This is gonna be tough

So we have been blessed to be near my sister who has boys that are close to our boys in age. They are very good friends and we consider my sister and her husband to be good friends as well. Excitingly enough, he has received a full time career....in South Dakota. we are very excited for my sister's family, but are truly going to miss them as we won't be able to see them very often at all anymore. It's a time of bittersweet feelings really. 

Thing 1 had some friends over when his cousins arrived, so they all played together. 

 

They love digging in the gravel, although Daddy doesn't always like it because they have a tendency to put the gravel in the grass. 

These two are inseparable when they get together. 

And so are these two. It's humorous because they don't play with their older brothers when they're together. And their older brothers occasionally play with them when they're together. 

Lots of fun, and we're all going to miss them. 

March fun

In March it got surprisingly warm, so we went outside and played. I got some pictures of Thing 2 on the Plasma car, which is completely awesome. Even Daddy and Mommy loving riding it. Thing 1 isn't too fond of sharing right now though, so we have to get our kicks in when he's not looking :).

 And of course Thing 1 was not about to be left out.

"Oooooh!" Thing 2 says. 

I never thought having a tongue sticking out at me would be so cute!

Mr. GQ!

Easter in Washington

My younger sister was on break from college, so I decided that it would be fun to go with her to visit my family. Things 1 and 2 had a ball. We were able to do a little Easter egg coloring on Monday and a short little hunt before my brothers had to go to a 4-H meeting. 

Thing 1 was so proud of his rubberbanded egg. The crayon marks looked great too. 

Thing 2 attacked this cat and it didn't mind it at all. You have to understand, my family doesn't really pet the cats much, they live outside, they're mousers and not all that friendly. This cat was the exception. It came right up to Thing 2 purring and rubbing against his legs and Thing 2 dropped to the ground to play with it.  It didn't do anything even after he did this.

Let the Easter egg hunt begin!

And of course, we have to get pictures of the little boys hands after dying eggs.  Obviously Thing 2's hands were a lot worse, but he was dipping his hands into the dyes.

Montana, Big Sky

We went on a skiing trip. We got to ski for THREE whole days! It was awesome and great that it took us so long to get down the mountain. We were able to ski Big Sky and Moonlight Basin. Big Sky has the biggest skiing in America, and I know exactly why. Poor Thing 1 was definitely tired by the end of his runs. Every night he went into the hot tub and wore himself out even more. Thing 1 is also the reason for this title. Every time he talks about our trip it's not "Big Sky, Montana", nope this little boy proudly says "Montana, Big Sky." Yes, we have tried to correct him, but he says it with such gusto, that I don't want to correct him. This was our last trip of the season. We did more than just ski though.

This was the view we had from the deck and hot tub.

 

 

Aunt D and Uncle J. I was excited to get a shot of the two of them together. 

Daddy! He's improved so much since he first started skiing. Not only that he truly enjoys going, which for me was a huge plus!

I told you that skiing wasn't the only thing that we did. We had a snow ball fight too!

Uncle J didn't want to miss out on this opportunity, and I don't blame him. Thing 1 came up shortly thereafter and for the rest of his runs he was throwing snowballs at one person or another. 

Thing 1 at the terrain park. The terrain park was perfect for Thing 1, very mild and no worries about him falling back after going off a box that was too big for him. 

The time we spend with Thing 2 out in the snow just outside the condo was mostly spent sledding. 

It rained on this particular day so the snow was soaking wet. There was so much snow that Thing 2 mostly crawled around while Mommy laughed. He was giggling the whole time and we had a blast. 

There were ski bridges used to go over the roads to get to different runs. The condo we stayed in was classified as a ski-in-ski-out condo because you put your skis on as soon as you got outside and went to the chair lifts. Well these little bridges made for a great sledding hill for our boys.

This is how they rode down. Thing 2 on top of Thing 1. They laughed the whole way down once we got the snow compacted a little bit. 

Daddy hauling Thing 2 up the bridge because it was hard work.

The one time we made the boys come up on their own and push up the tube. Thing 1 took quite a few breaks towards the top. 

The beautiful condominium we were able to stay in. 

And of course there was finally a shot of Mommy skiing down the hill too. On this day there was three fresh inches of powder. The only problem was that it was icy underneath after the rain the day before. We had a blast!