Beautiful spring

Kim played a game with the kids that used glass beads as markers/game pieces and ever since Nixon has been obsessed with his little glass bead

Artistic little girl

I had a dinner with the Supreme Court last week and this is the picture I sent Kim and the Kids in lieu of spending any time with them that evening

An extra child helps mess things up much quicker. Nice jacket Nixon ;)

There weren't a lot of kids at the library this last activity so Nixon was right up front getting into all of the action

Happy boy

They look like such calm children...

"Let's go mom"

It was 29 degrees Celsius (84 F) on Friday so Kim took the kids to the beach

The water is still really low because they have all of the damn gates open, so it was a little muddy. Good thing Nixon insisted on wearing rain boots

Friday evening Kim and I had friends watch the kids and we went on a date! We packed dinner and hiked Tubbs Hill and ate next to the lake

It was really beautiful and peaceful

Then we went to Dockside and shared a Reese Gooey. Soooo amazing!

Home Depot had a spring black Friday sale this last weekend, which means really cheap mulch. We bought 38 bags of mulch (2 cu. feet and 56 lbs each) and spread that out on a few places in our yard

This is what our back "forest" area looked like when we first bought our house. There was no separation between the tree area and the yard. There was some rock in the trees that always got scattered in the grass and it was a little overgrown and ugly.

Another view of the forest area this February

I have spent lots of time building a retaining wall around the forest area, moved lots of dirt in that area to build it up, added fabric to stop weeds, and this weekend covered it in mulch. We are happy with the finished result

We found this huge slug on our back step on Saturday morning

Lyza was fascinated

We did a little shopping together Saturday morning after we got some free shrubs from the City. What a fun shopping cart

Lyza and Nixon helped me plant our new hydrangeas

While I was at Home Depot with Lyza getting mulch Kim and Nixon washed windows outside and washed our patio chairs

He loves bubbles

Lyza asked to run around through the sprinklers. How could we say no?

What a goof

We had our first bon fire of the year

s'mores!

That face says it all

Take care

Finishing off Easter and General Conference

Last Sunday (Easter) after Nixon's nap we did a little egg hunt in the house since it rained earlier in the day. They had lots of fun

Kim caught a cute bug! 

 The insides of the Easter eggs were even more enjoyable than collecting them

 Since I let Nixon drive in the truck at the service project he thinks he always gets to drive...and how can I say no?

 We went for a nice walk together after Easter dinner

 Our kids love bubbles

 Princess Lyza has convinced Nixon to push her around the house in a laundry basket chariot

 We have been teaching Lyza to play Uno

 Cute

 This new ball has been lots of fun outside

 Whenever he is outside he is happy!

Although I am not sure what changed here

 Back to being happy

 Follow the leader

 Sometimes my kids will snuggle with me

 After Kim's Dr. appointment this week she let the kids play at the indoor playground in the mall. 

Nixon liked it for a minute, until he realized that his shoes were off. He could not comprehend a playground where he had to take and keep his shoes off. He eventually freaked out and Kim had to take the kids out screaming (when Nixon cries really bad Lyza always instinctively joins in). Then Lyza ended up getting in the elevator and the doors closed before Kim and Nixon could get in. I heard it was a really traumatic experience for everyone.

On Friday Kim and the kids picked me up after work and we ate dinner at the big playground in Coeur d'Alene

The weather was beautiful and the kids really like playing at this big park

 Our little spider-girl. Lyza told Kim "Mom, this is harder than it looks"

 Don't get your hopes up...those are not prison bars ;)

 A Costco pizza + beautiful weather + playground = a happy family

 The sunset over the lake was really pretty

 It was fun to take the kids down to the water and look at the ducks

 We have been watching TV all weekend ;)

 And cuddling

 And eating of course

 Breakfast this morning before General Conference

 I wish I could say this is how they looked during all 8 hours of conference...

 But for how little they are, they were pretty good

 In between sessions today we went to Falls Park and had a picnic lunch, looked at the damn, and played on the playground

They have all of the gates open and the volume of water is really impressive

 It has been a beautiful day and it was nice to be outside in the sunny warmth

 The kids loved climbing all over the place

 The kids are standing in a huge concrete base for a tower that was built when they were constructing the damn. They never removed the base because it was too big and difficult to remove

 The kids were mesmerized by the geese and ducks

 And a TURTLE!

We hope everyone is doing well. Take care