These crazy last two weeks

 1. Ana got her braces off!!!  She was so excited!!
2. My parents came to visit last Thursday thru Monday. It was so wonderful to see them! I always love having my parents come visit.  But I don't have a single picture of us together. I even thought of taking one a couple times, but I just didn't do it.  Lame.  Anyway, I wasn't feeling the greatest and I feel really bad now because Mom and Dad probably thought I was completely pathetic (which I was) and then it rained all weekend so we didn't do anything except go to Target and Walmart.  Super lame.  And then on Monday when it was finally sunny, I was going to take my mom to Brazos Bend and it was closed on Monday. And the BBQ restaurants we were going to take my dad to on Monday were also closed.  Err.... We ended up going to a delicious Mexican restaurant called Los Cucos in Katy.  It was one of the best Mexican food places I've ever eaten at.  SO good!!! Okay, we did go to the temple on Saturday too. That wasn't lame. And we played Rook and Fruit Salad.  And I had Mom pitch to me and the kids on Monday and that was fun too.
3. Leo's Grandma Beatriz passed away on the Monday before my parents arrived and so he left Friday to go up to her funeral in Austin and came back Saturday afternoon.  My mom said afterwords that I should have taken Jubal and gone with him and she could have watched all the rest, but I didn't think about just taking one kid, and I didn't want to take all the kids. Anyway, I really wish the timing had been different because not only were my parents visiting, but Ana had her last soccer game and Youth Conference.

4. We did go to Ana's soccer game with my parents.  (I didn't take these photos someone else did.)  And Ana's team won 2-0.  Good game to end the season on.

 5. My friend Karen G. sent these pictures to me when she had invited all my four crazy monkeys over one day.  Good thing someone takes pictures of my kids.

 6. Thursday night we did go to Elena's 2nd grade play with Mom and Dad too.  Again, Karen took these photos, not me.  I really was not doing well that weekend-not keeping it together.

7. Jubal is officially crawling like a demon and also now he can stand holding on to things.  But then he cries because he can't figure out how to get back down.

 8. More pictures from Karen G.--when she had our preschool group at her house.
9. Leo, Nicolas and Jubal have croup.  Jubal's been up the last two nights from about 2 AM to 4 AM. We run the shower and let him breathe in the steam.  It's so sad to hear his hoarse little cough. And Nicolas tonight was awful, fever of 102 and complaining his head hurt, and just laying in our arms, poor boy.  Leo looks terrible too, and has the same hoarse cough. Isabel is coughing right now as I type this.  It's going to be a long week.
10. Yesterday I took the non-ill children to the YW fundraiser for girls' camp. A pancake breakfast, Easter Egg hunt, and silent auction. Then after Ana headed off to a movie with her friends and I took Elena, Isabel, Sebastian and Nicolas (I thought Nicolas was doing okay at that point, even though I didn't take him to the breakfast) to the Katy Folk Life Festival. It was basically pioneer and Native American displays and crafts.  The kids had a blast and I'll post pictures once I upload them.  But Nicolas was worn out after 10 mins.  Poor kid.
11. I am feeling better by the way. The sun came out.  That helps a lot.  But now to get back to my exercise/diet plan.  March was totally blown.  I hate gray skies.
12. Isabel, Leo and I have horrible allergies--the oak trees are covering everything in pollen.  Poor Isabel is the worst.  Her whole face swells up and her eyes are practically swollen shut, I have to give her allergy meds every day.
13. Well, that is all for now.  Have a good night.  I am going to work on some family history stuff so I feel like I've done something useful.

Camping at Pedernales Numero Dos

 Saturday, after that horrible night of no sleep, I took Nicolas hiking to the twin falls little overview site, while Leo took down most of our camp.  The other kids had gone ahead of me with other people from our ward.  I tried to catch up, but that is impossible when Nicolas wants to walk.  However, we did beat them back to camp even though we passed them as they were coming back and we hadn't gotten to the falls yet, because I can read trail like I'm Echo Sackett.  Yeah, they took the wrong trail.

 Then we had a quick lunch and headed out to THE Pedernales Falls.  We spent the afternoon playing (me relaxing under a shady rock) and then had a picnic lunch and drove home.  It was splendid.  But I'll just let you look at the photos now.

 These are our friends, Dan and Vickie.  They are awesome, amazing campers.  Like crazy awesome army utility tent campers. With a heater.  It's amazing.

 I love the huge rock Nicolas is picking up.

Ana and Megan S. are off in the distance in this one. And that's the end of our camping trip photos.  But I still have way more to catch up on.  Eventually.