Goldy's Gallop

E & S ran Goldy's Run for the third consecutive year this weekend, and there were a lot of equally impressive firsts this time around...

• E & S ran the whole thing, i.e. no walking (or being held!)
• E & S ran without Mom & Dad by their side
• Maddie & Tanner (Kid's Run), Uncle Jay (5k Run), Grandpa Tom (5k Walk) each completed their first official road race

Easter in the (Apple) Valley

With L & I out of town, E & S (& G) holed up at Grandma and Grandpa's on Easter weekend... and the Big Bunny managed to find them there.

Mrs. Burns

Linds and her childhood BFFs (Kelly, Jaime and Natalie), reunited at Kelly's wedding in downtown Cincinnati... and struck their infamous pose for a photo opp.  

It happens fewer and farther between these days, but they've been recreating this image for nearly 20 years!  

(More importantly... Congrats, Kelly!)

Disney World

The Backer Bunch spent Spring Break 2015 at the "most magical place on earth", Disney World in Orlando, FL.

While crowds, lines, heat, and price gouging weren't ideal for this guy, the girls' excitement and ear-to-ear smiles from 6am 'til they zonked out each eve (on our monorail ride home) were admittedly priceless. 

We packed it in in our six days, hitting all four parks (Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Universal Studios).

The girls met nearly every princess and character (Merida, Ariel, Tink', and, of course, Anna & Elsa being their favorites... with Sawyer falling in love with "Stitchy" by the end of the week).

Ride-wise, E LOVED each and every roller coaster (Space Mountain was tops for her, Expedition Everest for me).  As you can see in the above, she was more cool calm an collected than the adult riders!  Sawyer was a few inches too short for the biggest & baddest thrills, but enjoyed the classic "conveyer belt" rides as much as anything (and, oddly, loved the People Mover).  The Kilimanjaro Safari was pretty cool, as well, despite an uncomfortably close encounter with a crash of rhinos.

Re: the shows, E & S giggled through the Turtle Talk with Crush ("Dude"), Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, and Narrated Frozen Sing-A-Long interactive shows.  Sawyer glowed while playing the role of Philippe (the horse), leading Belle throughout her journey, in a Beauty & the Beast rendition.  Evie was pretty awed with the the Cirque de Soleil-esque Festival of the Lion King.  And, the nightcap firework shows (Fantasmic! and the "traditional" Magic Kingdom display) impressed as well...

On the food front, the girls demanded Mickey Shaped ice cream treats at least once a day.  The only stops that made an impression were the Sci-Fi "Drive-In" and the Whispering Canyon Cafe (ask the kiddos about the ketchup situation at this place!).

M-I-C-K-E-Y... M-O-U-S-EEEEEEE...

EJB's 6th

No formal party for our big 6 y/o this year... but she's not exactly complaining, as she spent her entire birthday walking the Magic Kingdom at Disney (see the following post)!

Evie Jane, ...

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Happy Birthday, LMB

Kicking off L's big day with the traditional breakfast in bed, of course....

Mini-hoppers

Gymnastics is easily the girls' favorite sport, and has been a fall-to-spring staple in their weekly routine since they could walk... but it's so hard to get a decent pic from the "observation room" that unlike the rest of their lives, there's next to no photo evidence!

Above is a rare shot of a focused E on the big kid beam.

Get Lucky

Linds & I, our neighbors J & J, and about 21,000 others ran the Get Lucky this year, MN's largest road race (in celebration of St. Patrick's Day).  

The race was all fine and well, but the day of pub crawling (Kieren's, Marvel Bar, etc.), hot tubbing, and overeating (Hubert's, Smack Shack, etc.) in the Big City that followed was my personal highlight.

Da Comeback

I know exactly three people in the world who DVR regular season NBA games, and the lowly MN Timberwolves games at that... so it was a no-brainer who to call to catch Da Kid's first game back in the the Blue & Green.  

Fun catching up, T & A, and welcome home, KG!

Art Cellar

Going a little stir crazy, now six months into winter, we bought a couple quarts of chalk and whiteboard paint, and let the girls DIY an artist's wall in the basement.

Messy, imperfect, fun... and 100% unused since completed.