Our Week via Instagram

About a month ago I discovered the FUN of Instagram.  I have had fun documenting our lives and participating in the photo a day challeges.  I love the simplicity and often unstaged moments that I have been collecting.  I also love that I have been taking pictures I may not normally take.  Pictures are my preferred means of documenting my family’s lives and Instagram is a perfect way to facilitate this.

My Instagram Week

My little buggly got tubes in her ears this last week.  Hopefully this will mean less ear infections.  It was an early morning (6:30 a.m.), but she did great and I loved cuddling with her after the procedure.

We decided to take an impromptu trip for Spring Break.  I figured the kids are out of school so we might as well make the best of it.  We took a 12 hour road trip to Phoenix to play in the heat for a few days.   We left after work on Friday.  There were some great landscae and cloud scenes on the drive down. 

We made it to Vegas the first night.  The kids were wide awake and excited about the bright lights of the big city, so we turned it into an adventure.  We stopped at the iconic Welcome to Las Vegas sign and snapped a few pictures.  The kids were running around without their shoes on and couldn’t have been happier.  We drove up and down the strip then spent the night at Treasure Island.  We checked in just in time to see the pirate show in front of the hotel.

Unfortunately my son and I got sick during the night.  I’m pretty sure it was because we got car sick, but I’m not really sure what our problem was.  The sickness was definitely an unwelcomed visitor, but we survived.  Two loads of wash later and we were good as new.

We stayed at the Arizona Grand Resort.  Much to my surprise this was the same hotel my family stayed at 20 years earlier for a family vacation.  We spent a significant amount of time playing in the pool and playing at the onsite water park and didn’t get too burned.  Woo hoo!

We ate dinner at Chevy’s one night – one of mine and my husband’s favorite restaurants.  It is where we went on our first date and they don’t have them in Utah anymore so we try to find one whenever we are out of town.  Buggly loves Mexican food and enjoyed her ice cream cone.

One night we drove around downtown Phoenix.  We passed a huge mural on the side of a building made out of old road signs.  I’m pretty sure it said 1912-2012.  This year is Arizona’s centennial.  It was pretty cool urban artwork.

On our last day we spent some time at the Children’s Museum of Phoenix.  The kids had a lot of fun and could have lasted all day.  I loved this wall made out of fabric words and velcro.

One of the favorites at the museum was what the kids called the “noodle forest.”  This made for an awesome hide-and-seek game for the whole family.

We woke up early on Wednesday and drove all the way home.  It made for a long drive.  I was getting pretty stir crazy towards the end of the trip.  The kids did surprisingly well on the drive and I’m glad we were able to spend some quality time together.

I am excited to see spring making it’s beautiful appearance.  The trees are blossoming and literally look like popcorn is popping.  I guess this means yard work is on it’s way. Ughhhh!

I have loved hearing the laughter and excited sounds of happy children playing outside.  My son came running in yesterday with a handful of rolly pollies.  I’m not quite sure where he got that name.  In my neighborhood they were called potato bugs.  Rolly pollies is cuter, so I’ll go with that.

I’ve been off and on on the photo a day series.  Maybe I’ll play some catchup, but it is fun to document the small subtle things that life is made of.  I love fruit and right now I am enjoying strawberries.  I always like to put Cool Whip on my strawberries.  No meal is complete without an ice cold Diet Coke.

We had an unexpected surprise this morning – snow!  Luckily it melted by the afternoon.  It made for some beautiful mountains.  I’m hoping for some warm weather for Easter weekend.

How was your week?  Anyone else using Instagram?  You can follow me here.  My handle is @makoodle.