Love The Monkey Life: March 2011

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Miscellaneous Monkeys

Carter came downstairs one afternoon and ever-so-adorably inquired "Can I paint...on a towel like a picnic...with black paint...so I can make a road picture for Trevor??" So Emilee graciously obliged overseeing the project and even had a little art-fun herself.

After literally years of begging us to let her get pet birds, Emilee finally saved enough money and convinced us she was responsible enough...so please meet "Snow" perched on Em's finger (notice the HUGE smile on this teenager's face...we don't see this quite enough anymore).

And both birdies in their cage ("Apple" is green and "Snow" is bluish white).

Just showin' off Trev lookin' mighty handsome!! The reason for the attire? He had a school project that was done presentation style to a panel of judges. He loved the part where he had to wear a tie...and his team did super during their presentation!

Since Trev was posing for a pic, Carter wanted to get in one too!

After a decent snow in early March, the boys went out to play and Trevor made Carter a "snow chair." Don't ask exactly why he did it because all I could get from Carter was "because I need somewhere to sit in the snow!" LOL!

Two goofy shots after getting new sunglasses...

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Brad, Jamie and Braeden's Visit!!

Our super awesome friends from Oklahoma ~ Brad, Jamie and Braeden ~ picked beautiful Idaho as their family's destination vacation this year...so we got to spend a week with them in late February! We all had a great time...the kids played, Josh and Brad played haha, and Jamie and I visited!

You all know that Joshua LOVES to cook...so right off, Joshua and Brad headed to the fish market and then came back and made us sushi!! Brad jumped in and learned too...I think Jamie wants sushi back at home!

One of our favorite outings back in Oklahoma with the boys used to be going to the mall...so we headed to my new mall and let the boys run some energy off.

And as if one night of sushi wasn't yummy enough, we voted for a second! More lessons for Brad and more YUMMY sushi for us!!!

Nice job, guys!!

Took all the monkeys to the park for some sliding fun...

Joshua and Brad headed up the hill to ski for a much needed man-break. Joshua had an absolute blast spending time acting crazy with Brad and just getting away from the ridiculous stresses of work.

A toast of duck farts to friends forever!!! Love you guys!!!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

HE GOT IT!!!

I am so excited to share these videos with you guys! Carter finally "got it" today when we were skiing!! I think for these little ones, picking up the knack of skiing is kinda like learning to ride a bike, and once you've got it, you've got it! Poor Joshua has been toughing it out "teaching" Carter to ski...but it's HARD! PHYSICALLY...VERY...HARD!! Keeping a 4 year old upright and balanced and not crashed into a tree...and then untangled from your own skis while YOU don't fall or run him over is just darn HARD! And I've felt super bad watching Joshua tough it out with all of this. And just as I finished up on some medium runs with Em and Trev, I came over to the small hill that Joshua and Carter were on, and I was surprised with THIS!

I am soooo proud of Carter that he "got it" and I'm so happy that Joshua's back gets a rest!! Go BOOGA!!!

Oh and one other thing...isn't his new helmet CUTE?!?! It's got silly monsters and dinosaurs on it and it's perfect for him!

And I did want to share that Em and Trev and Joshua got to go for their first NIGHT ski last night too! Joshua didn't get any pictures...BOO!...but they had a blast and with the extra practice in, the big monkeys are now officially outskiing Mommy! :-)

Friday, March 11, 2011

Oregon!

Back in February, Joshua needed to do some interviews for work in the Portland area and didn't have much time in his schedule to fit them in. So we loaded the five of us up in the van and decided to make a working/family weekend out of heading to Oregon. Here's Em and Trev's favorite part of the "work" Daddy did that weekend. We happened upon one of Joshua's drivers dropping a load at the truckstop, so we parked and did a secret survelliance (Joshua does this often to make sure his drivers are following proper safety procedures...and then the drivers who pass get a bonus on their paycheck!).

Em and Trev keeping watchful eye...

The driver did great!

The awesome part of needing to go to Portland for work was that alot of Joshua's family lives there. We got to spend some time with his much-missed grandma, aunts and cousins. Some of them had never even met Carter! Before we all left California and scattered, a favorite family past time used to be playing Scatergories...so they were quick to break out the box and jump into a game!

A pose with Grandma...

And one with Grandma, Aunt Cindy and Tyler and Lexie!

On the way home, we got to stop at a tourist attraction...Multnoma Falls. It was BEAUTIFUL!! It is 600+ feet tall and just awe inspiring!

This is the widest shot I could take, getting the most of both sections of the falls in...

Joshua and the kids made the quarter-mile hike from the base to the bridge. I stayed down so I could get the picture haha! The little group on the bridge is Joshua and the monkeys...