hippety hoppety easter's on its way...

jenn and rainah came for a visit late in the week and we were hoping to take the kids to see the easter bunny since twelve oaks not only has the greatest santa, but also the greatest easter bunny. unfortunately, the bunny didn't arrive until saturday morning which was when jenn and rainah were leaving. they still decided to go right before they headed home, but i decided not to since we have a lot of work we are doing in the basement.
when i heard there were NO lines, i was kinda bummed. so sunday after church we decided to head over to the mall to see the bunny and introduce justin to olga's.
once again, no lines and it's nice to have that over with since we have so much to do in the basement before talan's birthday party in just a few short weeks!
hayden did a great job and sat right down next to the bunny and just looked at the cameras the whole time. talan would sit for a few seconds and then jump down and run away. no tears, just running. we eventually got him to sit on the bench next to the bunny and got a bunch of pictures.
when we were finishing up lunch talan kept saying "hop hop hop!" he wanted to see the bunny again.
i'm not able to scan the official bunny picture here at home, so hopefully i can post it sometime this week. until then, here are some of the unofficial ones.

talan seemed pretty interested at first:

but not interested enough to have dave force him into the bunny's lap. hayden watches in amusement:
trying to break away from the bunny's death grip:

free at last! i didn't notice until after i uploaded the photos, but hayden sat with his hand on the bunny's back the entire time:
wondering if talan will ever come back:
we lured him back over to the bunny by having him give him a high five:
the high five worked and he finally sat still. and for more then 3 seconds even!:

talan finally warmed up enough to move from high fives to a hug. and hayden is still still patiently.:
presents for everyone!:

a fantastic free evening

the other week dave and i went to what was possibly our first show since lollapalooza last august.
our friend trey is the booking agent for blitzen trapper and got us in to the show. on top of that, we ended up finding a FREE parking space right outside of the magic stick. it doesn't get any better then that. oh except we also met up with our friend jeremy stephison. so i guess it does get better.
blitzen trapper put on a GREAT show and played what seemed to be their entire catalog. i took a few pictures but it was pretty crowded and as usual, most of the tall people stood right in my view.
then just last nite we went to see ....and you will know us by the trail of dead. they ended up having two openers. midnight masses and funeral party. funeral party was amazing and we can't wait until their album comes out on june 9th. trail of dead always has great openers...such a nice change!
the show was pretty empty and we were standing right up front. unfortunately, i totally forgot my camera. but it was an AMAZING show. my ears are still ringing today and that never happens anymore.
thank you, trey, for getting us in to the blitzen trapper show! we had a great time and really appreciate it!
and thank you, mom, for watching the boys both nites so we could get out!!! you're the best!

a february break tradition

justin and jessica just happened to be home during hayden's mid-winter break from school. so the whole family, minus dave, decided to take a trip to grand rapids to visit with jenn, don and rainah.
i think hayden has taken this trip every february break now. it's great to get out of the house and do something new and fun with the petersen's.
the first day we got there we gave hayden two options of where we could go. he immediately said he wanted to go back to the children's museum. all of the kids (and adults) had a great time. don was even able to meet up with us over there.
the next day, we all woke up bright and early so that we could go to bounce party. a big warehouse with all sorts of inflatable slides and such that the kids could go nuts on for 90 minutes. talan was in quite the crabby mood and didn't enjoy himself nearly as much as he probably would have on any other day, but he still had a fun time. the rest of us had a blast too! justin pointed out that we had broken every rule that had except for two. we're always out to set a good example for our children.
after bounce party, we all headed to red robin for lunch where jessica got ice cold water and pop spilled all over her by the new waiter. it was ok though...she got a free meal out of it and i got a good laugh. and from there we went to KRISPY KREME to get some donuts to take home. ahhh, how we've missed out krispy kreme.
we hung out through dinner and then we all headed back home as justin was heading out the next day for tour again.
hayden ended up making me pull over 3 or 4 times to puke on the drive home(he only actually puked one of those times). we determined that it must have been a combination of him being overly tired and car sickness as he was watching a movie in the backseat. our avoidance of the flu remains!!!
we had a great little break. thanks so much for having us all over, jenn and don! and for showing us a good time as always! we'll be coming out this summer too!!

day 1 at the children's museum:
all side of cute:

the bubbles were a huge hit.....:
with EVERYONE:








talan and rainah. talan would only scoot backwards through this thing...even with rainah trying to show him the ropes:
waiting for a very important phone call:
hayden LOVED the banking area:

we are all about safety in this family:

talan loves to destroy things:

jessica working hard:
hayden has always loved this. so does talan, but we had to keep him away since he wouldn't stop throwing the golf balls up AND down the ramp:
talan played with everything in the museum...for about 5 seconds each:
driving the car again:
talan demonstrating how you should also clean your tonsils:
day 2 at bounce party. this was quite a steep slide and talan just couldn't figure out if he liked it or not:

talan and justin. bff:



can't you just feel the excitement?!:


talan trying it without a suit:

getting some help. unfortunately it wasn't sticky enough so we could keep him up there and leave him:
jessica's turn:
and now justin:
don't let her fool you, i totally kicked her butt:

hayden in what dad refers to as the universe's butthole:
i think this was the third time putting his socks back on:
this was talan's favorite:
hayden made some friends:

he didn't make it up much farther than this on his own...but at least he tried:


after bounce party we headed to krispy kreme where i got the babies a job. oh how i miss krispy kreme:

it was a long two days and talan was out within minutes once we reached the car: