Why hello! There was quite a bit that happened this week. I'll try to be semi-brief, as I am currently in a hotel room, and need to get to bed soon as I need to be up early tomorrow for the first day of my test trip. We finally ventured out into the huge snowstorm that hit over the weekend on Monday. We had SOOO much fun. I actually had the most amazing time. Having 2 feet of snow made it deep enough that it felt like being a kid again playing in the snow. What used to be tall enough to come up to my knees and randomly trip me is a lot of fun for my kids now, but having 2 feet of heavy snow brought me right back! The kids had an amazing time. We made a snowman, because this is the first snow we've gotten all year that actually would pack together. Here are the girls standing next to it.
Our treadmill has been dead for about a year. I swapped the motor control board and belt around a year ago, and it got the treadmill back for maybe a week before it died again, so I figured it was really the motor that was bad. We finally ordered a new motor a while back, and it came last week. I swapped it the end of last week, and what timing! I was still able to get in my Monday run even though there was 2 feet of snow! The girls like to watch me run... or probably like to watch the TV while I run. I was watching Goof Troop, and they really enjoyed the episode that was on. I asked Brooke to grab a picture for me to put on the blog! She's usually good at not getting her fingers in any more, but I guess she was in a hurry to get back to watching.
When I finished work on Monday we went out to play in the front yard! This was a perfect choice because all of the shoveling made HUGE mounds of snow. We all took turns sledding down our manmade hill. I took Grayson for his very first sled ride! Monica also joined us on the slopes, and the girls obviously took LOTs of turns going down the hill.
As mentioned, we made a huge snowman. While it was snowing over the weekend I told my kids about when I was in elementary school, and at recess groups of kids would get together to roll HUGE snowballs. In the end they'd pull up all the snow down to the grass and leave a trail of grass behind. I didn't join in too many times, but I do remember pushing the snowball until we couldn't any more, and then climbing up and jumping around until it crumbled. Well, the bottom of our snowball was just about as large as I could have rolled it. The girls really wanted to sit on top of the car in the snow, so I put Brooke up there. I hope is was as fun as all her dreams made it out to be.
There was quite a bit of snow melting, and the gutters were pretty full. Winry REALLY wanted to play in the water, so we got her some yard tools to play with. As you may remember from the video of Monica sledding, she was walking through the water and soaked her feet... Despite that, she stayed out and played all 2 hours that we were out there. The cold does not bother her, so long as she's having fun. We also spent some time jumping into the snow, and I did a flip! Again, just pure bliss all around! I couldn't believe it had been two hours when we went in to start getting dinner ready.
We let Grayson have some solids this past week. Here he is his very first time eating solids! He had squash the first two nights, and you could tell he really wanted to eat, but just didn't like the food... We tried Bananas the third time, and that was it so far. Why? Because he slept REALLY bad all 3 nights, so he's probably not quite ready for solids yet. We can maybe keep easing him into it or something.
On Tuesday Monica took the girls out and cut a little snow cave for them. They had a lot of fun playing in it, as well as doing all those things we did Monday! This was while I was at work, so I don't know as much about what all happened.
Monica was feeling a little sick over the weekend, so she went to get a COVID test on Tuesday. Came back negative, so that was good so that we could still come out to Utah at the end of the week.
Here's Grayson in his St. Patrick's day clothes. That's all...
On Friday morning we packed everyone into the car and started the drive to Utah. While heading through Denver we saw a truck with a dinosaur in it!! The girls were very excited.
Here's everyone at nap time! I don't know if Brooke every actually fell asleep... but they were all being good. We just got Brooke a booster this last week, and she really wanted to use it. It fit between Winry and Grayson's car seats, and so we put here there. It's a little hard to get to her buckle, but it was nice to have more space in the back, and even nicer to have Brooke there to help Grayson! She was a champion turning on his noise maker, and giving him his pacifier, and making calming shuushing sounds when he needed to go to sleep. Hero child.
We stopped for lunch and to play at a park in Rock Springs. We ended up breaking the drive into 3 parts, as Grayson needed to eat about every 3 hours. So stopped in Laramie real quick to feed him, get gas, and use the bathroom, and then stopped for lunch in Rock Springs. Here was a plane at the park and the girls really liked it. We played for a little, and then ate lunch in the car.
I don't know that I can stress how great the kids were. There were a few semi-rough moments. In a few moments it seemed like things were going to go bad, but in retrospect those were short moments. Grayson did amazing being happy and playing with Brooke for 1-2 hours each time after he ate, and then sleeping for 1.5-2 hours in his car seat until we were ready to stop next. Brooke was an amazing helper with Grayson, and only struggled once a little when Grayson cried for a while despite her best efforts, but we talked her through it and she did amazing. Winry did great entertaining herself and taking naps when she got tired. Speaking of, one of those times was while she was eating a sucker...
There were a lot of beautiful views while we were driving with all the fresh snow on the mountains. Here's a picture while we were driving through Provo Canyon from Park City. The drive was great and took just over 9 hours. I think the expected time for the route is pretty close to 9 hours, so again, the kids were amazing.
It was all smiles when we got to Gram and Pop's house! We had dinner and it was time to get ready for bed. The girls asked if they could each pick an extra stuffed animal from the toy room, and Brooke picked.... well... she picked the chocolate swirl.
Grayson and Pop had a great time together watching March Madness!
Monica and I snuck away for a lunch date. We went to In-n-out and ate our burgers in the parking lot at BYU. The fries smartly auto-inserted themselves into my burger, which was a great idea!
After eating our burgers we walked around campus a bit eating our fries, and then headed into the book store. Brooke really wanted, and didn't have, a BYU shirt in her size, so we were on a mission. I also forgot to pack one... There is currently a Lego model of the Provo City Library (originally Brigham Academy, the original BYU building). That was really cool to see! We found the clothes we needed and headed back to beat Grayson to needing to be fed. It was a lot of fun to be back on campus and to get to spend time with Monica just the two of us.
We got 2 shirts for Brooke. I really liked this dress one. It's really cute! Brooke also started playing ping pong for the first time with Audrey. She's a natural. They were having a lot of fun though. Brooke loved playing with Audrey all day long! Once Audrey got there I only saw Brooke when I went looking for her, which is very different from a typical day. I'm glad they are having so much fun together!
Winry held Grayson a bit this morning, and they were so happy together! That reminds me, We did have a Grayson scare when we first got here. Gram and Pop were holding him, and after a minute or two he started crying, so we were afraid he might have gotten old enough for stranger danger and to be scared of other people. Not so, and he's been fine being held ever since. Not sure what happened, but I think everyone is glad it ended quickly.
Here's everyone that was there for primary today. Things were less reverent than usual... and if you remember some of the things I've posted of Winry during primary you know that's saying something.
All the kids wore their Easter clothes today. Monica tried to get a good picture of them all, but not every picture can be in the back of the van right after eating In-n-out, and so the kids were not giving their best smiles.
Grayson's baby blessing was originally planned for today, but my dad got total knee replacement on Thursday and wasn't going to be able to make it. We wanted him to be able to be a part, so we moved it back to next Sunday, and up at my parents house. Dad, I hope your knee is doing well, and that you're feeling better soon! We had a fun and relaxed afternoon together, and after dinner I headed off for my work trip. And that's where I currently am, watching march madness, and writing the blog. My bracket has been typical. I usually somehow end up getting lucky with the first day of games or so and up at the top of my groups, and then slowly work my way down the list over the proceeding days. I'm somewhere around the upper middle...
Anyway, I'm already up a little later than I had hoped, so I'm going to take off. I've got a pretty long day ahead tomorrow, so I'm off to bed! Have a great week, and may your bracket bust worse than mine!
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