Bella

Yes, I know many of you can not believe it but I finally gave in to Jason and the kids' begging and pleading. I may majorly regret this later on but after seeing the look on Bailee and Brecken's faces when we discussed not keeping her made me feel horrible. So. . . meet the newest member of our family a 2 month old Beagle, Bella. She is just like a newborn. Sleep all day, awake all night. It is going to be a rough couple of weeks going through doggie boot camp!!! The kids absolutely adore her! The poor thing gets toted around like a football wherever the kids' go. She gets picked up while sleeping, picked up while trying to eat and drink and even picked up while trying to go potty. She can not get a break. The kids' love her and just can't get enough of her. She is as precious as can be and will be a fun addition to have around! We love you Bella!!!

Chuck E Cheese

On the way home from Salt Lake, we stopped by the Chuck E Cheese in Sandy. The kids had the time of their lives. They even got to meet, according to Bailee, the real Chuck E Cheese.

SLC Marathon

This year Jason signed up to do the Utah Grand Slam. The requirments are to run 4 marathons: Ogden, Logan(Top of Utah), Park City or Salt Lake City and St. George. At the completion of all 4 of these marathons they have a special awards ceremony where those that finished recieve a special medal in honor of their accomplishment. He ran the Death Valley Marathon in February, but the Salt Lake City Marathon was his first one in the Grand Slam. He finished in 5:18 which was a huge disappointment for him but we were extremely proud of him for finishing the marathon. The wind was absolutely terrible that day and was a huge complaint among nearly all of the runners. Jason said that some of the runners were even running with their heads down to try and avoid it as much as possible. We were actually kind of glad that he finished late because the kids and I went out to our car to drive the 3 miles to the finish line at the Gateway and our van had a flat tire so we ended up having to book it down North Temple from Redwood Road to 400 West and barely made it in time to hear the anouncer call his name and see him cross the finish line. Hence the lack of pre-finish line pics. We are so proud of you babe! Way to go!

Hogle Zoo

Our first day in Salt Lake we went to Hogle Zoo. The train was the all time favorite thing of the trip. We waited to ride it until the end of our visit and all we heard the entire day was 'When do we get to ride on the train?' We thought it would be a good incentive to behave while we were looking at all of the animals. But was it worth it? I don't know. The kids got to see lots of exciting animals many of them for the first time. A baby giraffe, elephants, zebras, camels, monkeys, rhinos, bears, alligators and a cheetah. We couldn't have asked for better weather either. We all had a fabulous time!

More Wedding Pics

I know these are not in order, but as I was going through my pictures I found some more that were too cute to not put on the blog. Hope you enjoy!

Grandma's Visit

We were so excited when Grandma Bloemke (Danielle's Dad's Mother) got to come out and visit us for two weeks. We thoroughly enjoyed our time spent with her and hope she had a pleasant visit although it was probably extremely exhausting. We love her so much but don't get to see her very often because she lives so far away in LeRoy, Illinois. The dog that Bailee is holding is my sister, Andrea's, dog Mona. The poor thing tries so hard to hide when she sees Bailee or Brecken coming but can never seem to hide well enough. They follow her around like a shadow and when she lets them they tote her around where ever they go. Brecken will still walk around at home saying 'Mona! Mona!' And Bailee asks everytime we go see Grandma is Mona will be there. Oh what fun animals are when you are a kid!!

Run 4 Kids

On Saturday April 12th, our family got the opportunity to participate in the Run 4 Kids at Coral Canyon. The kids and I did the 1K and Jason did the 10K. It was so much fun for the kids. At the finish line they each got a medal and a ball. As a kid that is the best thing that you could ever recieve. Jason had been sick with a cold and cough all week so he didn't think that he would make it, but he did finish in a time of 1 hour and 8 minutes. I don't have any pics of him running because the 3 that I took all turned out so blurry that you couldn't even tell it was him in them. But, we were so proud of him for completing the race even though he did want to turn off and take the 5K route instead. Way to go Dad!!!

Jumpin' Jacks

St. George is finally getting some more fun activity centers for young children. Jumpin' Jacks just opened up about a month ago and it is the new hip and happenin' place for kids of all ages. It is a large warehouse that has gigantic blow up slides and obstacle courses and bounce houses. It is a blast for the kids and you don't have to worry too much about them getting hurt because everything (including the floors) is padded. Bailee and her friend Kaylee were a little nervous at first of the tall slides but they soon conquered their fears and were flying down them. I'm a little worried though that when summer comes it is going to get a little out of control. Where it is nice and cool and not scorching hot, every child is going to be begging their parents to take them there. We have been there twice, once when school was in session and it was not too busy at all and the second time last Thursday during Spring Break when school was out and it was a mad house. So we will have to see how long we are able to keep going with out the youngers ones getting trampled.:-)

A Day at the Dunes

Over General Conference weekend we decided to get away for a day and enjoy the sand in our toes. We all got very dirty but we had a great time building sandcastles and burying our legs. Before we hit the dunes we did a 1 mile hike up the Petrified Dunes trail where when you reach the top you can see all of Snow Canyon. It was gorgeous but a bit nerve wrecking with the little ones wanting to get closer.