Mini Trip

A couple of weeks ago Jess had to go to a board meeting in Havasu.  It was in the evening for some reason, so he asked if we wanted to go along.  That way we could make a quick stop to Hobby Lobby first, to look for a few things for a project we have going for the kids.  So we picked Paige up from school, and headed for Havasu.  First we stopped at Hobby Lobby, then for an early dinner at Red Robin.  Then we had to drop Jess off for his meeting.  I had no idea what I was going to do to entertain the kids, and I was nervous we were going to end up driving aimlessly around town for 2 hours.  Instead, we grabbed cookies from Carls Jr., and looked for the park.  We pulled in just in time for a beautiful sunset. 

The kids were so excited running down to the water.  

They tore off their shoes and socks.  

 

It was so nice out, just cool enough.  Reed and I watched them having fun.

The sunset got prettier and prettier, and we were there at the perfect time.  

 We only saw one or two people out, so it was quiet and peaceful.

 

 I love this one of Neely.  Wish it hadn't turned out blurry.  She'd just thrown a rock as far as she could, in that toddler way, with the hop at the same time, and a nice big yell for good measure.

We attempted a couple pics of all of us, and quickly realized it wasn't happening.

 Then the kids made sand angels.  We all, but especially Cason, cracked up at how Paige's kept turning out tiny. She kept trying again, and would stand up to check it, but even though it looked like everyone else's, it was by far the shortest.  She was frustrated.  

 

Then we waited for their sandly little feet to dry, so they could get shoes and socks back on.

 

They played a while at the playground in the dark, while Reed tried out the baby swing.

 

The swings didn't work out too great for Reed yet.

So he had a nap on me on the bench instead. 

 We moved over to the big kid swings, closer to the water.

 They played in the sand.

Finally we decided to head toward the college to wait for Jess.  He ended up stuck in there until like 9:00, much later than we expected.  We entertained ourselves in the car for a long while.  Luckily we had goodies from Hobby Lobby.

 

 It ended up being such a memorable time with them.  I don't know why, it was just so quiet and peaceful and pretty and I felt really aware of how lucky I am. 

Whipped Cream Hats

Last weekend was the first weekend we felt totally free, nothing to do, clean, or set up in the house.  So Jess decided it was a good day to take a trip to see the capitol building. Neely looked cute for the day.



 

 


 It was a pretty chilly day, and windy.

Except when Neely knocked over a super heavy post inside the building that was there to protect the huge emblem on the marble floor the post fell onto.  No damage was done, but my blood pressure wouldn't come back down for like an hour.  I felt like security guards were going to tackle us at any moment.

Thankfully they didn't, so we headed to find some lunch.  We tried S and B's Burger Joint and it was amazing.



Mine was a french onion burger and rocked my world, and I tried Jess's and it was just as good.  The fries were awesome too.  They tasted like the ones at our beloved Flancer's.  So if you're coming to visit us at any point, expect to end up at this place. 

Then we walked across the street and got cupcakes.

I loved it just for being in an old beautiful house.
T

 The cupcakes were okay too.

Then we finished the trip with one of my favorite things, a drive through an old neighborhood.







It was a foggy day, which made the Devon tower look pretty cool.  Neely gets so excited any time she can see it.  She thinks it has something to do with her baby cousin Devynn.  She usually calls it "Devynn castle", probably because she assumes Devynn is a princess, but once in a while calls it "Devynn towa".  

When we were home that night, the kids begged for "whipped cream hats".

A few days earlier they were begging for a squirt of whip cream.  Jess jokingly told them "if you help me....(I can't remember what it was, probably clean the living room up or something) I'll give you whipped cream HATS."  They got all excited and we realized they thought he was serious and that having a whipped cream hat would be hilarious.  He tried to tell them he was kidding but they begged and begged.  So he said since they'd already had their baths, we could do it another night right before the baths. 

So, Saturday night when they begged, we let the weirdos have their whipped cream hats.



They were overjoyed, and then they had their bath.

A Smorgasbord of Topics

Paige and Lily played against each other on Saturday, which was cool, we could watch both girls without sitting through TWO games in the heat.  :) 


They were cute, during a break Lily walked up and said "Good job Paige!" 

The other kids played and ate snacks and paid no attention to the game.

I took several pictures of the babies playing in the dirt together, until I realized they were pretty much sitting on an anthill. 

Other than that and the birthday party we've mostly hung out at home.  

Caso's been cuddly.

He's also very into his daddy lately, he tells me he misses him MANY times during the day, and asks how long until we pick him up.

I got him new AWESOME Halloween pajamas.  They're covered in cute bats and little stars, and I LOVE them.  I made him pose for me in them last night.

Neely's been playing with Gia a lot.  Here she was putting heroes on her back and telling her "Wahoo!  Gawwop!(Gallop, I think, although Jess said it might be an attempt at Giddeup too, so who knows)

 She's had a sudden explosion of her vocabulary.  She already knew the words, but now she's putting them together more often and speaking in sentences.  We're having full on conversations now.  One of my new favorites has been when she tells me "I RIIIIIIIIGHT back, mom!", and then she walks out of the room waving goodbye to me.

Whenever we see a picture of someone she tells me "AAAWWW!  So cute mom."

The one she probably says most often is "I wike...(insert any object)".  In church I gave her a sucker, which she calls "hot", and she started saying (loudly) "Wow!  I WIKE HOT!"

In the car yesterday there was a fly buzzing around the backseat.  She was looking up and said "Where you going bug?"

She sings to herself, just humming or saying "Dooodooodoooooooo".  Jess was pushing her around on her little tricycle in the backyard and he said she was singing "Irideabike, ride a bike....".

Today is Silly Sock Day for Paige, at school.  We tried like 5 stores before we found socks that were long enough to show above her shoes AND were her size.

Yesterday her friend Bella gave her a Best Friends bracelet.  :)

 

Today I let the other two sleep in a little longer, so Jess was taking Paige to school this morning.  Caso and Neely woke up right before they left.  Neely was in a good mood until Paige wouldn't let her use her lunchbox.  So I got her the one Grama gave to HER, and she carried it around happily.

Paige said goodbye, and it was time to go.

 Neely walked her to the car, lunchbox still in hand, and was NOT pleased when she found out she wasn't going with them.

We came inside and she yelled at me about it for a bit. I was asking them what they wanted for breakfast and Caso told me "All I like is quinoa."  Haha.