Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend Drew and I planned to have a little getaway at a resort in Scottsdale. We LOVED the place and ended up booking the room for another night and inviting the kids up. There was a kid pool that had a sandy beach entrance and a little water slide that we knew Hallie would love. Drew and I enjoyed our time away from the kids and did a lot of RELAXING--which we both needed! But we also loved seeing Hallie go up and down the slide over and over again and Braden eating the sand up. Hallie cried when we left to go home. We practically dragged her away from the place, but within SECONDS she was asleep in the car.

Arrrgh! Pirates!

Today Hallie went to Aiden's birthday party (a friend from preschool). We have gone to his house before for a playdate with all the kids in the class and I swear that his mom is a professional party thrower. She is amazing! And she does it ALL THE TIME! She did a pirate theme for Aiden and had everything theme related plus all the fun water slides. She also had a full spread of food for mom's too! This is what she emailed me tonight...
"Aiden is now obsessed with Hallie……He has said her name a hundred times this afternoon…..he said she is his girlfriend (he does not actually know what that is…I think!) But he seems to really like her".

I laughed after I read it and told Drew that Broc has some competition! Aiden is in Hallie's class for next year too. It'll be great for her to have a familiar face. Hallie had a blast today and it was so fun to see all of the class together now that school has ended.

Dance

Hallie's dance photo May, 2007

Better Late Than Never

I just found our old digital camera and realized that we had photos from Easter on it! So here are a couple shots from Easter weekend.

Also last month sometime, Drew was outside cleaning the backyard and the sandbox turtle was out. Braden climbed right in and since it's really too hot for sand now, we modified it into a mini pool! He had on all his clothes but loved every minute of it!

Happy Birthday Drew!

Happy Birthday Drew (and Ryan, too)! Drew turned the big 27 today. We really have had a weekend birthday celebration. I have been thinking about his birthday for awhile and really wanted to do something fun. Drew always is so CREATIVE and thoughtful about the things he does for me and usually I supply him with new clothes, needed outdoor things, or something that he flat out tells me to get him. Real original, right??! Drew and I are also SO awful at keeping suprises or secrets--it's pathetic. We usually are so excited that we spill the beans before the actual event. But I've been REALLY good and kept this a surprise. Saturday Drew had continuing education classes from 8-3 and so I was able to get everything set and ready while he was gone. When he came home I was waiting for him in the driveway with my sitter all ready to go and gave him a map to a Marriott Resort in Scottsdale and told him to take me there. The whole way he complained and told me how much he hated surprises. When we got there we picked up a black H2 Hummer for the rest of Saturday and Sunday. He was so excited! I loved it because the twinkle in his eye totally said enough! We headed to HOUSTON'S (our fav dinner spot) and then to the drive-in movie theater to watch Spider Man 3. I had brought blankets and so we backed up the hummer and laid down all the back seats. We had a BLAST! It was a great night!

Hallie's Swim Lesson

Since I've gotten my new video camera, I've been shooting a little bit of everything. I have found (and thanks to my biggest critic...DREW!) that I am NOT the best camera girl, especially when it is just me and I am trying to film and keep an eye on Braden. It really doesn't work that well. But here is a small clip of Hallie at swimming lessons last week. She is a great swimmer and LOVES it! Soccer didn't really go over big but I can see us doing swim team when she gets older.

Braden

While Hallie was napping today Drew, Monica, and I were messing around with Braden. He was laughing so hard and was loving all the attention. He is such a BOY and loves to rough house. Even when he gets roughed up, he just rolls over and is ready for more. He is such a chill kid. Nothing really phases him enough to get worked up about (a great compliment to Hallie's personality). Today we spent 1 1/2 hours at the play place in the mall. Braden was following Hallie around and keeping up really well with alot of the big kids. He's a fast little crawler and even when he was getting trampled on, he still kept going and had a GREAT time.

Big Surf!

Last Saturday we hit up Big Surf for our annual waterpark trip. We always have a great time, but this year was especially fun because we had Braden (last year I was 8 1/2 months pregnant!) and Hallie is getting old enough to swim around by herself. Hallie also experienced her first water slide and couldn't get enough of it. She did it over, and over, and over! The dad of a family in our ward, who has a daughter Halli's age, also works at Honeywell and so Hallie met up with Katie and they had a BLAST! Hallie probably would have never done the water slide without a little positive peer pressure from Katie. It was great watching them together! Braden was a little fish, too, and he even crashed for a mid-afternoon nap in the wagon for a couple hours with Grandma Myers while Drew and I hit the slides ourselves. Needless to say, our kids CRASHED after a day of fun, sun, & water! Check the flicker album for more BIG SURF shots.

Congrats Tab!

On Friday Tabitha graduated from ASU and will be heading off soon to law school! We are so excited for her and Steve. They are going to be so far away in Philly but it will be a great experience for them. She has a lot to look forward to. Congrats Tab!

Diva

I snapped this shot really quickly before we headed out to take Hallie's dance pictures. I think the professional ones will turn out so cute. They had her doing these darling poses and of course it always helps when Hallie is willing to flash a great smile! Her dance recital is June 2nd and she is dancing to a remix of the Marilyn Monroe song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend". I can't wait! I love watching her practice because her teacher really gets them shakin' it and Hallie is TOTALLY in to it! This is my main reason for buying that camcorder. There is NO WAY that I would miss having that on tape!

Park Connoisseurs

Over the past couple weeks we've been hitting up new and old parks to see which ones we like the best and to switch it up for the kids. It's also been GORGEOUS evening weather so it's been enjoyable for the whole family. We went to a new one on Thursday that also had a huge splash pad with fun water toys. Drew and I had to DRAG the kids away from it. Braden was in his glory because FINALLY he could get in on all the fun with Hallie and he dug right in. He was splashing around and was so brave. He just stuck his head in the water and it didn't even phase him. In fact, he got a kick out of it! Hallie loves it when Braden does what she says and follows her around. Boys and girls are so different! I love having one of each--they each have thier own little quirky characteristics.

Random

I have been crazy busy lately and feel like I haven't been able to give anything 100% of my time. It's survival mode here in sunny AZ. Hallie's schedule is so demanding, and she is only one little person in this 4 person familia! So with our 5 year anniversary (I would give a shout out to my hubby but he has no intrest in the whole blogging thing. In fact, it drives him crazy when I do it!), church commitments, Hallie's schedule of school, soccer, dance, and swim, Drew working and trying to make this company GROW, turning our loft into an OFFICIAL office, and poor Braden being the ultimate trooper with me (he is almost standing on his own and is a speedy little crawler. He is loving balls, dogs, and peanut butter M&M's) ---we are a little chaotic right now! Thanks to Becky for helping me realize that I almost hit the 1 month mark between blogs! So we've been going, going, going, doing fun things but not really taking any photos. I've found some random ones on Monica's computer (I did hack into your password, Moo!) and am posting those until I can get it together. I should have something to post in the next week or so, though, because Tabitha is graduating from ASU on Friday, we are going to BIG SURF on Saturday, our annual Myers family waterpark adventure, and I have ordered our first camcorder which I am so excited about! So maybe instead of photos I will begin posting MOVIES! I realized that we need to document some of these crazy-great events before they pass. So stay tuned and meanwhile enjoy random-ness!