Easter

We were so happy to be able to spend Easter at home rather than in the hospital!  Now that Cannon is getting older, Ryan and I have been conscious of the details of our family traditions.  Ryan is not that into holidays anyway, but enjoys simple traditions.  I like that about him and so we are trying to keep our celebrations simple, but memorable.  Cannon doesn't know what the Easter Bunny is, so we decided to keep it that way. 

Like Christmas, I really wanted our Easter celebration to be Christ centered.  But with some fun too.  We were totally going to color Easter eggs on Saturday, but we completely ran out of time.  And we never did an egg hunt either.  Oh well, next year! 

The Monday previous to Easter, we did a family home evening lesson using our resurrection eggs that my friend gave me.  Cannon was really into it and he kept the eggs and pieces in his play area for the whole week.  I didn't have any meetings on Sunday morning and it was wonderful to be together and not have to rush out the door!  We enjoyed apple pie oatmeal for breakfast and read from the scriptures.  Cannon did have an Easter basket with one cadbury egg.  I know, that sounds so lame, but Cannon was delighted to get a piece of candy!  I have been knitting some bunnies for him and they're not done yet.  I wanted them ready to put in his basket, but ran out of time.  But don't feel bad for him.  He got candy and stuff galore from church! 

After church we had a lovely lunch/dinner complete with resurrection biscuits.  Cannon helped me make them.  Then after dinner we read the Living Christ and shared our testimonies of the Savior.  This was an invitation from our stake presidency, but I think it will be a new tradition for us.  We also watched the He is Risen video.  We called our families and then took a nice walk outside. 

And I only got two pictures from the whole day!  

Lowry Park Zoo

My friend Jodi invited us to join them for a day at the zoo.  I was super excited because this was our first time at the zoo in Tampa, which was voted best family zoo in the US.  I have to say that it did not disappoint!

Carousel

 This next part was my favorite I think!  The kids got feed the giraffes lettuce!  Cannon needed no prep and went right up like he knew what he was doing.  I was worried that he would get nervous since their big faces are right there, but he loved it!

 

They have a little petting zoo area where you can pet the goats.  As soon as we walked in Cannon went right to this fella (or fellow, not sure how to tell).  He stayed with the goat the whole time.  He said it was his goat and told any kid that came near that it was his goat.  It was so sweet to see him so loving and gentle.  Now he says he wants a goat for home.  

Cannon and Kate waiting in line for the flying bananas!

 

A long time ago Cannon and I got onto the topic of bumper boats.  Even since then he has been wanting to ride one and today was the day!  He was thrilled!  Especially since he got to drive it himself.  

 

Lastly, Cannon was able to ride the pony.  We had to wait in line a long time for this one, but I think it was worth it to him.  

We had a wonderful day at the zoo!  I also enjoyed seeing the penguins and the meerkats.  We actually didn't have time to see all the animals, so we'll have to go back another day.  Cannon felt right at home with the animals.  I think he would have done well living on a farm. 

Where the Forest Meets the Sea

Cannon's new favorite book is called Where the Forest Meets the Sea.  The book is simple and the pictures are beautiful!  There is a part in the book where the boy plays in a big tree that has vines.  Well we found that tree in downtown St. Pete.  Cannon was thrilled!





He was pretending he was a lizard in a cave

 We also found this exquisite tree in front of the Museum of Fine Arts!  It really was breathtaking! 

Love  :)

Touch A Truck

On Saturday we went to Largo Central Park for their annual Touch a Truck! It's actually pretty cool. They have all sorts of different trucks, buses, emergency vehicles, tractors, helicopter, police, tow trucks. You name it, they had it! We missed it last year so we were excited to go this year. We didn't see all of them, just the ones Cannon wanted to see. 

Ambulance

Garbage truck (you could pull the horn too)

City bus

Fire truck

School bus

We saw Peyton there too!

Cannon's favorite was the bus.  He stayed on there for a really long time pretending to drive.  We brought Blue too, but she was not happy with all the crowds and loud noises. 

 

 

Mini Staycation

A couple of weeks ago Ryan had Monday and Tuesday off from work so we decided to use his hotel points to take a mini staycation at the Hilton on Clearwater Beach.  Of course we picked the only day that would be cold and windy during a two-week run of 75-80 degree sunny weather.  But it was still fun and it gave us an opportunity to use the kite I got Ryan for Christmas. We also accidentally left Cannon's shoes at the Long's house when we dropped off Blue.



The pool was heated and Cannon can still swim!

Pizza and cheese steaks for dinner...

...and gelato for dessert.



We pretty much had the beach to ourselves!



So hard to see, but Ryan is flying his kite.

Cannon flying the kite.  He did pretty well!





Cannon was pretty excited to fly the kite by himself!

Holidays and Such

Cannon took this pic

A couple days before my birthday Cannon got sick, again.  He spread the love and I wasn't feeling so well on my birthday.  But well enough to enjoy the day.  Ryan had returned home from a work trip to Phoenix the night before and he took the day off just for me!  He had told me a long time ago that that was his plan, but I completely forgot so it felt like a great surprise!  We had a lovely morning together. Ryan had to leave for a couple of hours for a work meeting, but Cannon and I had a little nap while he was gone.  We went out to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings. Not my typical pick for a restaurant, but I've been wanting wings lately (again, unusual for me).  It was a nice day.









That Saturday night we got a sitter for Cannon and headed out to dinner and a movie.  We saw the Hobbit first and then went to get dinner.  Right as we pulled up to the restaurant our sitter called to let us know that Cannon had been throwing up.  So we cancelled our reservation and headed home.

We all ended up being sick for pretty much the rest of December.  It was "just a cold," but the worst one any of us had ever had.  It really hit us hard. 

Church Christmas party



Cannon's Christmas stash

We still enjoyed Christmas though!  It was a nice peaceful Christmas at home.  Cannon loved everything he got and was excited to play with his new toys.  Both our families were very generous to us and we were able to get a lot of things we needed.  We had Christmas dinner with our good friends the Kanooths.  They made a delicious ham dinner and then we played Risk (guys choice).  It was actually my first time playing and I got second place! 






Nice set up ruined by the dogs!

And I'm just realizing now that I was horrible at taking pictures on Christmas! 










 Ryan worked the next two days, but had Friday through Tuesday off.  It was so nice to finally spend some time together! 

For New Years Eve we invited our friends, the Vorwallers, to come for dinner and play games.  I made salsa and dip.  Ryan made calzones.  And they made sliders and dessert.  Way too much food, but so yummy!  We were kinda lame and went to bed at 12:30.  We must be getting old!


Off

On

The next day we finally got to use the trail gator!  I had my eye on this for awhile and I got it for Christmas.  Basically it's a tow bar so I can pull Cannon's bike until we get to the trail.  Then I can unhook him and let him ride on his own until he gets too tired and then I hook him back up again.  It was a beast to put together, but it's a breeze to get his bike on and off.  We had planned to go for a family bike ride and Cannon really wanted to go to Boca Ciega Park (which he calls the Island of Sodor).  It's really far for a little guy (8.4 miles one way on Pinellas Trail), but he begged and begged.  It told him that it would take us a long time to get there and that it would be a lot of hard work and that he would probably get tired.  But he insisted that he could do it so we set out.  We had lots of stops along the way to rest and have snacks, so it took us about two hours to get there.  Cannon was on and off, but probably rode a good mile or two on his own!  He was so proud of himself when we finally reached the playground.  We played there for almost two hours and then headed home.  It took us about an hour to get home and Cannon rode another mile or two by himself.  When we were about a mile from our home he got really tired.  I still have the baby seat on my bike so I let him sit in that the rest of the way home.  I couldn't believe we made it, but we we'll be sticking to parks closer to us for sure!

Ryan had to return to work that next Wednesday and I ended up working that day plus Friday too.  Saturday we made another attempt at dinner and a movie to have an early celebration of our anniversary.  Luckily no one got sick this time!  We just had a quick and simple dinner at Panera and then saw Les Miserables.  I think we were the last ones in our family to see it, so we knew what to expect (as far as the crying and such).  We both really enjoyed it. 

My Sunbeam!

On Sunday Cannon moved up to be a Sunbeam at church!  He is out of nursery and in with the big kids now!  He was so excited and did very well.  I'm excited for his new opportunities for learning. 








 Yesterday was our real anniversary.  Seven years!  Ryan got home late from work, so dinner was a little cold but still good.  We don't really exchange gifts for our anniversaries (we like to go do things instead), but Ryan surprised me with some chocolate.  Then we reminisced about the past seven years and thought about what the next seven years might bring.  It's fun to think about things like that!

So that brings us up to date!  We are hopeful for this year.  Hoping that Cannon will have better health (10 times of vomiting, croup three times, three trips to the ER, two IV's, one hospitalization, and one nasty cold)-my kid who used to never get sick!  Hopeful that Ryan will be up for a promotion at the end of the year.  Hoping for a house with a backyard.  And hopeful for some other things too.