Moab!

We sent daddy to Arizona to watch some spring training baseball games with some friends.  While he was gone, we went to visit grandma, grandpa, Kassi, Greg, Colton, and Uncle Ty in Moab.  We got there on Sunday and took the boys to the park.  They had so much fun playing together.  Colton wanted to have a stick race in the creek, but when his sticks didn't come out the other side he went under the bridge and found a dam.  Which turned into throwing rocks into the creek.  All three boys thought it was the best thing ever.  They seriously threw the rocks for an hour.  It was so fun.

Mackay spent most of his time searching for big rocks, while Nolan was perfectly content to throw anything he found.  They laughed and laughed every time a rock splashed.

 

After the park we went back to grandma's for a bit for some quiet time (skipping naps) and have dinner before heading up to the rodeo arena to ride Colton's horse.  All three boys had so much fun throwing dirt into a garbage can.  When Greg was ready to take them for a ride they weren't happy about it.  They loved getting up by the horse and petting him, but they definitely didn't want to ride him.  They ran all over the arena, which was impressive because the place is huge and the ground is not solid, at all.  Mackay was covered in dirt, and had dirt in his mouth and kept trying to lick his hand to get the dirt out... it was a huge mess.  His arm was covered in saliva-y mud, and he couldn't figure it out.  It was pretty funny.  (Mama didn't take any pictures because it was dark and they didn't end up riding the horse).

The next day we just hung out with grandpa.  It was good for the boys to get some time in with him.  They found out where grandpa keeps the treats and kept dragging him in the kitchen for more.  They loved hanging out with him.

Before we left Tuesday afternoon, we had to get some photos of all three boys wearing their minion shirts.... Aunt Kassi had bubbles so we played with bubbles for a bit.  We called Uncle Ty out to help us blow bubbles so mommy could get some pictures of the boys playing.

Colton really liked helping his cousins.

 Mackay couldn't figure out that he was supposed to put his mouth on the bubble wand.

Nolan's pucker lips for blowing... 

I think Colton is winning...

The boys are always so sad when we have to leave.  We don't get to see this side of the family much and we always have so much fun.  

The boys really missed their daddy, and it was especially hard when we got home and he wasn't here.  They were definitely ready for him to come home the next morning.

We had a great couple days and daddy had lots of fun in Arizona and made some new friends.  The boys were SO happy to see daddy when we picked him up from the airport.

Papa

We had a friend draw the boys with their grandpa.  It's a reminder for all of us that he is still with them and that he loves them.  It's just something we wanted them to have.  We try to keep him a part of their lives, we want them to know how much he loves them and that he wanted to be here with them and that one day, they will get to see him again.  It's just something that warms our hearts and another reminder that he is watching out for them.  We've had some very special experiences that let us know he is here, he is definitely doing what grandpas do.

Thank you to Anna Peterson for doing this for us.

SPRING!

We are so excited about the impending arrival of spring... it was a little tricky last year and has been this year already, but we're hoping for the weather to stay warm and not snow anymore.  We've been walking most days, we go with some of our friends in the neighborhood in the mornings and then again in the afternoon when daddy gets home.  We are outside as much as possible.  All of our friends were busy Friday morning so mommy walked with us.  We followed the garbage truck and watched him pick up the recycling, we can never catch the garbage man they come so early in our neighborhood and we never hear the recycling truck until it's too late, so we were super excited to catch him.  Then we went and watched the tractors, just tore down the middle school and are building a new one, it's our favorite, and then we walked to the park.  We have three parks within walking distance, the Canyon's School District Bus Barn and the fire station are right by our house, there is also a police station not too far away, so we see lots of awesome vehicles in our neighborhood, especially when we go for walks.

 

 (Sometimes mom puts things on her head to get us to look... Mackay thought he was funny to put a fruit snack on his head.)

Please warm weather, don't leave us!

Visiting Papa

We normally visit papa Kent's grave each year on the anniversary of his passing.  This year Lindsay and her family were here a few weeks earlier, so we went while they were here so that we could all go together.  All of the grandkids released a balloon to float up to papa.

 Giving them kisses to bring up to papa and letting them go. 

Nolan let his balloon go, and immediately regretted the decision.

He went back and forth between being sad and reaching for it and being interested in it floating away.

Mackay enjoyed watching the balloons float away.

As sad as Nolan was to watch his balloon float away, he was a pretty good sport.  He kind of figured it out the next day when daddy was holding him.  Out of the blue he looked over and said "Papa!  Bye bye Papa.  Bye bye balloon Papa!"  As if it just finally made sense (sort of) in his little two year old mind, why we let those balloons go.

It's always a sad day.  It's hard for us to think that mama and the boys will not meet him on this earth.  It breaks mom's heart every time she thinks about it.  We miss him dearly.  He was a great man and will always be a man we want our children to strive to be like.  He raised a great man to be the head of our home and taught him the things he needs to know to raise more great men.  We are grateful for his continued influence in our lives and know that he is always near.  He's been there for us and touched our lives in ways we can not fully understand, but we definitely know he's looking out for these little grandbabies.  We look forward to the day when we will see him again.