Riding In Cars With (My) Boys

As many of you know, Janna was able to take a trip recently with her family to the Bahamas. I chose to stay and see my family up in Coeur d'Alene as I don't often get the chance to see them now that we are in Colorado. The boys and I were together for about 9 days. We were able to do a lot of fun stuff. We attended a Spokane Shock playoff game thanks to my good friend and owner of the Shock, Brady. The boys really liked their thunder stix. Both boys went to the dentist, AKA Grandpa, for the first time, and both of them did great. My dad's assistants couldn't believe how well behaved they were. I just made sure they knew about the toy drawer they would get to open at the end and that took care of any behavioral problems.

Tuesday the boys went to Silverwood with Grandma and Scott and Sam, and had a great time. I spent the morning working with my cousin Brett and Sadie watched(he was taking a nap)Van for me. Thanks for your help Sadie. We were also able to spend a lot of time with my Grandma Joy who was up for the reunion. She had never met Rusty and Van and hadn't seen Stone since he was about 10 months old.

Wednesday was Rusty's birthday and my mom was great to make him a Raspberry Chocolate cake, so good. We had a swimming party at Aunt Jean and Uncle Steve's house with a lot of the 2nd cousins (kids of Mikin, Lizzie, Angie B, Brynne) plus Hayliann was in town. The kids swam and we had popsicles provided my Grandma Paula. Thanks everybody for coming and Rusty sends out a big thank you for the gifts. Great Grandpa Lee and Dan came over that night and we had cake and ice cream.

The next morning we started the long drive back to Denver. We drove to Idaho Falls the first day and stayed with my cousin Gena and Owen and Eli. We were able to also see Ginger, Genelle, and her family.

Friday we drove to Salt Lake and stayed with Great Grandma Hart. Thanks for letting us crash at your place Grandma. We spent some time with Grandma, cooked hamburgers, and got to see Cookie, Madie, Zach, Parker, and Suzie. We spent some time seeing a couple of friends too, til Van started not feeling so well. We were able to watch the Olympics as we stopped at different places too.

We spent Saturday in Orem and Provo. I took the boys to eat on campus at the CougarEat (memory lane) and got them a football and basketball at the bookstore. They were doing great. The two older boys travel very well and made it a lot easier for me since I was limited while I drove. We got to spend some time in Orem seeing some friends from our days at BYU. Thanks Matt and Natali. We spent that night at our friends Mark and Deidra. We had fun hanging out with Mark and watching the Olympics. The boys absolutely loved playing with Mark. They wouldn't leave him alone. They really like the fact that all food, treats, and drinks were there for them to have, they just had to ask first. The next morning Deidra chased them around and wore them out for me. We had so much fun there. After we left their house Sunday mid-morning, it was the long drive home. We stopped in Grand Junction for lunch, and other than that we made good time all the way home. The boys probably wished they had Janna there to talk me into stopping more often, but at least it made the time traveling less.

All in all we drove about 3700 miles on the trip, about 1500 of them just me and the boys. Despite being a single parent for 1/2 of the trip, I had a really good time with the boys. They probably were ready to see mom. It let me know that I would do okay if I ever had to do it again. Plus I was able to do it on the road, away from the comforts of home. I just had to think a few steps ahead and have the diapers and wipes ready at a moments notice and make sure I had tonight's PJ's and tomorrow's clothes ready to go. Oh, and the toothbrushes and flossers too. I got to know my boys a little better and now, hopefully they will come to me sometimes for help and not overload Janna.

We have a lot of pictures to post from our trip but still have to download them from the camera. We'll post them later.

Camping at the St. Joe

About a week after we got back from California, we packed up again and went to Idaho. The boys weren't too excited about another 1000+ mile drive, but it was a fun trip. We went camping along the St. Joe River for the first few days. Stone and Rusty got to go white water rafting for the first time. They really enjoyed it. They would hang off the side of the raft during the slow parts. During one of the big rapids, Rusty was right up front. He was gritting his teeth and holding on to the rope as tight as he could. The boys love going for rides on the 4-wheeler with their uncle Scott. It was a fun trip. We had great weather and enjoyed our time in the mountains (even if that meant no shower for 4 days.)
Classic camping past time.

The Jim and Paula Lee family with grandma Joy. The grand and great grandkids with Grandma Joy.

We spent most of the days throwing rocks in the river.
Rusty and his uncle Sam.

GO SHOCK!!!

We had the opportunity to go to the quarterfinal playoff game of the Spokane Shock last night. Janna flew out for the Bahamas Friday night, so it is just me and the boys. Some say I'm brave to even step out of the house alone with them. We have to make our way back to Denver, so this is the first of a week of adventures.
The boys getting their thundersticks ready for the game.
Van had quite the time climbing all over everyone and making new friends.
Rusty was brave and took a picture with the team mascot, Shox the Fox.
The Shock scored their 2nd or 3rd TD on this play. It was a closely contested game through the first 3 quarters. The defense stepped up and made some big plays and they were able to pull away at the end. Thanks again to Brady for the great time, we had a blast. They set a new record for points scored with the final score being something like 83-62.

More California pictures.

I took Stone and Rusty to Disneyland while we were in California. They had so much fun. We got there when it open and stayed until after the fireworks at night. I took them on Space Mountain. They did not like it. I didn't tell them it was fast and dark because I knew they wouldn't go if I did. Rusty was ready to go home after two rides. I had to carry him around all day long.

The grandkids got to have sleep over. It was a lot of fun to stay up late talking with my sisters. We also pulled out all the old prom dresses and tried them on. The little girls thought that was so fun.
Eating popsicles at grandma's.

Van started walking while we were on our trip.Working and playing at Grandma's We had so much fun on our trip, but it was time to go home. My sister and I left the same day and stayed at a motel in Richfield, UT. The kids thought it was the best thing ever and they wanted to stay there.