Easter Morning

Here are the kids' Easter baskets lined up on Easter morning, and the kids were excited to run downstairs and see what they got.

 Sareny got a dress, Isaac got some basketball shorts and a shirt, Finley got some church shoes and a My Little Pony, and Keeley got a baby doll.

 Then the hunt was on.

 They scavenged around and found all the eggs pretty quickly.

Keeley even got in on the action, although she would just pick up an egg and walk around with it for a while.

Then I lined the kids up for a picture with their baskets, although Rhys didn't want to be in the picture.

And for some reason, Sareny was wearing my glasses that morning. Good thing my prescription isn't very strong. After church and an Easter dinner of ham, the Ronquillos headed over to the East side of town and back to Chicargo.

Having some fun at Cabela's!

I love going to Cabela's--they have so many interesting things to do and see. We went with the Ronquillos the day after Sareny's birthday party and had a lot of fun. The kids checking out the fish in the aquarium.

 And Sareny has a rather devious look in the above picture!

 We spotted a very pale fish.

 Keeley had fun looking at the fish too.

John mentioned something about an archery range, and I was like, What? I had no idea they had that. So I spoke to a worker post haste and arranged for us all to shoot a bow and arrow. Except right after I did that, everyone else in our group informed me that I was the only one interested in shooting. So I gave it a go.

 It was fun, but harder than it looks--my arrows didn't exactly go right where I was expecting them to.

 And then I somehow convinced Keith to try it out. It was pretty fun, after all.

 I think Keith enjoyed it as well, but Holli and John were not up for trying it out.

My kids thought these weird zombie targets were hysterical--Rhys more appropriately thought they were creepy. Notice how Finley is letting this one chomp right on her hand--guess she wouldn't last long in a zombie apocolypse.

Then we went upstairs to the laser shooting arcade, and Finley and Rhys got a kick out of the talking deer head on the wall. Which, let me tell you, that thing gets annoying real fast.

 We spent a while shooting at the lasers.

 I taught Isaac the proper technique, and he got pretty good at hitting the targets.

 John and Rhys, with Rhys still fascinated by the deer head. Pretty sure John was not.

 Keith played around with Keeley.

 Holli Jo shooting the guns.

 I love this one--they look like a frontier pa with his daughter, shooting at varmints.

 John helped the kids out.

 And then there was a whole series of photos showing the shooting area...yep, IJ got the camera again.

Rhys found the toys...we have realized that toys to Rhys are what electronics are to Isaac. He is obsessed with them and loves to play with them, look at them, pick them out at stores, and talk about them.

 We tried the pink cowboy hat on Keeley, but she wasn't having that.

 Finley, on the other hand, came up with these adorable poses all on her own.

 What a sweetie!

 And then Finley and Rhys danced the two step all the way to the store entrance.

 It was pretty adorable.

 Sareny is, of course, always up for a good pose.

After Cabela's, we headed over for burgers at Five Guys before heading home. It was a fun evening last evening with the Ronquillos, since they were headed back to Chicago the following day, which was Easter Sunday.

Zoo Lights!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year and Grammy Jo and Bampa came down for the festivities. Wednesday evening, they went with us to see zoolights, which are always so fun.

This year, the zoo handed out these special glasses to view the lights through. Kind of a cool idea, but really the lights looked better without the them. Isaac and Finley sure loved them, though!

You may notice in these pictures that some of us are wearing shorts. It was a really warm November! We threw on some jackets for good measure so we could feel wintery, but they weren't really necessary.

A family photo. Keeley was being a good girl in her stroller, so we weren't too anxious to disturb her by getting her out for every photo-op.

Daddy and his boy.

We spotted this unicorn, so we took the girls over for a picture. Isaac ran over to be in it too. :)

The best part of the experience--the avenue of dancing trees. They changed it this year so that instead of sitting with your backs to the lake,  you are looking out over the lake and some of the far trees participated as well.

We took a picture of Finley sitting on Keith's shoulders eating cotton candy last year, so when the event duplicated itself, I thought it needed another picture.

Mommy and Sareny. Love my biggest girl!

Grammy and KeeKee. The camera puts a green light on your face right before it takes a picture, which KeeKee didn't like, so it was hard to get her looking right at the camera.

Scott was able to meet us at the zoo near the end of our visit. We repeated some of the lights with him, which I thought they were just as cool the second time around. Isaac sure loves Scott!

And Sareny sure loves her tia Lexi.

These two love each other as well! I do like how sweet they look in this picture.

My mom and dad.

Bampa and LeeLee in front of the giant blue tree at the entryway of the zoo.

A family photo out front at the zoo. Not the greatest shot, but nice that it has zoolights in the background. And probably more representative of our real life!

Grammy Jo and Bampa. So glad they could come share in this fun tradition with us! We love going to zoo lights, and it was even more fun with family.