National Walk or Bike to School Day

It was National Walk/Bike to School Day on Wednesday. This has become a Caswell tradition. As long as there is good weather, we'll participate. :) It was a chilly 49 degrees. When we walked in the building, we immediately began "sharing cold hands" with one another. They were freezing, so we were working together to warm them up.

Mountain Vacation Rewind

Snowbird

All kinds of family fun:

snow

hikes

and even more animals...moose, deer, badgers, beavers, chipmunks and potguts too!!

Tuesday Trip #6 in Snowbird...

Bungy tramps, bounce houses, rock walls, alpine slide races, tram and chair lifts, ropes course

The boys are ALL extremists...with injuries all around. So when Daddy and D crashed on the alpine slide, I figured we'd get some manly photos of the aftermath. Not so much.

Yellowstone

Phenomenal 2 day adventure through the park complete with a drive through the gorgeous Grand Tetons...

Old Faithful

bike ride to Morning Glory PoolCamping

Mammoth Hot Springs

We saw all kinds of animals...elk, moose, coyote, bear. It was AWESOME!!!!

Idaho

We stayed in an amazing cabin...a friend of Dad's. Had a blast!!! smores over the campfire

Utah

We landed in Utah and headed to Grandpa N's house. The evening brought a nice game of croquet (which Mr. D immediately confused with a golf like sport mixed with baseball)

coloring "calf" roping"horseback" riding

Tuesday Trip #5
The kids and I hopped a plane headed for the mountains. Daddy was joining us a few days later. Our Tuesday was pretty much spent just traveling to our destination. We are on vacation!!!! :)

A Day off with Daddy

We took advantage of a Monday holiday for Independence Day and went exploring. Daddy had heard from friends at work about a cool spring fed pool not far from our house, so we went to check it out.

relaxing

floating

jumping

watching the rope swing...wondering when they'll get to do that

exploring "tree houses"

finding hidden waterfalls
Krause Springs was amazing!!! Definitely a new Caswell favorite for sure. :)

Glitter Sparkles

Little Miss A and Mr. D found a wonderful caterpillar in the yard. They (my little girl) named her Glitter Sparkles. She was so cute and tickled our arms so we laughed so hard we coul hardly breathe, that they were so sad to let her go...particularly my son. Mr. D was DEVASTATED that Glitter Sparkles couldn't stay in the house. He began collecting everything she needed to live, while crying hysterically, in the backyard. We reminded him that we do have a wonderful feline in the house that LOVES to play with anything that moves (Sophie is our spider spotter in the house, although our other little girl is getting close to claiming that title). Realizing Glitter Sparkles would survive one night in our house, we reluctantly let her go. It was a super sad day at the Caswell house. I felt like we should have played Taps or something like that. Mr. D was still crying about it off and on for over 2 hours afterward. Did I mention this was also in the early evening hours of a "no-nap" day? :)

Tarantula

We got to school an found a CROWD of students gathered around the door. Thinking maybe the power was out (electric doors) and we were locked out, I walked up not suspecting to see this...

The picture doesn't do it justice...it was my phone, but this was seriously a SOFTBALL sized tarantula that had the kids attention this morning. He was a little less than thrilled with the fanfare, legs raised, fangs poised ready to protect himself from the student that got too close. So I got spider watch that morning before our campus watchdog DADS came to the rescue. I have to admit, it was PRETTY cool!!! Mr. D did NOT want to go to class...he just wanted to stay and "check it out!" :) Gosh, I love Texas!!!!

Croquet

Mr. D is a persistent little man and has been wanting to play croquet A TON lately. The problem is, he usually asks like RIGHT before bedtime or something crazy like that. So we took the opportunity (with the day off) to play during the day. :) Let's just say our yard is not the best design (TOTAL HILL) to pull this off, but it definitely made for a challenging game. The kids had a blast! We had a few casualties with some of the pieces, so we'll break out the wood glue and finish our game up tonight with Daddy when he gets home. :)

MOTORCYCLES!!!

We finally unpacked the last of our garage boxes this weekend and found the "motorcycle" chargers. The kids' vehicles are finally charged up and ready to go. Once they hopped on I realized we are in need of larger motorized equipment. Little Miss A had to resort to standing since her knees kept knocking into the handles messing up her steering abilities. :)

Mr. D wasn't having quite the same problem, but still looks WAY too big to be on that thing!! :)

Size didn't matter to them, they were both just so happy to have their rides back!!! :)

Bluebonnets!!!

After the Bunny Breakfast, we took advantage of the beautiful weather to take some traditional Bluebonnet pictures in our wonderfully blooming neighborhood while the kids were already dressed in their Easter best! :)

Got Wheels?

I

In an effort to enjoy to beautiful weather this afternoon, the kids got suited up and hit the cul-de-sac with the wheels of choice. Roller skates for Little Miss A and a skateboard for Mr. D. They're both still real uneasy on their wheels, but maybe by the time summer rolls around, they'll have perfected their rides a little bit better. :)

Caswell-Bailey Camp Out

We planned a fun Spring Break camp out with our bffs...in their backyard no less. :) It was awesome...all the comforts of home and still able to hear the distant Coyotes since they live in the country. :)

We definitely need to do that again. Thank you so much Bailey family for having us over...love you guys!!!!

Playing at the Park

We've had a couple impromptu park days lately that have been absolutely wonderful!!!! (The weather has been too nice not to.) I was the slacker Mom that opted to skip gymnastics and dance in lieu of an afternoon outing at the park on Tuesday!!!! That was so much fun that we left school yesterday and went straight to another park. This is going to become a regular occurrence now that spring is FINALLY approaching! I think our next challenge is to hit as many different parks as we can in one month. That sounds like an April thing...more to come next month. :)

Quidditch...Take 2

After creating the broomsticks, I realized we were going to HAVE to play with them at least once before hauling one of them to school. With a quick game of Quidditch before dinner time, we have 4 thumbs up on proper broomstick operation. :) They were certainly fast...this was the ONLY picture that actually turned out on the digital, the rest were all blurry. Guess I should have used the slr...oopsie.

Here Comes the Sun!!!

After being under clouds and rain for what feels like FOREVER, we FINALLY had some wonderful wholesome sunshine today!!! It was so nice!!!! We hit the trails this afternoon in search of the fastest route to the park and pool we can see from our backyard. (A ten minute walk...we'll be using this trail on an almost daily basis in a couple months!!!) It was so nice to get out as a family and just enjoy spending time together. With an afternoon in the sun, we are all acting like we have a little more spring in our steps. I think the Caswells are definitely solar powered!! :)

Some Outside Play Time

After a long night at school last night, all I wanted to do was hang out and play with the kids this afternoon. :)

We began our afternoon of play with a nice old fashioned game of Quidditch. (Yes, my son is still obsessed with Harry Potter...Universal here we come!!)


After a nice round of Quidditch, we played hide and seek (not an easy feat in a VERY bare backyard) and tag. We had a BLAST!!!!
Thank heavens for the warmer weather. We've been a little water logged over here lately with all the rain, not to mention colder temps. It's official, the Caswells are ready for SPRING! :)