My Favorite Trip

A few weekends ago I flew to Utah by myself to visit my mom and dad. It might have been my favorite trip ever. In fact, if you've asked me about my trip I may have teared up a bit talking about it after the fact since it was seriously that awesome and memorable. 

I love my mom and dad!

It was so cool to just hang out with them by myself for a weekend. I think I've only maybe done that once before... when I helped them move into their Utah house almost 7 years ago?

When I arrived I was greeted with a basket of goodies made by my mom... including two sugar cookies that were amazing and were inhaled immediately.

We went out to dinner just the three of us at Macaroni Grill and had fun chatting and then we went and grabbed a few important items that my parents needed at Target.

Note what the "important items" were. Funniest Target trip ever.

Then we stayed up late chatting.

On Saturday I slept in until 9am, went running with my mom, and then met the Caffees up at the new outlets in Thanksgiving Point (Traverse Mountain). We ate lunch at Johnny Rockets all together and then bopped around at the stores. I found several cute things that I liked and bought which is really rare for me, so it was a successful day!

I loved getting to hang out with cute Maddie, Olivia, and baby Lauren too!

On Saturday night Elise came back down to Provo and mom, dad, Elise and I went out to The Chocolate for dessert. We gorged ourselves on chocolate cake while chatting for almost 2 hours. It was so fun!

Sunday morning I slept in until 9am again and then drove up to Salt Lake to go to church with the Caffees. I got to be Elise's stand in while she got to speak in sacrament mtg. People kept getting confused and thinking I was her... which is always funny.

After Elise's talked I zipped back down to Provo to meet up with my mom and dad and go to church with them. The meeting was super special since both my mom and dad were speaking. My dad was released as Bishop after 6 years of serving and it was really neat to listen to them and others talk about the blessings that have come as my dad has sacrificed his time over the past several years to his calling.

After church a super nice family in the ward hosted a ward linger longer to say thank you to my dad and welcome the new Bishop too. It almost started pouring but then the rain decided to hold off. Yay!

I had fun hanging out with the Caffees at the party and chatting with a few people from my parent's ward.

What a power couple. Watching these two in action at the party just reminded me that although I know my mom likes to chat, my dad can hold his own too. I think I inherited both of their chatting talents... and it appears Andrew has too (as evidenced by him getting to use a barrier in kindergarten so he can concentrate when he is working).

On Sunday evening while my parents were still partying with friends, I jetted up to meet the newest member of the Tadje family. He was less than a week old! It was so fun to chat with Cindy and catch up! Now if only she'd move back to CA and be my running buddy again...

On Monday morning I woke up at 7:30am so I could go running with my mom before she headed to work. The weather was gorgeous, though cold! I spent the rest of the morning packing and relaxing and napping and then got to go to Cafe Rio for lunch with my dad. Having my dad all to myself to chat and hang out is awesome! What a treat! 

I flew home early Monday afternoon. I slept the whole flight. It was great. 

The kiddos were so excited to see me when I got home. I sure missed them and Kevin but I sure enjoyed my weekend break from being a mom too! 

Around the Bay- Saturday Family Adventures

My favorite way to measure the success of a day is how dirty the kids are by the end of it. If they are too clean, it means we didn't have enough fun!

Ryan was our fun family day mascot on Saturday! He went through three outfits by the end of the day. His red slurpee stains are still on his face and stomach... no matter how I scrub at them. Such a fun day!

Kevin & Andrew started off the weekend with the Father's and Sons Campout that Kevin helped organize. Then they hurried home so Andrew could change into baseball clothes and we were off for little league!!

The game was stellar and Andrew got the game ball at the end of it. He was STOKED! He even made a special stand for it out of Legos.

After the game we zipped down to Palo Alto to meet up with a few of our favorite people visiting from So Cal- The Hayes family!! We had too much fun chatting, eating, and running around after little people, so we sadly never managed to snap a photo! It is so fun to see out littles hanging out together. Ryan and Graham loved seeing who could be the craziest swinger and screecher! It was adorable!

After our PA lunch we grabbed quick slurpees (and took a diet coke pitstop for me) and then we headed up for a gorgeous adventure in San Francisco!!

The kiddos napped on the way up... and for a little while longer once we got to Golden Gate Park, so everyone felt very well rested for park adventures!!

We ran around at the park for almost two hours, rode the carousel, and then headed out once things started closing down for the night.

We grabbed dinner at the Wharf and then made our usual stop at Ghirardelli for treats. Yum Yum!

We ended the night with a fun but quick reunion with the Bond family! Can't believe it had been almost 2 years since we'd last seen each other! So fun for the kiddos to get to meet and Andrew & Catie can't wait to hang out again hopefully this summer.

The best part about leaving SF after 8pm is that it took us less than 40 minutes to get home. The kids crashed immediately once we got there and so did we! Busy Saturdays sure are fun AND exhausting!

Ryan at 18 Months

Little buddy turned 18 months old last Sunday on April 27th!

The last 18 months having him in our family has been positively delightful! He is such a sweet, kind, and loving little guy.

He had his 18 month appointment today and is about 33.5 inches tall (85% or so), 26 lbs (75%) and has a growing head (95%)!

He just loved smiling at the doctor and nurse and we easy peasy when it came to getting checked out! He obviously hated the shots, but loved the prize he got to pick... and then when Catie stole his prize, he loved the Frozen sticker she gave him instead. He is such an easy to please kid!

Some things about Ryan right now... 

• He is growing through his clothes faster than I can get new clothes out of storage. He wears 18 months to 2T outfits that he inherited from Andrew.
• He loves balls, cars, trains, climbing, birds, dogs, and anything his big siblings like... especially destroying Andrew's lego creations or stealing Catie's favorite doggies.
• He LOVES to eat! If the big kids leave food behind, he steals it. 
• He wears size 5 diapers... or whatever type we can find :)
• He is awesome with a spoon and a fork. Catie still loves to use her hands and has a harder time with utensils, so it is funny to have such a demanding little guy who gets grumpy if I don't give him a fork like everyone else!
• He sleeps from 7-7 or 7:30-7 or so every day and rarely wakes up in the night. His sound machine is awesome.
• He has a gazillion teeth and we are hopeful he is taking a break from getting any more since that period was painful!!
• He says loads of words... but his favorites are "MAMI" (mama), dada, Baboo (Andrew), Catie (he says very clearly!), NO, more, dink (drink), doggy, guun guun (bird), car, and babals (bubbles)!

Ryan also loves treats and that might probably be his favorite word ever. I thought Catie was good at catching me sneaking treats... but Ryan is even better. He follows me around saying "treat, treat." He is a totally chocoholic like his mama too... so he sure loved his chocolate bunny on Easter!

Little dude also has one speed.... running!! He is a mover just like his siblings and his favorite direction to go is anywhere AWAY from me!

We sure love this little guy and are really enjoying watching him little personality develop as he grows. He is definitely not one to take things lying down, will defend himself if someone takes his stuff, but he is also super huggable and kind to his siblings... unless their hair gets too close by and he decides to give it a little pull!

Love this kid!