California Bound

Zac had a continuing education class in Pasadena California, so the kids and I decided to join him since it is so close to my moms house.

We were all so excited to go see grandma Packer and get into the heat!

The Salt Lake airport had a bunch of big friendly dogs that you could pet in the terminal. I think that Zac was the biggest fan, but the kids love dogs too!

All the kids did so well on the airplane, Adeline was so excited and loved looking out the window and saying hi to people.

We went to the trampoline park in Valencia when we got there and had such a blast! We were basically the only ones there since it was a school night. Eloise loves the rope swing, Adeline loved to carry around the balls, and Zac and Teagan liked doing huge jump across The court and doing flips into the foam.

Grandma Packer enjoyed spoiling the kids by buying the multiple things out of the quarter machines. Adeline thought it was so hilarious when grandma would blow up the purple balloon and then let the air out.

 It was so fun to be a grandma's house with all her special toys and things. The little girls loved her big bowl of buttons and enjoyed spreading them throughout the house.

Thursday was Zac's birthday and he chose to go to Knottsberry farm. He even got a badge that said happy birthday and people were telling him happy birthday all day. Knottsberry farm was super empty so we rarely waited in line for a ride. It was so beautiful! 

Eloise and Teagan rode this ride probably 15 times! Sometimes they didn't even get off they just said "can we go again!" and they'd restart the ride.

There is a picture just like this of uncle Jake pushing me when I was Adeline's age on the same ride.

The crowds became a little too much for Adeline so she opted to just hang out in her stroller where she felt very comfortable. She did enjoy a few rides, but mostly enjoyed sitting in the stroller and watching Teagan and Eloise.

Eloise is such a friendly little girl and makes friends wherever she goes. This little girl just latched right onto her and followed us from ride to ride for probably an hour and a half, dragging her grandparents behind. It was pretty funny to watch.

On Friday Zac had to go to class so we hung out with grandma Packer. We finally got to go to the Skirball museum that she is been telling us about since Teagan was Adaline's age. It was so cool! It was like a discovery museum based on Noah's Ark.

My mom was so excited to be there with grandkids, she followed them around taking pictures, I loved it!

That night we did Zack's belated birthday cake. 33 never looked so good! :-)

The kids loved being across the street from the park and we went multiple times a day.

They also loved the pool, especially Teagan. One day we went to the pool and there happened to be a few other second-grade boys that he made friends with quickly and had fun with.

Eloise, Adaline, and I mostly hung out in the hot tub.

Church was so fun seeing all of my old friends and teachers.  Eloise's sunbeam teacher was my old Mary miss teacher. That was kind of magical.

All three of the kids got to have the famous Kirby Heyborne for their music teacher during primary. He brought his guitar and it was so much fun!

On the last day before we got on the plane we stopped at the LA zoo. The kids love to see all the different animals.

Teagan was hanging upside down on the bar like the monkey in the picture. Funny boy!

Luckily the flight home was pretty quick, the kids were all pretty hammered by the end of the day and point so were we.   This picture pretty much sums up traveling with kids.

Thank you mom for hosting us and feeding us and playing with us all weekend! We had such a great time and can't wait to go back and see you again soon!

We love each other.

I found several great pictures that showed the happier moments that are more worth recording and thought I'd better post them.  

Eloise and Adeline are beginning to love dressing alike.  On this day I got addy dressed and Eloise disappeared into her room to put on a very similar outfit, down to the sweater!  Then they sat on stools in the living room and Adeline watched and followed Eloise in reading.  They are so sweet and have so much fun together!

Teagan is such a good brother.  He definitely sees himself as one of the adults in the family who needs to help take care of the young ones.  He is so sweet to read to them and watch out for them outside.  Eloise and Adeline both adore him.

 For the first few weeks of February we each had a mailbox and we took turns writing little letters to each other.  Teagan loved writing letters to everyone, this one was picture worthy.  "Ellie, I love you soooo much.  Thank you for sledding with me.  I am going to spend more time with you. Teagan."  We kept the mailboxes so that we can bring them back out each year.  I couldn't believe how much the tone in our house changed when we decided to tell each other why we loved each other.

I love these people, plus Adeline!

Future Hairdresser

Adeline loves to put things in her hair at dinner time and bath time and anytime.  She considers pretty much every liquid within her grasp to be shampoo and goes to town washing up. 

The worst one was oatmeal, so chunky and so sticky!  She had pancakes for breakfast after her bath and it wasn't until a few hours later that I realized her hair wasn't still wet from the bath, she had slimed syrup all over her hair.  

Usually, she is sneaky and does it when everyone is busy, other times there is a lapse in parental judgement and we forget to be careful...like the time we gave her her own fry sauce container in the car.  Seriously, what kind of people give a one year old her own fry sauce in the car???  The kind of people who don't like to listen to screaming.  Us.

She was so proud.

Patience

Today I was at Walmart and in a bit of a hurry to get back to pick Eloise up from preschool.    Like usual, I picked the absolute slowest line in the store. It was taking forever but it was past the point of no return and I had to stick it out. When it was finally my turn, I noticed the cashier. She didn't make any eye contact and kept her eyes down the whole time, expressionless and a little sad.  I tried to chat, but she barely mumbled in return.  (She wasn't rude, just really shy).  She meticulously and slowly organized each bag, then she reorganized, and re-organized again to make sure everything fit just right.  It was very hard to watch, knowing that I was now definitely going to be late.

 At first I was so annoyed and almost said something like "it doesn't have to be perfect, I'm in a hurry."    Before I said the words out loud, I had the thought, "complement her on how well she's doing." 

 I considered it for a minute and decided to go for it.  I said, "wow, you are really good at organizing those bags, these guys are lucky to have you!"    She quickly glanced up, probably by surprise, and then looked back down and went to her work with a proud tiny smile.

It made my whole day.  My irritation was completely gone, and I felt so happy.  Being optimistic is the real deal.  And it was a great reminder that if you ever have the thought to compliment someone or be encouraging, do it right then.  You never know what a difference it can make for Them and you

Snowman Chair

Teagan built an awesome snowman and then decided it would make an excellent seat and climbed right on top.  He cracks me up.  I love the blue steel pose with the kissy face.  He lights up our home and brings much needed comic relief.

Young Men

Zac just got put in as the Young Men's president.  The kids have loved having all the fun teenage boys around, especially Teagan.  Zac does such an awesome job with the boys, they really look up to him.  I love that Teagan and Eloise are imitating Matt (Leal).  Teagan looks up to those boys so much.  It is crazy that one day he will be that teenager that the little boys are looking up to!

Selfie Queen

Eloise has mastered the art of taking a selfie!  She was so funny, "mom, look, I can take a picture of myself now!!!"  My camera is always full of these shots from when she steals my phone.  Her expressions crack me up!