Spring Fever

Spring Fever hit me with a vengeance this month -- I thought I was gonna lose my mind!!!  I couldn't sit still, I couldn't focus, and all I wanted was to get out of Idaho for a while!  We looked into a few different options for a mini-family vacation, but we couldn't really decide on anything… But then, on Thursday, we hastily threw some plans together and just took off as soon as we were done with Nicole's parent-teacher conference after school.  (She's doing excellent in school, by the way!)  :)  Our vacation destination was Salt Lake City, because it wasn't too far of a drive, and we were able to find a few fun things that we'd all enjoy doing together there.  I can't even describe how wonderful it was to just get away for the weekend!!!  :)  We had lots of fun and made some great memories -- and I'm glad we did it now, because within the next month our world is gonna be flipped upside down with the arrival of our little Rebecca!

Here are some pics of our weekend adventures:

Cole and Ryan riding the go-karts at Boondocks.  :)  Ryan kept trying to get Cole to take the wheel and steer, and she didn't think that was very funny… ;)

At a candy and soda store in the Gateway Mall, we found bacon flavored toothpaste and bacon soap (among a variety of other bacon candies and silly products), and it made me think of certain members of my family who can't get enough of bacon (you know who you are!!!).   ;)

We spent a little over an hour at the Children's Discovery Museum, which Nicole really enjoyed (despite the majority of their displays being broken/out-of-order).  Here, Ryan is helping Cole get dressed up as a firefighter.

And here they took turns piloting the life-flight helicopter -- that was pretty cool!

Nicole got to pretend to be a news anchor, too!  :)

Taking Daddy for a drive (she's a scary driver…even when the car is stationary!).  :)

I think that "riding" the horse was her favorite part of the whole Children's Museum.  :)

After a long, exhausting morning, we were happy to relax and get some lunch at Rumbi Island Grill.

Another place we went to was the Museum of Natural History.  We weren't expecting it to be as big as it was, but enjoyed wandering around for a few hours.  In the picture above, Nicole got to flood the Salt Lake Valley.  And below are pics of some of our favorite fossils.  We couldn't believe how big that long-neck dinosaur was…the picture doesn't even do it justice!

 Enjoying the sun on the museum's roof-top terrace.  :)

Taking a break from all the walking to put together a giant puzzle.  Nicole insisted that the dinosaur was trying to eat her in the picture below.  :)

This creepy dinosaur dude is actually a donation collection box.  You drop coins down his throat.  :)  Cole was sooo freaked out, it took her a while to get up the courage to put her coin in, even after Ryan showed her that nothing would happen to her hand if she stuck it in the dinosaur's mouth.  :)

So, after we all exhausted ourselves over the weekend, I'm thinking that the Spring Fever has flown the coop, and I can get back to preparing for Rebecca's big debut!  :)  We're just past 35 weeks now, and Rebecca is probably weighing in at just over 5 pounds.  She keeps us all entertained with her dance moves, and keeps me up all night making visits to the bathroom.  I frequently find myself completely out of breath, and pregnancy-brain has definitely kicked into gear.  Contractions have kicked up a notch in frequency and intensity, but still nothing regular.  And despite the pains, I'm enjoying being pregnant.  :)  We're all getting anxious for Rebecca to be born, though…so exciting!!!  :) :) :)