summer trip day 2

Today we woke up in Georgia, drove through Tennessee, and arrived in Kentucky. It was another good day. Hooray!! We ate breakfast at our hotel and were again happily surprised, this time, with the HUGE breakfast. We especially liked the biscuits and gravy, yum! I love the south. Hawken took an early nap in the car and was so sleepy he fell asleep like this, with his blankie in his mouth. We don't let the boys have their pacifiers unless it's nap time, and I didn't know how sleepy he really was, so ha made due with what he had. A little while later the weight of the blankie made his mouth hang open while he slept. Paul and I got a kick out of that.

He woke up shortly afterward for lunch and the millionth potty break for Matix. I think we let him have too much juice at breakfast because we had to stop to let him pee SOooooo many times during the first two hours of the drive. Note to self: only 1 glass of juice for a potty trained toddler on a road trip, is MORE than enough. :) Lunch was at a gas station on this log. We went on a little hike too, and found some ticks crawling on us... that is what ended that hike. :)

Then nap time. I love how good they are about going to sleep, even when they are in uncomfortable places. Good job big boys!!

Good bye to Georgia peaches and hello to scenic Tennessee!! Really the landscape was breathtaking. We were listening to our book on CD and every few seconds were pointing to each other different things we saw. This area of the country is so picturesque, even pictures through the bug stained windshield are pretty.

We missed the sign getting into Kentucky. It was tiny and we didn't see it until we passed. Oh well. We had to stop for gas and realized there was a Wendy's there... who doesn't love a cold chocolate frosty on a hot day? So after putting Matix to work washing the windows, we got a couple frosties. YUM!!

After driving some more, watching Annie and singing along, we got to Bowling Green, Kentucky. We ate dinner and checked into the hotel. The boys went crazy bed jumping and playing in the tub. Although Matix has asked to go home a few times now, I think he is liking the hotel thing enough to not really care all that much. We watched a little America's Funniest Home Videos in one of the beds, made the boys their beds on the floor, and tucked them in. These beds are even taller than the ones at the last hotel, so we figured a bed for our rollie pollie boys would be a good thing.

The boys are sleeping now, and since I don't have a floor to mop, or dishes to do, or laundry to fold... and Paul doesn't have any studying to do, or church lessons to prepare, or people to call... I think I will hang out with the hubby some! :) Tomorrow we will finish this stretch of our trip and arrive in Wisconsin!! We have to drive through Indiana and Illinois first, but we are SO SO SO excited to get there! Here we come!!

summer trip day 1

Well, I am happy to announce that we have arrived safe and sound in Hazelhurst Georgia!! We arrived right on schedule too. Pretty good if you know us. This morning we packed all our stuff into our walk-in-closet... Sadly, or thankfully, it all fit. Paul has inherited his Father's packing gene. Good job hubby!

We left a little after we thought we would, but didn't forget anything or anyone (or at least, not that we can think of right now...) and so our journey around the US begins. Our car has a DVD player in it, and let me tell you, I would honestly kiss the person who thought of that idea. It is genius!! The boys spent some of the morning watching a movie.

This is how we felt!

Then there was some silliness to be had. As usual. Love these boys!!

We stopped for lunch at the regular time. Paul entertained the boys while I made some sandwiches. The boys had been in the house all morning packing and then in the car for a few hours, so they needed it!

After lunch there was a little more exploring to do... :) The first picture, by the way is Matix trying to pose with Hawken. I guess it was hard to stay holding him and smile...

Then back to the car for nap time and my turn driving. It was wonderful. The boys fell right asleep and although their naps were fairly short (only 1 and a half hours), they woke up happy. Paul and I had rented the first Harry Potter book (on CD) from the library and got to listen to the first chapter. It was very good. We are impressed so far and can hardly wait for nap time tomorrow. :)

Welcome to Georgia!!! We missed the actual sign, and only sort of got this blurry buckle up sign in the shape of a red Georgia... But either way, we made it! :) Hooray!!

Around 5:30, the boys were painfully hungry for dinner and needed to eat. So we stopped at a Hardee's just a few miles away from our hotel. It was a tasty treat for all of us. The boys waiting, "I be-in cool mommy!" with our sunglasses on. Silly.

Shortly after dinner, we got to the hotel (it's a Best Western). From the outside, driving up to it, I thought... It's tiny! But fits our needs just fine. The inside was actually bigger and nicer than what either Paul or I expected for what we paid. We are very happy.

The boys did the regular bath and bedtime routine and after some much needed jumping on the bed time, we laid them down on one of the mattresses on the floor, and they are out! Hooray! This day has been wonderful!! I am not skipping over anything. Really. Paul and I had thought traveling for these 8-ish hours today was going to be pretty challenging, but these are GOOD boys. There was only one tiny bit of fussing right before we ate dinner, but honestly, that was it! I hope tomorrow and the next day go as smoothly. :) Now Paul and I are off to watch some Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Good night!

Trip to Wisconsin!!

We are headed out to Wisconsin tomorrow!! We will be driving, so it will be a few days before we get there, but we are planning on getting there Wednesday evening. Hooray!! We are so excited!

After a few calls and emails from family there, we found out that they are going through a "cold snap", meaning it has been in the 40's.... AHHHHHHhhhhhhh!!!!!! Of course the city they live in is right on lake Michigan, so it's always a little colder than the other parts of the state too. So we decided to pack a hat for Paul who plans on still riding a bike to study everyday. I know, he is HARD worker. :)

Matix tried on the hat and gloves in celebration of going to visit my side of the family. He is naked, and obviously used to the heat. We shall see how my little beach boys do in the cold. Hopefully the "snap" is as quick as it sounds like it should be, and will be done in a snap! :)

our ward

We love our church ward. It is combined now with both English and Spanish speakers, mostly Spanish. All the lessons are given in whatever language the teacher is most comfortable with and we wear headsets if we need it translated. Completely different than anything we have experienced in church so far, and so fun. We also get things like this sent home with Matix from nursery which we have to look up later to find out what it says. :) This is obviously a little thing about prayer, but I don't know exactly what it says... Mom? Would you please translate? :)

Hawken's first day in nursery!

My sweet baby Hawken went to nursery at church for the first time today. The kids have to be 18 months old to go, and he will be on the 3rd. It was a week early, but since we are leaving to start our huge road trip tomorrow, we wanted him to go today with Matix in the nursery he is already used to (in case he needed some comforting). Here he is, my big boy, SO excited to go to nursery!! :) Doesn't he look handsome?!

It was weird that I had some mixed feelings about this. He is such a mama's boy, I thought he might really miss me... apparently not. :) I took him in and sat with him while he ran around like a wild man showing me all the toys. "Yook yook! A ball! A cah!" (look look! a ball! a car!) He was in love! I told the boys that I could stay for 2 more minutes and then I would go. Hawken turned around and said "bye bye mommy." ???? What?! :) He was fine?! He didn't need me? Matix was the one who wanted me to stay, as usual, but was fine with me leaving since I told him he shouldn't cry because it might make the baby sad. That worked. Matix is a very concerned older brother and takes good care of his baby.

When I came to get the boys after the 2 hours there, they were both happily playing. When Hawken saw me, he did this fake cry thing he does sometimes to get attention. But I asked, "Did you have fun?" and he snapped out of the fake crying bit and showed me all the great things in nursery. He even hugged and kissed his teachers good bye. It was so sweet. I am SO glad it went well.

Today was also a combined priesthood and relief society meeting for the 3rd hour which meant Paul and I got to go together, without any children, for the first time since Matix was born in September 2008. WOW! It was so nice. I quite enjoyed myself and the time with my hubby. :) Hooray for great church programs like nursery!!

homemade blocks

Back when I was in Dominica, I started thinking of all these crafts and projects I wanted to make, but of course, didn't have the supplies for. Bummer. I emailed Lee (Paul's dad) about one of them, and asked him to cut me some blocks so that when I got there to Arizona in December, that I could drive them out with the rest of our stuff and FINALLY do this block idea... He agreed. Hooray! He made me a million of them.

I added brown paint to all the edges, and then traced the blocks on pieces of scrap booking paper. I cut each square slightly smaller than the block and glued it on with mod podge (my new favorite medium).

This particular set I made, was for little miss Penelope Jane (love her name!) who is Hawken's future wife, FYI. I tried to find cute lettering in the fonts I have and was then going to print them, but I couldn't find anything that I really liked, so I lettered it myself. It turned out mostly how I wanted it to. Then I roughed up the edges with a little more brown paint and sand paper. Perfect.

I have since made some blocks for the boys and have many other ideas on the list already... Lee, I may be emailing you again soon. :) The only thing I have changed in my process is rather than painting the edges brown (or any other color) first, I save that for last and just do it carefully. I think it makes them look more polished. But if you're going for a rougher look, more shabby sheek, then paint it first. I can't wait until we have a house that I can have a crafty room in. :) That would be great.

up-cycle

One of the projects I have done recently is this, bottle cap matching game. I found we were consuming crazy amounts of juices and milk and was getting frustrated throwing away the bottle caps... So I started saving them and thinking up ways to use them.

Then I went to a thrift store and found a bunch of these old Disney books, and I got an idea! :) I bought them, traced the bottle caps around the faces of the characters, cut them out, used mod podge to glue them into the caps, and voila! Cute matching game. Of course I don't have a picture of us playing the game, but it's cute.

Hawken isn't old enough to understand the game, but likes to play with the caps anyway and name the characters he knows. Matix, however, LOVES the game and is getting really good at it too. We flip them all face down and try to make a match, since each character has 2 caps. Matix is also really into movies lately, so playing a game with all the memorable characters is pretty fun! Hooray for up-cycling trash and unwanted books into a great game!

Now I have another million caps... Any ideas for ways to use them? I was thinking maybe sorting colors? Or something simple like that so Hawken can participate more... ?

rasta festival

Coconut Grove had a rasta festival. It was free admission if you donated a can of food. Just the right price. :) So we went and had so much fun. It was located on the lawn in front of the beach at Peacock Park.

There were bounce houses too which are SUPER fun for the boys.

The music was really loud, but we sat ourselves back in the crowd and loved it.

Hawken was a mad crazy dancer, only slowing down to drink some water. Matix was busy finding beads, but he eventually danced a little too. It was a great day.