My parents came for a visit in May and we took them to Petit Jean for a day. I got one self-time group shot that day. We rented a minivan rather than drive two cars. Brandon loved the minivan and was sad we couldn't keep it. It was nice to have space for everyone!

Our first stop (after the picnic which I took no pictures of...) was Cedar Falls.

Laedyn hitched a ride for a little while.

After we looked at Cader Falls, we went to look at Mather Lodge. There's a restaurant, gift shop, lodge rooms and cabins. This is view from behind Mather LodgeAfter Mather Lodge, we went to the Bear Cave trail. The rock crevices are pretty interesting.

Papa took over backpack duty for awhile.

With Papa on backpack duty, Nick got to climb the wall. He & Mark disappeared for quite awhile. I don't know how they got back down.

After Bear Cave Trail, we drove a scenic loop and stopped at a few overlooks. Mark the daredevil went out on a precipice. It was scarier than it appears in the picture.

All of the exploration, in addition to the kid's energy, wore Papa out and he snuck in a quick catnap. Brandon & Nick thought Papa's idea had merit, and made themselves comfortable on a rock ledge too.

Brandon spotted a pretty yellow butterfly in a parking lot. Unfortunately it had a broken wing.At the top of Petit Jean Mountain there is an old building that used to be used at a camp. We spent awhile climbing around in it exploring. Mom & I both took lots of pictures - I wonder how different her pictures are from my pictures??At the back of the structure, there was a deep hole with an exterior door opening but no obvious way to get down in. There was water trickling out from under the structure (a spring?). I wonder if it was a cold celler to store food? We saw a snake sitting down there, so no one went down to investigate further.

The view from the top of Petit Jean ... & Mark. I let Nick take Brandon off the trail to get a better view although all these heights make me extremely nervous about the kids.The last thing we saw on this trip was the gravesite of Petit Jean. After that we loaded back into the minivan for the drive back to Little Rock. Just in time too - the rain began just as we were looking at the gravesite!

Easter - that was a ways back - but I took some pictures!

The Easter Bunny brought Laedyn some cool sunglasses.It was rainy on Easter, so the easter egg hunt took place indoors. Brandon was very successful.
He was also very good about letting Laedyn find some - even helping her to do so.

I'm going to try to catch up a little on what we've been up to. I've been very busy with work and haven't had any spare time to keep up with this, with Facebook, with Flickr, with ANYTHING! I did, however, manage to take some pictures!

Brandon played t-ball this spring. Here are a couple of pictures from a game back in April. His team was the Orioles.

Brandon's preschool "graduation" was on Thursday. These five will be moving on to kindergarten in the fall.Ms. Linnie teaches Brandon's class. She's been at his daycare for 18 years. The kids all LOVE her. She really is great.

Brandon's best friend at school is Townley - they've been at daycare together almost since they were babies. We're sad they won't be going to the same kindergarten. Hopefully we'll keep in touch and have occasional playdates.Each of the kids got to choose a song to sing. Brandon chose "On Top of Spaghetti" which was by far the longest of the solos. He did a great job!

Brandon turned 5 on March 10th. I made this "cake" for him to take to daycare. It's really a big pan of brownies. He was really happy with the Spiderman! He was worried Laedyn would touch it and mess it up.

When Brandon chose his birthday dinner - he chose Chuck E. Cheese. I invited some of his friends to join us. It wasn't really a party -- no cake or anything -- just dinner & games. We all had lots of fun! The Lombeida family joined us -- Tori is Brandon's age, and Abby is 2 years younger (I think).Brandon, Townley and Jackson on a wave runner. Jennifer came to help celebrate.

Brandon & Kaleb were in daycare together from the infant one room until Kaleb left last fall to go to public preschool. We still get together for socializing, and they are on the same t-ball team this season. Brandon really misses having Kaleb at daycare with him.

We did not have a birthday party this year. I offered Brandon the choice between a party or a trip to Dallas to go to the zoo & aquarium. He chose the trip. I'll post pictures from that soon.

March 4th was our wedding anniversary. Nick & I got dressed up a bit and went out for dinner. Jennifer came over to babysit for us. It was a very nice evening. Compared to us in 1995 at our wedding - 14 years ago ...

...and then again in 1989 when we'd only been dating for a year - 20 years ago (are you kidding me???)

(Don't know why this is sideways or ow to fix it. It's not like this on my hard drive...)

Puppet Show - Nick entertained the kids with one of the puppets Laedyn got for Chirstmas. This one is a fuzzy pink muppet monster. They LOVED it.Laedyn gave it a try too.

SNOWY DAYS...
While we were home (Ashtabula, Ohio) for the holidays, we got some snow. Being in the snowbelt it shouldn't be a surprise, but in recent years our holiday trips home haven't been big in the snow department. This was the first time Brandon experienced any significant amount of snow. Laedyn too, of course. Laedyn, Nick, and my brother, Eric, are watching Brandon play. Laedyn was not as thrilled about the snow experience as Brandon was. It actually scared her a bit.Even having Uncle Eric pick her up was not going to make her happy...

There's so much snow you can't even tell where the road is! When I was growing up there were two huge trees just past where Brandon is standing. The city had them cut down recently. It just looks weird and bare now.Uncle Eric dug around in the garage until he found an old plastic sled. He then tied on a nice sturdy rope so we could pull Brandon around in the snow.

Dad (aka Papa) did a good amount of the pulling.

He even played a little "King of the Mountain" with Brandon on the roadside snow banks. They were kind enough to pause in their game so I could take a picture.Nick even got to have a ride in the sled! Yes - they are playing in the middle of the road ... there was not a soul in site and the packed down snow was slide-ier than the snow in the yard.Our next stop was Walnut Beach for some real sledding action. The hill next to the library wasn't being used, so we decided to break it in.I couldn't resist - I had to take a turn too.

OK - so I took more than one turn. It was fabulous fun! Nick was a little more adventurous than I was!

My little snow angel ... The abomidable snow-daddy?This is the view from where we were starting to sled down the hill. You can't sled from the top because farther up is a bunch of stairs. Off in the distance you can see Lake Erie.

We walked back to the house after we got done sledding. Brandon was too tired to walk - apparently he was too tired to even sit upright in the sled. Don't worry - we loaded the giggly thing back into the sled and went home for some hot chocolate!