March Madness Fun

We love having visitors!!!

As previously mentioned, Aunt Cheryl was kind enough to fly with me and the monkeys back home to Colorado. Why not make an extended trip out of it??! And she did indeed bring some warmth with her. It was only really cold the first day we got back, after that it was mostly 70's--and has stayed that way up until today. I was hoping it would just continue to stay warm, but I'm told March can be full of weather that's all over the place. I'll hope it doesn't snow much more and decides to stay in the 70s sooner than later!

I'm so happy Cheryl came, we had such a great time. Among lots of good hanging out time, we got to go see American Idiot at the last minute with Jennifer and crew. WOW! It was so good. We all met up at a fun place called The Corner Office and enjoyed yummy martini's before the show. My favorite was rimmed with grape kool-aid. Seriously.

Earlier that same day Mario and I were out enjoying the sunshine playing ball. The good news is he caught the ball (somehow??). The bad news is he ran right into a wooden post on our swing set in order to make the amazing catch. Aunt Cheryl went with us as I took my baby boy to our new Vet for the first time. It was a great experience and they checked him out superbly. Just a bad scratch right below his eye and a small abrasion on his actual eye. After a weeks worth of ointment, his eye now looks so much better. Here is a picture of it the day after his run in with the swing set. Poor Bubby Boy. It didn't seem to ever bother him though. In fact, he was so unbelievably good at the vet while they checked out his eye in all kinds of details. I'm glad it's healing well. And glad Aunt Cheryl was here to accompany us to the vet and help with the ointment application while she was here!
This is the kind of hairdo you sport when Daddy puts you to bed the night before with your pigtails still intact. As Cheryl so perfectly described it: Flock of Seagulls

A couple weekends ago was our MOPS Family Fun Night. Since Matt was out for the count with sickness, Cheryl and the babies and I went as our own "family of four". It was a fun time. Cheryl is always so good with her camera and has more pictures. Here's a couple she sent me. A popular treat (with my babies) were the cake pops. Camryn was being her moody self that we get to experience all to often lately (that's why we love her, right?!), but put a cake pop in the girl's hand and things are instantly right and happy in her world...

We reluctantly had to say goodbye to Aunt Cheryl. But more company was coming the next day, so that made her departure a little more bearable to get through. Before our next crew arrived we spent a lot of our day outside. Check out my little Jayhawks. Grandpa found these Baby Jay hats for them at KU--they love wearing them. But they also like to take them off so they can actually, physically point to Baby Jay and proclaim "Caw Cawk" (or something like that, meaning "Jayhawk")!
The next evening Uncle Robby arrived. It was like no time was ever lost since they last saw him. From the moment he got here they would go right to him and during the whole week he was here "Gonkle" or "Gockle" (aka "Uncle") was constantly said! The morning after Robby got here we then went to go pick up Aunt Nora from the airport! We're ecstatic they both chose to spend their Spring Breaks with us, we had such a great time!! We had a great time walking around in Golden the first day, and then fun in our backyard while Nora grilled out for us. (Did I mention HOW GORGEOUS and WARM the weather has been???!) The next day was Uncle Robby's birthday. What better way to spend it then going to the ZOO???!! We had a fantastic time there, even despite the fact a lot of attractions were still under construction---like the elephants--the MAIN animal we wanted to see! (As well as the penguins and some of the monkeys). But we really did have a great time, it was a beautiful, fun day. We can't wait to go to the zoo again.
There were lots of geese that roamed the zoo freely. Because we could be so interactive, they were definitely our favorite thing that day. Whenever we'd see them walking around, Camryn would giggle and "quack" back at them (close enough to ducks, right?). Cole would give loud, excited screams and then "quack" back at them too.

Looking up at the monkey swinging above and in front of us...
There was a little play area near the giraffes where Cole and Cam could get out and run around freely. That's also where we all picked a spot on a bench and had some lunch we brought. Cole soon discovered we were right by the giraffes (one of our favorites we saw) and watched them over the fence while we had our lunch.
FUN FUN time at the zoo!
That same night we got to have Manda come babysit and us adults all went out to a nice dinner downtown for Robby's birthday. It was so yummy and fun in all kinds of ways!



Classic picture. (Although neither of them were there, Robby and Nora decided to do a little reenactment of one of the last times some of my family was at The Capital Grille--and started a bit of a fire...)

Over the weekend we got to see Jennifer, Jim, Maya, Cooper and Grammy! We all got to watch the basketball games together. Jennifer, Nora and I celebrated St. Patrick's a day early...
Here's my crazy Jayhawk family all glued to the TV hoping hoping hoping Missouri would LOSE their game---and they DID!!!
Nora and I snuck out for a little bit that evening-before the KU game-to meet up with a friend of Nora's from College. It was really fun to go see them. And we went to The Corner Office again, I definitely enjoyed that same martini with the grape kool-aid on the rim.
Back at home we're all still watching the games again. As we were watching the KU game, it was very clear that Mario really just wanted to be part of the Hendrick family!
The next morning we sadly had to say goodbye to Aunt Nora. We're so happy she came to visit us, we can't wait for her to come back!
Later that night the babies took their spots in what has become a favorite basketball watching position for them--in one of their portable changing tables...?? Whatever works. Cam prefers to read a book while the games are on. Cole, of course, intently pays attention to the "boo ball" being played on TV.

It's always fun to sit in "Gonkle's" lap and have reading times.
They also share a love of apples with Gonkle. Camryn has actually eaten a good part of an apple full out--biting into a whole one--as Aunt Cheryl witnessed. Fearing scary choking, we go for the "cut-up kind with the skin cut off" version of apples when at home. Uncle Robby was good to constantly give out apple bites.
Watching the (super stressful and crazy) KU Game last night before bed. They've assumed their positions properly again...

I couldn't take that game. Halfway through the 1st half the babies and I went up to have baths. After they went to bed from there, I continued to avoid the game. It's amazing how much I can get done when I'm doing all I can to avoid a stressful KU game! I got a good sense of how it all went based on the constant yells from Matt and Robby through the whole game. I was content with just watching the highlights after I knew we got the win. I will go ahead and fully admit that I'm a fan of the regular season--NOT the biggest March Madness fan. It's way too stressful. Not healthy for me!
We were super sad when Uncle Robby left today. We're so happy he came out to visit and also can't wait for him to come back again soon!!!! After we dropped him off at the airport I got quite a medley of "Gonkle Gonkle Gonkle" most of the way home from the backseat...