Preppin for a Test Trip

What a week!  Things were pretty nuts here (which is in part why I'm writing this almost a week late).  I left for a beam trip on Sunday at the end of this week, and I had a rather crazy week at work leading up to it.  The test was definitely not in an operational state, so I stepped in and helped pull all the blocks together and debug everything over the last week.  It wasn't quite where we wanted to be, but I was able to get everything we needed functional.  This involved several long days AT work!  Can you believe it, I had to go in! ;)  I also got on my computer several nights after the kids went to bed to address things.  Anyway, from my point of view this week was quite a blur, but there was definitely some great stuff that happened around here!  Such as Winry and Grayson reading stories together!  

Monica took the kids to one of the local libraries where they have a vet setup.  The kids really like playing with the stuffed animals and giving them check ups.  Grayson also tested out the drinking fountain!

Monica and the kids headed to a local place called Monkey Business one day with the Cammacks.  It's an indoor jungle gym type place for kids, and the kids had a lot of fun.  I could tell from how excitedly they told me all about it!  Grayson had a good time riding this turtle, though it was no horse...

There was a big inflatable climbing wall (that's what I've pieced together from the pictures and videos) that the kids all enjoyed.  Just look at Grayson stomping around!  Winry, on the other hand, was bouncing all over the place in there!  Brooke climbed the wall and would jump off.  She said there was a line on it up higher where you weren't supposed to climb, I'm guessing because you were getting too close to the ceiling.

There was also a foam pit to jump in and do cool tricks, such as jumping in with a friend.

Here are all the kids together, I assume at the end of their day there.

Grayson is quite the climber right now.  It's not that uncommon to see our chairs in this configuration.  It does stop him from getting onto the table, but he does still climb on the chairs and sit on them too.

On Saturday we went to a really cool park that is relatively close by.  When we first got there we spent some time on the various play grounds and the nature observatory walk way.  In part of the park there's one of those raised paths over an otherwise undeveloped area.  It even has a two story part with a spiral stair case.  We didn't really see anything that interesting in the trees, but it was a nice addition to the park.  After we played some we headed over to another part of the park where they had a splashpad and a little stream leading to it.  Grayson promptly got in and sat at the head of the stream.

When it was time for a water break, Grayson got a drink the obvious way.

Grayson really loved the water.  He played in all of it.  The stream, the little pool at the end of the stream, and even with the fountains in the splash pad, though he was a little cautious and kept his distance after one of these turned on while he was standing on it!

Eventually we were playing on the hill, rolling and running down.  When the kids ran down the hill I would catch them and we'd spin around so I didn't just fall down the hill while holding them.  You can kind of tell, but this was a pretty steep hill.

Grayson also ran up the hill, but I didn't catch him on the way down and spin like I did for the girls.  Instead I just picked him up and we darted down together!

Later in the afternoon we were enjoying the back yard, and all of the kids got on the swing together!

Sunday morning I went to sacrament meeting at the other ward in our building, came home and headed to the airport to go to Texas.  I've done a decent job converting the rest of the team into Buc-ee's fans, though they more go for things like the candied pecans (which are SOOO good!), but as long as it gets me in the door, I don't care why (though I get the nuts too).  Well, low and behold, we walked in there door, and there was the man, the myth, the legend, Buc-ee himself!  What a day, and what a trip!  Obviously this was a good omen of things to come!  (the things that actual came resulted in probably the most exhausting test trip I've ever been on, despite being one of the shortest... but we did a dang good job in the beam and collected more data than expected.)

That's all for this week.  In my mind I can still remember when I planned to write this post around 2 am on Monday morning as I stayed up late to prep for staying up all night the next night.  HA!  How naive I was back then.  Anyway, things are going good now, and I think I'm back on a normal sleep schedule too!  Have a great day until I (hopefully) get the next post out.

Independence Day and a Carnival

Well hello!  I missed last week because I was in the middle of an amazing vacation and just didn't get to my computer for a long time.  Also, things are CRAZY with work right now, so it might take a few days to get this all written...  Anyway, cutting back a week or two takes us to....

The library!  All the libraries around here seem to have different cool things for the kids to do.  Ours has a mechanic place right now, but there are others with a vet place, and a mail place!  The kids had a lot of fun delivering letters and driving the car.

Grayson has been so silly lately!  He loves to go hide behind the blankets!  He's so much fun right now, and as you'll see in a little, he loves to tease and be silly and make everyone laugh.

Monica took the kids to a playground and it had this really cool splash pad thing.  Everyone had a really great time playing in the water, and rightfully so as it's been pretty hot out here.

Well, except for the day when it was all rainy, and it got pretty cold.  I wasn't wearing a jacket because it was cold outside, I wear a jacket every day because I get cold in the house.  Anyway, the rain inspired me to drape a blanket over myself, which Grayson just LOVED, so he had to come join me, and brought some stories along too!

Here's Grayson chomping on an orange.  I don't know if he's had an orange slice before...

All the kids love to play in the back yard, and the girls really love to play with Grayson.  Brooke was pushing Grayson on the swing in the back yard, and even pretending the swing was hitting her to get him to laugh!  Glad I taught her that game.

On Saturday the 2nd we drove out to Utah.  We picked up a few of Tyson and Tina's kids on the way to take out with us, and got there to enjoy the North Salt Lake fireworks!  We went over to the festivities to see what all was going on, and grabbed some pictures of everyone together in their matching shirts.  We didn't really do any of the things that were out, but we did spend some time rolling down the hill!

We headed back to my parents house and just watched the fireworks from their front yard.  There were a few trees across the street that block the lower ones, but all in all it was still a great view and we didn't have to fight any crowds.  The girls really loved the fireworks, though at the end Winry was shaking her glow stick at them to "fight them off."  The girls ended up not going to bed until around 11... and Winry just doesn't know how to sleep in.  I think we're still recovering...

Speaking of being tired and trying to recover, Monica had one of those nights where everything was just too funny.  Apparently those things include her hand of cards.

On the 4th of July we went swimming at Alyson's house.  She had a little kids floaty that Grayson really loved being in.  He was having a great time and singing songs and in general being a super cutey!

We had fun jumping in, swimming around, and throwing toys back  and forth.  We took a swim break to have some lunch.  We had a big hot dog roast.

After lunch Alyson had a pinata!  All the kids were excited and pounced on the candy when it dropped, but Grayson went for the real prize, the pinata!  We even brought it back with us.

My dad got a canoe from somewhere, and while we were out he asked for help patching some holes.  While it was in the house the girls took it for a spin around the living room.  Good news, it floats on carpet.

My oh my Grayson the teaser!  He loved to "tease papa!"  He'd run up to my dad and not quite get within reach, and then go running back, but usually in some crazy sideways manner.  I think he just got so excited and thought it was so funny he just didn't even know what he was doing!  Great times!  On Sunday when we saw my dad on a video call he even started saying "tease papa, tease papa!"

My dad talked to the neighbors and we got to go swimming in their pool on the 5th and 6th.  I didn't make it the first day, but while they were swimming Winry even tried swimming on her own, and she LOVES it!  Sometimes she wants help to get started, but then she tells everyone to back up!

I did come on Wednesday, and I'm really glad I did.  We had a lot of fun.  There is a large step in the pool, and Grayson loved to walk around it.  We put on his floaties and he loved stepping off the edge and getting caught (he doesn't know how to float in floaties, and is good at getting his face in the water still).  Later I even helped him jump in the side of the pool.  He loves the water and playing in it, but definitely needs monitoring. 

Now technically I wasn't fully available on Wednesday, so I was on the side of the pool on a work call.  The call didn't take the whole time, so I got to spend the first bit seeing Winry swim and everyone have a great time before I got to join everyone.

Brooke was rocking it on the slide.  She loved it once she gave it a try.inr

She even tried the diving board.  In the picture she was doing a flamingo.  It looks like she's a little crazy in there, but that was a purposeful pose.  She also shot for a 360!

I spend that afternoon in the back yard helping out to set up for Henry's birthday party.  Niki planned a whole carnival.  There were all kinds of games, like balloon pop, ring toss, football throw, sack racing, fishing, and of course a prize tent!

Meanwhile, inside Grayson was doing his best to keep himself entertained until the party started, walking on Monica.

We had a great hot dog roast with plenty of J Dawg's sauce, and you did ring toss to win your drink.  The girls both got an orange cream soda, and they were great!

Why wouldn't we have enormous turkey legs?

Oh yeah, and Niki got Bumble, the Salt Lake Bee's mascot!  There was even a baseball game that day, but he sent his backup to the game so he could make it to the party!  Grayson just LOVED him, and chased him around the carnival!

There was of course arm wrestling.  Winry was nervous at first, but we asked him to be very gentle and Winry loved it!  If you ever get a chance to meet bumble, tell him he's great!

Later in the party we had the big reveal, a dunk tank!  When I heard about it I figured I'd have to be gracious and offer to go in, but the kids were all so excited by it that there was actually a line to be dunked!

Here's all (or most at least) of the kids with Bumble before he had to take off.  Grayson was getting ready to go to bed and actually was coming out to say good night to him.

Grayson got to pick his big grand prize from the prize tent before he went to bed, and he picked this giant kitty squishmallow and never let it go for the rest of the night.  It's been in his crib every since and he loves to snuggle with it.

There was a balloon artist at the party as well!  My dad knows her, and she's really good.  Winry asked for a sea lion.  Not a typical request I'd guess, but it turned out amazing.

There was also a... hang on game.  I challenged Spencer to 1 v 1 me, and we didn't bring the hoop down, so it was a success!

Once the girls got to the fishing game they couldn't be stopped.  If only real fish were so easy to catch, we'd be eating like kings!

We headed home the next day, and stopped at Little America for a break and lunch.  After lunch we got ice cream for everyone, which was of course a big hit.  Monica shared her ice cream with Grayson, but he wouldn't eat it until she let him hold it.

While we were getting close to home there was a super amazing rainbow in the sky.  It wasn't as brilliant when we got home, or viewed from our house, but you could still see the whole thing, and the whole double rainbow too.

Since we've been home Grayson loves to sit on Monica's foot when it sticks past the footrest on the couch.  The first time he just sat there, but now he bounces on her foot and says "ride the horsey, ride the horsey."

On Saturday I took Brooke to Boondocks for a birthday party for one of her class mates from last year.  His name is Oliver.  There was one other kid from Brooke's class there, and some of his other friends.  Brooke had a really fun time, and ate the most pizza!  I enjoyed myself too, and I even got a few of the kids to try pepperoni on their cake!  It's not great...

It would appear that Oliver and Brooke were pretty close at school, like, REALLY close.  Oliver is actually trying to steal Brooke's activity card and drop it on the other side of the fence, but I mean, is that the only goal?

The kids all road go karts, but Brooke didn't want to go drive one.  After that they road the bumper boats, and Brooke did join in here.  She had a lot of fun driving around and spraying.  At one point they were all in a corner and sprayed the parents through the fence!  It was actually wonderful, as it was 100 degrees outside, and waiting in the sun was not the most fun place to be.

After some rides things got a little less formal as we headed in to the arcade.  Oliver really wanted to play Mario Kart, and I knew Brooke really wanted to play too, so we stuck around for a game before we had to take off.  Brooke had a wonderful time, as I think all the kids there did!

The next morning Monica was trying to do some foam rolling and Grayson just knew she was actually trying to cuddle.  You can tell from Monica's position that this isn't inconvenient at all!

And here's Grayson laying down one night with his giant kitty squishy!

Phew!  What a busy two weeks.  It was a lot of fun, and it was pretty tiring.  The day we drove home we didn't try to get out early and didn't end up getting home till like bed time, but still had to have dinner, etc.  There were definitely some long and tiring days over the last two weeks, but there was also a lot of fun, and I'm glad we pushed through the rougher moments so we could have all the fun we had!