Ellie Turns Two

Ellie is Two today. She is such a cute toddler. While at Manti for spring break Ellie loved the baby dolls and strollers. That is when I new that that would be her birthday present. We had a few friends over for her party, played pin the tail on the donkey and she opened her presents. She is so cute! I made her a Mickey Mouse cake since she loves Mickey Mouse and it turned out cute!

Playing Army

The Brigade set up "Raider for a Day" for the spouses. I new it would be fun so i signed up. It was even more fun then I thought it would be. There were six stations. The first thing we did was PT and combatives. We learned a few moves and counter moves and now I can practice them when Todd gets home:)Next my group went to Mount where we learned how to enter a building. I really like learning this. We got to practice too. Then we got our MRE's for lunch. Next we practiced the grenade throw where we had to run and dive and crawl through mud. I was very sore after this station. Next we learned about land navigation where we learned to read an azimuth and then find the distance between three different points. Fifth, we practiced litter carry. We divided into two groups and had a race. I was the one on the carrier while the others were carrying me blindfolded. At least they didn't drop me:) Last, we went to shooting. This was my favorite. It is hard to shoot and load a M16 while laying on the ground. After learning this we went into the simulation room. We got to shoot at the screen and on the second time I got to shoot the big gun (forgot the name of it). In the end I will leave the soldiering to Todd...I am not built for it:)

Ellie Starts Gymnastics

Ellie comes to watch her brothers and sister doing gymnastics and wants to go out but can't. She swings on everything she can and likes doing somersaults so I thought now that she is turning two she would have fun doing gymnastics too. So I signed her up. Her first day was a day when the other kids didn't have school so they came along. With the younger kids the parents can help them stay on track and Katie asked if she could help Ellie. She had fun doing it too and I got to take pictures. Ellie's favorite thing was jumping on the trampoline and she really liked swinging too.

Coloring Easter Eggs

We had fun coloring eggs this year. We were a little late on coloring them but we had fun. They were nice and colorful!

Stitches

Ellie got three stitches tonight. She and Johnny was playing with a tape measure and it cut her finger. I finally got it stopped bleading but it was still wide open so I took her in. She didn't cry much but didn't like the doctor and nurse. She kept saying bye bye to them cause she wanted to leave. Overall though she did great.

Easter Egg Hunt

The kids had fun finding eggs. It was cold again this year. Saturday night I went downstairs to get the eggs to fill and couldn't find them. Searched for over an hour. Luckily I found someone (Beth Miller) at church who had some eggs and she brought them to church. The kids kept asking when the Easter Bunny was going to bring eggs and I kept stalling. Finally I just told Katie that I was the Easter Bunny and she was excited to help fill the eggs and then distract the boys while we put them outside. They were cute when finding them. Ellie thought it was fun. She was giggling every time she picked up an egg. I love my kids!

The Sand Dunes

After we were done at the Alligator farm we headed for the sand dunes. We stopped and had lunch at a picnic area and the hiked to the sand dunes. It was alittle windy but it was sunny and still nice. It was relaxing. I was able to take some pictures am then just hand out while watching the kids. there was no where for them to get away too and even Ellie was entertained playing in the sand. we even had races rolling down one of the dunes. Billy got buried up to his head and enjoyed it so much wanted to do it again so we did. It is nice going somewhere fun with friends!
After the sand dunes we headed back to the hotel. We all put on our swimming suits and went to the water park again. I didn't get any pictures but we had fun! Had pizza for dinner, put young kids to bed, and played a game while the older kids watched cartoons and played cards. we have had so much fun and now we need to get ready to head home tomorrow.

The Alligator Farm

The Alligator farm was free today so that is the main reason we headed down to Alamosa. We all packed into the car and headed down. The kids had a blast. I even have to admit that I did too. One of the coolest things was watching the kids holding a snake and an alligator. Even Ellie wanted to do it. Then the kids got to feed the alligators which they really liked doing. It was an adventure and a fun one at that! The pictures speak for themselves:)