One last day at the Zoo

Well, my season pass for the zoo that my Dad bought for us a year ago expires tomorrow. As one last hurrah, I went with some friends to the zoo for the last time on Friday. Elia loved running with Tristan, a four-year-old who, unlike Elia's younger friends, loves to hold hands and run. We had to drag the two of them out of a photo booth they found by the side of the walkway. Of course, I took pictures with my own camera and they didn't quite get the point of looking at the camera instead of the big blinking screen in front of them. Oh well!Of course, the tiger and lion are favorite hits with everyone.

As is our custom, we rode the carousel at the end of the day. For a change, (from the horse and dolphin -- two of Elia's previous favorites), I talked to her about the other animals and she selected the lion... well, as fate would have it, both lions were taken. After a few tears, she chose the leopard and forgot all her cares as the carousel started to move.

I also wanted to visit Stingray Bay one last time... a pool with stingrays and sharks that you can pet. I took Rachel in with Elia. Elia loved to feel the rays when they would come close to the edge. Rachel wasn't as sure, but she felt one too. I'd never felt a live shark before. The stingray's skin was smooth and slimy, but the shark's really was rough like sandpaper. I'd heard that it was used for that purpose way back when... it was just neat to feel it. Thanks Dad for many happy zoo memories!

Tonight, as is our custom, we took a walk over to school. It's hard to believe that we will be done in about a month!!!! I've been meaning to take a few pictures of the campus before we leave and I finally took my camera so I could. I loved this patch of flowers:
Thunderbird and Thunderkid... maybe we should call her a Thunderchick:
Oh, in other big news, we found a fixer-upper. It is really the only one we thought we could afford seeing how Eric doesn't have a job yet (though our hopes are still high). Don't you think it looks cozy? It just needs a new coat of paint. I think it really has potential. We're excited to call ourselves home-owners!

OK, so it is actually a fancy bird-house on campus, but I think it is charming... maybe we'll design our next house after it. Scott S. ... did you get that?
Happy week!

Hoppy Easter and Beyond

The only reason I'm posting this picture is that I think for the first time in our marriage, we dressed the whole family in green for St. Patrick's Day. It's really not a very good picture. Eric and I are trying to get the kids to smile at the self-timing camera sitting on our counter. They end up looking great and we end up looking crazy! C'est la vie (which I learned while doing this post is not spelled "se la vi" as I would have spelled it)! After St. Patty's Day. I was in charge of the Thunderkids activity. We made Easter baskets out of milk jugs. This is the one Elia and I had made a few weeks ago. For the Thunderkids we just used crayons instead of cotton balls. That was me trying to simplify. It actually really worked out well. The crayons did a great job making the bunny features and I brought cotton balls for the tails. I've decided that there is no reason to store Easter baskets. We'll just make a new one each year!

Ethan got his ear tubes in last Thursday. The poor kid wasn't allowed to eat until after surgery. Luckily it was at 8:00 a.m., but by the time 9:00 rolled around and he was finished, he was quite upset at me. He seemed to feel better after he nursed and then threw up all he had eaten (which the nurse said was normal because of the air in his stomach from the anesthesia). So, now my little boy has ear tubes. He is doing great. The doctor said not to worry about getting water in his ear --like at the pool. So he doesn't even have to wear ear plugs! From studies, it seems there is no difference in the amount of infections if a kid wears ear plugs or not. I guess time will tell.
My mom came up for Easter weekend and we kindly dragged her to all of our social events. On Saturday, we took her to a Sprouts grocery store Egg hunt, our church Easter picnic and then an LDS network school social. On Sunday we had a fun Easter dinner with our friends: Thanks to Tiffany for these cute kiddy pictures of Ethan, Katelyn and Andrew:
I'm sad (well, not really) to say that the Easter Bunny didn't come to our house this year. After three egg hunts for Elia, he didn't think she needed more candy... plus we know he didn't want to make us non-sugar eaters feel bad. We made up for it by going on Monday to Target and buying two bags of Reeses peanut butter eggs that will be consumed following graduation. Only 5 more weeks to go!
This week has been pretty smooth sailing so far. Eric pretty much spent the whole day with us on Monday because he didn't have classes. The week is flying by. I love these kind of weeks!! Last night we took the kids out to the field at the school to try out these airplanes my mom bought for Eric. It was an excercise in patience because (sorry, Mom) they didn't fly too well and we were supposed to "adjust" them with little stick-on dots. We did our best and at least it got us outside.Ethan didn't seem to feel left out: he was more concerned with climbing around in the stroller:For a change, Elia actually wanted me to take her picture (probably because I was taking Ethan's so much):
What fun kids!

Rugby in the Blood

What a busy week! Eric's mom and dad came down from Utah for a visit last Saturday. We started their visit with a cultural night at Thunderbird, celebrating the cultures of North, South and Central America. Our big fun came later in the week. We went camping with three other couples on Friday night before Eric's rugby game on Saturday. Elia was sooooo excited about going camping that she carried all of her stuff around the house for 45 minutes before we left... well, her stuff and Ethan's breathing machine.We forgot to get a picture before leaving the campsite, so we staged one after the Rugby game: Here are some pictures from the game:

Eric plays the one and only fullback on the team. He is the last person the offense has to go through. He does a great job back there as this guy learned:

Eric took a couple of the extra point kicks for the team:After the game, they had a moment of silence for a rugby player who died. I guess the first one in 10 years.
Elia didn't watch much of the game. She mostly played with Danger, our friends' dog and her friend Sofia:
So Eric's whole body has bruises on it, but here is one of his more significant ones on his arm:He returns home after each practice with a few new ones. He now has bruised arms, legs and even one on his right eyebrow. No blood from him yet, though after each game at least one person is bleeding so I think it is just a matter of time.
Ethan had a great time crawling around the grass too. He didn't care much for the game either.

While Eric's parents were here we hit several milestones:

1) Ethan's third tooth broke through

2) I claim that Ethan can now say "duck". He repeated it after me several times as I showed him a rubber duck. When I took the camera out, he was more interested in it than in talking, but I still captured a recording: (the laugh is the best part!)

Eric is still not convinced.

3) Elia has upped her demands. She used to request three of everything: three almonds, three stories, three etc. NOW she asks for four! (except she never asks for four minutes in time-out)

4) Elia's new favorite saying is, "Ohhhh Yeaaahhhh!"

Sweet Bubble Dreams

Well, this week went much better. Eric came up with the blog title this week, so I'm covered there, and there was no crazy forgetting things and we actually even planned ahead enough that we weren't wondering what to do about the kids when we both had things planned for the same night! Hip, hip, hooray!
Here is a sweep through the week:
Monday: As Eric was leaving for his Mandarin test, I said to him, "Say I love you in Chinese, Papa". Elia jumped right in and said, "I love you in Chinese, Papa!"
Tuesday: Jen taught preschool and even planned the night before for the lesson so she wasn't so crazy in the morning. Tuesday's bubble bath shoot:













Wednesday: I got called out of my exercise class to the kids club, thinking Ethan was crying, but when I got there, they had called because the girls bathroom was out of order and Elia didn't want to go in the little boys room. I finally talked her into it.
Thursday: Preschool again, then cooking club. Jen taught 6 other girls how to cook "Grampa Ken's Pork Stew". It was a hit! Sorry Ken, the secret is out. When can we expect your book? :) Thursday afternoon, I did a picture shoot and was fortunate enough to have Elia play with one friend and Ethan go to another friend's house. Thanks guys! It was great. Thursday night was basketball for Eric and a baby shower for Jen.
Friday: We skipped soccer to make sure we would have time to apply for jobs. We put five more applications in for Eric! Keep praying for us!
Saturday: RUGBY! Eric played the whole game in the current t-bird vs. alumni game. The game was so close and Eric even got the "assist" for the first "try" (that's a touchdown in rugby). I don't think they do assists, but it was because of what Eric did that his teammate was able to take the ball into the end.
Sunday: Today, while playing in the room, Elia found the tall cylindrical cover for Jen's CD stack. She thought it would make a great hat and put it on Eric's head. When she had it carefully balanced, she slowly moved her arms away and said, "perrrrfect!". We got the kids ready quickly and left the house about 12 (an hour before church). We drove for a while talking about our future plans while the kids slept. Elia was a lot better in church today because she got a nap (unlike most Sundays). After church, Eric went to choir and I took the kids for a walk. Ethan was so tired, I found him like this when we got home: