Spring Break Family Road Trip
April 11th-15th 2011

 Spring Break has finally rolled around.

This week has been much anticipated by us all!

Mostly for Matt.

Who has absolutely no life, except for work.

We left Sunday morning, April 11th.

Matt rented us a most awesome MINI VAN!

Or Swaggin' Wagin' 

{as I like to call it}

After my last post, I am sure this comes as a shock

but for these kind of circumstances it is allowed.

We have never used a mini van and 

I will grudgingly admit it was rather nice! :)

To clarify...

it was great for vacation however,

we in no time soon plan to purchase one.

Back to the trip...

So as I was saying, we left Sunday morning

and drove strait to Vegas.

The drive went relatively swell.

The boys watched movies,

ate tons of food.

Good thing I prepared as much food as I did

cause, man those boys can eat!

I think Cody is a bottomless pit right now.

What will it be like when I have 3 teen boys

eating like this?!?!

Yikes!

 On our way! Can you tell who is not having fun? :)

Now for the part of the drive that did not go so well...

Crew, 

the poor little guy, 

had had enough of his restricting car seat.

 The last 45 min. or so of our drive into Vegas

was spent listening to this little boy scream!

The minute the car stopped and I unbuckled him

he was all kinds of smiles & giggles.

No sign of the trauma he,

and we, had just endured for the past hour.

We happily checked into our Hotel.

 The Holiday Inn Express

just off the Vegas strip.

Very nice. 

Dropped off our bags, 

took a quick tour of the place,

then forced our children back into the van.

So horrible, I know.

What our Hotel looks like at night. :)

See, I just felt we did not have time to chill.

I was so excited to go and show them VeGAs!!!!

Plus we needed to feed them some dinner.

We made it about half-way down the strip

and then.....

Crew decided enough was enough!

So much for a fun evening exploring.

We did not want to eat at a resturant

on the strip with Crew acting like this.

So we kept driving a few blocks over, 

Everyone wanting something different and 

Crew still screaming in our ears,

The next place we saw was Wendys.

And that was it. 

Nothing awesome or fancy 

like I had envisioned 

but by this point........

who really cares!

After our anything but relaxing dinner,

we took one more cruise down the strip.

By now it is dark and 

all the Vegas lights are glittering!

Crew thought every taxi cab he saw

was a police man. He would point this out

very loudly. Then say, "So Cool!!!".

Our wild night ended by 9pm.

The kids all happy & tucked in their beds.

 

Matt and I lying there, 

wide awake!!

We had one room

and it's really 10pm Utah time. :)

This completes day one of our trip.

And what a day it was. :)

Matt & I are pondering if this was really the best idea?!?!

LoL!!!

Well...............

It's official.

I am a Soccer Mom!

Sounds so weird to me.

Since when did I get so old,

have 3 kids and now this???

However, I can tell you this.....

I will not be a Soccer Mom sportin' a mini-van

with my awesome crooked "Soccer Mom" bumper sticker!

Sorry people!

That is just not me. :)

At one of Matt's indoor soccer games

Landen expressed that he too wanted to play Soccer. 

Of course Matt is thrilled to hear this from one of his boys!

Cody has never been that interested in playing sports.

So I singed Landen up for Spring Soccer.

His team name is- The Eagles.

There are ten kids on the team.

They practice just around the corner

from our house. So nice!

He had his first practice the other day.

Matt even woke up early so he could be there.

Landen was super excited for this day.

His coach is amazing.

I am so glad that he has such an awesome,

dedicated coach.

It was so cute to watch Landen.

He seemed to really enjoy it

and he has his first game in two weeks.

Later that evening Grandma Nette asked

Landen what his favorite part of practice was.

Landen says,

 " I loved kicking the ball into the goal!"

All ready for his first practice!

Dad took Landen on one of their Daddy dates to get all his new soccer gear. These are his awesome Addidas he picked out because they have green on them. :)

Stretching.

Running 2 laps around the field.

Practicing their kicking.

Dads vs. kids scrimmage.

Dads vs. kids

Dads vs. kids

Lando wrong way!!!

Dads vs. kids

If anyone touches the ball with hands you drop & do push-ups.

Cutie Soccer Boy!!!

Here we go again. 

Trying to make up for lost time. :)

I still have not even blogged Christmas.

Sheesh!

But...on to Birthdays we go.

We recently celebrated my 30 something Birthday

and even more recently, Landen's BIG 5!!!

This year Landen had his first ever friend party.

You know how middle kids always get the shaft?

I don't know, but according to Matt this really happens.

And guess what?!?!

Poor Landen has been getting the shaft!

But we made up for that big time this year.

Phew!

Landen decided about a year ago he wanted a

Lego Power Miners themed party.

I don't know either???

Well, I really do know, but that's beside the point.

See, there is NOTHING out there for this kind of party.

That meant me trying to get all creative and... 

so I convinced him to change his mind. :)

It worked!

Landen had an awesome Lego Party instead.

It was not too far off what he asked for so it

was a win/win situation.

I still had to get creative cause I was not

about to shell out the big bucks for 

licensed Lego party products.

This was fun and much easier though then Power Miners.

We held the party on Sat. the 29th.

I really wanted Matt to be there.

The party turned out awesome.

We played games like: 

pin the Lego head on the Lego guy,

drop the Lego in the bottle,

guess how many Legos in a jar,

popping balloons to find the green Lego.

Followed by opening presents & eating cake!

Landen is one satisfied 5 yr. old.

And I have to say Matt was a huge help, 

I think I thanked 500 times. :)

I had the kids draw their own Lego faces.

Cody made a Lego village for the party.

Cheated & made cupcakes instead of cake.

These are the party favors I made for the kids.

Getting ready to start the games.

Luke won pin the head on the Lego guy.

The kids seemed to enjoy trying to pop the balloons. We had to help it along cause no one was having success.

Opening presents.

Dropping the Lego brick in the bottle.

Pin the head on the Lego guy.

My home-made decorations.

My super not fabulous cupcakes.

The Birthday Boy!!!

Lando & Daddy

Proud Grand Parents!

FIVE

The party crashers!

I could not believe all the gifts he received.Thank you all so much!!!

And in closing I will include Thanks to you 

all who made my Birthday so enjoyable.

Thank you Matt for taking time off of work for me,

and for loving me regardless!!!

 Thanks Mom & Dan for my dinner.

Thanks to Nikki for taking me to lunch.

Thanks to My Dad & Tammy for the Olive Garden GC.

Can't wait use that with Matt.

Thank you Jay & Elly for the Target GC.

Thanks to Melinda for another great lunch date.

And Thank You to anyone I have failed to mention.

HaPpY BiRtHdAy MaTTTT-EEEEEEEE!

Today is Matt's 33rd Birthday.

Crazy, I know!

Where does the time go?

I have known Matt since I was eight.

I have so many fond memories of him.

One that stands out was when we 

were in primary together.

During singing time he was always

 turned around in his chair with

a huge smile on his face,

goofing off;  I would be thinking to

myself, that Taysom kid is so out of control. 

Funny, he is nothing like that now. :) 

Guess I took all the fun out of him? 

lol 

That's a joke...I hope! 

I know that we have had many

FUN years together and

hope we will continue to have many more!

Happy Birthday Babe! 

Hope you enjoyed your 7 days off from work,

your special dinner I slaved over for you,

the delicious jell-o cake I made,

and your awesome new hoodie I got you

but.... you paid for :),

the fabulous date night we had

at the Cheesecake Factory,

our waiter that looked like Snoop Dog,

the amazing cheesecake we ate later

that night in bed watching movies,

and everything else I forgot to mention here!

Love YOU!!!

I love the expression on Crew's face!

 

Classic Skating...

 Our family had a blast at Classic Skating in Sandy. 

It was Pony Express Elm. Family Skate Night. 

I have not been to a skating rink since Fun Plex days!

Wow, Fun Plex!!

Now that takes me way back! 

Some of you out there know what I am talking about.

You know who you are! ;)

Now I didn't actually get on skates tonight, 

I was busy helping Crew have the skate night of his life!

Hee Hee!

Landen was the only kid who wanted to rent skates. 

He had them on his feet for about five minutes tops.

Then took off on his scooter.

Later I asked him why he didn't like the skates.

He told me they were just so slow and junky! 

lol 

Well... I can't blame him. 

They really were junky. 

But Crew wanted to try them out 

and these skates were perfect for him. 

Matt also rented skates. 

He did great.

Considering how long it's been. 

I didn't want to find out how I would do. :) 

Once we got there Cody was off on his scooter.

Didn't see much of him the rest of the night. 

He hung out with his classmates. 

Crew, WoW, he was glued to that skating rink.

If I tried to take him off he would scream his head off.

Literally!

It was so fun though to be right there next to him 

watching how excited he would get.

He rode his scooter mostly but did do a few rounds on skates. 

Then there was Landen!

My ADD kid. 

He lasted about 10 min. out there.

Then was done!

Matt bought him some glow-in-the dark cotton candy 

and that kept him happy for a little while. 

Then he was back to complaining that he wanted to go. 

Later when they did the blackout skate

with glow sticks, fog, strobe lights, and techno music; 

he got back out on the rink for a bit. 

Overall it was a great night. 

Never would have picked this activity on our own 

but found out we really enjoyed it. :)