On to Utah for a Visit

Cassidy wanted to go for a visit to Utah to see Grandma and Grandpa and also visit Jake, Liz, and Lexi before she traveled back to Hawaii.First we stopped at Grandma and Grandpa Quarnberg's and Grandpa took Truman for a ride in his great big tractor, which Tru loved, though he was a little scared at first.

Grandpa has a ranch, and he loves to take the grandkids to see his cows and horses when they visit.

Grandma and Grandpa with Truman.

A favorite picture

On the way to Jake and Liz's we decided to stop at Yuba Dam and see how much water was coming over the spillway, which hadn't happened for 20 or more years, because of the huge spring melt.

The first thing we decided to do after arriving at Jake and Liz's was to go do a tour of the Kennecott copper mine. It was pretty amazing. This picture shows just how huge the tires are on the trucks that are as big as houses that haul the ore up from the bottom of the mine.

The mine is so huge it is mind boggling. You can see the little tiny dots down in the bottom that are the trucks.

Those trucks looks like toys!

Jake, Liz, Josh, and Charlie

Grandpa showing Truman the trucks.

Three little boys needed a bath after spending the day at the copper mine.

The next day, while Jeff and Jake went golfing, we took the boys to Thanksgiving Point Gardens. It was really fun for the boys with lots to do, and really beautiful. Here's Josh and Charlie in the maze we got kinda lost in.

Truman "riding" a bear!

There was a little stream with wooden "boats" for the kids to float down the water. I think they had the most fun here.

Liz helping Josh with his boat.

Cute little Charlie

These two little boys had so much fun!

Then it was off to play in the splash pool.

 

Tia Lexi read them a bedtime story.

Liz has been wanting to take us to Gardner Village for a long time, so the next day we went there. I loved it! There were so many cute and fun stores. But we soon learned shopping with three little boys is not very fun. I guess their parents already knew this, but I had forgotten. We still had fun though.

 

We had such a fun time at Jake and Liz's, but all too soon it was time to go. On the way home we stopped again at Mom and Dad's. We had fun taking Truman to the Petting Zoo at Dairy Queen.

 

We had another little photo session at Mom and Dad's. Their flower garden is always so beautiful.

 

Right before we left I wanted a picture of Cass and Truman with his Great Grandma and Grandpa.

We decided to make a stop at Grandma Keel's and see if she happened to be there, and to our delight, she was there. She spends most of her time in Oregon and only comes to Utah periodically, so we were glad we got to see her.

We finally spent a few days back at home, and this cute little picture is Truman having a "spit bath" in the kitchen sink.

 

Swinging in the back yard.

 

One last Ranger ride.

 

While Cass was here we wanted to do some sewing and crafting, and we were able to make lots of cute things in the time she was here. We had to utilize Truman's naps and stay up late at night to get our projects done, but we had lots of fun doing it. We tried finishing projects while Truman was around, and it was a disaster. He is a busy little boy and didn't want to be left out of the fun. This is a picture showing some of the fun hot pads, pouches, pin cushions and aprons we made. This cute apron is the one Cass made. Mine wasn't quite finished when we took this picture.

We also tried to exercise together when we could, and started P90X with some friends while Cass was here, when we weren't traveling all over. I really enjoyed it. In fact, I enjoyed the whole visit, and it was pretty sad and lonely around here when they left to go home. We made some fun memories though, and had a super good time!

Cassidy and Truman's Visit Continued........

Truman loved playing in the little wading pool. But only for a short time, then he would get out and wander around, burning his feet on the hot sidewalk, and getting grass all over himself and not liking it.

Finding Nemo.

For the Keel Reunion we spent the day at Cove Fort. It was fun to see everyone, since we don't get to see them very often, and I was glad they got to see Truman too. Most of them had never met him.

After we got there, I discovered that my Uncle Donnie and his wife were serving a mission there, so that was pretty fun!

For some reason, maybe because we were so busy chasing Truman around, we didn't take very many pictures. But here's Cass and Lex..........not sure what they were trying to do.

Next it was off to Phoenix to visit the Fallstroms. Of course we stopped at our favorite In N Out Burger on the way.

It was Isaac's birthday the day we arrived, so he got to open presents as soon as we got there.

Cute little Isaac. Happy to you!

One of the things we did while visiting was go watch Isaac and Sareny at their gymnastics class. It was so fun to see them trying different things, and feeling good about themselves.

Isaac's class was a combination of gymnastics and karate so we got to see him doing both. It was super cute to see him trying to kick and do the karate moves.

Sareny really loves her gymnastics class, and is pretty good at it.

I'm sure she loved having us all there watching her!

Hillari lives in a neighborhood with the best swimming pool. We love to take the kids there, so that was one of the fun things we did.

Hillari's three kids are all like little fishes. They swim every day, and are getting pretty good at it, even Finley.

Bampa and Truman

Sareny spent quite awhile just snuggled up to me while I talked with Hill and her friend. For not being a very cuddley baby, Sareny sure likes to snuggle now.

This shows the huge bucket that periodically dumps a ton of water on you if you aren't paying attention. I personally hated when that happened. And so did Truman, so he is completely happy watching from a distance!

We had so much fun during our visit. We went to see Cars 2 on our last day there. Truman is still too young to really love movies, so he got a little naughty after awhile. But he did see enough to totally love "Light-Mean Queen" and "Mainer" as he pronouces them. We stopped at Walmart on the way home and I bought him a Lightning McQeen and Mater and they became his new favorite cars. We left to come home on Finley's birthday, so before we went to the movie she got to open her presents. She was so cute.

Bampa helping Finley color. She is the best little "color-er" there is! She will sit with paper and crayons for hours. And she's pretty good at it for her age.

Playing with Finley's Marble Works set.

Me and two of my girls. My eyes may or may not have been closed in this picture. I really can't tell, and don't care at this point. I just want to get caught up on posts by Christmas!

Cass and I had made 4th of July outfits for the kiddos, so we tried to get a cute picture of me Bampa and I with our grandkids, but it was pretty hard to get one with everyone looking at the camera.

We had such a fun time visiting with the Fallstroms. We always have fun at their house, and love to see them and the kids. Stay tuned for the final post of Cass' summer visit.........

Cassidy and Truman Come to Visit!!!

We were excited to have Cassidy and Truman come to visit for five weeks while James was in Rhode Island at Officer Development Training for the Navy. We don't get to see them very often, so it was fun to see how Truman has grown. It was amazing how much he changed just in the five weeks he was with us! He loved Bampa's football hat.

And he loved a ride in Bampa's wheel barrow.

Cass and Tru got here around June 8th or so, and we wanted to have a hot dog roast before it got way hotter, so we cooked hot dogs and s'mores in the back yard. Tru loved them and ate at least three. Unfortunately, he got really sick during the night, and it was not pretty. We were hoping it was just too many hotdogs and not a flu bug because..............

We had planned a super fun trip to the happiest place on earth!

Lexi came down for the weekend, and we headed out. Sadly, right before we left Cass started feeling sick and we realized that Tru actually did have a flu bug............but what could we do but carry on? Poor Cass felt awful all the way to California. Fortunately the only other person to get it was me, and I had a much milder case of it. But the Keels would never let a little thing like the stomach flu ruin a trip to Dis! It was so fun to take Tru for his first time. He loved everything! (except Pirates of the Carribbean, which he hated.)

All but me squished into a tea cup.

Truman loved riding on Bampa's shoulders!

No doubt the highlight of the trip for Tru was meeting Mickey Mouse! He was in awe, as you can see.

Not to be out done, Lexi was pretty excited too!

After awhile, Tru wasn't quite so shy around the characters. He just ran right up and gave Pluto a big hug.

We lucked out and found a short line for Dumbo, so the kids hopped on it. Every kid has got to ride on Dumbo!

Truman in his new Mickey shirt with his "Mickey Buddy". We have a tradition of making Muddy Buddies when we go to Disneyland, and we call them Mickey Buddies instead. But since Cass was sick all the way there, then I was sick, we really couldn't enjoy our Mickey Buddies much, so we were pretty excited to eat them on the way home. Unfortunately when we opened the back of the car while loading stuff up, the Mickey Buddies fell out, the lid popped off, and they spilled all over the parking lot. We were so sad :(  But the cute thing is, Tru heard us talking about "Mickey Buddies" so much that he called his stuffed Mickey toy his Mickey Buddy. So cute!

Well, bloggerland has decided that I can't download anymore pictures, so I guess this is the end of my Disney post! Can I just say, sometimes I hate blogging! Especially when things don't work right.

But as you can see, we had a great time. I'm so glad we got to go. In spite of sickness and spilled treats, and it being summer and crowded, we managed to have such a wonderful time together. We're already wondering when we can go back!