The Road Trip

Sorry its taken so long to update with pictures! This post is about our drive from Texas to Arizona. I've got 200 other pictures to sort through from our 2 weeks in AZ so far, so I'll try to get some of them up soon.

The trailer is all packed, we're ready to head out:

A couple more things to take care of first...

Daddy and Hannah take a moment in Hannah's empty room to read The Bearnstain Bears' Moving Day book:


Our last minute in our house - that's no longer ours'!!

We're all shoved into the van, ready to go!

Hannah's ready!

Cailyn's ready, too!


Cailyn "napping" in the van...if you can call 20 minutes a real nap!

Hannah "napping":

Our DVD player got plenty of use on the road, and we got to try out our wireless headphones:

We made a stop in Abilene, TX to see the 56th Armored Division museum. Seth's grandpa, Carlin, was a halftrack driver in this division in WWII, so it was neat to see authentic memorabilia from his division.

The section of the museum dedicated to Carlin's Battalion:

Daddy telling the girls about his Grandpa's service to our country. The girls were totally enthralled with the whole thing!

Hannah taking a "ride" in a tank:

Seth and the girls standing next to a halftrack like Carlin drove:

We stopped for dinner at a Burger King. The kids were more than ready to run and play on the playground. I happened to catch Cailyn's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" moment:

After the BK stop, we only made one other stop for fuel. The kids did really great the whole trip. The night time drive was a bit fitful, and the sleep wasn't totally unbroken, but all in all, we're really proud of the kids. We pulled into Phoenix about 7am. Hannah woke up and we told her we were finally in Arizona:



We've been having a blast playing with Granny, Papa, Grammy, Grandpa, Aunt Leanna, Uncle Adam, Rachel and Jared. We've been to the lake, the mall, the library, baseball games, the pool. I'll get some pictures from those adventures up soon.

We Made It!!!

Well, at 5:30am CST we crossed the border into Arizona!! We made it to Granny and Papa's house around 8am PST (10am cst). The trip was long, but the girls did GREAT. I've got pictures and a few fun anecdotes to share, but don't have the new pics on the computer yet. Just wanted to let you know we made it safe and sound. Thanks for your prayers for safe travel, easy time for the girls, etc!

Summer Fun!!

Its been H-O-T here the past few weeks! We've had nearly 20 days over 100 degrees so far this summer. The normal for the entire year is 12! Its been hotter here lately than in Phoenix! And when you add the humidity, its just miserable! Our house struggles to stay a "cool" 80 degrees during the day.

So, today, we broke out the sprinkler. Our neighbors had one of these cool sprinklers and we decided we just had to have one. Those two circles spin around as the water shoots out. I wasn't sure how the kids would react as they don't usually like water splashing on their faces (can't imagine which parent they got THAT from! hehehe), but I think the water felt so good they didn't care.

Cailyn did think it was funny to run over and turn the water WAY up so the circles spun so fast I was afraid they were going to break off, and the water was shooting out so high it wasn't even getting on them anymore. But all in all, it was loads of fun...

Until Hannah fell in the mud. I told her it was ok, and we'd rinse off when they were done, that the mud is half the fun. She replied, "But, Mommy, I don't like to be all NASty!"

We have tooth #5!!!

After four months of teeth swelling up and going back down, swelling up and going back down, Cailyn has finally gotten her top left I-tooth to break through the surface today. She still has to cut her top right and bottom two I-teeth to cut. But, for now, its nice to finally have at least one of them to break through. She's 15.5 months old and now has 5 teeth!

Birthday Party Fun!!

We had the privelege to help some of our best friends celebrate their daughter's 2nd birthday this past weekend. They have 4 girls, all of which are the best friends of our girls. This particular family has been such a huge blessing to us the past 3 years and I don't think any of us know what we'll do when we all leave (did we mention they're in the moving process, too?). We may shove them in our suitcases and take them with us!!

Anyway, our girls were excited to help Cassidy and her family celebrate!

Rylie helping Hannah get her party hat on

Hannah and Mommy!

Cassidy wasn't too sure what to think about all that attention...

Cassidy blowing out the candles! (with some help from Haley and Rylie!)

Hannah waiting "patiently" for her cake...

"CAAAKKKKKEEEE!!!!"

Cailyn giving Miss Cyndi a sweet face for giving her some cake.

"MMMMMMMM!"

Cassidy opening her presents

(notice all the big kids enthralled in the presents...Cailyn's enthralled with the dog!!)

"Daddy, I LOVE my party hat!"

"Uph! My hat fell off!"

"Taayyyy teeeee!"

(aka. "thank you")

Medieval Times!!

A friend of ours gave us tickets to Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament (thanks, Sandy!!). We went last night and had a BLAST. We left Cailyn at home with a sitter (thanks, Lauren!) because the show started at 7:30 and was 2 hours long. We talked with Hannah that we were going to go to a castle and eat and see horses, etc. She was SOOO excited! When we got there and she saw the castle and the moat with fish and everything she was even more excited....then we got inside.

The seating is first come, first served and is assigned. You get a crown placed upon your head when you get there and the color of your crown dictates your seating. We made a HUGE deal and got all excited when we saw that we got to have GREEN crowns - Hannah's FAVORITE color! But, when she did NOT want to wear that crown. I think it was more the fact that it was 2 hours past her normal dinner time, it was bedtime, and it was pretty overwhelming in there. They had stables where you could see the horses, a falconer, and all kinds of gifts and things to look at and buy. And since it was all stone in there, it was pretty noisy. So, this is how we spent the first few mintues there....and I wondered if we'd made a big mistake:

However, once she saw this really neat coat of arms, she ran right over for a picture.

We had about 20 minutes to mill around in the area and look at more armour, look at lots of things we didn't buy, and just take things in before the announced our seating. The arena was a lot smaller than the commercials make it seem, which I was glad for. We had GREAT seats and were able to see wonderfully. Not to mention, we were right by the King and Princess' thrones!

When the show started, it was LOUD and I, once again, thought this was a bad idea...

But then, OUR knight came out and Hannah started waving her flag and cheering him on and forgot about the noise.
For those of you who've never been to a Medieval Times or don't have a clue what it is, its basically a very involved dinner theater, with a (surprise, surprise) medieval theme. Not only does the color of your crown determine where you will sit, but which knight you cheer for. There's a red knight, a yellow knight, a red and yellow knight, a black and white knight, and a green knight. The green knight just so happened to be the king's arch enemy, so we got to cheer for the bad guy, which was actually a lot of fun! LOL So, while the King's Feast is being served, you watch falconry demonstrations, horse demonstrations, and finally, jousting and sword fighting.

The dinner was AMAZING. The menu for the evening was garlic bread, tomato bisque, roasted chicken thigh/breast, bbq rib, pastry and soda/coffee. And, the best part - NO UTENSILS!! You ate it all with your hands, which we all enjoyed emensely. I honestly can't remember when the three of us laughed together so much. They even have the pewter plates, bowls, etc!

Hannah only sat on Daddy's lap for a little while, then decided it was ok to sit in her own seat on a booster seat. It was awesome, they were theater style seats, so she would rock back and forth, pretending she was on a horse, too!

Hannah and Daddy having fun (see the thrones behind them?)

Mommy and Hannah enjoying the show

Hannah drinking her soup

The King's Entry

Our Green Knight, welcoming the King

Hannah cheering her knight (she's actually saying "wooo hoooo!!" in this pic). The flower you see is a special flower the knight threw straight to her!

After the show we got to meet the knights and prince and princess. Hannah wanted to tell the knight thank you for the flower!

Hannah with the prince

The two princesses

It really was an amazing night and we ALL had a blast. We asked Hannah on the way home what her favorite part was and she said, "The green man." Hahaha!! It was something we would've never been able to do on our own, so we owe a huge thanks to our friend, Sandy!

A Few More Random Happenings

Here are a few more pictures from the past couple of months. They go back as far as the end of June - sorry!

On Wednesday nights in the summer, the kids' program at church does all kinds of wild and crazy activities. The first one of the summer was Wacky Wheels Night. Hannah was so excited!!

Bad to the bone....

Cailyn "pushing" Hannah (more like Hannah dragging Cailyn LOL)

Cailyn has always been into baby dolls - since a very young age. She gets them, loves on them, gives them bottles, snuggles them. This is how I found her a few weeks ago:

What a pretty smile!!

This is what happens when you sell your table and chairs and have nowhere to eat: