Eggcelent!

I have some awards I'd like to hand out from Easter egg dying Friday night and Saturday:

Most "Perfect" Eggs- Dad

For his eggs that were one solid color without any fingerprints on them
(top row, second from right)

Weirdest Egg- Joel
For his egg that looked like a Nickelodeon creation


Longest Dyed Eggs- Kelsi
For her very bright eggs
(notice the hot pink one with dots on the bottom left)
I'd also like to recognize Kelsi for choosing and mixing the dyes.

Most Creative AND Best Overall- Ryan
For his ultimately awesome unique eggs
(people eggs, flag egg, scenic egg, trumpet egg, etc.)

Awards of Participation go to:

Kaylee
(for being present and looking cute),
Mom
(for getting the eggs and dye ready and for holding Kaylee),
Paige
(for dying a few eggs before leaving to hang out with friends),
& Me
(for initiating egg dying both days).

Decisions, decisions...

Joel helps Kaylee decide between the "5 Alarm Burger" or the "Whisky River BBQ Burger" at Red Robin.

Finally doing the tag

Awhile ago I got tagged by Naomi and Paige, but I could never think of 7 "random and/or weird" facts, so I didn't do it. Well, Kim got after me about not updating our blog enough, so I brainstormed and came up with some stuff. Here ya go:

1. I got almost 100% on my actual driving test for drivers ed according to my instructor, but he wouldn't give me that high of a score because of my previous times driving with him. On those previous drives I was in the car with 2 guys I knew well (Seth Howell and David Sheeran) and I knew the instructor well (Mr. Hiatt- he was my adviser when I was on student counsel). The whole time I was driving all 3 of them decided it would be fun to talk about what bad drivers girls are and how girls shouldn't be allowed on the road. It didn't help that I didn't have much driving experience before getting in the car with them (my dad tried to take me driving, but I didn't really have much interest), so I really wasn't very good. When I took my actual driving test I was in the car with 2 girls I knew well (Megan Studley and Melissa Wiarda). They were both so sweet and it was fun being with them, therefore I did everything almost perfectly. Because of that experience I had a social phobia while I was driving for a few years. I hated driving with people in the car that I didn't know well. I'd get all psyched out that they'd think my driving was bad and then it would be. Don't worry... I'm over that. Anyone can ride with me and I'm great (except in the snow).
   
2. I want to start a wedding decorating/catering business. I love going to wedding receptions to look at the cute ideas people can come up with. I'm hoping my sisters will let me help out a ton in planning their weddings because I'm not so sure I'll ever actually start a business. That's just a bit stressful because everything has to be perfect.
   
   
3. I can be really passionate about something one day, care less about it the next, and then get all passionate about it again a few weeks later. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing. I'm thinking that for Joel it's probably a good thing. I can get pretty annoying when I get hooked on a new topic and I'm sure he appreciates the breaks.
   
4. I love love love making fun treats! Half the time I can't eat them, so I make Joel taste them to make sure they're edible. But then I worry that he was just being nice when he says they're good, so I worry the whole time others are eating them that they taste funny or aren't perfect. The only treats I'm confident about (for the most part) are some delicious cake treats that I'm going to post about one of these days. They're amazing! Oh, and I love sharing the treats, so come visit me or invite me to a party and I'll probably bring some along.
   
   
5. I performed a c-section on a potato bug (aka: roly poly, soy bug, woodlouse, etc.) when I was little. I kept the mama and baby bugs as pets in an ice cream bucket, but didn't know how to feed them so they all died :(. I later found another pregnant potato bug. I didn't perform surgery on this one, but I did keep it. They all died again :(. It was sad.
   
   
6. I'm excited to own a minivan. Yes, that's right... a minivan. I don't want an SUV. When we have enough kids to need a bigger vehicle I want a minivan with the awesome doors that open with the touch of a button and that have tons of storage under the floor. At the moment, that is my dream car (am I a dork or what?).
   
   
7. Here's another dorky one: When I was little I loved to sing and dance to Disney CD's. My favorite was Beauty and the Beast. I would always use a barstool as a prop to jump over and swing my legs over while I danced.
   

Belly landing

We named our blog "Life in an Airport," but we haven't really told much about what life in an airport is like. For the most part it's pretty normal. We have an amazing (and large) apartment for a great price, airplanes sitting right next to cars in the parking lot, candy machines downstairs if I ever need a chocolate fix, people trying to walk into our apartment thinking it's the terminal (we always lock the door), and a flashing light on a tower to guide us home. You know... the usual. Those are the things we see on a daily basis living here, but occasionally we get an extra reminder that our apartment is in an airport terminal.

That reminder came last Thursday for us in two forms. It started out with me tending my niece and nephew Thursday afternoon to Friday. After feeding them a lunch of pb&j sandwiches, grapes, and yogurt pops we decided to venture outside to see the planes. The runway is on the opposite side of the building from where our apartment is and I've never just gone out and watched the action. I had no clue how busy this airport is! Jeffrey was loving it! It was the perfect activity for a 2 1/2 year old. There was plane after plane taking off, circling, landing and taking off again. And in-between any lulls in planes there were helicopters doing the same thing. Plus, a plane was being repaired right in front of us. It was really cool. I can't wait for Kaylee to get old enough to enjoy watching the planes. Her and Macee got restless after a bit, so we went in (I bribed Jeffrey with 2 mini marshmallows to get him to come inside).

That was the first reminder. Fun, but uneventful.
Here's the crazy reminder we got:


In case you can't tell from the picture, that plane is on it's belly. Yup, no wheels under it. The pilot had to land with the landing gear up! Scary! Seeing the plane sitting on its belly on the runway was really weird. That picture doesn't do it justice, but it's the only one I can find. Here's the part we played in this:

At about 10:30 pm, after finally getting the 2 youngest kids to sleep and while watching Monster's Inc. with Jeffrey hoping he'd get tired (no more sugar-packed mini marshmallows for that kid) we got a loud knock knock knock on our door. Joel and I were quite startled. We never get people coming to our door in the evening unannounced. Joel was practically asleep on the couch. He jumped up and opened the door. A man was standing there and said something along the lines of, "I landed the Cessna gear-up." He was speaking quite hurriedly, we were tired and thrown off-guard, and we were in protect-the-kids mode, so we weren't understanding what he was talking about. We explained that we actually don't have anything to do with the airport (besides living here) and we gave him the only number we had to anyone having anything to do with the airport (the guy we call if we have any problems with our apartment).

After the man left it hit us what had happened. Landing gear up is quite dangerous and had to have been extremely scary for that pilot! We felt so bad that we weren't more helpful, although there really wasn't anything more we could have done. He had already called 911 and we gave him the only number for airport personnel we had. We just feel bad we weren't more compassionate while he was at our door. We've learned our lesson and next time we'll do better (although, hopefully there won't be a next time).

Again, her shirt says it all...

Kaylee's shirt is so cute (thanks Uncle Mikey!), so I wanted to get some pictures of her in it. I'm posting all of the pictures I took, in the order I took them to show how picture taking tends to go with her. FYI, she was smiling right before I started taking them, then it turned to just staring at the camera, then she started getting upset and a bit whiny. I really need to work at my photography skills, especially when it comes to taking them of my cute baby.

P.S. It's true... her dad is rad :).

Happy Birthday (Yesterday), My Wife!!

Happy Birthday (yesterday), Beth!

I wanted to put this picture up here because this is my favorite picture of Beth and the first one I ever took of her. My parents wanted to know who this girl was that I kept talking about and texting and so I told her I had to take a picture of her on my cell phone so I could send it to my parents. Even back then I knew that you were someone special and that I wanted everyone to know who I was with.

Thank you for being wonderful. You do so much for me and Kaylee and ask for so little in return. You're an amazing wife, a nurturing and caring mother, and the woman of my dreams.

I love you, Bethany and I look forward to many more birthdays together with you.

Love,

Your Husband