Safari Park

We took a visit to the Safari Park last week. It was our first time there and we had a fun time. The Safari Park is part of the San Diego Zoo and it's in Escondido, about 35 minutes north east of where we live.

We rode on the Africa Tram seeing animals from the African continent which was fun until Jack broke down and started screaming. He had had enough of the Safari Park and everyone on the tram heard about it.

Here's Grandma and EJ on the huge rhino! There were real rhinos there too but we weren't about to get close for a picture with them.

Our favorite exhibit was the Cheetah run. Once a day, Shiley the cheetah races 330 feet chasing her favorite toy. She goes 0 to 70 miles per hour in just 4 seconds! It was so cool! She can only do the run one time per day because the energy she exerts can give her heat stroke, which can be life threatening. 
Grandma got this picture of Shiley. She was eyeballing Jack like she wanted him for lunch but we were safe behind the required 2 fences! She was a really beautiful animal. 

Mother's Day

Mother's Day 2012 will always be special as it's the year we were blessed with Jack.

After an exhausting weekend of baseball we had a fun Sunday going to church, out to lunch and then we all took a nap in our bed! The boys each had a special gift for me. E.J. made me a card at preschool. He did an excellent job! And Jack has finally started smiling at me! I just can't get enought of these two! I love them so much.

Here we are after church.

Here's the card E.J. made. He wrote "LOVE EJ" all by himself!

The smile that melts my heart!  He resembles EJ so much which brings back so many memories.   I'm so grateful I get to do this again!

Champions!

Eric's team won the regular season conference, the conference tournament and he was voted coach of the year by the other coaches in the conference. It was a highlight week in his career! Here's our family after the big win. Jack was asleep in the stroller so he wasn't "available" for the picture!

Eric's Aunt Lynn and Uncle Tim came to many regular season games and all of the conference tournament games. It was so fun to watch the games with them and they were so proud of Eric!

Here are Eric's coaches (minus Coach Morgan). What a great job they did this season!

Here's when the team won the regular conference. The picture at the top was the conference tournament win. Several of the players made all tournament team and Nick LaFace (catcher) was MVP with a tournament batting average of .667!

Smile!

Jack is starting to smile!  He has smiled at Eric quite a bit and he is smiling at EJ in these pictures.  He won't smile at me yet but surely my time is coming.

He loves his big brother!

Baseball Day!

EJ's preschool highly encourages parent involvment.  What better way for us to be involved than to bring baseball to preschool!  Eric brought five players to come and teach the kids how to hit and throw baseballs and occasionally get tackled.

Eric and the players came to the classroom and introduced themselves.

Here's the tackle--EJ was the initiator--of course!

Here are the small group stations.  Each player had five kids at each station.

Here's EJ's group at the batting station.

align: center;"> Here are the kids lining up to go outside for baseball.  You can see how excited they were.  It was hard for them to stand still in line.

Eric and EJ addressed the class so they knew what they would be doing.  EJ was so proud to have his daddy at school.

Here are EJ's best friends.  Getting this picture took some work!

The kids liked the "catcher" I brought.

EJ's teacher, Mr. Matty, plays his guitar and sings just about every day.  Today he taught the kids how to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

High fives at the end of the day!  The kids had a great time!

Stop! Police!

There's a new sheriff in town! EJ is very intrigued with police, police cars, speeding, tickets, and anything else to do with lawlessness! Grandma Bobbie gave him a police outfit and made him a driver's license and a pad of tickets. We've all been getting tickets for various misdeamors around the house. Here's grandma in "jail" with Jack while EJ wrote her a ticket. Poor grandma!

One Month!

Jack is one month old today! He passed his medical exam with flying colors. He weighs 9.9 lbs now and has grown a little over an inch! Here he is today before his doctor appointment and then with EJ after preschool. I love these boys!

Happy Easter!

He is RISEN! The verse that I am focusing on today is Galatians 2:20. It states, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." We are so thankful for the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross.

Culturally speaking, we wish you a Happy Easter from our little bunnies!






One of my former students sent Jack this darling Easter outfit. The little bunny feet were so cute!





The Easter Bunny left EJ a basketball Easter basket. EJ spends a lot of time practicing his dribbling so he was thrilled with his new ball. He's planning on playing basketball for his Uncle Andy's team when he gets older so he has a lot of dribbling ahead.



Grandma and Grandpa were here to celebrate Easter with us. We decided not to attend church services because our church was having the Newsboys (band) and Franklin Graham (Billy Graham's son) speaking in an outside theatre. With a new baby and still recovering from surgery the thought of trying to navigate that scene with a thousand other people was too overwhelming for me. Instead, we headed to one of our favorite spots at the coast--Caroline's Cafe!

We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and then let EJ play on the beach with Eric.





Jack woke up in time to say goodbye to his grandparents as they headed to the airport. Carol was so helpful with the boys and Michael did some much needed home improvement projects for us. We are thankful for our time with them.

Easter Fun

After a great finish to the baseball weekend, we had an Easter celebration with Eric's family at the park by our house. Andy and Eric hid the Easter eggs and then got the kids all reved up and ready to hunt!



Uncle Andy helped EJ find eggs.



A great hiding spot on "Crazy" Uncle Tim!



Charlie preferred playing with the grass in his basket rather than the egss!



After the hunt, we tried a game of kickball.



I didn't get a picture of the grandmas and cousins but I did get one of the newlyweds! They made the trip from Newport to come for the baseball game and festivities. We really appreciate them making the trip down as they made it so fun for the kids!

Sweeping into 1st Place!

EJ & Owen swept up home plate just after the Tritons swept Sonoma State to claim first place in the conference!

Here's Eric celebrating with "Daddy's Little Sluggers" after the game!



Jack made his baseball debut this weekend. He slept through the whole thing!



Grandma and Jack after the game.