Spring Break in Arizona

Bryan had a meeting in Arizona in late March, so the boys and I tagged along and escaped the last blast of icy winter in Des Moines.

While in Arizona, we got to see one of the last Cubs spring training games against the Colorado Rockies. As a strange coincident, while at the Cubs/Rockies game, I received a call from Jack's T-ball coach letting me know he'd be on the Rockies this spring, so even though the Cubs lost, Jack was happy "his team" won.

We sat on the lawn, which allowed both boys to stand right at the outfield fence to catch the action.

Daddy was in meetings so Jack, Griffin and I took advantage of nearly 100-degree temperatures and swam in our hotel's five pools. Considering it was snowing in Des Moines while we were gone, the sun felt great!

Sponge Bob Square Pants and Dora the Explorer were also staying at our same hotel!

We beat the heat one morning with a round of mini-golf and at the same park was a large golf-ball shaped dome with bungees and trampolines inside. Well, the boys couldn't wait. They were hitched up and allowed to jump almost 20 feet high (with some help) for a few minutes. Griffin was brave in theory, but didn't like to be hooked up to all those cables.

Jack had a blast.

Afterward, the two discussed their experiences.

Let's Go Wild!

We took a Saturday recently and headed to Minneapolis for an action-packed day. We started with the Rainforest Cafe (too terrifying to photograph), squeezed in a few rides at Nick Universe and finished up with the grand finale -- a Minnesota Wild game at Xcel Center. Jack was a trooper through it all, and as shown above, ended with a crash landing into a comfy hotel bed. Oh yeah, the Wild won the game, and Jack added another friend to his bear family courtesy of Miss Amanda.

Weekend in Chicago

We spent a weekend in Chicago with Aunt Meredith, Uncle John and cousin Sofia in Chicago. The plane rides are always a good time, but the real treat was a Cubs game on Saturday. Thanks for a fun weekend, Natales!

The Boesen's Hit Breckenridge

Without explaining each individual picture, you get the general idea that there were a lot of Boesens in one place at the same time. Fourteen of us to be exact. We stayed in a pretty sweet house outside of Breckenridge, Colo., and it snowed every day nonstop. Jack enjoyed flying in the airplane and watching the Grinch courtesy of Aunt Jenny's iPod. Another big highlight was the Eagle Bahn Gondola to the top of Vail mountain -- it acutally replaced "hockey" in his lexicon for a few days. But perhaps the greatest part of the whole trip was riding the Vail city bus with a very excited Jack. If things ever get boring in Des Moines, I'm jumping on the MTA bus around the city.

We had phenomenal skiing and had a great time connecting with the Boesen clan. We skiied, snowboarded ("shred the gnar gnar!"), ate, hot-tubbed, ate, had a Wii tennis tournament and ate some more (man, those crepes were great!). We're looking forward to the next Boesen family vacation sometime soon!