HUNTING EGGS

Today was Li'l Brats Easter egg hunt and party at school. He was very excited when I left him there this morning. He couldn't wait for me to come back, and for his party to begin and kept reminding me to come back for his party.

LB's school is actually part of the high school and the students there come down and help out with the daycare. When I arrived for the egg hunt and party, the high school students had placed the plastic, candy filled, eggs all over one end of the football field in anticipation of the kids.

The kids got their buckets and headed outside to"hunt" eggs. LB was very excited and ran ahead of everyone else. He couldn't wait to get to the field and start hunting Easter eggs. When the word was given, off the kids ran to pick up eggs. There were so MANY eggs scattered around on the field that most of the kids really didn't know what to do. We kept having to tell them "pick up the eggs". They darted here, there and everywhere, skipping over eggs here to pick one up there. The bigger kids did very well and made sure to leave plenty of eggs for the babies to find.

The kids ran around and around picking up egg after egg until they were all gathered. LB filled his bucket quickly and then decided to help out his li'l friend "Dude" - and yes that's what they seem to call each other. The two of them crack me up walking around saying "hey Dude". When all the eggs were gathered it was time to head back inside and have some lunch.

Sandwiches, chips, pasta salad, fresh veggies, cookies, cake.....everything a kid could want and more. LB decided on a pb&j, chips, fresh broccoli and a little pasta salad. He HAD to sit next to "dude" so they enjoyed their lunch, talking to each other about the eggs they'd found and other stuff that I'm not really sure about. I have to admit that most of the kids were too excited to really stay in their seats and eat, and it was a challenge to try to coax them into eating a little more food before they could have cookies & cake.

It didn't take long until eyes were being rubbed and heads began to bob. LB said his good-byes, wished everyone a Happy Easter and we set out for home and his own nap. He didn't fight it too hard and it only took a few minutes of rocking until he was out like a light. Probably dreaming about all the eggs he found and all the candy he'll get to eat when he wakes up!

A Funny on BD

O.k. as most of you know from reading this blog, there are two main characters featured....BB & LB. Well tonight I got the biggest laugh, not from either of them but from BD. I just had to share this with everyone because I know that ya'll will double over laughing just like I did.

So I'm sitting in what has been deemed "the computer room" blogging away while the boys were all doing different things. LB was in his room watching "The Sand Lot" on t.v. while BB and BD were in the living room playing the xbox360 game "Gears of War". I'll admit that I don't totally "get" all the war games out there, but they seem to enjoy playing them and enjoy them even more when playing together. Hey - it's father/son bonding so who am I to say anything.

Well I'm sitting here at the computer typing away, just half listening to them talking back and forth, planning their strategy. I can tell the game is getting very involved from the tone of their voices. The adrenaline is kicking in.....the pulse rates going up, they're REALLY getting into this game. Well they proceed through their mission, BD taking the lead and BB bringing up the rear....barely keeping themselves alive much less the np characters that are played by the xbox itself.

I'm really getting into my blogging - organizing and uploading pictures, etc. etc. etc. when all of a sudden I hear from the living room "I died, RUN AWAY!! RUN AWAY!!!". Apparently BD had been killed by some creature unknown to me and he was yelling for BB to "run away!!". Maybe it was just me, but I found the whole thing very very comical. It SO reminded me of one of the Monty Python movies (I can't remember which) but there's one scene where someone yells "run away, run away".

I'm still chuckling, just thinking about it. I popped into the living room and yelled "run away, run away". I thought BB was going to die laughing. I looked at BD and his face got all red and he started laughing. I did warn him though. I told him "this is too funny.....it's going on my blog". So here it is......A funny on BD. Hope you all got a good, side splitting laugh from this!!

Road Trips & History Lessons pt.2 - Roswell & Carlsbad Caverns

After leaving Lincoln we headed towards Carlsbad Caverns, passing through Roswell. O.K. now I'm sure everyone thinks of one thing if you say Roswell, NM. Of course you do....alien crash and Area 51 - o.k. o.k. that's technically two things. Yes, I know Area 51 is in Nevada...but they had to get the alien that they're covering up from somewhere....so where did they get it? At the WalMart of course (*laughs*)

HEY - did you know they even have UFO H2O at WalMart.....at least in Roswell they do (*laughs again*)

What can I say....the people of Roswell really really get into the whole alien thing. Now I know you're wondering....did a UFO really crash in Roswell. Well I can't say with 100% certainty, but I guess people know a money maker when they see one. I'm not lying when I say that almost every store had some type of reference to aliens....shoot Arby's even had a sign that said "Aliens Welcome". So....I'll let you draw your own conclusions...but the kids got a kick out of seeing so many aliens.

We spent the night in Artesia, NM. A quaint little town with a very large oil refinery. The next morning we got up, had breakfast and headed down to Carlsbad Caverns. History lesson, history lesson.....*"in the 1800's settlers discovered the cavern, drawn to it by the spectacle of hundreds of thousands of bats rising up out of the natural entrance in the evening."

Upon further exploration of the cave many of the settlers remained and began to mine the bat guano and sell it as a natural fertilizer. Jim White, a cowboy who was fascinated by the caves, spent hours exploring the cave. He was eager to show others this natural wonder that he had found but most were sceptical until photographs convinced them.

In 1923 the U.S. Department of the Interior sent an inspector, Robert Holley, to see if the caverns were a natural scenic wonder. Later the same year, Carlsbad caverns was proclaimed a National Monument.

Upon arriving at the caverns, we proceeded into the information center/gift shop/restaurant and purchased our tickets. Now, there are technically two ways to enter the caverns.

We took the "Natural Entrance" which consist of a one mile route leading you down 750 feet into the cavern. The trip takes about an hour and let me tell you.....even though it's ALL down hill, your legs really wont thank you for this one!!!! As you descend into the cave, you enter what seems like a world of make believe. There's so much to see.

We finally reached "the lunchroom" where they had restrooms and a snack bar and little tables set up to sit down, catch your breath, and have a snack. BD bought a few bottles of water and we all sat down to plan out our next strategy. There is another self guided tour that you can take around the "Big Room" and there are also a couple of ranger guided tours you can take.

The ranger tours have limited space and there is an extra fee. The ranger tours were sold out the day that we went but when we go back we'll make advance reservations for these because there are some places that would be nice to see that we didn't get to.

The "Big Room" is a self guided tour that also is about a mile in length but takes about 1-1/2 hour to complete. The good news???? It's all fairly flat and easy to navigate which I can honestly tell you...my legs DID thank me for that (*laughs*). I can't even begin to describe the magnificent things that we saw while exploring the "Big Room". We passed through the Hall of Giants, the Temple of the Sun and passed Mirror Lake. We looked into the Bottomless Pit, and observed the Rock of Ages.

I did take lots and lots of pictures, unfortunately the better ones were taken without the flash, requiring a rock steady hand - and after hiking 1 mile, 750 feet down.....lets just say my hands weren't the only things not stable. But I did manage to get several great pictures. I wished I could share more with you here, but there's just not enough room. (If you'd like to see more pics, feel free to check out my album on Facebook)

After wandering around in the caves for over 2 hours it was time to head up and out. Now don't panic, and I know a few of you were...NO we didn't have to trek back up the 1 mile natural entrance, we did what any sane, rational person would do....WE TOOK THE ELEVATOR!! We meandered around the gift shop for a while, and YES the kids did get more than just a T-shirt (*laughs*). All in all, it was a very enjoyable day, and one that I would repeat.

We are planning to go back to the caverns sometime this summer. They have an outdoor theater set up where you can go and watch the bats enter the cave in the early mornings or exit the caves at dusk. Can you imagine??? hundreds of thousands of Mexican Free-tailed bats exiting the cave? I think that would be an amazing thing to see. We left Carlsbad Caverns and headed home. Everyone was pretty tired so much of the trip home was spent snoozing - at least me, BB & LB got in a few zzzz's. We had a wonderful weekend!!!


*exert taken from the Carlsbad Caverns' tour brochure