Busy Busy Busy!

Last year, I wrote about how we seem to have so many birthdays in our family and circle of friends around the months of March and April. I have linked the post here:

Birthday Season

Well basically birthday season is in full force again this year only it seems to have started even earlier with the big hoopla I made over my birthday in late February. As well, with this being Ali's first time living in California and Joe traveling so much lately, the kids and I have been doing all kinds of fun things to show her around. When you add up all these outings you get one very busy family! So here are some random pics and explanations from some of the memorable outings we have been on lately.

About two weeks ago we went to the Living Desert, which is the zoo and botanical gardens to which we have a membership. This is also where we go for Wild Lights in December and where the outdoor model train display is located. This last visit we focused on showing Ali all the cool desert animals including this bighorn sheep she spotted way up on the hill above us:

The kids had a blast searching for different species of butterflies in the pavillon:


Jake on a Mexican Wolf statue:



Jadyn riding a giant turtle:

Towards the end of our visit on the way to view the giraffes, Jake complained about how slow I was pushing him in the stroller and he mocked me when I tried to explain that I was tired. My solution was to see how well he could handle our roles reversed so I told him that he could push me in the stroller. I am just really glad I didn't break it!

After leaving, we ran a few errands and while in Toys R Us I showed Jadyn a bike with training wheels as I think that is what we are leaning towards for her birthday. While she did like it:

She eventually got off and I suddenly found herself pretending to drive this:

She is definitely Daddy's little girl

Saturday February 28th, we went to Andrew's birthday party (he is the son of my friend Kimberly). The kids had a blast bowling, so much so in fact that I am pretty sure this is what we are going to do for Jake's birthday next month.

Check out Jake's face when he throws it down the lane without the aide of the helper device:

Sunday, we had yet another birthday party for Michael, a classmate of Jake's. Here he is with the birthday boy:

It was then last Tuesday that we went for a walk up in Joshua Tree, producing the pictures from yesterday's Wordless Wednesday. I have to say one of the few (and I mean few) advantages of living where we do is the fact that we have a National Park in our backyard and this year now that the kids are older I vow to finally start truly taking advantage. Here are a few close up shots from our trip through Hidden Valley (our personal favorite trail). We went back today and did the Barker Dam trail and I am sure I will be posting pictures of that soon enough as well.

Saturday the kids got to hang out with their pals Andrew and Allison and Daddy who was fresh off his 2 week trip in North Carolina while Mom went out for a farewell/birthday dinner for Kimberly who will be leaving to join her husband in Virginia next week. We will miss them so very much and our sad to see them go. Here I am with Michaela and Kimberly before heading out for a wonderful dinner at Cheesecake Factory:

So this last week has been busy as well, catching up and enjoying having Joe back home. But it is short-lived because this next Monday he will be leaving again to spend another 2 weeks in North Carolina and in the month of March alone we have at least 3 more birthday parties to attend including our niece Lilly's FIRST birthday on Saturday. Not to mention the fact that Jake is going to be starting t-ball in the next few weeks. So if I thought the last few weeks have been busy, I better brace myself because it looks to be only the beginning of what is shaping up to be a very busy spring.