Birthday, Mother's Day, Field Trips, & Preschool Graduation

. . . and as an appetizer, here is a picture of Calvin at dinner.  He was so hot from jumping on the trampoline that he had to bring the fan out and point it right at himself during dinner.  By the way, this was one of the Top 5 worst dinners I have ever made.  The orange side is not carrots.  It's cheetos if that tells you anything. 

 So my birthday usually falls on the same weekend as Mother's Day.  My gentlemen never disappoint, giving me two separate celebrations.  Calvin made me this beautiful crown.  It was  a little too small for my head, but I taped it on anyway.  I think it was perfect.

 For my birthday, a few of my friends woke me up super early and surprised me by taking me to breakfast.  It was so much fun. They also wrote sweet notes and staked them in my yard. This was a labor of love considering yards in New Mexico are all gravel.  It made my day start so wonderfully.  I have made such amazing friends here.  I think it is safe to say that we know how to have a good time.  

 Wyatt's preschool this year was awesome.  My friend, Lisa, was the teacher.  She is the lady in the back of this pic in the brown shirt.  She was able to get the kids into a field trip to Costco, which you know I wasn't going to miss.  I was lucky enough to be a chaperone and the tour just solidified my deep and abiding love for the wholesale giant.

 It's a good time to like Hulk.  We have been loving all this Avenger stuff.  We have been getting pictures with any poster or cutout we come across.  You can see that Calvin is avenging.

 Our second preschool field trip was to Dion's.  It's a yummy pizza place around here.  I wasn't going to miss this field trip either, especially since they had free pizza at the end.  You can see that Wyatt is throughly interested in what this guy has to say.

 And Wyatt is officially a preschool graduate.  Ms. Lisa said that he is sure to be president, boss of something, or king of the world.  I guess his preschool superlatives indicate that he liked to take charge.

 And here I wanted to show you how cute Cy is.  He (much to Noah's dismay) loves to wear necklaces.  He wears them all the time.  I think it's pretty cute.  I always wanted a girl! And since we never had one, I'll take a necklace wearing toddler instead.

 On Mother's Day we took a drive to the top of Sandia Peak.  I don't know how high it is, but I think VERY.  It was warm in Albuquerque, and it was snowing on the point.  This is a view though it doesn't do it justice.  It was beautiful up there.  Our house, if you could see it, would be in the upper, right hand side of the picture.

 Poor Calvin.  Poor Calvin who looks like he doesn't have arms and is wearing the world's shortest shorts.   He must be over-compensating with his leg, since we can't see his arms.  Can you tell that we didn't know it would be that cold, and that we didn't think we would get out of the car?

 Noah was going to throw Cyrus off of the mountain, but I was able to convince him not to.  You know, since it was Mother's Day and all.  

10 Years = Trip to Las Vegas

It's not quite our ten year anniversary.  That comes along in July, but we decided to treat ourselves to a fun get away while the weather wasn't so hot, and it wasn't so crowded.  We had a wonderful time just hanging out by ourselves and doing whatever we pleased.  My Mom came out and stayed with the boys while we lived it up in Sin City (translated: ate at 4 buffets, stayed up late, lost money on the slots and roulette, saw a live Price is Right, Cirque du Soleil, and Phantom of the Opera, not to mention, we ate and ate and ate and ate). You wouldn't think that two Mormons could have that much fun in Vegas, but we did!

Here at the Bellagio Fountains.  We enjoyed the water show a few times and decided that we liked Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon" the best.  (I secretly like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" the best.  My love for the Fab Four will never die). Did you know that this little pond is 8 acres?  Neither did we until we read about it on Wikipedia.  

 We thought you might like this picture of what the inside of our nostrils looks like while we stand under the gorgeous ceiling in the lobby of the Bellagio.   

 I found this lovely chocolate fountain and had to have my picture taken with it.  I love flowing chocolate.  This gem was behind glass or I might have taken a few sips.

 What would a vacation (or day for that matter) be like without Noah taking a picture of me when I wasn't expecting it.  It's one of his favorite tricks to play on me.  I don't even know what I was doing or thinking.  I may have been daydreaming about our next meal while gazing at the skyline.  It's too hard to say.  

 Later I tried to get him back and get a shot of him mid-bite.  I wish it weren't so blurry.  I also wish that maybe he would have had a stranger look on his face or maybe even a booger hanging out of his nose. All in good fun.  all in good fun.

 We ate a fancy, delicious dinner at a late hour and felt very grown up.  We didn't have to order a single chicken nugget or chocolate milk, and we didn't have to apologize to anyone around us as we were leaving.  It was all rainbows and butterflies.

 As mentioned, we went to a live Price is Right show.  No, we didn't win a single thing, but it was fun to watch and fun to get name tags.  

And I played this ginormous slot machine and won three dollars.  With that kind of winning, I might just start using my grocery money to gamble.  

In case you're wondering, this is what winning $3 looks like:

Not pictured, but to be mentioned:

• We did miss our kids a lot, but not too much.  We had a GREAT time, but we were happy to get home to our babies.  Mimaw Kay had it under control  Phew!
• We liked the Cirque du Soleil show very much, and we liked Phantom of the Opera, but we did get a little, teeny tiny bit bored in Phantom.  No judging please!  
• Our feet hurt.  They hurt a lot.  We were out of practice from our jaunts around the city in New York.  
• We stayed at the Vdara, which we would highly recommend.  It was so nice and fun.  We loved sleeping in.  
• Our bell boy, Zachary, was the closest thing to a best friend that we had there. 
• A Snickers bar from the mini-fridge is $5.  
• Clearly, Noah and I neither knew when to hold them, nor when to fold them.  If we did, we might have made some dough.
• There is a secret path from The Vdara to The Bellagio, and it made our day to discover it.