Water Wards

In order for the Ward Family to stay at your hotel establishment - a pool is one of the essential criteria!!!  This is where we let our hair down, have fun, be silly, relax, and have a good time together.  And when we have a pool all to ourselves for 3 days straight...EVEN BETTER!!! The pool at condo in Santa Fe was PERFECT.  It was warm, not crowded (we seriously had the whole place to ourselves for 3 days!  It was awesome!!)  a hot tub, and was located away from the crowd so our screams of glee and silliness didn't bother anyone!!  As you can tell from the pictures - we had a blast and spent quite a bit of time in the warm waters of the pool!  Clay had fun throwing all the kids into the water, Laura & CJ had some underwater fun with the camera, Detric discovered his love for the pool and underwater world and overcame any and all fear of putting his face in and being thrown in....he was ALL IN and loving it.  Aparri mastered balancing on Clay's shoulders and then being tossed in.  Preston explored the hot tub and pool with his snorkel gear looking for treasures!  And last, but certainly not least...Erica watched and snoozed from the sidelines - looking as cute as ever!  This is us...We are the WATER WARDS.

Look Closely at this one!!

Springing into Santa Fe

We haven't gotten out of town in a long time and we felt it....we need a vacation!!! So when Clay got Thursday and Friday during Spring Break off of Work - we said....Let's GO!  Now....where?  We decided to head to Santa Fe since we hadn't been there and it sounded fun!  So...Wednesday night we headed off so we would have a full Thursday of play and part of Friday before we needed to head back Friday night.  Well....we sure lucked out because we got an awesome condo.  Ft. Marcy Condos in Santa Fe were very nice, roomy (2 bedrooms, full kitchen, dining/living room), HAD A POOL, and very affordable $100/night.  So when Friday came along, we were having such a great time we decided to stay another day.  When Saturday came, we still weren't ready to leave (it decided to go from sunny 70 degree weather on Thursday to snow on Friday! So we weren't able to do the Santa Fe hiking that we wanted to do....) so we just HAD to stay another day!  So our 2 day get-a-way turned into a 4 day mini trip and it was fabulous!  We hit the childrens museum, Zootopia at the theatre, Olive Garden,  krispie kreme, shopping, hiking and exploring at Bandelier National Monument, discovering cinnabon oreos (YUM!) and swimming in the warm pool and hot tub DAILY!  It was the perfect way to spend the last few days of spring break - a get a way that wasn't too far from home (3 hours) and adventures as a family!

Hanging Out

Another Family Favorite Spot to Hang out is the Science Spectrum in Lubbock.  The boys literally HUNG OUT on the rock climbing wall!!!  When all the kids voted YES to a spring break day in Lubbock at the museum - off we went!  Poor Erica was fine with the trip there, but when it came to the trip home - oh boy, she was DONE!  The 1 1/2 hour trip quickly turned into a 2 1/2 + hour trip.  We had to continually stop and console the little lady who became hysterical at times.  The poor little lady was completely soaked in sweat by the time we got home.  I hope she learns to like the car quick or we aren't GOING NO WHERE again!!!   

Skating through Spring Break

We started off Spring Break with a BANG!!  Rollerskating.  Our kids are always asking to go rollerskating - so when we sat down and made a list of all the Spring Break Activties that everyone wanted to do - ROLLERSKATING was at the top of EVERYONE's list....so it was the first to be done!!  Our good friends, the Luceros, and Chandler Hickman joined in on the roller fun!  Aparri wore her high socks that were perfect with the black lights - this little lady GLOWED!

Instead of where's Waldo - it's Where is Detric!  He is hard to find, but he is there!  Can you see him?

CJ, Preston, and Aparri didn't have any problems being out on the skating floor the entire time (and we were too...the ENTIRE TIME.  We were the first ones there and the last to go!  We had the whole rink to ourselves for the last 15 minutes -it was GREAT!), Detric however had to be bribed...popcorn did the trick until something better came along!  After 2 1/2 hours at the rink and 2 bags of popcorn, Laura was sure Detric was done and wasn't going to be lured back onto the rink anymore...oh, Laura couldn't have been more wrong!!  All it took was a little girl to convince our little man to go out and skate until the end!  This little girl fell down while skating and the little gentleman that Detric is - he went over and tried to help her up (granted, this little girl was twice his age and size...but he didn't care!) After she successfully got up, Detric proceeeded to follow her around the rink for the next 30-40 minutes!  Where ever she went, Detric went too!  It was really cute to see him go from having little to no desire to skate to full on skate his heart out and not wanting to leave....oh, the power of a pretty face!!!