Choo-Choo

The highlight of this week was going to the train museum.

We went with our friends Carrie, Will, and Abby. It was a really cool little place. It is an old roundhouse and there are all sorts of trains that you can check out and a few you can climb in and check out the inside.

The kids had a blast running around and checking everything out, especially Casen! He LOVES trains so needless to say for the 2 hours we were there all I heard from him was Choo-Choo, Choo-Choo! He was excited. In the same parking lot there is a trolley musuem so I'm thinking next time we'll go check that out. I guess Scranton is famous because they were the first city to have electric trolleys (hince the name the electric city). Thats about all I know and thats thanks to a website. I guess I'll have to go check it out to learn more. I'm also considering doing a post just about Scranton since so many of our friends and family back home only know what they've seen on the office and sorry to say, thats not Scranton, they film that in California. Anyways, we're all settled in for a nice weekend enjoying conference. The kids and I made one quick trip this morning to go see the Easter Bunny at Walmart.

Casen wasn't totally sure it was a good idea but he didn't scream so thats good and Rilyn is as beautiful as ever.

Sick again!

Well sickness has pretty much been the theme of our year so far! Poor Casen is sick again! Luckily his chest X-ray came back clear so it's not pneumonia, thank goodness. Poor guy hated being held down foe the X-ray. I felt so bad for him. Luckily it went fast but it's always so hard to hear your kid upset and know that there is nothing that you can do about it. We've been pretty much stuck at home all week so there's nothing new, exciting, or fun to share from our part of the world. Except that Thursday night I pretended to be a teenager again and went to the midnight premier of The Hunger Games! It was fun, until the next morning when Casen woke up at 5:30 and I had to spend the rest of the day on the couch trying not to fall asleep. Totally worth it though!

Happy Birthday Cody

Cody had his birthday on Friday. The kids and I decided to have some fun and gave him an Angry Birds birthday. It was a lot of fun. We worked really hard on his cake (an ice cream cake, no less) and on his present, a life size Angry Birds game.

It was a lot of fun to do that for him. Rilyn loved trying to keep the surprise, even if she may have told her dad where to look to figure it out for himself. Little stinker! Oh well. We love you Cody/Daddy. You're the best. We're so lucky to have you as a part of our family and we love what a hard worker you are for our family. Happy birthday!! We love you!

Our Month In AZ

We were lucky enough to spend 4 whole weeks in Arizona with our families in February/March while Cody did a rotation. Aside from Cody having to work 11 hour days we were able to get in some much needed family time. It reminded me why I miss living by family and made me excited to be moving back at the end of the year even if it is for only a few months. We flew out to AZ on February 11th and because I remembered the last time I few through Chicago (thats where you get to layover if you fly out of Scranton) I remember dragging crying kids and luggage and I didn't want a repeat of that plus a grouchy hubby (he doesn't really like traveling - sorry hunny, its true) and the dog (on the way home not on the way there. She had been spending the winter in AZ with my parents) anyways, I gave us a longer layover so we would have time to eat and let the kids burn off energy. Ok so maybe 3 hours was a bit excessive but the kids really liked playing on the pretend airplane and stuff they have set up there.

 We made it to AZ pretty early thanks to leaving Scranton at 6am (again, not my best decision making) and Cody had In and Out burger for lunch. Don't ask me why but he loves that place. The kids reacquainted themselves with their toys and some new ones, Rilyn got a new bike and Casen got a new quad, can you say SPOILED!!

But the first week on our trip we spent it inside battling every type of disease known to man kind. My mom had an ear infection and a sinus infection and bronchitis, Rilyn had pneumonia, and Casen had strep.

Oh yeah it was fun. We were able to frost cookies for Valentine's day but I don't think anyone ate them.

We also managed a little trip to the park to ride bikes (Rilyn and Grandma) and run (me and Casen).

We swung by the zoo for a quick trip too.

My kids love the zoo and I think we ended up going 3 or 4 times. I really wish Scranton had a zoo. The first full weekend we were in AZ I ran a half marathon and Rilyn and Grandma ran the 2 mile fun run.

It was a lot of fun and I PRed so it ended up being a pretty good day. While we were in AZ my parents house was on the market and we would randomly get kicked out while people were coming to look at the house. One of those times the kids and I went to Tempe Market Place to walk around.

The kids loved the fountains. They also loved the trip to the candy store but who can blame them! Another time we tried to go to Tempe Town Lake so I could run but Casen exploded some time on the trip there and we ended up spending 20 minutes in the parking lot wiping poo off of everything and then getting in the car and going home because I don't carry extra clothes for my almost 2 year old! (Just FYI - this was one of the wonderful side effects of the meds he was on for Strep)

We made another trip to the zoo just the 3 of us

and rode bikes at the park with Grandma

and planted flowers in Grandma's garden

and ate lunch and watched the golfers at Grandma and Grandpa's new house.

We hiked the Papagos,

we had a cookout at Usery,

Case and I spent an afternoon at Bass Pro

while Rilyn and Grandma got pedicures,

we went to Organ Stop Pizza,

we went to Titans birthday lunch at McDonalds (where Casen beat up some kid we don't know - awesome),

we checked out the new temple - its going to be amazing and we decided that when we move back it'll be somewhere over there,

we went to Sirrines and checked out the trains,

we went to Titans birthday party,

we made tents with Grandpa,

we went to the zoo again,

we went to the train park with Grandma,

we had a surprise family birthday party at Cafe Rio,

we spend the day with Nana Rusty,

we had a Dance Central party at Mistys house.

We LOVED spending time cousins!

It was so fun watching the kids actually play and get along with their cousins. Rilyn has Tatum and Preslie that are close to her in age and Casen has Titan. Having them get to play with their cousins really showed me it is time to think about getting our behinds back to AZ as fast as possible!! (Grandmas and Grandpas my kids miss you guys lots too). Oh and some fun things Rilyn did in AZ. She went to preschool 3 days a week so that she would stick with the routine of school. She had a blast! She also decided during the last week we were in AZ that she wanted short hair. We tried to talk her out of it for a couple of days but eventually we let Aunt Stacey hook her up.

She looks so dang cute!