Dude, it's the COOLEST place!

So we went to Jurassic Forest, and it was pretty much the greatest place ever. I took the boys and my mom and we went, not knowing just what to expect.

For those of you that don't know, Jurassic Forest is a park north of Gibbons (in the middle of nowhere) that is brand new and contains animatronic dinosaurs. It's like going to the zoo, but with dinosaurs instead. The dinos are always doing small movements, but are triggered by sensors that we walk by on the path to make larger movements and sounds. It's amazing. When you get there, there is a playground that is the centre of the park, and there are 2 loops that you walk to see the dinosaurs. There are no visible wires, no paths out to the dinosaurs, and it looks SO real. Even though Nathan knows that dinosaurs are extinct, we had to tell him that no, these aren't real! The signs around the park were funny and made it that much cooler.

The dinosaurs are all built to scale. Some of them are close to the paths, some are far away.

Here are some raptors chasing a brachiosaurus. It looked amazing.

A t-rex eating another small dino. Nathan thought this was very cool and cheered on the t-rex.

Adorable little wagons that they have on-site!

A small indoor centre with more cool stuff!

The boardwalk paths in the forest. So nice.

The playground has bones underneath the sand!

Cool stuff to climb on.

A Nice Break

This week the boys are away at Grandma & Grandpa Heinbuch's house in Rocky. Pete's parents have them for their church's VBS and they have been excited for months to go! When I asked the boys whether or not I should come and stay over for the first night to get them settled, Nathan said that he didn't want me to... They're growing up! Although I miss them, I'm glad that they have the chance to be with Grandma and Grandpa. I've got such fond memories of being with Grandma and Grandpa Zapf at the lake in the summer, and I am so happy that the boys get to have that experience. It gave me the chance to get to know my grandparents so much better, to be in a different place for a while, to appreciate home and my own bed that much more.

...It's really quiet...

Nathan in Love

For at least a year, Nathan has been telling me that he's going to marry a girl in Sunday School named Allison. He is adament that this is going to happen, and that he will never change his mind. The following is a conversation that Nathan and I had in the car on the way to church a few weeks ago:

Nathan - Mommy, can I kiss Allison on the cheek today at church?
Me - I don't know, you would have to ask her if it's okay...
Nathan - Mommy, do boys marry their girlfriends?
Me - Well, if Jesus says that their girlfriend is the right one for them to marry, then yes.
Nathan - *gasp* Allison IS the right one! Jesus said it!

Poor Pluto

Zack and Nathan and I were having a conversation about the planets after having watched and read a few different things about space. Nathan, with his love of everything tiny, said, "My favorite planet is Pluto because it's so small that it's a baby planet." I told him that scientists have now found out that Pluto is too small to be a planet, so it's not a planet anymore, and Nathan started to cry, saying, "But it's my favorite!"

Nathan Is FIVE!

Well, it's definitely been a while, hasn't it? Between Nathan's and Pete's birthdays, doing wedding flowers (have a look at my flower blog, there's new stuff on that too), and the end of school, it's been quite a ride this past month! Here's some pictures of Nathan's Lego birthday party - we had a great time, and the weather was nice enough for us to play in the yard. The sign I made. I love making signs. I'm such a dork.

Nathan's Lego cake/cupcakes. It takes a whole lot of wilton icing color to make the color that intense... The boys had red and green poop in the morning!

Zack reading Nathan's cards to him - so cute.

Nathan blowing his party horn, or a "blowey" as he called it. I'm so sure we have a similar picture of him doing the same thing from a couple years ago!

Surprise!

I can't believe a whole week has acutally gone by since all this started!

Last Sunday night, after spending the weekend building a fence and a flower bed, Pete and I were sitting on the couch and chatting with Amanda and Nathan. My stomach started hurting a LOT... Having had a digestive disease before, I'm used to stomach pain, but this was like nothing I've felt before. I wanted to tear my skin off. Then the pain localized just a little left of my right hip. Pete told me I should go to the Stony hospital to get checked out, but I reeeeally didn't want to go. Then I finally broke (mostly because it hurt so much) and went. I didn't expect that they would keep me overnight with an IV and morphine and tests. On Monday afternoon, I got transferred to the Misercordia in Edmonton for a surgical consult - they were pretty sure I had appendicitis. Late Monday night I went into surgery and they took out my appendix, and they discharged me from the hospital on Tuesday. I don't remember too much of the rest of Tuesday... I was still pretty doped up!

God has a way of working things out, and people came to our rescue as we needed them. On Monday, Zack went to school and Amanda took Nathan with her into her class for the afternoon so that Pete could stay with me for my transfer. Amanda took the boys from school to her house and fed them supper and played with them until Pete came to get them. Then Pete dropped the boys off at our house with my parents, who brought supper for Pete and put the boys to bed while Pete checked on me after surgery on Monday night. Tuesday morning, Pete's parents drove up from Rocky and Pete's mom took the rest of the week off of work so that she could stay here and cook and take care of the house and Zack and Nathan while I recovered. She helped me so much; even helping me set up my PartyLite open house so that I didn't have to cancel. Even Bethany came to my rescue at the hospital by tracking down some breakfast for me because it didn't come.

I'm so thankful to our family and friends who were thinking of us and praying for us and helping out. What a blessing it was to know that even when bad things happen, God prepares all the right people who are willing and able to help out, even in the smallest ways.

Hardcore... And Adorable... And Scary...

As most of you know, the boys both start Motocross lessons (on an actual motorcycle with gears and power and everything - yikes!) on Sunday. They couldn't be more excited to ride, especially with their hero, the magnificent Kyle, as their teacher. We bought all of their gear and they are ready to go - helmet, gloves, riding pants, jersey, chest and shoulder protection, goggles - they've got it all. They're pretty proud of their new look and are SO excited to start riding! Zack and Nathan have both been on our motorcycle (a little one just for them) with Pete on the back, and they know how to work the throttle and the brake with ease - only Zack has the foot strength to shift the gears so far, but I'm sure Nathan will catch up right away.

Zack Is Rockin' It... School Style

A few weeks ago, Zack's class had "when I grow up" day. The kids were instructed to dress as what they wanted to be when they grew up. There were some parents that came in to talk about their jobs, too. I asked Zack what he wanted to be, and he said with conviction, "A rock star!" Okay! So I shredded a pair of Zack's old jeans that already had holes in them, spiked his hair, and put black eyeliner on him. (Side note: It's REALLY hard to put eyeliner on a five-year-old!) We gave him our non-working guitar hero guitar and sent him on his way. Here's Zack rockin' out before school.