March 21, 2015

  Our original plan for today was to go to a train park that we had heard was cool.  But when we got there we discovered that it was the plan for a lot of people to go to the train park.  Like hundreds of people.  So we picked up some lunch and found another park to eat and play.  We had this place nearly to ourselves.  We ate lunch, shot some hoops, dug in the sand, and played a rousing game of Who Can Throw The Mini-Basketball Into The Random Hole in The Wall From the Farthest Away. You know that game, right?

   Just as it was getting too hot to be comfortable at the park, Jeff discovered the switch for these misters.  Genius.

March 20, 2015

  Today: Spring training baseball, swimming, and dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse where Ryan discovered how much he likes lamb chops.

March 19, 2015

  I've always liked having my birthday in the Fall.  But after spending Ryan's birthday with him today, on Spring Break, I'm almost convinced a Spring birthday would be better.  (Please forgive me for sharing so many pictures.  I couldn't pick just a few.)

What do you do if it's rainy in Phoenix?  Hotel room obstacle courses, of course.

 Birthday breakfast, with a Texas-sized doughnut to keep him from feeling homesick.

  After breakfast was shopping and then lunch and games at Dave and Busters.  

The rain moved out and the sun was shining enough for a swim.

Do you think they were a little worn out at dinner?

Ryan woke up long enough for a slice of birthday cheesecake.

March 18, 2015

  If you go to Phoenix for Spring Break one year and realize that it's super warm and awesome and really not that far, why wouldn't you go again the next year?? 

  We arrived in Phoenix today to rainy and cool weather.  Not ideal.  But eating outside on the restaurant patio was delightful.  The rain had stopped and there were patio heaters nearby.  And the pizza was delicious.

March 17, 2015

Opening birthday gifts two days early because we'll be on vacation for his real birthday.  Poor guy.

March 16, 2015

Day 1 of Spring Break = success

March 15, 2015

That's me, outside with the kids, making faces at Jeff.  You'll have to trust me that they were really funny faces.

March 14, 2015

  My math-loving daughters informed me that not only is today Pi Day (3/14 = π = 3.14), but also the next two place values of π are 15 (3.1415 = 3/14/15).  That's a good enough excuse for me for pie...

March 9, 2015

  Mmmm, Shelbi's after-school snack

  This is the potato that caught on fire in the microwave.  I'll take the blame, since I was distracted and told Shelbi it needed more cooking time when she said it was still hard, but smelled burnt. The plate blew apart as we were inspecting the smoldering potato in the sink.  Weeks later and the microwave still faintly smells of smoke.

March 8, 2015

   New sidewalk chalk is awesome for about 3 days.  After that it's used down to nubs, broken, soggy from being left out in the sprinklers.  Today the kids took advantage of the chalk on it's first day of awesomeness.