Called to Serve

My parents have been called to serve in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Mission

They reported to the MTC on April 23 and headed to Pennsylvania on the 28 of April.

We all headed over to their house for our final goodbyes on Saturday morning. I have to admit it was a little strange seeing all the furniture covered with sheets, the fridge all but empty, the car loaded so full that you couldn't see out the back window even if you wanted to. My dad asked my mom just before leaving if she was ready for an adventure? We said our emotional and tearful goodbyes then headed out the door for one last picture with all the grandkids and to wave goodbye as they drove away.

Say Cheese!

My mom informed me that she needed updated pics of all the grandkids before they left.

So since I did such a fantastic job of taking Kaitlyn's 3yr old pictures,(not) I decided to take her

3 1/2 yr old pictures. She has gotten into the cheesy smile phase and the "I want to pose like a model" phase. The posing doesn't bother me I can work with that, but the half hearted smiles or goofy grins drive me crazy! I tell her to smile normal and I get this constipated panic look! So out of the almost 50 pics I took, these were the cream of the crop! I can't believe how fast she is growing up!

So Eggciting!!

This is a little pathetic that I am posting Easter pictures when it's almost Memorial Day but,

better late than never right?!

Once again it's the annual Easter Egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's only this year was a little different.

This will be the last hunt for a while without Grandma and Grandpa. They have been called to serve a mission in the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Mission. They will be leaving (okay, by now they have already left) on April 28.  At least this year Easter was half way decent weather and the Easter Bunny hid the eggs outside! That Easter Bunny puts them in some pretty sneaky places but Kaitlyn's good eyes found

every one of them!

                                                                                

Christmas and New Years!

After taking a trip to Disneyland for Christmas, the Holidays seemed to creep up in a hurry this year and before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve! We squoze in a visit with Santa and a special Elf named Jake came to live with us during this festive season!

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We made special Reindeer food for Santa's Reindeer. Kaitlyn insisted on leaving carrots for them too!

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Santa made an early visit to our house that night and left us special Christmas pajamas!

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We left "homemade" cookies and milk for Santa. Kaitlyn kissed Jake the Elf goodbye since he would be making his return trip to the North Pole with Sanata when he stopped at our house.

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From Collages

Kaitlyn must have been extra good this year because it seemed like the presents just kept going. She got her Princess Castle with all the princesses and a princess scooter which she rides around the kitchen saying "Watch out here comes Scooter Girl". I would advise you to watch your toes and ankles. She thinks it's funny to run over them. We found a bite of carrot that the reindeer left as evidence of their visit.

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Scooter Girl!

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Ed went to Flaming Gorge ice fishing a few days after Christmas and I decided since we hadn't made a trip to Temple Square yet I would take her myself for a girls night out. We rode Trax up from Sandy. The weather couldn't have been better although a little snow on the ground would have been nice. The lights this year seemed better than in years past and they had everything open. We went inside the Assembly Hall and the Tabernacle. They even had all around the temple open. We took our annual carriage ride then headed back home. I don't think we had even made it to the freeway before she was out like a light!

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We rang in 2012 with a bang. I found those ridicules glasses and decided we needed a family pic sporting them. I wasn't sure if Kaitlyn would make it to midnight but when she saw Ed getting fireworks ready she wasn't about to miss that. I gave her a pot and spoon and showed her how to bang pots and pans. We still had some popper left over from the 4th of July which she happily threw on the street. Our neighborhood was pretty much dead at midnight except for the neighbors up the street which came running down the sidewalk banging pots and pans yelling Happy New Year!! Needless to say I cheered them on!!
Happy Belated New Year!

Disneyland!!

For Christmas this year, my parents took our whole family to the Happiest Place on Earth! That's right Disneyland. We went the week after Thanksgiving. It was all decorated for Christmas and looked awesome!!

From Disneyland

From Disneyland

At night Sleeping Beauty's Castle was lit with thousands of blue icecicle lights. After the fireworks it would actually snow on main street. Granted the snow was a foamy bubble substance but from a distance it looked like real snow and smelled like cinnamon!

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Ed bought all the girls and my Dad mouse ears! At first they looked good but after about an hour of wearing them, they started to give you a whopper of a headache!

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Pour Kaitlyn took her first ride down Splash Mountain. I on the other hand remembered it from the last time I was there and in Kaitlyn's words was a scardy cat to ride again. But if you ask her I don't think she will be making a trip down again anytime soon! She has a look of sheer terror on her face!! Her cousin on the other hand, rode it 3 more times after the first ride, not because she liked going down the mountain, but because she liked hearing them sing Zippi-Do- Da!
We spent 3 days in Disneyland and California Adventure. I told Ed I was planning on renting a stroller while we were there, he somewhat politely told me, "Do you really thing she is going to sit in a stroller?" By the looks on her face at the end of each day she was glad I did. Her little legs were so tired it didn't take much convincing to get her to sit in it!

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We saw lots of characters while we were there. Alice and the Mad Hatter were our first encouter. Later was Mary Poppins and Burt.

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Grandma and Grandpa took Kaitlyn and her cousin Paige to Ariel's Grotto for lunch with all the Princesses! The girls LOVED IT! Each princess made her way around to each one of the tables signing autograph books and posing for pictures! Definately one of the highlites of the trip!

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We saw Mickey and Minnie, Goofy and Pluto, Chip and Dale and Daisy and rode ride after ride. We watched fireworks everynight and Soared over California.(I think that was my favorite ride!)

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Kaitlyn's first time at the beach and she was in heaven. She loved digging her toes in the soft sand. We started at Long Beach and then made our way down the Pacific Coast Highway stopping at some of the other popular beaches. I loved seeing the signs that said beach access along the highway. You would find a place to park and literally walk between the beach houses and right onto the beach!

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Huntington Beach
Dad even took off his shoes and socks to walk along the surf!

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At Newport Beach we walked out on the Pier. It was low tide when we were there so you could walk under the pier and see all the muscles stuck to the pier pilons. Kaitlyn thought it was great trying to pull them off. Once she caught sight of the seagulls she was off trying to chase them. She told my mom she was chasing chickens!

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Going for a spin on the teacups!!

Halloween 2011

This year Kaitlyn was able to enjoy Halloween a little more. I was able to get tickets for Breakfast with a Witch at Gardner Village. At first she was a little cautious as the witches made their way around the breakfast tables, but by the end she was enjoying every minute of the "Silly Witches". After breakfast I took her around to see all the witches in the village. We made Halloween cookies which she carefully helped to decorate and even donned her chef hat and apron for the occasion. Carving pumpkins didn't happen this year. We bought pumpkins with the intention of carving them but by Sunday night, I decided I wasn't in the mood to clean out pumpkin goo. So we left our unscathed pumpkins on our dark porch. I say dark because I was able to talk Ed into joining us for Trunker Treat at Grandpa and Grandma's House. As usual she ended up with more candy then she needed but hey what kid doesn't on Halloween!

Road Trip!!

Ah Alas another post, and this one with pictures! We decided to take a quick road trip to Pagosa Springs Colorado, just east of Durango. The weather and the leaves were both georgous this time of year. We purchased a timeshare just over a year ago and finally decided to try it out. This was our condo for the 4 nights we stayed. Not to shabby! It was nice not having to go out to eat every night. We took our own groceries and just cooked at "home". It came complete with a hot tub, (sorry, no pics of that). Kaitlyn was anxious to the "hot" bathtub as she called it. We left early in the morning and had a small bout of car sickness just before we hit the summit in Spanish Fork Canyon. Watching a movie in a winding canyon while it's still dark out is not a good combination for a 3 year old.

We arrived in Pagosa Springs about 1:00 and decided to check out the town. Definately a tourist town. Pagosa Springs means "healing waters". Down town Pagosa has many mineral hot springs. The most popular ones we found were right next to the river. There a many mineral formations from the springs and the not so pleasant smell of rotten eggs drifts heavily through the mountain air

The next day was spent riding the rails on the Cumbres Toltec Narrow Gauge Railroad. We had to take a short trip into New Mexico then back into Colorado to get to where we boarded the train. It started out in the desert but quickly climbed into the mountains where the Quakies were at their peak of color. The train stopped in Osier where the railroad has basically built a glorified mess hall for the passengers with a catered lunch. Roast turkey and all the fixins'!
These were just a few of the several hundred pictures I took of all the scenery.

BEAUTIFUL!!

We headed back west to spend a day in Mesa Verde National Park. I remember visiting here many years ago as a kid. Unfortunately the weather was not as pleasant then as it was this time. My mom refused to let us go out in the rain when we visited the first time so she made us these oh so fashionable rain ponchos out of black garbage bags. Lovely!! We called ourselves the bag ladies.

I have to admit, the first time we visited I was a little bored. I could have cared less about people that built houses in the side of cliffs and lived there. Now that I am a little older and hopefully wiser I look at these same cliff dwellings in awe and think, "People really lived like this!" It is amazing the skill levels they possed back in 7 and 800 A.D. to be able to build something like this. Amazing!!

This particular dwelling was know as Sun Temple. It was never completed by the ancient indians, yet you look at their architecture and they even had ancient "rain gutters"
So, I have to share a funny story about these dwellings. When we were telling Kaitlyn about them she kept asking where the indians were now. I tried to explain that they had all died a long time ago and didn't live in them anymore. On the way back to the car, she asked me, "Mom, when you and Dad were indians, where did you live? I looked at her and then at Ed at which point he replied, "I lived in Idaho." I quickly followed up with "I lived with grandma and grandpa." To which she then questioned "Grandma and Grandpa are indians too?!"
This was the last dwelling we went to. This one we were able to walk down to and walk around. While we were walking, Kaitlyn made the comment that she didn't think the indians would like us going in their house! This dwelling was called Spruce Tree House. I believe this is the one I have a picture of me sporting my fashion savvy "rain" poncho!
On our way home we made a stop at New Paper Rock to see the Petroglyphs and then on to Hole N' the Rock. Call me dumb but I didn't know there was actually a house built back in there. I just thought it was the store. The people that originally lived there are buried towards the back of the property and as I was snapping pictures, a tourist came wandering back then turned to ask me, "So is there really a hole in the rock" Apparently he didn't quite grasp the concept. He was looking for an obvious hole. Sorry to disappoint ya there buddy!