Day 168, Easter and Stellan Day 13

Stellan's post for Day 13. Stellan spent Easter with us, here are the eggs he found.



Easter with our kids...



Did I mention that it's Caide's first Easter?

Day 150 Happy Anniversary Mike

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary. What a wonderful day.

This is a blog post I made the day after we got married.

5 days ...
Five days... 5 days can seem like a life time or so very short. You can waste 5 days doing nothing or you could spend 5 days deciding to get married, flying for the first time, landing in a state you have never been in, going to a road side stand in Tijuana and having tacos. In 5 days you could try mahi mahi, you could hold a crab in your hand and worry that it will pinch. You could see your first sea urchin, you could rent your first car, you could learn to speak very broken spanish. In 5 days you could stand on a beach in San Diego, barefoot at sunset holding the man of your dreams hands and saying I do. All without a care in the world, the smell of salt water in your nose. The feeling of having sandy grains under your feet all while waves crash against the rocks behind you.

If you haven't figured it out yet, Thursday night after a long discussion with my mother I realized that I just wanted to marry the man I love, the man also known as my best friend. It didn't matter when, where, or how I just wanted it to happen. Jokingly we talked about eloping, then suddenly light bulbs went off in our heads and we said... ya know that isn't such a bad idea. So Friday Mike frantically searched and called me with the news... we could pull it off, we were going to San Diego to get married.

Today was the day... March 26th at approx. 6:30pm I married Michael James Lyon. I am now Mrs. Lyon.

I could not be happier. He has made all my dreams come true and I am looking forward to a wonderful life with him.

Don't anyone be offended only 3 people knew we were coming here. Mikes parents dont even know. More later...

Thank you, Honey, for a WONDERFUL Anniversary, I love you more today than I did that day. You've forever changed my life for the better.

Isn't he the most handsome man ever? He hates when I take his picture but he's so darn photogenic.



The eyes... I still get lost in them every time I look at him.






Finally a cute picture, the kids wanted to make Mike and I brownies for our anniversary. I bit the bullet and let them do it all by themselves. They were... a very thoughtful gift. :)

I Heart Faces- No Flash

This week over at I Heart Faces the theme is "no flash".

This is my kids entry for the week.

This was lite, completely by the flash light that Caide was holding. It also helped that I was using a 1.8 lens.



This is my adult entry. This was taken at the Chinese New Years parade in Chinatown, Chicago.

Day 141 Happy St. Paddy's Day!

I was playing with bubbles... Have a little green for St. Paddy's Day!!

Day 98 Chinese New Year in Chinatown, Chicago.

A month or so ago when Mike and I were on our way back from Wisconsin we took a wrong turn and ended up in the thick of downtown Chicago. After a while we passed Chinatown. I have been wanting to go back since that day and explore. Imagine my surprise when our hotel concierge this weekend reminded us that Sunday was the Chinese New Year and that there would be celebrations in Chinatown on Sunday.

I was as giddy as a child on Christmas, and begged Mike to go. He contends that he wanted to go, but between you and I, I think he could have taken or left it. Either way he obliged me and we made the trek.

We had to park 4 or 5 blocks away, luckily the cold wasn't a bitter one. As silly as it sounds the main thing I wanted to see were the dragons in the parade. So due to the cold we didn't finish the entire parade. In all honesty I'm not completely convinced that I'd go brave the cold and massive crowds again. I'd love to go back to Chinatown but I think I'll go some time other than The Chinese New Year.

The year of the OX


A group of children all playing with "snaps". I love this picture. Boys and girls, all different colors, fast friends for the day, all playing together without a care in the world.



I was captivated by this little ones precious face.



One of my other favorite sets for the day.









Julian High School Marching Band













Cute brother and sister. I caught a glimpse of the little girl giving her brother a hug and had to grab a shot of the two of them.



This little one was very skeptical of me.

Day 58/365 A forgotten Day

I got a head of myself and this is being posted out of order.

These are from the hotel with the water park. Here we were playing family bingo. The prizes ranged from small hotel schwag, to arcade tokens.

We were the only one's playing and ended up getting $80 dollars in free arcade tokens!!!

56/365 Christmas in Wisconsin

The title pretty much sums it up. We had a lovely mini-vacation in Wisconsin right before Christmas. As I wrote about it the previous post, the kids present was suppose to be the water park but Grandma and Grandpa got them a few other tchotchkes.



Kendyl is obsessed with "lipstick". Next year i'm buying a gross of chapsticks for her.







Glenn and Kyrsten, this is the extent of his enthusiasm that day. I should have liquored him up first.

55/365 Waterpark

For Christmas my mother and father in law treated our family to an overnight and admission to an indoor water park. It was the best gift and I fully intend on asking them to do that in lieu of gifts every year. The kids had a BLAST.

We went to Timber Ridge at Grand Geneva, in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. The water park was perfect for the age range of my kids. There was even a johnny jump up in the water for Caide!! On top of the amazing water park there was also planned activities that you could do with your kids in the other parts of the hotel. (MOST were FREE!!!) They had family bingo, decorate a sugar cookie, movie night, etc.

If your in the area I highly recommend it. The lifeguards were really on watch. Every time I turned around there was a guard watching. I never worried that I had to be on constant vigil because I trusted that the guards were watching that closely.

The room rates were very reasonable, the hotel staff was EXTREMELY accommodating. I would go back in a second.

46/365 Making a Gingerbread house

For the past two years my mother and father in law have bought the kids a gingerbread house kit. It's quickly become a tradition, and this year the kids were drooling waiting to dive in and put it together.

Now I'll share with you this fun little tradition.