Our Easter visit

It all started out on Thursday night, Chelsea flew in early so we picked her up from the New Bern airport, and headed off to Kaden's baseball practice. Then Mom and Dad and Jason came in about 11:30 that night, got to love stand by. Friday we just chilled. The kids went to school because they didn't want to miss their Easter parties. We all walked to pick them up. Then 6:30 a.m. Saturday we got up and started our journey to the Outer Banks. Our first leg a 2 hour drive to the ferry at Swanquarter. We were on the ferry for 2 1/12.

And nothing works up an appetite than a long boring ferry ride, of snacking and playing cards and the occasional nap. We got off at Ocracoke and ate lunch at Jasons, he looks rather upset that they stole his name.

Thanks for the yummy lunch Dad.
Then with full bellies we continued to Cape Hatteras, another ferry ride to get there but only about 30 minutes this time.

Then is was off to Kill Devil Hills to see the Wright Brother Museum. This was about a 1 1/2 hour car ride up the Outer Banks. I have been wanted my dad to see the Wright Brother Museum since we saw it last year so I was excited the he could go there. This is at the top of the hill were the monument. A great view!!!


Then it was off to the beach after a long search for my dads lost cell phone. We did not find it, but the day after some one called from it and it is on its way home. There are good honest people left in the world.My favorite hubby was able to spend the day with us, I'm so glad he got a little break.

The water was so cold and only Kali and Tayler got in. Not by choice. Kali fell running from waves and Tayler was playing in a hole that Kali and Jason dug for him and the waves got a little to high and filled in his hole. He was so sad. A long fun day with the fam. After another 2 1/2 car ride we were home.
On Sunday the Easter Bunny found us. I forgot to take pictures of the kids baskets but Kaden got Super Mario Bros. Brawl for the Wii, Tanner got speakers for his MP3 player and Kali got a Webkin and some way cute sunglasses. Jason hates to celebrate holidays so we forced him to join in the pictures.
Kali loves her Jason.
Dying Easter eggs is really fun especially with an almost 2 year old. Talyer loved to plop his eggs into the color and they both ended up crushed by the time he was done. And he had bright pink hands for the rest of the day.
Jason and my dad had to leave on Monday to get back to life, but Chelsea, Tayler and Grandma got to stay. Kali is Grandma's little buddy.Tuesday we went to Lake Lopus, I don't know if that is the real name but that is what Kevin calls it. Mom by the Azalea's.

While we were there Kali found 2 eggs on the ground that a duck had abandoned, so she made a nest for them out of pine straw and covered them with some feather that she found on the ground.

This is us feeding the ducks, geese, seagulls and we were trying to get the turtles over by us but they wouldn't budge off the rock behind us.Then off the River Park North. Tayler loved piggy back rides from the kiddo's

Photo shoot in the swamp



There is a little play ground by the walking trail. Kali was sitting on the seals head and slid off and her belt got stuck and instead of helping her we all grabbed our camera and started shooting. It was so funny.

On the way to the airport I wanted to take Tayler to see more turtles in little Washington. The kids got Bills hot dogs and we took a little walk down the boardwalk. Tanner found a cell phone on a bench, so we thought we would pay it forward and find out who's it was and called home and a lady answered and had just left the boardwalk with her grand kids, and was very thankful that we called and she came back and got the cell phone.







The kids watching for turtles. There were only a few out.
Before everyone came Kali's tooth was very loose. She wanted to wait to pull it until everyone got there. On the way to the airport Chelsea told her she need to loose it before they left. So Kali put her fingers in her mouth and her tooth popped right out. Kali said "look I lost my tooth" no one believed her. But there it was. Cute girl. Thanks for taking time to visit, we really appreciate it. It makes being so far away not so hard.

Easter egg hunt / St. Patty's Day

Winterville has an Easter egg hunt every year with over 10,000 eggs. Tanner could not go because he had baseball practice. He had practice at the same park he was pretty bummed. But we met our cute neighbors there Payton and Parker.
Kaden brought a grocery sack cuz his basket would not hold enough eggs. And it's not cool to carry an Easter basket when you are 9.
20 out of the 10,000 eggs had a ticket to win a prize, Kali won this way cool Hannah Montana basket. Kaden won a $10.00 gift card to Toys R Us.


Our traditional green St. Pattys Day dinner. It's not always noodles and bread but it is always green.
Kaden has a very sensitive gag reflex, he had a hard time getting this one down, Tanner's gagging noises were not helping the situation. I told him to just close his eyes and eat.

Silly Kali

Last night when I was reading the boys stories, Kali fell asleep on their floor. I carried her to bed and she woke up and needed a story of her own. I read a silly story about a porcupine named fluffy. After her power nap and a funny book it made her not sleepy. I told her it was time to sleep, and she said she needed a long boring story, I asked if she wanted a chapter book, she said no I need Mormal. I said what is Mormal? She told me it was the book Daddy reads. I asked if it was one of his big boring school books. She said no Mormal. I told her I didn't think she was saying it right, and to tell me a little more about it. She said it is the big brown book that Dad reads in the morning. I just started laughing, The Book of Mormon I said, she said yea The Book of Mormal. I was laughing so hard I was crying.

Guitar Hero

It came and my kids couldn't be happier!!! Tanner has been playing nonstop. He has almost mastered the medium level, with my help. I can't do more than one song at a time it hurts my wrists so bad, and I can't stand the music, I am a little disappointed with it. But the kids love it and that's all that counts.Cute Kaden posing for his picture
Kali is starting to get the hang of it. She can make it about half way before failing out. She doesn't even get to frustrated.

photo session in Kali's new dress

Just some cute pictures of Kali!! She wanted to show off her new dress. .

our weekend

This past weekend was quite crazy to say the least. On Friday Kaden had a sleep over birthday party to go to, we dropped him off but had to pick him up early because we had an early morning. 5:45 Saturday morning the alarm goes off and we start our day. Let me back up just a little, 4 months ago Tanner and Kaden signed up to be part of the ECU (East Carolina University) child metabolism study. This entails the boys doing treadmill tests, and diet logs. The first week it started they had to get their blood drawn and microdyalisis done. (this is getting 3 shots in their belly's just under the skin. Then tubes were placed in the holes and hooked up to other tubes to collect samples of something I'm not sure what. They have these belts that have 3 pumps and tubes all over them that they have to wear for 24 hours.) Then for 9 hours they do different tests. Go on the treadmill and spit into tubes. And pretty much just hang out and play games with all the college students that are part of the study. They have a really good time after all the torture is done. Anyway back to the present. Saturday they had to finish up the study and go through all that process again. Tanner did really well. He got all the tubes in and his blood drawn, and a finger prick. Then it was Kaden's turn. He was very nervous which is understandable. He got 2 tubes in and quit. No blood, no last tube, no finger prick. The people were very nice about it and told him it was ok don't worry about it. (We will just through away all the results we got from you the past 4 months.) I was kind of upset, because Kaden never finishes things when they get to hard, I was bribing him and threatening him. But no use. I left after about 2 hours of talking to him, hoping that they could talk him into it. Kali and I got to hang out for the day we were going to do a photo shoot in her new dress that she got but I had to finish a poster I was working on for our next ward activity. Time flies when you are having fun, and before I knew it, it was time to pick up the boys. When we got there I asked if Kaden had gone through with it, nope he didn't. They are always starving after this because they are only able to eat 2 lunchables all day. So we stopped by Burger King on the way home. We just hung out, the kids just layed around, they can't do much with all the tubes on. I finished my poster. Kevin got home and we had dinner, then watch a movie and had rootbeer floats. yummy. Everyone was falling asleep because of our busy day so I told every on to go to bed. I went down to get my PJ's on and Kali started screaming, not unusually, I took my time going up to see what the problem was. She had been brushing her teeth and had tooth paste all over her mouth and was curled up in a ball on a bench that she stands on to brush her teeth. We were all asking what was wrong she was crying and screaming we could not understand her. I was getting mad telling her to settle down so we could understand her. Finally we understood that her stomach was hurting her. I carried her downstairs and set her on my bed and called Kevin in to help. She said it feels like something was cutting her inside. Kevin was asking her if this hurt or if that hurt. I had to go let the neighbors dog out that I watch. So Kevin told me to go do that and we would see if Kali had settled down by then. I ran let the dog out and came back. She was still freaking out. She said mom I'm scared, that's when I realized that something bad might be happening. We asked her if she needed to go to the hospital she said yes. By this time it was 10:15 Kevin was just going to take her because Tanner was already in bed and almost asleep. But she needed me and Kevin wanted to be their so we all got in the car and drove to the hospital. On the way Kali said that her heart was going to fast, and that it was dying, she started shaking and gagging. I was so scared. We went to check in Kali was still freaking out, the lady at the desk taking her time with the lady in front of us. Finally our turn, she asked what the problem was by this time Kali was pretty much hyperventilating. If you ever want to get seen quick in the ER you have to tell them that you are having trouble breathing and they will take you right back. Not in this case. Kevin told the lady that she was having trouble breathing (stretching the truth a little) and there is a burning pain in her lower right abdomen. He though it could possibly be her appendix. She said her is your number take a seat and they will see you shortly. The ER was crowed. Kali had settled down a little by now, we sat and we sat for what seemed like forever it was probably 40 minutes. And then our number was called. We went back and gave some info to someone at a computer and he said go over to the other side and wait until you get called to registration. Now it is almost 12:00 a.m. the boys are crying because they are tired. We decided to take them home, Kali wanted me to stay so Kevin took them home. We waited and waited. We were called to registration and were told to wait some more. Kali had settled down now but just wanted to sit on my lap and sleep I told her to fall asleep and I would wake her when the doctor called us back. She fell asleep right away. At 1:15 I gave up, I figured she was doing ok, no fever, the first guy we had seen was not to worried. She was able to fall asleep. There were people still waiting that were here before us. I called Kevin to pick us up. I was nervous to leave especially after all the pain she was in. So slept by her in her bed the rest of the night. She did great and slept the whole time. The next morning at 7:00 we had to wake up and take the boys back up to ECU to get their tubes out and give them all the spit samples. Kevin had asked them when we started the whole thing if we could get our blood drawn (there were checking cholesterol) me and Kevin had been fasting and got our blood drawn. The boys were not doing this for free, they each got $150.00. I don't know if they thought it was worth it. When we got there we were hoping that Kaden would finish what he had started and get his blood drawn, he said NO, and the people were nice about it and said it was fine. When we got in the car we told Kaden that he either had to go back in and tell them that he did not deserve the money or get his blood drawn. He decided to get his blood drawn so we went back in and he did it no problem. Funny kid. I'm just glad that it is all over, and Guitar Hero is in it's way. (that is what they spent some of their money on.) Now about Kali's saga, she woke up and I asked her if her stomach still hurt her she said kind of. But through out the morning she kept whining that it still hurt. I called our pediatrician and took her in just to make sure everything was alright. She checked out fine, all we can think of is that it was maybe gas bubbles, who knows. We spent the rest of the day playing, went for a bike ride, and went to see The Spiderwick Chronicles. It was pretty good for a kids show. I kept falling asleep, I was so tired from the night before.