Joys of turning 9!!

So, for a boy what are the joys of turning 9?  You become a Bear scout.  With Brayden's Birthday being on Veterans Day we can do a few things. It seems that in the last few years some restaurants are celebrating the many veterans that have served this country.  The trick is going early.  So, we picked up the kids from school and headed straight to Chili's.  It turned out that Matt and I ate for free and we just paid for the kids.  Then it was hurrying home to open up gifts.  We kept things simple because he had to be at basketball practice.  He loves to play ball just like his Dad.  Although I don't think he is as mean on the court has Matt is.  Happy Birthday Brayden.  Love you!! 

Under the Sea

    It is always nice to have family come and visit.  This last October my sister Bethany and her two sweet childern (Emma and Joseph) came and visited us here is Colorado.  With six childern around we have to find something to do or the house will be a child's best playground.  So what do you do with kids (age range is 10 to 2) to keep them busy?  In Woodland Park they have a dinosaur muesum where they have dinosaur bones for lots of dinosaur that aren't very commen.  I think the kids loved it.  The next day it was off to Denver to go to the aquarium.  This semester Tori is studying fish and her class went to the aquarium a few weeks later but I wanted to go and this gave us a good chance to go and something fun to do for the day.  So, here we go under the sea.

Guess who?  We each took turns being a survivor of the shark tank.  To think that one would want to actually get in a cage just to swim with the sharks.  No Thanks!!  I asked Beth what scares her the most and she said, besides her kids getting hurt, she is scared of a shark attacking her in the ocean.
The Aquarium has different regions in it.  Along with seeing different types of fish it takes you on a trip to the different water regions around the world.  The first area is the fish, ducks and otters that are most commonly found in the Colorado region.  Camping in different parts of Colorado there are alot of rivers, lakes and mountain regions that hold many different types of fish.
The next area we headed to was the wet zone.  They have a simulation of what happens in a desert during a flash flood. The kids were amazed to see all the water flooding over rocks.  Surprisingly enough with all the crazy things that my children do they didn't stand in the middle of the room and try and get wet. 

I think the next room with the most fun.  There were tunnels where the sting rays would swim right over the tunnel.  This is the best way to study the underside of the sting ray without getting in the water.  There were a few sharks, schools of fish, sting rays, eels and sea turtles.  They have sleepovers at the aquarium and this is the favorite spot for the kids to sleep in.  What is your favorite fish?  We stayed in this area for almost 15 minutes.  The kids were amazed with all the different things in the area. 

This is Noelle looking for the sea turtle.  On select hours and days they have a little mermaid show.  We were a little late for the show.  The fish were enough for these kiddos. 

   We were watching a diver cleaning up the bottom of the tank.  He was pretty cool.  Brayden was very interested in seeing what his job was.  They have opportunities for people to go diving in the different tanks.  The youngest age was 10.  This was a pretty good tank for kids to go diving in.

 

  The next area was the rain forest.  There were some piranha fish in this room. Beth, Matt and I were standing there reading the info about the fish and it said that they could eat a full size cow in about three minutes.  The fish were very calm and there wasn't anything that looked like these fish were very dangerous.  Abby came and joined us and the conversation.  Matt said Abby lets see and tried to pick up Abby.  Her eyes got really big and she got very scared and started getting a little defensive.  For the rest of the time she kept her distance from Dad.

They also had four beautiful tigers in the exhibit.  Tigers are the only cats that love to play and be in the water.

 I have to admit that I think sharks are really cool animals.  My favorite shark is a tiger shark or a hammer head. The last section of the aquarium is an underwater sunken pirate ship.  They have alcoves that you step into where it feels like you are in the water without getting wet.  This tank had holes on the floor with plexiglas where the sharks were laying on the bottom of the floor.  These had some very big sharks and sword sharks.

At this point the kids were starting to get a little tired or maybe it was the parents.  We saw some seahorses, Nemos (clown fish) and Dory(Angelfish). Tori is working on writing a paper.  When she went to the aquarium she was able to find her fish which is the grayling fish.  I'm looking forward to seeing what a grayling is. 

They had some really big fish.  This is a very large puffer fish. I thought puffer fish were suppose to be small.  This just proves size really does matter.

The last thing we did was looked at all the things your would find on a reef or around shipwrecks.  Look who we found in the reef!

 Had a blast with cousins and seeing all of the different things.  I told Beth that next time we will have to come out to her and visit different things in Utah.  It is nice to be close to family and wish I was closer.  I have lots of fun memories of playing with my cousins and all the crazy things we did.  Looking forward to another adventure with the cousins and this time hoping for no head collisions or sickness.  Hope you enjoyed our undersea adventure as much as we did.



What do you want to be?

       Each year around this time I ask the kids what do you want to be for Halloween?  This year was a little different with Halloween being on Sunday.  I miss being in the bible belt where they celebrated on Saturday instead of Sunday.  So the question was do I let them go trick or treating or not?  After sitting down and realizing that Matt will probably miss another Halloween next year and out of Noelle's five Halloween's he has only taken her trick or treating once.  So I talked Matt into letting them go.  They didn't know that and where really excited when I told them they could go.  I have wonderful memories of trick or treating on all the many bases we where stationed at with Dad's job and the loads of candy we would get.  It was also fun to come back to the house to see if Mom planned well that year or not. (BTW most of the time she did).  So, what did my kids decide to be this year? 

Abby decided she loves cats.  She only has one Halloween left to go trick or treating.  She decided she wanted to be a black panther.  While shopping for fabric I found some really cool fabric that has swirls on it to make it look like fur.  (She was a fancy cheetah last year).

Each year I mange to make only three costumes.  It is usually Brayden's because he wants to be something that I will never be able to find a pattern for.  So, behold commander fox, a clone trooper.  Brayden didn't want to wear the mask because he said it smashed his nose.  No gun for this clone trooper.

       My two little girls decided they both wanted to be cheerleaders.  I remember as a girl Mom made me a cheerleader costume for Doxey Elementary in Utah.  So I made the cheerleader costumes for Tori's school (PPSEL) with her school colors.  Go BEARS!!

                          

            

           It was a little chilly. So they had to dress warm.  At least this year there wasn't snow or ice on the ground like last year.  While passing out candy I like to look at all the costumes and get some ideas.  My favorite was a dad dressing up like Papa Smurf.  He had the white beard, blue face, hands and neck.  With a blue shirt, red hat and pants.

   The kids are already planning on next year.  Abby a leopard (surprise another cat), Tori wants to be a chicken, Brayden not sure yet, and Noelle maybe an egg to go with the chicken.

Have a great day.

27th Annual Rocky Mountain Ball

          About a month ago Matt was nomiated for a military award.  Well this last weekend we attended the military ball for the NDIA (national defense indusrial association).They focus on air and space.  They have a big award called the James V. Hartinger Award.  This years winner was G. Welsey Clark (Air Force).  Past winner you would know is Colin Powell.  Matt was a winner among four others for the Patriot Award.  The Patriot Award is designed to recognize exceptional Americans in service to their country who have demonstrated a profound and abiding love of country and whose inspirational leadership, actions, and slefless dedication symbolizes our nation's ideals, values and founding principles.  The award is inteded for U.S. military personnel in the enlisted grades, company grade officers, warrant officers, government civilians and Air Force Academy cadets. 
        The recognition is focused on military personnel stationed in the Colorado Springs area representing the major military organizations and bases.  This year the chapter will recognize personnel from the Air Force Academy. Space and Missile Defense Command, Air Force Space Command. NORAD/NORTHCOM, and members of the various units stationed at Fort Carson. Additional organizations may be added in the future.
     Matt works for NORAD/NORTHCOM and works with a lot of Canadiens and Generals (American).  He has some really cool events that happen at work and he enjoys it most of the time.  He still misses fly though.

       Very Proud of my sweetheart.  As you may notice I am wearing the dress from Senior Prom.  The Mess dress that Matt is wearing use to be Dad's.  Sometimes being in the military does pay off.  So, countdown to Major's broad is about a month and a half away.  We will find out in a few months if he achieved Major and got a school spot.  The joys of being a military officers wife. 

Welcome to my world!!

         So, as I begin my world of blogging I realized that I have too much going in my life to get it all down.  We all have those moments when we have an idea and it keeps going and going and you get the idea.  That seems to be my life.

        Everyday seems to be filled with drama and a trip through a scene of star wars.  I change my character everyday.  Most of the time I feel like the evil empire.  Growing up in a house of girls star wars wasn't our thing.  It  wasn't until my early teen years that I realized that there were three different movies.  Go figure!  Then they release the new ones when I'm married to my husband. (who btw is a star wars crazy person).  We have a son that now loves the movies, tv shows and anything with star wars.  So drama and star wars that is my crazy life. Anyone want to change.

       This is me on a really bad day.  Also, Matt's favorite Halloween costume that I made for him.  Scared a few kids and the ward trunk or treat this last Saturday.  So the question of the day is what is your favorite character and who do you think you are?