Merry Christmas

Oh wait, I got a little confused with all the SNOW that fell in Boise last weekend. We had about 24 hours of heavy wet snow this weekend, and it felt like Christmas time. It was about 36 degrees on Saturday which is 40 degrees below normal and over 60 degrees below the high for the day. The photo above shows the snow just beginning. Earlier in the morning Kessler asked to wear his snow boots, and Mat said "that's silly it's almost summer - you can't wear snow boots". I guess he was wrong. We had 1-1/2" of rain (wet snow), but Bogus Basin got 16" of snow. The other photo was from a few weekends ago.
Another mystery we've been dealing with for the past year, is the disappearance of DVDs - mostly the boy's movies. It started with The Jungle Book disappearing last summer. We thought we accidentally donated it to the Library. Then some Baby Einstein DVDs disappeared, then Monster's, Inc, and finally A Bugs Life this weekend. We began to suspect Caulder and Kessler, but every time we asked them where the movies were, they said the mailman had them. Finally, Mat decided to check inside the DVD player. Sure enough all five movies were in there. They had been shoved in through the VHS slot. Unbelievably, the VHS and DVD players had remained functional the entire year.

Massacre Rock State Park

We have attempted to tour most of the state parks in our region over the last year, but have not yet experienced Massacre Rocks State Park  east of Twin Falls. Since April is unpredictable, we opted to rent a primative cabin which consisted of a bunk bed, fouton, and a table and chairs.  Luckily, it had heat so it was nice and cozy. We met our frineds Kevin and Ruth and explored the many trails throughout the park. It's a really pretty desert park, especially in the spring. We also stopped at Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls on the way home.
We all had a great time easing into camping this year. Caulder and Kesser keep us on our toes, but always delight and surprise us! We brought the boy's balance bikes, and they rode all over the campground. They are becomming such experts on their bikes. Caulder decided to be a dare devil and ride down a very steep dirt hill. He made it a little way down the hill before he wobbled, tipped, and crashed into the dirt. He proceeded to pop up and announce 'I'm all right' as we dashed down the hill to his rescue. Both of the boys are talking up a storm. They know so many words, and copy everything we say. We are also working on counting and letters with them. They actually can somewhat recite their ABCs, and can count to 10 (but always miss 5 for some reason). We bought someflash cards with numbers on them, and they are beginning to recognize them. They can get one, two, and three, but when they get to four they always say 'chair'. It took us a while to figure it out, but the '4' on the flashcard really does look like an upsidedown chair.

McCall

We took a short trip to McCall to get out of town. The lake was still frozen and there was snow on the ground. We toured around town, and then headed out to Riggins to check out the steelhead fishing. Luckily it was much warmer there. We ran into a fair and watched boat racing on the Snake River.
We have had a very cold and snowy spring. McCall was a nice break from working and the 'routine', but it was a reminder that winter is still here.

Easter Weaver Style

Happy Easter

The BasketsKessler and Ducky

Caulder with his bunnies

Meet our new cousin

Cousin Audrey

On a hike with dady

We hope everyone had a great Easter! We started our day early with easter baskets and candy! Chad, Shawna and baby Audrey came over for breakfast and an easter egg hunt. The boys were really good at finding eggs this year. We then biked over to a friends house for lunch and more egg hunting. We finally topped the night off with a nice easter dinner with Mat's mom and a movie (Bolt!). It was a fun day with lots of hunting and eating.

Now we're looking forward to spring! It has been cold and surprisingly very snowy this spring. We need the moisture, but it would be nice if it was just a little bit warmer.

Zoo 'Eggs' travaganza

Since we have a season pass, I decided to take the boys to the zoo for their annual Easter egg hunt. It was as crazy as any event at the zoo. We also got to see the new petting zoo exhibit. I only had my phone, so the photos aren't that great.
We are also happy to report that Chad and Shawna got to take their baby home after only two weeks in the hospital. She is eating on her own, and maintaining a constant body temperature, which are the requirements to escape the NICU. So, at 3lbs 12oz she got to go home. She is adjusting well to her new world.

Welcome Audrey Weaver

Welcome Audrey Weaver, 3/11/10 at 11:59pm! Chad and Shawna are the proud new parents of sweet baby girl Audrey born six weeks early weighing 3lbs 10oz. Although early, both Audrey and Shawna are doing great. Mat and I have been to the NICU twice already to visit Audrey. We're fortionate that the hospital is only 5 minutes from our house. It's expected that she will be there at least two weeks until she can eat regularily and gain weight. We are so happy to welcome our new neice into the world!
The arrival of a new baby in the family was an exciting ending to a pretty uneventful winter. Caulder and Kessler finished swim lessons a couple of weeks ago. We're looking forward to more lessons in the summer. We have been trying to sneak out into the foothills to go hiking whenever the temperature allows. The attached hiking photos are of the four of us at nearby Lucky Peak Lake. I also included one photo of the boys sleeping together in Kessler's bed. Caulder likes to sneak into Kesslers bed every now and then, and it's pretty cute to find them there in the morning.
We have also finished booking a 2 week trip out east in August. Both my sister and Mat's brother are getting married on the same day. One wedding is in New Hampshire and the other in New Jersey near Philidalphia. So, we are going to divide and conquer. We also decided to add adventure to our trip by taking the train from Salt Lake City to Boston. It is a 63 hour treck cross country. We've never taken the train to travel, so it should be an interesting experience.

Quick trip to Bozeman

We took a quick three day trip to Bozeman over President's Day weekend to visit Mat's family because we didn't make it out there for the Holidays. We stayed in West Yellowstone on our way over there, and bought two sleds. Since Bozeman still had about two feet of snow on the ground, we got a lot of use out of the sleds. We also spent some time in the MSU bookstore, the Museum of the Rockies, and downtown shops. Mat's Grandma and Aunt graciously watched the boys on Valentine's Day so Mat and I could go out for dinner, and visit a couple of our old haunts.
We are amazed every day at how much the boys seem to grow and change. They are both about 3'-0" tall and have amazing vocablularies. They love to ask questions, sing songs, and give commands to Bridger (the dog). However, my favorite is waking up in the morning to the sound of their voices conversing with each other in their bedroom. They basically have free range of the house, but seem to prefer to play together in their bedroom. Unfortionately, staying in their bedroon doesn't keep them out of trouble. A couple of days ago I walked into their room, and they had taken evey single one of the diaper wipes out of the box (about 100 wipes) and left them in crinkled piles around the room. As soon as I walked into the room, they lept into their beds and blamed the mess on each other. Bed time can also be quite an event. As tired as the boys may seem, the minute the doors close they get their second wind. It typically takes about 45 minutes to an hour of Mat and I going in and out of their room to get them to sleep. They know better than to leave the room, and climb into each others beds to play. If unsupervised, their quiet paying usually escallates to jumping on the beds, laughing and climbing on the furniture. However, the other night they were strangely quiet after a couple of peeks into their room. So when I checked on them after about an hour I was surprised to see them curled up together on the floor in the middle of the room. They had drug their pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals onto the floor and fell asleep together. It was just too cute to move them, so we left them there for the night.