Before you start this you might want to grab a snack or something, you may be here awhile. =)
We went on our little vacationthis past week. Every third week in April, Laughlin, NV, where Jason grew up, hosts a Motorcycle run, mainly Harley Davidsons but there is a well representation of other brands. I even say a few bullet bikes, but to me, bullet bikes don't quite fit in with Harleys, Boss Hoss, Indians, Victorys, and other big street bikes. WE spent a few days with Jason's parent's in Mesquite, then traveled to Laughlin/Bullhead to stay with my mom, and then back to Mesquite for a night and then we stayed at our friends's, Alan and Kanani's. It was a nice vacation to get away and be able to spend time with family and have the kids get some good quality time with their grandparents and with Nana.
How'd you like to wake up and see this?
We were driving to ST. George and I took a little nap and Jason woke me up and told me to look at this. What an awesome truck!! It even had claws on the side.
How do you keep 2 kids busy for hours? Give them a pile of rocks. We were at Jason's grandparent's house and the kids found some fun toys. They were doing some rockscaping in their backyard and Brenna and Ian decided to help them out a bit =) They had tons of fun picking up the rocks and moving them from pile to pile, jumping from pile to pile, and messing up the carefully scultpured path his grandparents had. I guess their yard isn't Brenna and Ian-proof.
Jason's parents took us to the aquatic center in St. George. It was pretty nice. It was all indoors and had a fun kid area. There was water squirting everywhere and every so often a huge bucket at the top dumped water on you. The first time I went upwith Ian, I didn't expect it to drop. I was standing right underneath the platform and all of a sudden tons of water gets poured on top of me. I guess that's one way to get used to the water in a hurry. Brenna had lots of fun swimming around with everyone and "rescuing" us, since we were all sea animals in trouble. According to her, I was a humpback whale. Nice, huh? Why I couldn't I be a jellyfish, a clown fish, or something small and cool? But no, my daughter makes me be a humback whale.
We had pancakes or waffles every morning (maybe that's why my pants were tighter when I got home) and Brenna loves to help her Grandpa Richard cook. She also got to help make a birthday cake for her Aunt Kelsey. She's my little chef!
Brenna loves to play games with Grandma Peggy. They lay dominoes, memory, go fish, and all sorts of stuff.
We headed out and stopped to fill up on gas on our way to Laughlin. I snapped this picture of Jason while I was waiting for him to fill up. Doesn't it look like he's peeing in the bushes?
Here are some of the bikes. I forgot the camera the second day we went out so I didn't get very many. I'm sure Jason will have some loaded on his facbook page soon from his friend Alan.
I love the yellow suped up lawnmower. That's how to mow a lawn....or using it for those small town lawnmower races.
The silver and blue one was really sparkly and pretty. Not to mention it had a huge engine. I think this was one of the Hoss bikes that has a V8 engine. That's bigger than my car! (and costs about 3 times as much too!!)
Brenna got this cute little hat for free!!! I was looking at the hats at one of the booths at the Harley Run and I told Brenna the hat was cute but I didn't have any money to get it (jason was off at another booth). The guy who owned the booth came up, took the tags off and gave it to Brenna. He told me it's to keep the sun off her. What a sweet guy!!!! I had a few people offer sunscreen and what.not to us for her. I think because she is so fair that people think she'll get burned. She is lucky and doesn't burn that easily. The whole time we were walking around she didn't have suncreen and didn't get burned. Lucky girl!!!
Ian quickly warmed up to Nana, after she bribed him with fruit snacks and teats. He loved going outside with Nana. If she went close to the door and didn't take him, he was running after her yelling "Nana, Nana." They loved going outside and making some beautiful sidewalk chalk artwork in her driveway and sidewalk.
Of course, every time we go to my mom's, she puts up the pool and the kids play in it. They had a blast. The water was kinds cold but they still had fun. I an was so cold his lips were blue and he was shivering but he got so mad when we took him out.
Ian's already trying to ride a motorcycle. He loves to sit on Daddy's motorcycle and while we were at Nana's, he got to try hers out.
Nana loves her baby girl!!
Since we had to get rid of our dog Ian has been missing him. He was so excited to see Nana's dog, Harley (yes it's the same name as our dog had). He is such a good dog and let Ian do pretty much whatever he wanted. Ian quickly learned the trick of feeding his food to the dog....I think that's why they were such good friends. It was a win-win situation. Ian loved cuddling Harley and giving him hugs and kisses. Everytime we got back to my mom's house from going somewhere, the first thing Ian would say is "dog-dog" andn go running up to Harley.
Whenever we visit Jason's parent's, Grandma always has books to read to the kids. She works for theMesquite Library so she has the hook-up with good books =). The kids love to sit in her lap, especially outside on the swing, and read a book, or 2, or 3.
Ian is conentrating so hard on putting Mr. Potato Head together. He would get so excited when he would stick something in and it would stay. It was usually the arm where the lips go, but that's what's great about Mr. Potato Head, anything goes!!
Tiem for prayers! Ian does such a good job when we say prayers. Soemtimes he'll spout of a little gibberish, look up smile and clap his hands and say "yay".
These are about the only pictures of me (scary as they are, of me in a swimsuit nonetheless). We went swimming at the swimming pool in Jason's parent's complex. It was anice warm day and felt good to relax in the sun. The kids had lots of fun playing in the water too.
Brenna is doing so good now swimming around with just arm floaties!! Hopefully we can get her in swim lessons or something summer.
When we went to visit some of our friends in St. George, we went to the park. They had a splash pad there and the kids had so much fun!!! Ian loves to have water falling on him so he was in heaven!!! Too bad it was later and not earlier in the day or they would have been there all day.
This is Ian and Kona. Kanani and me were due on the same day with these two. They were born about 2 weeks apart. THey love to play together. Ian is always helping Kona with his binky. This is a picture of him putting it back in Kona's mouth. Ian never wanted anything to do with a binky but he's there to help out a friend.
Finally!!! Me and Kanani have a picture together! Too bad it's where we're squinting into the sun and I'm holding the camera myself, but it's a picture together nonetheless. Our husbands served part of their missions together so once they found out they were both living in Logan, before we got married, we got together with them and hit it off. Their little boy Tyson is just a month younger than Brenna, and their little boy Jamison is just a year older but they all play together so well (most the time). It has been nice having friends with kids the same age, but then they had to go and move to St. George. The nerve of some people to move away!!!! Hopefully in the next few years we'll be heading down south to live so we'll live close by again.
Such a sweet tender moment!!! Ian loves his daddy!!! He is such a daddy's boy and by about the time that daddy should be home from work Ian is standing by the stairs saying "dad-dad."
So there's our vacation in a nutshell...I have tons of other cute pictures, but I can't load them all on here, you'll jsut have to come visit me and see them in the scrapbook (as soon as I can get it all done, I think I still have pictures from last summer to scrapbook)