Just playing at Grandma's house!

The kids are having a great time exploring this old house. I made the big family room into a play room (thanks mom and dad, you'll LOVE it when you see it!:) but most of the time, you can find them exploring other rooms and running up and down the stairs. Ava LOVES to get dressed up in pretty dresses and the tutu I just made for her, BUT she also has no problem with digging in the dirt. Don't you love the dirty, sticky cheeks? She is very happy sitting outside and digging next to the rosebushes. She counts the handfuls of dirt she pulls out, but she skips about every other number. Mase is making new friends with the neighbor kids and they like riding their bikes together. However, his friend is five and has no training wheels and you can see the jealousy in Mase's eyes when the kid starts riding in circles around him. Soon, buddy. Ava just said "ou-side", so I guess we will be going to play. Just shorts and a T-shirt today... I learned my lesson about the dresses. :)

Road Trip Bliss

Our love of road trips goes back to way before we were married. Being in the car together just talking about life and the future has always been something meaningful for us... until now! (: Actually, we still like it, we just have to be more prepared now. This is Mase THOROUGHLY enjoying himself in the car on our trip to Taylor last weekend to see Ro's parents and grandma. I was unable to capture Ava's LOVE of the car because her outbursts forced me to scramble for a binky or a snack or a new Elmo movie. I believe she suffers from Post-traumatic stress disorder after taking the endless drive from Portland. Anytime we get in the car, she assumes we will be in it for 10 hours and starts to freak out. Sad, huh. We are trying to plan a trip to San Diego next week, and instead of taking these miserable car people with us, we will leave them to be happy and blissful at Aunt Tina's! (Right, I'm sure they'll be PERFECT!) I can't imagine getting through a whole 3 hour trip without having to listen to the Wiggles! I may need some suggestions of grown-up music to put on the ipod...

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

This park rocks!

I cannot believe little boring Yuma has THIS park! Renelle told me she wanted to go to this new(ish) park the other day and when I followed her over there, my jaw dropped. Honestly, with two little ones, I have been to more than my fair share of parks. Let's see- the pirate park, the duck park, the park with the train, the swimming pool park... BUT I have never seen one quite this cool. The cell phone photo does not do it justice, but it has everything from a HUGE castle with a mosaic dragon to rubbery drawbridges and refreshing misters. AND it has a special area with age-appropriate structures for ages 3 and under. The kids could play here forever! I think the best part was that it was built by the community. Everybody pitched in and came to paint a little section or purchased a brick with their family's name on it. I feel all sentimental and proud that my home town could create something so amazing! Someday I will post pictures of the kids playing here, but they couldn't wait for me to take a picture before they ran in to check it out.