Friday, August 5, 2011

..:Goin' to the movies:..

I know this is a really dark picture...but it's the only one I got. Daddy took Alexa to HER first movie last summer and we never got a picture of that, so I wanted to make sure we documented Payton's first movie experience. It was the last day of the kids' summer movie program at our local theater and so we ventured out...me and the three kids! Payton was mesmerized for the first 45 minutes. She just sat eating her popcorn and watched the "big TV". But that quickly wore off...and then I was soooo glad that it was a bunch of other moms and their kids there too, as Payton was constantly in and out of her seat and both girls were asking me for snack after snack, meanwhile I'm trying to take care of Barrett, who didn't want to nap! BUT, we made it through the whole movie so I consider it a success! And the girls had fun so that makes me happy!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

~Weekend Getaway~

This past weekend we got out of town for a little, much-needed vacation. We headed up to Flagstaff on Friday afternoon to stay the night before heading to the Grand Canyon on Saturday. My parents were flying in from Canada to meet us there for the adventure. So as soon as Kevin got off work on Friday, we loaded up and headed out of town. We got up to Flagstaff at dinnertime and so we popped into a hometown burger joint, Bun Huggers, that was recommended by a good friend. It did not disappoint. And even if we hadn't been told about it, we probably would have gone just for the name!! :-) After dinner, we checked into our hotel and then went for a swim. This was Barrett's first real time going for a swim, with his cute little swim trunks, not just a dip of the toes! He didn't really seem to care one way or the other. The girls just wanted to swim in the "mommy/daddy pool" (aka the hot tub), which they weren't allowed to!
After the swim, and quick baths, we headed down to the firepit they had in the courtyard of the hotel. The girls thought it was pretty cool to sit by the fire, but they REALLY thought it was cool when a complete stranger came up and said she had all the fixins for s'mores!! Yummo....it was so kind of her to share with all of us. The girls absolutely loved it....we probably should have waited to give them tubs until after the sticky treat, but oh well!
My parents arrived at the hotel after all the kids were asleep so they were all excited to see each other first thing on Saturday morning. My mom brought Barrett this adorable hat! As you can see, he enjoyed gettin' down with his bad self right away!! :-)
And then it was on to THE GRAND CANYON!!! I had never been there. Kevin went once when he was ten. If you have never been, and have only seen pictures....you just have to go and experience it in person. It. Is. Amazing! For reals. It is so HUGE and magnificent and breathtaking and beautiful and....I could go on and on. And it is definitely not something you can experience in just one day. That's all the time we had AND we had 3 small children, so I feel like we experienced it the best we could given our circumstances...but I definitely want to go back some day when our kids are a bit older (once we don't have to pack diapers bags but before they're teenagers and think it's too boring!!) so we can enjoy it a bit more. Seriously, if you have the opportunity, go. see. the Grand Canyon!
The rest of the quick visit from my parents, the kids just enjoyed having Gramma and Papa around! We went went to church, played in the rain, wore silly hats, went shopping, played at the mall play area, had lunch at the mall and went out for dinner. We crammed alot into our weekend but we sure had fun doing it!
Thanks Mom and Dad for a fun visit! The kids miss you tons and tons!