another house guest?!?!?

This week we are hosting "Flat Stanley".  He's pretty great, as house guests go.  He lives in my purse aside from the occasional adventure.  We took him to the AC gilbert discovery center last weekend.  Its a great place to spend a sunny day (not bad on a rainy day either).

Mammoth fossils

Train Layout

Snacktime

Grant tells Stanley about the trees and birds in Oregon

Spencer was determined to do this himself.  

Spencer shows Stanley where we live

Bubble room...you have to visit the bubble room

and be one with the bubbles

We like rock Climbing and Waterfalls

Stanley swims with the fishes

snow day!

We woke up to this...

 Since Will and I both had the day off today, we decided to keep the kiddos home and enjoy the snow.

This was perfect snowman snow!  We made a whole familly.  

More snowy fun...

Then hot chocolate and soup....mmmm...mmmm...good.

Now we are ready for spring...for real.

Katie's visit to Portland

My bestie came to visit for spring break and we spent her last day hanging out in Portland.

Eating lunch between food carts.  

Mountain Goats (hard to see on the
white rock above Spencer head)

Checking their wing span

Grant and Katie liked the turtles the best

I always love the otters

Giddy up

The polar bears came out to play

Little boy/monkey exhibit

Katie tries the elephant trike...

then helps Grant.

King of the lion?

A special entrance for junior zoo keepers

Craft time

I don't do enough crafts with the kids.  I need ideas.  We have fun when we do them.  Branson sent me to this site and it has tons of fun ideas using toilet paper tube...we use a lot of toilet paper.

http://tpcraft.blogspot.com/2011/02/toilet-paper-roll-race-car.html

We had fun.  I learned...
super glue was not the right glue for this job
if you apply hot glue on top of super glue the fumes from the super glue will burn your eyes.
acetone softens super glue and helps you spread it all over your hands.  it doesn't really remove it but it does make it white and peely.  (the website I looked at said not to use anything cotton to remove super glue because it can cause burns.)
Anyway...it was a fun project and i'm sure the super glue and paint will come off of our skin eventually.

Happy Birthday Dr Seuss!

Dress like a character day at school...Spencer is the Grinch and Grant thing 2 

Spencer with his friend Cindy Lou Who (Bailey)

I couldn't resist reposting this picture of my things in March 2009.
Note...I gave away these shirts so I had to make one for Grant to wear today.

more snowy pictures

pictures from Will's phone

thanks to Branson for showing me how to make quick collages

Sledding, Ski school and a broken mommy

The snow bank.  It is suppose to stop you, or slow you down.
I went over the top, into the air and landed really hard on the other side.

I am the sledder on the left...in the pink coat.  The snow is very icy.

Spencer skiing

Spencer and his partner Steve.  Steve is from Indiana.

getting one the lift

I sat here for three hours on a blanket in the snow.
My injury was well iced but the snow was hard.
Behind me you see the sled of doom.  

24 hours after the accident I went to urgent care for x-rays--they checked my hips and pelvis because I couldn't bear any weight on my right side.  The good news is nothing is broken, the bad news is this may take a long time to heal.  For now i am cheater walking with crutches...but crutches are frowned upon at work so I'm making do as much as possible there.  Ouch!

(I will be posting more pictures from Will's phone soon)