Busy Bees

So, since the last post you may wonder if we survived the move. BARELY!! I'm hanging on by a few threads!

Lexi and Braeden had a totally fun time in Utah with Gma's and Gpa and family! They went to the Green Show at the Utah Shakespearean Festival several times, hung out at the parks, played hard with family, and had to have the shake down almost every night before entering the house! (Meaning shake down and off all the SAND that they accumulated in their clothes, hair, between their toes, and on their bodies from Gma Pam's backyard!) They even went swimming and made lemonade!! What fun... to be a child!

Here they are jumping at Ambre's, swinging and playing at Canyon Park with Ambre and Caroline, swimming and playing in the sand at Grandma Pam's!

And while they were gone we moved! Gpa Mike and Eric came down to help us, along with Uncle John! We're so blessed to have family that will help us every time! Plus some of the guys from the elder's quorum from both out departing and our new ward, and one of our military doctor friends came to help! And let me tell you, it was A LOT of work!! By the time we were done moving it was three big trips worth of stuff! Yep THREE!! Good thing we only moved 45 miles or so, huh? Let's just say that we ate out a little more than a lot! We went back on Thursday after we moved on Tuesday, the 15th, to clean the house in SD for a while and what should we find but that Ella had climbed her first stair and was just turning around to sit down on it when her daddy came to the rescue before she toppled down! I had carried the vacuum upstairs and had it on, so I didn't even know until I turned it off to switch plugs from down to upstairs... and there she was... trying desperately to find her mommy! Lovely! She's now crawling everywhere, pulling herself up, and even letting go once in a while! SCARY!!! I'm not ready!

And just before we left we went back to San Diego to check out of our rental with the property manager, and here are the kids saying goodbye to their old house!

(I know you're all waiting for pix of the new place... I'm getting there!)

Then a couple of days later we headed out for Utah! We were so happy to have a place to stop in Vegas for a good stretch and some good play time at Cody and Megan's (& Emma's!) I wanted to see their new house... and it's beautiful... and huge! We even got a bonus because Christie came over while we were there and picked up Cafe Rio burritos for lunch on her way! Yummy!

Then Saturday we headed out over the mountain for the Ramsay reunion... the reason that I'm here this early! To the right is a picture of the six surviving siblings! There were nine, my

grandma being the oldest!

L to R: Douglas, Jay, Clare, Earl, Edith, and LaRee.

It always makes me miss my grandma when I see them... and see that some of them really look like her!

We got there just in time for lunch, pinata's, the raffle, snow cones, and playtime in the water and on the playground equipment!

We won a slingshot, a book, and a t-shirt in the raffle. The kids came away with a bag full of candy... (just what we need, you know!), and a good time was had by all.

Lexi saw a garder snake at Gma Pam's and she has been collecting rocks to kill it with... and now that they have the slingshot, it should be much more interesting, right??!! Yikes! Just stay inside everyone!

The next day after church and dinner Gma and Gpa Linda came to see us with Nick, Gail and Caroline! It had been raining and the sun peeked through just long enough to see a beautiful rainbow; always reminding us of God's love for us!

Monday we were all supposed to go to the Canyon Park again to have fun in the stream of water, but lo and behold, Lexi had a major tantrum that morning and was resigned to going home with Gma Pam and Aunt Colleen after lunch at HERMIES (one of the places on my list of "have to eat at"... where I used to work as a cook, if you can imagine that! Ha!) And then when we got there Caroline was screaming at me that there was ONE BIG PROBLEM: the stream was all dried up! "It must have been really hot this week", she said! Ha! We think they just blocked it off to keep the silt from building up in the park after a big rain storm! So... we headed back to Gma and Gpa Linda's where we turned on the sprinkler and had a little fun for a while. Lexi was supposed to learn a MAJOR lesson that tantrums do NOT get us what we want, but she had too much fun shopping with Gma Pam and Aunt Colleen. Sigh!

Braeden and Caroline running from the sprinkler! Run, Braeden, run!!! It's gonna getcha!

This is Caroline trying to get a drink from the sprinkler... I'm not sure how well it worked, but I'm sure the goggles helped, don't you think??

Poor Ella! She really wanted to get in the sprinkler until she found out what it really does to a person! What a mean mommy I am... I just had to get the picture before I rescued her!

We did come back to Gma and Gpa's the next day and spent some serious time in the hammock! They tipped it over, broke it apart... you get the idea! But by the time I got out there these were the only pictures I got!

My kids also just love to pound on a piano! Good thing we have one now at home, huh? Yep, some of you don't know yet, but we have a new baby at our new house! A baby grand! I'll post a picture later, obviously! And even as it's taken me several days to get this post done, we have already been doing other fun stuff! So that stuff will come on a little later post, but the following are pictures of some of things Lexi just loves: flowers, and making crafts out of just about anything! (It's yarn that Gma Pam had given them and Braeden had cut up... she tied it all together and made a mustache! Lovely! Then TAPED it under her nose.)

And the sad truth about Ella's sleeping habits... or lack thereof! I just give up about half way through the night and this is how we look in the morning... when we should already be up and going! SIGH!!!!!! HELP ME!!!!