Last week we all headed home to Mom & Dad's for a fabulous week all together (mostly - Kailee was in school and Calvin could only come for one day). But, let's face it, I just wanted to see Abel and Ella anyway. :) Just kidding - I was super excited to see Katie & Jonathan and Brian & Katie too. Oh yeah, and Mom & Dad. Jonathan's brother got married up in ND, and they decided to make a week's vacation out of it. Since both Katie's are due in December, this was our Thanksgiving/Christmas time get together. And we really had such a fun week. The kids all did super, everyone got along fabulously, and we did a whole bunch of fun stuff. WARNING - picture overload ahead. I alone took 857 pictures. And I'm sure Brian and Katie took just as many; probably more. I tried to be choosy, but when your kids are as cute as ours are, how do you choose?!
Abel LOVES the mixer. He would walk in to the kitchen just to point at the Kitchen Aid. So when he got to help, he was thrilled!
This rocking chair was quite a hit - both Abel and Ella loved climbing in, getting off. Climbing in, getting off.
We had beautiful weather all week long and the kids got to spend a lot of time outside hanging out.
Abel also loves playing the piano! We got to hear lots of beautiful music. (Jocelyn didn't think it was so beautiful - she told me, "I don't think Abel's playing is beautiful. But I won't tell him that because it would hurt his feelings." Good to know that some life lessons are starting to sink in!)
Yes, he's always smiling. Seriously.
And this little one is pretty smiley too!
Watching "Handy Manny" - he doesn't watch TV at home, so this was a special treat!
We did finger painting like we did when Sadie was here. Boy is that a fun project. Everyone loved it and got really messy!
That silly Grandpa - he always comes up with such fun stuff to do!
All bathed and clean!
I think each kid ate their weight in raspberries over the week too. Good thing they're healthy!
Tuesday we went to the Children's Museum. Tuesday is no group day - no schools, day cares, etc. So it was great! Hardly any kids, and they got to do lots of fun things. I don't think I'd ever been there before, but we'll definitely go back. We didn't get to half of the stuff there was to do.
Their special exhibit was Curiuos George. We got to hear a story about him and then he came to visit!
She wasn't quite sure - she was hanging on for dear life.
Ella kept shaking her head no.
Jocelyn went to the Museum with Mom & Dad one time when she spent the weekend with them. She was so hoping that they'd have face painting again - it was her favorite thing to do. Thank goodness, they did! And it was again her favorite thing to do. We had a major tantrum when it was time to leave.
We saw him again later in the day - she was much better the second time around.
Driving the bus - when we asked if we were going to Apple Valley, she said, "No. That's too far away." When we asked if we were going to North Dakota, she said, "No. That's too far away. We're going to Afghanistan!" Yes, because that's much closer.
Those wimpy people from California....
Jocelyn was very excited to take baths with Ella and Abel. Sadly, Abel wasn't a fan of sharing his bath with the girls. We had an all out screaming and crying episode after finger painting - it wasn't pretty. Sorry, no pictures of that. :)
But by the last day, we discovered that if we put him in first, it was okay that she joined him.
Wednesday we went to the park for a bit - they have a really cool wooden park by Mom and Dad's that's never crowded and good for all ages. And it was a great place to get some really cute pictures!
Abel's birthday is in October, so we had a little party for him. He really likes firetrucks, so we decided to make a fire truck cake! Mom always made us the shape cakes when we were little, but we couldn't find a fire truck one. Pinterest to the rescue - we found a video on how to make this cake! Didn't it turn out cute?!
Jocelyn got to open one of her birthday presents early so she could still use it this fall. She loves it, and can't wait until it rains so she can wear it outside!
Thursday we went to the zoo.
Running with the wolverine back and forth, back and forth.
We go to the zoo quite a bit, but there's always something new, or cool animals to watch. They have a new black bear exhibit, and they were so active! They played for a long time, and then came right up to the glass and were running around there for a while.
We also got to see training time with the grizzlys! That was the hilight of my zoo trip! I didn't realize they trained the bears, but they do it mostly so they can examine them, give them vaccinations without them freaking out, clip their nails, etc. They apparently are very smart animals, and I was impressed with all the cool stuff they did!
Friday we went to the apple orchard. Katie Hobbs' favorite season is fall, and they don't really have fall out in CA. So she was super excited to go picking. The orchard we went to was super cute, had lots of great spots for pictures, and yummy apples! After I'm done blogging, I need to go get started on making something out of all the apples we came back with!
This wagon was great - the kids had a blast riding on it.
Ella loved the apples. Her and Abel both. I think they both had an apple in their hand the whole time we were there!
This was so funny - Katie told her to pick the apple, but she couldn't get it, so she just started eating it right there!
Just chillin'
And the crisp making begins....
And the two lovely ladies with their cutie bellies!
1 comment:
Wow, such awesome pictures! What a wonderful time - so great that you could spend a whole week together!
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