My new hobby: couponing!

Isn't it great when a hobby saves you money instead of costing you money? Saving money is fun! We are loving couponing. I'm still learning but getting better with practice. I'm so greatful for my friend that introduced me to couponing.

The above picture is of the haul I made at Walgreens yesterday. My merchandise total for 42 items (couple not shown) prior to coupons and Register Rewards was $88.92. And what did I pay? $6.83! The trick to Walgreens is to purchase items that will give you Register Rewards first and than use those Register Rewards to purchase items in your next transactions. Use coupons on items that are already on sale and you got yourself a good deal and not much is spent out of your pocket. I follow several websites that do a lot of the coupon match-ups for me. A few that I follow the closest are: hip2save.com, iheartwags.com, afullcup.com and passionforsavings.com . They all have a section on how to get started using coupons and where to find them. They always list freebies and free product samples that you can order too. It's fun going to the mailbox and finding it full of free samples. Save your coupons and check out the websites and you can start saving money too.

Softball

Megan had her first softball game. She loved it. This is her first time ever playing softball. It is fast pitch softball. She is on a 10u (ages 10 and under) team because there weren't enough players to make an 8u team. She plays with a few girls she knows from church and school. She plays against a couple teams from Reno so we have to travel there a couple times.

Curly and cute

We put sponge rollers in Megan's short hair and it was very curly when she woke up. It relaxed a lot by the time these pictures were taken that night but still looked very cute. We are having fun with the short hair.

Megan had a spring music concert tonight to celebrate Earth Day.

T-ball

Jayce is finally old enough to play t-ball. Last week they had opening ceremonies and Jayce walked in a parade with his team carrying a banner with his team name. A few kids that he knows from church are on his team and his coach is a mom of one of his friends. He cried at first before his first game started because he was scared but soon got over it and now looks forward to each practice and game.

Poor Jayce

While we were in Overton, Jayce was still trying to get over being sick. He was the last of the three kids to get sick and he had stayed home from school 4 days the week before because of it. Jayce went through 3 boxes of tissue (no joke)while we were in Overton. Colton and Megan each had earaches that kept them up at night while we were there. Luckily they got over them without antibiotics. While playing with a punch ball, he got hit in the face maybe by the rubber band and hurt his eye. We never found anything in it but he cried and cried saying it hurt. He must have gotten scratched or something. We'll never know. He could not open it and the sun/light especially hurt it. The hurt eye sure made the nose run. Poor guy. He wore the patch for 2 days and then it was better.

As stated before, the eye didn't keep him from 4-wheeling. We had to pack a lot of tissue for him though.

Jayce asked me, "Why does everything always happen to me?"

Hidden Natural Basin of Water

One of our 4-wheeling trips in Overton was to a couple hidden natural water basins. The water collects after rainfalls and can remain for months. The top of this rock contained another basin of water. The pools are perfect for rock throwing. The challenge was to throw your rock into the upper basin of water that you can't see and hear it splash.

These critters were swimming thick in this water.

Valley of Fire State Park

Valley of Fire is a Nevada state park that is close to Overton. It got its name because of all the beautiful red sandstone formations formed from great shifting sand dunes during the age of dinosaurs . We were able to do some hiking around looking for geocaches, and petroglyphs. Many of the rock formations in the park are shaped like familiar objects.

The above picture was taken on the Rainbow Vista road. Named for all the multicolored sandstone.

You can see where the wind made holes in the sandstone cave below.

Colton and I were hiding in the cave below but the other kids found us.

On a hike down to "Mouse's Tank", a natural basin in the rock where water collects after rainfalls sometimes remaining for months, we found petroglyphs on many rocks in the park. The one below looks like an Indian was telling how he went to the dentist to get a root canal. Doesn't it look like a dentist tool and teeth? Grandpa Clark came up with that one.

We saw many rocks shaped like familiar objects. The one below looks like a ship.

Below is "balancing rock".

Does the entrance to the cave below look like an elephant head and trunk?

Below is the rock they do call "elephant rock". See the head with trunk going down to ground?

Below is assumed to be the original entrance to Valley of Fire State Park built over 100 years ago. These cabins are still standing. There are remains of a picnic and BBQ area too.

This is the men's bathroom still standing from the original Valley of Fire entrance. Seems very interesting for the time period. Reminds me of doorless walk-in showers some people have.

4-wheeling in Overton,NV

We spent a lot of time 4-wheeling during our visit with Grandpa and Granny Clark in Overton, NV. One day we road over 40 miles! The kids couldn't get enough. Even though Jayce had a sore eye he wasn't about to be left behind.

We saw a lot of beautiful scenery. One day we rode to the Virgin River. Not much water.

We rode the Logandale Trails and saw lots of red rock and caves to climb in.

We hunted for geocaches while 4-wheeling too. We put in a trackable coin and took out a presidential gold dollar. We saw at least 5 different kinds of cactus. Some looked very wicked and scared me to have the kids too close for fear they would fall on it and get hurt.

And there were lizards everywhere. The horny toad lizard was the most interesting and was camouflaged in the dirt. It froze still when we got close to it. Gramps was even able to pick it up with a stick under it's belly.

Hoover Dam

We were able to go to Hoover Dam over spring break while we were in Southern Nevada. It is such a massive dam. Below, you can see the new bridge that is being built that traffic will use to cross the dam. Looks scary.

Below you can see the white water line on the hills indicating how deep the water used to be. It has really dropped.

Blake's dad joined us as we walked around the dam.

The Hoover Dam is in both Nevada and...

Arizona.