The Busy Month of May

Well, let's see, it's been a couple of weeks since last posting and we have been fairly busy during that time.  Last Thursday - Sunday Sarah and the kids went to New Mexico.  It was Elle's first time on an airplane.  She did really well, although did get slightly nervous on the way down, saying "we're going to hit the ground."  Jay did pretty well, but the flights there and back ran into his naptime, so he was a bit crabby/tired near the end.  Luckily, neither flight was full so we had three seats to ourselves and could spread out.  On the return trip, there were only 26 people on the flight so we went to the back of the plane and didn't have anyone around us.  It was great!  I don't remember the last time I have been on such an empty flight.  

We had a nice time in New Mexico, although it was a quick visit.  We visited Sarah's grandmother everyday.  Elle went to preschool with Sarah's mom and she also went swimming with her godmother, Betsy.  We went out to eat with Sarah's dad's side of the family, went shopping and got some fun light-up sandals for Jay, and visited the Corrales Winery.  This little winery is tucked back in Corrales and the views are simply amazing.  We highly recommend going there for a visit.  We also took the kids to the Albuquerque Aquarium.  Jay loves looking at fish.  I think Elle's favorite may have been octopus.  Sarah's mom bought the kids some souvenirs including a "princess mermaid" for Elle.

Upon returning from New Mexico, it was Mother's Day, so we went and had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants in Lawrence, Ingredient, and spent some nice time together as a family.  Patrick has been busy working this week.  He won another design competition- this time for a software company logo and webpage design.  He is also working with his design partner on a book project for the band, the Beatles.

This week the cardinals who had built their nest in the spokes of Sarah's bike had their baby.  It was cute watching the baby bird try to learn how to fly.  The cardinal parents have been so doting on their little one.  Hopefully now that the baby is here Sarah can ride her bike again soon.  

On Friday morning we went for a walk down Mass St.  Jay went nuts walking by the toy store (it was pretty cute).  We stopped by Einstein's for a bagel and ran into a good portion of the KU girl's swim team.  We also dropped off Elle's enrollment paperwork at the Lawrence Art's Center confirming her spot for preschool next year.  Starting Friday afternoon we had some major thunderstorms, rain, and hail.  Out front we have a light that has a sensor that detects when it is dark out, so it turns on by itself.  Well, it was so dark out that the light was on by 4:30 in the afternoon!  Sarah noticed that there was a pool in the driveway, so she put on some sneakers and attempted to go see if the drain was clogged.  The water was so high up that it covered all of Sarah's sneakers!

Yesterday there was a car parade on Mass St.  We caught the tail end of the parade.  However, some of the streets were blocked off and the cars participating in the parade were parked there following the parade, so we checked them out.  Elle received a princess balloon animal while we were on Mass St.  When we returned home we had a picnic in the backyard.