Family time! (Dave finished class!) Hike! Play! Climb!

The past week has been one big party, now that finals are over. It is so good to have him around more, makes life a lot more interesting let me tell ya. Here was his entry in the family portrait contest last week:

 Here was Riley's:

"It's a giant, happy pig!" I don't think she got the assignment.

 With spring on the rise we have been outdoors as much as possible. Hiking with no mountains is a little trickier but we did a nice one from Minnehaha Falls to the Mississippi.

 Joe pooped out half way and fell asleep in my arms - a much more taxing situation than it was a year ago! He's growing like a weed! He then dozed the rest of the day - from the car, into the ice cream parlor, back in the house...I was worried he was sick but Dave's theory is that he sleeps less most days than he should and every 3 weeks or so has to have a catchup day. Maybe. He was fine the next day. But Riley enjoyed it! She explored the heck out of it.

So that was fun. We are visiting UT in a couple months and hope to get in some more...hiking of inclines in then.

Sometimes the weather is not so nice, and we count ourselves lucky to be indoors when hail storms hit! This one came out of nowhere and some cars had marble-sized wholes in their windshields by the time it cleared! It was a warm day though, and we went to check it out. There was a big lake in the courtyard which Riley, of course, had to wade through.

 One of those cold rainy days we went to the Eagles Nest indoor playground with friends. That place is awesome - it is only 2 levels, so not too big for Joe, but covers a lot of area, has several tunnels and slides and obstacles and ball pits, and we stayed for FIVE HOURS. THREE HOURS too long in my opinion, but at least we got our moneys worth!

 Shew, still with me? Best part of this week? Dates! Two of them!

Friday night was another of those "our neighbor is babysitting and offered to take ours too since they are in for the night anyways" situation. Fortuosity! That's me byyy-word! We took them up on it since we aren't insane, and went out to Rusty's Taco's (again!) and rock climbing at Vertical Endeavors. Oh man, I love it. It's always a fun challenge, amidst a "cool" hippy crowd, plus I have more upper body strength than I ever have in my life thanks to my Body Pump class so I totally killed it! Dave, of course - always amazing at all things athletic. And he is the best to go with because he has a way of making you feel like you are awesome, or on your way to awesome, even if you are...iffy.

Friendly tip though - if you wear a vest over a white shirt, and then cinch your harness around your waste, it might, from a distance, look like you have a bum crack showing above your pants. But you're a grown up and you can handle that right?

The second date was PROM! Which is a post for another day because it's dinner time! And we are having fajitas! Ole`! Really delicious recipe here, with Mexican rice side recipe here. Welcome!