Utah Visit: Part 1

Our trip up to my mom's house was great. Very busy, and great. (And Ryan was able to get a ton of studying done while we were gone, so it was productive, too!)

Our first Sunday there, we had a birthday party to celebrate Kevin and Kyle's birthdays. Grandma Cloe brought cake and ice cream, which you can see was enjoyed by all. The following Monday was Memorial Day, and we were able to accompany Grandma Cloe up to Logan to put flowers on Grandpa Dean's and Kirk's graves. This was Elise's first time to the cemetary, and (I think) Connor's first trip since he was aware of what stuff means. It was actually very pleasant and sweet. Elise loved the engraved picture of Grandpa Dean on a horse, and Connor loved playing with Kyle. The kids were even good on the ride home (relatively), which was a nice surprise. On this trip we got to see Kyle and Kelli's new house! It's so cute! I can't express how jealous I am. We were able to spend a day helping them paint their living and dining rooms, which had been a dinged-up whitish color. Now, I'll admit, I wasn't very enthusiastic about helping at first. I was convinced that my presence there with the kids would just be a waste of everyone's time, and end quickly. Kelli was prepared, though, with a room for them to watch DVD's, and we obtained copies of The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Mist (an awesome sheepdog movie that my kids love). Those sweeties sat there and watched movies for the ENTIRE day! It was amazing. I had alot of fun, and learned a ton about paint. Oh, and the hand you can see on the piano keys is from Kelli's attempt to give a piano lesson in the middle of a paint zone. It was pretty funny, but the little girl didn't seem to mind.We spent one beautiful morning down at that East Bay place full of ducks (I've never been able to figure out what its real purpose is, other than duck collecting.) We scored big-time, in that there was a mama with tiny ducklings, including one fuzzy yellow one. Guess who got the most bread? I suspect that duckling will grow up to be some kind of duck Jabba the Hut. Oh, and it was fresh "Honey and Grains" bakery bread, too. (That's all we had.) No stale hot-dog buns for them.