Nelson-ness

I feel I need to start this post with a somewhat normal picture of my kids:
Because crazy clothes/hair day at school was pretty crazy!
Nicholas wanted to grow his hair out a bit just for this special day. Unfortunately, I think he got a little teased about the 12 ponytails in his hair. Maybe I got a little carried away...

I forgot to take pictures of their other Spirit Week days at school. Sigh... maybe next year.

And then:

"What?!" I hear you saying, "where is all the usual clutter around the kitchen sink?" No, we're not moving, I've found a few wandering ants on the countertops so I removed the clutter and sprayed it with ant spray.

However, it didn't totally cure my ant issue. I must not have found their source. Ants make me grumpy...
Don't worry, I put the clutter back.

Because I Said So

Dawn Meehan is a mother of 6 who became popular due to an e-bay auction. She ended up having lots of people (myself included) following her blog because her kids do crazy things and she has a great talent for writing about it. In her book, "Because I Said So," she says the following:
"When older kids get up in the middle of the night, they don't scream and cry (like infants). You think that would be a plus, don't you? It isn't. What older kids do is walk into your bedroom, stand with their face a mere inch away from yours, and then proceed to stare at you until somewhere, in the deep recesses of your sleeping brain, you sense them there and crack open your eyelids to a pair of giant eyeballs staring at you. This scares the living daylights out of you, and you will not be able to get back to sleep for at least an hour."
This is so true, because we have a couple kids who make a habit of this behavior. The funny thing is, is Mike's side of the bed is closest to the door and so they go to him, not me. However, their walking into the room wakes me up, but they stand and peer at him until he jolts awake and gets his living daylights scared out of him!
Should I admit to him that I silently chuckle through this whole episode each time?
This book is halarious and I do recommend it to you.
Happy Mother's Day!

Great Wolf Lodge and Vancouver BC Temple

Mike and I have been wanting to take our kids to a temple open house, so when we heard about the Vancouver BC temple open house coming, and I was getting my passport anyway, we decided to get Mike's passport too so we could go up to Canada. And heck, we would be passing right by The Great Wolf Lodge that many of our friends spoke so highly of, so we stopped by there first. In order to play on this huge indoor waterpark, you have to sleep at least one night in their hotel. We took Mike's mom with us which worked out really well for swapping the kid-watching. They really make this place fun and safe.

The circles on the picture are water droplets from the spray:


Mike and David at the Wave Pool with a fountain and a random kid in the background:

Brooke getting off a waterslide that she loved and had no fear of going by herself:

Zach on an inner tube in the Wave Pool:

David coming down the slide on his tummy:

Every couple minutes this HUGE bucket would dump a whole bunch of water and thoroughly soak anyone in the nearby vicinity:

The bucket is also over the only way to get up to 2 of the slides!

Kids having fun!

The kids enjoyed the "story time" that evening held here with the robotic singing trees and animals, etc.

Then off to Canada! I was excited to take my kids to another country! This is at the border (1 hour wait) and we are standing under the symbolic gate dividing the countries. Canadian and American flags on top:
This is the symbolic gate:

The Vancouver BC temple is a "smaller" temple and we happened to go at one of the busiest times of the whole open house. It took nearly 2 1/2 hours to get through the whole line, through the stake center with the 10-minute video about the temple, and through the temple. The kids really enjoyed the sealing room with the mirrors that went on for "eternity" and they thought it was cool to wear the booties (to protect the carpet) over our shoes.

Me, trying to get one last video as we were leaving:

Hurray! Back to the good ol' USA. Only a 10-minute wait at the border this time: