~Day 2• 101-111: Slightly Behind Here...

I am so far behind.  I didn't post one night because I was tired.  I didn't post the second night because I was tired.  I had just driven hours in the car with three children.  I wanted sleep.  So I got it.  Now, 11 days later, I'm catching up on my 'daily blog.'  I knew this would happen if I stopped only ONE day.  I was good about taking pictures every day, and posting them in my 'unpublished' day.  So here goes on writing it all up....All 11 days.  Oh my.

Day 101-Saturday, April 11th:  The day we left Utah.  The kids started out playing outside when it wasn't raining.  The girls absolutely LOVE the swing set in the back yard.  We loved it growing up, and I'm glad my kids can enjoy it now, too.

I had to take pics of the kids each giving grandpa loves before we took off.

Grandpa and Ashton got to talking about scouting.  Dad pulled out his old scout uniform stuff and Ashton was enjoying seeing all the things my dad did.  Brookie even liked to get into the fun by wearing my dad's hat.  Ashton saw the Eagle Scout pin, and I think he was intrigued to see what he is working toward. 

And this little sweetie... she sure is a cutie!  Oakley is Julie's youngest.  She climbed up and snuggled with me and played dragons with me and was just cute.  Period.  She speaks very well for her age (reminds me of Ashton) and I just loved talking with her!  Aunt Julie stole a hug from Cailee, too.  I think Julie had to threaten her tho...Oakley was naturally drawn to her favorite Aunt.  Good girl.

And Julie stole my phone.  I think she was bored.  And yes, I'm sharing the beautiful pictures.  The middle one is the best though.  Love my sisters!

Now the time to leave is upon us. I had to take a picture of the white board that Brookie and Braylin made.  They had different mood hearts and were making different sentences out of them.  It was cute.  They also were having fun in the basement before we left.  They were playing games and ipad and whatever, just to be together.  I wish we lived closer so they could be together more often.

And then I forced the grandkids into one picture.  And then I forced the adults into a picture.  And then I forced my kids to take a pre-drive selfie.  Everyone loves the pictures.  I know they do haha  I was so fun to visit.  It was hard to leave.  But it was good to start our journey home.

And the mountains.  Oh, the mountains.  I sure miss this daily view of the Wasatch Range.  Even with the snow caps.  I just LOVE them.  And as I was driving out of town, I drove past the JiffyLube and realized that I really needed an oil change before I started driving hundreds of miles.  They were SO fast!  I was in and out in about 20 minutes... go JiffyLube!  I wish I had one near me in Arizona.

Our destination that day was my cousin's house.  Roni and Milt live outside Cedar City.  We stopped last year on our trip south, so I hit her up again this time for a place to stay that night.  Our kids don't spend much time together, but when they do, they have so much fun!  It was so nice of Roni to have us, especially after she just rode her bike about 75 miles (i think?) earlier that day.  Go Roni!  We were both exhausted.  She from riding her bike for miles, me from driving my car for miles.  We would have stayed up and talked forever, but we were both falling asleep.  It was nice to have a place to stay that night.

Day 102-Sunday, April 12: We woke up Sunday morning, and the kiddos were happy to get back to playing.  Roni was great and made us breakfast too.  I tried to help, but got fired.  I cannot separate eggs without cheating and using a little egg separator.  I mixed the whites with the yokes, so I gave up.  I got to do the sausage though.. I can handle that, as long as Ashton helped me.  It was a really yummy breakfast too.

They had church in a few hours, so they are all dressed up and looking nice.  The kiddos had fun playing and I had a good time talking to Roni and Milt for awhile.  We needed to get on the road, so of course I had to get pictures of everyone. The kids were being goofy in some pics, but they also stood still so we could get a good shot of all of them together.  And Roni and I ... yeah.  we are not the same height.  I was on my tip-toes and she hunched down lol it was great.  And it was so good to see them!  I'm glad they were open to letting us crash their house that night.

  Ugh.  Only 506 miles to go?  That's not long at all.  The kids did pretty well tho.  We had to make a couple stops along the way and get out of the car to stretch our legs.  But all-in-all, they did really well. It was soooo nice to finally get home.  Everyone was glad to see dad I think.

Day 103- Monday, April 13:  Cailee's position in the morning says it all.  We were all so exhausted.  None of us wanted to get up.  But we did.  We had a hard time functioning, but we did it.  Cailee wanted to wear her jammies to school.  I wish.

The day ended in some fun though.  First, Nick found me a good deal on a scanner/printer/copier thingy.  I got back from the funeral and visiting with family and I wanted to get more serious with the documents we have, or are going to have.  I want to do the scanning the right way.  So he found me that scanner.  I'm excited to get going with the items I have and get them uploaded to FamilySearch.

AND... the new lease is signed!  yay! we are officially staying in the house for at least another year.  I hope it will be longer, but for the time being, we are here.  I'm excited because the kids are in a good school.  We are in a good neighborhood. And we are in a good ward.  It's a good place for us now.  I hope we can stay longer.  We will see.

Day 104- Tuesday, April 14: I pull into work and there is a random duck sitting in the parking lot.  I had to take a picture of course.  I saw him a few days later... there is a lake nearby.  I would think that is more comfortable than the pavement.  

That night, the kids' school had a fundraiser at one of the McDonald's.  The kids talked us into going.  They wanted to see all their teachers outside of school.  They saw many friends there and had a good time.  We didn't stay to eat.  We took the food and came home and started watching a documentary on Minecraft.  After dinner, the kids got ready for bed and both Cailee and Brookie read to us before going to sleep.  It was a fun day.

Day 105-Wednesday, April 15: The girls came home from school with instructions on building dioramas.  Cailee had to do one about an animal and she chose a giraffe.  BrookLynn drew the animal for her!  It looks so good!

Brookie had to make a 3-D replica of her insect.  She has a honey bee.  She decided to hang it in a box so it looked like it was flying.  I love my two little artists!

Day 106-Thursday, April 16: Cute girls.  Brookie is getting pretty good at playing the piano.  She loves to just sit and play.

Cailee is a goofy girl.  We go to an appointment in this building with the little wall.  Every time we go, she has to climb on it.  Just like she had to sit IN the basket of clothes instead of putting away the basket of clothes.  She does have a mind of her own.  Silly girl.

Day 107- Friday, April 17: The day started with Brookie getting herself dressed.  She is wearing her school spirit shirt, her cute shoes and her little purse that held her chapstick.  She has a fashion sense of her own and I love it.

I also had a nice lunch with some friends from work.  Gini flew the coup and ran away to work at the corporate office.  So it was good to get together with her again and the other fun ladies at the office.  It was so nice!

Then Ashton went on his first overnighter with the scouts.  He was excited to go, but I was missing him and hoping he had a good time.  My little one is growing up!  While he was gone, the girls and I went on a little outing in the car.  We went to get the car washed and they were having a party int the back seat.  The highlight was the rainbow colored soap.  The silliness continued with the rubber glove on Ashton's door.  I'm not exactly sure why the gloves came off, but they did.  Goofs.

Day 108-Saturday, April 18: Ashton returned home ok!  He had a great time and earned a lot of  things for scouts and was in one piece.  And his leaders were still sane.  Proud of this little man.  He's doing great things in scouts already!

And the girls... I made them clean their rooms just so they could mess them up again with their tea party.  I love it when they all play together nicely.

Day 109-Sunday, April 19: The day was pretty uneventful... until this one started being her goofy self.  She was running all over the place with her nightgown pulled over her head.  She has this little dance she does quite often, too.  She was dancing and falling and being silly.  Brookie was having fun with her too.  I love it when they get all wound up right before bedtime. 

Day 110-Monday, April 20: Displaced?  Yup.  One bed set was removed from one house and put into another house.  The living room seemed like a good spot to put it.  It didn't take up much floor space at all.

And Ashton... haha he got a new sleeping bag for the father/son camp out this weekend.  He was so excited to get it that he fell asleep with it.  But it was the wrong way.  I guess it's warm enough here that he just wanted it across his body instead of his body being in it.  Silly little man.

Day 111-Tuesday, April 21:  This is my view when I woke up.  The old set.  It's going into Brookie's room, but we have to move a bunch of stuff around.  And we were not up to it yesterday.  So the mattress is sitting upright in my room and down the hall.

This morning Ashton had a doc appointment, but we stopped of at the lab first.  I had to get some blood drawn, so he just came with me.  He had never seen the process before.  I think he was intrigued, a little. 

Tonight Ashton had his first Court of Honor for the big scouts.  All of the boys received multiple awards.  Their leaders are so great and are trying to help these boys along their scout journey.  I'm excited to see what Ashton can do.

Brookie was at Activity Days, but Cailee was with us and so excited to have daddy messing up her hair.  Plus she kept trying to avoid me taking her picture.  It was funny.

Ok-- i'm caught up now.  I'm not going to leave this thing alone anymore.  It's easier to do one day at a time, and I want to keep doing it.  It's fun to look back at what we have done in the past.  I wish I would have started doing it before last year... but oh well.