Waterpark

Taylen, a cousin of our three boys, celebrated her 2nd birthday last Saturday. The birthday part was at a waterpark in a hotel. Chay had never really warmed up to waterparks prior to this date, but he seemed to shrug off any previous ill effects as he had a blast going up and down a water slide and playing basketball in the water. Jace was happy right away but got scared when he fell in the 1foot deep end of the pool. After about 30 or 40 minutes, I was able to gently coax Jace back into the water and once he got over his initial fright, he had fun playing in the water as well. Jenner never really learned to like the place. He was a bit scared from the time we walked in. The place was very busy with 3 concurrent birthday parties and Jenner didn't care for the noise. So he never enjoyed the water. I'm sure he will turn out like Chay and eventually warm up to the idea.

Nice Day

Yesterday was a real nice day as far as the weather is concerned. About 75 degrees, little wind, and very sunny. We took the boys out for a spin on their new toys after supper.

Marker Fun

Last night before bed, Chay was playing with a coloring book and some new markers.

Don't worry though...the markers were washable and came off his face and hands quite easily.

Go To The Cities

Ever since Chay heard that Todd/Laurie/Bailee/Carter were in The Cities one weekend, he said he wanted to go to The Cities. He's never been there. He has no idea what is there. But he was a bit fixated on going there.

On Saturday, Bailee was competing in regionals for gymnastics. So we decided to make a short trip to the Cities for Chay and to root on Bailee. This was our first overnight trip since the twins were born so we were unsure how it was going to go.

All three boys were well behaved that weekend. The twins slept half the way there and we stopped halfway to get some lunch. Upon arrival, we checked into our hotel. As we were standing in the hotel parking lot, Chay said "we going to the Cities?". Ummm...Chay...we're here. This is it.

When we got to the hotel room, the boys just loved it. We had a suite and they were busy running around checking out the place. Our stop in the hotel room was short lived because we had to get back into the car to drive to downtown Minneapolis. I think Chay liked seeing the skyscrapers as we got close to downtown. We then watch B compete before we had to call it a night.

The next day, we checked out and drove to the Mall of America. Before the mall opened, we found a strategic place to park so that Chay could watch planes land and take off from MSP.

As soon as the mall opened, we entered and headed straight for the Rainforest Cafe. At first, Chay didn't know what to think. Our table was in the gorilla section. All three boys got a kick out of the gorillas talking every 15 minutes. Chay was a little scared when the thunder/lightning storm started. I knew Chay was overwhelmed when I had to ask him 15 times what he wanted for lunch and he wouldn't answer me. By the end of lunch, the boys were loving the atmosphere and having a good time.

After lunch, we went to the undersea aquarium. The poor-quality pictures below were taken with sharks and other fish swimming over our heads.

After the aquarium, it was time to check out Nickelodeon Universe. Chay loved to watch the log flume ride. Then it was time to head home.

Jenner slept about 3 hours on the way home. Jace slept for most of that as well. So it made the drive go much faster.

Overall, it was a nice fun, short trip. All 3 boys behaved very well and seemed to like the short weekend getaway.

Social Jenner

We were on our way to Minneapolis when Jenner was playing with an old cell phone. He was just jabbering away talking on the phone. He must get this trait from his mom! LOL

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! Our three boys are enjoying their new rides and eating a chocolate candy bar. The twins really don't know what to make of Easter yet. But Jenner took a liking to the red car more than the blue one. Chay gets his first bike with training wheels. And Jace had the biggest mess on his face after eating that chocolate.

Haunted House

To hear some people tell it, our house is haunted. I'm still skeptical.

It started on day when Chay would not go downstairs by himself. He said he was afraid of the guy downstairs. We asked him, "what guy". He said the guy on the rock-a-bye (our recliner). Odd. I chalked it up to his imagination. Over the course of the next few weeks, we would occasionally ask him about this guy downstairs. I learned that his name was "Guy" and from the way Chay described him, he was less than 2 feet tall. Then one day, Chay really surprised me. He said he didn't want to go downstairs. I asked why and he said "cuz of the black guy". The really surprising thing is that Chay hasn't been around anyone of color very much, so this new description was a bit of a shocker.

A few weeks of dealing with this imaginary guy downstairs, and Kaden came over to visit one night. As he was leaving, Kaden was standing in the entry way and he turned to wave goodbye to someone downstairs, yet no one was down there. So right away, people who believe our house is now haunted used this as further proof of their claim.

Last night, we came home about 10pm after dying Easter eggs. We pulled into the garage and I closed the garage door. I was getting Jace out of the back seat and Latana was standing outside of the pickup when the garage door mysteriously opened. Mysterious because none of us were near a garage door opener. Odd, very odd. Latana texted people who are now afraid to enter our house. Latana's sister wants to high a paranormal expert to come check out the house. Her aunt now refuses to stay the night at our place.

This morning I got up and went out to the garage and the door was still closed. Two house later as we were getting ready to leave the house, I found the garage door was opened yet none of us opened it. Spooky.

At supper time, Latana went to her purse to get something and found her garage door opener in it. Mystery explained. Every time she moved her purse, it caused something to press against the opener thus opening the garage door. I guess our house isn't haunted after all. Or at the very least, the ghosts are not opening our garage door.

Almost Summer

We went to Scheels today and got all three boys life jackets so they are now ready for the lake this summer! With the unseasonably warm weather we have had this year, it seems like summer is just around the corner, but I know it is still a few months away.

While taking the picture at Scheels today, I found this picture of Chay taking his first elephant ride at the circus. Sorry for the poor picture quality. I took this from my cell phone while about 20 rows up in the center of the arena and they were on the one end. I zoomed in as much as I could. Chay is in the front and Latana is right behind him.