Grandkid Pictures March 2014

While Grandpa and Grandma Cali watched the kids in March (while mom and dad were in Portland), Grandpa took some pictures of the three kids.  They are so great! Here are some of my favorites.

A trip to St. George!

I think this shall be dubbed the year of the traveling.

Over the first weekend of May, we traveled to St. George, Utah to attend two of Ronnie's sister's graduations.  His oldest sister, Aubrey, graduated in nursing and his youngest sister, Kari, graduated in computer science and technology.

I was much better prepared for this trip, than I was for our trip to Aspen and the 12+ hours of driving went surprisingly well.

We did hit one snag though.  Our first potty break came in Idaho Springs, Colorado.  I ran inside with Kendree and Devynee and Ronnie decided to top off the tank while we were stopped. Devynee stayed in her car seat and I was planning to change her diaper when I got back.  As Ron started filling up the tank, the keys in the ignition were beeping annoyingly.  He took them out and threw them down on the middle console, then proceed to finish filling up.

When he was done, he tried to open the door and it was locked. You know where this is going, don't you? All of the other doors were locked as well. When I came out with the kids, he asked me where the extra keys were.  I asnwered that they were in my diaper bag in the van. Awesome.

Ronnie went inside to use a phone (our phones were also in the car) and the store clerk happened to know the chief of police.  (Oh, the beauty of small towns). Two policeman arrived in under 5 minutes and immediately went to work.  During this entire time, Devynee was happy as can be, except for one time when she could see the rest of the family walking away from the van (to the sunshine, it was cold outside and none of us had our jackets on).  We were able to calm her down and she didn't ever cry again.

As the police started the process, one of them mentioned that the other was the fastest person he had ever seen break into cars.  Unfortunately for us, the van had gone into security mode and pushing on the unlock button didn't do anything. 45 minutes later, they were able to pull up on the lock stick thingy (what are those called?) and it unlocked the passenger side door.  The alarms on the van went crazy.

We thanked the policemen for all of their work, changed Devynee's diaper and went on our merry way.  Unfortunately, we did not get any pictures of this experience, so the story will have to do! [For your reference, the police will only break into your car if a child is inside the car.  Otherwise, you have to call a lock smith, etc.]

A few other funny things from this time - Easton came up to Ronnie while they were all working to get the car unlocked and said "Dad! He has a gun!" and then "And he has those, those things!" Ronnie said, "Handcuffs?" and Easton answered, "Yeah."

Easton, Kendree and I started out passing the time by picking dandelions in the rocks.  We got quite the collection and then I was freezing, so we went inside the store to continue to wait.  The sweet store clerk made Kendree a portable vase to keep her dandelions alive in the car.  Kendree was thrilled and gave her a dandelion as a thank you.

For the rest of the trip, Ronnie kept the extra set of keys in his pants pocket.  You can bet we won't make that mistake anytime soon.

Now, after that little adventure, we continued on our way and arrived in St. George that evening at 9:00 p.m.

Along the way, Easton made me take this picture of him in Green River, Utah.

What was the first thing we did when we got to St. George?  Stop at In N Out, of course!

After a late night, a day packed with swimming, family fun, graduations and more family fun, all three kids fell asleep at 5:30 p.m. Awesome.

The next day before everyone went their separate ways, we enjoyed some Pier 49 pizza and drinks from Swig (when will one of those open in Cheyenne!?!?) at the park and then kids got some energy out on the playground.

 Then, we went to Kari's apartment and took a few pictures with Grandma and Grandpa Cali.

We loaded up again and drove up to Pleasant Grove, Utah to visit my grandparents.  On the way, we took a detour into Provo to show the kids where we lived when we were first married...

And where we lived three months later (the bottom, garden-level condo).

Of course, a shot of the Y was appropriate as well.

We grabbed some Taco Amigo - oh how I love that place! and headed to Grammy's house to eat with her. I love this woman!

We then headed up to Grandma and Grand Dad's house, where we were spending the night.  We went down and tried to visit the cow, but it was terrified of us, so we visited the neighbor's goats and chickens instead.

We were able to spend some great time with Grandma and Grand Dad and grabbed a picture with them as well!

After attending a sacrament meeting, we headed for home! It was another uneventful ride and the kids did great.

April 2014 Random Catch Up

Easton is playing machine pitch baseball this year and needed a new glove.  While Ron and he were at the store, he also played the card that he really needed batting gloves, since he wasn't playing tee ball anymore.

Apparently, Dad is a pushover, because he came home with some new batting gloves.  That night he slept in them.

A rare moment of sisterly love. In actuality, Devynee had just woken up and only wanted to snuggle with Kendree.  Hence the elated face on Kendree and the grumpy "wake up" face on Devynee.

Someone got a little crazy with the sour cream...

Easter!

We had a low-key Easter this year.  We were able to talk about the true meaning of Easter and didn't even have any "no, mom, it's about the Easter bunny" comments this year.

We dyed eggs on Saturday afternoon (nothing like the last minute!).

 On Sunday, the Easter Bunny visited.  I was enjoying the moment and only took these few pictures.

After church, I lined the kids up for the obligatory picture.

We had a wonderful day and are so grateful for all that Easter celebrates.  Jesus Christ, the resurrection, new life, and drawing closer to the Savior.

A trip to Aspen!

I have a work meeting coming up in June in Aspen, Colorado.  Since I have get to plan everything, a trip to scope out the area was in order.

We loaded up the kids and headed out on a Thursday morning. The kids traveled great, even though I neglected to pack a lot for them to do in the car.  Don't ask me why I wasn't more prepared.

We stopped in at a 50s style diner in Aspen for dinner and Devynee thought she was pretty stylin' in daddy's hat.

The next day she added his glasses as well!

I met with people at the hotel all morning on Friday to organize as much as I could ahead of time.  Ronnie was brave enough to head to the pool a few minutes ahead of me.

The pool was outdoors but amazing.  They heat the water and it feels like a very warm bathtub all of the time.  Additionally, they had a hot tub that was above the pool and had a waterfall that the kids loved.

The view from the pool was also amazing.

 Kendree was THRILLED that she could touch for a large portion of one side of the pool and celebrated her new freedom (as she should!).

 Almost the entire gang. Kendree had decided she was done smiling for this one.

 It was a quick trip, and after swimming and dinner, we stayed another night and then headed for home the next morning.  It was a great little family trip though and we all enjoyed it.