was a security guard watching on, hinting that he might want to kick the kids of fthe ledge, but he was nice and didn't say anything. He just watched to make sure we were behaving. These are some of the cousins, L-R Addie, Ethan, Contessa, Haylee, Trent, Collin
Next stop: Excalibur. You can't bring kids to Vegas and not visit their arcade, where you spend more money than if you were gambling, but all for the kids right? Anyway, we won WAY too many stuffed animals, a guitar (I know, what was Dave thinking?), and a Vegas pillow.

Who knew that in Vegas they had the Statue of Liberty, the kids were seriously confused.

More cute pics.

The scenery on the way home the next day.

Okay, so I promised that I would review these books and here they are. Deven bought these for Laycee and Logan for the airplane ride and they are their new favorite books. They are about faces. Oh how Haylee and Laycee loved looking through. THis one is called, Good Night Faces

This one is Farm Faces, they are GREAT books!!

And on the way home, Trent made silly faces for us... oh I loved this!

This was a great trip and we were so happy to see Amy, Devin and the kids. We were also happy that Scott and Mark plus Fams could come along. We planned the trip in a week and were happy that so many people could come over with us! It was a great beginning to our time in AZ.

Facebook

Ok, so here is what happened at the breakfast table this morning... I said something to Dave about facebooks.

Trent: Mom, What is facebook?
Haylee: You know how we have a blog?
T: Yeah
H: It is like the blog only there is only one picture on there

Oh kids are so funny!

AMAZING DEAL

Ok, I am posting this because I have looked everywhere for Signing Time DVDs. Laycee and Logan have learned so much since they started using them. Logan started talking becuase of them. Trent is more clear in what he wants... and overall, we LOVE watching them as a family. My brother visited last week and even he finished one of the DVDs after the kids had gone to bed becuase he wanted to learn the signs. So... when I was at church someone told me about bestbuy.com offering the sets for $15 each. I checked it out and sure enough, you can get Season 2 discs 1-7 for $30. The retails at nearly $135!! They were backordered when I ordered them, but if you have EVER wanted your children to learn to sign, I recommend these DVDs. Even if you yourself just want to learn some. They are great! The only better deal I have found is renting them from the Library, but then they aren't yours to keep. Anyway, you should DEFINATELY check it out at Bestbuy.com or click here.



This is the one the kids are watching today. So here is a preview... get on and take advantage of the AMAZING deal!

Part 2A: Vegas Day 1

We wanted to see Amy and Devin while we were home. Since they live in NV and she was 8 months pregnant, they couldn't come to AZ. So a few of us in the family, packed up the kids...

And headed to Vegas.

Our first night there, it was Freezing! So we all got stuff for the kids to be warm in and we went across the street to the Coca Cola Store. We got a great picture with mister Bear.

And tried their cokes and floats from around the world. This was interesting. The floats were good, but the cokes... most of them were disgusting. And to top the disgusting list... the specialty coke from ITALY! Dave said he had it once while we were there and it was so GROSS!

Then we went next door to the M&M store.

Vegas by night

And of course, you don't go to Vegas without seeing the Bellagio water show. So, in the freezing cold, we went down to see the water show. It was... well grand like always.

Vegas was earily empty. Must be the economy. I mean, we have gone several times at different times of year and this was the deadest we have ever seen it. Yes they are still conducting business, but it was pretty empty for Vegas. We were surprised, but happy that we weren't fighting crowds everywhere we went!

Twins Turn 2

Ok, so this is my 4th time trying to post this. The computer is acting up, so here is the jist of the post. Laycee and Logan had a birthday on Feb 1st. We had a party the following Saturday at Joe and Lynnae's (thanks!). We had all of my family together and celebrated the twins turning 2! Enjoy!

Part 2: Arizona

Ok, so after our horrible mishap at the airport the night before, where we evidently missed the airplane even though we saw it sitting there. Anyway, we woke at 4 am to get to the airport for a 6 am flight to Chicago and a 3 hr layover before heading onto Phoenix. Oh it was a horrible day. Laycee was mad about being on the plane, but we were happy when we got there. This was the first flight, Dave and Logan crashed!

Trent played Haylee's DS becuase his ran low on battery.
Haylee loved the inflight entertainment lol.

And Laycee colored for about 5 mintes before proceeding to scream again.

The layover was long, but we bought some neck pillows, gave motrin to the little kids for their teeth, and all slept on the second flight. It was much needed rest before our vacation in AZ!

Part One: Air and Space Museum

Make a Smilebox photobook

After touring DC, we went to the Air and Space Museum. We all loved it. Clearly we didn't have enough time to do the museum justice, but we spent several hours there. I put the pictures into the photo book, but there was so much explaining, that I just decided to skip that part. So, enjoy viewing the pictures. After our visit, we said goodbye to Dennis and Lynda at the airport. Apparently we were late getting to the airplane (event hough we were 10 minutes early) and they wouldn't let us on. So we spent the night in a hotel room close to the airport to get just enough sleep to be back at the airport at 4 am. This time, we made it on time and ready to go... Whats next? Part 2: Arizona

Part One: DC

Ok, so Thursday before we headed out, we decided to tour DC. WEll, it was FREEZING! So, we went on a driving tour. This is the best I could get of the White House lol.

There were cops everywhere and I thought they looked so funny.


The Ben Franklin Monument.

The Lincoln Memorial

One of the many Smithsonion (I wish I could spell this lol) Museums

The Capital Building

Dave liked the statue

The Washington Monument

It was such a nice drive through town... Next Stop: The Air and Space Museum

Part One: Dave and Busters

Finally I get to complete the report of our trip. So, Part One of our trip with a 48 hour stop in Baltimore and DC. We flew into DC and stayed with Dennis and Lynda in Baltimore. When we first got there, Trent was so excited to try on Dennis' motorcycle helmet.

For lunch on Wednesday, we ventured over to Dave and Busters (and arcade restaurant) and intended on going to the Baltimore Aqaruim, however after so much fun and neraly 4 hours of playing, we decided we were all tired. Here and Dave and Dennis shooting hoops.
Logan LOVED this game, so he wanted them to play all day!

Trent was so overwhelmed by where he should start playing. And Haylee actually won a huge basketball in that claw machine behind Trent. It is the orange and white one about center right of the picture.

And here we are taking a break while eating. There is a game next to us that we all kept playing. Apparently someone put in nearly 300 or so tokens and didn't play them or something, so we played it for 3 hrs getting tickets. All of us taking turns. Because of that, we gathered so many tickets!

With all our tickets, we were able to get lots of prizes. Haylee got pj pants, HS musical Pail, Stuffed animal, Laycee got a dog purse, Logan got candy lol, and Trent got a Wii game. I can't remember if there were more prizes, bu those are the major ones. Thanks Dennis and Lynda for letting us have your extra tokens too!

Almost there

Hello blogging buddies,

I miss you and miss blogging dearly, so I wanted to send a quick message and let you know that we get the internet at home in 2 more days. My blogging may still be spotty since we have two house guests this weekend, but you can be sure that next week, you will see some more of my over 500 photos from the past two months. Oh I can't wait to get back into the wonderful internet world and keep in touch with you all again. Miss you so much!
Lexi