Marty and I had a fantastic anniversary. We dropped the boys off at Grandma and Grandpa's cabin in Tonto Village, near Payson, the boys were so happy the barely said goodbye. Our plans were to hike to Horton Spring and camp. We timed it just perfectly, we were pretty much the only people on the trail. We took the dog, he loved it, the water, trees, sticks everything, even with an infected tooth. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to the spring. I wasn't sure I was going to make it. It was up hill the whole way and I was tired. It was worth being tired, it was so beautiful. We were the only people camping, it was the best camping spot I have ever camped in. We had such a great time, it was so nice to just spend time together and have a conversation without being interupted. We didn't even have a watch, only disadvantage to that, we had no idea what time it was when we woke up. We packed up and headed out. When we got to the truck, even after 2 1/2 hours, it was only 8:30.

Happiest dog in the whole world.

This is were the spring comes out of the mountain.

The trail was pretty rocky and rugged.

There were alot of little falls and beautiful wild flowers all over.

After we got back , we played with the boys and had a nice lunch. Tyson went down for a nap so we took Dylan the the fish hatchery. He loved feeding the big trout, and seeing the holding tanks full of fish. Pretty cool place, if you've never been you should go sometime.

Then we took him fishing, we didn't catch anything, but he had fun.

And this is what you get when you have too much fun, you fall asleep with your ice cream cone.

6 Years!

Has it been 6 years already?

Time flies when you're having fun, we always have fun together. I'm thankful Marty pulls me out of the norm, and gets me to do fun things with him. Last year we went to Hawaii and had so much fun, this year we are going camping together. I haven't been camping in about 7 years. I love him more than anything, thankful he loves me and takes care of our little family.

Camping, camping, camping!

This was Tyson's first year for Fathers and Sons campouts and he loved it. He still asks almost everytime we go somewhere to go camping. He got to go two weeks in a row. I enjoyed two relaxing weekend of yard sales, I found some really fun stuff.

This was the first week of camping with the ward at Gooseberry Springs. I always feel left out from these things because I never get the whole story. This is after he got his face washed, I wonder what he looked like before the face wash.
This was the second weekend after camping at Willow Springs with my Dad and my brothers and their boys and my brother-in-law . This was one happy boy. I really think he would live in the forest if we let him.

This year was a record breaking year for fish, between all of them, they caught 16 fish. I love fresh trout, we enjoyed a nice fish dinner thanks to the guys.

Marty was teasing my nephews by making the fish talk crazy. Dylan had a blast camping also. He didn't seem to make it into any of the pictures, he was always busy doing something else.

Growing up so fast.

I have noticed the last couple of days how big Dylan and Tyson are getting, especially Tyson. He used to pass under the edge of the counter without hitting his head, now he hits his head and he can't figure out why.

These guys are becoming very good buddies, they keep each other company. They both are in love with Thomas the Train. They enjoy watching, and talking about Thomas. They both have almost all of the other train names memorized. I didn't think they would ever like the same things at the same time. They are so cute.
This could be why Tyson is getting so big, he eats all the time. This would be sour cream.

It is amazing that there is even any food left for dinner after these two help make it. They are good helpers in the kitchen.

Today we planted flowers to give the boys something to do this afternoon. My pots aren't very fancy but they had fun.

Tyson's turn planting his flowers.

Not sure what the dog is doing, the dirt must smell good.

Happy Mother's Day

to all of you

Super Duper Moms

out there.

Love you Moms.

Easter and other happenings!

This is a common place for both Dylan and Tyson at various times during the day. They both love to play in the water, and for some reason it drives me crazy. May have to do with the big wet mess and two soaking wet boys.

I wanted to take the boys to an Easter egg hunt so bad on Saturday, but I am a wimp when it comes to freezing, blowing snow, so we had our own and they loved it.
Tyson was so funny, he couldn't really figure out what was going on. There were eggs everywhere and he was a little bewildered as to where they came from. He kind of just walked around with a confused look on his face, after a while he got into it.

Thanks to Grandma for their cute Easter outfits, Tyson was not having the photo session, this was the best I got of my little bunnies.

The bunny cake was a tradition in my house growing up. I had to carry on with it. The boys loved it, neither of them like cake, but they had a good time making a mess.

If you take a close look at Tyson's mouth he was telling Dylan, "No touchy, no touchy."

A few days ago Dylan took a pretty good spill and slid across the floor on his upper lip. His lip was so huge, seriously worst fat lip I have ever seen.

That would be Tyson dancing on the counter in the back.

The wind has been blowing so bad and crazy lately, it drives me crazy. I hate to go out in it and the boys have been sick so I got out some long drawing paper and traced out their bodies. They loved it, especially Dylan. He saw it done on Sid the Science Kid on PBS, so he was totally into it.

You can see his fat lip a little better.

This kept everyone busy for quite a while.

Dylan has learned to write his name, I am so proud of him. I have been asking him if he would like to learn how to write his name and he has always said no. I didn't want to pressure him, I knew he would do it when he was ready. One night a couple of weeks ago, right before bed he said he wanted to right his name. I was leery at first, you know right before bed, tempers are short, attention spans even shorter. But I said ok, I wish I would have taken a picture. I wrote his name out a couple of times, we practiced writing the letters one at a time and then put them all together. He did it seriously in about 15 minutes, I couldn't believe it. I guess when you put your mind to it, you can do anything.

I didn't get Tyson's whole body out lined, he couldn't hold still long enough. He had fun coloring on the paper and wall with his crayons.

The finished product.

We have a good time together during day.

Out of blogging mode!

Wow, I am so out of blogging mode.

My new goal is to read one book a month, a step up from last year. I read one book. Anyway, I am reading a great book called A Poisoned Season by Tasha Alexander, it is a great book, kind of a murder mystery, romance, set in the 1800s, in England. So I have neglected everything else that should get done. It is a quick read, I will get back to normal when I am done.

Now for a little catch up. My pictures are totally not in order as usual.

This little monkey fell out of his crib, onto his head the other night. So guess who is sleeping on his mattress on the floor, under his brothers bed? But the funny thing is, he loves it. Last night was the first night that he rolled off. He kept half crying for me at 3:30 this morning. I decided to check on him, and he was curled up in a ball in the middle of the floor, half asleep. I felt kinda guilty so I him in his pack n play. It is kinda cute that after we put them to bed Dylan gets under there and falls asleep with him. I need to get a picture of that one.

The last week in March Marty and I went to Austin, Texas for the week. Marty had some contractor selling classes that he went to on Monday til Friday, so I had the whole week to explore Austin all by myself. I spent most of the week lost, even with a GPS. We had a few falling outs, it put me in the middle of no where a few times. But things are better between us now.

Austin is a beautful city, so green and has lakes and rivers and springs. Fun shopping, museums, lots of yummy places to eat.

My favorite part was just going into stores and just looking to see what they had, like Bed Bath and Beyond. I have been in the one in Flagstaff one time, and it was rush in and rush out. I looked at everything in that store and got some great decorating ideas, now if only I had the time and money to go back to the one in Flagstaff. I went to the spa not once, but twice, so awesome, I loved it. I went to a movie all by myself, I felt like a big girl.

Marty go out of his class at 5 everyday and because of the time difference it didn't get dark until about 9, he got to see quite a bit of the city also. He enjoyed his classes very much and was excited to get home and get to work and use all of the new stuff he learned.

Here are a few pictures from our trip.

This is Barton Springs, the city has made it into a swimming pool, very interesting place. 32,000 gallons runs out of this spring everyday.

I found this place that had a zillion peacocks, there were some nature trails all over that went down into a lagune.

I loved this trail, I thought it was so pretty and peaceful.

This in Congress Bridge, it is in down town Austin. There are millions of bats that sleep under this bridge and every night at sun down they fly out. It is quite the spectator sport. Marty suggested we go on top of the bridge like these brave folks are, I didn't want bats flying into my face, but I really wish we would have gone up there,we could have seen them alot better.

This is a park in down town, the parks here a just beautiful and old. I would have loved to take some nice pictures with Marty in some of these places, the only people we could find around were homeless, Marty asked if I liked my camera. I do love my camera, I don't really think they would have ran off with it, do you?

There were alot, I mean alot of homeless people, I felt bad for them. So as pretty as these parks were, I have to say they did not smell the greatest.

Marty saw this pretty little rose and asked me to take a picture.

State Capital building, in such pretty place. There were protesters on the front steps, protesting, putting people on death row.

I was on one of my nature walks, this is Lake Austin, down town in the back.

Marty and I as we started off on our adventure.

We had a great week.

The boys stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Mortensen in Tempe. They had a fun week also, except for Tyson's double ear infection, that wasn't very fun for him.

Thanks Mom and Dad for watching the boys, they loved every minute of it. Dylan wakes up and asks if we are going to Grandma's house.