Spring Break 2012

I am always envious of friends who head off somewhere warm for Spring Break. It's a little tough seeing all the Facebook posts of friends in tropical vacation spots. 'One of these years', I tell myself. For now we are resigned to stay in the Northwest mostly because of our kids' soccer commitments which leave us with only a few open days during the break. We did, however, make the most of what we had and I still really enjoyed the break.

The kids got a couple extra days of off with the six inches of snow that fell Wednesday before Spring Break. Nev loved it and played outside quite a bit; she and I made a snowman together. Cade, Gabrielle and Willem loved having cousins come over to our house and they all went to James and Jenn's where they played in the forest and had snowball fights...

Thursday night before the official break started, Cade and I went to the opening night/morning (12:15 am!) showing of 'The Hunger Games'. It was later than I'd like but it was fun going with Cade knowing how much he looked forward to it...

A couple days into the break, Gabrielle and Athena went to 'The Hunger Games' at the mall, so Genevieve, Willem and I enjoyed a few hours of shopping, eating and playing on the playground at the mall. I loved hanging out with my two youngest...

Enjoying frozen yogurt. Yummy! These two are looking a lot alike!

 Nev visited the Easter Bunny at the mall and she was so friendly and excited to see him. It was very cute and I was surprised since she was afraid of Santa Claus a few months ago.

The first weekend of the break, Cade played in the Oregon Development Program (ODP) regional tournament in Eugene which is basically a tryout for the state ODP team. It was a little nerve-wracking this year because Cade's knees have been hurting pretty badly recently so he was not 100% for the tryout. Thankfully, he made the team and was pretty relieved! The second weekend of the break, Cade had his first two state ODP practices (in Salem). With a couple days of rest, lots of icing and some Advil, his knees were feeling a little better and he did great in the practices. We look forward to more state ODP practices and tournaments in May and June...

Tuesday through Thursday, our three oldest kids did the EMFC Spring Break camp. Elle and Cade actually skipped out their Thursday afternoon camp because it was time to head north to the Great Wolf Lodge hotel/swim park in Washington. We all had a great time; Cade met a couple boys there and pretty much hung out with them the whole time, swimming and playing in the arcade. Gabrielle and Willem loved the slides, especially when Chad or I went with them; they also loved the arcade and just swimming. Genevieve enjoyed the smaller slides (after a little coaxing by us) but mostly loved just playing 'pirate' and 'swimming' in the kids' area. Our nearly 24 hours there went by very fast...

"But Daddy, I want a PINK life vest!"

After Great Wolf, we headed to Portland (while listening to our 'Eragon' books on cd; we are on the 4th book) and relaxed in our downtown hotel (the coolest hotel ever according to Willem)...

Watching 'Puss N Boots' in the hotel :)

The next afternoon, after Cade's ODP practice, we headed to the Portland Saturday Market, the riverfront and downtown for a little shopping and then some dinner. I do love Portland! Just wish we had more time to see all of our family and friends there! It was interesting to see, once again, that Cade really loves the city. He thought the Saturday Market was so cool and just loves being where the action is and around all different sorts of people. Will, on the other hand, is not as much a fan of city life; "It's just ok", he says and he definitely prefers the country. Elle is like me, she likes it but also likes the country; "I'm somewhere in between", she says :)

Willem and Genevieve loved watching the bridge lift and seeing the high water of the river

We were so lucky to have no rain and even some sunshine in our afternoon walking downtown.

In the 'Max' tram

Nev's new outfit; all pink of-course!

 Dinner at Rock Bottom. Yum!

Nev all snuggled up in our hotel bed 

One last fun pic of me I took in the hotel :) (our kids are always taking pics of themselves in the mirror...thought I'd give it a try!)

Nev on the Iphone

These first three pictures are of Nev the past three days; so fun to see the outfits she puts together. Day 1 she went outside to pick some flowers for me, it was raining so she wanted her boots and jacket with hood over her tank dress she wore all day. Day 2, it snowed and she was excited to wear her snow suit, jacket and boots. And then Day 3, she was back to tank top and shorts (with snow boots) while eating snow!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Nev LOVES Band Aids, especially Dora, Princess or Barbie ones. She got a pack of Barbie Band Aids the other day and, by days' end, she had 13 of them on her legs :)...

Nev just being silly...

At a hotel last month with her awesome sis...

Nev loves to come in our bunkhouse where we have all our workout stuff and 'workout'. She MUST have her 'workout' clothes on and always changes into them before heading out there...

Sis + Niece + Nephew = Fun :)

We all had a blast with Amber, Nia and Jacoby over last weekend....

At NAAG Gynmastics, where I spent much of my youth! The kids loved the open gym!

 

Nia did great on the beam!

Nev absolutely LOVED swinging on the rings; she was afraid at first and then was so proud when she did it. She was swinging and then falling into the pit.

Cousins, ya think? :)

Beautiful picture of Nia with her super cute haircut!

Soooo glad I've got my girls!

Amber is the best mommy!

Saturday afternoon we had a birthday party for Dad/Opa and Jackie. Fun!

Great pic of my sis and her kids. Thanks for coming to visit again!!!!

Future Sports Blogger, Military or Stockbroker?

I want to blog more about the everyday things that our kids do or are into; here's an attempt to that end :)

Willem got a 'dog tag' necklace at the Lane County Fair in August and has worn it nearly non-stop ever since. He is obviously proud of it and thinks it is pretty cool as well. 

On the right of the collage are a few examples of what I find all over our house. Willem is constantly writing lists of college football and basketball conferences and the teams' records or scores of bowl games. Sometimes he writes the teams actual records and/or bowl results and other times he creates conferences or records. Willem is constantly on the internet looking at the ESPN website and can tell us which teams are in which conference and many of the teams' football records and bowl game scores over the past several years. He knows so much more about this stuff than I do. Chad will often ask Will questions about a score or a team's record or Chad will quote a team's record and Willem will correct him; we've learned that Willem is usually right!

So, does this all mean Willem will be a military guy or a sport blogger or a stockbroker? Or just a dairyman who is in the reserves and runs fantasy football/basketball leagues on the side? It'll be interesting to find out :)

Spring Walk

When the weather was nice last week, Genevieve and I went on a few walks around the dairy which we hadn't done all winter (except when cousins visit). She enjoyed our walks so much that she has been asking to go out these past couple days when the weather hasn't been as nice. We found a little window today when it wasn't raining and headed out for a little while. Her favorite part of our walk today was this puddle. I am sooo looking forward to warm days when I will really look forward to our daily walk around the dairy.

Braces!

Cade got braces this week! It actually wasn't as big of an ordeal as we feared. Cade didn't complain much of pain though he was annoyed he couldn't eat like normal the first few days and he also doesn't mind how they look. He says he's just glad he's getting them now and not in high school. I think he looks pretty good in them and they make him look a little older. It still is weird looking at him and thinking he is almost 13 and growing up so quickly (he grew another nearly half inch the past 3 weeks and is now 5 ft 2.5in.)!

Right before the braces went on

And right after!

Nev Photo Shoot

Nev and I had a lot of fun taking pictures yesterday. She was laughing and giggling as I tickled her then she wanted to see the pictures and take one with both of us in it. I love that these pictures are so 'Nev'; her hair is a little messy, she has her tank top on in the winter and she is silly and happy. She's just a whole lot of fun :)