Fall Break- Wednesday /Thursday

With a bit of discussion with Grandpa, we decided to go spend the rest of the afternoon with Aunt Titi in Salt Lake so that we could spend some time with Dallas' family. We were going to spend time with them anyway, but not until later Thursday. But what is one day with Aunt Titi.

Aunt Nicky didn't get much alone time and she is pretty cool, so we went up and met her at Toys R Us. We had promised Tyler a movie and he did SO so Good at being disappointed. So we ended up spending way to much money at the stupid toy store. But all in good spirits. 

We hung out, got pizza and I finished my school test! We got the boys set up and they slept on the same bed and they loved it. Oreo also decided that he was going to protect my kids and hung out on their heads. There was zero complaints from them. 

Early Thursday we took Nicky to work and dropped off her car to get a fix and spend the morning with our Aunt Sheena. WE LOVE AUNT SHEENA!! 

Not sure if we have mentioned just how much we LOVE Aunt Sheena, but we do. I love her! I loved having her live with me. I love her just like a sister. I also LOVE her baby. And I love we get to have another one soon. 

We decided to met up at Gardner village and check out the Witches. We didn't have a ton of time and we weren't sure what was there, but we did see a lot of cool witches and did a few events. 

Our favorite Witch was the pooping witch! It was in the outhouse and we LOVED it and we all giggled. Because Ty can't see we went into the exhibits. We didn't ask and we didn't get in trouble either . 

And the best part, dancing with the witches. Ty loved it. And we let him go at it. 

Grayson is the best at following and enjoying the stuff that his brother does. Our Cousin Emery was dancing with us and we LOVED it. It was so much fun. 

After Gardner Village we headed to my Best Friend Stephanie's. We opted to play at a park. We played at the park for 3 hours. Yes, three whole hours of them playing. it was amazing. I miss her so much that I was so thankful to talk to someone who I totally just get, that I just wanted to be with her. WE watched the kids go nuts at the park and  we had them -playing till their heart was content.

We ran up to get Nicky because we had dropped her off. Then we went ahead and took her home and head with our Grandma to a hotel with them.

Grandma got us checked into a great hotel, after a dashing and fab dinner at Chick fil A :)

Getting in a hotel, was like heavenly. two beds. Me in my own. Grandma just to hang with. We loved it.

We got our plans for the next  day. Friday was going to be spent visiting out papa in the hospital in hopes he gets to go home and then an afternoon with all of our cousins again!!


It was a good day. We enjoyed our trip to this far!!

Fall Break- Monday

Monday the kids had to go back to school. We were so sad. But we knew we wanted to play a bit. So we had one activity planned a day for while we were there. We got up and Grayson wasn't feeling so well. And he spent his morning throwing up. I was so frustrated. He has not been doing awesome the last little bit and his energy once we got to Utah really dropped. ( After we got home, the hematologist was a bit worried and he said that it was because of the elevation. So it wasn't a surprise)

We got him feeling better and we went to the park, where we happened to run into the Fire Marshall for the town. So he took us over to the fire house. Where Grayson was in fire man heaven. He was so excited. I was just hoping no one else would puke!!

I knew the fireman that belonged in the coat above and he was the smallest one of the group, so I put it on my kiddo. He was so in love. He loved it. 

We were sitting on the inside of the blue fire truck and we were trying to honk the horn. The fire marshall said you have to pull hard, so I pulled hard..... and broke the fire truck. It was awesome. I think I was Grayson hero that day. 

After we saw the fire trucks it was almost time for the kids to come home. So we went to grandpa's and hung out till the boys got there to play. My kids chased the naughty cat named Beckham, They loved it. 

Day 2: Sunday

Sunday morning brought on bouts of laughter and loving on Nicky's dog, Oreo. The kids ( Kayden, Koy and Lexi) were with their mom until later, and Nicky was still there to play with us. We took full advantage and after conference session we went to the local park at my moms.

My parents live in Small Town USA. I grew up there. My mom grew up there. Her dad Grew up there ( kinda) and it is LITTLE!! The local park, however, is KILLER. Nicky and my mom and I went down after the boys left on the side by four wheeler. The boys loved it.

At the park we played with Nicky's dog and had him chase the ball and since he can't drop it, Grayson and Tyler would run circles around him trying to get it out of his mouth. We were all laughing so hard.

During the second set of Conference, the boys played outside, non stop. Grayson also realized that my moms neighbor has a cat that is really fluffy. He also likes to be petted. But doesn't like to come with called. We also thought that there was a possessed cat. Turns out that Cat was Grandpa's and he loves Grayson.

Later that night, my dad went to pick up the kids and my sister left. My kiddo's took off outside to play with the cats. I went out to check on them and do my homework and they were missing. I got in my dad four wheeler and went looking. Sure enough, the boys were lost. They were right in the middle of a HUGE field full of piles of dirt. They were almost to the river. Luckily they were stuck.  They were crying and screaming to help! I saved the day by climbing over the piles and saving my kiddos.

The boys said they were looking for the cats and then they couldn't find the right place that was our house. In other words, a blind kid and a 3 year old can't find their grandparents house, that they don't visit very often. Thank goodness the town is little. And thank goodness they didn't get to the river.

The rest of the night was spent with Kayden and Koy and especially Lexi. I love them so so much!

Fall Break- Day one!

Arizona has some strange school schedules. However, we love the breaks. We get a shorter summer and longer breaks. Fall break is about a week and a half, Spring break is 2 weeks and Christmas is 2.5 weeks. Sometimes that is good, sometimes... well not!

Originally we had plans to go to Utah so that we could have some work done on Tyler's legs. But Shriner's and our schedules got all messy really fast. So we have plans to do it again in a few months. We were a bit bummed and frankly I was so frustrated. It is so hard to be stuck in one place. We haven't been anywhere in almost 2 years ( for fun, not for surgeries) and I was struggling with needing a break. I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and TRY to drive the 12 hours on our own.

The "break" for myself never seemed to happen. I never got a chance to be alone in the entire week, but I didn't cry either. I always cry!! When I talk to D on the phone while we are gone, by day 2 or 3 I am in tears wishing we had never left. But I survived until the trip home, right around Page, before losing it!

The boys had a ton of fun and I tried to make sure they got to do things, but not get to overwhelmed. It was a pretty positive trip. On the  HUGE, fun ,plus side, we saw all of our cousins and the boys played till our heart was content.

Day one: Driving-

We left around 3:00 am. I have never driven so I was a bit nervous going. D and I had hoped that the earlier I left the more the boys would sleep, and well, that didn't happen.  They were awake the entire time to our first stop. We stopped for Breakfast in Flagstaff. Getting out when your temperature says 33 degrees is the BIGGEST shock to your system. Add that to a little boy that is Severely anemic and the fact that we left the Valley at 3 am and it was STILL 65 degrees. Needless to say we were a bit chilly.

About Page the boys fell asleep so I pushed to get to Kanab before they woke up. I was SO thankful to get to Kanab. I had researched every single town on our way and had the city parks of every single town so we could stop. It was the first time in my entire life that I was thankful that we have food issues and that I didn't have to stop to take little bladders to the bathroom. The park was heavenly and we were able to push out lunch till we found a McDonald's with a play place. ( In case McDonald's reads my blog, I wish they would make more places with amazing play places.... but nope. You sucked!)

* SIDE NOTE: *While at the park, the boys were met with 2 other little boys who lived there in Kanab. Tyler tried really hard to get them to play with him, but they were SOOO mean. I was so frustrated but needed the time to stretch out. But the grandpa was raising the boys and he had a dog. Oh boy did the boys LOVE that dog. It was a bitter sweet thing to watch. I was thankful when the grandpa stepped in with the mean kids so I didn't have to.

We pushed to Richfield where I KNEW there was a McDonald's with a killer play place ( thank you All Star Basketball teams) and we were able to stay there for an HOUR. Yes folks, I stayed at a McDonald's for ONE HOUR!! I knew what the last stretch held and I just hoped we made it with no more tears.

From Richfield to Orangeville was about 2 hours. Grayson decided he was all done and took off his seat belt more times than I could count. Finally I stopped pulling over and just let it go. Letting him go meant that I had a SEVERE anxiety issue but getting into the good old EC ( what us cool folks call Emery County and what we call it to make it sound WAY cooler than it REALLY is) and realized there were NO cars on the road and we were going to be OK. ( Longest part of the trip was the last 20 minutes. I could have fallen asleep then!!)

We pulled into my parents drive way in just enough time to hug and kiss on grandpa before he had to head to Priesthood conference. Aunt Nicky came down to see the kids and brought her dog, Oreo, aka our "cousin" so that they boys could play and she could kiss on a few faces. We were sad to miss my sisters kids but they would come the next afternoon.

I was so thankful to not be in a car any more. Had a great chat with my mom and was SOOOO thankful to go to bed.

Fall Break- College edition

Mom is on college fall break for one more day. Kids finally go back. We are home and enjoying our weather. We are finally on the cool down. Lots of things have happened and I have tons to blog about. Looks like MOST of October need to be chronologically taken care of.