break from spring break

(*edited...lost my pictures somehow and had to reupload them)
Whew, finally got a few moments to myself on the computer to update my blog. We've been so busy! It's been great. In the past, spring break was just like any other week, just more annoying...lol! This year, we've really tried to make it fun for the kids.

Cameron started it out Tuesday night by plugging in the iron at Grandma's and giving himself some nice 2nd degree burns on the palm of his hand. Eeesh...not pretty. He's pretty much functioning like normal, aside from a few moments here and there. It's already completely blistered, popped, and peeled and just looks gross now. We need to keep bandaging it up. He missed T-ball practice that night, but we got his new uniforms at least and they are so cute! We'll be sure to get pictures next week.

From there, camping at Estrella Mountain Park. We really like it for the many many parks on site, the grass, and proximity to restrooms, tables, etc. Just a reminder though, this IS the desert. Our ward campout was here last November and at that time, just as everyone was cleaning up, a rattlesnake was found under one of the picnic tables. This time, we found two scorpions as we were cleaning up, one of them under our tent! And these were big mama's, I'd say at least 3 inches long. Gives me the heebie jeebies. Don't know if I'll be in such a rush to camp in the desert too soon. And it really was too warm to enjoy the fire too (which is one of the best parts of camping, don't you think?) so our next campout will likely be Prescott or Pine. We'd like to try Prescott for something new.


Anyway, the pictures here are of Ethan playing with one of the moths he caught (the kid is totaly smitten with bugs and totally his father's son!) and I wish you could see how completely filthy his face is, but it didn't show up too well in this shot. Also pictured is Cameron roasting marshmellows. They love to roast them but rarely eat them--they just get ooey and sticky all over the place.
Also pictured is our new camping popcorn popper that we got for Christmas--it is soo cool! We love it! Also for Christmas we got a bag of red and green festive popcorn kernels...you can kind of tell that the popped corn has flecks of red and green in it. Very cool.









Anyway, Wednesday morning after clean up (and scorpion scare) we came home, showered and cleaned up, and headed to the zoo. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The kids had a great time and were really well behaved.
We only saw maybe 1/3 of the park (in the future, I think I'd avoid the children's trail--not enough animals, just play things that take away from the whole point of going to the zoo!) and the water park was a huge hit. Ethan loved eat spot we stopped to play or take pictures and hated to leave. Then loved the next place and hated to leave. And so on and so on, so he was a handful. But it was also smack dab in the middle of his nap, so that was rough. We may consider getting a yearly membership and go more often, earlier in the day and season. (There are more actual zoo pictures on my photo albums, click on the right)

So after our zoo trip, we scurried back (or tried--it's tough to scurry during rush hour traffic) so Sean could go to baseball practice, but he ended up missing most of that too--got his uniform and some tickets for a spring training game on Saturday. We'll have to see if ol' Mom is Spring Break'ed out by then...

Today, the plan was to go to aerobics (that class kicked my butt, thanks, Ashley?) and then take all 5 kids out to the little water park at Thunderbird and the 101. I was so prepared with sunblock and water, swimsuits and towels, snacks, the works, but alas, no water until April 15! So, we stayed and played at the park. Kids had a really good time and Sean was a good helper to me. Keeping track of five squirrely kids at one busy park is not easy! We hit BK on the way home and now little children are sleeping soundly. I even layed out on the trampoline and got some sun while my house was nice and quiet. It's supposed to hit 99 degrees tomorrow! Oy! By Monday we're supposed to be back down to 80, but yikes, almost 100 already.

I've been staying up way too late and enjoying it. Till I see my tired self in the morning. I need something for my baggy eyes. Any suggestions?