Zoo Day with friends

We didn't renew our zoo membership this year, mostly because we had a different membership to OMSI and the Children's Museum in Portland so that's what we chose to do when we were in town.  But, they do have $4 Tuesdays on the third Tuesday of each month.  So my friend Kristen and I decided to take our boys on their next cheap day since it was supposed to be sunny and warm.  My boys were sooooo excited, they both love animals.

So we headed off early in the morning (isn't it amazing how much you can do before 7:30am if you really have to?) and got to the zoo around 9:45.  We expected it to be super crowded since it was their cheap day but surprisingly it really wasn't that bad, until one little congested time in the early afternoon, so we were really grateful.

We took in all the exhibits, ate our picnic lunch, let the boys play in their giant sandbox for an hour so they could 'recharge' in the shade, and then went and saw more animals.  All in all we were there for about 6 hours and the boys did great considering they did a lot of walking and didn't have a nap.  And I just love hanging out with my friend, she is such a dear 'sister' to me and I love sharing life with her.  It was such a fun day and the boys are already asking me when we get to go back :-)

Fire Station Open House

Our boys LOVE firetrucks.  They are obsessed with playing firefighters and do so most days.  They even use the legs of my piano to pretend they are fire poles, it's hilarious!  So when it came time for our local fire station to have their open house, we knew we had to go again.  We don't even tell our boys about it until the night before because we know they will ask us every 5 minutes if its time to go there.

So we headed out Saturday morning and got there about 25 minutes early so we could be first in line for the fire truck rides.  The boys were in awe of all the fire trucks lined up.  Of course, I left my good camera right by the door, so we had to settle for Peter's celllphone pictures, but at least there's a memory right?

They started their fire truck rides a bit early and we got on the first one.  The driver even put on the sirens and the boys loooved that cars pulled over for us (I don't think they were technically supposed to do that!)  After we were done, I got right back in line so they could ride again even though it was going to be about a 25 minute wait.  Peter took the boys to go practice holding and spraying a fire hose before they joined me in line for another ride.

After their second ride, we enjoyed a free lunch of hot dogs and soda, then went to watch them spray down the grounds from the top of their huge ladder truck.  The boys loved this part, Jonah talked about it for days.  He kept playing with his own fire truck afterwards saying, "is this ladder super high mom?  is it super high?"  Yes, sweetheart, super high!

Next we headed over to the field where they were going to land their rescue helicopter.  They pretty much land as close as they can to right in front of you and of course, the boys loved it.  Then they got to sit inside it and talk to the pilot.  This was one of Ben's favorite parts.

The boys had so.much.fun at the fire station and ask at least once a week if they can go back.  We loved spending a fun Saturday with our little guys doing some of their favorite stuff, its so fun being a parent sometimes!

Mother's Day 2014

I had such a wonderful Mother's Day this year.  On Saturday, I took my mom (and sister) out to lunch and to see the movie "Mom's Night Out".  It was a pretty cute movie and it was fun to go out together while my boys napped at home with Daddy.

Sunday morning we had a typical morning before church, a great service, then headed to our favorite Chinese restaurant in town.  The boys also made me super sweet cards, a couple candy treats (which they of course wanted to share!) and Peter also let me pick out a new flower basket for our front porch.

Then we all took a bit of a nap.  When everyone was up, we went for a walk to get some frozen yogurt.  The boys love this place but we don't go very often because its a bit pricey compared to an ice cream cone, so they were delighted that mommy 'treated' them on Mother's Day.

We ate our ice cream then stopped at the little park by our house on our walk home.  Again, the boys were delighted!

We headed home around 7 so I could make us a quick dinner (so ice cream wasn't the only thing in our stomachs at bedtime) :-)  We ate outside on our front porch and the boys thought that was great.

Peter and I sat on our bench and watched our boys play together so well, put on funny 'cool moves' shows for us and just act silly.  We loved every second and it was such a wonderful evening together sitting in the sunshine.  I felt so blessed watching my boys playing in our yard while our new little guy was kicking in my tummy.  The greatest gift of my life was becoming a Mommy and though some days are long I wouldn't change it for the world.  Some days my heart feels as though its going to burst because I love my 3 little guys so much.  I'm excited to see our family grow in a couple months and see my 3 boys love each other as brothers.  What a blessed Mama I am!!

Lots of pictures!

This post is just going to be a big dump of pictures that I need to catch up on before I can post a few more events that have been going on.  So here goes....