Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Old Friends Come to Town

This past weekend we had some old friends come to town... the Edmunds.
It was fun to hang out and let the kids run wild. :) It was also fun to meet the newest addition - Soren ... what a cutie! He was such a good baby!! The kids had a blast playing at the park, jumping on the tramp, going to the lego store, and having slumber parties at night :).
And of course, the adults had fun staying up late chatting and playing games.

One of the highlights was Saturday night at the drive-in. It was the opening night for the movie "How to Train Your Dragon." It was really cute! We decided to try a new place to eat before the show (recommendation from friends) Mel's Country Cafe. It was so good!!! We loved it! We will definitely be going there again before we hit the drive-in. Even though the drive-in was way more crowded than we had ever seen it before (we only started going last summer - I guess Spring is the time everyone wants to come), We still had a great time! The weather was perfect! We were also able to have new friends join us for the evening fun, too.

Sad that I didn't get my camera out sooner... I only have pictures of the Drive-in from our weekend adventure. Time flies when you are having fun with friends.

"Friends - Old and New"
Lars, Smith, Matthew, Emily, Dallin, Jacob, Abigail, Connor, Dallin (missing Soren)

The line-up at the Drive-In
Wirthlin Family, Curtis Family, Edmunds Family

6 Little Rascals In the Back of the Van
After the temperatures started to come down, the kids decided to cuddle in the car.
(Lars and Connor were still hanging with the adults, and Soren was happy to be held).

Edmunds - We can't wait to see you again! We wish you the best of luck in Spokane! I still can't believe you will be there in 8 weeks!!!! Thanks for coming! We had a blast!

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Haircuts


It was that time again... oh, how I dread haircuts!

I had been trying to grow Dallin's hair out longer to cover up his scar for the summer, but my haircutting skills just couldn't keep up with the length. And this boy has some serious thickness when it gets longer .... so shorter is what he requested :).

Connor is starting to lose that "baby-look." He really is beginning to look like a toddler! What happened to my baby?

Connor Before:

Dallin Before:

Dallin After:

Connor After:

Another Tooth!

Can you believe it? Abigail has lost another tooth. Now we are up to 5! Dad says we will probably lose another big one in a couple of weeks! How is this little girl going to eat?

She loves the tooth fairy... and saves all of her cards :). It is fun to watch the excitement of a child. Wish I was that young again :).

Friday, March 19, 2010

A Perfect Day at the Beach with Friends








Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I love holidays! I love having a reason to party all day long! And St. Patrick's Day is no different. Lucky for us, Princess and the Frog had just come out for rental the night for us. We rushed over to the Red Box and grabbed a copy. It was a little too late to watch Tuesday night.. so we decided to have a "Morning Matinee" with some of our friends. Of course we had to have some green treats to go with.... Shamrock Smoothies and green frosted donuts. The kids had a blast spending time with their friends and watching a new favorite movie.

(Wish I had a picture of all the kids in their green shirts. It was adorable. I need to get a copy of one my friend took. )








Of course we had to finish the afternoon with some green potato painting. It was a little tricky to teach the kids how to make shamrocks out of a heart.. but they eventually got it :).


Can you see Dallin's name on the side... He wrote it all by himself... he was so proud!

Because Dallin REALLY does not like green foods (even though he loves cucumbers and green beans)... still he really has a hard time with green... we decided not to have an all green dinner. Instead, we made Irish stew with spinach salad. It was my first time making something like this... and it turned out pretty good. I made note of somethings to change if we decide to make this one again.

All-in-all, it was a great day! Fun with Friends and Fun with Family. Sounds good to me!

Don't you just love that jack-o-lantern smile. Abigail has lost another tooth (she is up to 4). This time it was one of her big ones! She was so excited that the tooth fairy came again!! That's two teeth this month and she has two more almost ready to come out! CRAZY! If she keeps losing them at this rate... I am not sure how she is going to eat her food :).

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like...

SUMMER!
Monday was absolutely beautiful! The weather was perfect, not too hot, but just warm enough for a fun afternoon in the sun. We put the sprinkler under the trampoline (a first time for my kiddos... they loved it), played with sidewalk chalk, painted with water, and even had snack outside. I just didn't want to be indoors. John asked me later... "how did school go today?" Oh... school... I guess I was a little too excited about the sun :).
However, it was a fun filled day together. That's what matters most, right? :)


Yes, their eyes are closed. They said it was too sunny for a picture.
This was the best we could do.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Partying with the Clarks/ The Final Journey

Thursday night we spent time with old friends.
We love the Clarks! Thanks again for letting us crash at your place! We miss you guys already!



Friday morning we packed up and decided to take the kids to do one last "fun" thing before the long 31 hour drive home. Lucky for us, Sarah decided to pull the kids out of school to play with us :). We headed out to a State Park in the area known for "Gold digging!"

We had a great time watching a movie about the early LDS pioneers that helped to build this area, eating our picnic lunch, letting the kids run crazy in the big field, and "digging" for gold. Really there was gold in there.... it wasn't very big ... but it was gold. The kids were just as excited to find garnets and pyrite ("fool's gold")... which was a lot easier to find. However, in their little tubes there is real gold too. Even the little guys had fun soaking themselves and everyone else :).




From there we said our Goodbyes and began the long trek home.
After another 31 hours in the car, we finally pulled into our driveway at 1:30 am (technically Sunday). The kids have been real troopers and were again wonderful all the way home.
We are so grateful we all made it home safe and sound :).

Thursday

Medford, OR: Home of Harry and David.... I had no idea!

I was so excited to find out that one of my favorite stores was offering tours at their local factory. So Thursday we went loaded the tour bus. It was pretty fun... the kids enjoyed seeing where everything is made and watching them assemble all of the treat towers and packages. But I must say, one of our favorite things was the giant sized Harry and David store. The samples just kept coming... and everything tasted so good. We walked away with some great clearance deals, which always makes this mama happy :).


Riding the tour bus:
I think the kids just loved being able to sit in a big person seat with their own seat belt!




We really like Medford, but the fact that they have 7 Orthodontics (4 of them being LDS) doesn't really play into our favor. After checking out the areas of both Medford and Redding (again) - looking at various houses and Orthodontic offices - we decided it was time to head back to the Clarks.

Back on the road - heading south on I-5

Mt Shasta
This view was breathtaking! The mountain was amazing... just towering over the valley.


Lake Shasta
We are definitely going to have to go House-boating/waterskiing on this lake in the future!

Wednesday Adventures: Part 5

We were SO glad we chose to take this route (a dirt road going parallel to the highway we needed to take to reach the next city on our list). It probably added 30 extra minutes to the drive, but it was 30 minutes well worth it.

Earlier we had stopped at a Visitors Center in the park to get directions to the "Drive-through" Tree, while there the "Ranger-lady" suggested I take this dirt-road that would allow us to see the "ancient" forest up close. At first I thought... "She must not know I am driving a mini-van. There is no way we could make it. And I don't know if we can afford to lose another 30 mins."
But after talking with John we decided to give it a try. We were so glad we did.

The forest was AMAZING! The pictures can not do it justice. The trees were huge and expansive. Because it was a dirt road and we were traveling slowly through the trees, we let the kids (Abby and Dallin) undo their buckles and hang out of the window for a better view. I don't think we could have found a better spot to really "experience" the Redwoods. I highly recommend this route to anyone that heads this way.






This was our final adventure for the day.

Next stop Grants Pass, OR.
And from Grants Pass, OR to Medford, OR

There we settled for the night.

Wednesday Adventures: Part 4

Tour-Thru Tree

Before we left Texas, I told John - "If we were going to be that close to the Redwoods, we HAVE to drive through a giant tree!" We found our tree... it was amazing! Can you see how tight it was?? The last two pictures are of an actual working bathroom carved right out of a Redwood stump.. crazy! And yes, it does work... John made sure :).