Kyle's Chair Derby

In honor of the Kentucky Derby, the office building that Kyle works in on the GE campus decided to hold a chair race. Kyle offered to race the chair, of course, since that is something Kyle would do with no hesitation and the rest of his office agreed.

GE gave him, as part of the race, a new helmet, a t-shirt to decorate and they had to find an office chair that would suit their needs. Kyle found the perfect chair and had his boss order new wheels for it. (That was a must to make this chair what Kyle wanted!)

It worked! I wasn't there, but someone took pictures of Kyle afterwards on his chair and with his prizes. For his first place win, he was given a Kentucky derby t-shirt, hat, cup and a derby pie (yes, a derby pie, it's chocolate and I'm really looking forward to trying it tonight!) He was also given a gift card and he gets to keep his helmet. He also got the roses from his victory that are now sitting on our kitchen table and smell wonderful!!

For anyone who knows Kyle, knows that it was really no surprise that he won. Like I said, he found the best chair for the job and then had wheels ordered to make sure he was the fastest. When he texted me that he won, I wasn't even that excited because I expected him to win. Who wouldn't, right!?

So, from our family to yours, (and what I am often told as I leave places of business instead of "thank you" or "have a good day") Have a good Derby!

THUNDER over Louisville!

Over the weekend was the kick off of the Kentucky Derby Festival with Thunder Over Louisville. They have a big festival like Portland has with the Rose Festival. There are rides and activities at the waterfront for the next few weeks and they kick off the whole thing with a 7 hour air show and then 30 minutes of fireworks at the end of the day. There was a schedule of the planes in the show in the paper and Kyle was excited for every single one of them. Total investment to get into the airshow and festival was $18 for the pins (which will get us into any of the festival events over the next two weeks, minus the derby) and $10 for parking. We were able to take our own food for the day and toys for the kids to play with while we were watching the air show. We've planned on this for weeks now and were so excited to go. The kids were excited to see the planes and fireworks and we thought it would be such a fun family day. It's been beautiful weather ALL week and then the rain came in Friday evening. So, so sad! Saturday we woke to COLD weather after warm weather all week. It topped at about 54 degrees. We decided that since it wasn't raining, we would still go, but I was a little nervous. We had to pack a lot more than we had planned with extra blankets and coats and a tarp in case it rained again.

Eddie and Gordon were able to stay pretty warm, although none of us were actually comfortable. All of the kids won t-shirts from the Army Reserves. The older two kids held onto the bar for 15 seconds to win their shirts and Gordon did 15 pull ups (with his dad's help) for his shirt. They are all night shirts on the kids, but they love their new shirts!

In between the airplanes, this is how the kids spent their time. Celeste brought books to read and the boys brought a whole backpack full of cars. We ended up sitting on a small rocked area, so the boys buried the cars and made cities and castles in the rocks. They were dirty, but had a great time.

After I don't know how many planes and 5 hours, we decided we were too cold to stay any longer. I know, we had made it that long, why not just stay for the rest, but we had actually gotten there an hour early to make sure we could find good spots to see everything, so we had only see 4 hours of the show and the sun wasn't coming out. As you can see in the pictures, the sky was gray and it was cold. Kyle told the kids that if we left right then, we could have pizza and ice cream. Celeste was all in and after talking Eddie into it, Gordon followed a long. We let Ed choose the pizza because he was the hardest to get to leave and then we were off! We ended up watching the rest of the airshow on TV while eating pizza and taped the fireworks to watch the next evening because we had church early the next morning. Next year we promised the kids that if the sun was shining at all, we would stay for the whole thing. I wish I had pictures of the fireworks display that we saw because it was amazing on TV. The picture up above was taken from the news website, but I can only imagine what it was like downtown. I can definitely say they weren't kidding when they said it was thunder because just watching it on TV made my heart pump harder and gave me chills! It definitely gives us something to look forward to next year. If there is any sun at all, we'll be there for the day and enjoying it from start to finish! If anyone wants to join us, you're welcome to come, we would love it!!

The Zoo

A few weeks ago Celeste had spring break. My intention had been to do some fun activities with the kids everyday during the week to keep them entertained and not inside watching TV the whole week, since Kyle had to work. Our weather has been amazing. I figured with the weather in the 80's the week before, we would be able to go to some parks and find some water parks or something if not put the sprinkler in the yard. I had also planned on going to the zoo. Well, the week of spring break ended up being wet and cold all week! HOWEVER! Thursday turned out to be cold, but sunny, so we took advantage of it to go to the zoo. The boys and I have been a few times now, but Celeste had yet to go, so we knew we would be there for the whole thing because Celeste wanted to see everything the boys had already seen.

This orangutan loves staring out the glass at the kids. He will follow the kids with his eyes when they walk away if he's not done looking at them. It scared Gordon the first time we saw him, but Gordon loved watching him with his sister.

Big Louie, the white alligator. He just sits in the sun all day, usually with his eyes closed. None of my kids wanted to get near the glass to take a picture!

I HAD to post this picture. While we were eating lunch, there was a goose looking for some lunch as well. He was wandering the tables looking for stuff on the ground. When he couldn't find anymore food, he came for Eddie's sandwich in his hand. We finally had to throw some bread across the deck that we were on to get him to go away until Eddie could finish his sandwich. I know throwing food for them isn't good, but it was better than it taking food out of Eddie's hand and possibly biting him in the process. We decided that from now on we'll make sure there aren't any geese around before we sit down to eat! 

I LOVE this zoo because random animals just wander around. This is a peacock that passed us as we were going to the elephants. He was just wandering through the park and the kids loved watching him.

This zoo also has some great toys for the kids. I'm not sure if I have posted a picture of this van before, but the kids love it. It's the cutest thing and so random at the zoo, but so fun at the same time!

The zoo even has a water park. It wasn't open because it was so darn cold the day we went, but I can't wait for this summer when the kids can go and play in the water. Gordon is so excited to play in the ship and Eddie wants to pretend like he's a pirate!

This zoo doesn't have a bird show like the Oregon zoo, but they do have some cool training sessions with the animals. This is the sea lion and seal training session. They have a stadium for us to sit in and work on tricks. They even have the seal and sea lion trained to swim in a pattern, so you always have a chance to see them whether you are on the lower level by the window or up above watching. We missed the training and feeding times for the polar bears and the tigers, but we'll see them eventually this summer and get pictures.

We got pretty lucky with that sunny day because the next day it ended up being warm, but rainy again. Of course, last week when Celeste went back to school, the weather was better again, however the airshow was this weekend and freezing! I'll be posting those pictures next!

Easter!

I'm a little behind because we have done several activities before Easter, but we'll start with Easter!

 Our primary had an Easter Egg hunt the weekend of General Conference. Since Conference doesn't start until noon here, there is PLENTY of time before to play and enjoy the morning. (We slept in on Sunday morning since we didn't have to turn on the tv until noon!)

We had the hunt in the yard of a family in the ward. That is the nice part about this area. Some people have HUGE yards, which are so fun.

Our next Easter activity was dyeing our Easter eggs. A few years ago we started dyeing them without the shells on because then we would have colorful egg salad sandwiches (this year I used them for potato salad as well, so that was even better!)

Gordon had the best time, even if Mom wanted to strangle him every time he spilled!

Gordon couldn't wait to eat his eggs, so the first one has a bite out of it. He's too funny.

Eggs are done and Gordon is ready to eat them all!

Easter Day!

The Hunter Family

At church in the morning, Kyle met a brother who is new to the ward. He has an offer on a house and is waiting to hear if it is accepted, so he came to the ward that the house is in. His family is still in Maryland where they are moving from. He's staying in an extended stay until they can close on the house, so he's pretty lonely right now. Kyle invited him over for dinner. He offered to come over after church to take some pictures of the family before the kids went crazy in their nice clothes. (He has kids of his own, so he knows all about that!) He came and stayed for lunch and then helped get ready for dinner and helped the kids find their easter baskets that the Easter bunny had hidden. It was a lot of fun meeting someone new and enjoying a day chatting about different things. He is actually from Beaverton, Oregon and lived there until he turned 19 and left on a mission. Crazy, huh?!

We had an egg hunt after dinner because the kids requested it, so why not?

The kids also got some gifts from Mom and Dad. Normally gifts come from The Easter Bunny, BUT Eddie saw Gordon's gift this year, so the Easter Bunny brought candy in their baskets that he hid in the house and Mom and Dad got them gifts. (I'll have to be a little more careful next year I suppose! Oops!)

Celeste got a new Ken doll, Ken clothes and fingernail poslish. Eddie got a new scooter. He has out grown his Car's scooter and was ready for two wheels after long ago giving his other scooter to Gordon. Gordon got a new bike. It's slightly used, but still in fabulous condition and he loves it!

I don't konw what the face is, but he was sure excited to get his new bike!

Happy Easter! Love, The Hunter's