We sure love getting to see our family

Moving from Cali was a little tough on our little girl. Randomly she will talk about how much she misses her buddies from the WC. But one thing that always seemed to cheer her up was when we would mention that her cousin Maddie would be coming to Utah in July. And boy, Maddie did not disappoint! Here at the cute cousins below.

We were lucky that they were able to come out for 10 whole days. Whenever Maddie would come over to Nana's, Ava would run over to the door and then the girls would immediately go downstairs.

First order of business was always to dress up as a princess.

Next order of business, go off and play with the princess dolls.

No boys allowed!

After putting Reid down for a nap I come back to find these girlies giggling and eating their snacks in the car. I have no idea how they came up with sitting in the car this way.

One day during the week we took the girls to Kangaroo Zoo. So fun! Sadly I cannot find the charger for my SLR camera yet. Ugh. I so miss using it. But at least I still have my point and shoot.

For Pioneer Day we all headed up to Provo Canyon for a picnic and some cooler weather. Here are the boys tossing around the football.

Here are all of the cousins sitting together.

Reid does not stop moving. Ever. We had to take turns following him around making sure he didn't get into any trouble.

The girls being their silly selves.

Password: twinkle


A few days after Joe and the fam arrived, Jeremy flew out for a visit too. Did I mention that he brought German chocolate with him? So good. Everyone should have a family member over in Germany.

By the end of the week Ava decided that Uncle Jeremy was actually pretty fun.

Any guesses on why Reid is so dang happy?

Icecream. Jeremy found the quickest way to Reidy's heart :)

We love LOVE getting to see our family. We're pretty lucky that our family is pretty awesome.

Birthday celebrations all around

July is a big birthday month for our household. Not only do we get to celebrate our nation's birthday, we celebrate half of our family's birthdays as well. (It's pretty easy to celebrate half the birthdays when you're a family of four)

Here are a few pics from our 4th 3rd of July celebrations. Did anyone else think having the 4th on a Sunday was weird? Here are the kiddos with their grandparents dressed up in red, white and blue. I think this picture was taken before John got stung in the forehead while trying to defend our BBQ from a hive of wasps. I guess the head is a good spot to get stung because it hardly even swelled. But I bet it still hurt like heck.

Ava got to stay up to watch the fireworks with Daddy, Mommy and Grandpa. Nana was kind enough to stay home while Reid slept.

We got everyone ready and headed right next door. Yep, we walked over to the neighbor's backyard. They have an amazing view overlooking the BYU stadium. Ava loved watching and commenting on the fireworks. But sadly she only made it till halfway through the finale.

A few days later we got to celebrate Josh's birthday. Sadly, Josh forbade us from taking any photos of his turning a year older. Okay, that's not true. Josh just worked all day so we didn't get to do anything too exciting. We just had a little family celebration later that night. Check out the video below. Both kids were entertained for the entire week opening and closing both Josh and my birthday cards. The password is birthday.

A few days after Josh's birthday we got to celebrate my birthday. To my surprise my sister and her fam decided to join in the fun. Love them! As you can tell, Ava loves them just as much!

The following are just a few pics of the kidlets playing together. Ava took very good care of her little cousin.

These little ones are going to have so much fun when they get a little older. And I'm loving living closer to them so we'll get to see them more than once a year.

After having the kids play for a bit we drove over to Jared's sister's house to continue the party. We went swimming, had a BBQ, and Jared spent a few hours trying to find a DQ that sold ice cream cakes. Thanks everyone for making me feel so special. I am such a lucky girl. My sister was a little better at documenting their entire stay. Check it out here and here.

Celebrating 3 birthdays in one week sure can be exhausting. Hopefully Ava was able to rest us because we had 3 more visitors come before the end of the month.

Last hoorah

During our last week in Cali I wanted to get in as much as we could. One night we left the kiddies back in the WC and heading out to SF for a Giants game.

AT&T Park is pretty freakin' awesome, as ballparks go. It has a gorgeous view of the bay, no matter where you sit you have a great view of the field, and the food was delicious. We of course had to try the Gilroy Garlic Fries. Yum. Sidenote, do you see the Coca-Cola bottle way off in the distance. That is actually a huge slide for kids.

I still cringe every time I see a pic of myself. I just don't realize how red my hair has gotten. No likey. Any tips on how to not look like a giant strawberry?

These canoe-ers are dedicated to the cause. They wait out in the bay hoping to retrieve a home run ball. Which sadly, didn't happen this game.

The week before we moved my parents came out for a visit. Since I knew we'd be packing for most of the week, we made a quick side trip over to the Golden Gate Bridge after they flew in.

Here's a shot of the city from the bridge.

Ava and Grandpa checking out a naval ship that just passed under the bridge.

Ava sure enjoyed getting to walk the bridge with both grandparents hand in hand. We had grand plans of walking the whole length of the bridge. That quickly changed once we started the journey. Not because we were tired, but because the wind is crazy strong.

Once we got back my parents vacation turned into a full time job. While I packed and cleaned, my parents took care of both little kiddos. Which isn't easy. They got the hang of the GPS system in our car and took frequent trips to the park and Jamba Juice.

Here's Reid enjoying his first Jamba. He must of liked it because he drank every last drop.

Here are my parents telling camp stories around the fire (orange balloon). We sold our tv on craigslist that week, so they didn't have very many options of how to fill the time.

Thanks Mom and Dad for being so willing to help us move. There would of been no way we could of made the trip and packed everything up without you. Now you need to plan another trip to come visit us and we promise it will be an actual vacation!

Bay Area Discovery Museum

We took the kids to the Bay Area Discovery Museum a few weeks before we moved. I took Ava to the museum way back when and thought that this would be a great place for both kids to run around. The price is a little steep. They actually make you pay for anyone over 6 months old, but I found a super awesome coupon here that made the trip a little more reasonable. Here's the view from the parking lot. I don't think you could be any closer unless your were standing directly on the bridge.


Reid made a little girlie friend. Reid was showing her his water splashing skills. I think she was very impressed.


Ava is showing off her hoarding skills. A few moments later we had to enact a 2 fish only rule. Reid is such a goof. He totally cracks me up in this pic.

Looks like we've got a little monkey boy of our own. He almost made it into the water multiple times. You look away for one second and that is long enough for him to make his move. This past week Reid figured out how to pull out the kitchen chairs, climb onto the chairs, and then get onto the kitchen table. He's only 14 months old.

What is it with kids and chasing birds. Reid followed the bird all over the place. I love the pic of him reaching for the bird as he flies away. Ava couldn't help herself from chasing a few birds. Oh, if you can't tell, in the picture with both kiddos by the fence Ava is sharing her snacks with her brother...through the fence. Ha.

After playing in the toddler section for quite awhile, we headed over to check out the other areas of the museum. One section was all about space and astronauts. This is probably pretty immature, but I couldn't help myself from taking a picture of the sign below.


Notice the sign on the side of the wall. Oh geez. And there are even straps on the ground to make sure you don't float away. Going to space would be quite the experience.

Another area at the museum was one all about transportation. Ava LOVED the trains. She actually had quite the meltdown when we told her it was time to go.

You know you've had a good time when you pass out within minutes of starting the drive home.

We made it to Utah safely

No, we did not fall off the face of the earth. Even though it probably felt like it. Sadly, blogging has taken a back burner while we get all settled in. But I thought I could take a minute to post just a few pictures of the kiddos. (Sorry in advance for some of the pics being a little blurry, they were taken with my phone)

It sure is hot out here in Utah. You pretty much have to get everything done that you want to do outside by 9am. I sure miss having the fog roll in at night during the summer, because it sure cooled everything down. We've had to take lots and lots of otter pop breaks since being in Utah.

The kids have really enjoyed having all of the extra space to run around. We've probably added 3,500 more square feet for these kids to chase each other in. And when we're not running around in the house we're taking advantage of having a yard. Oh how I've missed the smell of freshly cut grass. Here is Reid finding me while playing hide-n-seek.

Just in this past month, Reid and Ava have really started playing with each other. It is so cute watching them go off and quietly play. Well, until you realize that it is a little too quiet and go searching for them to find that Ava has opened the door to your bedroom, hoisted Reid up onto the desk chair and both are now scribbling all over your home loan papers.

We're starting to get the hang of the local grocery stores. This cart makes it so easy to go grocery shopping with both kids. Each steering wheel has it's own horn, that actually works! I tell Ava to look for something on my list and when she spots it to honk her horn. Hillarious. I chuckle every time she does it, because you think she'd get distracted and forget. But oh no, this little girl keeps her eye on the prize and doesn't forget a thing.

We have spent many days rocking back and forth of the rocking chairs. Funny story, has nothing to do with the rocking chairs :) But notice how Ava has her hair in buns. Well she looks in the mirror and asks, "What's this?" And so I tell her that I put her hair in buns. And she replies, "I like my buns. They look like hamburgers!" You know you have a sweet hairdo when it resembles a food you really like to eat.

I'm not used to having to share my bathroom with a certain little munchkin. Thankfully, she did not get any mascara actually in her eye. I've also found her rubbing my conditioner all over her head.

Grandma sent Ava a Woody and Buzz pez dispenser. Lucky. She loved them so much that she slept with them the first night.

One night for FHE we decided to head over to the Bean Museum. Each Monday night they hold a reptile show that's totally free. Love BYU! This place was packed to the brim with little kids eager to touch the reptiles. Ava was a little too timid to touch the animals during the presentation, but afterwards we went up and she touched the blue tongue lizard, corn snake, and the tortoise without an ounce of fear. That's HUGE for Ava because she is not an animal person. We will definitely have to take the kids back more often.

Welp, there's a little snip-bit of our time out in Utah so far. We've really been enjoying our time living at Josh's parent's house. They have been so gracious to let us live with them. Thanks to my parents who helped us pack and move everything out here. I couldn't have done it without them. Which I have more pics to post of their visit, and my sister's surprise visit for my birthday (love living closer to her!), and also of Josh's brother Joe's visit. And I will most definitely have pictures to post once Josh's brother Jeremy comes to visit next week. There are so many perks to living in UT. Everyone at least visits once a year because they have some family member here. So if you ever find yourself in the Beehive state, ring us up!