Road Trip?

Teage and I had a minute of temporary insanity and decided to drive all the way down to Utah to visit some family and go to General Conference. The visiting family and General Conference was wonderful....the driving down part, not so wonderful. The boys really haven't slept anywhere besides their own cribs or a port-o-crib since they have been born, so this sleeping-in-the-car-so-mom-and-dad-could-drive-through-the-night-thing didn't work out so well. They were basically up every other hour, if not every hour, and so confused about why their horrible parents were making them stay in their seats for such a long period of time. :) Once we got down there though, we ended up having a blast. We visited Teage's sister Tawna and her family, and brother Brook (we miss you guys!!!), his grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins....there were so many that we hadn't even seen since the boys have been born. It was so wonderful to catch up with everyone. Teage and I also had the amazing opportunity to go to two sessions of General Conference, the Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon sessions. We had fantastic tickets thanks to some wonderful friends of ours, and were sitting only about 20 feet from the front of the Conference Center. What an wonderful experience for us! We even think that President Uchtdorf waved right at us! :) AND, we randomly ran into Teage's old mission president and his wife, which was such an amazing coincidence.

Overall we had a fantastic trip, minus a few toddler breakdowns in the car. We made it to and from safely and were able to spend some wonderful time with Teage's family. First family road trip, check!

We also got to stop by Portage, a tiny little town in Utah where my grandparents lived and where I went every summer growing up. I have so many wonderful memories of this little town. We got to see my grandparent's old house, and visit their grave sites and say hello as well. It felt wonderful to be there, even just for a little while. That second picture is Dylan putting a flower on Grandma and Grandpa's grave. So sweet.

The boys in their swim outfits, loving our hotel room a little too much. They were bouncing on the bed like mad men! They had never been in a hotel room before, so this was a brand new experience for them. :) Unfortunatley, as cute as they looked in their swim outfits, we didn't actually get to use them much. The boys took one look at that pool and started balling!

Our family with Teage's 96 year old grandmother, who is the sweetest woman in the world. She is also an identical twin, so she was so excited to finally meet the boys!

The top picture is adorable Miss Maiya. Then Kiana with Dylan, and Tawna with Lucas (trying to comfort him after the last picture of all the cousins jumping up and down on Daddy). :) And that wasn't even half the cousins that were there!

Teage and I in our seats at the Conference Center!

Thanks everyone for such a wonderful trip! We love you guys!

Workin' for a livin'

The boys are very into "helping" me at the moment, with just about anything that I am doing. Sweeping the floor, cooking, washing dishes....it doesn't really matter what it is, they LOVE to "help". It flatters me to think that they just want to spend time with their mommy :), but really, I think is just that they are extremely independent and also learning in whatever they are doing. Which is also a good thing. :) And my boys really love to learn. They see me doing something one time, and they want to do it themselves without me getting in the way. Boy I am really in for it, aren't I? :)

Dylan trying on Mommy's apron to help in the kitchen

Both boys trying to get "up high" with the Mr. Clean sponge. They seriously were washing the walls for about a half hour, it was so adorable to watch.

I know that this picture looks a little hard to believe. But, I did not make that track with the snow shovel, Dylan did it all by himself. During this last snow fall, I was convinced that it was not going to prevent us from leaving the house. So, I decided to let the boys play outside in the snow while I shoveled the driveway. Well, of course Dylan couldn't be outdone by his own mother, so he wanted a turn as well. I was apprehensive to let him use the shovel, as it is probably larger then he is, but he insisted. And low and behold, he did it all by himself. He really did shovel the snow off the driveway, I couldn't believe it. It was hilarious to watch, this little 20 month old with a huge snow shovel. He was pretty proud of himself too. :)