Much to Share

I've been slacking a little on posting pictures of our Alabama adventures and we have a lot to share. Sit back and relax as you play catch up on our adventures. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll be moved. Or not. I'll try to make them somewhat chronological - not that it really matters. So without further ado, here we go:


Look closely and you'll see a web full of caterpillars. They were all over this particular tree behind our house. There were a few other trees like this too. A couple of days after this was taken, the caterpillars started leaving the trees and spreading out. They're all over our house and yard. It's been a couple of weeks and there doesn't seem to be any sign of letting up with our infestation. I can think of worse things to be infested by though. And the kids like to play with them. The boys caught a couple of caterpillars and put them in a couple of bottles with grass and sticks hoping they would build a cocoon but instead they died.




Cute picture of #3. We don't know what to do with his hair because of his self inflicted bald spot. I think we'll have to give him a buzz cut pretty soon because he's getting pretty shaggy.



Most evenings, when the weather is nice, we all go out for a walk/ride. Cade is getting pretty good at riding his little bike. He had quite an audience the other day as he rode down the sidewalk. They were impressed he could ride like that at his age. Yes, I'm bragging. That's what this blog is for.



A couple of weeks ago we went to the Monte Sano state park and hiked around. Once again, we're anxious to go back there after things green up but it was still very pretty. There were several little creeks with crystal clear water running through the area and beautiful views. It would make a perfect place for a wedding! Just saying.



Some doofus and his very handsome boys.



There's a playground in the area and I think the boys had the most fun there. They even had teeter totters or see-saws or whatever you want to call them! We all took turns playing on those. Dana and I felt compelled to explain to Kevin and Cameron how much cooler - and more dangerous - the playground equipment was when we were kids. "Back in '79, I got my arm caught in a merry-go-round and it was spinning so fast I looked like an Ewok (remember those?) flapping around the outer edge of the dadgum thing. When I finally got free I flew 200 feet and landed in a tree at the edge of a cliff! They didn't have these fancy, plastic playsets with rubber padding underneath. It was survival of the fittest back in my day, I tell you!' So anyway, here's a shot of Kevin and his crazy hair at the bottom of the aforementioned plastic slide. "And we had metal slides that were 15 feet tall and had nothing to keep you from falling off. If you managed to stay on all the way to the bottom, you didn't have any feeling in your legs because your skin was melted by the heat of the slide in the summer sun!"



This was near the end of our walk. While we were looking at some park information, Cade paused to rest on these steps. Cute photo op.



The soccer season finally got underway last weekend. My coaching debut didn't go so well for Kevin's team. We lost 5-3. Our kids played well but they were outplayed by bigger and faster kids. But I must say, Kevin (middle gray shirt) had a terrific game! I had him running the length of the field to help the offense and boost the defense. As it turned out, he was the defense. I don't know how many times he hustled back down and stopped the offense from getting a shot after they ran right through our porous defense. My favorite part was the fact that the star player on the other team failed to get the ball past my boy w/o passing. Kevin stopped him every time they went one-on-one! I couldn't have been more proud of his effort.



Cameron's team had better luck. Emphasis on luck. His team tied the other team at 2-2. Like his big bro, Cam hustled back and forth all over the field and had a great game. Cameron is one of 2 kids on his team that "gets" soccer. He was so good about getting open and passing the ball. I think I'll move him up a division next year and let him play with Kevin's team. He's honestly better than half of Kevin's team.



Easter Eve! Cade took his egg decorating very seriously.


So did Kevin. This particular egg had alternating happy and frowny faces on it.



Cameron working on his personal masterpiece.



Here's my masterpiece. Hey, it was the cracked leftover that no one wanted. Not as good as my stormtrooper egg from a few years ago though. That was a masterpiece!



EASTER MORNING!!! CANDY!!! 3 boys bouncing off the walls with their sugar rush at 6:30 in the morning!!! Please excuse Kevin and Cameron in their underwear. Longtime blogstalkers will know that's how they're always dressed. To be fair, this was taken at about 6am.



Easter egg hunt! Not many places to hide eggs in our yard, darn it.



Is this adorable or what?



Enough with being cute. This is normal for these boys.

On one of our recent walks, we found this sizable puddle with a bunch of tadpoles in it. We go back frequently to check on their growth.

We also found this bird protecting its nest. If you look closely, you can see 2 of the 3 eggs underneath it. The bird probably would have gone unnoticed but it started squawking and carrying on when Cameron walked by. We visit the bird on our walks now too and await the day we see tiny, little, fuzzy bird heads peaking out at us.

Check back soon for Cameron's birthday party pictures. He's turning 8 next Monday!!!

Milestone!

Weekend before last, Cade reached a huge milestone. He learned to ride his bike without training wheels! We were heading to the park and Dana asked him if he wanted me to take the wheels off so he could try it. He agreed but only if I promised to put them right back on if he didn't like it. I took them off, gave him one quick boost for about 3 feet to get him rolling and he was off. Just like that. And just like both of his brothers, he quickly proclaimed he was ready to ride the dirt bike.




Not quite 3-1/2 yet!!!


Two thumbs up!

And in other news, last week was Spring Break around here. It felt like Christmas week at work because almost everyone was taking time off and all the meetings were cancelled. With long boring days like that, Dana didn't have to twist my arm too hard to convince me to take Friday off. We went to Cathedral Caverns and De Soto National Park and had a great time. We walked about a jillion miles throughout the day and Cade was with us every step of the way up until the last 1/2 mile or so. That's like 2 jillion miles to his little legs. He finally asked to be carried as we were headed back to the car.

Waiting for the tour to start at the caverns. The caverns were nice but not as good as Carlsbad Caverns. It was worth the trip though. I only took a couple of pictures inside but nothing worth sharing.

Still waiting. We got there 45 minutes before the first tour so we had plenty of time to kill.

Now we're at De Soto National Park. We walked to several water falls throughout the park.

Obligatory boy shot.

Dana doesn't like this photo because she thinks Kevin looks really big. I have to agree but I do like the waterfall in the background. We plan on going back to this place in the summer when it's pretty and green (and HOT) and again in the fall to catch the explosion of colors.

The boys and me.

The wife and me. Kevin took this photo. He has a future in photography!

Guess who fell in the water. Again. Cade was trying to cross the creek where I was. I picked him up and stretched as far as I could to put him on a big log that was on the edge of the creek. He only had to take about 2 steps to be safe. I figured he had a 50/50 chance of staying on or falling off and if he did fall, a 50/50 chance of going in the water or falling on the bank. Pretty good odds, dontcha think? Cade grabbed firm hold of that 25% and plopped himself in the creek. The water was cold and he was not happy for quite some time. Poor little guy.

Just another pretty waterfall. Can't wait to see it later this year.

And another.

Dana, Kevin, Cameron and a dry-by-now Cade.

What a Difference a Week Makes

One week ago today we were playing in the snow and today we were basking in the nice, warm weather. We took advantage of the weekend's beatiful weather and spent some time outdoors. Yesterday we drove down to Decatur to visit the Wheeler Wild Life Refuge. The kids had a good time walking along the paths and watching the ducks and turtles through from the observation room.




One of the many turtles we saw.



Family photo op.

I guess we should get a tripod so we can all be in the picture at the same time.

This is in the observation room. There weren't a whole lot of ducks left but enough to entertain the kids.

Today we loaded up the kids' bikes and headed to a local walking/bike trail down by the river.

We stopped to throw some rocks in the river and Cade made it all of about 3 minutes before slipping on a rock (by Cameron) and wallowing around in about 3 inches of water. He wasn't very happy.

This place will be beautiful when summer gets here. I probably won't see it though. I'll be curled up in a ball in the house with the A/C on high.

Riding buddies.

Cute shot of Cade.

This next photo was almost worthy of a post of its own. The obvious title would be "Like Father Like Son"

Remember when I accidently shaved the side of my head a couple of months ago? Look what Cade did. Fortunately, it isn't quite as bad as it looks in this shot. His bald spot is sort of covered up when his hair is brushed to the side. Thank God he only buzzed a couple of inches and not half his head.

He Made It!!!

Our snowman thingy made it to Tuesday! Barely. Here's proof. This photo also serves as proof that, nooo, our snowman was indeed made of snow and not rocks like some people have suggested. We, from the drier climates, just know how to build quality snowmen even if they do provoke uncontrollable laughter from someone who takes snow for granted. How do you like all the grass it picked up as we rolled the snowball? That's a composite snowman for you! Much stronger than wimpy, solid snow snowmen.


Mr. Snowman looks a little different than he did the last time the boys posed with him.


We just got back from Game Stop where Kevin finally got his copy of the new Halo Wars game. He's been saving his money for months for this game. You should have seen how excited he was to finally get his hands on it. Once again, Cameron ducked in at the last second to add some pizazz to the picture.

I didn't have time to get the camera , but when I got home we had 4 little deer in our backyard. That never happened in Las Cruces.

SNOW!!!

Woo hoo! It actually snowed! Ok, so it was no more than an inch and it was pretty much gone by noon and all of you from North of here are laughing at us but we'll take what we can get.

Kevin, Cade and I are doing "The Big Race" as Cade calls it. It's very important to him and this race takes place at least 50 times a day - usually from one end of the house to the other. It goes like this: Cade says, "Osay. (He can make a 'k' sound but we have to remind him) On your maaarrrrk. Get seeeeet. (He takes off about now) Go!" And we run to the other side of the house or wherever the finish is trying to catch up to the little cheater.

Gotta catch snowflakes on your tongue. That's what snow is for.


At this point I was still trying to convice Cade it was OK to catch snowflakes on his tongue. I think he preferred to keep his face tucked in and warm.

Like all 3 year olds, Cade can't walk anywhere. Always running.

Cameron after a snowball fight.

Cameron is about to get his head dragged through the snow. You can tell he's terrified by that giant smile on his face. He was so traumatized he asked me to do it again several more times. The other two boys were tortured in the same way. Their giggles of pain were probably heard throughout the neighborhood.

Cade was asking Dana for help because he was having vision problems and instead of adjusting his hat, Dana grabbed the camera.

This was during out second outing later in the morning. By then the snow was excellent for packing and snowman building. Unfortunately, it was getting pretty thin by then.

All 5 of us had a hand in building this beautiful snowman. Dana was the one who got the whole thing started. Don't laugh. I told you the snow was getting pretty thin.

After Dana wimped out and went inside, we added another section to our snowman to make him even bigger. Our goal was to make him big enough to last until July. This is as far as we got. We decided lasting until Tuesday instead would be ok. An hour later his head had already fallen off.

Obviously this was taken a few days ago. Cade asked Kevin to take him for a walk in his wagon and big brother was happy to oblige.

One of our many boxes around here. This one became Cade's garage.

I walked into Cade's room to tuck him in the other night and found him like this playing his Pixter. What a cutey!