Hiking

One of our favorite things to do as a family is to go hiking. Mt. Charleston is a nice place to go near here because its usually about 20 degrees cooler. Miss M does a pretty good job, and Miss O and Mr. T usually ride in the bjorn or backpack. Here are some pics from the last couple hikes he went on. One was to Mary Jane Falls at Mt. Charleston and the other was a hot day in late May when he hiked to the Arizona hot springs. The temp was 100+ and it was a 6 mile round trip hike. It sure was beautiful when we got there though. I think next time we will take a boat to the falls or wait until cooler weather to hike there.
The coolest daddy ever. Mr. T in a cave.
Miss M hiking up some rock stairs
Daddy carried two on the trips to the hot springs
And Mr. Tom carried the other one
We made it to the river
A couple hot dudes

Miss O and Mr T on trail clean up day at Mt. Charleston

A golden birthday

Happy Birthday Mr. J!! Today he turned 29. I am so thankful to be the wife of this awesome guy. He is an incredible, godly husband who takes great care of the kids and I. He is a wonderful friend who I can share anything with. He is the hardest worker I have ever met. He is a man of his word. He is an awesome daddy to our 3 kids. He is so loving and patient with them. I continue to fall more in love with him every day. I love you babe!!

We were planning on having a party for him and having some friends over, but canceled because Miss M was still sick. He still had a fun day though. We went to Winchells for doughnuts this morning, then to church (which was extra fun cause he had the two girls sitting with us instead of in their classes) and then came home to make homemade guacomole. We put a candle in the guac for him to blow out. For his birthday, Mr. J wanted to add to his pet collection some spiders... black widow spiders. Last year, Chris found one in our back yard and kept it for a few weeks (at his office of course, not here). A couple days ago he found a web forming and wanted to capture it to have as a pet at work, so we went to Target and got him some cool glass containers. Last night him and Tom went on a spider hunt and found about 20 spiders! He kept a few of them and then they sprayed down the rest. Oh the fun of life with a survival specialist...

Speaking of birthdays, since Aunt S and Uncle T will be leaving the country soon to head to Germany, Aunt S sent a box of all the kids' birthday presents. Below are a couple of the pics of the kids opening their presents. I thought you guys might like to see how big they are getting! Miss O loved her anklet and showed it off proudly.

The black widow spider farm

Miss M Update: Well, her fever continued through Friday. I took her into the Dr. and he thought she may have strep throat because her tonsils her red and swollen. So he started her on antibiotics after a strep test was done. He conjuctivitis (pink eye) is all better. The fever was finally gone this morning. Praise God! It is no fun having sick kids. We are thankful she is on the road to recovery. However, now it's Mr. T's turn to be cranky. His top L tooth has almost burst thru his gums. Poor little dude is kind of miserable. We'll let you know when it makes its grand entrance.

San Diego

I thought I would post about our trip to San Diego since we went there before I entered blogland. One of the great things about military is all the traveling (I guess sometimes I think its a bad thing, too). Since we are living in the Southwest, we have had the opportunity to visit different areas of California and Arizona including Death Valley, Sequoia National Park, Grand Canyon, Mt. Charleston, Lake Mead and our most favorite... San Diego! There are many reasons we love San Diego. They include the perfect weather, the beaches, the fun neighborhoods, the great restaurants, Seaworld, Padres baseball and of course, seeing Uncle C (Mr. J's older brother).

On this trip to San Diego, we had the chance to go to Seaworld for free! They have a great program that allows active duty and their families in for free once a year. The kids loved it. We saw the Shamu:Believe show (If you click on that link, it takes you to an interesting commentary that we share from another blog...) and the dolphin show and the awesome Cirque de la Mer show. Miss M also got to experience her first amusement park rides. She went on the Journey to Atlantis ride with Daddy and Shipwreck Rapids with me (notice how WET we got). She was such a brave girl! Also, Miss O got to ride her first ride on Oscar's Rockin Eel.

The next day we spent with Uncle C and Miss A at Mission Beach. This was such a fun place! We had breakfast at a restraunt called the Wavehouse and ate right on the beach. Then we spent the morning playing in the sand, making castles and burying people. After that we walked down Mission Beach boardwalk and the kids roads some more rides.

This was another great trip to San Diego and we can't wait to return. We would love to make it to the San Diego Zoo on our next trip.


Miss O running in the sand
Uncle C and Miss A chillin on the beach
A pretty awesome sand castle

If you can believe it, the kids were cold in 65 degree weather and I didn't pack any coats.

The boys waiting for Shamu
My little flamingo
Miss O waiting for the Cirque show
Wet and cold after the Shipwreck Rapids

Oscar's Rockin Eel

Guess I'll go eat worms......

As you may know, my husband is a survival instructor in the USAF. Part of his job is to train people in local area survival. He thought a fun activity for his students would be to have them eat chocolate covered king worms. So we made a trip to the exotic pet store where he purchased a bunch of them. Friday night, we "taste tested" them. Mr. J and Uncle T tried them raw and still moving. Yuck!!! Then Mr. J fried up a couple in butter and Aunt D and I tried them dipped in chocolate. It wasn't as bad as you think... the closest thing I can compare it to is eating sunflower seeds.

The poor little guy we ate

I was so brave!
Mr. J also picked up an Arizona Bark Scorpion at the pet store. He is going to use this as a mascot for his office. Does any one have any ideas for a name?

my new adventure

As many of your know, I started in January at a brand new hospital in NW Las Vegas as an RN on a med/surg floor. I had taken about 11 months off while we made the move down here and I gave birth to Mr. T. It was hard to have to leave the hospital I loved in Spokane where I had worked my first 4 years at. The transition to working in Las Vegas was a tough one. I had originally hoped to work on base when we got here but was told that only full time positions were available. Well, after getting to know a fellow preschool mom who worked as an active duty RN, she encouraged me to look into a position again and so I contacted the civilian hiring agency. The had a per diem (as needed / supplemental type position) available in one of the clinics at one of the hospitals on base. I was interviewed and hired last month. I resigned from my position at the new hospital and was glad to close that chapter in my nursing career. I am excited about the new opportunities available to me in clinic nursing. Also, I love the education aspect of nursing and I will get to spend more time doing this with patients. I think I will probably miss the excitement and high speed part of the hospital setting, but we shall see.
Another interesting part of this job change is that I will be working for the military. They do things a bit differently than the civilian world so I have a lot to learn!

To update you on Miss M's pink eye - Aunt D reported to me that she was warm and lethargic all day while I was gone. Also, she totally lost her appetite and didn't even want to eat fruit salad at lunch (one of her all time favorite things to eat). Turns out she has a fever of 101.7! So, we our keeping an eye on her and giving her lots of tylenol and continuing the eye drops.

Pink Eye and Toilet Water

The Jones family has experienced 2 firsts today. Miss M has been officially diagnosed with pink eye. Yes, it's true. Before we went to VBS yesterday she said her eye itched. I didn't think much of it because there was no redness. Well, after she woke up from her nap, her eye was pretty red and swollen. So, this morning we made an appointment for her and all stayed home. We were all pretty bummed to miss a day of VBS. However, my mom had a great idea to have our own at home. So we wore our special shirts, read today's truth that Jesus is God's Son out of Luke 2, made tropical island necklaces, played fun preschool games, listened to our special Outrigger Island CD and ate ants on a log (celery, peanut butter and raisins).

After our fun VBS, we were all playing in the kids' room when Mr. T snuck out of the room. About a minute later, I noticed he was gone so I went looking for him. I was shocked to find out he had discovered the toilet and was having a wonderful time splashing in the water. I was so grossed out but very thankful that the toilet had been recently flushed by the previous user. She (Miss M) only remembers to do that about half the time. So, it could have been much worse. The funny thing about this is that neither of the girls ever did this... maybe it's a boy thing.

ALOHA!

Vacation Bible school started for the Jones family yesterday. We are going to an "Outrigger Island" themed VBS at the church I attend MOPS at. All the kids are attending and I am helping lead crafts in the mom's class. The Mom's class goes over the same themes that are taught to the children with an emphasis on how to teach them the truth's of the Bible. Also, we have brunch, fun games and a craft. On Monday, we learned the truth that God is Real. It was a great review of the story of Moses and God speaking to him through the burning bush. We are looking forward to a fun filled week of learning more about God's word!!