Last minute amazing vacation, Part 2: UTAH

Since  BK had to go back to the "real world" and work for a living, the boys and I decided to take our little rental car up north.

On our way out of town we stopped in to see my good friend Emily, and had a quick, fun little playdate, in which my boys mostly terrorized her daughter (mostly Spencer)--but it seemed they all had a good time, nonetheless.  I loved catching up with Emily!

We stopped in St. George on the way up, and had a picnic at the St. George Temple, where BK and I got married.

We went to the Farmer's Market the next morning with Grandpa Stanger.  There was a park nearby, and so we let the boys play for awhile to get some wiggles out.

My ragamuffin children:

Landon also had the "best day ever" playing "mud-guys" with cousins Natalie and Noah:

It took about 3 showers at least to get the dirt-smell out of his hair.

Again, IMALOSER for not taking pictures of anything else in the Utah portion of the trip.

BUT

We had a good sleepover with Megan.
We had a lovely visit with Misty and my three DARLING nieces.
And on our way out of town we had a quick visit with Uncle Gary and Aunt Sandra, and cousins Stacey and Shelby.

The boys slept in the car on the way back to Vegas, and I listened to conference on the radio. (I love Zion.)  It was heavenly.   I also discovered that Cafe Rio has a drive-thru in Cedar City, and so I ate a pork salad while driving from there to Vegas.

We spent one more day with Tara and her kiddos and then took the red-eye back to Texas.

I always love when complete strangers are kind to me in airports.
Because of a handful of kind people, I was somehow able to get my double stroller, two children, two backpacks, two carseats, two pillows, and two blankies on and off the plane (without checking any of it.  We're cheap!!).  Of course it turned out that at least one of those people were also Mormon.  But that's not surprising to me.

One older couple helped me carry the backpacks to my seat on the plane.
And another man helped me carry the backpacks off the plane, and then went back and got Landon's carseat for me.  He then insisted on carrying it all the way to the curb for me.

On the plane, luck was on our side, and the only extra seat on the plane was given to the poor person assigned to sit on our row, thus leaving us the extra seat on OUR row.  I immediately moved Spencer to Landon's car seat:

 And Landon got to be a "big boy" with a real seat-belt for the trip.

Both boys slept and were amazing on the flight.
It took me about three days to recover from the lack of sleep, but the cheap price was so worth it, I would do it again in a heart beat.

I came away from our vacation realizing how blessed BOTH BK and I are to come from such amazing families.  I loved how willing everyone was at the last minute to accommodate us and entertain us.  My boys were amazing travelers, and I left the vacation feeling completely uplifted and loved.

Thank you to all of you!
Come to Texas soon!!

Last minute amazing vacation, Part 1: VEGAS

At the very last minute we decided to check plane ticket prices to see about going to little Avianna's baby blessing in Vegas.  BK's missionary parents were going to be in Vegas for it, on their way up to see BK's grandma, who recently had had a heart attack.  And we actually found an AMAZING deal on tickets!  So we went!

We flew out of Dallas at about 11pm.

Eventually, both of the boys slept, and we didn't have any problems at all on the plane.

We went to the park the next evening for a cousin playdate and a pizza picnic!

Here's Landon and Grandpa Don:

Here's Spencer and Grandpa Don:

Why am I so horrible at taking a good quantity of pictures?  Oh well.  I was enjoying myself.

Later that evening, we had the baby blessing at Tara and Nate's house.  At the last minute, Caden was able to arrange for baby Amora to be blessed that night, too!  It was an awesome family get together for sure!

Here's Landon at cousin Connor's pool  the following evening.

We had an awesome BBQ, and then BK flew back to Texas that night.

Bob the Builder Store

A few Saturdays ago, we went to the Bob the Builder Store (Lowe's.) to make a fire truck.

Landon was BEYOND excited.
Also I'm pretty sure he looks just like me in this picture.

P.S.  Spencer you were there, too.  But you didn't make a truck.  Your dad couldn't come with us, and I just couldn't handle supervising TWO trucks.  My apologies.  Maybe another day.

Preschool

My amazing friends Summer and Melanie have joined with me in a co-op preschool group.  Our boys are all BFFs, and so it's been really fun to have them get together to learn stuff.

So far, it's been my turn twice.
The first time, I had the letter K.

Here they are flying their "kites."

 The second time, I had P.

We made pandas.

 And watched popcorn pop.  And made purple playdough.  And ate pop-tarts and peanut butter pita pockets.

Good times.

So far when it hasn't been my week to teach, Spencer and I have enjoyed running errands together.
Just this past Tuesday we went on a special trip to Walmart so that he could pick out a toothbrush.  He keeps stealing every one else's, so I figured it was time.

I laid out all the manly toothbrush choices, and he quickly chose a green one with a giraffe on it.  Afterward, we shared a strawberry shake at McDonald's.

We love preschool!!

Tanner and Rachel and their posterity come to town.

Tanner and Rachel decided to grace us with their presence on Labor Day weekend.
I'm not quite sure why the only pictures I have of this awesome event were of us all sitting on the couch playing Wipeout on the Wii.

But anyway, just know that we did in fact do other amazing things, too.
We swam, ate, the boys watched football, the girls went to eat frozen yogurt, we watched all the amazing youtube videos we could think of, and we played the Wii.

A bonus video of BK, not knowing he's being taped:

First things, first

I'm about to be doing a mass catching-up on the blog over the next week or so, but first of all, I just have to tell you something.

I cut Spencer's hair.

BK has been pestering me about it for the last four months, and I refused.  We didn't cut Landon's hair until he was two!  But his grew a lot more slowly.  But I just haven't been ready to part with Spencer's curly locks.

But today he woke up from his nap, and he just sort of gave me this look like, "I'm a big boy, huh!"

And I thought, you know, he really does need the hairstyle to pull off being a "big boy."

And so, not giving it much second thought, I grabbed him and the clippers and got to work.

Before:

And after:

Maybe this new look will inspire him to be a big boy and transition with no problem to nursery in a week?

Our goings-on

We have been busy, busy the past few weeks!
On a whim, we decided to go to Las Vegas to see our new little niece get blessed.  We found dirt-cheap tickets, and the whole thing worked out perfectly.  BK could only take a couple of days off, but the boys and I decided to stick around and drive up to Utah to see family there, too.  (I have pictures from this trip, but I haven't uploaded them yet!!)  It was an awesome blessing that everything fell in to place for that whole trip.  We saw dozens and dozens of family and friends, and it was just the pick-me-up we've all been needing!

The weather has been so much more bearable recently, and so we've gone to the park and the zoo a lot lately to soak it all in.

It turns out that three-year-olds are sort of difficult sometimes.  Landon's been really pushing my buttons lately, but I'm grateful for prayer and a helpful husband that help me get through and think of other ideas to try.  Landon is a lovely, lovely little boy, and I love him dearly--he can be just about the sweetest thing you've ever seen.... but when he's not, he's NOT.  I guess I won't give up on him yet. ;)

BK and I have been watching LOST episodes.  I've already seen them, but he was busy getting a physical therapy degree or something, so he's watching for the first time.  We just started Season 2 last night, and we're both really enjoying it!!

Summer, Melanie, and I have started doing a little co-op preschool thing for our boys, and it has been really fun.  I'll post pictures from that soon, too.

Now... back to cleaning my bathrooms.  Happy weekend, everyone!