The best vacation EVER!!

So as some of you may already know, we were in Florida last week for our 10 day vacation! I just wanted to give a few more details about our trip.
We started out Flying for COS to Dallas. Kaylee was pretty antsy on the flight, but overall she did okay, and didnt bother anyone too much. Our next flight was from Dallas to Orlando. What would you know, but 10 minutes after take off both tyler and Kaylee were fast asleep, for the entire flight! YAH! I actually got to enjoy the onboard movie, "new in town" which was really cute!
We began our vacation at the Nickelodeon Hotel, in Orlando. Wow, what a hotel. We had a great room, complete with a bunkbed room for the kiddos, their own tv, playstation and table. Then a room for Todd and I, with a queen size bed. And a bathroom, living room, and sink and fridge. The whole room was "jimmy nuetron" themed which Tyler thought was wonderful! It had 2 huge waterparks, complete with 4 huge waterslides, that even Tyler could go down himself. Grandma, and Grandpa even took a ride or two down! It had its own Mall with and arcade, food court, convenience store, shops, and 4D movie theater. We were able to have breakfast with all the nick characters, including their favorite, Spongebob! We also got a private cabana with our package, that included a ceiling fan, fridge, flatscreen tv, lounge chairs, towel service,table and a cabana girl. This was really a god send, and a great way to get out of the sun, and have a place that Kaylee could relax and play. Not to mention, Todd and Grandpa were able to catch some of the US open. This hotel was awesome, and I would definately recommend it to anyone with children. Their website is www.nickhotel.com
Next it was off to New Smyrna beach, FL, about an hour outside of Orlando. We had rented a beach house there, not knowing what it might end up being like, compared to the pics online, or what the town might be like. Let me start by saying it is an understatement to say that we were pleasantly surprised. NOt only was the house we rented large enough for our family, Todd's parents, Todd's sister and family, and his aunt vicky, it was truly a half of block away from the beach. Not just any beach, a clean, beautiful beach, that was never ever crowded, had perfect beach sand, was super clean, and the water temp averaged around 80 degrees. The house was beautiful and spacious, and had its very own pool in the backyard. It had tons of pools toys and beach toys for our use. Every kitchen utensil you can imagine, beautiful linens and great furniture. I hadn't even left and we were already planning our return next summer. To be perfectly honest, I have already contacted the owner and had him pencil us in for the same time next year....The town was so cute and quaint, with souvenier shops, and ice cream stores within walking distance. Grocery stores and even walmart for shopping only a short drive away. Everyone was friendly and kind, and the leasing agent told us that she has never locked her door once in 12 years of living there.
All around this can be described as the best vacation I think that I have ever been on. IT was so relaxing, so fun, and so affordable. So if anyone is looking for a great place to vacation with your family let me know and I will give you more info!! We are even thinking about buying a vacation home here someday......

Fun at the pool

We just joined Villa sport healthclub last week, and we are so impressed!! They have a huge variety of classes...Alexis and I did a mother-daughter fitness class, and I did a aqua fit class, and a step class this week! All of them were excellent. The pool is wonderful, and the kids had a blast!! A bit on the pricey side, but so glad that we did it! The childcare is awesome too, and all of the kids really enjoy going while we work out!! Definately recommend it to anyone!!

These things only happen to us.......

So it all began on Wednesday morning when I was looking out into our backyard and saw a strange animal in the grass. From first glance it could be best described as a beaver. I call Todd and he looked outside too, and said, "is that a beaver?" We proceeded to go outside to get a closer look, but the "beaver" ran into the front yard. As we headed toward the front yard, it popped out of no where and charged Todd. He proceeded to pick up a patio chair to apparently beat it to death or something.... That wasn't needed as right before it go to him, it darted away. We followed in the direction that it ran, but it was no where to be found. We have a large wooded area across the street from our home and figured that it must have ran over there.....So we thought that was crazy enough..............
But the story was not over.....Todd and Alexis were on their way to home depot in his truck, when he heard crazy noises coming from the engine. We have been having some issues with the truck, so he figured that something needed fixing. When the arrived at home depot he opened his hood to discover this creatures tail sticking out of his fan belt.... Apparently it had crawled up into his engine before when we had thought it ran away. He didn't want to tell Alexis, because he thought it would freak her out that their was a dead creature, with its tail stuck in the fan belt. So he decided to go into home depot and decide what to do when he was there. Finally, he decided to tell alexis, because he knew he needed to get it out of the engine before they drove home. They went back out to the truck popped open the hood and the creature was gone....he looked high and low, crawled under the truck, but it was gone....couldn't believe this story had gotten even crazier. We went home and searched the internet and found out that the creature had to have been a Marmot...which is crazy because they live in the mountains...not colorado springs...But at least it was gone.
Or so we thought......
Todd checked again that night to make sure that the creature was not there, we stuck some things down in the hood, shook the truck, everything and there was no sign of it. He drove to work on Thursday morning...no problems, no noises... He worked his normal 24 hour shift and was getting ready to leave on Friday morning to come home when he spotted something underneath his truck....

Yes folks, that is a Marmot fetus.....
Todd went in and got the other firefighters to have them figure out what was going on. As they were all standing there discussing....slowly 3 more fetuses dropped out of the truck.....

At this point they had figured out that not only was this Marmot still in his engine, but it was giving birth....After looking around they could see that the mother was still hiding up in the fan....They proceeded to call the dept of wildlife. While they were waiting for them to arrive, one of the guys that Todd works with Josh, decided to put on his bunker gear, and his structure fire gloves and try to remove the Marmot, so that my husband could come home.
After a few scratches and bites, he was able to pull out a very, very angry mother Marmot.


The dept of Wildlife came and picked up mother and babies and are relocating them back to the mountains.. They believe that someone in our neighborhood had recently been camping. This marmot hitched a ride back with them to Colorado springs, and then decided to make a home in my husbands truck and give birth....
There you have it folks....these things only happen to us!!!

pa-sghetti.....

Kaylee had her first bowl of spaghetti, which we like to call "pa-sghetti" Usually I feed it to her, but this time I let her go wild..as you can see she enjoyed it....thouroughly!