Grandma and Grandpa T

Chris' parents came to town and we got to have them for a whole week.  It's always so nice to have people around so I can have adult conversations and another set of hands.  Plus the kids love their grandparents.  When I dropped them off at the airport to go home Eliza started crying and kept saying "nama" (grandma) over and over. 

We had a lot of fun while they were here



Grandpa and Cordon watching mudskippers

 

Grandma and Eliza watching Otters

Cordon was getting over the flu and he was getting pretty tired after all the walking around at the aquarium

This game is my favorite part of the aquarium.  It's Frogger that you do with your feet.  It's incredibly addicting.

Grandma put Cordon to bed several nights.  She is a great story teller

Grandma and Grandpa bought us a rake.  Mary was very patient and re-raked a pile of leaves several times. Then those wonderful people raked and bagged all the leaves in the yard for me. 

 

 Every time I ask Cordon what his favorite part about seeing Grandma and Grandpa T is, he always says going on walks.   I'm not sure why Cordon is in the stroller and Eliza is walking.

We went to a children's museum and spent a good amount of time in the dancing room.  You dance in front of a screen and see color images of yourself.  This is Cordons favorite place to go and he loved showing it to Grandpa and Grandma

We went to a Wright Brothers Museum and we got to play on a flight simulator.  It was like flying an original Wright Brothers airplane.  I made it about a minute before I killed myself by crashing into a tree.  I like to blame that on my co-pilot Cordon.  John and Mary made it the full three minutes that the simulator goes. 

Family Photos

 We had a lady in the area take our photos.  It ended up being really cold and the kids were miserable, but she still managed to get some good shots.

Two days later we had beautiful weather so I took the kids to a park to get some photos of them that didn't involve blue lips and red noses.

EnterTRAINment

We went to a place called EnterTRAINment.  It's the worlds largest indoor train display.  I'm not a model train person but it was very impressive.  The detail on the buildings and trains and people were amazing. 

They had a Thomas the Train that the kids and I rode on.  Those seats are not adult friendly. 

They had a little Trick Or Treat House for the kids to go through.  Each room was decorated differently for Halloween and had a bucket of candy

Cordon got his face painted and the kids got to pick little pumpkins to decorate with stickers.  Notice the BYU shirts?  These kids are obsessed with these shirts and would wear them every day  if I didn't take the time to pry them away from their little fingers to wash them. 

Connected to the train place was a Fun House.  This was one of those old fashion fun houses with the mirror mazes and optical illusion rooms.  It was really fun, but messed with Chris and my inner ear.  We were both pretty dizzy by the time we left.  Eliza didn't like any of it, I think she was also getting dizzy and she hated the mazes.  At one point we walked around a corner  and a blast of air caught us by surprise.  I thought that poor girl was going to have a hard attack.  She ran forward and latched herself onto Chris leg and was screaming, I have never seen her so freaked out.  I picked her up (Chris was currently busy consoling Cordon) and she would not let go the rest of the time we were at the fun house.

Here is a description for one of the rooms: The next attraction is Curtain Chaos, a bewildering maze of twists, turns and dead-ends through hanging curtains that test a visitor’s sanity and sense of direction.

That is a very fitting description. 


 The optical illusion room.  It made things look bigger or smaller depending on where you were standing.  Eliza as only about 2 feet in front of me, not the mile that it does look like. 

 The mirror maze.  Just Cordon and I went through this one.  We had to walk very slowly with our hands in front of us because it was so easy to walk into  a mirror.  The mirrors are angled so you can't see yourself coming, it just looks like a long hallway. 

 I am actually standing straight up in this photo.  The room was slanted around me. 

Eliza Turned 2

Eliza had her 2nd birthday.  We had a little family celebration for her with cupcakes and presents.  I was surprised at how much she comprehended.  She knew it was her cupcake, she sang along to Happy Birthday, she 'attempted' to blow out the candles without any prompting from us and she KNEW that pile of presents was hers. 

I guess seeing Cordon and Dad have their birthdays in the last month showed her how it's done.

She tried, but couldn't get enough air to blow the candles out so Cordon came to the rescue. 

nothing like sitting back and relaxing with a tummy full of cupcakes

She still doesn't like to open presents.  She likes to get them, but not un-wrap them.  I'm not sure why.  But this actually worked out great because Cordon got to feel included by opening the presents for her.  When each present was opened Eliza would yell "oh wow!"

Here she is showing off her loot.  Notice the wardrobe change.  As soon as she saw Aunt Karyn's gift of a new outfit she insisted on wearing it.

The pants are to big so they came off pretty quickly and she spent the rest of the evening sporting this classy look.

Yes, those are princess shoes over her pajamas.  That girl loves shoes. 

A New Blog

I've started a new blog. Feel free to check it out.
http://thediyguineapig.blogspot.com/

The kids and I went to Utah for a week to spend some time with my family.  I will let the pictures sum up our trip.

 The kids did great on the plane.  I love flying Southwest because if they aren't full you can claim a whole row even though you only paid for 2 seats.  It was 11pm on our body clocks when we landed and the kids were still just as happy as could be. 

 We spent two days at my brothers house in Vegas, one when we got there and one before we left.  These three cousins are just a few months apart. 

I got to meet my  niece Ellie.  She was born 10 weeks early and has had some complications, but she is a fighter and hopefully she will be able to go home soon. 

 

 My brother, Jason, taught Cordon how to drive the segway.  I love how he had to use his whole body to turn.

 We spent a day at my grandparents ranch. Cordon loved the Rhino rides.  Eliza wouldn't get on unless Bugga (my dad) was driving. 

 Eliza wasn't to sure about my parents pool at first, but once again, Bugga saved the day and showed her how much fun a pool can be.

 We had a birthday party for Cordon.  He felt pretty special to get two parties. 

 we went to my sister, Allisons, house and the kids got to feed the goats and go on 4-wheeler rides with Uncle Jim.

 We visited the grave sight of my niece who was a still born.  Look at the hands and feet on the tombstone,  Apparently those are the size of her hands and feet.  I can't imagine a baby that small.

We saw this fantastic sign on a gas station.  The longer you look at it the funnier it is.