Three Men and a Little Lady

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Halloween and Other Fall Adventures

We went to a pumpkin patch where there was a little corn maze, a hay bale maze, some animals for petting and a little village for the kids to play in. We also went on a hay ride through the pumpkin patch, but the patch was so wet, that we chose most of our pumpkins from the ones that were already out of the patch and on display.

My mom came to visit us just before Halloween. We went to a nearby park that is very big and has lots of neat sculptures. We did a little bit of walking around and then rented golf carts to drive around so we could see more in less time (and less walking).

She was here to watch the kids while Jordan and I drove to Louisville to see Paul McCartney. This has been a huge bucket list item for Jordan and I'm so happy we were finally able to do it! She was also here for my birthday, which was pretty neat.
For Halloween, Jonah really wanted to be something scary with a wavy cloak-like black costume. He was very excited about what I found for him. Oliver didn't have any strong wishes, so we went through a friend's costume collection and he got really excited when he saw Buzz Lightyear. Skyler had been reading the Harry Potter books and had had his eye on that costume for quite awhile. Jordan was President Business from The Lego Movie. I admit that I was a little doubtful that he would pull it off, but I think he did a great job! And, could Georgia really be anything else beside Curious George (ia)?

Thursday, January 08, 2015

Fall Soccer

Jonah and Oliver both played on soccer teams this fall. They both had great teams and great coaches and had a good time playing. It was fun to watch their improvement throughout the season as they learned more about how the game is played.

The season started at the end of August and it was truly one of the hottest and most humid days all summer! But, as I knew would be the case, by the end of the season (late October), we were all bundled up.

The boys played at the same park and sometimes we had an hour to kill between games. Once, in an effort to keep warm (and because the playground equipment was too wet), we played our own game. Jonah was the official photographer and Georgia was the official cheerleader.

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Mom Gets Away!

At the beginning of September, I took off by myself to see my sister's new baby. I had a great time spending some time with my nieces and nephew (something I don't really get to do when I'm tending to my own kids!), holding the newest one, making dinners for my sister, and imparting upon her all of my parenting wisdom. I also got to visit with some old Arizona friends and family. It was really strange to be without the kids though!

Tuesday, January 06, 2015

A Day at the Beach .... Volleyball Tournament

Jordan is really into beach volleyball, so I made sure we had tickets to a tournament that was going to be in town on Labor Day weekend. We had a great time. We got to see Jordan's favorite player - Kerri Walsh Jennings - play and we got her autograph, too! I bought a mini ball to get autographs (because that's what everyone else was doing!) and the boys had fun going up to players asking for their autograph. Kerri is kind of a big deal, so we had to wait in line for hers, but the rest, the boys just went up to them in between matches. Kerri thought Georgia was really cute, and even waved to her when we walked past her a bit later on. She was very nice and took awhile to talk with us and sign pictures for everyone. She actually didn't do one for Jonah at first, so I went back over after the group behind us was done and quickly asked her for another one. She was happy to do it, despite me totally cutting in line. Jordan realized later that his Arizona shirt was perhaps a poor choice, since Kerri went to a rival (then) Pac-10 school - Stanford.

This picture made it up on the jumbotron! I put it up on Instagram with the proper hashtag and then there it was. That was pretty cool!

Monday, January 05, 2015

Pictures of Summer and Back to School - August

The kids went back to school at the end of August. But before that, we tried to squeeze in as much summer as we could.

One day, we went out to fossil park to hunt for fossils and then over to a playground to play. We ended up at a water playground that I didn't realize was a water playground (we were there before in the fall, when the water was obviously turned off). We didn't have swimsuits or a change of clothes and at first the kids were sad and didn't want to get wet, but they quickly changed their minds and had a great time. We went later on in the month properly ready to play in the water. The kids thought they were so funny when they put Georgia in the back seat after I asked them to please get her in her carseat.

One of the last things we did before school started was go to the park for their "touch a truck" event. The kids got to climb in lots of different kinds of trucks.

Fifth Grade

Second Grade - he wanted his hair spikey, it was a little too long for spikey, but we made it work!

All ready for kindergarten!

The kids thought they were so funny when they put Georgia in the back seat after I asked them to put her in her car seat.

This one was too big to take home, but lots of fossils!

Pictures from another park day. There are lots of fun spots to get wet around here.

From another park day. There are lots of fun spots to get wet around here!

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Family (and Friend!) Reunion

In July, we flew to Utah to attend a family reunion in Southern Idaho. We managed to squeeze in a lot of visiting with family and friends in just over a week's time.

Our flight was delayed, so we had a very late (or early morning, I guess) arrival at our friends' home. The next day, their kids were so nice and patient while my jet-lagged kids slept in. After hanging out in the morning, we went off on a little hike in search of water. Luckily, we did find some because I don't think the kids would have been happy otherwise!

The next day after church, we went to a cousin's house to spend the next few days. Unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time with her (and her kids were out of town), but we got plenty of quality cousin-dog time in. My mom came up to spend a few days with us and it was a lot of fun to hang out with her. During the rest of our time in Utah, we went to a water park - the slides did not enter into a pool, so the height requirements were low and even Oliver could go down all of them. We went to Temple Square and toured the Conference Center and visited the Church History Museum. We also went to Park City to ride the Alpine Slide and visit Olympic Park where we watched some ski jumpers practice (going into water instead of snow, of course) and had fun on a parcours course (ninja warrior!). We went to my aunt's house for dinner and got to spend time with my Grandma, another aunt, and lots of cousins that I haven't seen in years.

Then, we headed up to Idaho for the reunion. We've been doing these every other year since before Skyler was born. We've grown to really love them and the time we get to spend with family that we don't otherwise see. We were at the same place that we were at four years ago. There's lots of fun outdoor space and inside it's much like a college dormitory (because it used to be one!) so everyone gets their own space, but we are all close enough that we could leave sleeping kids upstairs while we played games downstairs. We spent our time there enjoying the grounds, visiting a lake and exploring City of Rocks.

Then, it was back to Utah to catch our flight home. But first, another night with our friends. It's always so fun to see them and catch up. I love how our kids just pick up from wherever they left off last time. Oliver and Jonah were a little shy about playing with their friends at first, but Oliver loved jumping with Dallen on the trampoline and Jonah and Rylan re-bonded over video games.