Blowing Up

On Sunday, May 6th the boys (meaning Del Ray, Ryan, Collin, and Kadon) decided to use a bomb to blow a hole in the ground.

the bomb

Kadon trying to catch a mouse.

Looking for the right hole

The girls and kids watching

Getting ready to light the fuse

RUN

The explosion

The hole

Drive to Idaho

We finally were able to leave our house and head to Idaho.  Our original plan was to leave on Thursday May 3rd after preschool and lunch.  Due to a tummy flu that hit our family we ended up waiting until we knew that our kids were over that.  I can't imagine driving across the country with kids sick with the stomach flu.  We left on Friday around 1:30 in the afternoon.  The stomach flu seemed to hit Emily the hardest.  We decided that it would be a good idea to cover her car seat in a garbage bag just in case.  It was a good idea that we did because she threw-up several times on Friday.

After our first stop Christopher found a butterfly on the front of our van and was so excited he said, "We caught a butterfly! We caught a butterfly!"  His face fell to a sad pouty face and said, "but it is dead, I want it to go and live with Jesus."

Butterfly

This was a cute, very friendly little town that we stopped at for breakfast on Saturday

Chappell

Emily's car seat

We were driving along the Lincoln highway and stopped off at the rest area; this is the highest point on the Lincoln Highway.

Running around

We were able to make it to Idaho in 28 hours!  We were happy to be there.

Front Page Story!

This is a neat experience that we were able to participate in in our ward here in Cleveland!
Here is a link to the article that was on the FRONT PAGE of the newspaper: http://www.cleveland.com/shaker-heights/index.ssf/2012/05/shaker_heights_church_organize.html
"One friend told Buckner her two sons, ages 3 and 6, asked “what we were doing and why and they went straight to their room, stripped their beds and brought it all, plus a stuffed animal, to give to the refugee children.”~~~These children I am proud to say are my two boys.  They were so happy to give up all of their extra blankets in order to help a child without.

Crawling Over Logs

Earlier in the day on May 3rd Emily was crawling over Ryan's legs and we were cheering for her and telling her what a great job she was doing.  Later during dinner Nathanial asks Ryan, "does Emily need to practice crawling over your legs so she can crawl over logs?"

Preschool

This year was Nathanial's last year in preschool.  We were able to take a class picture.

Top: Peyton, Mrs. Jensen, Nathanial.  Bottom: Reagan, Lily, Audrey, and Chrsitopher

Nathanial's last day of Preschool

Christopher on the other hand will have 2 more years of preschool.  By the time he goes to kindergarten he will have 4 years of preschool

Christopher

May 2012

End of Swimming

On Saturday, April 28th, the boys had their last day of swimming lessons until summer.

Nathanial started out in Level 2 and after talking to his teacher he will be in Level 2 again.

Peyton and Nathanial

Nathanial

Christopher started out in Level 1 and the first day he cried because he didn't want to go in the water.  By the end his teacher said that he is ready for Level 2!

Christopher is getting ready to dunk himself under water...

Nathanial is floating on his back with his teacher and trying to swim by moving his arms and kicking his feet.

While the boys were in their lessons Emily was being as cute as ever!

This picture almost looks like she is trying to wink

After swim lessons they have a family swim time.  Ryan tied a noodle around Christopher.  Christopher would swim all over the pool and jump off the edge all by himself. Thanks Lovato's for sharing this idea!

He is so proud of himself.

Nathanial on the other hand just wanted to float on his noodle.

Water boys

Daddy and Emily

Ryan was working with Nathanial to float on his back.  By the end of the day he was floating for a few minutes at a time.

Great job Nathanial!