Hiking with Daddy

Mr. J took the kids hiking on Monday while I worked. They went to Red Rock, west of Las Vegas and hiked in Ice Box Canyon. Yes, I think if they had a daddy of the year award, he should win it. He dressed the kids, packed food and a diaper bag and off they went. They had to stop at Costco first (to get an external hard drive to copy files from our desk top.. we are having virus issues). That alone would be enough for me with the three kids, but from there he took them to Red Rock where they hiked about 3/4 miles up the trail and then back. Miss M told me that part of the way back, daddy carried them all and she said the other hikers were there thought that was really cool. He puts one in the front pack, one in the back pack and one on his shoulders. The kids said they had a great time and wanted to go again today. Below are some pics Mr. J took with the new camera. We have really learned to enjoy the beauty of the southwest. If you click on the pictures, they will get bigger and are quite beautiful.

Aren't the red rocks beautiful with the snow on them?

At the trail head

Sweet girls

Silly girls Mr. T ready to go, notice the Gonzaga hat. Like father, like son.

Going along the trail Lunch time!

Always a favorite part of the hike
Mr. J says these are juniper berries

Another pretty view of the rocks

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.