Memorial Day Weekend in Zion National Park

Chris actually carried Ella the entire 2.7 mile hike.

Billions of tadpoles!!!

Oh, yes he did!

This week ...

Ella and Daddy at the park one evening when Aiden was out with Manda. She's fearless and actually climbed up there to meet her dad. It may not look high, but it is about 6 feet.

My son graduated from Orange belt to Orange belt Leader.

For those of you who don't know, Aiden is a big fat G-I-R-L when it comes to trying anything new. So, I allowed him this lolly pop (something I would never do) as a reward for riding Star Tours at Disneyland (something he would never do). It did take two different attempts to actually get him on the ride, but when it was over he said "Mom, that was awesome".

Exhausted as can be, he went to the Dodger Game with his father on Mother's Day. He was reluctant to leave my side, but I told him I really needed a Dodger dog, with no mustard, for Mother's Day.

Hard at Work creating Mother's Day Cards (I'm sure)

Spongebob Pijamas

For those of you who do not know, Spongebob was Ella's first word. Not in its entirety, no, but something like "mm bub". So, Aiden and I saw these PJ's at Walmart and took them home to her. She actually squealed. Just so you know, she didn't take them off for several days.

Finally! A Saturday with the Family

It's been a long time coming but after several weeks of dental torture, multiple Saturday shifts at work and Chris's study time, we were finally able to have a Saturday just the four of us. So ... everyone is ready to go.

I'm asking Ella to smile in this picture and I think she was saying "What is this about?"

But, it worked out ok.

Um, yes! This is my husband!

It didn't take long, Aiden's almost 5 and now doesn't cry when he gets to ride a pony.

Ella and Chris rode the train. HAHA! I said I had to pee; there was NO WAY I was going on the train with Ella. By the time they got back, he was ready to kill her. Aiden had an incident with a bee two years ago on the train, which he still remembers, so he refused to go.

Not quite tall enough, even standing on a bail of hay. He is actually jumping in this picture.

There was a juice stop.

And ducks ...

Aiden gets a shower!

Ella looses her ball

Chris is teaching Aiden to throw the ball.

A Little Easter Party ...

Easter Time Out!

She really isn't interested in hunting for eggs.
She's just happy to get one and immediately eat the contents.

Delivering Grammy to her Utah home!

So, try and remember that my son has never lived outside California. He's never visited anywhere in the winter .. EVER. We went from sunshine and t-shirts to this. Our first night he was snuggled up to me all night, then, I get up to go to toilet and come back to him snuggled up with his grandmother.
Cold weather takes work. He's wearing a long sleeved shirt, then a sweater and then this hockey shirt. It didn't matter, with no gloves and iced over playground equipment, there were many falls and purple hands within about five minutes.
This was what it was all about. Snow gloves, snow hat, snow shoes, two shirts, one sweater and a sweatshirt. By the way, snowball fights are a great workout.

My cousin Kari's son Beau. I need to add that Beau is a nasty snowball flight player. He aims for the face!

My cousin Rob's son, Porter, in the middle. He seemed very passive and was cool hanging out in the snow, but wasn't really interested in beating anyone up. He just kind of layed down and chilled.

Our last night at "Just Desserts". Despite my son's ridiculous behavior, I still let him get a "Tweet".