Our day of park-hopping!

Since I had spent most of Brooklyn's Spring Break car shopping, and now finally have a car, I decided to spend today doing the one thing the kids had asked me to do with them these past two weeks.

GO TO THE PARK!!

I thought, what better way than to hit as many parks as possible, letting the kids play as long as they wanted at each, and also decide when to move on to the next one on the list. Both kids were very excited about this plan, so we packed up some snacks, hit Wendy's for some lunch, and headed to our first park.

Logan Park was the very first park we went to after moving to Fresno. It's just a few miles away from the apartments we first lived at, and believe me, we search long and hard to find it that first time, so we've got lots of memories there.







Next, we went to Oso de Oro Lake Park. This is the park we learned about from our friends in our first ward. It's got lots of different fun places to play, including a maze and a lake where you can feed the ducks!







This last park is one we haven't gone to much. We learned about it just before moving to Biola, which put us far enough away that it's just not as convenient as some others, but we still like it because of the super tall, twisty slide!




We had so much fun today, that we'll probably do it again someday soon! :)

A visit from our Auntie Kara

My younger sister, Kara, and her punkins, came to visit our humble abode this weekend. Her main reason for coming was Brooklyn's baptism, but since she loves us so much, she decided to stay a few extra days. Yeah!

They arrived by plane Thursday morning, and after an early lunch, we decided to visit Steve at work so that Joseph and Jacob could see the helicopters. They were as impressed as a 3 1/2 and almost 2 year old can be. And even though this was the very first time that Uncle Steve and Jacob had seen each other in person, Jacob went to get hugs from him like he was his best friend!

Friday morning, after sending Brooklyn to school, we headed into Fresno to run a few errands and to go to the Oso de Oro Lake Park. Unfortunately, it was quite hot so we didn't get to stay very long. On our way home, we stopped by In-N-Out for lunch, as Kara had not really eaten there before. Washington is unfortunately lacking this establishment. :) After arriving home, Kara and I got busy working on the pyramid cake we were attempting to make for Brooklyn's birthday party the next morning. It ended up looking more like a mountain than a pyramid, but it sure tasted good!




Friday night I took Kara to Castillo's Mexican Food for dinner. Steve is the one who turned me on to this restaurant. They have the best homemade Mexican food I've ever tasted! I couldn't let Kara visit Fresno without eating here. It's a good thing she enjoyed it, too. :)

Saturday morning Steve took Noah and Joseph to the park while Kara and I prepared for the party. The girls had lots of fun, but I wouldn't have survived it without Kara's help! :) (Thanks again, K!)

Later that evening, for a fun family outing, we went to John's Incredible Pizza Co. Only Steve had been here before, with some friends of ours, but he said it was fun, so we decided to give it a try. The kids enjoyed a few rides and games before sitting down to dinner. After eating, we tallied up our tickets, picked out a couple prizes, and then called it a night!







Sunday, and the baptism, can be read about here.

Monday was the day that Kara and boys would be heading home, so we just hung out around the house till it was time to take them to the airport. We're so glad they came to visit us, and we hope they will come again sometime!

CAVA Outing to The Discovery Center

Last Thursday (29 May) we had a school outing to The Discovery Center. We had never been there before, so it was fun to see all the different activities it had. First we had a little lesson on magnets and electricity.





Then the kids ran through a big maze.



Then we went to check out all the different cactuses in the Deutsch Cactus Garden.



The kids then had some fun digging up and burying bones in the Dino Dig Site.



And lastly, they were excited to finally catch a few tadpoles and little fish in the Waldon Pond.





We love participating in these school outings throughout the year. It really helps us get to see different parts of Fresno that we may not have seen otherwise.

CAVA Outing to the Air National Guard

I'm going to be playing catch-up in these next couple of posts. We've had some really fun outings for Brooklyn's school, and I didn't get a chance to post them earlier.

This one was on 21 May, and it was to the Air National Guard unit here in Fresno. The fun thing about this is that Steve is thinking of joining the Air Guard here shortly, and so it was neat getting a chance to see where he'd be working. It was also cool because the Air Guard is located on the same fields as our Fresno airport, and right across the runways from the National Guard hanger, which is where Steve currently works.



The first place we toured was the fire station. They showed all the different trucks they use to respond to different emergencies, including the big truck that carries 1200 gallons of water. It was just windy enough that when they sprayed this top hose to the left, it got a bunch of us wet!





They even gave each kid a chance to man a water hose.





While we were out there we got to see 6 F-15 Eagle fighter planes take off right in front of us. It was sooo cool!!





After that we went to see where the fighter pilots hang out, and we got to meet and talk to one of them.



On our way back to the gate we got to see a bunch of stationary planes. It was a very fun day!