Quick Trip to AZ

A couple of weeks ago Trevor and I took a quick trip to Arizona. My sister, Amy, had planned a Welcome Home/30th Birthday party for her husband since he had recently returned from serving in Iraq and turned 30 about a month before he came home. I hadn't planned on going but when I got an email on Tuesday from Delta with their weekend deals, there was a good deal on flights to Phoenix. I knew my sister, Mary Anne, wasn't planning on going since she also lives in Utah but if you know Mary Anne, her heart is in Arizona! So I decided to tempt her with a trip home. She did some rearranging with some photo shoots, made deals with her hubby :), and the tickets were bought! We left Saturday morning, got a rental car in Phoenix (a huge THANK YOU to my dad!), and drove the 3 hours to Sierra Vista. We walked in the door and my mom was in the kitchen. She turned around and saw us and the look on her face was priceless! Tricky us, we didn't tell her we were coming! Everyone else ended up finding out one way or another, but we really wanted to keep it a secret from my mom. It was great to see everyone from home. We flew back to Utah on Tuesday so it was a fun, but short trip! Sadly, this was the only picture I got from the trip. I'm really bad at taking pictures lately (which is why the blogging has been sparse!) but just wait....Halloween is coming! I can't wait!

Family Pictures Fall 2009

My sister, Mary Anne, took family pictures for Rob's side of the family a couple of weeks ago. If you'd like to know what Trevor thought of the whole thing, just look at this first picture that Mary Anne got of the boys...

Apparently, he liked being inside the truck better than on the hood...

My handsome, blue-eyed boys...

Trevor still not diggin' the whole picture thing...

And my blue-eyed beauties...

We went down to Cheryl's house the night before the photo shoot so that we wouldn't have to drive an hour and a half the morning of our 8:30 am photo shoot. We stopped at every Target along the Wasatch Front trying to find a couple of sweaters that I had seen online for the girls. No luck at ANY of them, so we ended up with these shirts that I'm not totally in love with, but when you're trying to find certain colors to go with everyone else, you get what you get (I actually ended up leaving the tags on Ashlee's and returned it later...shhhh, don't tell!) Plus, I forgot hair things to put in their hair, and thus not the cutest hairstyles...oh well!

I really like these ones of Rob, his parents and siblings...

Thanks again, Mary Anne. You are the best!

Lil' Grizz Cheer Camp

Ashlee and Brynlee went to a Lil' Grizz Cheer Camp at Logan High School. They learned a dance and a cheer one night and then performed at halftime at the football game the next night. The pictures are awful because of the lighting and movement but oh well! My friend took the ones in the gym since Rob had the camera out on the field while we were inside waiting. My camera battery went dead after one shot of Ashlee on the field. They had lots of fun!

Go Grizzlies!

At home before the game...
Practicing and waiting in the gym before halftime...

On the field...

Under where?

Lando's underwear is important to him. When he wears his basball pajamas, he has to wear baseball underwear so they match. He mostly wears his transformers or superheroes ones during the day. The only thing clean this morning, since he changes them a couple times a day, was plain white or trains.

He claimed that he doesn't like trains. It took some convincing to just put on white ones. Big boys and dads wear white underwear, etc.

Rob: Here, let's just put them on and see what you look like.

Lando: Okay. [lets me put them on him]

Kirsten: You look like a big boy.

Lando: Yeah. If someone hurts me, I'm just going to hurt them back instead of crying!

Hopefully this doesn't backfire and either make him start hurting people or make him not want to go back at all to his old favorites since he's big now.

UPDATE: Half an hour later, he finds some clean transformers underwear and proudly shows them off to everyone. Who knows where he left the white ones?

He's Off To Preschool!

Landon started preschool today at Rainbow Corner. His teacher is Mrs. Lee and we just LOVE Mrs. Lee! She is our Bishop's wife and lives just around the corner so it is nice and convenient! When we were coming home from the girls' school after doing some PTA business (at about 9:20 a.m.), Landon wanted to know if it was time for him to go to school yet. I told him preschool started at 1:00, which was after lunch. At about 9:45 a.m. he came to me and he said he was ready to eat lunch so he could go to school. Silly kid! He was so excited to go...can't you just tell from his smile! Love that kid!

"I know why it's called Rainbow Corner... it's because she lives on a corner and has a rainbow flag" ~Brynlee

This was my favorite quote from Brynlee when she went to preschool there and made the connection between the name of the preschool and the location of the house and the rainbow flag.

She also has a wooden rainbow hanging on the porch (in the picture above) and when the rainbow is smiling, it means she is ready for school to start and the kids can walk in the door.

1st Day of School

Ashlee and Brynlee were SO excited for school to start!

Ashlee is in 3rd grade this year...

Ashlee is excited that so many of her friends are in her class...

Abel, Ashlee, Devin and Emily

Brynlee is in 1st grade...

It will be weird to have her gone all day! She has the same teacher that Ashlee had for 1st grade so it's nice to know that routine already...

Last Days of Summer

Sadly, summer is coming to an end. We've had an awesome summer, though, so I guess we can start school now.

When we got back from NYC, we had our annual Barton Bear Lake get together. We BBQ'd at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Friday night and then had s'mores. Now these are not your ordinary s'mores. Rob's brother, Dave, has introduced us to Gourmet S'mores. I don't think I can go back to plain marshmallow and chocolate ones again. That night we tried out some new varieties which included Reese's peanut butter cups with banana slices and Dove caramel-filled chocolates with strawberries. YUM!

We woke up Saturday morning to the drizzling rain. Not exactly the perfect Bear Lake day. We decided to stay in Logan until the afternoon.

Here are all the cousins in their tie dye shirts that they made at Cousins Day.

Somehow it got later and later and we still hadn't left for Bear Lake. Finally, I think it was a little after 6:00 p.m. that we couldn't resist any longer. Everyone really wanted to go to Bear Lake, even if we just played in the sand for a few minutes and made a quick stop at LaBeau's. With the weather a chilly 60 degrees, we didn't think the kids would dare touch the water, but we brought swimsuits just in case. Well, the kids started off with just their feet in and then seconds later were begging for their swimsuits.

After the sun was setting and the kids were turning purple, we stopped at LaBeau's and then headed home.

The last hurrah was on Wednesday when we went to the pool with some friends. I only managed to get this one picture of Brynlee going down the slide...

School starts on Tuesday. So long summer...until we meet again in 9 months!

Alphabet Game

We drove up to Bear Lake on Saturday with some of my family. On the way up, the kids were complaining that the drive is so long. Ah, 45 minutes, so long...

So after a few minutes of listening to complaining, we started playing a game. We took turns, each person saying a word that starts with the next letter of the alphabet, after reciting all the words that other people had already said. So we started with Apple. The next person said Apple Brynlee. Then Apple Brynlee Cookie and so on.

Ashlee said it was dumb, so didn't want to play, until we got about halfway through the alphabet. I guess she realized we were all having fun without her, so she joined in with us for the rest of the alphabet.

Lando needed a little help remembering some of the words, although he did amazingly well. On one of his turns, he stumbled a little on Golf-ball Horse Igloo, skipping the Horse. "Don't forget Horse. It's Horse Igloo." Lando's response... "Horse glue?" Ah, no, that's a conversation we'll have another time.

Perhaps next time we play, we'll ban the words we used last time and make it a little more challenging.

Dollars

Lando: I didn't get dinner tonight. (about 9:30 p.m., all the other kids in bed)

Rob: We had dinner. Remember we made grilled cheese sandwiches. Did you have a grilled cheese?

Lando: I wanted Costa Vida. (He'd been asking for Costa Vida pretty much all day long.)

Rob: No, maybe another night we'll get Costa Vida. Probably not for awhile, though, since it's kind of expensive. Mommy and I just spent a lot of money when we went to New York, so we need to save some so we can have enough.

Lando: Why don't you just go to the dollar store?

Rob: What do they have at the dollar store? (not sure if he's talking about buying stuff cheap or actually buying more dollars)

Lando: They have dollars there. You can go and just get some more dollars. Then you'll have money again. Just go to the dollar store.

Rob: Okay, I'll talk to mommy about that when she gets home from the grocery store. Right now you need to go get in bed.

NYC: Days 4 & 5

Day 4 started off as usual with a stop at a street vendor for a bagel with cream cheese. These things were HUGE and only $1.25! Can't beat breakfast for two for under $3!
We took the subway to our first stop of the day, Battery Park, to take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

This is Ellis Island, where the immigrants first arrived when coming to America. This place was amazing and did an awesome job of describing the process they went through when arriving here.Then we walked a few blocks to Ground Zero. Didn't get any pictures there since most of what you can see is a chain link fence around the construction zone. We also went into St. Paul's chapel. A quote from their website...

"Located directly across from the World Trade Center site, St. Paul's Chapel, an Episcopal church, was home to an extraordinary eight-month volunteer relief effort after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. Unwavering Spirit, a new interactive exhibit, honors that ministry and its legacy of love and compassion."

Emotions were very near the surface as I reflected again on that day when our nation was changed forever.

Walking around the Ground Zero block, we were tempted again by a pizza place. My mouth is watering right now for a giant slice of New York style pizza!Then we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to...yep, you guessed it, Brooklyn :)

It was amazing to me how "quiet" it was over there. We could actually hear some birds chirping and weren't bombarded with the noise of the busy city. Then we took the subway back to our hotel.

For our last night in NYC, we ate dinner and then walked to Times Square to experience the lights and action down there...

Day 5 was pretty much traveling home. We woke up at 6:00 am (which I wondered how in the world I could do that considering it was 4:00 back home in Utah!), checked out of the hotel at 7:00, picked up a bagel on the way to the subway to JFK and headed home to Utah. It was a really fun trip. I was ready to be home, though! Next vacation will be a nice, relaxing one...sitting on a beach with a good book for 5 days. Hey, a girl can dream, right?!