Go Griffins!

Hello!  We made an emergency vacation run to Colorado Springs on Friday, and had a chance to go hike around Garden of the Gods!  We had a bunch of fun, and there were a lot of deer there too.  These deer are "far" from the path.  There was another spot (without a fence) where the deer were literally standing adjacent to the path eating some plants, so that's about as close as you can get.  It was fun, and the kinds enjoyed climbing around on the rocks.  Also, somehow when we took this picture I did NOT notice those poses, but they are amazing!  Thanks kids!

I came up from work one morning to find Brooke sitting on the couch reading a chapter book!  She REALLY likes these Magic Treehouse books.  Her dance studio put in one of those little library book swap things, and she saw it there.  I'm still not used to her being able to read so well.

On Friday Brooke had school in the morning (as opposed to afternoon kindergarten) because it was their Spanish cultural day and all the kindergarteners were performing together.  Brooke did great, and she even ended up in the front row!  It was a lot of fun to watch her sing.

Grayson managed to get his hands on a tissue box...  This shouldn't be too surprising, as one of the highlights of his birthday was getting a roll of toilet paper and getting to unroll it, twice!  He's a little trouble maker!  Also, I don't have a picture to go with the video, but I was playing with Jelly with the laser pointer, and Grayson decided he wanted to grab it himself!  I believe he's only chased the laser this once, but now he laughs really hard when Jelly chases it around.

The great thing about Brooke having a single day of morning kindergarten is that we could escape Friday afternoon to Colorado Springs.  Why was it so important to make it Friday afternoon?  Because Niki was coaching a lacrosse game there!  The kids made it through the game alright, but it was all worth the wait when we got to see Niki afterward!

After the lacrosse game we headed to Garden of the Gods.  The kids really enjoyed climbing around, though I did have to be extra observant of Grayson.  He was definitely willing to try climbing around, for better or worse.  Fortunately he never fell.

I climbed up on a wall and asked Monica to take a picture from down low so it would look like I was up high.  In the end I feel like it looks like I grabbed the wall and lifted up my feet... which is exactly what happened...  I think the picture's funny, so it still made the cut.

Since Grayson seemed to have some climb in him, I put him up high on a ledge that I saw.  He was alright with it for a little bit, but I think he got a little nervous being that high up after a minute or two.

After Garden of the Gods, we went out to dinner, and then to the hotel room.  We could have just driven home and been fine, but the girls LOVE staying in hotels, so honestly, a big part of coming on this trip was to stay in a hotel.  We've been to this one before, so we picked it again cause we knew it fit everyone well.  Here are the girls sleeping.  Brooke came in after a little to tell me the mattress was too uncomfortable, so I put the couch cushions on top of it, and she said that was great!  Also, we put Grayson's pack n' play in the closet, and I wish I took a picture of that...

Grayson slept REALLY great in the closet.  He slept in till 8 if I'm remembering correctly.  He was very happy the next morning, and was also excited to run around with his "ganky."  We actually have two videos, but the first one didn't turn out quite as well because he found Brooke's water cup from dinner the night before and HAD to steal the straw...

The kids wanted to watch a little TV in the morning, so we let them while we were getting things ready to leave.  They seem to be enjoying Sponge Bob.

Niki's team had a game in Colorado Springs on Friday and another on Sunday in north Denver, so of course they stopped in Parker for lunch on the way up!  We met Niki for lunch and had a great time.

I got out my golf sim on Saturday night to play Valero with the tour.  Jelly saw her number 1 enemy, my golf net, and got straight to work.  I wonder if she'll ever get over this.  As it is, I always have to close her in my room when I want to play.

I think I mentioned Monica getting plants ready for the garden, but I'm not sure.  Here's our indoor setup, with seeding trays and grow lights.  Things are going GREAT right now.  I'll have to get an updated picture for next week, but there's something growing in almost every spot now, and some of them are pretty big too.  The biggest challenge currently is keeping Jelly and Grayson out of it.  Grayson has pulled one plant already (but we think there's multiple seeds in that one, so should be okay hopefully), and last year Jelly ate ALL of the plants when they sprouted.  Hence the lids on the side, and we now have a box taped to the short side as well to keep everyone out.

Of course, is as tradition around here, we had cinnamon rolls with conference!  I sure do love our semi-annual cinnamon rolls!

That's all I've got for this week.  Hopefully I don't forget to write again this Sunday, but better late than never!  Have a great few days.

On the Mend

Well hello.  As of this morning we are all MAYBE healthy.  We're all on track to head to church today, so that's promising.  As I mentioned, last week Winry was pretty much better, and while Brooke was sick in the latter half of the week she's been better all this week and was able to go to school and everything.  Grayson, however, took a turn for the worse and threw up a bunch Sunday night.  When I was going to bed, Grayson had been crying so  I went to check on him and opened his door and his room smelled TERRIBLE!  I asked Monica if she thought I should let him sleep, or go change his diaper since we knew he wasn't feeling good.  Well, I decided to change his diaper (it was poopy), and Monica had taken Nyquil, so I was pretty much on my own.  Turns out he had some super diarrhea and had a HUGE blowout.  It was a bit of work, but fortunately he was super tired and just sorta laid there while I change him and got him back into bed.  It was quite the mess to clean up.  Once he was back in bed he threw up sometime in the middle of the night then went back to sleep, so when I got him up in the morning it was all over him, his clothes and in his hair.  We took a bath right away and he was NOT happy about that (he usually likes baths), but we got him cleaned up and continued onward.  Poor little baby.

The girls found our Crazy Forts kit and have had a lot of fun with it this past week.  Those blankets on there were a bit too thick and heavy and we were pushing the fort to the limit.  Everyone climbed in and they had fun inside.  I believe the girls were playing school, and that was their school house... or maybe that was recess.  Anyway, the fort lasted until Grayson looked at it from the outside and thought that HUGE pile of soft blankets was just too good not to lay on, laid on the side of the fort and collapsed it!

Winry asked for the dinosaur to be inflated again sometime recently, and Grayson has enjoyed playing with it this past week.  I helped him sit on it and he was really happy about that!

So... I guess Grayson has been watching us wash our hands a whole lot while everyone has been sick, and figured his hands might be dirty too (they probably are/were).  He figured out his own plan to eat his snack, and just went for it straight off the table with his mouth!

The forts have been pretty popular all week, and the girls have made them several times.  We got a sheet for them to use so it was a bit lighter and less encouraging for Grayson to try to lay on it.  Apparently it's super fun to poke out the side instead of using the entrance, as you can see Winry doing here!

Thursday I went to get Grayson up from his nap and he had a super diarrhea blow out again.  I had to clean him up as far as his neck...  Fortunately, his sleep sack contained everything, so it wasn't all over his bed/crib or room, but it was still a bit of work to get him cleaned up.  Poor guy.  He was sick in total for around a week and a half, but fortunately he wasn't constantly throwing up, etc. and was able to eat and drink and stay healthy enough.

On Thursday while I was out for my run I got a text from Monica saying Grayson had thrown up.  I was already on my way back, so I didn't really get home any faster to help.  He threw up on the towel that's under his chair to catch crumbs, and Monica used the towel to wrap up all the clothes, etc. that needed to be washed.  When I got home everything was cleaned up, and all the clothes were in the bathroom sink (she couldn't just put them straight in the washer because it was already running with his previous gross clothes).  Brooke made a sign for the door to help out, it reads "closd throwup."  Now that I think about it, I did wash all that laundry and clean out the sink, so I guess I did help with the clean up in the end.

Brooke helped Monica do the meal planning for this next week.  Monica would tell her and Winry options, and then Brooke wrote everything down.  Here's our full meal plan, kindergarten spelling and all!  I LOVE it.  I love when Brooke writes things out, though sometimes things, like Sunday's lunch, can be hard to figure out (it's crepes by the way).

On Friday the weather was decently warm, like... mid to upper 60's.  The kids enjoyed playing in the backyard with Monica during the day, and even changed into swimsuits and asked Monica to spray them with the hose!  They said I'd done this before, but what they didn't pass on is that I sprayed the hose up into the air so it was like it was raining.  Honestly, I'm impressed though. I feel like for most of their lives if you sprayed them with a hose they would have started crying, mainly due to water in the face, so good for them.

Saturday while we were doing laundry Grayson found a shirt he really wanted to wear, so Monica put it on him... It was still a little big.... it's Monica's.  He roamed around in his blue BYU toga for a while before we finally got him dressed for real.

Grayson thinks our sour cream container is cottage cheese (or, honestly, at this point he might just love sour cream enough that he wants a bowl of that for a snack).  Whenever he sees it in the fridge, that is always his snack of choice.  Usually we'll get it out, and the yogurt, and pretend to give him sour cream while giving him yogurt.  Anyway, yesterday he got to lick off the sour cream spoon, and was delighted (and messy)!

The girls had a birthday party Saturday afternoon, so Monica took them to Target to pick a present in the morning.  We were all going to go because Grayson loves riding in his car, but we stopped at a garden store (Grayson is plant crazy, so I figured he'd love it) on the way to Target and he was losing his mind.  He did enjoy touching many plants as we walked by, but he just did NOT want to be there, so Grayson and I got dropped off at home for a nap.  Anyway, the giant red balls at Target were decorated as Kirby and the girls just had to get a picture!

In the afternoon while we were waiting for it to be time to head to the party, the girls all worked on planting the seeds they bought that morning, plus others we already had.  We got a lot of stuff planted, so hopefully it all goes well.  Monica learned a lot this year and says she's surprised our plants grew at all last year after all she's learned this year. (We kind of attempted to start seeds indoors last year to transplant outside, but nothing made it- but this year it will hopefully go much better!) We'll just have to be double careful once they're sprouting that Jelly doesn't come eat them all again!

The party was super fun!  It was at a park next to their house so they just invited full families.  We dug up some dinosaurs in the volleyball court, had some snacks, sang happy birthday, colored with chalk and played on the playground.  Everyone had a great time, and I even got to meet a new guy in the ward.  I followed Grayson around for much of the party.  He rode over in his blue push car, and he spent a bunch of time putting his dinosaurs (from the sand) in and out of the trunk.  A little later he decided he needed to steal all the chalk and started loading up with that instead!  I love that he left hand prints on the trunk, it makes it extra "stealthy."  Winry had a great time with the chalk making a dinosaur zoo, and drawing habitats for all her dinosaurs to live in.  This got quite popular and she had a crowd of kids who had joined in with her by the end.  She was a bit of a mess by the end.  I do like that the chalk on her cheeks matches her shirt though!

I think that's all for this week.  It seems like the kids have all been healthy for a few days at this point, so hopefully we're getting back to healthy in our house.  I have a little congestion at this point, and I think Monica's mostly feeling better as well.  We finally made it!  Now if only spring break were three weeks long we could still head down to Texas!

Texas or Throw Up, Which Would YOU Choose?

Texas.  Let me be clear, Texas is the right answer.  100%.  Unfortunately we didn't get to make that decision based on reason.  This past week was our spring break, and we were supposed to spend it in Texas with my sister, Oriah's family.  Unfortunately Winry got sick the day before we were meant to leave and threw up.  We even still packed and did all our preparations Monday night just in case she was feeling better Tuesday morning, but she wasn't.  When she woke up she told us she was feeling great, but I think she used her energy too fast because pretty soon she seemed like she was super tired.  When we'd ask her if she was feeling okay she'd always put on a big grin and nod her head, but her affirmations of health weren't expressed in any other mannerisms.  We ended up deciding not to go, and that ended up being the right choice.  Not only did it spare Winry a rough day of travel while feeling sick, but... well, you'll see.

Speaking of that Monday though, while Winry was very tired, everyone else was doing great!  Grayson loves to pull together a pile of blankets, and he was laying on them kicking his legs all over.  What a cutie.

Side story, Grayson was the second to get sick.  He threw up a little bit on Monday night, but we didn't notice it at first when we got him up because it was a small amount, and because he just went right back to sleep.  I did that once when I was a kid too.  It seemed like Grayson was getting over it pretty well, though he did have some bad diarrhea through the week, but he REALLY got sick Sunday night.  More on that in next week's blog post...

Brooke got herself "dressed" and what an ensemble it was.  Watch out Fancy Nancy, we're coming for you.  She has 2 (adult size) masks on in this picture, one on her face, and one on her forehead.

Some good news is that while we were at home for spring break, the weather was pretty good here, so we got to spend some time playing in the backyard, and health permitting, at parks!  Grayson really likes going down the slide on our little playground, and did that a LOT this past week.

I think it was sometime last week Winry asked me if we could have Easter Egg pancakes for breakfast, so I made some fun pancakes for breakfast on Wednesday I believe as Winry was starting to feel better. Although she ended up not eating them for a couple days still.

We eventually moved past Easter and St. Patrick's day to person preferences like a pig for Brooke!

With Winry being sick the TV was on quite a bit throughout the week, which naturally means Brooke couldn't get up either.  I took Brooke swimming one day to give her something active to do and burn off some energy, and afterwards we went to McDonalds for lunch and had a picnic in the back of the van.

I thought the kids would like playing airport/airplane since they were so excited to go to TX.  So we played airport one day.  I had them bring down their suitcases, and Monica checked us in and gave us our tickets.  Then they had their bags scanned at security, before boarding the plane.  The in flight entertainment was an episode of Bluey, and of course we had a snack service as well.  Everyone enjoyed the flight.  In fact, they enjoyed it so much they wanted to do it again, and every day after...  Oops... this was meant to be a one time thing...

We got quite a few inches of snow on Thursday.  It was really heavy snow too.  It piled up on our tomato cages too, which I don't ever remember seeing before.  We never made it out to play seeing as people were sick, but it could have been fun.

Grayson kinda waffled back and forth between seeming good and seeming sick.  It didn't help that he is getting possibly all 4 of his canines right now.  Anyway, there's not a whole lot that distracts him when he's not feeling great, so there was a lot of story readying and snuggling, though we did find he likes Daniel Tiger enough to watch for a minute or two.

Jelly was really interested in the snow, so we opened a window a little for her.  She enjoyed the cold wind and watching the snowflakes fall.

We got a holiday box from Hannah with St. Patrick's day things in it that we opened on St. Patrick's day.  One of the items was a few green balloons, which Grayson loved playing with.  He'd grab the little tied off part and shake them until the balloon slipped from his fingers and was thrown across the room.  Then he'd chase it down and do it again.

On Friday Winry was feeling all better, so we decided to head to the museum.  I took the girls with me, and Monica stayed home with Grayson.  We took the umbrella stroller so that Winry could sit in it when she wanted as she was still getting tired more easily than usual, and I don't really know how well she'd walk the whole museum anyway.  We had a great time, and got to see just about every exhibit.  Winry wanted a picture in front of the display of big bugs.

Brooke got a picture with antlers on!  We saw all the animals, went through the space section, the rocks and minerals, Egypt, and the dinosaurs!  We really did make it through just about everything.  As we were leaving the dinosaurs to head to another stop Brooke started crying.  I asked her if she was just really tired and she said her stomach hurt, then she put her hand up to her mouth...  The race was on, and we did NOT win.  We made it about half way to the nearest bathroom and then Brooke threw up.  Fortunately there was a mom sitting on a bench nearby with a bag and wet wipes so that I could get Brooke cleaned up.  And fortunately there was a worker right there at the time that radioed in the clean up.  Once I got Brooke cleaned up with the wipes she sat in the stroller and we headed to the bathroom to wash our hands, down to the cafe to get a cup for just in case, and then out to the car.  Winry got tired, so I got to carry her while trying to push the stroller one handed, which was a bit rough.

Eventually we made it to the car and headed for home.  The rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful, but Brooke was pretty wiped out.  She had a rough night, but has been getting better since and was even healthy for school on Monday.

Sunday morning Grayson got together an appropriate sized pile of stuffed animals (for him that's 3) for some diving.  He was having a really great time.

We decided that we should probably all stay home from church.  Winry was likely healthy at this point, but she still felt a little like a loose cannon, and I was sure Monica would not appreciate me heading to church by myself now that she woke up feeling sick as well (although hers is a cold, not the stomach bug).  Our ward did have a zoom broadcast, and sacrament meeting was SOO good!  I'm glad we got to hear the speakers still.

We cut open our nailed it cake for my family call.  It was supposed to be a rainbow peak-a-boo cake, and ours turned out exquisite!

That afternoon I went out with the kids in the backyard to burn off some steam.  Brooke even joined us, though the time she spent out there she was just laying on the swing.  All the same, I think it was good for her to get some sun and fresh air, and she still got to relax and take it easy.  After she headed inside Grayson and I took a turn on the swing.  In addition to that we of course had many trips on the slide, and we also played some basketball on the hoop you can see Winry tipping over in the background.

The only big event I can remember that I don't have a picture for would be March Madness, and while Monica and I have been enjoying watching the games, our brackets have not enjoyed the tournament.  It's still been a lot of fun watching basketball, though if we're being honest, staying up till 10:30-11 every night while ALSO having sick kids to take care of throughout the night is really a terrible idea.  I've survived so far, though I do tend to feel a little more tired each day.  Oh well.

Have a great week!

Back to the Zoo

Oh my Grayson and his tree obsession.  Today at church we made it most of the way through sacrament meeting, which was very surprising.  With about 10 minutes left he was done with being on our row though, and I had to take him out.  He walked around the foyer a little, but mostly waited by the doors wanting to go outside.  Eventually someone arrived, and Grayson got through the door, so we wandered outside a bit.  He was very happy to know the church also had trees!  We were only out here a few minutes before we headed back in for the end of Sacrament meeting.

Rolling back in the week, here's Winry one night at dinner.  Apparently the sour cream was a bit much to handle this night, as it ended up all the way up to her forehead!

Winry also grabbed this selfie with Monica's phone.  I believe it was this same day that in the morning she made pancakes for breakfast!  Monica helped her get everything and mix the batter, and she put it out and flipped them.  Monica said she got all of them off the griddle onto a plate until she took that video, and of course that's the time it fell off on the counter!

Grayson got another haircut this past week (and so did Monica!).  The girls helped, but he was super squirmy.  Things ended up a little rough around the ears as he was having none of that, but otherwise it looks great.

I've been playing the piano more recently, and some of that is due to a piano book I got for Christmas.  Brooke really likes one of the songs in it called "Song of Storms."  She made up her own dance to go with it, and even showed it to her dance class and her teacher found the song on Spotify.

Saturday morning the girls had a birthday party, so while everyone was out, Grayson and I went for a walk.  It was a very sunny and nice day, so we had to take our sunglasses.

We of course stopped at Grayson's favorite tree, and it had a special surprise today, snow!  Not only did Grayson get to poke his finger tips with pine needles, but he also got to play with the snow.

The party was Encanto themed, and here's a picture of the girls while they were there.  They had a lot of fun.  I remember they had to find Bruno (the dad, who was hiding in a closet with a green blanket wrapped around himself) and they did a piñata.

Once the girls were back, I headed out for my run, and then when I got home we all headed to the zoo.  We don't typically go in the afternoon, but we haven't been in a long time, and with a party in the morning it was the time that worked.  We still had a lot of fun and I'm really glad we went.  Grayson LOVED to see the animals!

Well... when there wasn't a big distracting tree on the other side of the path.  Sometimes he focused on the trees...  Maybe we need to take him to the botanical gardens...

We didn't go around to all the animals like we usually do, but made sure we got to everyone's favorites.  Of course that means we saw the vultures, who Winry left with a hug and kiss!  Oh, and when we walked up she stood up to see them, and then started singing "Happy Birthday" really loud to them, just cause she was excited to see them.

The tiger was out, which is always a treat.  I feel like they usually sit in a corner where you can't see them.  He was going down for a nap when we got there, and when we were walking up you could hear him... purring?  It was a pretty loud sound, don't know what it was.  Here he is with his tongue out.  

We also saw the sea lions, and this guy really looked like he could use a pillow.

Today we took Grayson to nursery for the first time!  He's a little over a month away from 18 months, and we usually go with our kids for the first month or so to help them get settled.  He did pretty well today.  I was surprised he sat in a seat for most of singing time.  He also didn't seem too attached to me either, so that's good.  He'd wander off and play, etc. and he LOVED snack time, which is a shocker (not).  They closed things off with a bubble machine, and he just stood there in shock watching it.  After a minute or two I coaxed him into walking around and poking the bubbles.  Anyway, he did a great job, and it's so crazy he's already getting so big!

That concludes this past week.  Hope everyone is doing well.  Have a great week ahead.