Dinosaur-itis

Hey everyone, I hope you all are doing well.  I am VERY tired and want to go to bed, so this will probably be a rather quick post.  Anyway, Monday we all headed off for Dinosaur ridge!  We got a free pass from the library and thought it would be a fun outing, and it's not that far away.

We got to take the guided tour.  It goes along a 1.2 mile long road, and you can also walk the path if you don't want to pay for the tour.  Basically in the 30's they blasted out the mountain to put a road in, and then realized there were a bunch of dinosaur footprints and bones and stuff in the mountain, so they closed the road and now it's walk only or take the tour.  At the first stop there was a big wall covered in foot prints.  They were painted in so they were easier to spot.  Here's Winry checking her foot against a dinosaur, almost the same size!!

The second stop was more dinosaur footprints, but from below.  It was pretty cool to see.  They were from large dinosaurs, like brontosaurus.  The final stop had dinosaur bones.  They were still in the rocks in the mountain, and we got to touch them.  In this picture we're sitting next to a vertebrae, pelvis, and mystery bone.

As we were driving back to base camp we drove past this little wire door thing, and I asked the guide what was behind the door.  The answer? Just a velociraptor foot print.  Oh wait, it's the only one in the US and one of three in the world...  I'm really not sure how he didn't mention that when we drove by the first time!! 

We had a great time, and definitely want to go back!  We think next time we'd just walk it since that's always free and not that long of a walk though the whole thing.  Also, then we'd get to see that velociraptor footprint!  If you were going for your first time I'd definitely recommend the tour though!

We've spent several days playing in the leaf pile at home.  I know I shared some pictures and videos last week, but I got a really great slow motion video of Brooke jumping in this past week!

In other big news, Tuesday night Winry got sick... VERY sick!  She (and we) were up most of the night and she had a fever around 102-103.  We took her to the doctor for fear of an ear infection and they said she looked fine.  On Friday she still had a fever of 103, so we called and took her to the doctor again, and they checked her and said everything seemed normal, but her throat was really red, so they said probably just viral pharyngitis.  I'm happy to say she's starting to seem more normal again, but she's still been sleeping terribly the last two nights even though she seems fine in the day...  Hopefully she'll do better tonight, but last night we literally couldn't rock her to sleep and after about an hour had to just let her cry herself to sleep. :(  Hopefully she does better tonight.

Thursday was Brooke's dance class.  She told us in the morning she didn't want to go and didn't like it.  After a bit of talking we eventually got the root of the issue.  They do a song/dance each week with the lights off and glow sticks, and Brooke doesn't like that part, so we told her to go stand in the part of the room with a light, and she LOVED dance class this past week!  Look at her go!

Preschool got moved to Friday due to one of the kids being sick, and this week was crazy hair day!  Brooke had cupcake hair!  Also, the picture behind (in front of?) her is her outline, and then she drew herself in!  It's a great picture!

On Saturday Brooke and I headed to the leaf pile yet again.  Almost all of the leaves have fallen off our trees, so I warned her it would soon be time to clean up all the leaves.  Anyway, on Saturday she wanted to help rake the leaves in to a big pile!  Basically mission accomplished.

Today (Sunday) Brooke put Elmo down for a nap in the swing, and Jelly just couldn't handle not having her spot.  It was actually really funny to watch her get in there as she kept laying down and then squirming around to push Elmo to the side, but eventually she got her fair share.

Today the weather was very nice, so we took the kids to the park.  Brooke wanted to swing right away, and the other swing was taken so I pushed her.  I also had Winry bump her in the back when she swung back, and Winry LOVED it!!  Hopefully you can hear the laughing.

Also, while there we put Winry down the slide.  This may be her first time, I"m not sure.  She was... iffy about it I would say. 

Well, I think those are the highlights from the week.  I think it's off to bed in case I get woken up hourly until 6 am...  I think at this point I'd rather risk sleeping too long! ;)

Leaf Pile

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all doing fantastic.  We had a pretty great week!  We got to do a lot of fun things together, and Brooke and Winry got some cuddle time in Brooke's new bed!

Brooke and Winry continue to be best friends, and Brooke still wants to help Winry with EVERYTHING!  We even let Brooke feed Winry sometimes, and this past week Brooke took it upon herself to feed Winry breakfast.  What a great sister!  I took Monday off for some recovery with the family after my trip, and we just had to go out for a family activity.  As we left we realized that we would need to get lunch while we were out, so we went to Mod Pizza.  It's a build your own pizza place, and we had a great time!  Also, Brooke took a nap in the car on the way out, so no wonder we had such a great time!

Our real destination was the Butterfly Pavilion, which was approximately across the street.  Winry and Brooke got a chance to be twin butterflies while we were heading in.

And it took some coaxing, but I got Brooke to be spider food as well.  The coaxing wasn't because it was scary, it was because Brooke wanted to play on the computer next to this picture spot instead.  But for you, fine blog readers, I persisted until I prevailed.  They also have an "outdoor" area with lots of plants and butterflies EVERYWHERE!  That was pretty cool, and you basically get butterflies landing on you whether you want it or not.  That was pretty cool, except we couldn't see the turtle because he was in his house, so Brooke cried because she was super excited to see him.  We all had a lot of fun though, and that was Brooke's first choice of place to go for the day.

On Wednesday when I got home from work we decided to go running.  Our jogging stroller had a flat tire I had to patch before we could leave.  5 holes... yup... guess I went through a thorn garden and didn't notice.  Anyway, the patches didn't actually completely fix it, but it at least stays inflated for an hour or more, so that's good enough for a run!  Brooke was pretty tired when we went on our run, so when we got home she was asleep.  Also, she just HAD to wear Monica's socks all day!

Friday was the long anticipated leaf pile day, so as soon as I got home from work we headed into the backyard for that!  I raked up a huge leaf pile, and then Brooke and I jumped in over and over!  Brooke also wanted to slide on the leaves, which you can see below!

I got a good video of Brooke jumping into the leaves, and Monica came out to play with us too once our leaf fight started!  I'm pretty sure Brooke won.

Winry even came out to join us.  You know what they say, a family that rakes together, jumps in leaves together...etc.

Anyway, Winry has continued her crawling ways, and recently has fallen in love with our Norwex sweeper mop thing.  She loves to chase it around while Monica cleans the floors.  Monica informed me that my video is actually a pretty substandard mop chase, so maybe one day I'll get to see the real deal.

Saturday was our ward Trunk or Treat, and we showed up in style!  Brooke really wanted to be Moana, and she picked everyone else's costume too.  I'm Maui, Winry is Hei Hei, and Monica is
Te Fiti.  We all had a lot of fun at the activity, and we were even able to stay all the way to the trunk or treat part.  I took Brooke and Winry on a long drive at about 3 pm to help them get a nap in so they could stay up extra late.  It was still walking a fine line for them both, but we made it through without any major issues, and Brooke had an AMAZING time trick or treating!  I'm really excited for Halloween.

Well, I think those are the highlights for us this past week.  I hope everyone  is doing well!

Winry's first Crawl!

Hey everyone!  I hope you are all doing great!  It was a pretty exciting week last week with grandma out to visit, me in Texas doing radiation testing, and Winry decided to wait until dad left to start crawling.  What a stinker!!  As you can see, radiation testing is very rough, and takes a lot out of you.  Let it be known that I did not bring this cot, and I only laid there for what FELT like 30 seconds.

On Monday back at home it was supposed to snow, so Brooke insisted on putting on her snow pants first thing in the morning.  She basically wore them all day, and sadly, the snow didn't come.  It did rain later in the day, but Brooke was more than a little disappointed she didn't get to go play in the snow.

Meanwhile, literally the day after I left Winry decided it was OK to start scooting forward!  She's been getting up into a crawling position a lot lately, and we knew it would be soon.  She loves to scoot all over the house now, and she sure likes to get into trouble!  Brooke didn't really get into things, but Winry wants to get into EVERYTHING!

Meanwhile (again), in Texas it was pouring rain!  This rain storm didn't seem too bad because I was stopped/going slow for all of it.  But when we were leaving the airport we were on the freeway and drove into a storm and I couldn't see anything.  It didn't help that the car in front of me was silver and blended into the rain perfectly and refused to turn on their lights...  Anyway, I've never been in Texas for these storms before, and it's pretty crazy.  There's usually only a few minutes of really intense rain with a lot of light sprinkling on either end.

Coming back to Colorado, Winry wore this hat, because Halloween.  It's supposed to go on a pumpkin, but babies will do too.

In Texas this trip I got the day shift, which was great!  That means that I was awake and able to call home every day!  It was great to talk to the kids every day, and I even got to call in for Family Home Evening!  Also, for some calls Brooke got to hold the phone, and I typically got to see some astounding views, like this.

On Tuesday we started our first rotation in the beam.  Here's everything all set up!  The testing went well all throughout, and nobody got irradiated, so another successful trip!

I ran over to CVS with one of my coworkers one night to get him some medicine, and when we walked in I saw this right at the front door.  I guess it makes sense being across the street from campus, but still, scantrons in a pharmacy?  It's a little weird.

I came home on Saturday, and while driving to the airport a building on a truck pulled out in front of me!  I got stopped at a light, and it took the entire green light for him to get through the intersection... fun times.  Fortunately once we got over the bridge he was able to pull far toward the side of the road so that we could squeeze by in the other lane.  I ended up getting to the airport about 6 hours early, and tried to move my flight up, but I guess Southwest changed policy and won't move your flights any more, so I got to sit in the airport for 6 hours waiting for my plane...  Some good came of it as I ended up getting Brooke and Winry a stuffed armadillo, which they were both very happy about.  I haven't gotten a picture of them with it yet, hopefully for next week.

Meanwhile in Colorado on Saturday was Megan's baptism.  It's hard to believe she's 8 already!  She was just a little older than Brooke is now when we moved to Colorado.  Here's Brooke with Megan on Saturday at their house after the baptism.

On Sunday it was time to relax and recover from my trip.  Jelly jumped up on the couch next to me and burrowed under the pillow...

And, Saturday night and throughout Sunday it SNOWED!  This was great news for Brooke!  So after church we of course headed into the back yard.  We had a blast out there.  We made snow angels, and I pulled Brooke around and around in the sled.  Then, Brooke got an amazing idea, what if she pulled ME on the sled!...  It was definitely more tiring to be pulled than to pull Brooke, and I had to spend the rest of the day trying to convince her to let me pull her...  But at least we had a great time together!

I think that about wraps up this week.  Sorry for being late with this post, but at least I didn't just skip this week!  Have a wonderful week everyone!

Grandma's in Town!

Greetings from Texas!  I hope everyone's doing fantastic!  We had a pretty good week that capped off with a visit from grandma!  And what visit would be complete without a trip to Butterfields for some ice cream!?  Not this one.  We had a lot of fun and everyone really enjoyed their ice cream.

I think I mentioned getting Pua last week from our neighbor.  Well, Brooke has really been loving having Pua around.  One morning they had to cuddle together under blankie.  What a pair of cuties.

Brooke got out here chapstick Monday night because her lips were dry.  She got a pack of Frozen chapstick a few months ago, and had to put some of ALL of them on.  There are like 7 or 8.  And she didn't just put it on quick, she took her time and really got it no there.  Like, there was A LOT!

Also, Brooke has been a super helper recently, and she's really wanted to help with the dishes.  She usually just loads dishes into the dishwasher that we've cleaned off, or helps unload and put stuff away.  This time she was up on a chair cleaning off the dishes!  What a great helper.

On Thursday Brooke started dance classes.  She was SO excited to go, and she had a lot of fun!  I took a little time off work so I could come and watch her first day.  Her class does both dance and tumbling, and I think my favorite part was the tumbling.  It was so cute to watch, and it took her a little to get some things, but then she was doing frog hops and rolls the rest of the week.

Saturday we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast per our tradition for general conference!  Pumpkin of course!  We of course watched conference, and I really enjoyed the new announcements about the new curriculum.  I'm super excited to get the new family scripture study manual and starting studying together as a family.  When they made the announcements I felt the Spirit confirming to me that these were needed changes for our days. 

Between sessions we went to pick up my mom from the airport.  Brooke was super excited to see grandma and came with me.  When we got back we listened to conference as best we could with the kids, and then of course went to get ice cream!  What a dinner!  We're so healthy on conference weekend!

The next morning Monica dropped me off at the airport for a work trip.  My mom came out to help Monica with the kids while I was gone.  Anyway, I took off to Texas A&M again for another radiation trip, and I'm writing this from my hotel room.  That's why I'm a few days late, and also why I probably have more typos/errors than usual.  I don't have my proof reader here with me.  Anyway, things have been going well here so far, and wait till next week to really talk about the trip, but we're all set up and ready to go!  There has been a crazy rain storm every day we've been here so far.  I don't know if it's just the time of year, but it's intense!  One the way from the airport it rained so hard I couldn't see the car in front of me any more, and everyone had to drive nice and slow.  Then, suddenly, it went from pouring rain to clear in under 5 seconds... it was pretty crazy.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week.  Good luck in the cold for those of you not in Texas!!