Yet another Spring Break Activity . . . SPLASH!

Max, Sam, Ellie, Jack and Lucy

Can we go in yet? . . . PLEASE?

Jack in his goggles & and Lucy in her polka dot bikini!

Sam and Ellie in the Wave Pool . . . best buddies!

Allie, Lucy, Donnie, Ethan & Jack

Donnie earns some major "Daddy Points" for playing in the

pee pee pool with the kids!

Leticia, Me holding Genevieve & Christy holding Dominic

Max and Cade . . . also great buds!


Jack, Max being hugged by Lucy and Ethan

Like I've said before, I am glutton for punishment, but the kids can never say that they have had a boring Spring Break! We met the Hakalas, Ficeks, Dacars and Angelestranos at Splash for an afternoon of waves and water slides. I was bragging to the moms about how it is so cool that my kids are at the ages that they are, because I don't have to get in the pool and get wet anymore. I can just sit on the sidelines, stay dry and cheer them on! Yeah right! One thing that having kids has taught me is that you always have to eat your words. The boys are pretty good swimmers and they just want to play with their friends anyway, so they don't need their mom hanging around. Lucy usually just likes to hang out in the baby pool (pee pee pool is what I like to call it) and I can just watch her. Well, of course, she chose today to want to try the water slide for the first time. So the next thing you know, I am being whisked down the slide with Lucy on my lap holding on for dear life. We laughed and screamed the whole way down until we were shot out the end into the pool where I held her up as high as I could so that her head wouldn't go under (her biggest fear) while I was completely under the water being tossed and turned and kicked in the face by her. When we finally popped out, she yelled "that was so fun lets do it again"! Yeah - so fun for YOU! No, just kidding, it was fun to see her try something new and get excited about it, to talk her through her anticipation as we waited in line & and to laugh and giggle with her the whole way down! I guess staying dry isn't all its cracked up to be!

Lazer Tag at Putters!

Sam with his Lazer Gun!

I got a little too into it . . .

I actually kind of have a crazy look in my eyes!

Max and Ben were on the Blue team!

Chad and Will were on the Red team!

Allie and Lucy decided to stay out and play on the play structure.

All of the Moms . . .

it was fun to sit and chat while the kids were busy playing on the play structure, video games, miniature golf and bowling!

Chad, Pancho and Donnie got some talk-time in too as well as a Big Screen with some March Madness on in the background.

Teesh, Genevieve and Christy

Liz and ME!

It's always fun to get together with all of the friends, but this was especially fun because we played a HUGE game of Lazer Tag, adults and kids! The kids loved it that their moms and dads were playing too! I actually had a BLAST! I was so into it that I did a header and slid about 3 feet across the ground, all because I was the ENERGIZER and I just had to make it to the other teams base to shoot their points collector thingy. OK I know that this probably makes no sense to you, but it seemed REALLY important at the time (hence the Header).

Wildlife Safari

Max loved this tortoise. He has his own mini version at home, our tortoise "scooter".

Looking out the windows!

Lucy looking over my shoulder . . . nice hair girlfriend!

Gotta pose in the animal cutouts ... just have to!

Lucy's favorite was the giraffes.

Look at the hippo Mom!

Yup! That's us in our minivan getting washed by the elephants

That's a sponge in the elephants trunk washing our window.

Wow! I'm tired just looking at my Blog! I guess I am looking for punishment or something, but I decided on a whim yesterday to take the kids to Wildlife Safari since the Zoo was a bust the day before. I had not been to Wildlife Safari since I was about 8 or 9 and all I remembered was being in the back of a hot car and seeing about 10 animals. So I was pleasantly surprised yesterday. Wildlife Safari has come a long way since the 70's! I wish that I would have taken my kids there sooner. It is so cool! We drove a little over an hour south of Eugene to the little town of Winston Oregon. Then you pay them tons of $$$ (about $50) to drive through a huge wildlife preserve. You get to stay in your nice cozy car, and go at your own pace. We saw every animal imaginable, and often they were right outside our car window. You can even have your windows down (except with Bears and Tigers). An emu came right up and poked his head in our window! Of course, I know that I must have "sucker" written in permanent ink across my forehead, because I paid "all the money" for an elephant car wash (the elephants wash your car with their trunks), and a camel ride for all three kids. It was all worth it though, we had so much fun!!! I highly recommend going there.

Spring Break in Portland!

Things don't always turn out the way that you had planned, but sometimes they turn out better!

We had planned on taking the kids to the Zoo in Portland, so after our dentist appointments yesterday, we got in the car and headed to Portland. We stopped off at Chevy's and had dinner. My cousin Kelly met us there, she lives in Portland but she travels a lot. She just happened to be in town, so it was great to spend some time with her! After dinner we checked in to the Embassy Suites at Washington Square and went straight to the pool. My kids LOVE to swim. They instantly made friends with some of the other 25 kids in the pool, playing volleyball with a beachball they found, snorkeling and shooting water guns. We had to drag them out at 9:00pm! This morning we got up to go to the Zoo and it was pouring rain!!! OH NO! So we went down to breakfast and threw out some options for plan B. We finally came up with a consensus of . . . swimming again, picking out a small toy and going to a movie, with promises to go to the Zoo soon. Going to the Zoo was the only thing that Sam wanted to do for Spring Break, so I feel bad for him, but I must say that picking out a toy was a pretty good second. Well we are off to "Race to Witch Mountain", I love Spring Break!

The Oregon Coast Aquarium

The kids could actually stand inside the fish tank in this little bubble!

So cool!

Papa, Grammy, the kids and the stuffed animals they talked us into buying for them.

Can you say . . . SPOILED?

Max loves turtles, so we couldn't resist getting his picture with this cool carving.
Sam jumped in too, I think he is trying to take the turtles head off!


They actually got to touch baby sharks and sting rays. I guess they took the stingers out of them or something because everyone lived.

Sam loved sharks! He kept saying "I am a BIG FAN of sharks" while we were there. He was cracking us up. This tunnel is so cool. The sharks and other fish swim all around you!

Sam liked the fish. Grammy liked the glass blowing exhibit that was also in the fish tanks. It was such a beautiful combination. The colorful fish and the beautiful glass pieces.

A true work of art!

I think we are touching starfish and sea anemones (oops I don't know how to spell that word) in this picture. Lucy wasn't too sure about this at first, but once she saw me do it, she gave it a try!

The family inside the sharks teeth!

The Oregon Coast Aquarium gets better and better every time we go. Right now they have this awesome exhibit that combines glass and fish. It is absolutely AMAZING! We had such a fun day with our Grammy and Papa. Now we are off to Portland to visit the ZOO!

Yipeee Spring Break!!!

This is the cute little cabin that we stayed in . . .

Lucy loved making sand castles!

Papa played football with the boys . . . a LOT!

Some friends of my parents (Martha and Stephen) have a beach cabin in Waldport. They offered it to my parents and they were nice enough to allow the noisy, messy, Fulton crowd to stay there too. So my parents invited us over with them for a two day stay at the beach. We actually got a sunny day too! It was still cold and windy, but we had some time to go out on the beach and play. The next day in rained so we went to the aquarium in Newport and then came home and played games (cards, Yahtzee, Sorry etc.) We had a great time.

Happy Anniversary / St. Patricks Day !!!

Is it just me or is Pancho grabbing Brian's "Hooter". . .

or maybe he is trying to push him away so that he can have "HOT" Tawnya all to himself!

Happy 14th Anniversary to US!

Can you see my Dad in the back playing the Bass?

"The Cooler" was packed with Irish fans and Green Beer.

Brian, Tawnya, Dad, Pancho and I after the big show.

St.Patrick's Day was a lot of fun this year. Brian, Tawnya and I sent the kids all off to school so that we could head up to the Woodburn Outlet Mall (Pancho had to work). We had a great day of shopping. Later in the evening Grammy came over and watched the kids so that we could all go out to the Cooler to watch Dad's band play. We went to dinner at Beppe and Giannis and then partied it up with the Irish Echo. It was so much fun to spend time with the Hughs Family, we miss them already!