What a weekend!

Wow! This past weekend was a blast! We spent Friday night at the Great Wolf Lodge with Mark's parents, his sister Cami, and her 4 kids. It was so much FUN!!!

We played all day at the waterpark.

Then we watched the story time show in the lobby.

After the show, Gracie and Kaylin met "Violet" - the newest member of the 'Great Wolf family'.

Later that night Gracie and Kaylin snuggled up to a movie in Gracie's bunk bed.

At the end of the day...

We woke up and continued playing at the water park.

This next photo I captured when Mark got off the slide - he was completely unaware that I had taken it. When I saw it I couldn't stop laughing... it totally reminded me of a line from the movie "Tommy Boy" - "Uh, could you show me where the weight room is?... I'll just go check it out!"

Late Saturday afternoon we headed home to Mark's parent's house. We stayed up all night playing Cranium with our nephews... it was a blast spending time with Tyler, Ethan, and Brennan - they're so smart and funny! Gracies sure going to miss Kaylin and 'her boys' - Mark and I will too.

We went to church on Sunday and then headed up to the Ice Caves for a family hike. It was a lot fun and the perfect way to end our weekend.

The things you say...

* The other day we went to Bowman Bay with Gracie's cousins (who are currently up here visiting from Arizona). We had a great time playing on the beach and hiking up the trails. While her cousin Brennan (8) was picking on her cousin Kaylin (3) Gracie became very protective over Kaylin and went up to Brennan, grabbed him by the shirt and said, "You mess with my friend, you pay!"

* Last night while we tucked Gracie into bed she asked if she could sleep with Mommy and Daddy. I told her 'no, not tonight'. She said, "please, please, please?" Mark said, "No bud, not tonight." She said okay and we continued reading. A few minutes later she asked again. I said, "Gracie, you're sleeping in your bed tonight." She looked up at her bedroom wall and pointed to a picture of Jesus and said, "Jesus told me I can sleep in your room!"

* While making dinner, Mark surprised me with a little smooch. I returned the affection and he squeezed my back end - Gracie walked up to us and said, "Um guys... that's disgusting!"

* While "milking" a cow at the Everett Children's museum Gracie looked up at me and said, "Look Momma! I'm pulling it's weiner!"

For a recent Primary sharing time lesson I had the kids dress up like Nephi. When we came home from church Gracie wanted to wear the costume. Here's a picture of her as Nephi - ready to hunt!

In this next picture Gracie is being "tough"... I wouldn't mess with her!

May Play

Well, the month of May certainly did fly by! And we had a lot of fun playing with friends and family. My brother (uncle Andrew) and I took Gracie and my kid sister Maddy to the Everett Children's Museum, and I do believe Gracie had a great time!! In fact, she probably would have pitched a tent and stayed the night had it been an option!

We spent some QT with Grandma "GG" (Gracie's Great-Grandma). Grandma Janis (or "GG") is by far one of the funniest people I know and Gracie LOVES being around her! Grandma always has something up her sleeve to make you laugh. On this particular day she had bought some goofy glasses and enlisted the help of Gracie and Maddy to perform a little skit - it was very funny and cute!

At the end of the month Mark and I decided to take Gracie on a hunt for roasting sticks and firewood in the woods behind our house. We grabbed Gracie's wagon and a hatchet and set off on our "s'mores adventure". It didn't take long to gather the firewood and sticks because a recent windstorm had done most of the work for us - thank you Mother nature! When we got back home we took some left over stones we had from a recent landscaping project and built a little fire pit. Then my handsome Eagle Scout put his skills to the test and built us a toasty little fire. We each taught Gracie our "trick" for roasting the perfect marshmallow: Mark told her to be patient, "the perfect marshmallow takes time". I told her to stick it in the flame and catch it on fire - "sure, it gets a little burnt, but that's what tastes so yummy". Gracie didn't have the patience for waiting and thought the burnt marshmallows looked "disgusting" (her words). In the end, we found out Gracie likes to eat marhmallows straight from the bag. We also learned that not everyone likes s'mores... huh, go figure. So, the s'mores didn't tickle Gracie's taste buds and it started to rain towards the end but all in all it sure was fun!!