Rollercoaster Rides

On Monday we met up with a big group of friends to play at Chuckee Cheese with Michelle and her cute boys before she moves to Utah.  Nate had a blast with all of his little buddies & he was a trooper with his brother.

This ride is the roller coaster ride and obviously, Ryan loved it.

After witnessing Ryan’s love of rides – for a very brief moment I felt a little guilty that he’s staying behind while Nate and I go to Disneyland next week with my sisters.  But then I experienced him in a stroller or being held for more than 5 minutes and I was reminded as to why he’s staying home with dad and grandma!

papa got a new knee.

My dad had knee replacement surgery yesterday.  His right knee has been killing him for a while now and he finally decided to go ahead with the surgery.

The surgery itself went really well.  Dr. Hoer said that two parts of his knee were pretty much gone which explains the pain.  The only scary part was in recovery.  They gave him some morphine which would put him to sleep and then he’d stop breathing.  Eventually they got that under control and he’s been doing pretty well ever since. He was in a decent amount of pain yesterday but was coherent and doing much better than I imagined he would.  Unfortunately today wasn’t as great when he was throwing up all morning but he’s hanging in there.

Nate had soccer pictures last night right behind the hospital so he came with me to see Papa.  Sam assured me that my dad looked and was talking fine so Nate wouldn’t be scarred for life.  He thought it was pretty cool to go to the same hospital where Nate and Ryan came out of my belly.  He was slightly hesitant when we got to Papa’s room but he warmed right up and was chatting Papa’s ear off taking pictures all over the hospital room.  After about 30 minutes of that he got bored and went on lots of walks with grandma and aunt Ali.

He asked to go back today so we stopped by after pre-school and said hello to Papa.

I’m grateful my dad is doing well and especially grateful for modern medicine that will let him run with his grandkids and play golf again!

easter weekend

We had a pretty fun Easter weekend. 

Here are a few of the highlights:

- Nate and I went to Ethel M Cactus Gardens to meet the Easter Bunny.  I called Ethel M’s to see what times the bunny would be there and Nate overheard me on the phone and he thought the Easter Bunny called our house asking for a visit from Nate.  So, we went.  And he thought it was pretty cool.

- We watched It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown.

- We dyed Easter eggs.

- Sam had to work at the hospital on Easter Sunday so we went to dinner with Sam and my parents on Saturday night to make up for her absence.  Alora was at our house babysitting and she said Nate insisted on leaving a carrot out for the Easter Bunny.  He was stoked that the bunny took a bite.

 

. Easter morning was the best.  Nate was soooo excited to see what the Easter Bunny brought.  Nate & Ryan each had a basket hidden in the house with a few eggs to find as well.  They each got new books, cars & a pool toy.

. Nate was really cute with Ryan showing him all of his new stuff.  And of course, making a total mess with the grass is always enjoyable for a little boy.

. our ward at church does FABULOUS holiday sacrament meetings filled with music.  Easter Sunday was no exception.  It was fabulous.

. We had a very low-key dinner at my parents house on Sunday night with my Aunt Kara & Uncle Allan.  Neither of my sisters could come [traveling or working] so it wasn’t quite the same but still a nice Easter dinner.

a visit from Grandpa G.

Once again, another visitor without a picture to prove it.

Wes’ dad – otherwise known as Grandpa G. – came to visit this week.  He came to help Wes with a number of projects at a rental property of ours.  Boy were they busy.  Luckily the house is near Wes’ work so they were up at 6am and out the door every morning [except Friday, they got up at 5am] . . . they’d work for a few hours at the house and then Robert dropped Wes off at his “real” job and then Wes would join him again at night to keep working.

So my wonderful father-in-law [who happens to be a general contractor] worked 14+ hour days all week slaving away.  Wes loves working along side his dad so while they had an exhausting week – I think they enjoyed the time they rarely get with just the two of them.

Poor Nate was just distraught that every time he woke up . . . and went to bed . . . dad and Grandpa G weren’t there.  So they came home for dinner on Thursday night so they could play with the boys and eat.  And while they were home early – Robert/Wes installed a water softener that we inherited!  We even had time for one round of Qwirkle.

Thanks for coming, Grandpa G.  It was fun to see you!

a visit from Leslie Andrus.

Remember in February when our good friends – the Andrus Family – were supposed to come visit?  And then their kiddos got sick so Ryan Andrus came by himself for a work conference and Leslie stayed home alone with the sick kiddos so Ryan Griffeth didn’t get sick right before his tongue surgery?

Well, Ryan was a fabulous husband and told Leslie to book herself a flight so she could come play by herself.

And so she did.  She arrived on Thursday night and we had a fabulous time.  We didn’t even take a picture but you can imagine what two girls without kids shopping and eating looks like.  HEAVEN.

A few highlights:

• Ali being soooo kind to take Nate all morning on Friday so we could go to The District and shop/eat with just Ryan tagging along.
• Nate falling madly in love with Leslie – he has a huge crush, for sure.  He scored two goals at his soccer game on Saturday just for Leslie.
• Leslie and I were trying to simply sit by the pool on Friday afternoon while Ryan took a nap but Nate wasn’t allowing any peace and quiet.  He wanted to swim so finally I gave in and he started swimming with his life jacket and underwear on.  Until he fell off a step in to the deep and was scared to death.  First time in the pool this year.  It was hilarious.
• When I visit Leslie in Utah, I have a list of restaurants to visit so I was glad she came with a list, too!  On the list was Panera, Lucilles & Metro Pizza.  DELISH.  I can’t remember the time I enjoyed so many kid-free meals in a 48 hour period!
• SHOPPING!  Oh, we love to shop.  We spent Saturday at Town Square with Kiley roaming around at a very leisurely pace and it was fabulous. 
• We lucked out with perfect weather.

It was such a nice break in routine.  Leslie, please come back!

[and a special thanks to Wes & Ryan for taking the kiddos.  Although Ryan lucked out – his mom took his kids all weekend to celebrate an early Easter!  Wes wasn’t so lucky. ]

an EASTER afternoon

The beginning of Easter fun started today – thanks to my parents.

Growing up, we always made a bunny cake.  It was a yearly tradition that my mom is now carrying on with the grandkids.  She invited them all over [well, all by Ryan for very obvious reasons] for lunch, an easter egg hung & to make bunny cakes.

I had to drop Nate off so Ryan and I stuck around through lunch and the easter egg hunt and then headed on our way while the kids decorated cakes. 

[Kyle was there, too . . . he’s just not pictured!  He was busy looking for the four missing eggs.]

It will be a fun tradition!

Nate’s bunny cake:

 

one foot in front of the other.

Ryan will go headfirst down the biggest slide at the park and climb on to just about anything but he's been more than hesitant to take his first steps. Apparently Kiley is worth walking to because he did it yesterday for the first time! He took quite a few steps on his first try and has walked from one room - down the hall - and in to another room today. For the record, he's been crawling for SEVEN and a HALF months and walking around tables, pushing toys/chairs all over the house for months and months. To each his own, I guess. But I can finally say . . . we're close, folks. No more black knees, holes in pants & disgusting floors. Good job, Ryan.

a summer preview.

 

we had a few HOT days last week and an hour to kill before a ward party so we got out Mr. Alien Sprinkler for the first time. 

It’s official: Ryan is a water-lover just like his brother.  He couldn’t get enough of this guy splashing him in the face.

We’re gonna have a fun, wet summer.

 

nate was fooled.

I was a slacker this year with April Fools.  But luckily, Aunt Ali was on top of it.

We had a knock at the door on Friday afternoon with Ali & the girls.  They brought Nate a cute carton with this note on top:

I read Nate the note and he says . . . “vitamins.  Yuck.  I’m not eating that.”

We opened it up and found one of these cupcakes:

The disgusted look remained on his face.  A vegetable cupcake?

I convinced him to try a pea and a carrot – he was pleasantly surprised at how yummy they were. :)

Nate absolutely was fooled by Abbie & Daisy!

 

SHARKS soccer

Nate is playing soccer this spring with a bunch of other little 3 year olds.  It’s hilarious.

I was a little hesitant but after 4 of his good buddies joined the team – so did we.  And I’m so glad we did – Nate’s loving it.  And lets be honest – I get to sit at practices and games with 4 of my friends so it works out for all of us!

The Sharks first game was on Saturday.  All of the kids on the team do fabulous at practices but none of them really understood what an actual game meant so it was fun to watch them figure it out.  On the first play, there were 10 three year olds in the middle of the field [5 on each team] not really knowing what to do.  But they soon figured it out and Nate dribbled the ball down the field and scored the first goal!  Look at Nate in this picture with his “macho” walk of “I just scored.” He was excited.

However, the best part of the whole game was that every kid on the field scored a goal.  We even got a few in the other team’s goal.  I felt bad for the cute girls on our team – I think all of the crazy boys intimidated them so they were pretty content on the sidelines. 

Go Sharks!

We’ve got a pretty awesome sideline of Sharks Fans.  My whole family showed up to support Nathan!

This little boy was on the sidelines, too.   He ransacked Kiley’s diaper bag and found a sucker.

We’ve talked all week how soccer is a team sport and it doesn’t matter who on your team scores.  But Nate inherited some extremely dominant competitive genes from his mom/dad and so it’s going to take a while for him to get that it’s not all about him.  But as soon as we filled him in on the fact that he got an assist to Bubbah who then scored the final goal, he was stoked.  This face was priceless at the time.  Overall, he did great and the only time he got frustrated was in the photo below and when he had to come out of the game so a teammate could go in.

I was so proud of all of the Sharks.  They did awesome in their first game. 

A few pictures from practice . . .

  

 

gggoooo Cougars!

Talk about an exciting season of COUGAR basketball. 

I’ve always enjoyed sports – especially when BYU is involved – but this year was pretty fabulous.

Fabulous, indeed.

For the sake of recording some history . . .

THE COUGARS:

• Won a school record 32 games (32-5)
• Took their first trip to the Sweet 16 in 30 years. [heartbreaking loss . . . to think they were soooo close to an Elite 8 spot]
• Spent numerous weeks ranked in the top 10 – peaking at No.3
• Won the MWC regular season championship in their final year in the league
• Matched their highest seed ever, No 3., in the NCAA tournament

And Jimmer . . . seriously?  He’s awesome.  He led the nation in scoring, averaging 28.9 points per game.  He turned in to a one-name rock star with his mad skills.  Fredette surpassed Danny Ainge as the school’s career scoring leader and played a part of more victories (112) than any other player in school history.  And we can’t forget about his 52 point game in the MWC Tournament or all of the awards he won recently ... including Player of the Year.  I read somewhere that in their last game against Florida, in Fredette’s final game as a Cougar, his scoring output matched his jersey number – 32 – and also equaled the number of victories BYU earned this season. 

It was a Jimmer season, for sure.  And it was fun to watch.

And it was also neat to watch a team recover so well from all of the Davies Drama. I have to admit that I got a little [well, okay  . . . a lot] fired up about Davies and his really selfish behavior.  I mean, really.  The rules may be strict but they are well-known.  I felt terrible for his teammates and coaches that he absolutely let down.  Luckily they still had an exciting end of the season . . . but I can’t help but think, what if?  But then again, like I said, maybe it made them stronger.

Nate always asks if BYU is playing.  He was pretty excited when Wes and I were glued to the screen watching the game.  I even taught him part of the BYU fight song . . . “goooooooo Cougars!” [hand motions and all].  He was loving it so much Wes started yelling . . “what time is it?”  And Nate would yell back with “Jimmer time”.   Nate loved it.