Saving these for the graduation collage

We've been full of baseball and ballet for the last few weeks. I have more pics of Reina's ballet recital on the fancy camera but for today, we'll look at the informal snaps.  Baseball has been a lot of fun so far this season, even though it's cold and wet and I had to wrap my backpack around my legs during the last game just to keep warm.  Will doesn't mind, he has his cool sports long johns (I think that's a thing) on and he's been hitting the ball like a maniac.  He's a lot of fun to watch. 

He has the equipment and the attitude....  I told him to give me his 'baseball face' and he certainly did.  

Reina had her ballet recital and I have a bunch of pictures from the real camera but those will have to wait while we look at these.  I left work early so that I'd have enough time to help her get ready at home.  While she was watching cartoons, Will whispered to me (with his eyes sparkling), "I want to tease Reina."  He climbed into her ballet costume and stood at the top of the stairs until she noticed.  Luckily she laughed and laughed and did not attack him and draw blood, which is what I thought would happen. 

He says, "put this on Facebook!"

My favorite ballerina.  It took us about 20 minutes to get that hair just right.  I'm learning.

Awww, sibling love.  In the form of rabbit ears. 

So, let's bookmark this page and save it for someone's high school graduation party.  Which will probably be here way sooner than we want it to. 

Remember when we went on Spring Break?

It's snowing outside.  It's May 19.  Even by Wyoming standards, this is a little insane.  So let's finish looking at pictures from a time when it was hot outside, we were all wearing shorts and swimming suits and it was lovely.

When we left off on the giant vacation photo overload of 2015,  we were getting ready to board the cruise ship.  So here we are! 

We'd been on the boat for about 30 minutes before the kids were in their swimming suits and splashing around in the pool. 

On the second day of the cruise, we docked at a island in the Bahamas.  Will discovered the joy that is a hammock.  He would've stayed here all day if he hadn't noticed the ocean just ahead. 

My little beach babe.

And my beach boy.

One of the highlights of the trip was a glass bottomed boat tour that we took while we were visiting the island.  We had a great tour guide he sent some divers into the water to bring back all sorts of sea creatures for us to see up close.  The water is amazingly clear in the Caribbean and we saw more fish than we could count, a few stingrays, some nurse sharks, and one really cool turtle.

These kiddos are interested in just about everything that lives in the ocean.

Playing in the water with the Dad.

Glenn stole the camera for a while to take pictures of birds.  That can be it's own blog post someday.  Glenn's sea birds.

Our ship in the distance.

Back on board, we had dinner with the grandparents each night in a very pretty dining room.  Will dressed up for the occasion... ha ha.

I brushed Reina's hair, really! 

On the third day of the cruise, we docked in Nassau and made our way to a pirate museum for our first stop.  I love Reina's pirate expression here - she nailed it! 

A whole family of pirates!

Wow - there's even a Mom Pirate! 

The grandparents and the kiddos talking about life on the sea.

A pretty little square in the middle of downtown.  This was right before lunch and two of the three of us were ready to head back to the ship. 

Nighttime on the ship and a pretty sunset.

My two favorite guys and another sunset in the background.

Siblings back on land. 

 So there you go.  A great week of family, sun and exotic locations.  The kiddos still talk about their cruise and everything we saw.  They are good little travelers.  Summer is just around the corner (supposedly) and I can't wait to see what our next adventure will be. 

Singing in the rain

After a too warm and dry second half of winter and spring, we've had half of our yearly moisture in the last two weeks.  Now, I'm specifically not complaining about the rain and snow (well maybe complaining a little bit about the snow), it has been a bit tough to get outside and accomplish anything, like putting in a garden, lawn mowing, weed and dog poop removal, jogging, kindergarten energy burning off and more.

Instead of complaining about it, some of us take matters into our own cute little hands.  

 

That's a swimming suit under her outfit, she had swimming lessons later that evening.  She's not in the habit of wearing her swimming suit under her schools.  At least, I don't think she is. 

You really only need an umbrella in Wyoming about 5 days out of the year.  Not that it doesn't rain, but it's either coming down so fast and hard that there's no point in going outside or it's raining and 30 degrees and that's actually snow so there's no point in going outside then either.  But every once in a while, it's helpful to have an umbrella, preferably a bright pink one with Scooby Doo on it. 

It's been a while

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind around the Pauley house and unfortunately blogging has taken a back seat.  After the last blog post, Glenn went turkey hunting, the morning after he came back, I went to Baltimore for a conference, came back, caught a virus, felt better, taught a class at work all week, had baseball practice and swimming lessons every night of the week and now it's today. Mother's Day.  And it's snowed and rained and snowed some more so we've been inside a lot.  Everyone's feeling a little squirrelly (Trigger and Tootsie, I'm mostly looking at you.)

National Guard lined up a few blocks from my hotel. 

So let's back up a little bit. I went to Baltimore for a conference and landed there on the day that the riots began.  It was a very interesting time to be there and I feel like I have a different perspective on the events by watching the local news and seeing first-hand the national guard and other responses to the riots. That's the extent of my political commentary. 

After Baltimore, I spent a few days with relatives in Washington, DC.  It was tough to be away from the kiddos for a few extra days but I really enjoyed spending time with Hansen relatives and seeing a few sites.  It was a great little break and I can't wait to take the kiddos back. 

Cousins, my aunt, me and the Washington Monument

My favorite stop was the WWII memorial.  We didn't have much time there but I was awestruck all the same.  It was beautiful. 

The Atlantic side of the memorial

Each state is represented by a pillar.

I have so much to say about the kids and everything that we've been up to for these last few weeks. Nothing earth-shattering:  some loose teeth (Reina), swimming lessons for both (Reina's just had one solitary lesson so far but Will's been going for a month or so and he's making such amazing strides!), baseball practices that keep getting rained (and snowed) out, ballet practices that are leading up to big recital this week and feature Reina standing in the front (a big deal in the predance world) and much, much more.  But that will have to wait until another night.

Snow.  On Mother's Day.  Again.