Gage Park...photos now working...

Topeka, Kansas has the coolest park, EVER. No, seriously...after dropping by there with the girls when we drove through town, Jared finally understood why I think that most parks are "blah"...

There is just something SOOO cool about seeing your children re-live some of your own childhood memories.

We rode the Gage Park Train ($1.25 for a ride around the 160 acre park...where can you find a price like that, nowadays?) and dangerous antiquated see-saw benches (see photo bottom right) were not to be missed!

Not to mention "Animal Land" is just about of one the COOLEST places to play (well, it was to me as a kid, anyhow...and it didn't seem to disapoint 20 years later, either)!! It's fun to see that the old fading paint jobs and animal creatures (law-suit proof or not) are still all there!

Kudos to Topeka for keeping this place alive and well!

Too bad I can't take this park with me where I go!

Cute Cousins

On our trek from Georgia to Utah, we stopped in Tennessee to see my brother, Ben, his wife, Jenny, and their son, Tyler.
They treated us to fresh Krispy Kreme donuts!!

Are these not some of the cutest cousins?!

Amicalola Falls

It's just a fun name to say...isn't it?

AMICALOLA...Amicalola...I dare you...say it out loud!

Anyhow...before leaving Georgia, Lara & Greg took us to these Falls!

Looking preggo, now!

Blisters...oh, I mean...SISTERS...

don't we look alike?!!

Or not...

The family...and our phantom spirit...

On the way there, we took a weird turn, and found ourselves at a Kangaroo Conservation Center! What?! In Georgia?

While we were tempted to pay the big bucks to take the little shuttle to see the kangaroos up close...the $30/Adult and $24/Child price tag was enough to convince us to instead snap a quick picture from the fence...where we DID, in fact, get to spot a few kangaroos waaaay in the distance!

The end.

Or ends.

Fun with the Girls...

Some random photos...

Swimming in Peachtree City (outside on a HOT day!), painting fingernails, library fun-time, goggles & dress-up!!


Remind me again...what am I going to do with a boy?!

Easter Day

For Easter, we traveled with Lara & Greg to Greg's parent's home in Tennessee. They took us in, as if we were their own family, and we had a fantastic time!!

Ella made a new buddy, and Gerg's parents spoiled our girls (and us) with candy, and yummy food!

We dyed eggs...

and we introduced Greg's family to the Saville tradition of rolling those eggs (to break the shells), and then Lara and I fed them our creamed egg over toast meal (apparently, an old navy meal that my grandpa used to enjoy...I believe?)! Yummy! It's okay to not be vegan on Easter...

And of course...the girls got to do an egg hunt around the yard (in the BEAUTIFUL weather!)...!

Ella's last day of Preschool...

We are SOOOOO blessed that Ella was able to attend preschool while we were in Peachtree City. It was a fantastic school, and she really learned SO much! She is taking off with her numbers and letters, now...and every once in awhile she breaks out into a song that she learned there!

We attended Ella's Easter Party at school (her last day)...and Ella was kind enough to share her snack with Maiya.

Ella's teachers were great!

And she made a lot of great friends who wished her luck in Mexico! Ohh...eventually we'll get there!

I LOVED how the school did an Easter Egg hunt for the kids. All of the plastic eggs were labeled with a letter, and each child was assigned a letter to collect. That means there was no fighting--and everyone got the same amount! I will so have to do this some day with my kids!

The Yard Project...

My sister has the coolest yard on the planet. Seriously...perhaps it could be counted as an additional "wonder of the world"?!! It is a fortress of concrete and wood...left compliments of their previous owner. Lara & Greg hope to someday be able to convince a home improvement show to come work wonders on the backyard...and make sense of it all. Until then...kids enjoying running around the fortress, and we don't wander too far from the back door!

In an effort to leave behind a token of appreciate for the wonderful time we had living with Lara & Greg...Jared and I decided to tackle a portion of the backyard. I wish I had "before" photos of this newly manually roto-tilled ground...but just imagine weeds and roots galore, as well as lumps (that looked like buried dead bodies), posts, and random chunks of concrete. Jared is a workaholic, and seriously put some major back-work into this yard! I did what I could...limiting my task to raking out the ridiculous amount of roots and weeds from the dirt he turned up. The end result was an entire trailer full of discarded roots/weeds!