Fishing

Saturday we went fishing at Lake Mead. I don't have much to say about fishing other than I don't find it incredibly thrilling. However, I do find sitting by the lake in wonderful weather quite thrilling, so it was a successful outing for all of us.

Eric started out getting the kids poles ready, and soon discovered he would not be doing much fishing that day, but rather would be spending most of his time baiting their hooks and untangling their lines.

We convinced Sadie to pick up a worm, but as soon as it started moving, she immediately dropped it, and would not touch another one the rest of the day.

Jackson didn't have any worm touching reservations.

Megan pulled up a chair, stuck her fishing pole in the cup holder and remarked, "Now this is the type of fishing I like."

After a little while, we finally had a little excitement.

Eric caught this bass!

Sadie was intrigued at first.


But soon was grossed out.

But our excitement wasn't over for the day. Soon we had another tug on the pole.

But this time instead of a fish, we caught an old fishing pole! In my opinion, that is about as exciting as fishing gets.

FYI: Through this weekend you can get into all National Parks for free!!!

$5

Megan generally practices all of her hair design projects on Sadie, since she is usually a willing subject. But when it came time to practice on boys hair, she knew Jackson would not be quite as willing. Her plan was to entice him with money, and it worked! She offered him $5, which was a rookie mistake on her part. I am quite sure he would have been just as willing for $1. Nevertheless, he ended up with a hair full of gel, and this very fancy curl on top.

Carrots & Chocolate

When did going to church start to involve taking this much food with you?

It did give me a good excuse to try the Pioneer Woman's Carrot Cake, which I have been wanting to try for ages, but never wanted to make because the last thing I need is a large carrot cake sitting around the house.

FYI: If you happen to read this before church, I would recommend visiting the Young Women's room. There is a slight chance there may be extras.....

12 X 12 - April

Ok. Month 3 P90X. Check out what I can do:

That's right. A CHIN-UP!!! I can do one, and then come part way down and do another one. Who would have guessed it?

Just doing Sadie's hair. As long as she can play with the water in the sink, she is quite good about letting me do it.

A quick shot of us before heading out for the day.

Sade's itty-bitty shadow

It is a fight to get this girl to hold my hand, but one I insist on winning when we are crossing the street.

Jackson loves to have his window rolled down.

Eric was still home after picking Jackson up from Kindergarten. Sadie was very excited, and ran to the door saying, "Sadie's here, Sadie's here!"

We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. I am happy to report that the jelly I made last week set-up great!

Meg's walking in the door after school.

Have I mentioned before how orally fixated Megan is? She can't keep anything out of her mouth. The poor bunny ears were her latest culprit.

Sadie blowing bubbles with her drink at dinner.

After dinner we did a little shoe shopping. There were about 15 pairs I wanted to buy for Sadie. If only I were independently wealthy.

Sedona-Day 1

Eric's parents spent last week in Sedona, AZ, and we were lucky enough to join them on Friday. I enjoyed the ride down, especially with a view like this coming from the backseat.

This is where we stayed:

The resort was really nice. They had a big heated pool, a miniature golf course, and children's play area. Of course, we spent most of the first day at the pool.

Sadie really wanted to wear these floaties, but they were so big on her she could barely move her arms.

After dinner we did some miniature golfing:

Sadie collected lots of pinecones with Grandma.

Eric and his Dad

Sedona-Day 2

The kids started off the day reading with Grandpa.

After breakfast we had to say goodbye to Eric'c parents who were flying back home.

When I go on vacation, I like to stay busy. Which means, if there is a National Monument, or a National Park, or a State Park, or anything remotely cool, I want to see it!

On our first stop we definitely found something cool.

This is The Chapel Of The Holy Cross, which is built right into the mountain.

We were all getting hungry, and were lucky enough to find a great picnic stop right by the river.

After lunch we just HAD to hang out by the river for a bit.

Eric giving Megan a lesson on rock skipping.

Megan after her first rock skipping success.

After lunch we took a hike to look at some pictographs at a National Forest Service Ranch.

Right after this picture was taken some people who were in front of us turned around and warned us that a 2 foot snake was hanging out around a log right where they were standing! I almost passed out, and did not want to go another step forward. But given that I do not want my children to have my irrational fear (but really it is not very irrational, because snakes can kill you-right?), I persevered and kept walking. It almost killed me.

Soon we made it to our destination. Amazingly unharmed.

Our next stop was Montezuma Castle, which had to be my very favorite stop.

This is a 5 story, 20 room dwelling that was built in a cliff recess 100 feet up the mountain. It was amazing!

Sade consulting the map.

Much to Jackson's chagrin (he just wanted to go home and play on the playground), we had one more stop to make. This time to Montezuma Well.

The well is a limestone sink formed by the collapse of a huge underground cavern. It is fed by springs that continuously flow.

We hiked down to check out a spring that feeds it.

It was a full day, but a really cool one. And we even got back in time for Jackson to play.