A Grrrrrreat Spring Break

I have to say I love living in the Family Housing. I seriously think it's the best place we've lived in since we're married. I'm not talking about the apartments, which are a little, well, old and outdated but only incidental compared to the quality of life we have here.
Every year for Spring break, the Family Housing organizes a week of fun outings to visit museums and attractions around Boulder. The weather was amazingly warm and sunny all week and for the first time this year both boys were old enough to actually enjoy the various outings.

So here comes the plethora of pictures.

Monday morning was the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. We were planning on going together as a family but William threw up the night before so we were afraid he'd be sick on the bus ride or in the museum, so he stayed home with Russell. Josh and I had a lot of fun together and with our friends from the Family Housing.

The infrared camera that showed how cold the tip of my nose was (Lol), and how cloths are surprisingly good insulators.

Giant dinosaur bones:

The discovery zone, where Josh played association games, made polymer, learned about vacuums, learned the polarity of magnets, matched dinosaurs with their skeletons, dug for dinosaur bones...

...discovered deforming mirrors (a big hit!)

 and best of all, he got to ride in the bus with his best friend Sammy (and imitate each others random finger sucking)

Tuesday afternoon we went to Jumpstreet, a place with trampolines everywhere and bounce houses for little ones. William and Josh had the time of their life, especially William our half kangaroo, half human 20-month old.

Permission to get wild with their friends = heaven for my boys

 wrestling with the Jacksons and the Fergusons, our twin-families (they have only boys like us and they're very close in age)

Wednesday was play-in the sun day. We also went to the mall where the boys love to play (there's a dinosaur play area).

Josh got a new bike last week-end to replace the balance bike that was getting a little small and that we wanted to let William use. It took them a day or two of readjusting which made for some of the most relaxing times I've had following them on bikes. Now that they're used to their new bikes I'm back to my forced work-out running after them.

We decorated the side walks with chalk, and water.

 Josh drew a dinosaur skeleton

and we watched Josh's friend Sammy while his parents went on a date to the Boulder Dinner Theater (another great outing organized by FH).

Sammy was extremely focused on the Berenstein Bear show we watched before bed time.

Thursday morning we went to the zoo. It was a hot and crowded day but we still had a great time.

On Friday Russell surprised me by taking me to the Hill to get my ears pierced! I had never had my ears pierced. It was exciting! It took pretty much the entire day to do it (after 3 failed attempts - closed shop/open but no ID/with ID but no earrings I like) but at the end of the day my ears were pierced! Now we'll have to see if I can stand them, or if I have an allergic reaction like my Mom and some of my sisters have.

Later that evening we had ice cream with our neighbors at the Resident Council Ice cream Social. Lots of good friends to hang out with for us and for the boys.

Saturday was general conference. It's a little hard to focus and hear anything with the boys running in circle around the computer but I was so proud when Joshua prayed for lunch and said "Thanks for Thomas Monson". I guess despite the chaos that caused me to miss out on half of the talks Joshua still managed to learn about the prophet and to recognize him.

On Sunday night, our friends the Conkeys invited us to an "after conference" dinner at their apartment. Emily made some Japanese wontons and fried veggies and a few other friends brought delicious sides and dessert. We are so glad to have such great friends but sad to see so many leaving this year.
Josh and his preschool friends (Sammy, Elsie and Adam)  and their siblings had a lot of fun playing ball, chasing each other, and painting each others faces with mud.

What a great week we had! Today and tomorrow we're expecting snow. This is so typical of Boulder, but I love it!