minnesota kids

i am LOVING that when i look out my window now

THIS is what i see

kids playing basketball

IN SHORTS AND T-SHIRTS!

and naturally ...

because it is 60 degrees

that means it is the perfect weather for a water fight!

only in minnesota

grade state * 2015

before we even had time to adjust to being in minnesota

ben was back on the court

for the state tournament

the team ended up losing a game

winning a game

and then losing their last game

all in ONE day

although the boys were sad to see everything come to an end

they had a fun season

and given the fact that they were rolling down the hill

minutes later ...

i think they got over the loss quickly

nice work, ben!

happy pi day

3.1415...

because i am always willing to celebrate something 

if there is food involved

we had pizza PI for dinner

and some other yummy PIs to wrap the night up

HAPPY PI DAY!!

confidence

in case it wasn't already clear - 

my kids are NOT lacking when it comes to loving themselves

and being confident in who they are ...

our i love you because board has become my proof ...

one final adventure

sadly -

wednesday meant it was time to go home

thankfully - 

the rain made it a TINY bit easier to leave

we got to LAX with no problems

and had a 4 hour layover before our flight to MSP

this sounded like the PERFECT opportunity

to find an in-n-out burger

i did a little bit of asking around

and found that there was a parking garage right next to in-n-out

we decided to take the risk

and board the shuttle for the parking garage

it got us to in-n-out just as we had hoped 

we had one of our best meals of the entire trip

UNFORTUNATELY ...

getting back to LAX got a little tricky

because the parking garage security guy

busted us for trying to ride without parking there ... oops.

THANKFULLY ...

a really nice minivan taxi driver was willing to take us back the .5 mile

to the airport  -

asking us only to pay him whatever we wanted

even with tipping him well it was still one of the cheapest meals of the trip ;)

AND ... a great way to REALLY finish off our trip!

perfection

what is ben going to do when he has to watch ncaa basketball from a couch

instead of a hot tub?!

** as a side note **

when we got back from hawaii -

ben's science teacher asked his favorite thing he did in hawaii.

his answer was 'watching basketball from the hot tub'

day ten * pics

glow in the dark bocce ball

one of the new things we tried this year

was glow in the dark bocce ball

at first i was skeptical

thinking the balls would be hard to see

and wouldn't really glow

i was SO surprised!

they were lit by LED lights

and they were AWESOME!

we had so much fun playing

and of course won some starbucks along the way ;)

it's too bad that by the time it is dry enough and warm enough to play this in mn

the mosquitos would win

black rock

FINALLY ...

on our last full day

the weather was absolutely gorgeous!

it was the perfect opportunity

for the boys to go snorkeling

we took their gear and walked down to black rock

the water was calm and clear

and it wasn't too busy

alex was still unsure about snorkeling

after his first adventure

so he hung out on the beach

until drew and ben came and towed him out on the boogie board

they saw TONS of fish

and even got to see a few turtles!

a PERFECT last day adventure!