Seriously fun stuff (and a scary story)...

Ben had a work conference where he presented a poster on a case he had worked on at the hospital. Since our lodging and mileage was all being paid for by Ben's work, we all went along with him and stayed at the lovely Starr Pass resort in Tucson. It's been a couple years since we were there and since we last visited they've added a lazy river and waterslide, which made it all the more amusing. :) I feel like as our family grows, our trips and outings are becoming even more enjoyable... I guess because we get to share the fun with even more little people. It's also a juggling act of taking turns in watching Jake on the side of the pool and keeping eyes on little girls who aren't great swimmers... resulting in lots of flotation devices and plenty of sunblock too. ;)

Lots of pictures...















Taken from the balcony of our room















A scary story...
So the resort was lovely and is definitely right in the middle of some beautiful Arizona desert... and as a reminder of what type of creatures live in the middle of the desert, I was presented with quite the surprise when we were hopping out of the car at the entrance of the hotel (just after getting back from a dinner with Ben's co-workers and bosses). We were in the process of getting the kids out of the car, when Ben and I both spotted a huge adult-sized hairy tarantula right outside of the doors of the hotel. AHHHHHH!!!! Ben says he was impressed with my ability to hold it together, because considering my huge fear of bugs and spiders in general, this should have been my worst nightmare. I think Ben didn't realize I had seen it yet and quietly told the valet about the hairy intruder. He then just shooed it off gently with his foot and said that he'd been seeing him around lately and was glad that it was eating all the bugs. Seriously?! It's not the other bugs I'm worried about - it's THAT bug I want to get eaten!!

And now for some other random things... Emma has been keeping up her reading skills and she does some reading practice with me almost every day. She has a little reading chart and she adds a sticker to it for every 5 pages that she reads. She filled up the chart last week (for a grand total of 125 pages read!) and as her prize she could pick any treat that I could make from home. Of course, she chose a chocolate cake (definitely her very favorite dessert!). So, I made a chocolate cake (just from a box mix and pre-made frosting). After it was frosted and all, Emma said it needed candles. hmmm... well, it wasn't a birthday, but why not have candles?! So, we put on some candles and after dinner we lit them and she blew them out and we all ate a piece of Emma's reading cake. :) It was pretty fun.



Last week Emma had her first field trip with her preschool class. It was a very simple field trip and we just walked the kids to the nearby traffic light and crossed to all four corners. The teachers taught the kids about road safety and traffic signs and such. It's amazing how such a simple activity could be so amusing to the kids. Emma really enjoyed it! And I really loved getting to go spend time with her at school (luckily Ben had that day off of work, so he could keep the little ones). I'm really happy that Emma has such a good class and great teachers.





And lastly... we finally went to see Harry Potter! LOVED it! Now I'm aching to go read the 7th book again so I can remember what happens next. And we found the greatest babysitter to watch the kids that night. She even unloaded and loaded my dishwasher!