Girls Trip to New Orleans!!

 Girls trip to New Orleans was amazing! We went to celebrate Michelle getting married. We stayed with her friend Stacey. I loved the city, Michelle's friends, hearing so many fun stories about Michelle and just having a great time! I think it may become a annual trip. :)

 Bourbon street is of course just crazy and full of people!

 We were there over French Quarter Fest which is all the local jazz artists. It was so great to be able to experience the festival...although it was packed full of people. It filled the french quarter, which is a few blocks!

 We had lots of fun going out! The picture above is Stacey's next door neighbor, she is a lounge singer and we went to hear her perform.

 And of course I can't go to New Orleans without having some crawfish. So the above picture is me learning how to "suck" out the head. Which after that first time of doing...I didn't do anymore. :) But they were tasty, just a lot of work for a little bite!

 And the last evening we were able to go to Stacey's parents house which is on the water in a smaller town about 30 minutes away. I was in love with the area and loved that her dad took us on a boat ride and gave me so much history of the area. So much fun!

Until next year!!

Birthdays!

 We celebrated Jake birthday this month! He had a BBQ at the park with some friends from school. All the boys had a great time!

 And we also celebrate Jolene turning 40 this year! Jon and I planned a surprise party for her...and she was totally surprised!! She walked in the door of the restaurant and couldn't believe that all the people were there for her...she just stood there in shock. It was great. I really wanted her to feel so loved and I think she left that afternoon with her belly and her heart being full! :)

 

She didn't want to say she was turning 40...so it was a turning 29 again party. :)

 Happy Birthday Jolene! I love you.

Family Love

 I love that we are a family that really enjoys and is intentional about doing fun things together! 

This just captures a few of those moments.

 This crazy girl!

 One of our family fun days we took the kids to Amazing Jakes where they got to play all kinds of fun games including cosmic bowling and a climbing wall!

 And Dylan had his final fun run as part of the running club at school at the Cardinals stadium. He ran the whole thing and was a great encourager to his friends.

 And Mark took this picture of me eating my lunch while our pet hamster just roams around our table. Welcome to the Roberts random farm!

And Mark and I have been more intentional about excercising and have been running or hiking 3 times a week. Thankful for that time together...even though some times I really don't feel like being active! :)

Summer Break - Part 3 - The Grand Canyon

 On the road there was many times of needing to occupy time and one of those times it became, "do daddy's hair". Isabelle had a great time styling Mark and I's hair. :)

 I have to be honest and say that the night we arrived at the Grand Canyon is probably on the list of one of the worst nights sleep ever. The RV still has no electric and it is now 9 degrees at night...so cold and miserable. Isabelle wakes up and crawls in bed with me telling me she is so cold.

So Mark being the great Dad that he is starts driving us around so that we can use the heater in the cab of the truck to warm us up and keep sleeping. He probably drove around for a good 2 hours before the sun came up. Defiantly a gift of LOVE!

 But because of the early morning I was able to experience one of the most amazing nature experiences of my life. Being able to see the sun rise over the Grand Canyon. It was breathtaking. It was quiet and peaceful...there was no one else around. I was able to see the 1st ray of light hit the canyon walls in all of it's spendor. A fantastic moment to say the least!

 It was a cold and windy morning, I feel like the above picture is me being a mama hen...gathering up her little chicks, warming them. :)

We took the trolly from the visitor center to the Bright Angel trail with the plan of walking along the Canyon edge until the kids were done walking and catch the trolly back. But the kids had a great time and ended up walking the entire 2.2 miles! We found all kinds of treasures along the way and made fun games up as we went along. It was another top memory from the trip!

Spring Break - Part 2 - Zion National Monument

 Zion was by far my favorite stop of the trip. It was so much more beautiful than I thought it would be. So many trails to go exploring...I need to go back with just Mark so we can do some of the big hikes. We were just able to do a few of the kid friendly paved hikes while we were there, but even those were great!. 

 The kids had a great time exploring during the hikes. It was so amazing whichever direction you looked!

 The kids said they wanted to play in the water and it got pretty warm in the afternoon...but that water was FREEZING. But they still had a great time!

 That night it got down to 19 degrees, there was a huge temperature change as soon as the sun went down. And this was the night that our RV electric stopped working also. Which meant no heater, refrigerator or water working. Not a happy moment. Mark tried to get it fixed...but it was beyond repair. It was a really cold night but we survived 

(actually just Mark and I were the ones complaining! :)).

Can't wait to come back here again some day!