School Happenings

The girls have had a couple of things going on at the school that I have failed to post until now. The first thing was Alyssa's 3rd Grade Devotional. She got to be Helen Keller, which she was very excited about. She had a pretty long speaking part and also got to thank everyone for coming at the end. She especially loved her bright costume and front-and-center seat that made her stand out on stage. The children all did a really great job and it was fun to go and support her. I also helped out with their "We did a Great Job" Party after the devotional was over.

Ashley's class finished reading a book about Abigail Adams and they had a tea party to celebrate. She got to wear a fancy church dress(which is always a treat since they usually wear uniforms) and dance with a BOY. She wasn't so excited about the dancing part and wanted to stay home because of it. However, I promised her that Tyler and I would come and that somehow made it okay. She said afterwards that the dancing part was actually kind of fun. But she switched partners after about a minute and had a chance to dance with her teacher and with her favorite friend in the class(a girl named Kaci).

Ashley's class also had a field trip to the aquarium that I was able to chaperone. We had 3 of Ashley's favorite friends in our group, but the only boy spent most of the day with his Mom who had met the class there. The three girls were easy to keep together and they had a lot of fun. I was glad that I was able to go.

The boy did join up with us again for the last hour of the day and he was also pretty easy.

 

I just wish I could figure out how to get to know these kids' parents so that I could arrange a play date for Ashely. She has been asking for one all year.

Easter Festivities

We had a nice Easter. The kids got new Sunday clothes, including shoes. We let them wear them the week before Easter, since we didn't go to church on Easter this year because of General Conference.

The girls got to dye Easter Eggs, while Tyler took a nap. We didn't think he was old enough to attempt doing his own eggs yet. Although, he loved the pretty, colorful eggs when they were all done(probably because he thought they were full of candy).

The kids got to hunt for eggs three times this year. The first time was with Lehi City. It was kind of a flop though and we almost missed it altogether. They basically had a rectangle roped off for each of the age groups (0-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12) and inside of the rectangle, the eggs were just all over the ground. The girls made it to their section just as the whistle was blown for the kids to start grabbing eggs. We didn't manage to get Tyler to his section on time so he didn't get any.  The girls were nice enough to share a few of their eggs with him.
They got to also hunt for the eggs that the Easter Bunny left on Easter morning all around the house. Tyler was able to collect eggs this time.
The final hunt was at Gawbie and Grandpa's later that day. It took a little bit of coaching from Danny, but Tyler eventually grabbed his share of eggs. The girls had no problem finding their share of eggs.

After hunting for eggs, Gawbie read these little activity/story books with the kids about Jesus Christ and the reason we celebrate Easter.

We also enjoyed a delicious dinner, celebrated Gawbie's birthday, and enjoyed watching Conference together. I love this time of year.

Just Because He is So Cute

I had to do a quick post about Tyler just because I had so many fun pictures of him this past month. The first picture was Alyssa's doing. She loves to make him a little bed and turn on a TV show for him. She decided to take a bunch of pictures of him after doing it this time.

 Alyssa also took a bunch of pictures of him in this pose. This was one of my favorites of the group.

 I found this little penguin mask when I was cleaning out the dress up box and tried it on Tyler. Unfortunately, I couldn't get him to look at me for the picture.

 Tyler loves to try on our shoes and walk around the house. I laughed this time because one of the shoes is backwards. It made no difference to him.

He has really grown up over the last few months, especially after starting to go to nursery. He can say quite a few words including all of our names, "doggie," "basketball"(anytime he sees a basketball or a basketball hoop), "bird," "balloon," "shoe," "sock," "done," "outside," and "candy." There are many more than that. He is pretty good at communicating what he wants. He loves to read books, play outside, and throw balls. He especially loves being around people(his family and other kids). He does the cutest things sometimes and we often wonder how this next little boy is going to be as cute as him. We love our little Ty-Ty.

The Big Outdoors Show

 A couple of weekends ago, Danny had a big outdoors event at the convention center. It is the first time that they have had this event, so we went to check it out. They had some live animals there including birds, crocodiles, turtles, and snakes. Occasionally they would take one out of its cage and let people pet them. Ashley was brave enough to hold this snake and then put it around her neck.

 Ashley also loved meeting Queen Elsa(especially since we weren't willing to wait in the 2 hour line at Disneyland to meet her). She was part of the face painting booth.

 Both girls tried out these motorized skateboards. I guess they are more like segways without handles because your body moves forward rather than sideways like you would on a skateboard.

They both were able to control it and stay balanced. Unfortunately, Alyssa had someone go in front of her and she fell off and landed really hard on her tailbone. She had to sit on a pillow for a few days after that. 

Tyler just liked trying on this cool helmet.

 Danny wanted a picture with Ty Detmer since he was a BYU football player and because we have our own little Ty. 

I think the kids enjoyed this show more than some of the others they have been to at the Convention Center. I was just happy to sneak in some Daddy time during a Saturday that he had to spend at work.

A Little Taste of Spring

We have had an abnormally mild winter, which we have all been loving aside from the fact that it will probably mean water restrictions this summer. On some of the nicer days, we have gotten out to enjoy the park. This is the kids favorite park in the area. It is one of those parks that doesn't have a lot of slide structures, mostly just climbing things and spinning things. Here are Alyssa and Tyler on top of a rock wall type climbing thing.

 The girls just love this gigantic pyramid. Every time they climb to the top, they want me to take a picture of them. It is like 2 stories high.

 Another park day. We happened to run into friends the day we were at this park. 

 Tyler and I get out for walks whenever we can. He doesn't always sit very well in the stroller, but he loves to get out at this spot along the walking path so he can throw rocks in the water. The first time we stopped here, I think he sat in that exact spot for 30-45 minutes before he was ready to move on. He also loves to stop at the park and play for a little bit when we have time for it.

We are looking forward to Spring and Summer and being able to spend more time outdoors.

Cruise Ports

 Our Cruise made two stops. The first stop was at Catalina Island. The kids enjoyed playing in this park while the Dads rented golf carts for us to tour the island.

The golf carts were a lot of fun. We got a kick out of the Rental Place chasing us down across the island to tell us that we couldn't hold Tyler on our laps and that he needed to be in a toddler seat. 

Here is the view of our boat during our scenic drive.

 After we were done with the golf cart, the kids wanted to play in the water a little. It was too cold to go all the way in, but they all went in far enough to get the bottoms of their shorts/capris wet. You can see our cruise ship in the background.

 The other stop was in Ensenada, Mexico. Danny and I did not have fond memories of Ensenada from our previous visit, so we were hesitant to even get off of the boat. However, we had gotten the kids passports and as a result, we wanted to actually use them. We also wanted them to see what it is like to be in another country, so we got off.

There were really bombarded with picture opportunities as we got off.

 We managed to find a driver who ended up being a tour guide for us too. He took us exactly where we wanted to go. Brian and Maryn had done the research for Ensenada and we went along for the ride. We first stopped at this Civic Center/Museum. It used to be a hotel and casino. Now it is a convention center. There were some vendors right outside of it, so we were able to buy the girls a souvenir- a bracelet with their name on it. We then toured the place with our hired "tour guide."

After the Civic Center, we had our driver drop us off at Costco. We were interested to see how it differed from our Costco. We found that it was the same apart from the labels in Spanish and things appearing to cost a lot more. We pointed out to the kids how we could buy a shirt for daddy for $300. We did stop in their food court and pick up a delicious mango smoothie(something different from our Costco) and a Churro(not different-Although Alyssa declared that it wasn't as good as Disneyland's churros). After Costco, we made the scary walk across the street to the Walmart to see how it was different. Not much difference there, either.  We were glad that we didn't get hit as we crossed the street as it is kind of a fight for the right of way between cars and pedestrians, no matter what the traffic light says. We then waited at the McDonalds for our driver and let the kids play. We enjoyed making our own excursions and taking things at our own pace at both places.

Cruisin to Mexico

Last week we went on a four night cruise down to Ensenada, Mexico. Danny and I had done the same cruise 10 years ago, but it was the first time that our kids got to go on a cruise. We ended up getting a room with a balcony and we were so glad to have it. The only scary part was the thought of Tyler going overboard. We held him with a death grip any time we were out there. Here we are in the port at Long Beach, waiting for the boat to leave.

The room was pretty nice inside too. So much bigger than our inner cabin from our previous cruise.

Here is a picture of Ashley up on the top deck while we were still in the port at Long Beach.

 One morning after breakfast, Tyler and I wandered out by the pool to find it had been invaded by these towel animals. So cute. I like the one in the background climbing up the chair.

Our dinner waiter liked to fold napkin animals for Tyler, as well. Unfortunately, they did not entertain him for very long. Dinner time was probably the hardest time on the cruise with kids.

Ashley loved going down the slides in the mini water park on board. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't warm enough to really enjoy it, but that didn't stop her from trying. Alyssa liked the hot tub a lot better than the slides or the pool, just because it was so much warmer.

We were at sea the day of Ashley's birthday. We were up early enough that day to catch the sunrise.

 At the same time of the sunrise, we could also see this rainbow in the other direction. It was a great way to start a special day.

 After watching the sunrise, we went into our room and let Ashley open her presents. It was hard coming up with gifts that were small enough to pack in our bags, but we managed.

 That morning, we went to a towel animal folding class. Ashley folded this little dog.

 The highlight of the cruise was probably when this girl got up on the stage during one of their shows. It was a Hasbro Game Show featuring Yahtzee bowling and Operation Skee ball,  We had watched previews for this before going on the cruise and Alyssa had said she really wanted to be part of it. So as the time for the show arrived, we made sure to get there really early to get good seats. They pulled 4 random people out of the audience who were able to answer the "Guesstures" clue correctly. She was the forth one to do it.

Here is the video of  her playing Yahtzee bowling.

Her team ended up winning and therefore got to pick a monopoly card to have a shot at winning the big prize-A bunch of Hasbro games.  She didn't win, but loves her monopoly key chain that she won as a prize.

They did the game show again on Ashley's Birthday. Imagine our surprise when she made it up on stage, too! She got to play Connect Four Basketball. She ended up scoring the winning shot for her team, so they also won. However, her hamburger Monopoly card didn't win the big prize, either. She was just as happy with the Monopoly key chain.

This is a video of her first shot. I wanted to upload the winning shot, but the video must be too large to upload. In the other one, you can hear the whole theater cheer when she gets four in a row. This video gives you an idea of what she got to do.

The cruise was a lot of fun, but by the end we were ready to go home and get back to normal again.

Disneyland and California Adventure

The kids all loved Disneyland, as we suspected they would. We went to California adventure the first day. It was more crowded than  we would have liked, but with the help of fast passes, we were able to do almost everything. My only two regrets of the first day being that we didn't manage to get a picture of Ashley with "Jake" and the second being that we didn't get the girls into the Frozen Sing Along Show. It was just so crowded since it is so new and we ran out of time. They did enjoy having their cousins and their grandparents there with us. 

Ashley and Lydia on the tram ride into the park

 I love the look on Tyler's face here. Pure joy.

 Even though Ashley didn't get to meet Jake, she still got to see the Disney Junior Show and meet Doc McStuffins. She loved the show and meeting Doc.

 On the second day, we went to Disneyland. It was just so much more crowded than California Adventure. However, we still managed to do everything that we felt the kids should experience. We did end up sending the dads home a little earlier with the sleeping/tired kids and the mom's stayed with the older kids to do a couple more rides and the fireworks show. After the fireworks, they created a fake snow over the crowd. Here is Alyssa in the snow.

 Grandma and Grandpa joined us for half of the day and were a huge help when they took Tyler off of our hands for about an hour. Grandma got this picture with Tyler and the Genie. You'll notice Tyler is as far away as he can get. He doesn't like any Characters getting close to him. He was the same way with Santa.

 The cousins together with Danny. They got along so well and had so much fun together.

We wished we had had an extra day in between the two parks to rest, but overall the kids did pretty well. Tyler refused to nap both days and as a result, ended up being pretty crabby towards the early evenings. He fell asleep in my arms both nights as we were finishing up for the night.